Infernax Good Route Let's Play: Traveling a Demon-Ruled Homeland with Magic and Bird Support

The story begins with a young duke, exhausted from fierce battles, returning to his homeland. While the duke was away, however, strange events had taken place surrounding a mysterious book said to have been written by a madman and to hold immense power. Just when he thought he could finally settle down after coming home, he found sinister monsters roaming his homeland. The player introduces the game's opening, which says the duke's adventure is not over but is instead reaching a new beginning.

The first battle comes when a man the duke tried to help transforms into a monster. The protagonist, a crusader, fights with a shield and a weapon. The player slipped underneath this enemy and defeated it by chipping away with attacks. Next, word arrives that the nearest castle is under attack, and the duke joins the defense. The boss that appears here seems to have come only to scout things out, and it retreats after taking just a few hits. Giving chase, the duke and his allies corner the enemy while investigating the surrounding area. The enemy had not yet recovered from its wounds in the previous battle, and with support from the soldiers, it went down after just a few blows. However, this enemy is also nothing more than a mere underling. The source of the trouble seems to be lurking within a seal, so the duke must visit castles across the land to break it.

A boss awaits in each castle, and each boss defeated weakens the seal. The first boss is an enemy with eyeballs that come out of its belly, and the player attacked its weak point, the head, while watching out for those eyeballs.

The boss of the second castle is a demon with a mouth on its belly, and it fights while sitting on its throne. The player attacks from the platforms in front of it, and the shield is said to be useful in this battle. The shield can only block projectiles when held at the same height as them, and the player praises this as a good mechanic for offense and defense. Keeping an eye on spears flying in from above and from the sides, the player kept attacking the boss until it fell.

Along the way, the duke is also asked to exterminate a demon that has taken up residence in a basement. This boss cannot be approached directly, so the fight is done from range. The flow is to bounce the red orbs the enemy fires back into its eyeballs, and the newly learned lightning spell can also be used just once. The player destroyed the upper and lower eyeballs in turn to defeat it. According to the player, this boss has nothing to do with the main quest. Even so, a person of good character answers the people's requests, and it is here that the player states their plan to do good deeds this time and aim for the best ending.

At the seaside castle, the duke fights a demon that looks like a fusion of beast and man. Attacks only land on the eyeball in its belly, so you need to time your attacks while falling from a jump. The player points out that jump height in this game cannot be adjusted. The position of the boss's weak point is said to be designed to take advantage of that very mechanic. By making only the belly a weak point rather than letting the player hit it anywhere on its body, the game adds depth to the gameplay, and the player says they found this design truly excellent.

The boss of the fourth castle is a demon with a large eyeball peeking out of its chubby belly. According to the player, the best chance to attack is right after it releases fireballs, and since its belly can be attacked as well, they used the lightning spell to hit it along with the smaller enemies. Attack magic is handy but costs a lot of MP, making it hard to use repeatedly. The player mentions seeing MP recovery potions at a shop along the way, and says it might be a good idea to stock up on them before taking on the fight.

During this battle, the player also touches on how they deal with the game's randomness. Trying to get outcomes that work well for a video becomes a different kind of gameplay in itself, which they find fun. A fight where the enemy shows off a variety of moves is more interesting to watch than one where it repeats the same move over and over. Defeating it quickly keeps the pace up and the runtime easy to watch. Enemy behavior isn't completely random and can be controlled to some extent, so you need to think about how to steer it to make the fight enjoyable. The player's view is that, when thinking about capturing it on video, there's fun to be had in these aspects too.

At the last castle, a large demon emerges from green sewage. The demon dives underwater and then spits out fireballs. From here, the player began using two newly learned spells: a summoning spell that calls birds, and a spell that strengthens their weapon. They declared that the era of melee attacks ends here, and that from now on they would fight with ranged magic attacks. Repeating the pattern of attacking the enemy whenever it surfaced, they whittled its health down completely.

Once all five seals have been broken, you can storm the enemy's stronghold, but the player first went around the land. A suspicious man they spotted at night suddenly transforms into a wolf. Since they had ranged attacks, all they had to do was attack while running away, and the birds they summoned pecked at the enemy on their own. Saying "I kind of feel bad for it," the player defeated it quickly.

Additionally, a demon's soul lingering in this land revives a corpse, leading to a rematch with the first boss. It's stronger than last time, but since the player's own arsenal had also grown stronger, it reportedly wasn't a difficult opponent. At the palace, they fought a boss that moves around by grappling. This boss is normally invincible, and attacks only land for a brief moment right after it grapples. The player tried calling the birds, but they did nothing except peck at corpses.

There were also branching paths while going around fulfilling people's requests. In a scene where they fight a demon that the person they tried to stop had been transformed into, the player adds that there is also a route where you cooperate with the demon's side, in which case you can enjoy corruption. This time, they chose the route of beating it to a pulp. In the aerial battle, the birds came through, destroying both of the demon's hands while it was talking, so all that was left was to attack its main body.

At the cult's headquarters, the duke fights a giant golem with the face of the cult leader. Attacks only land on the face, so you line up with jumps and hit it with projectiles. A mysterious cult had been operating behind the scenes in this land. It seems that a book called the "Necronomicon," which had been brought to the cult, is what led the land into this state. Recovering the Necronomicon opens the entrance to hell, where the demon ringleader awaits. The duke breaks the final seal and steps into hell.

In hell, you first fight six mid-bosses, followed by the final showdown with the ringleader. The player says the mid-bosses aren't very strong, so they'll keep things moving at a good pace.

In the second battle, two previously fought bosses appear at the same time. Since being attacked by both at once is troublesome, the player focused attacks on one to turn it into a one-on-one fight. One went down surprisingly easily, and the player looked back on how glad they were that it wasn't the type where the two share a health bar. In the third battle, they expected a powered-up version of a past boss, but a new boss appeared instead, which the player was happy about. This boss is dangerous when you're at the same height as it, so they fought while trying not to line up with its line of sight as much as possible. Its durability was on the low side, and it went down after a bit of attacking.

The fourth and fifth battles were also pairings of two past bosses. In the fourth, the player concentrated attacks on whichever had lower health when they switched sides. The fifth battle's boss has a weak point that's hard to hit, but this time it was easy because the birds attacked for them. After the magic ran out partway through, they defeated it by hitting it directly. The sixth battle's boss looked strong, but the fight ended without any particular struggle. Also, during this series of battles, there were several moments when the summoned birds flew out before the fight had even started.

Waiting in the deepest part of hell was Baphomet, the demon incarnate. With the birds' help, the player defeated it by relentlessly firing holy light. Regarding this demon's distinctive appearance, the player explains that it is said to represent the union of opposing principles, such as man and beast, male and female, and good and evil.

In the ending, the victorious duke gazes up at light pouring down from the sky. The duke joins forces with Henry of Tarso (as the name sounds) to destroy the Necronomicon. As he watches the book burn to cinders, the duke realizes that the fight is not yet over. So he decides to gather devout warriors, form a unit, and purge the world tainted by evil. The closing words were that as long as the duke lives, the hand of evil will likely never reach this land again.

The player sums up that the nostalgic game design, reminiscent of the classic Castlevania II, was wonderful, and that they thoroughly enjoyed it as a modern recreation of 8-bit action. Apparently there are other endings besides the good route played this time, and the player closed the video by saying they are also looking forward to a future where this land is thrown into chaos.