PSX 2017 - Super Daryl Deluxe Preview

Did you ever find yourself bored in class during high school and just started doodling? Maybe you pictured yourself as a superhero, fighting all sorts of inter-dimensional supervillains as you saved the world and got the girl or guy. Or maybe not. Either way, Dan & Gary Games showcased their upcoming “RPGvania” title, Super Daryl Deluxe, and we have our PlayStation Experience 2017 preview ready for your perusal.

Meet Daryl

Super Daryl Deluxe stars Daryl, a student at the multi-dimensional high school Water Falls High School. He’s a nerd who just wants to be popular. At his high school, each classroom is “an alternate world based on the class subject.” This means that in a history class, you might do battle with historical figures from the past, while Tree Ents can be found in a Literature class. Each of these environments can provide for some interesting battles.

The combat system in Super Daryl Deluxe is brawl-centric. Moving is done with the left analog stick, X jumps, and the face buttons are assigned to any of Daryl’s skills (more on those below). The L2 button gets its own special set of skills, which are generally used to evade enemies. There doesn’t seem to be any restriction in the combination of face button abilities that can be used, so it’ll be up to the player if they want to have slow but powerful attacks, fast but weaker moves, or somewhere in between. Combat is easy to pick up, but the ability tweak options on offer may prove difficult to master.

Artsy Stuff

Super Daryl Deluxe’s art style evokes a bit of Cuphead, but perhaps not as colorful. Everything is hand-drawn, though in this case the art is done by one half of the developer, since it is a two-man team. Just one artist and one programmer constitutes Dan & Gary Games, so it’s no small feat that so many different enemies and environments are crammed into Super Daryl Deluxe.

The RPG elements in Super Daryl Deluxe involve skills that Daryl can use. There are over 40 to discover, and use the full imagination you’d expect from a high schooler with an overactive imagination. While we only saw a handful at PSX, each ability was quite different from the next. Abilities included throwing banana boomerangs, slicing up enemies with a massive battle axe, riding a shark on top of a tidal wave, and even one power warning us to not use it since it was suicide; there were plenty to choose from. Some of these were quite creative! Each ability can also be leveled up, which will cause subtle changes to them in the process. Mixing and matching these abilities was seamless, and will please many players.

Tougher Than it Looks

The difficulty in Super Daryl Deluxe may be another unique thing it has going for it. On the surface, this game looks fairly unassuming. Despite a light-hearted, even purposefully goofy appearance, the bosses will challenge many gamers until they find the right mix of strategy and abilities. The boss we saw was indicative of mid-game difficulty, and required precise dodging and strategic attacking in order to defeat. Hundreds of people tried the demo during PSX 2017, and perhaps a couple dozen were able to beat the boss, at most.

Super Daryl Deluxe may look easy-going, but it is a delightfully challenging beat-em-up with RPG elements mixed in such a way that encourages experimentation, which will no doubt be required to beat the campaign. The duo at Dan & Gary games are furiously developing Super Daryl Deluxe as it rapidly approaches its April 2018 release date.