Concept
The Marriage of Belfagor is a comedy based puzzle adventure game. Based upon a novella by Niccolo Machiavelli, the game details the demon Belfagor as he strives to endure his titular marriage.
Background
Over a period of centuries, a number of damned (male) souls wind up in Hell, from which they curse their wives for their misery in life and afterward. Noticing this trend, Satan summons one of his most trusted demons, Belfagor, and gives him an assignment: to go into the mortal world and investigate the institution called “marriage”. Belfagor takes the assignment, initially believing it to be nothing.
Taking on human form, Belfagor enters into human society, from which he finds a woman and gets married. From there, he comes to experience the pain and misery of marriage, ranging from a vain and wasteful spouse to unappreciative children that continually spend his money, thereby driving up his debt, while the growing demands of the banks and credit card companies only compound his mortal life further. Unable to return to Hell until he’s “lived his life”, Belfagor must endure his marriage, as well as keep his sanity in the process, until the day may come where death really does ‘do him part’.
Gameplay
The object of The Marriage of Belfagor is for Belfagor to “survive” everyday life while keeping everyone in his family happy (in spite of their non-appreciation of him). For this, he has to work; unfortunately being a demon, he has no particular skill set, which relegates him to taking on odd jobs around the city. For the game this translates into a series of puzzles (ranging from logic to brain teasers) and individual quests for the assorted city residents; these can vary in tone and composition, as well as difficulty. Succeeding in these endeavors allows Belfagor to earn money, which he can use to pay his bills and debts, though this is offset by his family spending his money individually.
Since Belfagor is in great debt, he is naturally wanted by a number of people, ranging from regular police, who have taken notice of some of his less law abiding activities, to IRS agents seeking to audit him. Similar to Grand Theft Auto, there is a “wanted” meter that determines how much the authorities are pursuing Belfagor; the more he is in debt, the more the meter is filled in, and therefore the larger number of police and agents for Belfagor to deal with. This is where the other part of the game comes in; Belfagor must do all he can to keep out of jail; if he is caught, he is with a seven foot tall cellmate named Bubba (who looks at him in a peculiar way) and it is game over for the player. Thus, whenever he is pursued by any of these, Belfagor ends up going through an obstacle course of sorts, in which the player must direct Belfagor through specific routes, as well as utilize pedestrians and parts of the environment, in order to evade his pursuers. Another option is Belfagor bribing such officials to overlook him, though this only works on a specific set who are “corrupt” (which Belfagor is able to identify through his demonic foresight and display on the HUD).
As a side mission, Belfagor may be able to spend his money on himself and buy certain accessories, such as TVs, game systems, music equipment, furniture, appliances, pictures among others, from which he can decorate his individual room (i.e. the garage) at his house. Progress in this area may change Belfagor’s demeanor somewhat (displayed in a “Happiness” meter on the HUD); while the married life is still miserable, at least he’s given some manner of respite. This will change how other characters interact with him (namely his wife and kids), as well as make certain jobs a lot easier to accomplish. As well, Belfagor may also sell these items over the internet in order to gain additional funds, though this may detract from his Happiness.
Either way, the game ends after a certain number of days have passed. Depending on the amount of Happiness and progress Belfagor has made, he may either return to Hell believing that there is no worse fate than marriage, or he will eventually end up accepting the miserable parts of it while embracing the good as he comes to realize that, for all their faults, his family really does love him.
Systems
The Marriage of Belfagor is meant entirely for the Nintendo 3DS, as its dual screen interface makes it ideal for puzzle games.
Miscellaneous
The Marriage of Belfagor is meant to have 2-D graphics, similar to the Professor Layton series, with comical and cartoonish designs for characters and setting.
Source:
http://dustmansworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/the-marriage-of-belfagor/