BT writes: Sumioni has some great ideas, on both the gameplay and visual sides of the equation, but poor execution undercuts every single one of them to produce a game that is just not worth its current price. Even this early in the Vita’s life-cycle, there is already at least one vastly superior 2D side-scroller available, Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, which is also over half the price of Sumioni to boot. If you have a lot of money to blow and are an absolute 2D action-platformer fiend then maybe, just maybe, Sumioni: Demon Arts might be worth a purchase. For everyone else, this is one game not worth the considerable money and less than considerable time needed to experience it.
VGChartz's Adam Cartwright: "Just like Artdink, Acquire is a quirky Japanese developer with a history of experimentation and big ideas, but has unfortunately been at the mercy of low budgets throughout the years, leaving gamers with some fantastic titles that suffer from a large amount of jank. Acquire worked on Vita from its launch in Japan through to early 2017, injecting a nice level of variety to the console’s library despite some of the technical shortcomings of its titles, making the company a prime candidate for examination here."
"The shadow of Okami looms large before you’ve even started to play Sumioni: Demon Arts, with the sumi-e art style apparent right from the LiveArea. If that were all there was to it, it’d be easy to shake off the idea that Sumioni is something of a knock-off, but then there’s using a magic brush to paint platforms and set enemies ablaze.", says CalmDownTom.
GodisaGeek: "Like Dokuro, which I looked at recently, Sumioni is a game that received a full-whack retail release in Japan. It was a surprise to hear that both would be published in the UK, and was encouraging to hear of a drop in price – it is fair to say that most Western gamers would most definitely baulk at the idea of chucking forty quid at titles that are shorter than other cheaper fare available for download on this and other platforms."
Keep 'em coming, reviewers. This game was not nearly what it could have been and should have been. Deserves all the 4's 5's and 6's that it's been getting.