What if you combine the vibes of a monster-of-the-week show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the neat turn-based combat of Into the Breach, overloaded with style and atmosphere? You get Demonschool, by Necrosoft Games. Why do I make this laboured comparison instead of referencing the Persona games like most reviewers? Because I have not played a Persona game in my life, so there will be none of that here.
In Demonschool, you play as Faye, the last in a long line of demon hunters. She hasn’t exactly been hunting them herself, as demons seem to have disappeared for the last couple of generations. But her grandfather showed her the ways of her family and gave her pieces of paper filled with a prophecy about the return of these monsters and the apocalypse they’ll be bringing with them.
So Faye sets off to a mysterious island, where she will be studying at the local university while keeping an eye out for elements of the prophecy. The school is… unusual, to say the least. Faye’s assignments aren’t writing papers or the like, but rather researching occult elements on the island and getting rid of them. To do so, she is joined by people who are part of her student club, and together they set out to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Necrosoft describes the game as a new-style tactics RPG, and that makes sense. There are some light RPG elements to be found here, such as levelling up your characters and creating bonds between all 15 of them. But to be fair, the focus of the game is much more on combat than anything else. It feels like three quarters of my playthrough was spent in battles, rather than exploring the island and talking to NPCs.
Luckily, that combat is easily the star of the show. Every fight plays out in the same way: your characters and the demons and/or gangsters you’re battling are dropped onto a grid in this space in between the demon world and your own. There, you first enter the preparation phase, where you get to choose which moves you’ll make. It’s here that the game shines, with it being approachable to newcomers while also having enough depth to satisfy genre die-hards. There’s an option to undo any of your moves, which you have unlimited access to, and you’ll probably need that to clear all of the goals of each scenario.
You’re not just trying to fight your way out of these scraps, though. Each battle has a certain number of rounds you have to try and reach to get the best grade. Win the battle within this limit, and you’ll get an A, while if you don’t meet that goal or lose one of your characters during the fight, you might get a B or even a C. These scores are important, as they impact what you receive after the fight to level up your party.
After each preparation round, you get the action phase, which is a full-speed playthrough of all the moves you made during the preparation phase, with the enemies’ actions added on top. It’s a fun and visually stylish treat, which will make you appreciate your own work even more. Defeat enough of the gangsters or demons, and you get the chance to seal the passage between the demon world and your own.
And that’s basically most of what you do on the island. Walk around to your next objective, have a fight, rinse and repeat. I have to be honest: that did get a little bit annoying for me. The solution to practically every problem in the game is fighting demons and gangsters. Yes, there are some minigames like fishing or karaoke, but with those being optional and not influencing the story all that much, the focus is clearly on combat. Sometimes, it would have been nice to just spend a little more time outside of battles, just to get a bit of a break, and also to get to know your party a little better.
Most of your party members are characterised by a certain personality trait, which aligns with their role in combat. Because no, none of the ultimately 15 members of your party do the exact same thing, which is impressive. It would have been interesting to have seen their personalities get a bit more fleshed out too. Faye, for example, is here to kick butt and be very enthusiastic, and that’s basically all she does. Some character growth would have been cool, but then again, I can’t complain too much, as these characters suit the story really well.
There is quite the focus on being quirky and funny in this game. Obviously that makes sense when it comes to the main characters, but even the NPCs with a single line of dialogue need to be quippy. This isn’t a major problem per se, but it kind of took away from how funny some of the dialogue was. Sometimes, it’s good to have a straight guy next to the funny guy, instead of everyone just trying to be hilarious.
But like I said, these critiques are only minor. Because Demonschool as a whole is just an incredibly tightly made package. The battles, while sometimes repetitive, will nonetheless have you hooked as you try to beat your enemies and reach the highest scores. The visuals are just fantastic, with a special place now in my heart for that in-between world where combat takes place, and everything gets a little floaty. Also, the designs for the bosses are just great and highly imaginative. Add to that a banging soundtrack, and this becomes an easy recommendation for any fan of the genre.
