Developer: Necrosoft Games
Publisher: Ysbyrd Games
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch (2)
Tested on: PC
Demonschool – Review
Don’t underestimate the power of Silksong. When Team Cherry announced the launch date for their Hollow Knight sequel, several developers postponed the release of their games, fearing that Silksong would drown them out. One such game is Necrosoft Games’ Demonschool, which was delayed by over two months. The upside of the delay is that this gave the developers ample time to continue polishing their game. With the dust settled after Silksong’s release, Demonschool is finally ready to take center stage. Is this a class you should attend, or does a day at Demonschool feel like detention?
Story
Central to the story of Demonschool is Faye, a young woman hailing from a long line of demon hunters (of the non-K-pop variety). She enrolls as a student at Hemsk Island’s university. However, her real goal isn’t to graduate but to deal with an apocalyptic event prophesied to happen on the island very soon. Ahead of this cataclysm, strange events are already happening, but the vast majority of the students seem to be oblivious. As it turns out, only people with demon hunter blood can remember previous days, while regular citizens forget attacks and disappearances. Soon after arriving, Faye forms the aptly named Black Magic Club with other students -essentially a ragtag team of misfits- to investigate demonic activity, fight monsters, and uncover the cause of the looming catastrophe. Despite the world-threatening nature of the narrative, things are handled in a comedic manner. The episodic structure of the story, which centers around a different mystery and villain every in-game week, combined with the light-hearted tone, almost feels like you’re playing through a season of Scooby-Doo, albeit without a talking Great Dane at your meddling teens’ side.
Graphics
Blending 3D environments with 2D pixel-art characters, Demonschool has a very distinctive look. The vibrant color palette is saturated with bright neon colours that contrast with sharp black outlines. The result is a striking aesthetic that feels similar to that of Danganronpa and Shin Megami Tensei. Combat visuals in particular stand out, not just because bosses use larger low-poly 3D models, making them feel otherworldly and threatening, but also because attacks flash with energy and colour, featuring geyser-like explosions of pixel blood and stylish manga-style cutout panels during combo attacks. You’d expect a game that is mostly based on pixel art not to be too demanding, but the game’s performance doesn’t line up with that. We did notice that some of the more effects-heavy battles suffered from stutter and frame drops, and even occasional freezing. It’s not big enough of an issue that we’d say it detracts from the overall enjoyment, but a performance patch to smooth things out would still be appreciated.
Sound
You’d expect Demonschool’s character-driven narrative and striking visuals to be backed up by a strong voice cast, but unfortunately, this isn’t the case. In fact, there is no voice acting at all here. Instead, the game’s soundscape is dominated by its -admittedly very good- soundtrack. The music is dynamic and stylistically varied, ranging from upbeat and cheerful music fitting the slice-of-life school setting to blood-pumping battle tracks that get stuck in your head. Speaking of combat, the sound effects utilised here stand out as well, adding weight and impact to the flashy visual effects. Outside of combat, ambience adds some much-needed life to the university setting.
Gameplay
Turn-based tactical combat is very much at the heart of Demonschool’s gameplay. While the game doesn’t solely focus on this, its other elements -mostly life sim, relationship building and light exploration- feel like they are secondary to the battles. There are 15 distinct characters that can be added to your party, each with unique attacks and dedicated combat roles. The social bonds between characters affect combat synergy and access to specific abilities. The game follows a weekly structure, where each week involves tracking down occult clues, dealing with demon incidents, hunting for possessed artifacts, and ultimately fighting a boss connected to that week’s mystery. The rigidity of this structure allows you to plan ahead, although it’s worth mentioning that it also makes the timing of specific story beats less convincing.
Combat is split into a planning phase and an execution phase. In the former, you arrange all of your moves and attacks before committing. Your party draws from the same action point (AP) pool. The game nudges you to spread your AP out over different characters by making subsequent actions with the same character in the same turn exponentially more expensive. Characters can be manoeuvred across the grid-like battlefield, allowing you to set up combos, push or pull demons and apply buffs and debuffs. Actions can be undone and redone infinitely until you’ve finished meticulously setting up your characters. Once you’re satisfied, you can then move to the execution phase, where you can see all actions play out simultaneously in one cinematic burst. This approach makes battles feel like intricate puzzles where you carefully manage your AP in order to claim victory.
When you’re not engaging in combat or working on character bonds, you can engage in a wide range of mini-game-based side activities, including karaoke, arcade games and the ubiquitous fishing game. These serve as much-needed light breaks between the intense combat puzzles. As good as Demonschool’s combat system is by itself, we do feel like it overextends itself over the 40-ish hours that it takes to complete the game. Many of the encounters feel similar or overly simplistic, and the system simply loses novelty over time. This is the kind of game that’s fun while it lasts, but it isn’t substantial enough to warrant replays, at least not immediately. We might return to it in six months or so, with a different party. For the €21.99 price tag, you’re getting a hell of a game though, just don’t expect this one to have the same staying power as Persona, despite some glaringly obvious similarities with the school setting, style and relationship mechanics.
Conclusion
When you’re playing Demonschool, especially early on, it’s exhilarating. The blend of likable characters, striking visuals and tight combat mechanics works exceptionally well for most of the game’s runtime. However, it’s also the video game equivalent of fast food: it satisfies a craving in the moment, but ultimately, it’s lacking in substance. We’d say Demonschool is still worth checking out, as long as you adjust your expectations accordingly.
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