Review: Demonschool (Nintendo Switch) – Pure Nintendo
I had a pretty good college experience overall. I met some great people. Got better on bass. Was introduced to my favorite book. Totally worth the decade of debt. I’m not sure the…survivors of Demonschool will be able to say the same.
This RPG from Ysbryd Games begins with our protagonist, Faye, taking a boat to the remote Hemsk College that even she knows is pretty sketchy. Faye comes from a history of demon hunters, it seems, and there are plenty of demons on this island.
It’s up to Faye to put together a team of fighters to take them out, and she approaches this with the verve of a sorority social chair recruiting pledges.
Her classmates are hesitant to believe her, but we know she’s right. Almost right away, we see a group of students obliterated by demons while their professor nonchalantly records the results and walks away. This is not a good school, but I imagine most aren’t when you have to arrive by boat.
Upon setting foot on the island, Faye and her first reluctant recruit, Namako, are thrust into a tutorial battle.
This is where we learn that things are going to be different for the player, too, which I’ll expand upon in a bit. After that battle, we get another one while Faye and Namako are simply trying to check out the social aspects of the college town.
You can see where this is heading; it’s right there in the title, after all. Throughout Demonschool, you’ll be balancing college life with demon hunting in that Persona/Buffyesque manner that continues to work surprisingly well. It’s worn ground, sure, but the developers at Necrosoft Games understood this and played up to it. The writing is sharp and often comical, fully embracing the tropes and influences. We get an interesting (and quite large) cast of characters to follow throughout, and you’ll be able to focus on your favorites if that’s what you choose to do.
Gameplay centers around the turn-based battles on an isometric grid, but they don’t play out in the way you’d expect. They’re more puzzle-centric than tactical. For each, you’ll pick the combatants from your available party members (with Faye always involved), and are then charged with clearing out the grid as quickly as possible. You do so by using your team’s specific skills to create combo attacks—using one member to pull enemies into specific positions, for example, so another member’s line attack can hit them all.
Your team gets a set number of action points to plan your attack, and you have total freedom of whom to move when. The first move of each party member uses one AP. Move that character again, and it’ll take two. With all of the attack types, available buffs, etc., it’s a lot to plan. Thankfully, you get the ability to rewind your moves until you’re happy. Once committed, you get to watch them all play out. Then, it’s the enemy’s turn. The quicker you complete the objective, the better your grade for higher rewards.
As mentioned earlier, this approach feels more like puzzle gameplay than tactical combat. Your goal is less about surviving levels than about completing them efficiently. It’s weird, but it’s a welcome change that distinguishes the game from the countless other turn-based RPGs available to us. It also helps that the combat grids are quite diverse once things really start moving (which they admittedly take a bit too long to do).
Speaking of diversity, Demonschool gives you plenty to do when you’re not confronting demons. Building relationships with classmates improves their combat abilities, and Faye can do so by engaging in social activities such as karaoke or cooking. Choosing the correct dialogue options can help, too, but completing companion sidequests seems to be what matters most…just like in real life.
Your social schedule is limited, so prioritizing relationship-building with your key fighters means some will be neglected…again, just like in real life. Unlike in real life, however, you can always go back and play it again.
The retro visuals and upbeat audio cues keep things bright and lively throughout. Demonschool’s content is actually pretty gory, but everything’s presented in a goofy manner that’s hard to take seriously. This would be a detriment if the tonal balance wasn’t handled well, but this game never loses sight of what it is. That’s important, because you could spend upwards of 50 hours on the game if you don’t cut any classes, as it were. The developers’ ability to maintain the pacing throughout is pretty impressive.
As such, it’s easy for me to recommend Demonschool to fans of tactical RPGs and just puzzle games in general. Your time spent tinkering with your party and their abilities isn’t about survival, it’s about efficiency. That and the game’s visual and narrative tones create a unique experience that help it rise above the tropes it honors throughout. Its minimal challenge and lighthearted approach mean it won’t stick with you when you’re done, but you at least won’t be compelled to drop out.
