School life can be many things. There are activities to participate in, extracurricular activities to get involved in, and plenty of other students to meet and grow together with. And if you attend Demon School, in addition to your final exams, there’s plenty of hellish conflict and apocalyptic terror to overcome.
Demonschool’s Hemsk Island is a bustling college town full of activities: fishing, cooking, reading tea leaves, throwing coins into fountains, repairing game cabinets, and spending demons with tactical precision, all in a Y2K-powered analog community. Demon School is like a box of clever ideas. While the sheer volume of side activities sometimes belies the depth, the core tactical combat, audiovisual style, and family story facilitate Demonschool get through the course with great marks.
The semester at Demonschool begins when Faye, a novel student from a line of demon hunters, boards the ferry to the island of Hemsk for university. There is a prophecy saying that the world will end in a few weeks, and she is looking for a solution to this problem. Along the way, you organize a party around Faye, receive weekly quests, and learn more about why demons are appearing more often.
The cast of characters assembled over the course of Demonschool is an eclectic and fun bunch. There were a few clear favorites over the others for me, either depending on their specific skill set or just general vibes, but they each stand out in their own way. Aina, the cold, tough daughter of a crime lord, is probably my favorite, but others like Mercy and the Beastmaster-esque Henk who literally drops desks and other items on the battlefield all offered unique options for my party, as well as fun social bonds to build between main quests.
It’s a shame, then, that Demon School takes a while to get to this point. The first few weeks of Demonschool are tardy as Faye and friends take time to start growing their numbers. This, combined with the generally high frequency of battles, means that you fight and spend time with the same group of companions for some time.
But when it gets going, tactical combat sings. In description, Demonschool’s tactics seem intricate; you have a planning phase in which you spend an increasing number of fixed points to move and attack with your chosen team. Movement takes place in straight and diagonal lines, so combat often requires combining movements, jumping from one enemy to another. All the while, you’re trying to kill enough demons to fill the meter and reach the opposite side of the battlefield, seal them all, and end the fight before any demons reach your side of the field and break the barrier, leaking out to the real world.
Add to that some specific rules about movement and attack, as well as minor changes like walking sideways, and Demon School can give you a lot to think about, tactically. Necrosoft has taken a very direct approach – the numbers are low, as are the health bars, which makes for animated, fast-paced, and sometimes unsafe combat. This is why the planning phase works so well. Taking a turn that has you cutting through a horde of demons, pulling off massive combos on the manga panel, and wiping out a field before sealing it is the electric reward for solving a tactical puzzle.
The tools available also provide compelling problem-solving options, and I liked how Demon School forced me to stop using my favorite A-Team and experiment with the toolkits of more unconventional characters. The focus on movement and effects rather than just increasing base damage means characters do cooler things: power up their attacks by firing in different patterns, add poison or burn to their attacks, or allow healers to reduce the damage dealt by enemies with regenerative agents.
While information isn’t always uncomplicated to discover, managing your team’s skills and abilities allows you to create a crew that can do some truly crazy things. It all ends with boss fights that are the culmination of Demon School. Creating bosses for tactical games can be complex, but Necrosoft makes every major encounter memorable and exhilarating. Bosses add novel dangers, push you in ways that normal fights don’t, and can even skew the battlefield and game mechanics in ways you’ll have to adapt to on the fly. The particular fight on the round plane lived in my mind for several days after I cleared it.
Some of the fights were a little superficial, but honestly, even the ones that took me a minute or two to get through felt like I was showing mastery of a system that once intimidated me. Much like reaching the finals, Demon School gives you a sense of accomplishment.
On the less engaging side, there are extracurricular activities where Faye can hang out with characters or take part in mini-games. Fishing, karaoke, cooking and other activities keep you busy and facilitate you build social connections with an ever-growing cast of characters. But they get repetitive too quickly, especially if you’re trying to make the most of your bonds with specific companions. I slowly lost interest in them over the 30 or so hours I spent working my way to Demon School. There are also a few side quests, but they usually involve talking to a few people, moving quickly between zones, and fighting a battle or two.
Side quests and activities at least encourage you to wander the island and take in the sights and sounds. Demonschool is a wonderful mix of PS1-era sprites and low-poly graphics that blend perfectly with the world, along with an absolutely masterful soundtrack. During each battle, the music drops to a subdued beat for the planning phase, then naturally picks up to an intense melody when you press “start” during the fight, and then returns for the next round. The turn of the 21st century atmosphere is impeccable at Demonschool; it looks and sounds unlike anything else you’ll play this year, in the best way.
Demon School is contagious. The tactical clicks as I delivered a masterful turn that annihilated entire herds of demonic creatures kept me coming back day after day, week after week. Each novel character pushed me in novel directions, opened up novel horizons, and at the same time lured me into novel bonds and relationships. While the game takes a while to get started and is a bit lacking in side activities, Demonschool still manages to be a haunting disc of tactical joy on PS1.
