It may feel more like a puzzle battle game than an RPG at times, however Demonschool offers a very engaging story with enjoyable combat.
When I saw the trailer for Demonschool, the vibes I got were that of a grid based tactical RPG in the Shin Megami Tensai mold. I did not expect something that felt like a story driven role playing game with combat more akin to Fights in Tight Spaces than that of a classic tactical turn-based battle system. Surprised though I was, I quickly came to enjoy the combat as much as I liked the world and story within it. It may not have huge fanfare, but Demonschool is absolutely worth a look for fans of JRPGs.
You play as Faye, a young woman on her way to join a school on a remote island. Faye is from a family with a history of researching demons and the end of the world, and it just so happens that this school has something of a side hustle in fighting demonic forces of all different kinds. Things are, unsurprisingly, not what they seem, and before long Faye and her newfound friends may have bitten off more than they can chew when forces from another world start to break through.
Without spoiling too much, yes this seems like a fairly trite story, but things do get considerably more interesting as things move ahead. The teachers aren’t all who they say they are, and the local mafia are far more aware of what’s going on than you might expect. There’s more to Faye’s friends than meets the eye too, and as things escalate, there’s some genuine character growth that you might expect from a well written JRPG.
As much as I enjoyed the story, I really got into the combat system that Demonschool has to offer. At its core, you move around the grid, and when you make contact with an enemy you’ll do a little bit of damage to them. You need to defeat a set number of foes within a turn limit to get the highest grade, and therefore the best rewards for that battle. That, in itself, is pretty standard, but the reality is that your characters are very weak unless they work together.
Most enemies have multiple hit points, and the majority of your attacks only do a single pip of damage, meaning you’re really going to struggle to take enemies out quickly, let alone whole groups of them. Luckily, you can manipulate this. If you can knock enemies into each other, they all take damage, and if you hit them with a character that has the correct element, they’ll take additional damage. The interesting mechanic is how some characters can move enemies around the arena. Namako will swap places with enemies when she moves, and those enemies will then take additional damage. Knute is a pacifist who will only heal teammates, but those allies will then cause additional damage too. The trick rapidly becomes powering up your team, manoeuvring enemies into place, and then striking them all at once. It’s immensely satisfying when you manage to get things right.
You have plenty of time to get these things right too, as you can rewind your turn as much as you want. In essence, you plan out your actions before executing them all at once, and you can replan everything as much as you like before committing to the turn. Things become an exercise in optimisation a lot of the time, and I really enjoyed the challenge of this. You’re also given information about when surviving enemies will do, reminding me somewhat of Into The Breach, so you can be fully prepared for your next turn. This was my strongest part of Demonschool by far, and as your characters and party develop, you feel yourself becoming significantly more powerful and ready to face even the toughest bosses.
When you aren’t fighting, you’re exploring the island via a menu system, finding new mysteries and talking to locals. Certain mysteries only appear on specific days or a certain time on those days, so it’s useful to pay attention to the locations as they indicate what’s on offer. I will say that between battles you’ll often simply select somewhere from a menu, then read through the conversation, then do the same again for quite some time. This isn’t a bad thing as such due to the plot and characters being well written, but I often found myself eager to get into my next battle.
I was very impressed with the visuals here too, and whilst they might look simplistic, the 2D sprites on the 3D background really do have a great retro look to them, and the overall art style really pops a lot of the time. Striking colours and interesting enemies are all quite distinct, and the transition between the human and demon world is neat to see. The music is equally excellent, and whilst I’d like voice acting, I understand that that would be a bit of a stretch for a smaller project like this.
Demonschool is a very well put together RPG with a fantastically enjoyable combat system. I found myself replaying the same basic fights multiple times as I was keen to “solve the puzzle” in the most efficient way possible. The engaging plot certainly helped push me further into the game too, and whilst I do feel things are a little over explained at times, leading to overly long conversations, the actual game part of Demonschool is enjoyable enough for me to overlook that minor gripe. If you’re interested in a unique JRPG, now would be a good time to enrol.
Demonschool is available now on PC.
