The year is coming to an end and the temptation is to be complacent and to just wait for the last smattering of holiday AAA releases, but that would be a crying shame for Necrosoft’s Demonschool. Demonschool is a stylish and unique strategy RPG that offers plenty of challenge, creativity, and charm that should keep you satisfied well beyond the holidays. With a year filled with some absolutely fantastic JRPG offerings, is Demonschool worth your money or perhaps you should wait until next term?

A passing grade and World Destruction

Demonschool is all about a group of teenagers that need to stop the apocalypse, you know normal teenager stuff. Our titular protagonist is Faye, a sometimes crazy and all the time badass who is the last demon hunter in the world and she enrolls to a mysterious university on an island where she believes the world is going to end in only a handful of weeks. She meets photography nerd Namako who is definitely not a goth, Destin a simple minded fella who hates snakes, and the lost media collector Knute who is always on the lookout for obscure media.

With the help of her friends, some more willing than others, they uncover the secrets lurking around and stop the end of the world. If you played any of the old Persona or Shin Megami Tensei titles then this type of plot is very reminiscent of those games. You of course have this ticking clock of the world ending but you also have plenty of down time to learn new skills and to learn new things about your classmates and the people on the island. Demonschool has a very compelling gameplay loop that makes the game very enjoyable to sit down and play a bit without investing in a massive JRPG adventure. You need to explore the island, fight bad guys and demons, and learn more about your party members. All of these activities feed into each other and give the game a very good pacing and rhythm that makes it very compelling.

Finish your Assignment or Go to Jail

The island you explore throughout Demonschool is a very lived in and an engaging place to explore. There are plenty of activities to do and there is always a hidden challenge or side quest to get lost in between the critical path. You can fish, do karaoke, and you can even choose to spend time in class to learn a new skill that you can use during the combat portion of the game. The best side content has to be bonding missions where you get time to learn more about your party members and what makes them tick. You even get some useful gameplay benefits from your relationships as well with new moves and buffs. You can use the money you earn during combat to decorate your club house with new furniture and appliances — who doesn’t love a little bit of redecorating?

The structure of the game mainly has you going through a pretty linear story filled with visual novel dialogue sections along with well designed combat encounters. Don’t expect any massive dungeon crawls like what Persona does as this game has a much faster paced story filled with fun character interactions and revelations. I honestly don’t mind this much as it helps keep the energy up and avoids a whole lot of dead air that can be present in some JRPGs. The side quests and activities you can participate in are not super engaging, but do show you more of the island and your party members.

A Hellish Combat System with a Pulse

The crowning jewel of this game has to be the combat which is honestly such a smart system. At the beginning of every combat encounter you choose your party members that you want to participate and both the enemy and your characters are placed onto a grid based field. You then have a certain amount of actions per turn that you can do and have to defeat as many enemies as possible during your turn so you meet the requirements and exit the encounter, simple enough right? What makes the combat so fun is what you can do during your turn. You can push enemies, stun enemies, kick enemies into other enemies, and even switch enemy positions for massive damage. Some enemies require multiple hits and have elemental weaknesses along with gimmicks like poisoning certain tiles, exploding, and summoning more enemies. Once you’re done with your turn you get to see all of your moves in real time which looks so stylish. You can do even more during combat by learning certain skills and special moves by either purchasing them or studying them during class time.

The combat has this infectious feeling of always wanting to get better and to do your best to maximize your damage output for each turn. One of my favorite combos is to use Namako to stun and debuff while I power up Faye to knock them all down. Some of the encounters are downright nasty with some very tight requirements to achieve the best rank for that encounter which is very much appreciated. The combat is always a highlight even though at times it can be very daunting.

Neck Brake Pace and a Stylish Presentation

Along with the combat you do have quite a bit of dialogue in this gaming as it is a story focused JRPG and it can be pretty fast paced and quirky to its detriment sometimes. The game is filled with plenty of quirky humor and weird encounters. It can often feel like the game spends so much time on trying to be quirky and surreal that it forgets the most important part of stories like this — to slow down and let the characters breathe. Thankfully the expressive art does alleviate some of this as it does a great job at giving the characters their own unique voice. Faye’s expressions are some of my favorite showing this manic side to her personality that can often give people the wrong impression. The music is really great too as it infuses the game with this spooky vibe that really fits the tone.

Summary

Demonschool is a genuine surprise for me and is one of the best independent JRPGs to come out this year. The combat is super solid and engaging without reinventing the wheel and the world of this game is very endearing. If you love games like Into the Breach that have a strong focus on gameplay challenge with brief intermission with character banter, then this game was designed for you. Not without its flaws, Demonschool is a really good time with only some minor pacing issues really dragging it down. Enjoy your visit to Demonschool and make sure you don’t skip any of your classes.

Demonschool is out now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S.

Joshua Howard

The Review

Review Breakdown

• ** ** 0