Demonschool: A bright flash in the pan

"Demonschool," developed by Necrosoft Games, looks like old-school Persona but plays differently from almost everything I've ever seen. But however refreshing Demonschool's presentation and interactions may be, its strengths wear thin as its repetitive nature and threadbare narrative loses steam.

Demonschool does not hold back its punches. The main character, Faye, is already talking about demons and the end of the world within her first lines of dialogue - and her freshman year at university takes a supernatural turn soon after. Its just a few minutes later that you are smacking gangsters and demons around in a turn-based, puzzle-like format. It's definitely fun - there's no pussy-footing around the weird stuff happening at Hemsk Island, and so you and your pals are launched straight into a plot with murdered students, possessed gangs, and cult rituals. 

To deal with all these strange happenings, you maneuver your characters around in a grid to kick, punch, and generally beat up your enemies until they explode into pillars of blood. You do so with Action Points (AP), a shared resource that allows you to move, attack, and heal. Each action done by a character uses one AP, with each subsequent move by the same character costing an additional Point. This molds each combat encounter into a small puzzle, especially as you are awarded 'extra credit' for beating the enemies by a certain turn count, and keeping all your friends alive. 

Speaking of your friends, you are accompanied on this demon-smacking adventure by companions, who you have little events with and a relationship bar to keep track of - very reminiscent of the modern Persona games. 

Unfortunately, Demonschool suffers from exactly the opposite problem of games like Persona 5. Many readers may recall the excruciatingly long 'tutorial' sequence for Persona 5, which spends upwards of five hours setting up the story, teaching you combat, and spewing out paragraphs of lore. The game then slowly opens up, bit by bit, easing the player into greater freedom of action, giving them what they crave. Demonschool does the opposite - within the first half an hour, you pretty much have a complete grasp on the combat system and the gameplay loop. This is exciting at first. You're running around the locations, speaking to people, building up your relationships, then beating up more demons. Then... you realize that this was it. With each 'week' counting down to the impending apocalypse, you are presented with a new mission: a monster to defeat or a new mystery to unravel. But rather than introducing anything new, each week feels like a remix of the last - fight gangsters for info, sing karaoke with friends, and beat the big baddie. 

The weakest link in the chain here is certainly the story. The lackluster combat could've been driven forward with a compelling narrative; after all, Persona's combat is hardly the draw for most players. But here, less is not more. The few lines of dialogue that bookend each combat encounter is infused with deadpan humor, but fails to inspire interest in the characters or the overarching story. It feels like the writers were allergic to any kind of drama; deaths, confessions, and plot twists are revealed with a wink and a nod, the surreal and whimsical tone draining all seriousness from every scene. This makes the plot feel like atmospheric scaffolding around the combat, which, unfortunately, fails to serve as a convincing centerpiece. 

Having sunken almost 12 hours into Demonschool, I feel that I have had my money's worth - though I suspect I will not be completing my freshman's year at Hemsk University.