XBOX REVIEW | Demonschool

I only just finished another Turn-Based Strategy game with Final Fantasy Tactics, only to dive straight into another one. But the Steam demo convinced me this would be something special and when the opportunity to review Demonschool presented itself, I couldn’t turn it down.

Demonschool is a hybrid of Persona-type highschool stories mixed in with some tile-based tactics where every fight feels more like a puzzle than an RPG grind. Let’s open the portal to the demonworld and find out if this title is worth the ultimate sacrifice: our time!

Things I liked!

• Turn-Based Puzzles | Like I said in the intro, fights in Demonschool doesn’t feel like RPG turn-based combat, but more like sokoban-like sliding puzzles. Positioning is important, and you can push friends and foes around the map to set up powerful combos or just to make sure your crew avoids 1HKO attacks from bosses. It’s a little confusing at first, but immensely satisfying once you get the hang of it. Give it some time if it doesn’t click at first, as it only really gets fun when you get 4 party members and when you can start choosing an approach that works best for you. For me that was 1 damage dealer, 2 phasers that pass through enemies but slap on some status effects on the way, and a healer/buffer for good measure.

• Optional Goals| Each combat encounter has an optional challenge of beating it within a set amount of turns, or without losing a character. You can undo an attack at any point, as long as you don’t pass the full turn, giving you all the tools needed to trial & error your way into an optimal outcome and master the mechanics. Super satisfying when you pull off the quick 2 or 3 turn kill and see the action play out after the planning phase. The rewards are opals (currency) or moonstone gems, which you can use to buy new abilities or cosmetics for your clubhouse. NOTE: Don’t fret too much about this, you should have ample resources by the end of the game to buy any missing buyables.

• Demons + School = Demonschool | The title doesn’t take a genius to figure out, but you’ll be attending school at first and fighting demons breaching through into our world. More and more people on the island seem to be catching on and getting involved as the story progresses and there is a rich cast of colourful characters to check in with, from NPCs to an ever-growing roster of party members, but more on that later.

• Gorgeous Pixel art | The levels and characters are amazingly done and a treat to look at. Each one with a lot of details and the animations feel very satisfying as well, with demons exploding into a fountain of blood. The Boss encounters were especially nice.

• Good soundtrack & effects | The tunes playing in the background did a solid job at setting the atmosphere and while there isn’t a spoken word of dialog in the game, I didn’t really miss it. That’s noteworthy, as I just played Pokémon Legends: Z-A and the missing voice-over was a big gripe there, and here I find myself forgiving it. Maybe it’s because it’s an indie title on a smaller budget, but it could also be that they handled the emotions well with the sprites, text animations and expert use of sound design.

Mixed & disliked!

• Overwhelming | Your party consists out of 4 characters to pick from, but more and more people start tagging along. I found this overwhelming at some point, especially with all the abilities I could pair them up with. I found myself sticking to what I know for most of the game, and that seemed to be an option, though I kept feeling FOMO about not discovering the optimal party configuration. I would have also liked to see even more interactions with a smaller party, over maxing out their friendship/relationship early on and romancing/befriending new people all the time.

• Busywork | When you’re not following the main storyline, you can start sidequests (love them!) but that won’t suffice to max out your relationships. So prepare for some really dull and repetitive minigames that are fun the first time, but quickly become boring, like:
  • Stopping a timer on the right symbol to cook meals for them
  • Pick a word in lyrics in the world’s most boring version of karaoke
  • Recognising their emotions from just their silhouette
  • Play Rock-Paper-Scissors against people who always pick the same thing.
  • Skipping rocks, lifting weights, fishing… all pretty basic minigames

• Too long | I did 100% of everything that seemed possible in the game, and it took me about 42 hours, including unlocking all endings, and all achievements that weren’t bugged. But I can’t help but feel like the game would have been better off with a ~30 hour completion, and there was just a little too much padding and definitely too many combat encounters.

• Broken Achievements | Always a bummer, but never counted against the score, I had a few achievements that should have popped from progressing the story or sidequests to their conclusion. Even a very basic one like “finish week 8” which should not be missable, but it never popped and there is no way to force it without replaying the game. Same for “Drink the chunky milk” which was a sidequest I did and tied to a cutscene with Destin that I witnessed. And finally, the “get all other achievements”, which always seems lazy copy from the PS5 trophies, was obviously also locked out for me because I didn’t get the other 2.

How long did I play the review before publishing? 42 hours
How long to beat the story? 15-20 hours if you focus on the main story
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 62/66 or 930/1000G
How long to achieve 1000G | Should be doable in 35 hours
You’ll love this game if you like these | Persona 5, Into The Breach, Oakenfold

CONCLUSION

Score: 80/100

Demonschool earns its diploma by blending Persona-style high-school drama with clever, tile-based battles that play more like brainteasing puzzles than traditional RPG grinds, making every fight feel like a chess match against hell itself. Its gorgeous pixel art, moody soundtrack, and rewind-friendly combat systems make pulling off perfect multi-turn plans devilishly satisfying, even if the ever-expanding cast, repetitive relationship minigames, and slightly overlong runtime occasionally drag it down to detention.