Product Info

Platform

Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC

Publisher

Ysbryd Games

Developer

Necrosoft Games

Genre

Adventure, RPG, Strategy/Tactics

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

2.1 GB

Release Date (NA)

Nov 19, 2025

Purchase From

eShop

PSN Store

Microsoft Store

Steam

Demonschool is an indie game with a unique tactical battle system that evokes familiar vibes from the Persona series, yet has crafted its own charm that RPG fans should explore.

The Apocalypse Incoming

You will play as Faye, a demon hunter who is enrolled at a university located on a mysterious remote island to prevent the upcoming apocalypse. You will encounter other misfit classmates who will team up with you or communicate as you uncover the secrets hidden from the public eye on the campus and the island. Each week, you will take on missions from your professor that will lead up to the catastrophic event. While completing your school assignments, you can improve your relationships with your teammates, interact with the inhabitants on the island, or tackle side quests such as finding the demon sandwich thief or fishing for demon fish.

The story unfolds in between battles and at times, it transitions the day from morning to evening and night. You will experience each day of the week, with Saturday and Sunday grouped into the “weekend”. Assignments are due at the end of the week, but players should not worry about missing deadlines as the game’s story cannot progress further into the week until you complete your story mission. You have access to a significant portion of the island, from the “downtown” area to outer areas like the lighthouse. Some areas will unlock depending on the day of the week or when a story triggers a specific location that was previously unavailable. 

The characters are a lively group of misfits, each with their own unique personality. For example, Faye enjoys hunting demons, Knute is obsessed with lost media, and Destin likes finding snakes and is always ready to throw the first punch in any situation. Initially, you will have three classmates join your team, with more to add as you progress through the game, each with their own distinct skill set. 

The story itself is engaging with twists and turns, as well as character development. However, the pacing of the story tends to drag on more than necessary, especially in the beginning where capturing the player’s attention is crucial. The battle system allows players to take their time or redo moves, but it can also slow down the game’s pace, making the week feel like a month. Despite this, players can expect to invest at least twenty hours into the game, possibly more if aiming for 100% completion. Trophy and achievement hunters will undoubtedly enjoy the journey towards completion.

Fight for Your Life at Your Pace

Battles are initiated during dialogue situations and not in random encounters. You’ll transition to a battlefield that’s set up on a square-grid layout. The field itself isn’t large, and despite the number of foes on the field, more can appear after each turn. Before enemies make their approach, players can set up each character to move and initiate attacks in multiple ways or at times. It’s almost like you’ve stopped time, letting the player decide how the battle will unfold. You have a certain amount of action points to use and up to four characters to control. You can redo the setup at your own pace. Once you’ve spent all your actions or are comfortable with the setup, players will initiate the action and watch everything unfold. You cannot go back if you make a mistake, but you can redo the battle if you dislike how the events turned out. It’s designed for the player to be tactical on their own time. It’s a fun, different approach, but you can easily spend too much time on just one battle, which can drain your patience if you overthink it too much.

Each character has their own unique skill set, along with weaknesses and immunities. Faye and Destin have attacks that can be destructive with their offensive power. You’ll also have characters who are not fighters but can help, such as Namako, who can freeze enemies for a turn, and Knute, who can heal your party and raise your attack power. You can set up combos based on where each character is placed and where the enemy is located, giving you an advantage to defeat the foe quicker. Characters can unleash special attacks when enough points are earned based on actions in battle. These can turn the tide of battle by unleashing heavy attack points or healing from a longer distance.

Enemies will also have a different set of abilities, such as shooting poison from a long distance or exploding. These situations can prevent harm to characters thanks to the battle’s event planning. Some instances will be unavoidable. If a demon shoots poison and it doesn’t hit you, you can still get poisoned if you walk across it, even if you don’t land on it. Aside from every character perishing in battle, enemy grunts can create a game over by breaching your barrier located behind your team in battle and moving beyond the board. Be sure to stay aware of your surroundings.

Boss battles have a different pattern than typical foes you’ve faced and require more attention. They’ll indicate where they will land their attacks in multiple areas or larger scaled areas, giving you a heads up that you need to move your character out of harm’s way. Some battles can take a little longer due to avoiding enemy attacks while fending off minions before getting to the boss. Whether you are facing a boss or a minion, each battle feels like a strategic puzzle, foreshadowing attacks that require some brainpower. When it all works out, it feels good and rewarding.

Aside from boss battles, you are not required to defeat every enemy on the field. Instead, you have a set number of enemies you must defeat before you can finish the battle and return to the real world. To finish the battle after you earn enough points, one of your players must be placed on any square located on the last row on the other side of the battlefield and initiate the “seal” command to earn your rewards before returning.

These rewards are based on how many turns you take and how well you played, such as how many enemies you defeated and if anyone on your team perished. You’ll earn crescent-shaped moons that can be used to learn skills. Enemies destroyed give you currency to spend at the shop on the island for new skills to unlock or objects to put in your school club’s room. A quick tip on shopping: be sure to hold off on buying anything at the beginning, even though the items are priced at an outrageous amount. Regarding experience points, there aren’t any, and every character stays at the same level. You’ll have to rely on skills to improve your character, such as higher attack power or immunity to status ailments like poison.

Learning and a Slice of Life

To use skills for characters, steps are required. Similar to obtaining a textbook, you must first find the skill you wish to learn. Skills can be obtained in various ways, such as purchasing them from a shop or earning them from a sidequest. Next, you will need to assign a couple of characters to learn the skill, along with crescent moons that you have obtained from battles. Once learned, you can equip the skill to a character. Most skills learned can be used by anyone, but some are specific to certain players. Characters who are studying cannot be used for a certain amount of time, creating a cooldown period. When you have a large party of characters to choose from, this is not much of an issue, but it can be more challenging in the beginning when you have a limited number of characters. Why not have the required amount of crescent moons without the cooldown, or start with just one character instead of a set for the beginning? Perhaps after learning ten skills, it could require two players to learn more? Let players enjoy the experience early on and then add more challenges if they want to learn additional or unique skills.

On the side, you can initiate mini-games just for fun or to improve relationships between teammates. Building these relationships leads to additional dialogues, sidequests, and improvements in the team’s status in battle, such as increased damage on enemies when performing combos. Activities like karaoke and cooking can be done multiple times per day to strengthen these relationships. Sometimes, choosing a multiple-choice answer during the game’s story can improve a character’s relationship with Faye as platonic or romantic.

Other mini-games, like fishing, are available in multiple locations to catch a variety of demon fish. The setup is simple, but some aspects could be explained better. For example, when selecting a spot to fish, a gauge will pop up in sections. If you choose a section with fish, you might expect to catch one, but you actually need to pick the spot with an arrow pointing to a fish, not an empty space within the section. Once you successfully select a section to fish, another gauge will appear. Similar to the previous gauge, an arrow will slide up and down, and the player must press the action button to stop the movement within the yellow gauge area. If you miss or take too long, the gauge area shortens and disappears, causing you to lose the chance to fish.

Another mini-game that could benefit from clearer instructions is rock skipping on water. Players can press the action button at the right time multiple times to make the rock skip up to five times. While it can be figured out, providing clearer explanations would be helpful.

Just like planning your battles, you can retry any of these mini games anytime you want if you fail.

It’s Y2K Stylish

Character designs are stylish, with heavy, thick strokes and cel-shaded looks that resemble those from a comic or manga series. Their attire reflects the style of the 2000s, and the technology in the game is from the same era, with DVDs as the new media, payphones still in existence, and the upcoming Y2K event mentioned as a metaphor for the apocalypse. 

The overall game, from the characters to the island locations themselves, features a mix of stylish colors ranging from vibrant to saturated hues, along with halftone textures that give it a mysterious vibe. Some areas, such as the water using the halftone texture, may look a little off, but the water itself slowly animates with dark color hues.

The user interface and typography designs are excellent, with few games utilizing this design except for Atlus games from their Persona series and Metaphor games. The transitions between switching locations and the change of day animation provide a smooth and stylish modern look. The 3D environment battle transitions are fun when you’re teleported to and from a battlefield.

The soundtrack fits the game’s atmosphere perfectly, with tracks featuring pipe organs for powerful demon battles, high-energy music for those Friday battles, and smooth tunes for activities like shopping, cooking, or fishing. Each event and battle for each day has its own scores, adding variety.

The Final Assignment

Demonschool is a stylish and entertaining tactical RPG that allows you to pummel demons to a bloody pulp while also enjoying slice-of-life moments such as fishing for demon fish and bonding with your teammates. Although the story pacing can be slow at times, the overall journey proves to be a rewarding experience.

A PlayStation 5 review code provided for this review. Demonschool is available now for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (Steam). Players can visit the game’s official website for more information.