Demonschool, the Persona series-inspired role-playing game in development by Necrosoft Games, is launching this summer after having been delayed last year.
The game’s new release window on PC and consoles was confirmed in a new trailer shown during yesterday’s PC Gaming Show which also provided a quick look at one week in the life of a Demonschool student, which doesn’t exclusively involve hunting demons. The available activities look varied enough, so it definitely looks like the experience will have no trouble staying fresh for its entire duration.
Last year, I had the chance to try out a Demonschool demo before its public release, and really enjoyed what I played, despite the available in-game week not being as varied as the one showcased in the latest trailer. The combat system is probably what I liked best about the demo, together with its aesthetics, and what sets the game apart the most from the latest entries in the series.
A few rather unique quirks make the Demonschool combat system intriguing. For starters, units can only move in straight lines and must use a special maneuver called Sidestep, which doesn’t cost AP to adjust their movement range. Attacking enemies requires positioning characters in the correct range, and each attack also pushes the attacked unit, allowing the player to plan things out so that it will become possible to attack an enemy out of range at the start of the Planning Phase. Additionally, just defeating enemies is not enough to win, as not only players must defeat a required number of demons, but they also have to reach the opposite side of the combat arena with any character to seal a portal. Add in different roles for playable characters, frequent demon respawns, and special attacks with different properties, and you get a uniquely challenging battle system that could take some time to understand, but it offers a lot of strategic depth, making battles extremely fun.
Demonschool launches this summer on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Nintendo Switch.
