In Demonschool, you must help a group of demon hunters prevent the apocalypse. To do this, you'll have to squeeze the most out of every day at their disposal — just like in the Persona series of games.
A Grim Prophecy
In ancient times, cruel demons threatened humanity with complete destruction until they were eliminated. An ancient prophecy states that after 2000 years, demonic portals will reopen and spew forth cursed hordes carrying the apocalypse. There are only a few weeks left until this event, and with each passing day, the chances of survival diminish.
The portals are destined to open on an island remote from civilization, where the demonic is already making itself known. People have begun to disappear everywhere, and those who remain are in blissful ignorance due to constant memory loss. Here, power is held by ruthless gangsters and government officials who protect anyone but innocent people. The occurring demonic events are treated as old wives' tales, and those who sound the alarm are called madmen and paranoids.
The game begins with the arrival on the island of a girl named Faye, who disguises herself as an ordinary student. In reality, she belongs to an ancient lineage of demon hunters and does everything in her power to prevent the invasion. To accomplish her plan, she needs to establish contact with independently operating groups of demon hunters — only together will they have a chance to resist the threat.
The game is made in the style of the early 2000s, when DVD-discs had only recently begun to replace videotapes. The appearance of the characters also corresponds to the time period, but their behavior and group composition have more in common with modern standards of "diversity" — towards the end, a character with vitiligo (when the skin is covered in spots) even appears.
Due to the overall tolerance, I began to worry that the demons would be made victims of circumstances – the fear was intensified by the recent playthrough of Possessor(s), where the game played on pity for the fate of infernal creatures. Fortunately, Demonschool did not have such a flaw – the demons are depicted as very evil, and no drama is created from their destruction. Throughout the playthrough, there are four exceptions, and even then, they occupy a rather neutral position.
A Doomed Island
Ten weeks remain until the promised apocalypse. Each day is divided into three segments, where the player is given complete freedom to move around the locations. Convenient points of interest mark places where you can pet a dog or donate a coin to a shrine – mundane actions that can have consequences. You can simply communicate with people and witness funny incidents.
As time passes, the situation will only worsen. Regardless of the player's actions – ruthless statistics will show that the population continues to decrease. The appearance of demons becomes routine, people will continue to forget relatives and loved ones, curses and monsters from legends appear everywhere. It is saddest to see a proud father who sees off his numerous family to study. After each week, his family decreases by one, and due to demonic influence, he is not even able to realize the tragedy.
Hope for a bright future is given by the growing squad of demon hunters. Additional missions are associated with them, which tend to end in a clash with demons – after the battle, the situation on the island becomes a little better. The hunters are based in their own club, the appearance of which can be changed to your own taste. Everyday activities reward items in the form of chairs or carpets, which make the interior richer.
Friendship can be strengthened with all the hunters. Increasing the friendship scale is achieved by choosing certain answers in dialogues and playing mini-games. The latter are karaoke, cooking, guessing the mood of a comrade, and are also in a terribly raw state – in "rock, paper, scissors" the opponent always chooses only one option in each round. And you will have to play mini-games a lot to win the hearts of all the hunters! But I was conquered by the game where you need to drift, knock down (or not knock down) deer, and get to the finish line before the fuel runs out. Everything seems simple, but you get a lot of pleasure from the process!
You can do everyday things and additional tasks as much as you like – time will stand still only after activating the main plot. Each activation is accompanied by a large number of dialogues, and almost certainly leads to a clash with demons. Each week you will have to defeat a unique boss, about the battle with whom will be printed in the local newspaper. If you rent cassettes, then one of the characters will write funny reviews there about the films watched by the team. All this adds a sense of presence in this world.
Battle with the Spawn of Evil
As with Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten – clashes with opponents transfer hunters to an alternate dimension, where characters are able to move along a certain trajectory. Each action of the hero consumes action points from the total supply – each subsequent action consumes more points, which encourages the team to use skills evenly. To win, the hunters need to destroy a certain number of demons, and then proceed to seal the portal – all survivors will be destroyed automatically. It is enough for the demons to destroy the hunters or break the barrier blocking the way to the real world.
Opponents can boast of diversity:
- There is a group of demons that throws all its forces to destroy the barrier;
- Demons that explode after death deal damage to those around them. The sound of the explosion gives the impression that something has burst, which greatly affects the nerves;
- There are standard fighters who go towards the hunters with aggressive intentions;
- Specialized opponents take over the body and heal demons, paralyze or jump a long distance to the heroes;
- Traitors of humanity kick, use magic and firearms.
Demon hunters are divided into standard fighters and support warriors, whose role is reduced to healing, strengthening allies and weakening enemies. For example, there are specialists who perform well against particularly "thick" enemies. Each hunter has an element that is strong or weak against enemy elements: if the element is strong, the damage received is neutralized, while weakness is punished with double damage. The system is similar to the one from Persona.
During the playthrough, you will have to endure dozens of clashes. You need to build enemies in such a way that each attack has maximum impact, and also look for a way to conduct combo attacks. Alas, most of the tests are handled by the "fighter-support" combination, where the emphasis is on destroying a large number of weak enemies. Specialists in destroying strong reptiles rarely get the opportunity to reveal themselves.
Bosses have an impressive three-dimensional model, and their appearance is usually accompanied by a small video. Each battle with the boss is unique and more like solving a puzzle than usual. During the battle, you will often have to avoid massive attacks or look for a way to deal maximum damage on your turn.
Each won battle is rewarded with skill points and opals, where for maximum reward you need to fit into the established number of moves and not lose anyone. Skills and interior items are bought for opals in the store. Skill points allow you to learn perks that change the properties of hunters' abilities, or give passive bonuses.
Diagnosis
You can't deny Demonschool the amount of diverse content. Yes, mini-games and the development of the characters of many characters leave much to be desired. But the fact that the developers managed to create a tense atmosphere of the approaching apocalypse and added a huge number of unique and interesting battles — is impressive. Let me remind you that this is an indie project that has survived more than one transfer and, apparently, production hell.
It is gratifying that here the restrictions work as they should – they force you to creatively and thoughtfully approach each battle in order to fit into the allotted moves. At the same time, you do not need to go out of your way and perfectly complete each battle – the earned points will be enough to open all the skills by the end of the game. Such indulgences allow you not to experience irritation during the playthrough, not to chase the "best" result, but simply to enjoy the game.
Pro:
- Oppressive atmosphere of the apocalypse
- Restrictions can be adhered to purely for the sake of interest
- Visual style and setting of the early 00s
- Addictive battles with both ordinary enemies and bosses
- Music
- Mini-game «Oh, Deer!»
Contra:
- The character of the characters does not correspond to the setting of the early 00s
- Few opportunities to use specialized fighters
- "Raw" mini-games
- No translation into Russian
