A tactical RPG that mixes chaos, strategy, and retro charm.
Fans of strategy RPGs and games like Persona have been interested in Necrosoft Games’ Demonschool since it was first announced in 2022. The game looked great with its bright pixel art and focus on movement. It offered a unique mix of strategy, story, and funny character-driven moments.
The release date was originally set for the summer, but was pushed back to November 2025 to avoid clashing with Team Cherry’s Silksong. This gave the developers more time to improve the game and make sure the end product was flawless.
There are a lot of similarities between this game and the Shin Megami Tensei series and older Persona games, but it makes its own mark. In contrast to most tactical RPGs that reward grinding and leveling, Demonschool emphasizes strategic thinking and smart use of a character’s skills. The game encourages exploration, tinkering, and a bit of chaos. It’s clear that Necrosoft wanted to create something both familiar and new.
This game has a lot to offer Persona fans, especially those who want to read about older students. In Demon School, college-aged students try to navigate a strange island school where ghosts and demons are familiar. The people who made the game gave it its own style by making sure it had a good mix of humor, horror, and tactical depth.
The game takes you right into a bright and crazy world from the start. Fay is the last in a long line of demon hunters. She comes to Hemsk Island to start her “normal” college life, but nothing about her is normal. Early on, there are gangsters, haunted VHS tapes, weird teachers, and the end of the world. These set the tone for a story that blends suspense, humor, and oddball charm.
Fay is intense and strangely outgoing, and it’s always fun to follow her around. Namako is shy and quiet, so her happy chaos goes well with her. This makes for some of the funniest exchanges in the game.
Demon School’s story is complicated and fast-paced, with personalities like Persona and high stakes like in Shin Megami Tensei. Fay and her growing group of friends, which now includes Namako, Destin, and N, try to stop a demon apocalypse while they look into the island’s secrets.
There are a lot of new people, supernatural events, and the end of the world happening quickly in the first few chapters, which can be overwhelming. But that’s part of the book’s charm. You might think the story is a mess at first, but the personalities are what make the game worth playing.
Namako is calm and careful, which is a great contrast to Fay’s spontaneous energy. Destin is the likeable tough guy, and N is the calm nurse. This makes for a unique gameplay dynamic. The characters’ relationships make the story fun to read, even though the pace could be faster. Later, 15 playable characters are added to the game. Each has their own personality and quirks, which makes the game more fun and easy to rerun.
You can learn more about these characters through side quests and connection events, which strengthen relationships and unlock new story material. While some late-game characters do show up, they don’t really make an impact, which takes away from the promise of a big, fully realized cast. Even so, there are different ends to find, which makes the game fun to play again and again, and try out different party dynamics.
There are all the right parts, but the pace is too fast or too slow. The cast is great, but some personalities get lost because they are introduced too late.
Tones that are very different make the game fun. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, which lets it have funny interactions and fun times even when there is a fear of the end of the world. The funny and scary elements in Demonschool help it stand out from other strategy RPGs.
Demonschool is a tactical role-playing game that doesn’t stress leveling as much as it does tactics, positioning, and making smart use of a character’s skills. Fay and her friends look around Hemsk Island, the school, and the nearby areas, talking to items, NPCs, and doing side quests. You can explore in a semi-free-roaming way; the day only moves forward when the main story does, so you can do side quests, get to know people, or look for hidden secrets.
Through minigames, dialogue choices, and shared tasks, you can keep their party relationships in check. Bond events raise the connection gauge, which can lead to special scenes and sometimes love developments. You can fish for demon fish, play singing minigames, and go on fun side quests like finding a stolen sandwich or looking into spam emails from demons.
The bond gauge goes up when you hang out and do side quests that are unique to your character.” Each level opens up a bond event that lets you learn more about that character.
Getting better at things is another important layer. Members of the party can work together to learn new skills using class points and in-game money. Early in the game, having few party members makes it take longer to learn new skills, so you need to plan carefully. As the list grows, more characters can study at the same time, which speeds up progress.
Opal can also be used to buy skills, but these purchases don’t make characters too powerful, so the game’s tactical balance is kept. When you fight in Demon School, the game really shines. Battles take place on a grid and have three parts: planning, action, and enemy turn. You use a shared pool of action points to choose what to do. Repeated actions cost more points each time they are done.
You can try out actions without committing to them, undo moves, and carefully plan combos before you use them. With this system, every fight is more like a tactical puzzle than just a boring grind. There are many different skills that each character has. For example, Fay and Destin can push enemies back, Namako can move enemies and stop them, and N can heal and buff enemies.
When you place your items correctly, combo strikes start, dealing more damage and adding more depth to your strategy. Special moves, which you can use after filling up a meter with actions, add another level of strategy to the game. Side steps let you make small changes without using any AP, which is very important in games where points are limited and rise quickly.
It’s really exciting to see your units bounce across the battlefield and knock down enemies like dominoes.
But boss fights aren’t always the same. Even though they look cool and have interesting features, some of them can feel unfair or depend on luck because attacks can’t be seen coming. In spite of this, most of the fights are fair and provide fun tasks for both new and experienced tactical RPG players.
Demonschool is not like other RPGs in that fights don’t give you XP or levels. Strategy, positioning, and smart use of skills are important in every fight. This gives each fight meaning because success depends on what you know, how well you plan, and how well you carry out your plans, not on grinding stats.
By combining 2D sprites and 3D backgrounds, Demonschool has a retro look that reminds me of JRPGs from the PS1 era. The character designs are bright and expressive, just like the people they represent. For example, Fay’s fiery red stands out against Namako’s cool blue, and bosses are both creative and scary. From the creepy academy halls to the bright streets of Hemsk Island, each location has a lot of different textures that make it look unique.
The art style is reminiscent of old JRPGs and draws from the work of old manga artists, creating a colorful and strange world to look at.
The mix of anime-style portraits and pixel-based action strikes a good balance between nostalgia and readability, making it easy to follow fights even when they happen in complicated situations. The music is one of the best parts. It has synth-heavy battle tracks as well as lighter, more fun songs for exploring and minigames.
The music changes quickly to match the story and battles, adding to the stress, humor, or calmness of the scene as needed. The retro look is strengthened by sound effects, and the conversation is interesting even though there is no voice acting because of how it is written and delivered.
The music fits every mood the game is trying to reach, from battle themes to fishing minigames. It makes the game unforgettable and immersive.
This is a tactical role-playing game (RPG) that really shines in terms of personality, tactical depth, and style. The strange plot, bright characters, and retro-style graphics make it an enjoyable experience to remember.
The strategic fighting encourages careful planning over mindless grinding. The story moves slowly at times, and some characters are presented too late. But the gameplay, exploration, and bond-building mechanics more than make up for it. The game’s charm comes from being brave, funny, and open to trying new things with its features and tone, making it a truly unique RPG experience.
Even though there are a few small technical issues, like crashes or bugs with the graphics, the game works perfectly on both PC and Steam Deck, so you can play it on your computer or on the go. You will be able to enjoy the game for a long time after their first run because it can be played over and over again and has many endings and character exchanges.
