There’s something about high school/college tactics games that call out to me. Perhaps my school experience was so boring that it’s fun to revisit high school with the context of some sort of demon battles. So a few years back, before the start of Gamer Social Club, when I saw Demonschool at Pax East, I was interested. This game has been on my Steam wish list since 2023. To finally get my hands on it was very exciting. I was ready to dive in full force.

Then there was a delay. Thank you Silksong for making us wait a bit longer. With the delay it also meant the team had more time to incorporate more into the game. A few more endings, giving the characters a few more lines in between scenes, and perhaps even some more side quests. Now, we’re ready and able to talk about Demonschool for your perusal.

Story

In Demonschool you play as Faye, the last in the line of demon hunters who knows there’s an evil prophecy coming and she will do all she can to stop it. While the world is afraid of Y2K, Faye knows the truth, demons are coming. Faye is ready to save the world and nothing will turn her away from her goal. This also means that she can be a bit pushy as her first friend Namako will learn very quickly. Thankfully, Namako won’t be the only one that Faye recruits to her demon hunting squad.

We quickly learn however that this college experience won’t be the traditional experience. Something strange is going on on this island. In fact, Faye and friends will have different assignments than the rest of their peers. From finding a haunted VHS tape to a demonic paintbrush and more, you won’t just be reading and writing your essays. However, at the end of each week, you will have a quiz based on what you’ve learned this past week. That does mean the quiz can range from knowing about your companions, understanding some of the demons, and maybe just once, a simple general knowledge quiz.

Overall, the story is fairly straight forward, investigate the truth behind the prophecy, get to know your classmates, save the world. There are a few beats throughout the story that are fairly predictable unfortunately. This doesn’t make for a bad story, it just doesn’t do anything overly inventive with the story. What does make the story fun is the oddity of the teaching staff and some of your supporting characters. While you can see some of the oddity of the staff early, it’s actually later in game when some of the characters really seem to come into their own. Characters that felt very one note morph into something more. Others who were tossed to the sidelines reappear and make the game feel more robust as well.

The pacing of Demonschool actually feels a bit off. In some ways, the story starts out a bit too slow and then when it ramps up it feels like it goes a bit too fast. It definitely feels as though the developers expect you to spend a lot of time getting to know the other characters so your play through doesn’t feel oddly paced. Players who just want to experience the main story will get through it in about 17-20 hours and may feel that rushed feeling as well.

One thing that really stuck out to me was that the resolution of the story almost felt a bit too quick. The big bad gets revealed, has the moment to give the evil villain dialogue, and within an hour you hit end credits. There is a lot of build up to get to this moment, yet it seems almost over too soon. Perhaps we could have celebrated a bit more and ring in the year 2000. Why doesn’t this crew get to party like it’s 1999?

Battle Mechanics

The battle mechanics are actually quite enjoyable and where the game shines. It’s a bit like a chess match where you must anticipate your opponents moves and make the most of your turns. Thankfully you get to plan out your moves before committing. You do not however get to see what your opponents will do as you plan it. So you’ll have to do your best to anticipate their moves. For characters that knock enemies back you will see them move to their next location. This small detail is helpful as you are allowed to use the same character more than once. Keep in mind that if you do, it will cost additional action points from your pool, increasing by one for each usage in the round.

Each turn you’ll have a set number of action points to use during your turn. Once they are depleted you can move into the action phase. This isn’t automatic, you choose when you’re ready to move on. You’ll get to see your fighters move the way you planned and then how your opponents react. I love this battle system as it allows players to be as tactical as possible. However, as your party grows, your planning will actually begin even before your fight begins. With a larger roster of characters to choose from, you’ll have to make sure you pick the best combination of characters for your fight.

Your characters also do not have traditional experience like other RPGs. Your characters will have 3 hit points throughout the whole game and you will have to make sure that you make it work. It’s incredibly important to focus on their resistances and weaknesses as the wrong party can make all the difference. Also getting to explore how they fight is also worth your time. The characters don’t all fight in the same way, some will knock demons back, others will just move right through them. The wrong combo of characters can mean not missing your turn goal.

When you complete the battles with no character deaths and in the target turn numbers, you’ll get more rewards at the end of the fight. These will help you purchase items from the store in town. These items? Decorations for your clubhouse, but more importantly, skills for your characters to learn and use. This will continue to allow you make your character builds stronger since their HP and weaknesses won’t change without these skills.

Character Bonds & Minigames

There is actually quite a bit of character bonding within the game should you choose to take advantage of this. As your roster grows, so does the amount of characters you can spend time with. Will you cook for them? Perhaps partake in karaoke? Or of course, there is whatever story line they specifically have. The story lines will also allow you opportunities to unlock different skills for characters.

Many character bond storylines will involve you fighting some set of demons. However, some will also have you experience different minigames on the island. The way to a companions heart could very well be by making them a meal of their choice. In this mini game you’ll make sure you click on the correct items in order, keep in mind if you take too long those items may fall off the screen and you’ll have to wait for them to reappear.

Other character bonding moments involve going to karaoke and choosing the correct lyrics to the song. No, these aren’t songs that already exist, you’ll have to make sure you follow the appropriate theme. Some character bonding will have you go fishing, because of course there is a fishing minigame in Demonschool.

It would be ideal if some of the character bonds and minigames made some of the characters more interesting overall. While it does do this for some, there are a few others that still feel slightly flat. It may be that they are just not my people but I’d rather be out there hunting for animals with Mercy any day than deal with some other characters to try and get them to like me. No this isn’t just because I want to romance Mercy but it is a nice perk.

Flaws – The Glitch Edition

If you’ve gotten this far, I am sorry that I will have to break your heart a bit here. The game is quite a bit of fun, but it has some very strong flaws. While some of these are easy to look beyond, there’s one that is quite game breaking and made me step away from the game more than once.

One thing that would happen occasionally and wasn’t game breaking, was that sometimes the text would just not appear in the text box. This happened just once or twice without the auto advance text on. Thankfully, this didn’t happen during pivotal story points of the game so it didn’t feel too impactful. However, when the auto-advance text was on, there were quite a few times when the full text would not display. It would get halfway through a sentence and then skip to the next line or just never fully put the statement on display. It was a weird glitch but it did mean I played the majority of the game with the auto-advance off. This is a feature I enjoy so it wasn’t ideal to play without it, but I could deal with it.

There was also the occasional graphical issue. Again, this wasn’t anything that felt super game breaking but was more of an annoyance. During certain fights there would be enemies or parts of the enemies that didn’t seem to load. It didn’t impact the combat itself thankfully. Although there would be another glitch that would impact combat in the worst of ways. That one comes next.

Now to the worst of the glitches. This is one that hurts to write because it truly felt game breaking. During boss battles, there were moments where using someone’s special ability would cause the game to bring me back to the main menu. That’s right, you’d get ripped out mid battle and see the Demonschool screen again. This was painful as it meant any progress I had made since starting that segment of the day was gone. For fights that I had a good groove with, this was enough for me to quit the game for the time being. While I am not a game programmer, I have no idea what logic was built in that would do this.

The last bit of graphical issues that seemed odd was when the map didn’t sit in the center of the screen appropriately. It would resolve itself after placing your party on the map, but sometimes made it difficult to know who would be where on the map. This could sometimes make choosing your characters a bit more difficult. In fact once or twice I just restarted the battle to figure out who to send into the fight.

Dislikes

Just like the characters in the game, this reviewer has things that they disliked about the game. While the combat is actually a lot of fun, it feels like it happens too often. There are moments during the game where it feels like after every story scene there is a fight. This also happens during the character specific bonding moments. While I found the combat enjoyable, it feels like it happens too often. Is it meant to be that all of the bonding that happens with these characters is trauma bonding?

There were a handful of other moments that were seemingly out of place. While I don’t doubt that people may have already been saying things such as “lol” via text, to see it written out as if spoken by college students in 1999 felt off. Also having a certain character have “<3” in her text box also was strange to read. Understandably, not all games can have voice acting to portray the way a character would sound. Yet, there is just something about seeing it written out for a college student in 1999 that felt strange.

None of these characters seem to have cell phones either so why are they saying lol or using these symbols? We rarely see them use computers as well so how often are they typing in chat rooms to use such lingo? As someone who has been in chatrooms since AOL (yes, even before AIM), this sat weird. Feel free to let me know if Demonschool is correct that college kids were already using this lingo.

Another aspect that felt frustrating was that is Faye was available, she was locked to be in every fight. There are a few moments where she is not in your active party, but otherwise, she will always be there. I understand she is meant to be the main character but it would have been nice to have more flexibility in party combinations. What could a party look like without Faye if everyone else is available for more than a handful of fights? What would an entire run without Faye in your active fighting party feel like?

Overall

There are some great workings here. However, it’s hard to say that perhaps with more time for polish it would be a huge improvement. Of course, there is the potential for Demonschool to improve. Revisit and fix some of the technical glitches that are occurring within the game is a great starting point. However, this is a game that was announced in 2022, faced delays, and is still a bit of a mess. There is nothing worse than ruining a good groove by the game going to the main menu. That isn’t to say that the entire game isn’t worth it. The combat is great although a bit too much. The overall story, while predictable and full of tropes is enjoyable.

Will this be a game that I revisit to max out character relationships and search for the different endings? Perhaps in time, but it isn’t one that I am rushing back to. After a few patches for stability and resolving the main menu issue I may revisit. While Faye and the gang are closing portals, the development team might have a few more holes to close to ensure the heart of the game isn’t overshadowed by its flaws. There is something really great at its core, it just needs a bit more time to truly shine.

Demonschool is out on November 19, 2025 on PC, PlayStation 4 & 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X|S. Gamer Social Club would like to thank the developers, the publishers, and their PR team for the code. This Demonschool review was completed on Steam.