Summary:
- Labyrinth of the Demon King provides a memorable and uneasy experience, with retro-style graphics and an unnerving dungeon environment.
- Its punishing gameplay and nostalgic horror vibe appeal to players who prefer intense atmospheric challenges to conventional accessibility.
- The exploration experience may be frustrating and confusing, but ultimately fulfilling.
In this review, we’re taking a look at the strange and creepy Labyrinth of the Demon King. Right from the first steps into the game’s insidious hallways, you are invited to an experience that’s unlike anything else. Labyrinth of the Demon King offers disorienting, retro-style imagery, paired with terrifying gameplay that will challenge your skill and sanity. Let’s see what makes Labyrinth of the Demon King a strange romp, and consider if it’s worth your time.
Where the Nostalgia Sets
The story of Labyrinth of the Demon King takes place in a dark fantasy version of feudal Japan. This time, Japan is a land devastated by war, famine, and disease, where demons live alongside humans. You play as an ashigaru, or lowly foot soldier of Lord Takeda Nobumitsu, who has fallen victim to the treachery of a powerful Demon King. The deception has led you into an ambush that exterminated his army. Your lord gave his life for you to escape, and now you will hunt down the demon that deceived him.
The mood settings are deliciously atmospheric, drenched in survival horror, dungeon crawling, and a maze-like environment referencing feudal Japanese landscapes. The game’s retro-grim aesthetic puts the player right back into the early PlayStation days. It’s marked by an overabundance of grainy filters and washed-out tones to create an unnerving, foreboding feel. The labyrinth is a character in and of itself, a ruinous cave system that is ominous and spooky enough.
A Fight for Life
Labyrinth of the Demon King has a methodical and hardcore combat system. Players have to manage their own stamina and execute their moves in the correct timing. Similarly, the combat style is limited but flexible: light/medium/heavy attacks, parries, dodges, and an offensive-defensive kick. Players are encouraged to learn enemy attack patterns and their own action timing to maintain the rhythm of the battle. Depleting stamina means you lose the character’s momentum and are left vulnerable.
This is definitely a tactical game where blocking and counter-attacking are the major factors. Also, every type of weapon has its own variety in moves and damage types that relate to the enemy’s weakness. The combat is slow and tends to be a little rigid, but it also feels fair and really gratifying. Getting harassed by some of the smaller enemies, though, like the poisonous bugs or birds, is annoying mid-combat. They can be fast, and attacking you with poison can be frustrating, no less.
Survival mechanics and resources are laced into the gameplay; resources are scarce, and save points are difficult to come by. Players are working their way through a series of intertwined dungeons while deciphering puzzles like those in classic survival horror games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. These puzzles involve locating keys, solving various riddles in the environment, and revisiting the various branches in some cases.
Rounding everything off is the feeling of dread created by limited healing items, stamina-based usability, and the threat of death. Upon death, the player is spawned back at the last shrine, while all enemies have respawned, and their patterns are unpredictable to a degree.
The Appeal to Horror Fans
The world design in the game is meant to be disorienting and somewhat confusing. It’s looking like a dumpster, with repetitious and dreary dungeon design, and nothing but cryptic puzzles to ponder. There are locked doors, stuck corridors, and unclear clues, leading to no obvious paths of progression to carefully piece together.
It feels even worse being lost with a mostly static map with a poor estimate of where you are. With this, players have to apply their own memory and exploratory skill set. You can say it’s frustrating. But after finding your way out of the maze and completing its puzzles, it gives a good level of accomplishment.
Should You Enter the Labyrinth?
Throughout this review, we’ve explained what a well-crafted experience Labyrinth of the Demon King is to a very niche audience. Labyrinth of the Demon King is a game that poses the challenge and temptation of fear, frustration, and fascination simultaneously. A nostalgic horror vibe meets punishing gameplay, crafting a world that will leave you hypnotized, even if it is cruel. If you don’t mind heading into its depths, you won’t find many games doing what Labyrinth of the Demon King does!
