Labyrinth of the Demon King is a grim and dreary survival horror RPG inspired by oldschool classics like Silent Hill, Resident Evil and King's Field. You play as a lowly footsoldier on a foolhardy quest avenge your fallen master – and it sure as hell feels like it. Your weapons are rusty and half-broken, horrific monsters inhabit nearly every corner of the world, and even the non-hostile characters are about as helpful as a punch to the gut. And yet, despite how awful everything is, actually playing Labyrinth of the Demon King is a lot of fun!
But before we begin, I just want to say that Labyrinth of the Demon King is so retro that it exclusively runs in a 4:3 aspect ratio! In order to spare those of you on smaller screens I'll be stretching out my screenshots and footage to a more comfortable HD resolution. Now usually this would be a big no-no given how much it would ruin the image, but considering how grainy and blurry Labyrinth of the Demon King is on its own, it's thankfully almost unnoticeable.
Video version of this recommendation (~12 minutes)
Getting into the swing of things
What I noticed very quickly, however, is that unlike a lot of RPGs released these days Labyrinth of the Demon King is miraculously not a Souls-like! It has similar sensibilities in the sense that every single enemy is a serious threat and that success depends heavily on your timing, but the actual moment-to-moment gameplay is much slower and more methodical. After all, Labyrinth of the Demon King is a survival-horror game. You can't just waltz into the realm of torment and expect to roll around on the floor until you're victorious - and believe me, I tried!
A lot of this comes down to your stamina regenerating extremely slowly while in combat, which means that you can't just swing wildly at an enemy and hope for the best. If they block too many of your attacks, or simply have more health than you expected, you can end up crippling yourself without achieving much. I did this for my first couple of battles, and the result was a massive waste of health followed by an embarrassing death.
Respect every enemy, or they're going to mess you up
The key thing I had to learn was that Labyrinth of the Demon King wants you to be patient. Observe what the enemy is doing, counter their attacks and then strike back when they're exposed. Simple in theory, but in practice - not so much. Basic attacks can be parried by raising your block right as the enemy swings at you. This will let you damage them without expending much stamina. On the other hand, heavy attacks and kicks will go straight through your block, so you have to dodge those. The problem is that if you parry a heavy attack you'll get smacked over the head, and if you spam dodge too much you'll end up without stamina. To my knowledge there is no way to brute force the system - you have to use the appropriate counters at the appropriate time.
It's a tricky combat system to learn, especially since all of your moves are incredibly slow, but I found to be quite effective at conveying the idea that you're way over your head. Labyrinth of the Demon King is a survival-horror game, after all, so struggling your way through it - all battered and bruised - makes for a much better and more immersive story.
The only thing about the combat that I didn't like is that sometimes small enemies can attack you so quickly you end up getting stunned every time you try to swing back. The centipedes were particularly annoying for me as I swear I would frequently just miss them despite my sword striking them square in the face. They ended up wrecking me so often I would freak out more over seeing a couple of bugs than a giant, near-invincible demon with my name at the top of its naughty list.
Behold the true face of terror - a tiny insect!
Grim, oppressive atmosphere
This is a good time to bring up the atmosphere, because to me this is Labyrinth of the Demon King's crowning achievement. Even the during the peaceful introduction in the forest where are there are no enemies or threats of any kind, I found myself constantly paranoid and uneasy. Labyrinth of the Demon King's world has this omnipresent aura of depression and hopelessness that saps the beauty away from even the most tranquil of places. Because of this everything, and everyone, just look like they've gone through hell and come back with a couple of pieces missing.
Nowhere is this more apparent than when you reach one of the demon-infested towers. While there are still actual people living and working inside of it, everything there is ruined, neglected and decaying. I could definitely see how grand the place must've been back in its heyday, but sadly nothing of that splendor remains today. Instead it's just piles upon piles of dirt and grime, battered furniture, and enemies that look like the only thing keeping them alive is sheer spite.
Even some of the more powerful enemies look like they've been through the wringer. The only ones that seem like they're actually enjoying their existence are the weird cat demons you meet along the way - all of which would love to eat you, but instead choose to leave you alone because they think you'll create more juicy corpses for them to feast on. Yeah, Labyrinth of the Demon King's world is all sorts of messed up!
While the PlayStation 1 era visuals with their blurriness and graininess certainly contributed to me feeling dour and melancholic, I would say the biggest culprit was the music. It ranges from moody background tracks that build a sense of creeping danger to what I can only describe as a musical version of someone breathing down your neck. I found it to be highly unsettling and often times downright oppressive. It constantly made me paranoid that someone was going to jump me from behind, even when I knew there was nobody there. So while it's not exactly something I'll listen to in my free time, Labyrinth of the Demon King's soundscape did a great job of drawing me into its world and making me feel like I'm an insignificant gnat facing off impossible odds.
The mood is so dreary you can almost feel it weigh on your shoulders
Dungeon-crawler meets Resident Evil
As for the actual areas you'll be exploring on your quest for vengeance, I would describe those as a hybrid between oldschool dungeon-crawlers and survival-horror games. Or in other words, expect loads of tight and interconnected corridors leading you to highly thematic rooms housing nasty surprises, minor puzzles or juicy bits of lore - and if you're lucky, maybe even all three!
I've only had access to the first dungeon, but even in that one progression was anything but straightforward. As you would expect from a decaying tower, I frequently ran into dead-ends while exploring - either because the area was locked off, or simply because the passage was completely ruined and thus impenetrable. As such, I had to constantly criss-cross this multi-story dungeon looking for alternate routes and key items to help me progress. Combine this with relatively simple puzzles that mostly involved rubbing one strange-looking object on another, and I think you can see why I got such heavy Silent Hill or Resident evil vibes from Labyrinth of the Demon King.
Those vibes only got stronger once I was duped into desecrating a shrine, and in the process summoning a nigh-unstoppable monster that spent the entire rest of the demo hunting me down. And much like Mr. X from Resident Evil 2, I found the droopy-eyed demon to be both a terrifying opponent as well as a... bit of a unique friend. You see, he pretty much hates everyone, so if you drag him into a bunch of enemies he'll do you a favor and clear all of them out without breaking a sweat!
The one tincy wincy problem here is that you can't kill him either. No amount of fancy swordplay or magic applied directly to his face will do anything but momentarily slow him. Once he's loose, he's going to hunt you come hell or high water. Needless to say, this made the already tense atmosphere feel all the more oppressive because he would always show up at the least opportune times to freak me out.
He also looks kinda adorable... if you ignore the droopy eyes anyway
Exploration and level design
This is where the level design really came to shine, because suddenly all of those side-paths and interconnected hallways became more than just setdressing - they became ways to avoid my persistent pursuer and give myself a bit of time to breathe. Going through these detours also helped me discover a bunch of secrets that I either missed on my first run through, or completely forgot about because some gremlin-looking thing distracted me by lunging at my kneecaps.
As for what you can get out of these secrets - it's mostly consumable items to help you in combat, money that you can use to purchase new weapons and items to play around with, and perhaps most interestingly of all, fragments of a powerful weapon that you'll need to first reassemble and reforge in order to make it something more than a fancy paperweight.
While exploring this convoluted mess of hallways and ruined rooms I originally relied heavily on my map to keep myself straight. However, thanks to Mr. Droopy chasing me around, and secrets beckoning me to sniff them out, I eventually became very familiar with the whole place. So much so that I'm pretty sure I could draw it from memory. And so in a shocking twist I never could've expect, the level design in a game with "labyrinth" in its name ended up being quite memorable to me!
The levels look simple, but there's rarely an obvious path
Closing thoughts
And honestly, that applies to Labyrinth of the Demon King in general. I was mostly prepared for a Souls-like romp through some spooky caves, but instead I got a very oldschool dungeon-crawler with some stellar atmosphere and a genuinely fascinating nightmare of a world.
That said, I'm well aware that Labyrinth of the Demon King is an extremely niche game and that it's not going to appeal to most people. However, if you're one of the chosen few that enjoys reveling in misery, then definitely give the free demo a try as Labyrinth of the Demon King is a thoroughly unique and creative game, and such things really should be celebrated! I certainly had a lot of fun with it, and I can only hope you will as well. Enjoy!