Labyrinth of the Demon King Review

You have made a vow to track down the demon who betrayed your lord and end its life.
You take what could possibly be your final breaths on this mortal plane, and prepare yourself to enter…

The Labyrinth of the Demon King!

From the beginning, Labyrinth of the Demon King oozes an impressively oppressive atmosphere. The lo-fi, retro-inspired art style emulates the claustrophobic fog of Silent Hill for the PS1. You can see just far enough to make out distant silhouettes—scrambling towards you. Against the backdrop of ruthless feudal Japanese folklore, every new environment is hauntingly brutal.

Labyrinth of the Demon King stews in its brutality. Smartly placed reprieves are placed in each level so that it doesn't become overbearing; I never found it so grim as to stop being fun. Exploring these labyrinthine levels was a pleasure. The map could be more helpful, but you do spend enough time in each area to learn the layout. There are puzzles and treasures around every corner if you have the stomach for it.

It's not just the atmosphere that's brutal, the gameplay is as well. It's a classic survival horror with a touch of FromSoft-style dungeon crawling. I've seen people call it "Silent Hill meets King's Field" but I've only played the former. As a Silent Hill-inspired game, it does retain the most important aspect of the series:

Holes!—and perhaps more importantly: tough combat, resource management, riddles and lethal enemies. There's even an unkillable stalker-type enemy that hunts you down after you disrupt its shrine. The only thing letting the game down is that it becomes much easier after the first few hours pass. Bosses are laughably easy and after some weapon upgrades, basic enemies pose much less of a threat.

I don't find it too troubling. I've always said I'd rather a game is too easy rather than too hard. Combat is tense in the beginning—you'll need to master your parry and dodge timings to survive. Through a combination of improving your timings and upgrading your weapons and stamina, you turn into a nightmare for the Demon King's minions.

Introducing more varied and difficult mobs in the mid-late game would keep things tense. While combat does get easier over time, getting into barbaric duels with the Labyrinth's many monsters is deeply satisfying. No matter where you're at in the game, timing an attack just right and relieving an enemy of their burdensome brainbox never gets old.

I mentioned boss fights earlier but there's some more to be said about that. They aren't difficult and most bosses can be cheesed—despite this, they are still fucking terrifying. The combination of shrill music, stomach-churning visual design and themes makes these encounters feel more imposing than they actually are.

That imposing design carries throughout the entire game. So while it might become less challenging it never stops being unsettling. Thankfully, it's not all doom and gloom. As I said earlier, there are well-timed reprieves; rooms where no enemies can spawn, puzzle rooms and most importantly the merchant's hideout. The "Tea Room" is where you can go to buy items, upgrade your weapons and brew delicious matcha.

After enduring horror after horror, it's genuinely soothing to sit down and manually make this tea—it even gives you a refillable health item. These quiet moments give you the wherewithal to carry on. Speaking of brief reprieves, the labyrinth you explore is a modestly reactive environment.

Enemies hate each other almost as much as they hate you, and this can often be used to your advantage. One of the most memorable moments I had with this game was the army of centipedes I merrily led around a level. Four or five giant centipedes were following me around trying to kill me, but I could outrun them. Whenever I passed by another enemy, the centipedes would stop, attack the enemy, and then carry on towards me.

Emergent moments like that are few and far between but when they do happen it is all the sweeter. There's not much incentive for killing enemies, as with most survival horror games, so it's good they can at least kill each other.

You've probably noticed that the graphics for Labyrinth of the Demon King are especially "crunchy"–that is, highly pixelated and low-resolution–even for a PS1-style game. Combined with the fog and dark environments, there are visibility issues. Obfuscation is powerful in horror-themed games but there's a thin line between "ooh this is spooky" and "I can't fucking see anything." Labyrinth of the Demon King tends towards the latter too often.

It's a shame too because the environments are beautiful and the enemies, props and characters are all really well designed. An option in the settings to control how much the filters crunch the game in post-processing is sorely needed. It reminds me of the 2010s when otherwise great-looking games would drench everything in a monotone brown filter (or yellow, if you were making Deus Ex Human Revolution).

Moving from the eyes to the ears. The story is largely the same—good, but flawed. The music is pants-shittingly tense but there isn't enough of it. Tracks are regularly repeated, washing out those freshly be-shitted pants as it settles into routine. Otherwise, the sound design is excellent. Strange and dreadful noises echo in the halls, creatures shriek horribly and weapon impacts are viscerally audible.

I'm deeply into weird survival horror games with a twist. If that was a genre tag on Steam, I'd live there. I'd be lying if I said that Labyrinth of the Demon King is a perfect game, it's not without its issues.

The good news is that the developer has stated that they are looking into feedback and planning patches. Despite the problems this game has, I adore it. If you're into survival horror or dark fantasy RPGs, this is well worth your time.

The Verdict

Silent Hill or King's Field fans will find plenty to love in this tightly designed descent into a dark fantasy survival-horror nightmare. But anyone could enjoy the fun combat, engaging exploration and the delightfully decrepit setting in this gem.

Get Labyrinth of the Demon King on Steam