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I’ve spent seven hours with Demons’ Night Fever, and I’m still not sure how I feel about this Drecom and Arc System Works strategy game. It’s really off-putting when it comes to multiple elements. The tone and edginess feels incredibly forced. It’s incredibly in-your-face with design elements, but doesn’t handle that approach stylishly in the way series like Persona or Gachiakuta do. The Peon system, which involves stat bolstering Misdeeds and blowing them up in battle like Disgaea Prinnies as the main source of damage, isn’t always well explained and doesn’t flow well. I’d say it’s almost a “style over substance” situation, but with said style being incredibly hit-or-miss too.
Giga Super Death wanted to kill God. That didn’t happen! Instead, the cat-shaped devil ended up oversleeping on the day of the confrontation. He woke up as the baby Giga Super Deathums, and finds his servant Sebastian allied with god to defeat the devil. While this is a major wrench in the gears, it isn’t the end. By contracting with Killshiro Katanaka, a former ordinary salaryman from an exploitative game developer, the devil and man will use the titular Demons’ Night Fever experience to bolster Monster Killshiro’s abilities. By sending abducted Peons into battle as essentially human weapons by using Kill Skills to cause them to explode in certain ways on the map to wipe out opponents and complete objectives.
Each fight in Demons’ Night Fever involves an overhead map where you can see allied and opposing units. All of the Peon characters are controlled by the computer, so we don’t direct any of their actions. What we do determine is if, or rather when, we kill them in order to explode in the right position to deal major damage to or take opponents out. That’s because those characters are disposable due to the resurrection system that brings them back, usually with better stats than before. I will say this is interesting, while morbid, and can lead to some fights feeling like puzzles. The CPU controlling Peons is frustrating, since I found the AI doesn’t always make the best decisions. Given I’ve played some amazing strategy games this year, it makes it hit even harder and more difficult to forgive imperfections. I appreciate the concept and idea of sacrificing to accomplish goals, but also found myself thinking I liked how The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academyhandled the concept of sacrificing characters better.
Preparing for fights and each chapter’s mission is a major element, since every chapter of Demons’ Night Fever involves completing an objective within a certain amount of time. When we’re at Giga Super Deathums and Killshiro’s Home Base between battles, we can prepare and rank up Killshiro’s stats and such through Misdeeds, line coffers and get items through Larceny and Pillaging, getting Kill Skills via Corrupgrade, and get units through Abduction. The Misdeeds element is the most interesting, as it uses Perverse Points through fights and each one has an Accomplice ally requirement to engage in certain “acts” to boost different stats like HP, physical attack or defense, and special attack or defense. So choosing to Hack into Something would increase Killshiro’s HP, S. ATK, and S. DEF, while choosing to Drive like a Maniac would increase his HP, P. ATK, and S. ATK. This element doesn’t feel bad either, as it rewards careful investments and decisions with leveled up Misdeeds that help more. Keeping an eye on your stat rankings and time left in a chapter to make sure you can do as much as possible is critical to success.
But the thing about Demons’ Night Fever is that while the character building element for Killshiro is interesting and choosing to sacrifice Peons for explosive executions or health restoration feel unique and stay on theme, I found it felt unpleasant to play. And it isn’t because of the dark humor and negative themes. We’re playing as a villain. I’d expect that from this type of title. The chaotic element isn’t the issue. It’s that the UI appearance, some design elements, and script feel overly caustic. It sometimes felt like an assault on the eyes in an attempt to go with a graphic novel approach and edgelord appearance.
But I think it’s the script for Demons’ Night Fever that grated on me most. While in many cases the lines seem designed to be intentionally cringeworthy, I feel like it could have been handled in a way that made the evildoers come across as terrible people without also turning into a script I constantly wanted to skip. Early on, you’ll come across lines like “Elohim Essaim, Smithereens and Suckmypeen…,” “One more year and I’ll be a full-on incel wizard…,” “Wail in terror, bitches,” and “I threw away my wage slave name. Killshiro Katanaka is my true name.” I think there’d be a more effective way to show Giga Super Deathums and Killshiro are unlikeable, terrible individuals. The voice acting is also quite bad bad for most every character, which could be attributed to poor direction.
While the battle system and stat-building in Demons’ Night Fever aren’t terrible, the design directions for things like the UI and cringeworthy story, characters, and script made it difficult for me to play. I powered through about seven hours of it and didn’t enjoy a moment of the experience. It all feels so forced. Since I couldn’t bring myself to finish it, I wouldn’t feel right writing an actual review. But perhaps the fact that it did feel so off-putting due to its “attempts” at dark humor and awkward elements is testament enough as to what to expect.
Demons’ Night Fever is available on the Switch, PS5, and PC.
