Labyrinth of the Demon King review – PS1 dungeon crawling with a horror twist

Labyrinth of the Demon King is one of those games where I felt like it was bound to stick the landing. I already enjoyed the demo’s blend of slower paced combat akin to FromSoftware’s older titles and the unsettling horror of Silent Hill, so surely more of this could have only be a good thing. And yet, as I found myself finishing the game after 7 hours, I came out of it thinking “is this it?”

Labyrinth of the Demon King sees you dungeon crawling as a nameless soldier through the Demon King’s lair, a decrepit Japanese castle full of demons. Split into four main towers, your goal is to conquer each and slay the demon that took your lord’s life.

From the start, it’s a grim world that almost seems to be on the edge of complete ruin. The PS1 aesthetic with its crunchy and grimy textures really lends itself to the game’s atmosphere, with the constant fog and low field of vision leading to some fantastic grim vibes.

This vibe is Labyrinth of the Demon King’s strongest weapon, leaving you on edge as you start your journey. Even meeting the few NPCs for the first time is made creepier, with cutscenes looking like they’ve been ripped directly from a barely working VHS tape. I especially liked this for boss monsters, though the deliberate low quality video sometimes felt a little too overdone.

The entire game takes place in first person, the lack of widescreen both mimicking the PS1 and limiting your field of view. Your choice of weapons is somewhat limited, ranging from a few melee weapon types like katanas and hammers to ranged options with very limited ammo. You can also make use of consumable talismans for magic, though I admit I never touched these at all.

Combat is simple by design, offering basic combos and charged attacks, along with a kick that can break an enemy’s guard or stomp on certain demons to kill them. Most weapons are serviceable, with small variations on damage, speed, and stamina usage.

Some weapons include status effects like bleeding, though I had a hard time figuring out how useful these actually were — only bosses have health bars, and for most of them bleeding didn’t really do much. Outside of certain enemies being resistant to specific damage types, you can just stick with what you like. For me this was initially anything middle-of-the-road in stats, though I made use of a large hammer for one section.

Labyrinth of the Demon King‘s combat works well enough, giving you just enough control while still having that inherent awkwardness found in PS1 horror titles. Enemies will often counterattack almost straight away, or ambush you right after a loading screen. While annoying, it also means that you’re always kept on your toes.

What makes combat start to fall apart is the stamina system. Stamina is used for most actions, and you have very little of it to begin with. This makes you play very defensively, as you try to only take on one enemy at a time then wait for more stamina before continuing.

However, you find incense as you explore which can be offered at save points for health and stamina increases. What I found out quickly is that there’s very little reason to increase health, as healing items don’t scale as it goes up. On the other hand, stamina regen does increase alongside your max stamina, which makes fights much safer and in turn causes you to take less damage.

Oddly, you’re also thrown a lifeline during combat with your dodges not costing stamina at all unless used in quick succession. Between this and increasing my maximum stamina, the tense combat from the start ended up turning into a one-sided slaughter. It’s still satisfying — strong hits can stagger most enemies or chop off heads — but ruins the overall horror.

Exploration is another area that drifts away from horror towards a more mundane dungeon crawl. The first tower is by far the strongest atmospherically, in part due to your initial journey into the castle itself. You don’t know what you’re going to encounter, and it actually takes a little while before encountering your first demon.

From the visuals and atmosphere to your character’s lack of strong weapons and stats, everything comes together to make the first few hours a nerve wracking time. There’s some light puzzling to go along with the combat, and it’s not long before Labyrinth of the Demon King introduces an unkillable demon that chases you relentlessly.

I really liked my time with the first tower, and had hoped that the next three would improve upon it even further. This was not the case.

The next towers seemed far shorter, likely in part due to me having a much better grasp on combat and a few stamina upgrades stacked up. None have particularly interesting gimmicks, and even the unkillable demon makes its return and outstays its welcome.

I also discovered that dying sends you back to the last save point you visited, without removing any progress at all. While a reason for this is given via one of the scrolls found in-game, it really shatters any tension in the combat if you’re only going to lost a few minutes at most upon death.

And after the fourth tower, the game just sort of… ends. What starts as intriguing fizzles out into an anticlimax and me feeling like I’ve missed something. I even reloaded my save to double check, but it seems like I’ve experienced everything the game has to offer.

7 hours is a perfectly fine playtime for a horror game — Silent Hill and Resident Evil were about that long after all. But only the opening hours really feel fully put together, with everything after lacking that same impact.

Labyrinth of the Demon King Review – Final Impressions

Labyrinth of the Demon King nails its creepy PS1-era vibes and dungeon crawling combat initially, but can’t carry this all the way through its short playtime. It’s still a unique experience, but one that could have been so much better.

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Labyrinth of the Demon King was reviewed on PC using a key provided by the publisher.