I feel almost ashamed to have started this so late – almost a whole 20 years late if counting from the original release date in 2003.
Demonbane is without a doubt, a work that lives up to its reputation and its legacy. Not only is it an 王道 mecha series in the sense that it just does a tried and true formula that has since inspired many others, it’s also just too damn good at it. Kind of like that old adage of how just because everything now has copied Nanoha doesn’t mean Nanoha has become bad. Or Stay Night. Or Little Busters.
But I digress.
Looking back at Demonbane as a work, first of all I have to say it’s just impressive how well it’s aged. Yes, the art is a bit dated and the story as mentioned is now practically bread-and-butter, but the charm of it all accompanied by an impressive amount of worldbuilding (though heavily borrowed from Lovecraft), kickass soundtrack and very memorable performances from seiyuu has kept it far above the general smatter of old and dead games.
The story follows the protagonist Daijuji Kurou, a deadbeat penniless detective who lives in Arkham City (the one from Lovecraft with Miskatonic University etc.) Being a dropout from said university, he gets by daily through menial tasks such as locating lost pets for his clients. This all changes one day when he is suddenly approached by a rich ojou-sama Hadou Ruri, who practically owns the city. She wants him to find a grimoire – one powerful enough to operate the Deus Machina named Demonbane – which she believes will be crucial in facing off the terrorists Black Lodge. Lured by the money, Kurou accepts, and then he basically searches through the city to no avail.
That is until a grimoire literally falls onto him, loli body and all, chased by Black Lodge members.
Gotta love the setup. It’s classic, it’s well-executed, it’s even properly explained as a bonus later. Why can’t I be Kurou? Where’s my loli from the sky?
Anyway, the loli grimoire Al Azif is actually the Necronomicon personified, and she’s willing to help Kurou out if they establish a contact. Not too hard a decision since he’s being gunned down by the pursuers from Black Lodge, but you *are* given a choice here to be fair.
But in any case Kurou mans up, contracts up, and so begins the Demonbane saga, spanning from detective noire fiction arcs to giant space mecha fights.
Still not convinced? Here’s the official(!) MV from Nitro+, featuring the 2019 Win10 edition.
Now take this – the motherfucking Nyaruko cover. Yes. This is a thing.
If you haven’t read the game, what are you doing? Go read it already! It’s even translated English! Finish reading then come back here, this review won’t run away anytime soon.
Kishin Houkou Demonbane – Spoiler Section
You have been warned!
Right, now that the kids have left, what remains are hopefully the men who defied the Outer Gods to reach True End.
For what it’s worth, I played on the 2019 version, filthy secondary that I am. I never got to the original until very recently, so I just picked the most recent edition that could properly run on a Windows 11, and ran with it.
But wow, Demonbane.
What is there to be said really, at the end of this saga? I thought there wasn’t much either, but here I am preaching it 20 years into its advent. As someone who just finished it, I can feel confident it’s not nostalgia pulling a fast one on me; I feel it is more than what people sometimes remember it for.
Demonbane is a tale of the strongest lolicon ever, etc etc., but putting aside it e for a moment what did it really want to tell us?
Honestly, looking at it simply, it answers the old question of what it takes to be a hero.
Muramasa by comparison did the “no good or evil” theme very well, where the answer it laid out appeared to be more nuanced – the world isn’t black and white, and one man’s villain is another man’s hero. Or vice versa. いかにも！
But that in no way means Demonbane is in any way less nuanced; it simply offers a polar opposite answer – arguably the most traditional one in its simplest format.
Outer Gods bad. Black Lodge are assholes. Defeat them, save humanity, bang the hot loli book.
Refreshingly simply honestly, in a world where often we see too much grey. In a struggle where failure means the complete destruction of reality as we know it (or a time loop of despair…) there is no room for any grey – Demonbane is justice, Nyaruko is evil. Master Therion is a lolicon so he’s a good guy too I guess.
And keep in mind, the Demonbane world is no less dark than Muramasa’s if not even more so due to the nature of Nyarlathotep itself. Demonbane, and in turn Kurou and Al, can never stop fighting against the Outer Gods if they are to protect every world from their influence. Nothing expresses this more than the sequel, which we will get into in a bit.
But for now, consider this: how did the tone of the game differ so, so much from the usual grimdark worlds into something that most of us probably laughed, cried, cheered along like we were in an old 90s mecha franchise?
Simple – it’s the execution of it all. The characters, the setup, all of it is designed to be unabashed in their bombastic presentation.
Dr West the ultimate rival + joke character mashup. Kurou and Al do their buddy-cop antics better than most Netflix garbage. Ruri literally changes into a dress (with no pantsu according to Super Robot Wars!) solely for commanding Demonbane (read: shouting at the duo while they do their own thing).
Hell, the villains are just as memorable. We’ve talked about Dr West, but how about Tiberius the rapist? Nya in the dark? Master Therion in full Midorikawa chuuni mode?
The mechs are also not at all ashamed of what they are – Deus Machina. Demonbane itself dual wields guns like in an old western, and comes with its full summoning chant and insert song on its first summon. Lemuria Impact is both an outright homage to Lovecraftian lore, and also just pure badassery – but just think for a moment how it actually works.
Lemuria Impact involves an infinite output of energy and heat that is then released onto the enemy in a single condensed explosion that wipes them off the planet (except Dr West, Dr West OP).
This means Demonbane is capable of infinite energy generation through its engine (the Cor Leonis – briefly mentioned in the game actually). Is this at all highlighted in all the madness in Demonbane? Not really, because the scale is so great in this game it hardly even matters!
And then of course, the escalation of it all. Mind you, we went from this:
To this:
This iconic shot hot damn.
Look, it’s just too damn badass. This is a guy who lost his partner, fought on without her to his very limits to protect everything he loves, then upon reuniting with her proceeds to summon the MOTHERFUCKING SHINING TRAPEZOHEDORON and damn near scares Nyaruko half to death by being a strong enough lolicon that even they cannot control him.
Daijuji Kurou is not a chad. He’s a goddamn god. Quite literally, too.
I do not believe there was a single person who did not sit up straighter and go full hype mode when this popped up. This is how to end a game holy shit.
Anyway, I should give special mention to Ruri route as well while I’m at it – I played it after Al since I was just too engrossed in the main route doing main route things, but it really wasn’t bad either if you ignore the sheer amount of repeated scenes. 2019 ver means I got to skip safely without missing anything too unlike the old version, so no negatives on my end on that.
I did find it very interesting how they played the parallel here with Kurou being the one out of commission instead of Al. It’s a bit of a pity Al and Ruri never really got enough time with each other to truly deeply develop their kind-of-strenuous relationship, but every little dig and bite at each other was very very fun.
DIES IRAE REF-
Seriously though, Winfield is a king. Very much cucked out his rematch with Nakata Jouji Samurai Ver. in the main route but he did get his deserved match here. Another plus.
And then.
Of course.
This one.
Jesus christ I did not see this one coming before Ruri route. I kind of forgot about Hadou Kouzou being that one shady figure in the back of all this. Ruri route gave us the big clue with the fake Necronomicon and Master Thereion’s fixation on him until he got too old to fight, but of course it was him. Of course.
Having now touched the prequel novel, it all seems so damn clear in hindsight, but I’ll be damned if I wasn’t completely taken by surprise via this little twist. Bravo Jin, what a move.
Twists are never the be-all-end-all though, and even without this, the route overall was one that really emphasised the herculean efforts needed by Kurou to break Nya’s cycle of despair, and all the more how miraculous the events in the main route was. Arguably I should’ve played this first but eeeeeeeh.
Special note to the insane seiyuu lineup here as well, in a time slightly before the golden age of eroge.
Midorikawa as Thereon is pure sex, Wakamoto, Jouji, all timeless voices. Wakamoto when voicing over Nyaruko always gives me the creeps, truly a stunning performance.
And of course, the main pair. An unvoiced protagonist would never work for something like this, so thank god it’s Nitro+ again. Kanda Rie is amazing but doesn’t really flex those muscles till the sequel where a certain エロ本 performance just kicks it out the park, but she’s impressive enough here anyway. I can listen to them chant Demonbane’s summoning all day.
Summary
Overall, insanely amazing work. I rated this a 9.7/10 because Metatron and Sandalphon existed and yet kind of didn’t, but you can tell how impressive this is if that’s the only little niggle I have with it.
With this out the way though…
Coming soon to an autistic post near you…
IT’S NOT ZONE OF THE ENDERS BUT I’LL TAKE IT.
Currykaesu - Fair Curry Gamers 