Labyrinth Of The Demon King is the concentrated awfulness of Silent Hill and Amnesia: The Dark Descent thrown into a toilet bowl with the stamina-based combat of From Software’s old King’s Field RPGs. Released this week, it is squalid, lumbering, vicious, desperate and untrustworthy.
The setting is “mythical feudal Japan” – a time of devilry, manual savepoints, and dither filters. The story objective is to track down and slay the yokai boss who led your lord into an ambush. I do not greatly rate my chances. Currently, I am exploring a house full of bloated, whispering fungus and screechy little filthbastards with abbreviated limbs. The filthbastards all want to butcher me but they are no less keen to murder each other. As far as they’re concerned, I am just another filthbastard among many.
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My equipment consists of a bottle of sake, some dirty bandages that promise to infect my wounds, and a broken katana that looks like a stick of lichen. My goal right now is to free a self-described blacksmith from the pantry, in the hopes that they will repair my sword. The key is apparently in the possession of a “cat” on the second floor. I do not think the cat will be a nice cat. Usefully, it looks like I can hide in some of the cupboards hereabouts.
There are also crates to smash, some of which harbour cockroaches that must be stamped on before they deduct an infuriating point or two of health. Kicking and stamping are, so far, my favourite activities in Labyrinth Of The Demon King. You can boot enemies to break their guards and avoid being countered, though unhelpfully, this also knocks them out of range of that broken katana. Ah, I really need that blacksmith. I guess there’s nothing for it but to investigate the cat. I go looking for the stairs to the second floor and find my way to the basement entrance instead. Haha. I’m not going down there. Fuck no. Nope. No.
There are a lot of PS1-style horror games on the shop, but so far, Labyrinth Of The Demon King outshines them all, which is to say that there is nothing remotely shiny about it whatsoever. Playing the game is like putting your eye to a plughole. I can’t quite dissect what it’s doing, but I’m not sure I’ve played a more convincing encapsulation of the ambience of early Silent Hill. It’s in the dithering, of course, but also, the cutscene length and choice of camera angle, the rattling, rolling soundscape, the profusion of locked doors, the presentation of floor maps, and the appallingly sluggish movement.
I likes it, in short. There is still a demo on Steam, but be warned that save progress doesn’t carry over to the full thing, and you will definitely not appreciate having to retrace your steps.
