
Retro-inspired games have reigned supreme for some time now in the indie scene, but one niche that’s been getting increasingly more attention in recent years is modern projects that aim to replicate the primitive 3D games of the fifth console generation. There’s something distinctly appealing about the roughness of releases from that key transition point in the industry, and few games showcase that appeal better than New Zealand dev J. R. Hudepohl's Labyrinth Of The Demon King. A dim and disturbing dungeon crawler, this fresh release offers up a potent blend of difficulty, action, dread, and intrigue.
Labyrinth of the Demon King is set in “the Age of Dharma”, a Feudal Japan-inspired period in which war and famine have utterly ravaged the land and demons torture humanity. You play as a lowly ashigaru foot soldier who’s taken it upon himself to kill the titular ruler following a ruinous battle where the Demon King slaughtered your army and lord in an ambush, leaving you as the sole survivor. Beyond this basic premise, there really isn’t much more plot to speak of, but the labyrinth is full of creepy and dubious figures whose assistance you’ll need to move deeper.

Gameplay feels a bit like a slightly more modern take on FromSoft’s cult classic, King’s Field, and we do mean slightly—Labyrinth of the Demon King is the sort of game that just dumps you in and expects you to figure things out with minimal handholding once it’s taught you the basics.
The main gameplay loop centres on you simply crawling through a few different themed and interconnected dungeons, solving puzzles, bashing baddies, and discovering secrets along the way. It’s slow, brutal, and unforgiving, and if you happen to make a big enough mistake, you’ll be sent straight back to the last shrine you prayed at so you can do it all over again with the freshly (and randomly) respawned enemies.
When you stumble across a foe, combat plays out in a very measured and simple melee-focused system that stresses the importance of timing and stamina management. It’s not quite full-on ‘Soulslike’ combat, but it has a lot of that energy as you carefully determine from moment to moment whether to push your foe hard or play things safe and hang back. Most enemies can kill you in a matter of a few hits, so learning how to parry and stun to break guards is absolutely critical, and even then, you’re almost sure to accrue some damage even when you perform well in a battle.

Though we certainly appreciated the weightiness and difficulty of the combat, it does feel like the stamina bar limits combat a bit too much. You can permanently expand stamina via limited pickups found while exploring, but even a fight against one relatively low-level goon will leave your hero absolutely gassed as he leans against a nearby wall to catch his breath. If more than one enemy jumps you, running away and hoping you can kite just one of them is effectively your only viable option because the stamina bar just takes so long to refill.
Some may enjoy this commitment to uncompromising old-school design, but this is one element that we feel could’ve been a little more forgiving without really taking anything away from the tense nature of encounters.
Combat aside, this still isn’t an experience for the faint of heart, as a lot of your time will be spent cursing as you try yet another locked or jammed door, wondering how on earth that cryptic key item could possibly be part of progression, and trying not to get lost as you roam yet another floor that you haven’t found the map for yet. It's clearly designed to be disorienting, anxiety-inducing, and mysterious, and it does a masterful job of doing so in a way that feels fair.

When you finally stumble upon the solution to that puzzle that had you stumped, or find yourself stealing your way down a hidden hall that doesn’t show up on your map, there’s a thrilling rush of dopamine as you feel like you’re maybe just starting to get the hang of this. Then it throws you another curveball with a new enemy type or yet another twisted and unmapped floor that you swear doesn’t have you going in circles.
If you like to get lost in your games, then Labyrinth of the Demon King is certainly one for you—its simplistic appearance hides a magnificently complex maze that’ll take you a long time to solve if you try to do so without any help.
As for its visuals, Labyrinth of the Demon King leans hard into the lo-fi PSX aesthetic, which it executes masterfully. The gritty, gloomy design of the labyrinth lends a tremendously oppressive atmosphere, and this is perfectly accentuated by the intentional roughness.
Between the 4:3 aspect ratio, the simplistic UI, animated FMV door loading screens, and heavy dithering effects, there’s a palpable sense of unease that runs through this experience as you creep your way through the halls and question every movement at the edge of your vision.

Complementing this perfectly is the sound design, which keeps you on the edge of your seat with all its environmental and atmospheric effects. It’s never completely clear whether the footsteps you’re hearing belong to you or an unseen enemy just out of frame, and all sorts of unnatural noises occasionally pierce the silence to remind you that you’re not alone as you shuffle through another bloody corridor.
There’s admittedly not much of a soundtrack here aside from the assorted strings and bells woven in along with the sound effects, but this works to strengthen the experience by giving the labyrinth halls that extra bit of immersive realism.
Conclusion
Labyrinth of the Demon King does a great job of providing an authentic action-horror, dungeon-crawling experience that feels like it’s straight out of 1997 in all the best ways. The eerie, lo-fi visuals, punishing combat, and disorienting dungeon layouts all combine to make for a maze worth solving. We’d give this one a strong recommendation to any fans of Soulslike games who want to try something with similar traits, but that also feels different in some key ways. This is a great experience if you’re willing to stick it out and learn its intricacies.
Comments 23
Thanks for the review, unfortunately it doesn't seem to be a game for me at all, especially difficulty wise - regardless, hope those interested in it will enjoy it!
Still the visuals remind me of the Saturn era games. Especially that one particular horror game, Deep Fear. only because of the visuals. Saturn 3d games are noticeably more blocky than PS1 & N64 games are.
buy switch 2 to play PlayStation 1 games
I love the vibe and the setting. I may give this a try at some point. The games I've been playing for the last year have largely been Soulslikes or other games where the world is in ruins, so I want to play some things with a little lighter setting for a while.
I've been waiting to be able to buy it but it still shows as unavailable on the eShop.
Edit: It's available now. It also has a demo for those interested.
I would prefer less focus on horror aspect, but that other than that looks like a match!
Whoever took the screenshots for this review needs to be taken off the team.
The visuals definitely nail the PSX vibe. Not sure that I'd enjoy the combat though. Interested in playing this one day.
Good review and interested in the game. But Mitch, has there been an issue with taking screenshots of the game for this article? Those picks don’t make any sense, don’t show anything about the game, if I didn’t know better I’d say the wrong folder has been uploaded 😂 hopefully you guys can rectify it asap
@Pigeon so disrespectful. Do you also call devs “lazy” when they don’t align with what you want?
This came out of nowhere! I’m always up for this type of stuff in any combination.
I need to see some gameplay though because the screenshots are hard to go off. Thanks for covering this, it’s would’ve went right over my head or under my radar.
Just watched a trailer— Holy crap it’s first person! I thought this was third-person. I see the weapons in the screen edges now. The game looks phenomenal going off the official trailer! Definitely buying this, it’s creepy AF.
@DashKappei Reviews are automatically populated with a random selection of screenshots < check out those for a broader overview.
Having searched around for decent key art for this, though, it's safe to say that this one doesn't make the best impression in static screens. Check out the trailer if the screens put you off.
I'll deffo be scooping this up. Hope they get a physical copy.
@ChromaticDracula
The eshop shows it in motion. Looks good!
@dartmonkey I would argue this is true of most games from the early 3D era: the screen shots tended to look awful. Most gaming magazines in the 90s were filled with blurry/dark shots that were difficult to make out. Even bitmap books N64 compendium could only do so much to make these graphics look good! It’s part of the “charm” for this kind of retro experience!
This one definitely has me intrigued.
...You mean the title isn't referring to under Hyrule Castle in Tears of the Kingdom?
This sounds right up my alley. I’ll probably pick the game up today!
"...a fight against one relatively low-level goon will leave your hero absolutely gassed".
It seems like I have a good idea of what to expect with this game. Very realistic, annoyingly at times, but satisfaction is achievable and worth the struggle?
Looks like a match for me - love the look of this - I played a seemingly similar game called Lunacid, and that was great.
Hoping that FromSoft actually puts a King's Field collection out at some point so I can experience the original game all these ones are aping.
Looks just like King's Field for the PS1!
I loved that game, but I recently tried playing it again, and it was really hard to get back in to. Let's just say that games (and game design) have come a long, long way over the last 30 years.
EDIT: And it is on Steam...I am very tempted...
I can't wait for Soulslikes to kinda go out of fashion. I don't want them to go away but it makes me sad seeing all these awesome games and realizing I don't care to play them. (Nothing ruins gaming for me faster than frustration-I play them to relax after work, not to take up a second job)
"If more than one enemy jumps you, running away and hoping you can kite just one of them is effectively your only viable option because the stamina bar just takes so long to refill."
I personally appreciate a game that treats getting jumped by more than one assailant (or hell, ONE assailant) as the dangerous situation that it is. it seems like that's what the developers were going for, here. 👍
thanks for the review! I hadnt seen anything about this and i am now interested! ✌️
@Chlocean As someone with a Dark Souls gif as profile picture... I can kinda understand that and agree with that. The games became so iconic that nowadays a lot of games feel influenced by it or straight up trying to do something very similar and it feels saturated of those type of games. Having said that, if you are interested in this one, it's more similar to the King's Field series, which is the Souls predecessor. I don't consider it a particularly hard game in terms of combat and it relies more on exploration, puzzles and resource management to feel challenging. Combat is actually quite simple but fun. It does have it's learning curve in terms of timing with blocking but that's it. Well, at least for the couple hours that I have played. There's a demo in case that you want to try it.
I really like dungeon crawlers but have no idea for what "soulslike" is supposed to mean.
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