Teenage Demon Slayer Society mixes turn-based demon-slaying with funny teen antics
From the studio behind Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator
Developer Strange Scaffold have announced another genre-blending adventure, Teenage Demon Slayer Society, this time mixing turn-based strategy combat with some character action flare. The game follows teen figurines, who are already struggling with the hellish world of high school crushes when an army of demons invades their world. Demonic invasions and teenage angst are - as we all know - a match made in heaven. Or hell. Either way it looks cool.
The US Government made some odd deals in the 1980s, leading the demons into the midwest and forcing our pompadour protag (plus some friends) to deal with them. It’s the classic trope about adults being incompetent, leaving only the nosey kids to save the world. And with that in mind, there’s also a character called Grandpa Warcrimes who may or may not do shady things in exchange for a lot of money. He seems fun.
Teenage Demon Slayer Society is split up into individual campaigns for each of the characters, who all have their unique movesets handy for breaking apart the enemy miniatures. The character action twist with the lettered style ranks borrowed from the likes of Devil May Cry (or Sonic?) Essentially, you’ll get a better, cooler grade for slashing enemies in better, cooler, ultra-flashy ways. Teenage Demon Slayer Society is still a strategy game at its core, but it unloads the slightly intimidating parts of the genre and aims to be more accessible.
"Every time I try to play a new strategy game, there's a good hour or more of tutorials I have to go through first," says creative director Xalavier Nelson Jr. "I'm excited to make a tactics game that finally welcomes you to just smash some stuff as soon as you open it."
Teenage Demon Slayer Society - which my fingers keep confusing with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - comes from the developers behind An Airport For Aliens Currently Run By Dogs and Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator. Monstrously long names, but I’ll forgive Strange Scaffold since their games have a knack for forcing out chuckles.
You can wishlist Teenage Demon Slayer Society on Steam in preparation for its planned 2024 release.
Disclosure: Strange Scaffold's lead is Xalavier Nelson Jr. He used to write a bunch of stuff for RPS, but he's best known for making one of the last Kinect games.