Demonizer – Turn Humanity’s Bullet Hell into Monstergirl Love!

Introduction

Demonizer is a shoot em’ up with a twist by Iori Branford, inspired by 90s arcade shmup games like Raiden Fighters, Strikers 1945, and Battle Garegga. Set in the medieval age where human soldiers and monster girls are at odds with each other, you play as exiled human princess turned succubus Amelia (Amy for short), and your goal is to stop the invading human army led by her elder sister, Princess Angelina, from massacring her new people!

The problem is, Amy is but a succubus against a marching army of soldiers hellbent on killing her and her kind, and she can only hypnotize and transform… But wait, she can just charm enemy troops into her side to help her with the fighting! Also, they become lovable demons in the process.

Wait… what’s that about “lovable demons”?

When starting a game of Demonizer, Amy starts with nothing but her nightgown and her ability to shoot entrancing arrows out of her eyes. As you destroy enemy soldiers, she’s able to increase her attack level, pick up blue-hearted soldiers to recharge her stock of three bombs, and grab pink-hearted troops to become one of her followers. As you play more, you can easily have up to 20 followers with four actively helping you out by attacking enemies or collecting items, and you can quickly charge up bombs for any situation to use in a pinch. Amy can shoot in a spread-shot or turn into a focus mode where she slows down but reduces all her fire range to a single point – focus mode also shows her hitbox on the default settings. If you rack up just enough points, you can also earn extra lives.

Demonizer focuses heavily on challenging stages with mooks that swarm you with multiple attacks from multiple directions, encouraging you to demonize all of them as soon as possible to reduce the bullet hell. Therefore, you can expect fast bullet barrages, squadrons of soldiers, and tough foes that just can’t be taken out with a single shot. Most attacks are aimed, so streaming – misdirecting aimed bullets by moving very slowly from one side of the screen to another – is a required technique to master, however, occasionally you’ll need to micro-dodge through dense bullet curtains. Three difficulty modes are included: Normal, Hard, and Demonic.

One thing that I liked about Demonizer is the heavy use of the environment. Rather than have enemies fight against a changing, moving background, the soldiers use the levels to their advantage, often hiding behind walls or foliage to completely avoid your shots. Likewise, you can find Amy’s captured monster friends in some of the stages, most of them can be shot free, or have their assailants fall in love with you, and a few others need a bomb to break them free. Either way, the game goes out of its way to ensure the background is more than just a scrolling image.

This all sounds cool but… why was Amy exiled to begin with?

Not only is Demonizer fun to play, but it’s also a sight for sore eyes and a treat for the ears. With varied locales to zip through, countless types of enemies, and especially bullets, and Amy of course, the game uses every single pixel to stand out as a visually expressive adventure. Likewise, the crunchy YM2612 FM synth soundtrack is nothing short of a blood-pumping banger, befitting the hectic action and environments you go through.

Perhaps the most unexpected highlight of the game is the story and world-building. Rather than fighting her way through bosses who have nothing to do with her aside from the incident she’s resolving, Amy fights her previous people’s army, and her sister even debuts as the first boss. The fact Amy is up against her former family just makes the world feel more personal in a way other shoot em’ ups don’t pull off – plus it gets even more melancholic when you read her backstory in the free prequel comic.

In Conclusion

Demonizer is a package that combines excellent gameplay, an unexpected premise, terrific visuals, an exciting soundtrack, and with it a somber story about war and family into one 8-stage shmup game. Plus, playing as a cute succubus defending her people from getting killed by using your ability to charm men into demonhood to stop the war is a novel twist on the dynamics of humans and demons.

Craving some more shmups? There’s plenty others we covered:
Hug Survivor – Terra Feminarium – Metavaxx – Sine Mora EX

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