Demon Lord: A Brutal Puzzle in a World that Moves When you Do

Demon Lord: Just a Block is a roguelite that lets us play as a headless demon. If there’s one thing we’re fans of, it’s headless demons—the more the merrier, honestly. In YuWave’s title, we’re out to get revenge on a usurper Dragon Queen. The story is on the shorter side, but it still works well. We’re really here for the combat, though, especially that moment when the whole world freezes the second you take your hands off the keyboard.

Bump, Think, Kill, Repeat

We love that we only need one hand for this game. Four arrow keys and that’s it! It’s fun bumping into enemies, which is actually how you hit them. Walking away, on the other hand, is how you dodge. Initially, we thought this couldn’t be all there is to it. It looked too easy—and we bet it sounds easy to you while you’re reading this—but nope, it gets messy fast.

There are 14 different weapons to find, and they change everything. One lets us warp behind guys with shields, while another shoots across the map. Each weapon is unique, and it’s hard to find the words for how satisfying they are to use. Every time we come across a new one, we’re excited to see how it actually works.

Of course, it wouldn’t be nearly as fun if the environment wasn’t dangerous. Every block moves or breaks, potentially giving you a good or bad surprise. If you don’t believe us, just try kicking a random tree and see what happens. No, we’re not telling you what, but we can say that we died a lot just from miscounting spaces. It might seem rough, but we felt all the mechanics were executed fairly. We never felt cheated, though we definitely felt outplayed. Many a time.

The Final Tally

Demon Lord gives us a grid, a weapon, and time to think. It’s hard not to see it as a puzzle game dressed up as an action roguelite. We really enjoyed it. It’s smart and humble, but, most importantly, it’s just a good time.

ID Card:

• Developer: Yuwave
• Publisher: Yuwave
• Platforms: PC
• Genre: Tactical Action Roguelite