Demons Roots
In a final struggle for survival, demonkind again invaded the human world. However, the world they return to after years in the darkness isn't the same as it once was...
Demons Roots is a adventure and rpg game
developed by Quick nail Aristocrat
and published by Kagura Games.
Released on January 13th 2023 is available only on Windows
in 2 languages: English and Simplified Chinese.
It has received 1,613 reviews of which 1,527 were positive and 86 were negative resulting in a rating of 9.0 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 16.79€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Demons Roots into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Demons Roots through various videos and screenshots.
Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows® 7/8/8.1/10
- Processor: Intel Core2 Duo or better
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: DirectX 9/OpenGL 4.1 capable GPU
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Storage: 2 GB available space
- Additional Notes: 1280x768 or better Display. Lag may occur from loading menus or maps. Turn off other programs before running the game.
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
This is not a game for everyone, but it was definitely a game for me. The gameplay isn't that complicated, with a lot of good strategies being easy to use to humiliate a majority of the game. There is some gameplay that is radically different, and it usually ends up being very exciting. The plot? The characters? The writing? To die for. Seriously, if anything about the idea of an eroge about a demon girl trying to take over the world and the mishaps and friends she makes along the way appeals, with ideas of agency, freeedom, systemic issues... Grab this. Play it. You wont regret it.
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If you look at the tags of this Game, what would you expect? Or rather, what does your brain automatically assume? For the longest time I thought "ah well, Hentai tag? Must be low quality jerk off bait or have nothing to offer besides the porn elements". I have never been more wrong. Demons Roots is a pretty good JRPG that excels in its story. I'd go as far as to say in terms of story it is better than 95% of RPGs I have played, making this an unexpected hidden gem in a spot most people wouldn't dare to look at. I think I never would've expected that a game with Hentai elements almost made me tear up a little and engaged me in its story throughout all of its 30 hours of playtime. !!! Before continuing, there is one elephant in the room you NEED to pay attention to before playing. The game has an official, free patch that you have to download from the official Kagura Games website. This patch adds all the 18+ elements AND the second half of the game. Without the patch, the game will end halfway through. I... don't know why it is that way. So keep in mind to install the patch or the game will just stop halfway through. It is not an issue since it's easy to install, but I don't get why it is like that. Don't worry, there is an option to turn off all the Hentai scenes if you don't want to see those. Most of them aren't important to the story with the exception of maybe two or three. This review will not have any real spoilers. However, some parts will give you expectations when I talk about why the story was that enjoyable for me. And I personally think this game is best experienced completely blind, without specific expectations towards the story influencing you. So if you want that truly blind experience without too specific expectations, I will hide those parts of my review with a spoiler. For those who want more details what made that story so great, you can of course read those. Speaking of spoilers... DO NOT LOOK AT THE STEAM PAGE TOO MUCH. the character section contains huge spoilers, at least for one specific character. I have no clue why they decided to do this, it's pretty stupid. Story and characters Demons Roots' main strength is, again, its story. While it starts of deceptively generic or at least not super interesting in the first 10-20%, it will consistently become very intriguing and engaging over its ~30-40 hours of content. I think I have never played a video game that had so many suprises in its story both from a narrative perspective and a meta perspective (you will know what I mean when you play the game). In general, the developer knew well how to play with your expectations. And even though it has many surprises, the story seldom feels forced, out of place or anything like that. The story is well crafted for the most part with a lot of emotional depth, well written and suprisingly mature themes, great narrative delivery and a good atmosphere. I'd stay the story isn't perfect, but exceptionally good compared to other RPGs. However, there is one thing I think the game does absolutely perfect. And I really mean that I have never played a game that does this so well. And that is its pacing and the engagement factor in its story. Over all 30 hours the pacing was absolutely perfect. I was always engaged but never overwhelmed. It knew how to engage you in the story at a perfect pace while never feeling rushed. It keeps you intrigued all the time, throwing in just enough new elements, surprises and revelations to keep you engaged, making you think about the story and mysteries while wanting to know more. And you must consider, the game manages to do that perfect engagement and pacing over the span of 30 hours. I have never seen something like that. However, there are a few moments in the story that felt improvised on the spot, especially in the latter 20% of the game. Those moments don't hurt the story too much overall, but seeing that the dev managed to include most new story elements well without feeling forced or cheap for the majority, this is some criticism I can give. Also, one element is something I think didn't need to exist since it just adds unnecessary ambiguity and hurt the authenticity of the story a bit. I'm talking about the Aubade stuff and the shenanigans at the beginning of chapter 3 in general . But for the most part, it's great in my opinion. The world building is also really well done, although some areas would've needed some more attention. Also, some minor detail I really liked: Optional dialogue is pretty good. Some characters give surprisingly many optional and interesting details about the world and its lore that aren't necessary for the story, but good to know. The characters are also surprisingly good. You will see one character with an absolutely silly and ridiculous outfit, just for them to casually be one of the best written characters in the game. While not all characters are great, the most important characters are very well done. A few other characters are a bit lackluster or too gimmicky, but that is the exception. The most important characters always hit the mark. Most characters are important to the story and feel very well integrated, which is also a strength many Games don't have. It almost gave me A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones vibes as in how almost any introduced character has significance and a place in the story or at least influences it. This made the world truly feel alive and believable, like you are part of a complex and interesting world. Even some side characters are surprisingly good. Gameplay The gameplay is mediocre for a turn based RPG in my opinion, but it has some good elements. It's mostly standard but the characters have interesting kits, making most of them useful and different. I also liked the equipment for the most part. You will find equipment that will be useful for the entirety of the game, and building your characters depending on your foes was surprisingly fun. Normal battles are mostly pretty boring unfortunately. Luckily, you see enemies on the map and they have field of view where they can spot you. You can avoid many enemies like that if you don't want to fight that much. The difficulty starts of fairly easy and gets to a normal but engaging level eventually. It isn't super hard, but there are some fights where you have to think more about what you are doing and take care of your equipment. The game is more linear, but there are some exploration elements and some optional content and areas for you to engage in. I thought the optional stuff was alright and rewarding, but nothing too special. There are also many secrets which were kind of fun to find. Also has some treasure hunting elements. I wish the game would've let you explored more of the countries you visit. Sometimes you only visit the cities or some specific areas, which is kind of a bummer. But it's not a big deal I think. visuals & music The game is made by one person. Unfortunately this reflects in its visuals. There are a lot of stock RPGmaker sprites and graphics, as well as royalty free music. But the game has some tracks of its own which is nice. The visuals the dev made themselves are fine. The music is alright for the most part, doing its job well. The soundtrack isn't something to write home about, but there are some good tracks here and there that improve the atmosphere and feeling well. So yeah, that's the end of this long review! No conclusion since I basically did that at the beginning. I didn't expect to enjoy the game as much as I did, and if you don't mind the turn based combat and love story focused Games, I highly recommend you to check it out! And of course, DON'T forget to download and install the patch if you decide to play. it is absolutely necessary.
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It's criminal that a spicy RPG could make me cry from it's characters. There is no protocol for this. FYI: If you buy this on steam, make sure you go to Kagura Game's website and download the patch, the steam port is quite terrible.
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This is, hands down, my favorite jrpg of all time. It is genuinely something that has to be played for yourself to understand. The positive reviews on this game are 100% serious, and 100% deserved. I'm actually going to put some effort into this review, due to how much this game means to me. I'll start off with a synopsis of the early game, then an explanation of the flaws I think this game has, then move on to what makes it such an incredible experience. Story The story of Demons Roots sounds like a fairly cliche plot on the surface, if flipped to the opposite perspective from what you'd normally see, but it goes beyond the cliches as the story goes forward. It WILL defy your expectations. A thousand years ago, demons were driven into an underground dark realm by humans who rose against them. The Demon Lord fell, and his generals, the Remnants, took command of demonkind and lead them to safety below ground. Over the centuries, they've dealt with starvation, the loss of the members of their race that could create new demons, and, in a final twist to the knife, the dark realm began to break down around them, threatening to finally drive them extinct. In a last ditch effort to survive, the Remnants organized all the demons who could fight into an army with the goal of conquering a country on the surface to call their own. The protagonist, Deathpolca, a demon with the appearance of a young woman, is the lynchpin in their plan, with her role not only being that of a conqueror, but a diplomat, in the hopes that they can broker peace with humanity after getting a country of their own. As Polca infiltrates the surrounding countries to gather information and subjugate hostile rulers, she learns more about the continent-spanning Empire that will be their main enemy: Abject poverty. Rampant slavery. Slaves sent to a dark prison, and thrown into a labyrinth filled with monsters just to entertain the free people of the Empire. And more than half of the Empire's population is comprised of these slaves. The demons are their only hope of ever being free, and they become something of a secondary priority to Polca. Demons Roots is a tale of forgiveness, compassion, sacrifice, and the consequences of cycles of revenge. The Bad-ish The only real issues I had with this game during my time with it were very minor. The most glaring one is the combat system. It's not bad, but it's pretty standard fare for an RPGMaker title. If you've ever played one, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The other issue was with some of the music tracks momentarily cutting out or not looping properly, and instead coming to a full stop and restarting. Thankfully, this is a fairly rare issue, with the original music the game has generally not suffering from this, though it is something you will notice in your playthrough. And that's really it for the negatives. Not much to speak of at all. Also, if you buy this game because it's an H game, you WILL be disappointed. The H content is only a side focus of the game, with only a handful of scenes being part of the main plot, and most of them (with a couple notable exceptions) being used less to titillate, and more to show the bleak cruelty of the game's setting. The Good There is so much to go over in this section, that I'll be splitting it up into multiple categories. These will be Writing, Characters, and Music. I will not be going too deep into spoilers for Story or Characters, though I may go through things that happen within the first few chapters of the game, just to emphasize the excellent work that Akaimato / Quick Nail Aristocrat put into making this. The Writing The writing is fantastic, with no loose ends I can think of. Every scene has a purpose, and even small lines that seem like jokes or throwaway fluff end up coming back HOURS later. Early on in the game, Deathpolca plays a piano for a character who is a guest in her home, in what seems to be just a whim of hers, only for the significance of the moment to come back more than 2/3rds of the way through the game. The writing is filled with little touches like these, and it rewards players who pay attention. The characters have clear and consistent motivations, without any sudden character changes for the sake of shoehorning a clumsy plot in. EVERYTHING is planned out meticulously, and comes together perfectly. The Characters I cannot think of a character in this game that I did not love. The main cast are all incredible, and are written in a way that, just by seeing a line, you can tell the character by the way they speak, and they do it without falling back onto unrealistic verbal tics like so many games do. Every character has a role in the group, not only in terms of the combat, but the role they play in the team during the story. They all work off of each other well, with Deathpolca and the serial killer Lily Killer working off of each other's personalities especially well. They all have satisfying character arcs, many of them, bar one, taking many chapters of the game before they truly resolve. Even the side characters too minor to have artwork of them are endearing, from the maid of the manor that Deathpolca commandeers begrudgingly and snarkily listening to her new mistress, to the slave Deathpolca saved from being assaulted, who turns into a wandering merchant, obsessed with her savior, somehow always arriving at new locations before us, no matter how impenetrable they are. No character is wasted, and they all contribute something special to the experience. The main villain, the Emperor, is a terrifying, enigmatic presence throughout most of the game, and is an absolute bastard of a villain in the best and worst ways possible. The Music While most of the music in the game is stock music you've likely heard in other rpgmaker games before, it's all used incredibly well, with none of it feeling out of place or distracting. That's not why the music is in the Good section, though. That's all thanks to Shade, a composer known for making music for the Rance series. Shade made 7 original songs for this game, including both main battle themes, three boss themes, and my favorite of all, Blossom, the theme of one of the best moments in the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTdDVLvfRrw I found myself listening to the soundtrack regularly for months after playing, just to relive the moments that got ingrained in my mind with it. The Impact This Game Had on Me This game caught me at a pretty bad point in my life that nothing was really helping me out with mentally. I had been isolated for two months, and was just caught in a spiral. This game, with the love and care put into it, the characters, the themes and messages of the game all just got to me and dragged me up out of it. Demons Roots is a game that takes place in an oppressively hopeless setting. Everything is bad, and is set to get worse. But the ultimate messages of the game are ones of freedom and hope. Of forgiving others, and working together. Of being faced with heart-wrenching loss, despair, and powerlessness, and finding the strength to stand back up and keep moving in the face of it. It's a game that found me in a dark place, and helped me climb my way out of it. And it's a game that I really hope you'll give a chance, too.
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The worst thing I can say about this game is that now I'm stuck with a very difficult lifelong mission of convincing people that an eroge has plot and characters rivaling FF6
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 20 November 2024 08:22 |
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| SteamSpy data | 18 January 2025 04:46 |
| Steam price | 22 January 2025 20:50 |
| Steam reviews | 21 January 2025 09:47 |
Online players
10
Developer
Quick nail Aristocrat
Publisher
Kagura Games
Release
13 Jan 2023
Platforms