Demon Skin is a 2021 Hack and Slash action game made by Buka Entertainment and LUDUS future, and a Genre Throwback to old, medieval-set arcade action games.
In a Medieval Fantasy world, a sorceress called the Necro Queen has unleashed her monsters on humanity. As the forces of chaos ravage the land, in the snowy mountains a wandering, lone Barbarian Hero - simply called The Wanderer in-game - comes across the forces of evil rampaging across a village. Eager to kill something, the Wanderer charges straight into battle... and is dragged into a portal where the monsters are spawned from.
When emerging, the Wanderer realize he is no longer himself; the portal has turned him into a purple-skinned, hairless, pointy-eared humanoid creature with no memories of his past, but with enhanced strength and stamina. And realizing there are demons still out there, the Wanderer then embarks on a quest through wintery wastelands, dense forests, underground caverns, and even an undead-infested graveyard to rid the land of monsters.
Demon Skin is made available for the PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
The Fight is NOT over yet!
- Airborne Mooks: Giant, wasp-like insects with stingers in the forest levels are recurring flying enemies. They're pretty weak given their size, but could be quite the annoyance when trying to have the Wanderer jumping over platforms - notably, one stage when the Wanderer tries scaling a steep hill only to have fling insects getting in his way constantly.
- Attack of the Monster Appendage: One section in the graveyard have the Wanderer crossing a series of platforms while trying not to be swatted flat by gigantic hands sticking out the soil. Prior to the stage an unfortunate bird passing through gets pulped by those hands.
- Barbarian Hero: You play as one called "The Wanderer", out to stop an unspecified Ancient Evil from taking over the land. But there's more to him than it appears...
- Big Red Devil: One of the bosses is a fiery, red, horned demon with cloven hooves, looking like classical depictions of Satan, though despite his menacing appearance he's just some one-shot boss.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: The first Necromant enemy the Wanderer battles have dual blades in place for hands.
- Blood Knight: The Wanderer, befitting a barbarian who lusts for blood and violence, really enjoys hacking the brains out of his enemies. His intro says it all:[getting splashed by blood from a slain monster] Who's next? Don't run, the fight is not over yet!
- Dem Bones: Skeletons are the first encountered, and most common enemy in the entire game. Those fought as early as the first level are The Goomba who dies in two or three hits with the Wanderer's default weapons, while upgraded skeletons shows up much later.
- Earthy Barefoot Character: The Wanderer, being a barbarian from the woods, forgoes shoes. Even in the winter and volcanic stages, but then again he's fueled by some unknown supernatural magic.
- Extreme Omnivore: The Wanderer eats anything. From small scorpions and slugs to centipedes, which he picks up and swallows live - which actually boosts his health!The Wanderer: [chomps a scorpion] Mmmm... tasty!
- Flaming Sword:
- When the Wanderer's power level is high enough, he can set his current weapon (sword, axe, etc.) alight and use it to inflict additional damage on foes.
- The Big Red Devil boss swings a fiery BFS as his weapon.
- Giant Spider: The Wanderer battles oversized arachnids regularly in the forest and caverns.
- Gladiator Games: One of the levels is set in a gladiatorial arena, full of assorted enemies collected from previous levels. The Wanderer is thrown right in it's center, and in the background different monsters are fighting each other, while the Wanderer deals with enemies targeting him - more often than not, victorious combatants in the foreground, unable to find other opponents, will move to the foreground to fight the Wanderer.
- Grim Up North: The first level is in a wintery wasteland, with hostile Yeti as enemies. There's also fights set in blizzards where visibility is limited, and an area where the Wanderer must outrun an avalanche.
- Hair-Trigger Avalanche: In the winter stages, one level have the Wanderer jumping and landing on a platform... and somehow triggering a massive avalanche behind him. Which turns into an Advancing Wall of Doom he needs to outrun or lose a life.
- Healing Potion: Healing potions can be collected from chests and used any time to boost the Wanderer's health.
- Lethal Lava Land: The underground cavern stage inexplicable segues into an active volcano, with pitfalls which kills the Wanderer if he falls. There's even an area where he crosses a rock bridge over a lava pool... and must run when said bridge starts collapsing behind him.
- Let's You and Him Fight: The enemies are not just interested in eviscarating the Wanderer. More often than not onscreen enemies actually attacks each other, at which point the Wanderer could just waltz to a corner, have them kill each other and finish off the rest.
- Mecha-Mooks: The steampunk version appears as enemies in the game, being steam-powered robots propelled by some unknown ancient technology that moves around trying to attack the Wanderer.
- Mêlée à Trois:
- In case Let's You and Him Fight is not an option, for instance battling the Yeti boss in the ice caverns and sandwiched between several skeletons, some who attacks the Wanderer while some targets the Yeti. Or when caught between giant monsters and rampaging automatons in the jungles.
- The entirety of the Gladiatorial arena level, a massive open area full of enemies which is a free-for-all battle between the Wanderer and different monsters hacking each other apart.
- Monstrous Scenery:
- The first stage in the winter have two stone monsters battling in the background while the Wander fights skeletons in front. Even after winning, the victorious stone monster simply loiters around and ignores the Wanderer entirely; said monster cannot be attacked either.
- Another area in the snow caverns contains a chained-up reptilian monster in the back, who repeatedly tries lunging at the Wanderer to no avail. Said monster remains stuck and can't be interacted with either.
- Night of the Living Mooks: Skeletons appears as early as the first level in a wintery wasteland. There's also a graveyard level full of undead opponents.
- Obstructive Foreground: There are several areas where the foreground will get in the way, obscuring the Wanderer even if he's jumping over platforms or being attacked by enemies. Notably trees in the forest, rocks in the underground caverns, entire pillars in the winter levels and so on.
- Off with His Head!: An unfortunate civilain in the opening FMV have his head ripped off by a Necromant. While in gameplay, a low-angled swing with a heavy weapon (ax, BFS) on any regular-sized mook allows the Wanderer to kill an enemy by decapitation.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: Werebeasts are enemies in the game, all of them whom are feral, mindless, and attacks everything in sight.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The game actually opens with a cutscene of a village getting massacred by the forces of darkness, with the Wanderer marching straight into the carnage. He then charges into battle, leading to the first stage, but he's unable to save the civilains from getting annhilated.
- Rock Monster:
- Stone ogres animated by magic are enemies in the forest and cavern stages.
- There's actually a benevolent stone monster in the first stage, being the guardian of the winter lands disturbed by the undead activities. When the Wanderer identifies himself as not a threat, the stone guardian turns himself into an impromptu bridge for the Wanderer to reach a taller platform.
- Scary Scorpions: Another recurring insect-like giant enemy, the Wanderer faces oversized scorpions whose stongers can spray poisoned projectiles on him which drains his health. There's even King Mook versions of these scorpions who serves as Mini-Boss opponents.
- Sequel Hook: The Wanderer, who remains unnamed until defeating the Final Boss, is revealed to be Captain Roy, a former member of the Order of Wanderers, who lose his memory as result of a ritual gone wrong and sent to roam the wilderness as a barbarian. And that the true source of all the evil is the Necro Queen, an all-powerful Demoness who's still at large. Regaining his memories, Roy then sets off on another quest.
- Snowlems: A hostile Ice Golem shows up as a boss, and the last boss in the wintery stages. Shortly after defeating it the Wanderer then reaches a green forest, the next stage.
- Technicolor Toxin: Should The Wanderer suffer a poison attack (e.g. hit by projectiles fired by giant scorpion's barbs) his entire body will radiate with a green aura, at which point his health drains away until it wears off or if he consumes an antidote.
- The Unfought: The Necro Queen who leads the hordes of monsters, whose minions The Wanderer a.k.a Roy spends the whole game battling, isn't fought at any point of the game.
- Walking Armory: Subverted, the Wanderer can carry up to six different weapons (sword, ax, hammer, etc.) but trying to collect another weapon when his armaments are filled will have the game telling him to "drop an item".
- Yeti: The first boss is a giant yeti fought in a cavern, while two other yetis can be fought later on. Depending on the area, the Wanderer also may or may not need to contend with skeletons spawning in the stage, though the skeletons are not allied with those yetis and might attack them randomly.
