Recent reviews by Don't do it.

The rogue-lite mechanics are well developed, but the combat is immediately tedious and requires very little skill. It has a cool aesthetic, but is ultimately a boring and unrewarding experience.

Sony responded... DEMOCRACY WON!

Hades x Castle Crashers x Monster Hunter?? Sign me up.

p.s.
pls buff lower tier weapons... bird dive too strong

If you are a fan of Hades or the bullet-heaven genre, you are in for a treat. This is one of the few games trying to do something unique with the genre and not just copy Vampire Survivors or Brotato. The game is full of petty gods with campy voicelines, and characters with goofy personalities.

There is also gear to grind for that can give you new abilities and help you get the god upgrades you want.

All in all, this is a great game, and a great time to start now that Act 2 is out.


Returning players:
Consider holding off on playing for a short while. The act 2 update has changed the game substantially. Currently, you are offered no points for the skill-tree when you start even if you have already invested dozens of hours into the game. You now must kill bosses to receive those points individually for each character.

Hopefully the devs will offer some recourse for returning players -- like points for the skill tree based on previous boss kills/achievements. For now, it may feel like you're starting back at the beginning.

Also, this review has been heavily edited. It was originally negative, but a commenter pointed out that I was reviewing in bad faith. The original review is archived in the comments.

The game has an interesting visual style and a pleasantly slow take on the bullet heaven genre, but that's where my praise ends.

It is a shallow game that disallows build variety, and picking certain weapons (like the blade, the rotating blades, the plasma gun) will almost always lead to a loss. There is only one map with slightly different backgrounds. Upgrades seem to make very little difference because of how incremental they are.

There is nothing new aside from the visuals, no power fantasy, no strategy. Only buy it if you have bullet heaven brainrot like me and need something new.

Of all the games in the bullet heaven genre, this one is my favorite. The gameplay is tight, the visuals are simple but refined, and there is a TON of build variety. It's also very challenging and rewarding to 100%.

My only small gripe with the game is that the highest difficulties can be extremely difficult to complete without investing heavily into missiles. That build can be fun, but it also creates a lot of visual clutter and requires the least amount of strategy and interaction with the games mechanics. But again, it's just a small issue that many people probably wouldn't even consider to be a real problem.

Seriously, this game is an awesome addition to the genre. If you like Vampire Survivors, Brotato, Nova Drift, or any other of the myriad of games in the genre, you have to try this one out.

This game is criminally underrated and deserves more attention.

I am lost but I love it

If you're like me and play entirely too many Vampire Survivor clones, then Spell book Demonslayers isn't a bad game to pick up. There is enough unique weapons and mechanics to keep the game fresh. However, I believe the cons currently greatly outweigh the pros.

Spellbook Demonslayers lacks any visual cohesion or identity. I have seen many of the same sprites used in other games of the genre. While using premade assets isn't inherently an issue, many of the sprites have wildly differing art styles. Many of the attack animations seem to vary in style as well. Additionally, the maps are barren and offer almost nothing to break up the monotony. Even the menus are not immune, as the font colors seem haphazardly used. The music, while fun, clashes with the neon asthetic of the menus.

These issues nearly made me believe that Spellbook Demonslayers was an asset flip, but the mechanics are solid enough to dissuade me from that notion. Overall, the developer seems quite competent, but they desperately need someone to help them on the visuals.

tl;dr: it's an ok Vampire Survivor clone with a few unique mechanics and unfortunately poor/mismatched visuals

great game to play while listening to podcasts/music

The gunplay is excellent.
The soundtrack is excellent.
The movement is amazing.
The amount of content is lacking.

I love what the devs have done with this game -- the amount of love they put in is obvious. But there just isn't enough content here to justify the price to me. However, the game was just released, so that could certainly change with time.

Unless you enjoy playing against leaderboards, or you have a lot of expendable income for entertainment, this may not be the game for you.