Demon Turf is like that kind of game that you love at first but the more you play it the more you hate it.
I love its style, I love its soundtrack and I love the game's personality---until you realize that the same 1 minute song plays 14 times in total for each world.
The game has 4 worlds with a total of 56 levels (not counting bosses), and after that you have only 1 song for 73 extra levels, which wouldn't be so bad except that of those 73 levels, 10 are time trials, 30 are difficult levels without checkpoints that ask you to exploit all the movement mechanics and/or wait for cycles, 25 are arena fights against enemies that last about 7 minutes and if you die you must repeat everything (note that you die in one hit) and 8 of them are levels where they put annoying filters with interesting level designs but don't give anything.
The combat system is interesting at first but incredibly annoying later on, as you can't do damage, only knockback enemies into spikes and things that instakill you. Enemies can also attack you doing exaggerated knockback which is almost always going to guarantee you die with an instakill due to it being a game with momentum in the movement. At the beginning the knockback is almost zero, but then they put armor on the enemies and annoying movements and if you don't remove the armor you barely push but removing the armor leaves you vulnerable to the 4 enemies in the circle and you are surrounded by instakills, so don't be surprised if you die 33 times in each arena after the first world (And let's not mention the extra arenas).
The checkpoint system works in a freeform way where they let you set those checkpoints and they are limited under the excuse that "being able to teleport between them is very strong" (it's not). The big problem with this is that you never know when a checkpoint will actually serve you because there are places where enemies spawn as soon as you touch a trigger. If you're greedy, you won't want to use checkpoints until you die many times in one part, but that can mean losing about 2-3 minutes of progress and waiting for cycles and platforms to rise and disappear and zzzzzzzzzz.
the point is that it's not easy to recognize when you're going to need to set a checkpoint. I remember in one level there is a sort of teleferic with platforms. This intimidated me so I decided to set a checkpoint to be safe. After 1-2 minutes of standing still and waiting to climb to the top, there was just danger there; which meant that if I died, I had to wait 1-2 minutes standing still EVERY TIME, so I decided to put ANOTHER checkpoint at the top and you can't pick up the others so I reached my limit and had to do the whole rest of the level without checkpoints.
This is something I don't understand either, the game seems to be for kids but it's not, however it reinforces you later that yes but no but yes but no, and its difficulty level is clearly not so "kid-friendly", it's more like a game for all ages that constantly reminds you and reinforces you that it's not for kids !!! it's for all ages :-) which I find super cringe
the most obvious example of this is the voice acting, which is super annoying and screechy + the protagonist talking every time you hit, jump, get hurt, take damage, get hurt, slide, enter a level, exit a level-- the latter can be turned off (thank god) but it doesn't remove all the chatting, it just leaves the entering and exiting a level + the jumping sounds and the whole thing, doing basically nothing (revision edit: there's a literal jumpscare in one of the return levels, making a parody of Jeff the Killer. I understand that it's crappy, but the way it's presented I wouldn't call it "kid-friendly" at all lol)
The game has stuttering problems (only in the hub) with 0 FPS peaks when turning the camera (which in a platformer is VERY important) and I thought it was my problem or my specs, but apparently it's a problem that happens to everyone, to the point where speedrunners optimize their camera to move it as little as possible. It's horrible.
And that's another thing I don't understand since normal levels are usually gigantic; why is the hub so poorly optimized? The game also has an emphasis on speedrunning to the point where each level has a time "goal". If you take less than that, you get a trophy (necessary for 100% of the achievements) and there are times when even optimizing your movement and all, it's still super hard to get and annoying. If you die, you have to wait a total of 10 seconds before you can re-start the level (retry) and it's completely and utterly disgusting as it gives you almost 0 margin of error. I don't have much of a problem with it because I don't find the game that complicated once you pass the level at least once, but it's boring to have to tryhard that badly.
The bosses are interesting but often annoying and long. The second boss took me 18 minutes the first time because it switches between different types of attacks; the last one being an instakill that restarts the entire PREVIOUS phase.
Another problem it has is that it gives you a choice between manual or automatic camera, but there is literally 0 change because every time you activate a button, lever, finish an arena, respawn a ball, or whatever, your camera is going to lock to the place where you have to go, many times while you are jumping and this breaks ALL your momentum, causing you to get an instakill almost instantly because of the camera and there is nothing more frustrating than losing 5 minutes because of the camera, or having to practice speedrun how not to die because of the camera.
Demon Turf is a very flashy and visually entertaining game, but its gameplay has all the problems that Mario 64 (and its outdated game design) has, and I know a lot of people will love that, but I personally prefer more accurate platformers like "The End is Nigh" or Crash Bandicoot. It's a personal preference... absolutely, but it's this and all the other problems that make me unable to recommend Demon Turf without a giant sticker warning how frustrating its level and core game design can be.
Edit: I played for 10 more hours after I finished my review. While a lot of my issues went away with the skill for having played more, it's still a game that can be very punishing and unforgiving at times, making it especially frustrating because the game forcefully moves the camera for you to where you need to go even though you have it on manual.
Demon Turf is a game that is best enjoyed casually when you're in the mood for a platformer as it's simply not a good one to play for several hours at a time.
Edit 2: I've been playing SM64 and wtf was I talking about? that game feels 10 times more polished than this one in its movement. Hell, I would say Demon Turf feels more clunky
I love its style, I love its soundtrack and I love the game's personality---until you realize that the same 1 minute song plays 14 times in total for each world.
The game has 4 worlds with a total of 56 levels (not counting bosses), and after that you have only 1 song for 73 extra levels, which wouldn't be so bad except that of those 73 levels, 10 are time trials, 30 are difficult levels without checkpoints that ask you to exploit all the movement mechanics and/or wait for cycles, 25 are arena fights against enemies that last about 7 minutes and if you die you must repeat everything (note that you die in one hit) and 8 of them are levels where they put annoying filters with interesting level designs but don't give anything.
The combat system is interesting at first but incredibly annoying later on, as you can't do damage, only knockback enemies into spikes and things that instakill you. Enemies can also attack you doing exaggerated knockback which is almost always going to guarantee you die with an instakill due to it being a game with momentum in the movement. At the beginning the knockback is almost zero, but then they put armor on the enemies and annoying movements and if you don't remove the armor you barely push but removing the armor leaves you vulnerable to the 4 enemies in the circle and you are surrounded by instakills, so don't be surprised if you die 33 times in each arena after the first world (And let's not mention the extra arenas).
The checkpoint system works in a freeform way where they let you set those checkpoints and they are limited under the excuse that "being able to teleport between them is very strong" (it's not). The big problem with this is that you never know when a checkpoint will actually serve you because there are places where enemies spawn as soon as you touch a trigger. If you're greedy, you won't want to use checkpoints until you die many times in one part, but that can mean losing about 2-3 minutes of progress and waiting for cycles and platforms to rise and disappear and zzzzzzzzzz.
the point is that it's not easy to recognize when you're going to need to set a checkpoint. I remember in one level there is a sort of teleferic with platforms. This intimidated me so I decided to set a checkpoint to be safe. After 1-2 minutes of standing still and waiting to climb to the top, there was just danger there; which meant that if I died, I had to wait 1-2 minutes standing still EVERY TIME, so I decided to put ANOTHER checkpoint at the top and you can't pick up the others so I reached my limit and had to do the whole rest of the level without checkpoints.
This is something I don't understand either, the game seems to be for kids but it's not, however it reinforces you later that yes but no but yes but no, and its difficulty level is clearly not so "kid-friendly", it's more like a game for all ages that constantly reminds you and reinforces you that it's not for kids !!! it's for all ages :-) which I find super cringe
the most obvious example of this is the voice acting, which is super annoying and screechy + the protagonist talking every time you hit, jump, get hurt, take damage, get hurt, slide, enter a level, exit a level-- the latter can be turned off (thank god) but it doesn't remove all the chatting, it just leaves the entering and exiting a level + the jumping sounds and the whole thing, doing basically nothing (revision edit: there's a literal jumpscare in one of the return levels, making a parody of Jeff the Killer. I understand that it's crappy, but the way it's presented I wouldn't call it "kid-friendly" at all lol)
The game has stuttering problems (only in the hub) with 0 FPS peaks when turning the camera (which in a platformer is VERY important) and I thought it was my problem or my specs, but apparently it's a problem that happens to everyone, to the point where speedrunners optimize their camera to move it as little as possible. It's horrible.
And that's another thing I don't understand since normal levels are usually gigantic; why is the hub so poorly optimized? The game also has an emphasis on speedrunning to the point where each level has a time "goal". If you take less than that, you get a trophy (necessary for 100% of the achievements) and there are times when even optimizing your movement and all, it's still super hard to get and annoying. If you die, you have to wait a total of 10 seconds before you can re-start the level (retry) and it's completely and utterly disgusting as it gives you almost 0 margin of error. I don't have much of a problem with it because I don't find the game that complicated once you pass the level at least once, but it's boring to have to tryhard that badly.
The bosses are interesting but often annoying and long. The second boss took me 18 minutes the first time because it switches between different types of attacks; the last one being an instakill that restarts the entire PREVIOUS phase.
Another problem it has is that it gives you a choice between manual or automatic camera, but there is literally 0 change because every time you activate a button, lever, finish an arena, respawn a ball, or whatever, your camera is going to lock to the place where you have to go, many times while you are jumping and this breaks ALL your momentum, causing you to get an instakill almost instantly because of the camera and there is nothing more frustrating than losing 5 minutes because of the camera, or having to practice speedrun how not to die because of the camera.
Demon Turf is a very flashy and visually entertaining game, but its gameplay has all the problems that Mario 64 (and its outdated game design) has, and I know a lot of people will love that, but I personally prefer more accurate platformers like "The End is Nigh" or Crash Bandicoot. It's a personal preference... absolutely, but it's this and all the other problems that make me unable to recommend Demon Turf without a giant sticker warning how frustrating its level and core game design can be.
Edit: I played for 10 more hours after I finished my review. While a lot of my issues went away with the skill for having played more, it's still a game that can be very punishing and unforgiving at times, making it especially frustrating because the game forcefully moves the camera for you to where you need to go even though you have it on manual.
Demon Turf is a game that is best enjoyed casually when you're in the mood for a platformer as it's simply not a good one to play for several hours at a time.
Edit 2: I've been playing SM64 and wtf was I talking about? that game feels 10 times more polished than this one in its movement. Hell, I would say Demon Turf feels more clunky