World of Demons puts players in the shoes of samurai taking on various yokai inspired by Japanese mythology. Along with hack-and-slash gameplay, the title also allows players to summon their own yokai minions in battle. Throughout their battles against yokai in the game, players will eventually come face-to-face with the primary antagonist, Shuten Doji.

Originally announced as a live service title that would get a host of updates bringing balance changes and new content to the game, World of Demons is another example of PlatinumGames’ lack of success in the live service market. Made by the developers behind Nier: Automata, World of Demons was originally conceptualised as featuring in-app purchases. Its release on Apple Arcade likely dashed those plans, however.

Remember World of Demons, PlatinumGames’ mobile action title that it was working on with DeNA? It was slated to release in 2018 for iOS and Android but seemingly disappeared. However, shock of shocks, it’s now available on Apple Arcade and playable on iOS and tvOS. Check out the launch trailer below.

World of Demons sees players battling yokai as a samurai. While you can hack and slash to your heart’s content, it’s also possible to lead various yokai minions into battle. Various yokai can be utilized, each with their own unique abilities en route to battling the big bad Shuten Doji.

PlatinumGames had previously promised monthly balance and content updates with new playable characters, events and story chapters. It also touted in-app purchases but it’s unknown whether either of these features are still part of the game. Stay tuned for more details and impressions on World of Demons in the coming months.

Platinum Games has announced its newest project and it’s something a little different called World of Demons. As a free to play mobile title, World of Demons is described as an action adventure title “set in a fantastical, ancient Japan that pits fearless Samurai warriors against mystical Yokai monsters.” Check out the trailer below.

With controls built for touch devices, the developer promises that World of Demons As you might expect, there will be combat with full 360 degree movement, dodging and parrying, combos, “unique” movement and finishers. Players can also bring in Yokai Minions during combat who provide elemental buffs, attacks and spells. The art style encompasses that seen in Japanese woodblock prints and ink paintings (the actual graphics actually remind us a lot of Okami, which Platinum’s Hideki Kamiya worked on at Clover).

Published in conjunction with DeNA and featuring in-app purchases, World of Demons will arrive for iOS this Summer and Android later in 2018 with. Platinum promises “continuous content and balancing updates on a monthly basis.” This includes new story chapters, playable characters, enemies, different in-game events and new rewards.

An interesting thing that the developer noted is that all in-game features “must serve the action,” and upgrades provided will serve the “holistic relationship with the core action gameplay so that players that have invested effort in upgrades will have increased strategic and tactical options during the action.” This seems to indicate that those who play and earn more will have a deeper variety of ways to battle but that’s just conjecture on our part.

Though in-app purchases are confirmed, Platinum Games is looking to avoid any “pay to win” systems. Will it work out? Stay tuned for more information when World of Demons releases later this year.