During The Game Awards’ week, we booked an appointment with Arc System Works to go hands-on with a couple titles, and one of them ended up being Damon and Baby. When it was first unveiled, it looked like an action RPG with twin-stick shooter mechanics, but after playing the game for close to an hour, it’s shaping up to be more than that… Much more than that.
Developed by the same team behind the Guilty Gear series, Damon and Baby is another title coming out of Arc System Works that shows that the developer and publisher is capable of way more than just fighters. In fact, Damon and Baby is a lot. Just check out the trailer above that aired at the PC Gaming Show. Action adventure, top-down shooting, exploration, platforming–the demo that we got our hands on offered a big enough taste of what’s to come, and this game is definitely something I’ll keep an eye on.
As for what the game is about, there isn’t much to say just yet. When you go into these preview events and they aren’t met with much of an introduction from the devs outside of them asking you if you’ve seen the game yet, the things they tell you typically take a back seat to what you’re playing, and that was exactly the case here. I got to play the game’s tutorial section as well as a section much later in the game, and the mix of genres were definitely the most compelling part.
The game’s tutorial section took place in “The Cave of Beginnings,” and it played pretty much the way you’d expect an action RPG much in the vein of how a Diablo would feel. The action in the game is completely top-down, and the tutorial level had us explore a labyrinth with its share of chasms to leap over and enemies to take down using both melee strikes and projectiles from the weapon we had equipped. There’s even a cool combo mechanic that has you melee an enemy before you shoot them for more effective damage that felt good every time I tried that out.
We didn’t get to do anything this cool in the demo, but we’re down.
Another interesting mechanic that happened while we were platforming. Eventually, you’ll reach a point where some cliffs and platforms are too far to jump to, so the main way you’d get over this is by throwing the baby across. Wherever the baby ends up, for some reason, the demon warps over. We then came to a point where you had to switch directions mid-air, and for some reason or another, I just couldn’t pull this off. I ended up sort of cheesing it by standing at a point where I can just face where we had to go and then use the throw mechanic and that worked, but I felt that the actual tutorial part of everything needed some work.
There was this point in the tutorial where we came across a treasure chest, and I had already begun hitting it and when the game gave the prompt talking about what it was, the chest disappeared on me, so we never were able to get the intended spoils. You can’t be having stuff disappearing when barely finish reading about what they do.
Capping off the tutorial was a boss fight that also had the feel of an arcade shmup, and this was expected since the game twin-stick shooting was a main focus after all. I couldn’t kill it (I was a sliver of health away from falling it), and I died for the second time, but I got the gist of what we were doing and moved on.
The next section we played took place later in the game, at Damon and Baby’s base. Here, you can do things like set up your weapon loadout, or sleep to replenish your health and level up various attributes. There were all sorts of points for us to use, but I didn’t mess around too much with it. I just wanted to see what the level offered.
Damon likes guns.
I left and went to the left, and as I thought, it was probably the wrong direction. All I found were enemies that were easy to kill, so I headed back to base, went to sleep, and headed to the right after leaving. Eventually, we came to a house whose owner was locked deep within its confines.
This is where the game suddenly felt like a cheap escape room.
In order to get to the room that had the homeowner locked, we had to work our way though the house unlocking every locked door we found. Each room was filled with enemies, and after clearing them, I inspected every nook and cranny until I found the key to the basement, and then found the key to the garden, and then I did some platforming to find a dial lock with a bunch of shapes that had to be placed in the right order to unlock it. I must’ve spent a good 45 minutes playing the game before I decided I was too stumped and needed to ask for help.
Unfortunately, the staff on-site couldn’t help me and explained that this build of the game was given to them the night before, and they never really had an opportunity to play through that part. But the point of giving us this access was really to show the amount of health and weapons we had to really vary up the gameplay. Right now, I’m sold at where the combat is. This isn’t what’s going to sell me the game.
Wait ’till you find out that Damon is packing heat with the baby.
When games jump genres, like what Damon and Baby appears to be doing, what keeps them compelling is their innate ability to get the genre right. Every aspect of gameplay has to feel good. The Hazelight team did just this with It Takes Two and Split Fiction, and Damon and Baby could very well go in this direction. So who knows where we’ll be once they really get a chance to polish it?
Damon and Baby is currently slated for release in early 2026 for the PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and the Nintendo Switch. We’ll definitely be playing more Damon and Baby as ArcSys gives us more opportunities, so stay tuned.
During The Game Awards’ week, we booked an appointment with Arc System Works to go hands-on with a couple titles, and one of them ended up being Damon and Baby. When it was first unveiled, it looked like an action…
During The Game Awards’ week, we booked an appointment with Arc System Works to go hands-on with a couple titles, and one of them ended up being Damon and Baby. When it was first unveiled, it looked like an action RPG with twin-stick shooter mechanics, but after playing the game for close to an hour, it’s shaping up to be more than that… Much more than that.
Developed by the same team behind the Guilty Gear series, Damon and Baby is another title coming out of Arc System Works that shows that the developer and publisher is capable of way more than just fighters. In fact, Damon and Baby is a lot. Just check out the trailer above that aired at the PC Gaming Show. Action adventure, top-down shooting, exploration, platforming–the demo that we got our hands on offered a big enough taste of what’s to come, and this game is definitely something I’ll keep an eye on.
As for what the game is about, there isn’t much to say just yet. When you go into these preview events and they aren’t met with much of an introduction from the devs outside of them asking you if you’ve seen the game yet, the things they tell you typically take a back seat to what you’re playing, and that was exactly the case here. I got to play the game’s tutorial section as well as a section much later in the game, and the mix of genres were definitely the most compelling part.
The game’s tutorial section took place in “The Cave of Beginnings,” and it played pretty much the way you’d expect an action RPG much in the vein of how a Diablo would feel. The action in the game is completely top-down, and the tutorial level had us explore a labyrinth with its share of chasms to leap over and enemies to take down using both melee strikes and projectiles from the weapon we had equipped. There’s even a cool combo mechanic that has you melee an enemy before you shoot them for more effective damage that felt good every time I tried that out.
We didn’t get to do anything this cool in the demo, but we’re down.
Another interesting mechanic that happened while we were platforming. Eventually, you’ll reach a point where some cliffs and platforms are too far to jump to, so the main way you’d get over this is by throwing the baby across. Wherever the baby ends up, for some reason, the demon warps over. We then came to a point where you had to switch directions mid-air, and for some reason or another, I just couldn’t pull this off. I ended up sort of cheesing it by standing at a point where I can just face where we had to go and then use the throw mechanic and that worked, but I felt that the actual tutorial part of everything needed some work.
There was this point in the tutorial where we came across a treasure chest, and I had already begun hitting it and when the game gave the prompt talking about what it was, the chest disappeared on me, so we never were able to get the intended spoils. You can’t be having stuff disappearing when barely finish reading about what they do.
Capping off the tutorial was a boss fight that also had the feel of an arcade shmup, and this was expected since the game twin-stick shooting was a main focus after all. I couldn’t kill it (I was a sliver of health away from falling it), and I died for the second time, but I got the gist of what we were doing and moved on.
The next section we played took place later in the game, at Damon and Baby’s base. Here, you can do things like set up your weapon loadout, or sleep to replenish your health and level up various attributes. There were all sorts of points for us to use, but I didn’t mess around too much with it. I just wanted to see what the level offered.
Damon likes guns.
I left and went to the left, and as I thought, it was probably the wrong direction. All I found were enemies that were easy to kill, so I headed back to base, went to sleep, and headed to the right after leaving. Eventually, we came to a house whose owner was locked deep within its confines.
This is where the game suddenly felt like a cheap escape room.
In order to get to the room that had the homeowner locked, we had to work our way though the house unlocking every locked door we found. Each room was filled with enemies, and after clearing them, I inspected every nook and cranny until I found the key to the basement, and then found the key to the garden, and then I did some platforming to find a dial lock with a bunch of shapes that had to be placed in the right order to unlock it. I must’ve spent a good 45 minutes playing the game before I decided I was too stumped and needed to ask for help.
Unfortunately, the staff on-site couldn’t help me and explained that this build of the game was given to them the night before, and they never really had an opportunity to play through that part. But the point of giving us this access was really to show the amount of health and weapons we had to really vary up the gameplay. Right now, I’m sold at where the combat is. This isn’t what’s going to sell me the game.
Wait ’till you find out that Damon is packing heat with the baby.
When games jump genres, like what Damon and Baby appears to be doing, what keeps them compelling is their innate ability to get the genre right. Every aspect of gameplay has to feel good. The Hazelight team did just this with It Takes Two and Split Fiction, and Damon and Baby could very well go in this direction. So who knows where we’ll be once they really get a chance to polish it?
Damon and Baby is currently slated for release in early 2026 for the PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and the Nintendo Switch. We’ll definitely be playing more Damon and Baby as ArcSys gives us more opportunities, so stay tuned.
by Danreb Victorio
