A week after launch, my new favorite gungy, Condemned-style horror-brawler has its first patch and the promise of yokai-punching spiked knuckles on the way

Survival horror dungeon crawler Labyrinth of the Demon King is neck-and-neck with Avowed and Oblivion Remastered as my personal game of the year so far, which I absolutely did not expect when I loaded it up on my Steam Deck before a flight (I ended up playing it all five hours). But even more surprising is that its small development team is already promising new additions just a week after launch.

First up, Labyrinth of the Demon King is getting a selection of tweaks and bug fixes in its first update:

• Added framerate cap options (and warning popup that some behaviour may be unpredictable at very high frame rates)
• Disabled torch being unequipped when entering an exterior cell
• Using the quick equip torch button will now equip the lantern if the player has purchased it
• Fixed error where placeholder language names were used instead of official translated terms
• Fixed spelling error in Kings Court Puzzle
• Fixed issue where status effects would display “{Amout}” instead of the number for stack amounts for certain languages

All good stuff, but what’s really exciting is a preview of something just over the horizon: A new spiked knuckle weapon that feels like a perfect addition to Demon King’s gritty, first-person melee combat.

In addition to Labyrinth of the Demon King’s stifling horror atmosphere, the game has some of the best first-person brawling I’ve seen in years. It’s slow-paced, brutal, and extremely challenging, tied to an unforgiving stamina system that regenerates at a snail’s pace, more akin to other games’ mana bars than the rapidly regenerating endurance of Dark Souls or The Elder Scrolls.

A pair of Shinobi-flavored spiked knuckles slots into a relatively underserved niche in Labyrinth of the Demon King’s arsenal. They’ll be the first “fist” weapons in the game, and one of very few fast-attacking options alongside a surreptitious tanto.

On my next playthrough, though, I’ll still be sticking with the cursed blood katana forged out of the broken blade you start the game with. PCG Australia editor Shaun Prescott praised the game as “the most potent weird horror we’re likely to see in 2025” in his 81% review of Labyrinth of the Demon King, and you can get it at a launch discount for $15 (as opposed to a usual $20) until May 27 on Steam.