The Reject Demon is a kinetic fantasy visual novel containing drama, fanservice, and yuri themes. Made by Lupiesoft, it features a young demon girl Toko, her human live-in partner and friend Nadia, and a funny and interesting cast of characters consisting of humans, demons, angels and witches.
From a young age, Toko has never followed any of the rules in the demon world and failed to claim a single human soul to the time she became an adult, starting with her first assignment as a small girl where she saved Nadia from a speeding car instead of allowing her to get hit and claim her soul.
After being kicked out of the demon world, Toko will meet Nadia again as adults and Toko will live together with Nadia. Their life together in the living world will be watched and followed by many additional supporting characters.
Plot and character backgrounds As a fantasy visual novel, the plot is written as a dramedy with a comic art style. There are plenty of funny and tense moments in the story with unexpected plot twists and turns and gradual introduction of additional characters into the story. A complaint some players have is that this game ends on a plot hook as the first chapter of the Reject Demon Toko series and the second chapter has not been released after more than 2 years. Also, I find the early part of the story a bit rushed where when Toko encountered Nadia for the first time in the human world, it would seem unusual for Nadia to allow Toko to stay at her house and share a bed together. There's also Toko's seemingly ungracious behaviour which as a guest would still prompt Nadia to remain patient with Toko throughout.
The characters have sufficient variety in their character personalities. From the hot-headed Toko, the magnanimous Nadia, the phlegmatic Ginxhou, the mean Devon and her dignified floating rabbit butler Davey, to the snarky Epiphany. All these characters with a few additional supporting characters help to bring variety and make this visual novel interesting and funny throughout. The voice acting DLC accurately captures each character's personality well to highlight and contrast them with one another to make this visual novel special as a dramedy.
Artwork For a kinetic visual novel that is approximately 3 hours long, the game has a surprisingly large variety of CGs and artwork following the free Remix version patch update. It would be nice if this game or the next chapter of this series would have a CG gallery in future. The only complaint I have regarding the artwork is that the character sprite for Nadia is almost laughable as being unrealistic.
New CG and close-up character sprite artwork after December 2017 patch update
Voice acting and background music
The voice acting which requires the Voice Acting DLC is the main highlight of this visual novel and serves to make this visual novel special in this regard. Except for a few occasional mismatches between the text and voiced dialogue, the voice acting brings out the drama, tension and funny moments in the story. Whether it is to pause for dramatic effect, stammer in response to being caught by surprise, make fun of a character, express rage due to a provocation, remain calm and collected throughout, all these make the visual novel interesting and enjoyable enough to read and listen through the voiced dialogue.
The background music in the game and soundtrack DLC features 13 different electronic soundtracks by Ryuno and Ponyo. Falling From Grace Right On Your Face, Headlights and Pinball Demons are among my favourite soundtracks which are more or less appropriate for the supernatural themes featured in this visual novel, as well as to bring out Toko's impulsive and hot-headed personality, and her utter disregard for many social norms.
Young Toko and Klay with BGM Headlights at beginning of video
Toko, Nadia, Ginxhou and Young Passerby with BGM Pinball Demons at 0:37
Toko and Davey at 3:55
Toko, Davey and Devon at 5:13
Toko and Epiphany at 7:59
Nadia, Baba Yaga and Stephanie at 9:36
Overall, this game is recommended when in an attractive bundle offer with both the soundtrack and voice acting DLC for those who don't mind a few minor faults and inconsistencies in the game and the possibility of having to wait a very long time for the next chapter of the story to be released. As a fantasy visual novel with parody, this game has multiple comedic moments featuring demons, humans, angels and witches to produce an interesting story with a colourful cast of characters with nice background music and excellent voice acting to bring each character out. This came after Toko: Remix patch and DLC update on December 2017 to make this visual novel special which shows the developers put in a lot of effort to improve on this game significantly.