Video Game / Demon Tides

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Demon Tides is the 2026 sequel to Demon Turf, published and developed by Fabraz (who, at the time of release, were probably best known for their work on Bubsy 4D). Like the original, it is a 3D Platform Game, but while Turf had linear stages divided into hub worlds, Tides has more of an open-world approach, with various areas to explore and obtain collectables to unlock further challenges.

It has been some years since Beebz has won her Turf War and become the Queen of Demon Turf Kingdom. She and her fellow Forktowners are now on a quest to Ragnar's Rock, an ocean archipelago kingdom on summons by King Ragnar... who is also claiming to be Beebz's father, asking for an audience. Unfortunately, rather than a warm welcome, Beebz and her crew end up shipwrecked and having to fight their way to the top for an audience with Ragnar and the answers they seek.

Demon Tides evolves on the concepts explored in Demon Turf, in particular focusing on some of the ideas introduced in Neon Splash. The game takes cues from the Wide-Open Sandbox genre, dropping Beebz into the wide ocean of Ragnar's Rock and allowing her to explore at her leisure. Most locations in the ocean offer bite-sized platforming challenges for Beebz to earn Golden Gears, which unlock new sections of Ragnar's Rock. There's a much greater emphasis on customization this time around, with Beebz able to equip Talismans that can radically alter her moveset. As well, Beebz has lost both the squid transformation and her hand attack, replacing the latter with a quick airdash that heavily synergizes with the bat and spinning top transformations.

Previews: Announcement Trailer, Demo Teaser, Release Date Trailer, Launch Trailer

Demon Tropes:

• Abandonment-Induced Animosity: Ragnar's Start of Darkness was all because his beloved, Vindra abandoned him and his son. Deciding that if he couldn't have her he would take the world instead.
• Abdicate the Throne: In the epilogue, Beebz relinquishes her title of Queen of the Demon Turf Kingdom to stay in and help rebuild Ragnar's Rock.
• Actionized Sequel: Zigzagged. Beebz starts with more platforming abilities this time, keeping her Snake form for fast travel and having learned the new Blast move for dashing. The combat has been changed so that you can actually attack enemies directly. However, the first game's Combat Zone has no real equivalent in this game except the less-frequent boss fights, and you just don't fight nearly as much. In fact, there is no longer a dedicated attack button any more, now sharing that function with the Blast.
• Action Prologue: The game begins with Beebz and her friends on a boat to Ragnar's Rock, which is immediately bombarded upon their arrival, and the tutorial consists of Beebz searching for her friends in the wreckage of it and other unwelcome ships.
• And I'm the Queen of Sheba: When Beebz first meets Runa to find a way to reach Ragnar. When Runa asks why, Beebz states that she was invited there; Runa's in such disbelief that a kid and her entourage of fellow kids were personally invited by Ragnar that she says if that's true, then she's the Queen. Runa's still partly in disbelief after receiving a full explanation, but admits she did hear rumors that a tiny brat successfully conquered the Demon Turf Kingdom, as well as knows Ragnar well enough that she can see some similarity in Beebz's face.
• Animated Armor: Jester, the first of Ragnar's champions, is an animated Villainous Harlequin outfit and mask. In his epilogue slide, the outfit is recovered but no longer animate, leaving it ambiguous if Beebz killed him or if his spirit is just elsewhere.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Similar to Demon Turf, Beebz can set down a checkpoint flag at any point in an area to respawn from or teleport to. While she can only have one active flag per area this time around, she can freely relocate it, and the only limitations on where she can place it are that it must be a flat surface and not during a boss fight. Additionally, there is one pre-established checkpoint at the "start" of each area in case the player forgets to set their own checkpoint before they start exploring. Furthermore, most island challenges have at least one "fast rope" you can unlock to help with skipping platforming chunks, just in case you forget to checkpoint midway through a tough platforming sequence.
  • Whenever Beebz uses her airdash (an essential movement tool for gaining distance), her hair flashes a faded blue until she lands. If she uses her airdash before her bat or spinning top forms, they slightly change to signify this- her top gains a small blue streak, while her bat form turns the same shade of faded blue. Most crucially, this hair colour is not one that Beebz can naturally equip through character customization, ensuring that her hair colour change remains distinct even if the player is donning an all-blue outfit.
• Archnemesis Dad: Beebz's goal of reaching Ragnar after he claims to be her father isn't to form an emotional connection, but to confront him over abandoning her until she became a big deal and ruling as a tyrant over their own kind.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Vindra leaving Ragnar and never returning, which Beebz can learn was due to a selfish desire for absolute freedom, caused Ragnar's downfall into true tyranny. However, the last slide of the epilogue states that the winds of Ragnar's Rock were never the same after Ragnar's passing, indicating that Vindra was affected by the loss.
• Big Head Mode: One of the Talismans that Beebz can collect and equip swells her own head to comical proportions and has no other purpose; coupled with the "Giant Witch's Hat" head cosmetic from Luci's shop, it becomes impossible to see Beebz underneath it.
• Bittersweet Ending: Despite Beebz's attempts, Ragnar chooses death over changing his ways and being saved by her; coupled with her big brother keeping his distance and her mother's selfishness, she's failed to connect with any of her blood relatives. However, Ragnar's Rock is saved and able to rebuild, especially after Beebz decides to give up her Demon Turf crown to stay and help, and Beebz's friends, her family of choice, keep in touch.
• Bleak Level: The northernmost area of Shiverbeaks is in eternal night, but otherwise it's fairly pleasant... until you notice the enormous black smog hanging over Dunkelwald, or the mysterious Ghost Ship nearby. Both of these levels are horror-themed excursions with no explanation as to how they got this way, few NPCs to interact with, and creepy, atonal music playing the entire time. Beebz is notably put off by these locations and there's no clear explanation as to how they got this way, leaving their fates uncertain.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Vindra the Wind Goddess, whose mercurial nature as the wind itself singlehandedly split her family apart. She caused her beloved husband Ragnar to become a remorseless tyrant, and her son Roc to become his father's ruthless enforcer... because she couldn't stand being tied to one place anymore and left her family without a word, taking her infant daughter Gale (i.e. Beebz) with her on a whim. Thinking that Beebz would be like her and need total freedom, Vindra abandoned her as a baby in Forktown and thought she was doing the right thing as a parent. To the present day she regularly visits a favorite spot of hers that she suspended directly above her husband's castle and has never thought about visiting any of her family since, despite professing her love for them. When Beebz calls her selfish for hurting them without even realizing it, Vindra immediately throws a temper tantrum and turns into a cyclone.
• Brutal Bonus Level: Getting 100% in the whole game allows you to enter Vindra's Skies, a very long level that remixes nearly every zone and their obstacles into one long platforming gauntlet. The player need a good understanding of all Beebz' moves and/or a good mix of Talismans to make it through to the end where Beebz will meet her mother face to face.
• Cain and Abel: Roc, one of Ragnar's champions, is also his son (and thus Beebz's older brother), who witnessed Ragnar's descent into tyranny after their mother Vindra left them, and then stood by him rather than try to stop him. Roc's antagonism is further enhanced by believing Vindra only took Beebz with her because he wasn't strong enough for her plans, but learning that Beebz grew up all alone shakes this belief and helps the two connect after his boss fight.
• Category Traitor: Tridentarius was originally one of the native Kappernians that Ragnar oppressed, but upon her talent being noticed, she eagerly became one of Ragnar's champions and started developing weaponry to help oppress her own kind.
• Didn't Think This Through: Tridentarius has impenetrable security for her tower and has prepared for practically any attempt to bypass it, including the shadow magic that DK uses. This all falls apart because she installed the power sources for her three security doors outside of the tower on various islands of her territory, in what amounts to unlocked shacks. Unlocking the first door (without approaching Tridentarius previously) will cause her to realize in a panic that a child can defeat her security system without even knowing about it by just flipping a random lever.
• Disappeared Dad: Beebz grew up without parents, which is why Ragnar's Rock's monarch claiming to be her father in a letter to her instantly spurs her into going on another adventure. It's eventually revealed that the reason Beebz was orphaned was because her mother Vindra took Beebz with her upon deciding to leave Ragnar, and then intentionally abandoned Beebz out of a misguided belief that she would appreciate the freedom.
• Dragon with an Agenda: After reaching the second area of Ragnar's Rock, Beebz learns that Ragnar never sent her a letter and in fact doesn't care about their reunion at all, and reaching the third area has her learn that the letter that invited her to Ragnar's Rock was actually sent by Roc, her brother and Ragner's third champion, having heard of her ascension to Queendom and curious if she's likeminded to himself and Ragnar.
• Egopolis: The reigning monarch of Ragnar's Rock is Ragnar.
• Elemental Embodiment: Beebz' mother is the Wind Goddess Vindra, who encountered Ragnar after a storm destroyed his ship one day and the two fell in love... until she was compelled by her very nature as the wind itself, taking her daughter Gale with her on a whim and leaving her husband and son behind.
• Eye Scream: The second phase of the final fight against Ragnar has him turned into a giant wyrm, and Beebz completing a platforming challenge in order to hit him in an eye and revert him to his humanoid form. He bears a black eye for the rest of the battle.
• Family of Choice: Upon 100% completion, Beebz ends up frustrated that Vindra caused so many problems by being selfish, and remarks that her whole family sucks. Runa decides to speak up, and point out that Beebz does have a family that doesn't suck: the one she chose, consisting of her friends.
• The Fashionista: Luci ends up taking a shine to outfit customization, to the point that her slide in the epilogue states that she's become a famous designer online.
• Fast Travel: As long as DK isn't separated from Beebz due to story reasons, such as Ragnar briefly splitting the team (and their boat) apart upon first reaching the second territory, Beebz can select any area she's already been to from a menu and DK will use his Shadow Walker powers to instantly warp her there.
• Hated by All: Mr. Mint, a reoccurring character that keeps trying to scam people, absolutely annoying Beebz and her friends in the process. His slide in the epilogue depicts him face-down in the ocean, and states that nobody knows or cares about what happened to him in the aftermath.
• Heel–Face Turn: If fought, Roc's epilogue reveals that Beebz inspired him to try to atone for his acts, but on his own, until he feels like he's earned the right to no longer be alone.
• Human Cannonball: After enough Golden Gears have been given to her, Runa's method of having Beebz's crew access new areas is by firing their entire ship out of a giant cannon located at her base (in order to get over the reefs blocking access). This includes firing it directly at Ragnar's Castle when it's time for the final confrontation.
• Human Popsicle: The islands in the second territory are almost all covered with snow and ice, with one in particular also having a bunch of completely frozen Lokians standing around a blown-up building. Talking to the one still conscious has them explain that the island was a Tridentarius research station developing freezing bullets, and their recent attempt at making a giant freezing bomb caused their current situation.
• In Medias Res: It's not until the end of the tutorial, after their ship is wrecked upon reaching Ragnar's Rock and Beebz has to reunite with her friends, for Luci to decide to do "a recap" and reminisce over why they came there in the first place.
• I've Come Too Far: In their final confrontation, this is Ragnar's justification for why he's continued to act as a tyrant even when Beebz points out that all it's led to is him alienating everyone to rot in his own empty castle, and pleads with him to stop and find another way.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Beez is addressed by her non-friend peers as "Queen", spoiling her success at usurpation in Demon Turf, and is accompanied on her new journey by all of the friends she made in the previous game, including the Weird Kid / "DK", the true form of the Final Boss of Demon Turf.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After the tutorial, Luci decides to recap how they got where they are now, summarizing the previous game as a narrator while Beebz is left confused why she's being referred to in the third-person even though she's standing in front of Luci. The recap also uses various illustrations, all of which turn out to be pictures Luci drew that are then shown scattered on the ground.
• Like a Son to Me: Runa's slide in the epilogue states that she started to see Beebz as family after working together to save, and then rebuild, Ragnar's Rock.
• The Lost Lenore: Ragnar's fall into the tyrant he is now started when his wife Vindra left him, taking a young Beebz with her. Later played with in that Vindra turns out to still be alive, but completely disinterested in visiting Ragnar or her children, unable to comprehend how her absence affected them.
• Mad Scientist: Ragnar's second champion is Tridentarius, a member of the Kappernian race that's been manufacturing dangerous Gearserkers out of the Lost Technology on Ragnar's Rock and polluting the sea with toxic goo, and her tower's security is so advanced that not even DK's Shadow Walker powers can bypass them.
• Modular Epilogue: The parts of the game's epilogue focusing on what happened to Ragnar's three champions will be crossed out and have the text replaced with just question marks if Beebz didn't defeat them. Additionally, a scene right before the epilogue begins will be skipped if Roc wasn't fought, as it depicts him witnessing Beebz's victory and vowing to atone.
• Plot Coupon: Similar to the Batteries of Demon Turf, Beebz needs to collect Golden Gears, Lost Technology from a previous civilization that's now scattered across the islands of Ragnar's Rock, in order to reach Ragnar's "champions" and the monarch's own floating castle.
• Pocket Dimension: Mr. Mint, a reoccurring character that looks like a sentient candy, makes Beebz pay him to explore pocket dimensions and scope out real estate, rewarding Talismans if she gets through them successfully.
• Rebel Leader: One of the first potential allies that Beebz's crew is informed of once they start exploring Ragnar's Rock is Runa, the leader of a local revolutionary movement against Ragnar. While her underlings are a tad too lax to be La Résistance, focusing more on racing each other or leaving graffiti for fun, she takes her work seriously, and only agrees to work with Beebz when it's clear that Beebz wants a confrontation with Ragnar and not an alliance.
• Save the Villain: Even after witnessing Ragnar's tyranny, Beebz tries her best to convince him to stop instead of trying to kill him, and even tries to save him from getting submerged in toxic goo at the end of the final fight against him. However, Ragnar refuses to accept her kindness, and then chooses death to atone for being a burden.
• Self-Disposing Villain: At the end of the final battle against him, Ragnar is left on a platform sinking into toxic goo, and Beebz tries to hold out her hand and rescue him. Ragnar, recognizing that Beebz shares Vindra's beautiful strength, declares that she didn't deserve any of what he put her through before breaking the platform and dropping into the goo.
• Semi-Divine: If the player seeks out optional locations, they receive cutscenes that show them Beebz' origin. It turns out that Ragnar married Vindra, the goddess of the wind, and she gave birth to two children for him- first came Roc, then Beebz, whose real name is actually Gale. This explains where Beebz' powers come from, with her transformations inherited from her father, and her airdashing coming from her mother.
• Shadow Walker: DK has powers over space, allowing him to phase himself and other people for safety or Fast Travel.
• Sixth Ranger: Runa is a local of Ragnar's Rock that initially doesn't think highly of Beebz's crew, but decides to directly tag along with them after they've proven their capabilities and gathered enough Golden Gears to reach the third section of Ragnar's Rock.
• Superpowerful Genetics: Beebz's ancestry becomes an important plot point, as it turns out that Ragnar's Rock is the home of others of her kind called "Lokians", who are amazed at Beebs being able to not only transform into multiple creatures, but also seamlessly switching between them all without exhausting herself; Tridentarius attributes this difference to Beebz inheriting Ragnar's power. Other Lokians can rarely transform into one form at a time, let alone without losing all their stamina and getting stuck in said form until they recover. She also inherited her mother's power, which is responsible for her air dashes and starts to manifest during the final battle with Ragnar.
• Surprisingly Creepy Moment:
  • Dunkelwald is a town submerged in total darkness, with mysterious ghostly figures roaming around. None of the Lokians "living" there are able to talk, and there are enormous crab-like monsters aimlessly roaming in circles. The presence of Jump Scare chests implies that it was the doing of the same demon from the first game.
  • The Crooked Crow is a Ghost Ship nearby Dunkelwald that needs to be revealed by a lighthouse, and it's almost totally abandoned in the ice. Just getting onto it is fairly arduous, and when you make it there, you'll see dozens of glowing hands emerging from the cargo hold. The implication is that the ship crashed and sank, and is now haunted by the remains of the crew.
  • In Thuinir, Beebz can come across two scholars outside an enormous pit on an island called Skull Sceal. Talking with them reveals that this pit was used by the Eunans for an unknown but apparently grim purpose. The reason? They suffered a plague and threw their infected into an enormous hole to save themselves. Jumping down the hole reveals the scholars were right, with Beebz landing on an enormous mound of avian skulls.
• Totally Radical: DK constantly inserts phrases like "lol", "holla", and "pog" into his speech, to Beebz's distaste and confusion. It turns out that he's trying to rediscover himself after the whole "Demon King" thing, and is overcompensating while trying to be cool enough to fit into his new friend group. Most of the conversations in Thuinir have him drop this verbal tic once his friends let him know that they genuinely like him.
• Tyke-Bomb: Roc was led to believe that when Vindra left Ragnar, she took his little sister Beebz with her to turn her into one of these and fight back against Ragnar. Learning that Beebz grew up an orphan completely shakes his beliefs.
• The Un-Smile: One Talisman's effect makes Beebz try to smile, with the result being so unnerving that enemies hesitate to attack her.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Vindra's disappearance, and taking Beebz with her only to abandon her later, led to Ragnar becoming a tyrant, Roc becoming one of Ragnar's champions and resenting Beebz for what he assumed was her role in some plan Vindra didn't want him to be a part of, and Beebz to grow up without a family. It turns out that all of this is just because Vindra hated being stuck in one place and wanted to be free again, never bothering to explain herself or visit any of them afterwards until Beebz outright seeks her out, and doesn't comprehend how selfish she's been or how much her family has missed her.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Ragnar's flying castle, especially given that it can only be accessed by firing Beebz's ship directly through the eye on it with her giant cannon, like with accessing other areas, save that there's no chance of a safe landing this time. That being said, Midgi improvises a ship-sized parachute from Luci's cloth stocks that will let Beebz and her crew leave the castle at will.
• Villainous Harlequin: One of Ragnar's three champions that Beebz has to confront and defeat is one of these, named Jester.
• World of Masks: With the exception or Rebel Leader Runa, every regular Lokian that Beebz meets in Ragnar's Rock is wearing a mask, as part of Ragnar's tyranny over them is forbidding them from showing their faces. Beebz draws a lot of comments for being brave enough to not wear one. Once Ragnar is defeated, the first scene of the epilogue is of the freed Lokians removing their masks.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Upon learning from Roc that he'd contacted her because he heard about her violent ascension to Queendom and was hoping she'd be more like Ragnar and himself, Beebz starts to reflect on her past actions and how selfish her motivations were, eventually leading to her abdication.