Food Devils, the upcoming strategy RPG from Studio Daimon, launches on 5 November 2026. It combines grid-based tactics, roguelike progression, restaurant customisation and relationship-driven storytelling in a post-apocalyptic setting.
Players take the role of a chef recruiting demons for survival. Hunting enemies supplies ingredients, which can be turned into dishes, served at a customisable restaurant and used to attract adventurers and the five Food Devils. Players can form Devil Contracts with those characters or pursue romances.
The game’s systems are designed to form one continuous loop. Expeditions provide ingredients, cooking creates useful combat effects, restaurant design influences which adventurers arrive, and those adventurers can join later expeditions. Story events also respond to what happens during each run.
One game built around connected systems
Restaurant furniture changes the types of adventurers who visit and can affect their personal traits. Meals influence expedition statistics such as healing strength and movement. Rather than functioning as a separate management mode, the restaurant is intended to be the calmer, social side of the tactics game.
Studio Daimon has deliberately avoided cooking minigames. Food animations remain part of the presentation, but players can move quickly back to tactical battles and character relationships.
Devil Contracts reshape every expedition
Adventurers begin with their own statistics and traits, but a Devil Contract can reclass them, alter their appearance and provide a different starting toolkit. The same character can therefore perform a completely different role depending on the Devil leading the expedition.
The roguelike structure adds further variation through Skill Packs, Events and Master Rules. A Shielder-class adventurer might protect allies with Armor and knock enemies back in one run, then summon Bombees and heal poisoned characters in another.
Calories, Hunger and tactical risk
Each expedition includes one exceptionally powerful Devil alongside up to four human adventurers. The arrangement deliberately reverses the usual role of the overpowered veteran often found in tactics RPGs; players familiar with the Jagen archetype will recognise the idea.
Devils need Calories to use their strongest attacks, while humans generate Calories through battlefield actions. At the start of a run, players select a Master Rule that determines how Calories are produced. Possible conditions include ending movement beside a Bonfire or causing summons to explode.
Generating each Calorie adds one point of Hunger to the responsible adventurer. Excessive Hunger can permanently kill that character, creating a constant choice between empowering the Devil and protecting the human team. The risk-reward design draws inspiration from roguelikes including Darkest Dungeon and Aethermancer.
Restaurant culture affects the world
The restaurant’s culture reflects choices such as aggressive or peaceful play, although some of these world-changing systems were still in development when Studio Daimon discussed the game. The aim is for a player’s preferred route to become increasingly visible in the setting, story and mechanics.
Following the Poison Devil’s progress-focused outlook may eventually introduce money to the initially free restaurant, allowing scientifically enhanced starting skills to be purchased. Supporting the Vegan Devil can unlock a pacifist route that favours neutralising monsters instead of killing them.
These choices are tied to each Devil’s ideology. Aligning with a character means engaging with their beliefs and allowing those beliefs to shape how the game develops.
Romance with strategic consequences
Romance is connected to progression rather than ending at a single confession scene. Quests and support conversations nurture a Devil’s Appetite, strengthening that character and unlocking new meta-progression abilities.
Players can also influence relationships between the Devils. If Hunter Devil becomes close to Poison Devil, for example, some adventurers may use Poison’s Contract even when Hunter is captain. That creates unusual combinations of starting skills and Master Rules, opening new strategic possibilities.
Support conversations can contribute to the main story as well as relationships. Studio Daimon says the Devils’ designs are only one part of their appeal; dialogue, consequences and deliberately spicy exchanges are also intended to make those connections feel meaningful.
Food Devils release date and demo
Food Devils releases on 5 November 2026. A four-hour free demo is already available on Steam.
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