Garry's Mod
Garry's Mod
Game
Game2025
Demonic Mahjong
Developer Boxed Lighting Games
Demonic Mahjong is a Roguelike deckbuilding game inspired by the timeless mechanics of Mahjong. Masterfully use the tiles in your hand to craft powerful combinations, reach staggering high scores, and develop strategies that are uniquely your own! From the Steam store page
207 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Nov 3, 2026 · last updated Nov 4, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
88
LovedLoved
169 positive · 24 negative
95% range 82–91%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 169 | 24 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 10 | 1 | 2 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
386 of 414 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
88% recommend · 175 yes, 25 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 200 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Overwhelmingly Positive (5,422 of 5,662 positive).
Players praise Demonic Mahjong as a Balatro-like roguelike deckbuilder with mahjong, calling it addictive and fun. [1][2][3] Some reviewers note the game lacks a proper tutorial, making it hard for beginners to learn mahjong. [4][5][6] A few players criticize the use of AI-generated art, which they find disappointing. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [7]
This game is really fun, I loved it. However, the developers have clearly and obviously begun to use more and more genai in the development, with the newest DLC having characters that are barely cleaned up from their aigen models. I don't know if they always used ai in the character art, I don't remember there being any ai discloser when I bought it, but it's there now. However, I find the description of what they …
- [2]
The only negative reviews i see are people downloading a mahjong game then complaining they dont know how to play mahjong. Edit for the FREE DLC: There is an unreasonable amount of content in this game and its one of the best roguelike deck builders I've played. They even listened to the reviews where people cried they didnt understand the scary Chinese tile game and added a mode that lets you effectively play Poker …
- [5]
Balatro-style Mahjong with high production value, a banger title song and lots of fun synergies between tiles (cards), relics (StS-style relics) and figurines (jokers). Not far in yet, but so far I've loved every second. Only caveats: English dub isn't good, I recommend switching to the original Chinese or the nicely done Japanese. Also the tutorial barely explains anything. You might need to read up on the Mahjong …
- [10]
Demonic Mahjong — Roguelike deckbuilding with real Mahjong hands TL;DR: A surprisingly deep roguelike where Mahjong rules meet deckbuilding chaos—stack spirits, relics, and tile upgrades, then turn one good hand into an absurdly satisfying run. Intro : Demonic Mahjong takes the core logic of Mahjong—hands, scoring, and timing—and drags it into a roguelike run structure. Instead of “just” chasing points, each run …
- [1]
It's like Balatro, but better because it's Mahjong and not poker.
Summarised from 34 of the 213 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
88% of the 200 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Demonic Mahjong. The complaint that keeps coming up: poor English voice acting; recommend switching to Chinese or Japanese. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Reactions
60 of 207 · most liked firstIt's like Balatro, but better because it's Mahjong and not poker.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The only negative reviews i see are people downloading a mahjong game then complaining they dont know how to play mahjong. Edit for the FREE DLC: There is an unreasonable amount of content in this game and its one of the best roguelike deck builders I've played. They even listened to the reviews where people cried they didnt understand the scary Chinese tile game and added a mode that lets you effectively play Poker with your tiles instead.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is really fun, I loved it. However, the developers have clearly and obviously begun to use more and more genai in the development, with the newest DLC having characters that are barely cleaned up from their aigen models. I don't know if they always used ai in the character art, I don't remember there being any ai discloser when I bought it, but it's there now. However, I find the description of what they used it for suspect, as the newer art looks SIGNIFICIENTLY more like genai slop,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slay the Spire + Balatro but with mahjong and anime girls. 11/10. Before starting this game I have no idea how to play mahjong. But this game is a decent enough teacher. Well the same way Balatro teaches poker hands at least. P.S: I recommend using either chinese or japanese voices, much better than the AI english voice at least.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mahjong always looked daunting to me but I actually learned how to play it with this game. So kudos dev.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yes, this is a positive review and i refunded the game. Im just too dumb for this game i really wish i could understand better, but that doesnt mean i cannot recommened it because the graphics are incredible, the music is top tier. The only thing i could ask is a better tutorial or like a permanent tutorial.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Balatro-style Mahjong with high production value, a banger title song and lots of fun synergies between tiles (cards), relics (StS-style relics) and figurines (jokers). Not far in yet, but so far I've loved every second. Only caveats: English dub isn't good, I recommend switching to the original Chinese or the nicely done Japanese. Also the tutorial barely explains anything. You might need to read up on the Mahjong basics. There is helpful ingame stuff though when it comes to understanding some…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So far impressions are good. I didn't really know how to play, and the game didn't teach me so I had to look elsewhere, so here's the skinny, for those who want to gauge approximate complexity without too much jargon: - 4 identical copies of each tile. Only 3 "suits" (chinese characters, dots, bamboo) plus other random characters that you don't need to identify, really (4 different single-character "winds" and 3 symbol/colored "dragons"). - You can make 3-tile sets: a run/sequence/straight of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't know who thought "Hey, lets combine Mahjong with Rougelike mechanics and add in hot anime girls" and thought it was a good idea, but whoever did it needs a raise. I had something of a love-hate relationship with Mahjong, originally being introduced to it in Final Fantasy 14's Golden Saucer, then moving on to versions with tutorials and ranked systems like Richii City and Mahjong Soul before eventually landing onto this game. At first, I was curious about Mahjong. Then, I hated it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is very addictive. Demonic Mahjong plays similar to rummy-style card games that you may be familiar with such as Phase 10, Rummikub, Five Crowns, Shanghai Rummy, etc. The common thread between these is the core gameplay loop of starting with a set of cards / tiles, then drawing and discarding to achieve some sort of scoring pattern. In the rummy-style games I mentioned, there is typically a set pattern that each player is racing to achieve (ex: certain number of pairs, three-of-a-kinds,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Balatro but with Mahjong. It is played a little different than normal Mahjong and you can bend the rules, so you don't have to be an expert mahjong player, but it helps to know the basics.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Demonic Mahjong — Roguelike deckbuilding with real Mahjong hands TL;DR: A surprisingly deep roguelike where Mahjong rules meet deckbuilding chaos—stack spirits, relics, and tile upgrades, then turn one good hand into an absurdly satisfying run. Intro : Demonic Mahjong takes the core logic of Mahjong—hands, scoring, and timing—and drags it into a roguelike run structure. Instead of “just” chasing points, each run asks you to build a plan: recruit spirit allies, grab relic-style boosts, and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →To start off this review I must give this game its credit. This game is actually a good bit of fun! Its tutorials are a bit rushed and accessing them again doesn't seem to be possible, but once you wrap your head around the flow of this game's gameplay it can be a good bit of fun. Where this game falls flat is unfortunately what you'll see at the bottom of its description: the use of AI assets. To clarify I typically abstain from buying games with AI use at all from a personal standpoint, and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Didn't really like the overabundance of AI art. I think the UI is quite difficult navigate as well. Also as someone who really like Riichi Mahjong this is obviously Chinese Mahjong inspired, so that also possibly hurt my experience so take my opinion with some salt I guess? The animations did cause my eyes pain though and I feel like there was a lot of added parts for 'fake' complexity. I dunno : /
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gameplay feels good but the genAI is the game killer!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →awesome game, not hard to learn despite what other reviews say, the game starts u off really easy and does quite a bit of handholding id recommend to anyone who is a fan of slay the spire, mahjong or roguelites
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I hate to say it, but I think I like this even more than traditional Riichi Mahjong... Even though it uses the Chinese and English terms for everything. Even though it doesn't respect traditional rules like Dora, Seat/Prevalent Wind. And even though it seems to have even more Yaku than usual... there's something satisfying about the ridiculously high scores you can achieve with truly cursed hands by picking your figurines and relics right. After a long day of getting schooled in Mahjong Soul…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is very, very good. Mahjong is packed with interesting and inventive winning hands and as such is a perfect candidate for the Balatro style genre where you bend your fate by modifying your deck. If you play a lot of actual mahjong you do have to drop some elements of the mindset developed there and really look at Demonic Mahjong as its own thing, in particular the fact you can claim winning hands multiple times in a game. I'm really impressed with the 3D models in the game too. All…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've seen people complain that this game doesn't have enough of a Mahjong tutorial, and they're wrong. The entire game is a mahjong tutorial, with each character specializing in a specific part of the game. Just by playing you'll pick up concepts, first focusing narrowly on a single characters specialty, and then diversifying as you unlock more characters. The powers and items help keep every session fresh, allowing you to try different characters, builds, and loadouts if one strategy gets…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beware, if you're not familiar with Majhong this game is going to be difficult. The tutorial is horrendously bad. The gameplay/terms/effects are extremely hard to read and understand. I had to watch a video to learn how to play Mahjong. But then the game adds 50 layers of complexity. There aren't ~10 possible combinations but what feels like 200. And the determinism to get toward 1 or another feels very unclear. I won once, but to be honest I'm not sure what I did so well. The game is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →its balatro + slay the spire but mahjong instead of poker or cards. It's a good game albeit severely damaging to ones reputation. Honestly, I think the game has a crisis of identity, it should either be a serious mahjong roguelike balatro-like game or it should be a porn game. Ecchi is the cowards way out. It is very good though.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is the Balatro of Mahjong. So far I got more fun playing this than Balatro
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The biggest crime this game commits is forcing you to listen to the english dub before you can turn it off.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you're familiar with Mahjong (the real game, not the tile-match game using Mahjong tiles), it might be OK. If you don't have experience with the actual game, though, the quick explanation they give of the game is far too rushed. Expect a lot of confusion about what you're doing, and why.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great premise marred by an acrid taste This is a strange game which presents itself like a mahjong balatro synthesis, and to some degree they are successful in that regard. You are tasked with making hands, finding combos then abusing the mechanics for massive profit in points and I've certainly had fun doing so. There are many roads to victory and many small Aha! moments that lead to a better understanding of this game. That being said the onboarding, descriptions and general QoL are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is simply a hidden gem as of now. I will be comparing this game to Balatro as the headliner in the table-top card game + roguelike mashup in this review. I feel that it not only makes the most sense but that most people interested in this game will already have known and played Balatro for at least some time before having stumbled upon Demonic Mahjong. I have a potentially hot take about this game: it’s better than Balatro even in its current state and will get even better with…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →To get past the two big elephants in the room, yeah, almost every character you battle is incredibly top-heavy. If you can get past that, there is a LOT here to like. If that's what you're here for, then I guess there is even more to like. This game fits the perfect mix of Balatro and Chinese Mahjong. By that I mean that you need a cursory knowledge of some common Mahjong terms and actions, but once you start going this game has about as much to do with Mahjong as Balatro does with Poker.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Demonic Mahjong is a Mahjong-based roguelike game. I would only recommend buying it if you already understand the rules of Mahjong, because the game’s tutorial is a joke—it throws a massive wall of text at you that’s confusing, poorly explained, and unnecessarily long.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Going to submit that I've never played Mahjong prior to owning this game, and so I have to give credit where its due: You can pick up this game, learn the mechanics, and have fun. All that said, there is a rough side to this game that puts it well behind greats like Balatro and Slay the Spire. The entire meta of the game seems to be manipulate your rack to get 13 identical tiles, then win. Yes, there are other combinations that are good, but 13 Identical tiles (perfect uniformity) gets a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sadly, the application of AI generated content was very noticeable in prominent aspects of the game. Would definitely get the game once the voice acting, music and icons have been replaced with their non-AI final versions. Had to refund the game because of this.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Truly a great game. Only real flaw is lack of "defeat" CGs if you know what I mean.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First off, game is Mahjong Crack. But normally I review a game after I am completely finished with it, but I just have to give a positive review right now cause they just announced ANOTHER free major update. The game already has HUNDREDS of hours of replay value, and they KEEP adding free major updates with new characters and figurines and even new gameplay features. Devs deserve praise for sure.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I think I'm in a very Asian time of my life... very fun game too
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good roguelite for players who already understand the rules of Riichi or Chinese Mahjong. I wouldn’t recommend it as a way to learn the mechanics though, something like Mahjong Soul or a similar game would be better for that.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Capping off Halloween with a voice acting role announcement! 🎙️ I’m the voice of Little Red and Black Swan in the game Demonic Mahjong for their latest DLC update: Full Moon Fable which released over the weekend ❤️🖤 #videogamevoiceactor #videogamevoiceover #voiceactor #voiceoverartist #voiceactress
neutral · AI labelView post →Super fun balatro-like game that could have been a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gacha but is instead a one time purchase. However, stays a negative review until the AI backgrounds & assets are replaced :(
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's everything I wanted from Balatro and more. The Slay the Spire-esque map, events, and upgrades are very well implemented, the characters all offer unique play-styles, the difficulty scales well, the OST is great, and the different builds you can make for each character are fun and interesting. Overall, the game is ridiculously fun. Easily worth the price (especially on sale).
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought and refunded this game like, three separate times. But ngl the fourth time, it just *CLICKED* and its the most fun card game I've played in a while.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty much Balatro but with Mahjong. I've no clue how to play Mahjong (and I still don't) and still having fun with the game. There're also many characters for you to unlock and choose, each with the difference plan on what kind of hand or suit you want to aim for.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →store.steampowered.com/app/3444020/... Demonic Mahjong, whose demo I rather liked, is now properly released. This combines Balatro, Slay the Spire and mahjong (HK rather than riichi) elements. Number gets Real Big
positive · AI labelView post →To the mahjong heads out there: last night, a mahjong roguelike called Demonic Mahjong released on Steam. I haven't played too much yet but early impressions are very positive! It's doing a very different thing from Aotenjo, the other mahjong roguelike. store.steampowered.com/app/3444020/...
positive · AI labelView post →An incoherent, unfocused mess riddled with horrid gen-AI content Edit: Grade updated to F from D- ⛔ Extremely poor English translation There are just tons of poorly translated names, descriptions, relics, etc. that make it really difficult to understand what's happening ⛔ Extensive use of gen AI Really jarring animations and art immediately kill any feeble attempts at immersion ⛔ Horrid onboarding experience Wow, what a terrible way to try and teach a game to a newcomer. Just info-dump…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I think the developers have lied about their AI usage. The main menu song feels AI generated itself, which gives me no confidence that anything else isn't AI generated. I am ok with AI in the case of, how they put it: "during the conceptual design and demo stages" the problem is they either didn't bother to remove those AI concepts, which includes the main menu theme, or have just lied. If I could refund this game again I would, as I refunded it early because man, this game does not explain…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Balatro meets mahjong with waifus, yeah baby! Absolutely insane value for such a low price. Much easier to get into than real mahjong, vast replayability and on top of that - free updates that make the game even larger. I'm completely hooked.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mahjong causes great damage to the human spirit without a single benefit
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gamba gamba Really addicting roguelike taking Mahjong as a base and adjusting it perfectly into a one on one roguelike format. Only thing is doesn't explain the core rules of Mahjong well so you are required to know how to play beforehand to understand the game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Edit Gameplay is fun, but bad english translation and voice acting kinda ruin everything. I recommend trying it, but at the current state it's not enjoyable unless you have knowledge on either how mahjong works or how games akin to balatro function in terms of maximizing your score. Missing QOL like numbers on tiles and changing language for game terms tipped me over from positive to negative, I can accept when a game is a bit frustrating, but I have to fight it to play it
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unless you already know the game or can read the tiles/characters you're just going to be guessing or bobbing your head like the huh-cat.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very cool roguelike, mahjong knowledge is good but not necessary. Lots of replayability due to lots of characters/build options. You'll either love or hate the soundtrack and voices.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mahjong meet Balatro. This isn't the traditional mahjong game. For non mahjong players the tutorial will teach how to play this game. it is so addictive that you can't stop playing it. I manly play in my steam deck offline so the time i played doesn't record into it. For steamdeck user can play with trackpad, touchscreen and your R2 trigger. Eastern developers rocks.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is Mahjong but without the pain, suffering and despair that it usually induces. I only played a little and already had an amazing time with it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't know how to play Mahjong before and I still don't know after 50+ hours. EDIT 2025/10/11: My game just crash after finished a round and stuck on black screen when restarting the game. Saw other people having the same issue and might be save file corrupted. I checked my save file "Slot0.json" and the file have 40 kb but it has nothing when open thru notepad. Then I open thru hex editor and it is all 00. Remove the Slot0.json does fix the black screen but my progress are all gone. Unlucky…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game truly is as fun and engaging as all the other reviews suggest. I want to address a question I had before taking a chance, which was whether the tiles had any western indices (arabic numbers and latin letters) to help people who aren't good at sight-reading Chinese characters. Turns out they have a very elegant system for this: you simply hover over any given tile and it clearly shows you the English descriptions. It works very well, as you'll be hovering over tiles a lot anyway (and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The use of AI in this game is very obvious from the get go. Most of the voices are cringingly AI that sound like old GPS navigation. The main menu has a song that feels like it was written by AI, and the default voice/language for the song is "virtual singer" followed by Japanese and English. Whatever voice/language you choose it all sounds like lifeless AI. In game is no different. There is a companion that helps you while playing, it's AI voiced. I expect as you continue playing there are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game. Balatro like scoring with slay the spire progress for each run.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've heard this game described as Balatro but with Mahjong, and in terms of gameplay that's true, the mechanics are well done. However, the overly suggestive opponents and cringey voice acting really puts me off. This game could be so good if the theme wasn't built specifically for ogling anime girls with weird early-90s-style boob animation. It's gross. If they ever make a less icky version I'll happily play some more but for now I'm shelving it, despite enjoying the Mahjong (and the banger…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While not claiming to get all of the finer points of the real game nor a big fan of the characters all being big breasted anime gals, I'm loving how they made Mahjong into a 2 player game and how all of the playable characters have such unique game breaking abilities (not that the game is ever a push over as your opponents also have game breaking abilities).
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →playing this because I suck ass at MahjongSoul and scoring nasty bazillion point hands on this makes me feel slightly better
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon, wow demon ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣤⣾⡿⠿⢿⣦⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⢀⣶⣿⣶⣶⣶⣦⣤⣄⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣰⣿⠟⠁⣀⣤⡄⢹⣷⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⢸⣿⡧⠤⠤⣌⣉⣩⣿⡿⠶⠶⠒⠛⠛⠻⠿⠶⣾⣿⣣⠔⠉⠀⠀⠙⡆⢻⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⢸⣿⠀⠀⢠⣾⠟⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣾⣿⡃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢻⠘⣿⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠘⣿⡀⣴⠟⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠛⠻⢶⣤⣀⠀⢘⠀⣿⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⢿⣿⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠉⠛⢿⣴⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⣸⡟⠀⠀⠀⣴⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣷⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠻⣷⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⢰⣿⠁⠀⠀⣰⠿⣇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢻⣷⡀⠀⢠⡄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡀⠀⠹⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Incredible game. If you've played the Sky-High Ambition minigame in Mahjong Soul, this is similar (though with Chinese scoring rules rather than Japanese yaku) but with a lot more depth. The gameplay is structured like Slay the Spire, where you traverse through a flowchart-style map full of random events to acquire items and upgrades to "deckbuild" your deck of mahjong tiles. The combat sections pits you against an AI who's basically also playing Sky-High Ambition, and so there's lots of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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