Poison Control

Poison Control is an outrageously stylish 3rd person shooter/dungeon crawler bursting with personality and charm, offering comically witty writing and surprisingly dark subject matter. Set in a world where the deceased are bound to their own personal Hell after death, you venture through each tormentingly personalised Hell learning the detailed sins of each inhabitant and help them resolve the issues from their past life. This might just be my new favourite hidden gem!

Developer: Nippon Ichi Software

Publisher: NIS

Genre: JRPG

Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch

Review Code provided by: NIS

“Spirits are being trapped in poisonous manifestations of their despair, and only Poisonette and her Soul Mate can purify them! Venture through the different Belles' Hells to defeat enemies, learn the stories of fallen souls and other Poisonettes, and fight your way to Heaven in this stylishly twisted action shooter!”

Gameplay

Have you ever wondered what someone else’s fever dream would look like? Well look no further because this game is the pure embodiment of a fever dream, I wasn’t sure what was even going on for the first couple of hours. There’s so much visual stimulation taking place on the screen it’s hard to wrap your mind around what you’re actually supposed to be doing. This plays well into the game's unique charm, it’s not very often we see a company make such bold statements through their game design but NIS knocks it out of the park consistently, always offering a fresh experience. It’s safe to say Poison Control is nothing like anything I’ve played before, to break it down to its simplest elements I’d consider it mostly akin to a dungeon crawler. The art style is so incredibly stylised and aesthetically pleasing to look at, the world feels so uniquely crafted it’s hard not to fall in love with it, from the many character models to the UI and menus everything just looks phenomenal. Such a beautiful game.

In terms of level design it’s pretty simplistic, the game will have you working (cleaning) your way through dungeon like areas and although they might feel a bit empty at first when the action starts you’ll be happy about that, even with the lack of set pieces I thoroughly felt invested into each level via the individually written stories. Thematically the isolated areas make sense to the game's story and world building so the dungeon type level design really helps reinforce that each new level is uniquely representing someone's personal Hell.

The core gameplay loop is: make your way through the level/dungeon while shooting enemies and cleaning up poison. It’s a real shame that the shooting feels clunky and a bit awkward to aim, it’s not spectacular but rather just serviceable. Sending “Poisonette” out to “Purge” is a very fun mechanic, if you can manage to encircle an enemy within its effect then it stuns them and deals some damage simultaneously. It’s also used to replenish your health and ammo which you’ll constantly be running out of, so remember to “Purge” as often as possible. Seriously, you’ll be surprised at how addictive cleaning up the poison can be, there’s something really pleasing about it. While there are skills to invest into at periodically appointed scenarios throughout the story there’s a huge lack of customisation, It would have been nice to see some appearance customisation rather than just picking your gender and voice.

Story

While the main premise might not be anything groundbreaking the individual stories throughout is where this game really shines, each level is heavily narratively driven and focuses on the emotional turmoil after death. The subject matter is surprisingly morbid and really contrasts against the games colourful exterior, I won’t mention anything specific to avoid spoilers but the game has a surprising way of eliciting an emotional response from the player. Each character is well written, the scripts are full of witty banter shared between the characters making each new segment very enjoyable to read, I found myself chuckling more and more as the game progressed. There’s no English voice acting which is a shame but I didn’t feel like it affected my overall experience so don’t be put off by that. It handles some really dark topics while keeping things light and enjoyable making it easily digestible in short or long play sessions.

There aren’t any traditionally animated cutscenes the story is delivered through comic styled text boxes with little animated characters similar to a visual novel, although not as engaging as traditional cutscenes it’s still very effective at concisely portraying the story, maybe we can hope for an English dubbed sequel with cutscenes in the future.

It’s a relatively short title, the average playtime for a single playthrough will take you about 11-15 hours depending on your playstyle, so it’d be a great game to play intermittently playing one level at a time when you have an hour or two spare.

Sound and Performance

The sound track is comprised of a variety of genres from Jazz Rock to Electronic and although there’s a lack of consistency with its musical themes through the use of similar genres the music that’s there mostly fits the mood and helps to compliment the settings. The performance was pretty sturdy, there was the occasional noticeable dip in the frame-rate but nothing immersion breaking, although at times the game fully stopped to catch up but this wasn’t a regular occurrence for me. The lack of motion controls is a bit disappointing, not having them doesn’t really affect the experience as a whole but it would have made a nice addition. It might have its issues but overall it’s actually a really stable and impressive port.

Conclusion

A bizarrely addictive dungeon crawler with a mature story all packaged in a beautifully presented but not flawless game and although it might not be for everyone there’s an amazingly unique experience on offer, if you’re into your more obscure JRPGs then you’ll love Poison Control.

2/3

Good game, worth your time and money.

Pros

Beautiful Artstyle

Fun Combat

Enjoyable Stories

One of a kind

Cons

No English Dub

Dungeons can be a bit repetitive

Author: Gabriel Sewell