World's End Club Review

World’s End Club originally released for Apple Arcade is an interesting mix of visual novel, side scrolling, light platforming and puzzle solving elements. Featuring a fully voiced cast of characters known as the “Go-Getters Club” each with a unique personality, embark on an epic adventure across a post-apocalyptic Japan while making imperative choices along the way. Is this a great entry point into Visual Novels?

Developer: IzinagiGames

Publisher: NIS

Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch

Review Code Provided

“Renowned game writers Kotaro Uchikoshi and Kazutaka Kodaka return with a brand-new game that’s easy to dive into and full of twists and turns. This charming and vivid story of friendship and mystery will captivate new and experienced players alike!”

You begin by assuming the role of silent protagonist Reycho, the appointed leader of the “Go-Getters Club” as you band together and journey across post apocalyptic Japan in hopes of returning to Tokyo, it starts when the groups field trip goes awry after witnessing a strange event only to wake up on the opposite side of Japan. The game is heavily story focused so you’ll be glad to know the pacing is very well handled, the story beats are consistently delivered at regular intervals keeping you fully invested in the plot and eager to learn more. Featuring a total of twelve main characters each full of individuality and charm, although they can sometimes feel a bit one note after a while they still grew on me almost instantly. Most of the character development will take place during the camping sequences so make sure you stop and listen to all the dialog available from each character before continuing, it’ll not only help you fully understand and appreciate them on a more personal level but gives you a chance to further understand the bonds and dynamics between them.

The first act is a poor representation of what to expect from the rest of the game, it starts on a very strong premise of death and deception only to swiftly move on to a more family fun group adventure that’s still fairly dark but much more accessible to younger players while still remaining suitable for a more mature audience. While it might not take itself too seriously it still holds a fairly dark undertone when you consider that this story is about a group of children essentially surviving the apocalypse with only each other as comfort, there’s a heavy focus on the sociological repercussions of trauma within a group setting as we witness power struggles for leadership and a lot of misplaced trust. It doesn’t focus too heavily on these themes which is a shame considering it’s from the Danganronpa creator but there’s enough there to satisfy long time fans of the franchise.

As you travel across Japan you’ll be confronted by many obstacles in the form of puzzles and small platforming segments to break up the story, both of which are only implemented lightly. The platforming feels loose and inaccurate, the character physics are floaty leaving the platforming segments more like an afterthought than a main feature, traversing the world is made engaging enough to keep your attention but feels more like a tool to keep the story progressing rather than an enjoyable experience of its own. I found the puzzles to be pretty bland and only just enough to keep my attention but not overly challenging or thought provoking, so while you won’t be left scratching your head they’re still enjoyable enough to make for a great relaxing experience overall. Most of the puzzles will be solved by using the different characters unique skills known as a “Buddy Skill” you’ll use these to help defeat enemies or overcome obstacles blocking your path working together as a team, you’ll periodically take control of different characters as you progress.

The graphics and art style look really nice and perfectly suited for docked or handheld play to no surprise considering it was originally released for Apple Arcade in early access and later brought to the Nintendo Switch, the world comes to life with highly detailed areas and gorgeous backdrops with vibrant colours throughout, proving to not only be visually stunning to look at but a treat to explore too.

The sound track is perfectly serviceable and although there isn't anything particularly memorable or even worth noting it did compliment the mood of each scene and the game as a whole. Also, the audio has some balancing issues, the music is too loud on the default settings and although the music and audio is sidechained when any dialog is taking place it still sounds jarring hearing the volume difference between the two so be sure to hop in the settings and adjust it, you can thank me later. How is the voice acting you ask? It’s by far one of the best features, each character being well represented and enjoyable to listen to really helps justify this games overall playability by letting you invest yourself into this large cast of lovable and varying characters.

Performance wise it holds up fairly well with only the occasional stutter or dip in the frame-rate keeping mostly at a consistent 30fps but that should be expected considering it was originally designed to be played on mobile devices.

Conclusion

World’s End Club is a wonderfully bizarre experience perfectly suited for fans of Visual Novels, while it might not excel at being a platformer or a puzzle game respectively it does excel at keeping the player engaged. This might even be a good game to help introduce you to the world of Visual Novels, I can’t say it’s worth the full retail price but I’d fully recommend grabbing it on sale, I wouldn’t suggest paying any more than about £19.99 for the standard edition.

2/3

Good game, Worth your time and money.

Pros

Fully Voiced

Enjoyable Story

Beautiful art style

Cons

Poor platforming

Generic puzzles

Author: Gabriel Sewell