Death End re;Quest takes what we know and love about JRPG’s and visual novels and mashes them together into one game. It’s a strange but compelling notion as you explore a standard MMORPG world a la Sword Art Online and other isekai (another world) properties but also see the ramifications in the real world at the same time.
This is both the best and worst thing about Death End re;Quest. It appeals to two potentially different audiences – with some crossover, of course – equally without overwhelming you with one or the other. That’s great but it also is hurt by the fact that the visual novel portions of the game are far and away more interesting than any of the RPG elements.
Death End re;Quest Review: Sword Art Offline
The game begins with you taking the role of Shina, a girl trapped in a seemingly offline MMORPG. This is where the heart of the RPG portion of Death End is. If you are familiar with the Neptunia series, then you’ll know what to expect from this portion of the game. But if you’re a newcomer to a Compile Heart game like myself, it plays out as a more interactive turn-based RPG.
You have different segmented environments that you can explore with a few treasures here and there to collect and tons of enemies – none of which are random encounters – to fight. In battle, you are taken to a separate screen where the real action happens. On the right side of the screen, you can see the order everyone will go in per usual.
What’s interesting, though, is that you can move each of your party members around the map freely on your turn. There aren’t any limits to how far they can travel on the map like in strategy RPG’s so you’re free to set up the perfect attack each turn. The various party members aka beautiful, busty anime girls that you meet along your journey each have a different attack style.
While one party member might shoot arrows in a straight line across the field, another may only attack in a small cone directly in front of them. Even still, unique skills will also sometimes act differently than a character’s normal attacks. This adds a level of welcome strategy to Death End re;Quest that isn’t found in most turn-based RPG’s.
Death End re;Quest Review: Active Turn-Based Combat
You are able to set up to three attacks per character’s turn, allowing you to mix and match at will. However, stringing together a full combo of the same attack can lead to knocking the enemy backward. Therein lies the most strategic element, in my opinion, as you are able to knock an enemy across the map, into the wall, bounce them off the wall, hit another enemy with said enemy, and take them both out.
It is unfortunate that the UI during battle isn’t the most appealing to the eye. It’s rather cluttered and all over the place, lacking that bit of polish that the UI outside battle has. What’s worse is that the strategy in this game is welcome but not necessary to beat the game. This is because it’s a pretty easy game. Whether or not this is to welcome non-RPG fans or what have you, some of the more powerful abilities like the corruption ones can one-shot entire bosses.
This is what bogs down Death End re;Quest the most. While it does offer a full-on RPG, it’s not a very interesting one. The combat is super easy and the environments aren’t the most detailed nor nice to look at. This makes dungeons – a huge part of the game – only fun to explore for a little bit. Well, when the girls aren’t exhaling suggestively every 10 seconds…
It doesn’t help that the dungeons you visit are repetitive and feel empty majority of the time. An emphasis on more cities to explore and NPC’s to chat with would have gone a long ways toward making the RPG side of the game feel more alive. What is great, though, is the visual novel and story side of things.
Death End re;Quest Review: Get Your Head in the Game
The RPG side of Death End is only half of the game. The other half is the story. It is presented both while you’re in the game exploring as Shina and in the outside world as a traditional visual novel. This is by far the most interesting part of the entire game. While the story isn’t groundbreaking, it is intriguing enough to hook you from the start and keep you interested enough through to the end.
For one, there are several mysteries that kick off the game from who Shina really is to why she’s trapped in this game and so much more that I don’t want to spoil. In the real world, though, you play as Arata, a designer on the MMORPG World’s Odyssey that Shina is trapped in. The voice acting is generally pretty good with familiar actors if you’re an anime fan and, yes, even the English dub is surprisingly good.
There are many twists and turns within the story and deep characters that take you along for the ride. Arata, for instance, has much more personality than most protagonists in a visual novel and his relationship with the other characters, especially Shina, is well explored. You do get a few choices along the way, most of which will end in a bad end hence the title of the game. There are a lot of bad endings in this game and we mean a lot.
Thankfully, if you only want to see the main story, you are able to optionally uncover which choice is the correct one. It can also be said that Death End re;Quest is a very mature game as well and we’re not talking about the breasts. The story can be pretty gruesome at times, mostly in the bad endings. In addition, it can even be a little spooky at times. There are also scenes that will have you on the edge of your seat. While the RPG elements are bland, the visual novel section is anything but and fans of good stories in games shouldn’t miss it.
Death End re;Quest Review: Final Thoughts
Death End re;Quest is a very accessible and unique game. It blends together a traditional JRPG and a mature visual novel into one to mostly passable results. The RPG elements are just fine, if not a little bland sometimes but the frequent visual novel story sections are well written and interesting enough to keep your attention. The graphics are much the same, having just okay 3D visuals but stunning 2D artwork in the story sections. While it is rather easy in difficulty, the plot and characters are strong, making us still recommend it to any visual novel or isekai fans.
SCORE
STORY: 9/10
GAMEPLAY: 7/10
GRAPHICS: 7.5/10
SOUND: 8/10
FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10
This review was done with a review code provided by the publisher. We are grateful for their continued support.