World’s End Club has quite a few good ideas in its story and premise, but it unfortunately squanders these fun concepts with poor execution and dull gameplay. It’s a shame, as the characters are a lot of fun to follow– it’s just that the game itself is rarely so fun.
World’s End Club
Developer: IzanagiGames, Too Kyo Games, and Yukio Futatsugi
Price: $40
Platforms: Nintendo Switch (reviewed)
MonsterVine was provided with a Switch code for review
What can I say? When a video game centers on a killing game and has Kotaro Uchikoshi and Kazutaka Kodaka, the minds behind Zero Escape and Danganronpa respectively, I just have to try it out. And while their pedigree is on display in the writing of World’s End Club, the problem is that’s almost all the game has going for it.
In World’s End Club, you play as a group of school kids called the Go-Getters Club. Each one is a fairly tropey anime child that ranges from small and nerdy to big and aloof. This sounds hacky, but it really works for the story. As the Club embarks on a field trip, a mysterious incident brings them to an underwater theme park, where they have to partake in a deadly killing game. Not all is as it seems though, as the group ascends to the surface and finds that the world has changed immensely while they were underwater.
The story is full of twists and turns, with everything from monster plants to cults targeting the youthful protagonists. It’s actually rather riveting, as you sympathize with the kids and want to learn about what happened to the world as much as they do. The long road trip gets you acquainted with the various characters, and cements the feeling of them being a close-knit group of friends, almost like a family.
“It gives you lots of information about the characters and the world around them and makes me think this game may have been better suited to being a visual novel, as all the text-based sections are a blast.“
Suitably, the characters are the real highlight of the game. Though they’re pretty straightforward, their wildly different personalities make it feel as though you’re reading a delightful manga as you follow them throughout Japan. The best sections of the game are the campfire segments– moments that let you speak to and learn about the entire cast. Some will talk about things they like, others will talk about their fears. It gives you lots of information about the characters and the world around them and makes me think this game may have been better suited to being a visual novel, as all the text-based sections are a blast.
Unfortunately, the gameplay isn’t very appealing. For a lot of the game, you’ll be running around and partaking in fairly basic platforming. Each character feels like they’re coated in molasses, as running around and jumping feels sluggish and delayed. The various powers you get as the kids are fun at first, but even they control in a very limited way. It’s difficult to aim attacks, and the fact that you die after one hit means any mistake is a game over. The checkpoints are fairly forgiving, but it’s frustrating to have to do a basic task over and over again because of the controls. This kind of makes it hard to go back to playing the game, as the story can only take it so far.
Then there’s the bugs. More than once, I had a bug mess with my experience in World’s End Club. The worst one had the camera get stuck on the side while I tried platforming across lava off-camera, as I was unable to reel it back in. This continued even after dying and respawning numerous times and randomly stopped after 15 minutes of fiddling.
The art and music are rather charming, as they pretty quickly sold me on the adventurous and carefree tone of the main characters as they cross Japan. The Go-Getters all look quite distinct from one another, and their appearances perfectly communicate their characters with just a glance. The English voice acting is also quite well-done, with the whole cast coming across as wacky and genuine in their own ways.
The Final Word
World’s End Club has a great story, but it isn’t a great game. The characters and narrative are fun to follow, but the gameplay is clunky, repetitive, and dull. This makes a game that looks and sounds great into a bit of a slog, which is a real shame.
MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average
