Nobody Saves the World is a fun and varied dungeon crawler. Its humor is very hit or miss and it looks a bit flat, but there’s plenty to do and lots of different, wacky forms to try out. All-in-all, it’s an enjoyable action RPG with a surprising amount of content.
Nobody Saves the World
Developer: Drinkbox Studios
Price: $25
Platform: PS5 (reviewed), PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
MonsterVine was provided with a PS5 code for review
I’ve got a decent amount of experience with Drinkbox Studios, partially thanks to our shared Canadian origins. I played the first Guacamelee and enjoyed it, reviewed Severed way back, and previewed the second Guacamelee at PSX long ago, so I was quite down to check out Nobody Saves the World.
In Nobody Saves the World, you play as Nobody; a very basic-looking humanoid with empty black eyes. The wizard Nostramagus has gone missing, and his annoying sidekick Randy blames you. As Nobody escapes imprisonment using a magic wand that lets them change forms, they decide to look for Nostramagus. Things happen, secrets are revealed, and the mysterious Calamity that threatens everything must be destroyed. It’s a fun story with some neat turns throughout, one of which genuinely surprised me at one point.
The main gameplay loop of Nobody Saves the World has you explore the overworld and plunder dangerous dungeons from a top-down perspective. You switch between different forms as you progress, each with its own appearance and abilities. From a stoic warrior to a turtle, there are a ton of forms to unlock and upgrade throughout your adventure. Each form feels drastically different, but most are fun to use and power up. Finding your way around places using different forms for different situations can be quite enjoyable, as exploration feels genuinely rewarding.
“It’s pretty fun to chase these mini-objectives throughout the map, and it makes exploration feel way more enjoyable and rewarding.“
There’s a lot to do in Nobody Saves the World too, with more and more quests being dropped onto the map as the game goes on. You join a number of guilds that all give you missions, and can check out all sorts of small and large dungeons around the map. It’s pretty fun to chase these mini-objectives throughout the map, and it makes exploration feel way more enjoyable and rewarding.
The humor, on the other hand, is more hit or miss. It’s a bit random at times and it feels like it tries to be the internet version of “relatable” here and there, but other lines were funny enough and alright overall. My sense of humor may have just been ruined by irony, and you may get a lot more out of the humor than I did.
Nobody Saves the World’s visuals remind me of Flash games from my Newgrounds-centric youth. There’s a respectable ugliness to it if that makes sense. Many of the characters are intentionally weird to look at, which I don’t mind. It does make the game look a bit cheap, but I think your disposition towards this style will largely depend on how you used the internet back in the day.
The Final Word
Nobody Saves the World is a neat little dungeon crawler that will keep you busy with its somewhat addictive goals and the plethora of forms. The humor is a bit mixed and the style is a tad flat, but it’s a lot of fun to play and it has a good deal of charm. Overall, it’s a weird and good time.
MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
