Product Info

Platform

PlayStation 4, PC

Publisher

Idea Factory International

Developer

Idea Factory / Compile Heart

Genre

Action, RPG

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

9.32 GB

Release Date (NA)

Feb 19, 2019

Release Date (JP)

Apr 12, 2018

Purchase From

Amazon

Best Buy

GameStop

PSN Store

Steam

Death end reQuest isn’t your typical role-playing game where the young protagonist enters into a virtual reality and cannot log out, like in Sword Art Online and the .hack series. Instead, the trapped player, Shina Ninomiya, is one of the game’s programmers, and the game itself has become filled with bugs and corrupted data. What’s worse is that the game has been cancelled because of these issues and her mysterious disappearance. From there, things only get weirder as the line between what is real and what is digital starts to fade away.

A Corrupted Story

You start off as Shina’s in-game character. Shina has no memories of her past. She does not believe she is in a video game; she thinks that she is an actual adventurer. As Shina travels to the first town, she discovers unethical behavior in the town’s castle. Before things get worse, a voice helps guides her to safety. The voice turns out to be Shina’s colleague from the time of the project’s development, Arata Mizunashi. He noticed some activity in the cancelled project and decided to look into it. Arata tries to chat with Shina, but every important word he mentions, such as Shina’s last name, is muffled out. This is due to the bugs and data fractures in the game, but something doesn’t add up.

On Arata’s side, he is able to correct a good portion of the code in their current area, and whitelist many of the words he previously tried to convey over to Shina. With this, the words that were once forbidden are now clear, and so are Shina’s memories. Someone is bringing back the cancelled game and it’s up to Shina, Arata, and their allies to uncover the dark secrets that surround it.

Bug Power

During your travels, you’ll encounter peculiar non-player characters (NPCs) who join your team, each one with their own unique battle style and skills. What makes these NPCs strange is that their designs are original and not the same ones from the game that Shina and Arata worked on. These NPCs are more emotional and act as if they are players themselves. Moreover, they are accompanied by unique bugs that enjoy eating bad data.

Shina and the NPCs’ bugs also provide a boost in power. To utilize it, your corruption percentage will need to be in the upper 70s range. The game will automatically transform your character into a warrior with a devilish personality who can deal massive damage. Thankfully, you still have control over them. This will last only one turn, then they’ll return to normal. Use it wisely!

In battle, there are corrupted data mines spread across the field, but they’re not necessarily things to be avoided. Stepping on these can add positive and negative effects to your character. For example, one of these mines can heal your health points (HP) but also decrease your skill points (SP) and vice versa. Some can even increase your stats, such as strength. These mines definitely come in handy against bosses. However, stepping on too many can leave your character at a disadvantage with enemies surrounding you. It’ll take some smarts to use these corruptions to your advantage.

Precision and Denied

While setting up your player’s attack, the game outlines the attack range. This is great when trying to attack multiple enemies at once, but the precision feels rigid and could be smoothed out. Those who have played the Neptunia games can relate to this. You’ll be simultaneously positioning the character and camera angle to get that correct attack range. However, over time, you’ll eventually get tired of it and just give in.

You will encounter enemies that won’t allow some characters to take the offense, and that includes using skill attacks. While affected, those characters will only be able to support you with heal and status boosts until that enemy is erased. This was intended to bring a more tactical way to fight. That said, when only two characters are present at the start of the game and one is out of commission, things get troublesome, especially when fighting the first boss. Perhaps such enemies probably shouldn’t have been introduced until after you acquired a third party member.

Learn As You Fight

When setting up skills to fight, you can add up to three skills to initiate. They do not have to all be offensive skills, though; healing and status boosts can also be used. However, if you set up a certain set of skills in battle, you can unlock a new skill. The first time you discover a new ability, you will get to see it in action as a freebie. Players will have fun figuring out and unlocking skills for each character.

Distorted Dungeons and Physics

Battlefields and characters aren’t the only things that are corrupted. While delving through dungeons, there will be some areas that cannot be accessed because of data corruption. At these points, it’s going to take more than Shina and her fellow NPCs to get through it. This is where Arata comes into play.

Arata can log off and interact with the real world. This is done in the game’s menu screen. When you switch roles to Arata, the game switches genres to become more like a visual novel. Visual novels are like interactive narratives where you can talk with people and travel to places. During your investigation, you’ll run into various clues that will help Arata troubleshoot the bad code in the game Shina is trapped in.

There’s more to Arata’s role beyond that. He can provide aid in battle, such as decreasing enemy stats and summoning boss monsters you have defeated. Those monsters can also gain levels to become stronger, which is something you don’t see in every game.

The game’s graphics aren’t anything that will blow you away. In fact, they resemble a polished version of Megadimension Neptunia VIIR for the PlayStation 4. They don’t exactly push the system’s capabilities, but they’re not bad either. As for character transformations, they resemble another Heat Compile game, Mary Skelter: Nightmares, in that innocent characters change to have skimpy clothing and a devilish personality. (Fanservice!) Strangely, the physics in the characters’ breasts feels off. This is especially true with Shina, whose chest is almost flat and yet bounces so much. It’s distracting, and not in a good way.

Character designs are gorgeous, though, especially Shina’s and her party members’. During the game’s dialogue scenes, illustrated versions of the characters are presented on-screen with slight body and lip movement. Any other interactions between these characters are minimal with just sound effects and facial expressions. Don’t expect a cutscene or illustrated scenes.

Linear Maps

Don’t expect to visit towns or any non-monster-infested locations either. All the areas in the game’s map connect to each other. Normally, this would be fine, but some of the transitions between locations are too abrupt. For example, if you exit one of the trails, it’ll dump you inside the castle’s hallway. Originally, the game had dialogue and cutscenes between these areas. Revisiting locations without them just ends up being awkward.

You’ll be continuously jumping from one dungeon or trail to the next, with only storytelling scenes in between for a breather. If you think playing Final Fantasy X was too linear, then you may not enjoy the limited exploration this game has. At least the jump to and from Arata’s world does make up for some of the linearity.

Death End

During your time as Arata, you’ll interact with characters and make your way through scenarios that require an answer from multiple choices. Some of these choices can help Arata uncover secrets and clues that lurk in the creepiest moments in the game.

For example, while searching an abandoned apartment where Shina used to reside, the music becomes eerie and the game will tell you that someone or something is following you. You’ll be asked what to do next. Make the right choice, and you’ll continue the game. Answer incorrectly, though, and you’ll die. Instantly. Yes, the game will literally end, and you will have to start over from your last save point.

Arata’s scenes are not the only time you’ll encounter these “death end” traps. Shina will have her moments where she must make a choice. Another example: A knight is plagued with bugs and needs help. Do you try to save him or leave him be? If you think you are going to save the knight by being righteous, get ready for a death end. The game will describe in context what happened and then end. These types of life-and-death scenarios, which were common in the old computer adventure games like King’s Quest, are something you don’t see a lot of nowadays, hence the name of the game: Death end reQuest.

Where’s My Save Point?

While the game has warps to camps with save points and stores, you’ll have to find them first in order to activate them. However, the don’t appear often enough. Players will end up traveling for quite some time, fighting long battles, and not come across a save point. Between a fatigued party and triggered events that can result in a sudden death end, players will be holding their breaths for that light at the end of the tunnel. Don’t be surprised if you end up doing a lot of backtracking. And those monsters you defeated a few minutes ago? They’ll regenerate. Good luck.

Not a Death End

Death end reQuest is an unexpected mixture of RPG and visual novel gameplay elements that mesh together quite well, making it a unique title to play. Combined with a compelling story and entertaining battle mechanics, it is worth checking out, that is, if you don’t mind the instant death decisions and consequences. So make your choice: will you play or not? The game awaits your answer.

A review code was provided by Idea Factory for this review.