Game Commentary: World End Syndrome
You see, playing VNs is a little difficult for me. They're either catered to the general anime enthusiast who only cares about 'otaku culture' and anime tiddies or they're made as eroge in which case, paying and playing an uncensored version will mean getting less than my money's worth. I have nonetheless always wanted to play one properly and I assumed that the Switch would have been perfect for that. It's portable, small and comfortable with good speakers, the potential games will most likely not feature any 'uncensored' version (meaning I get the full version from the get-go) and I get to snuggle in bed and play it at night. What's not to like? Oh yeah, the price. Switch games are stupid expensive but I'm lucky to have struck great deals for all my games. Hopefully I can keep this luck going.
I tested the waters first by trying out some VN demos both in English and Japanese. Suffice to say, the Japanese store had waaaay more games to test out but their appeal died out pretty quick since I couldn't quite get what most of them were saying. Hopefully we'll see more localisations soon. For the English side, I saw the usual Steins Gate and Ace Attorney titles but the demo I tried was a game called World End Syndrome. I played about 30 minutes into the intro, stopped it and started looking online for a good deal. I like collecting physical games and the only physical version for this title on the Switch was from Europe (the PS4 version had physical copies in all regions if I recall correctly). The thing is, no one in my country had the Switch physical copy lying around and it took me a good week to find a deal that allowed me to import the early release edition (with the artbook) for a discounted price. Like I said, I'm lucky with Switch games.
But anyways, enough about that long winded introduction. This post is about World End Syndrome! So what about the demo struck me so much so that I needed to get the game? Aside from the music, crisp audio quality and stunning visuals (the Switch really brings out a VN's art), it was the intriguing story and atmosphere.
The game is best described as part romance-sim, part murder mystery. There's an underlying plot around but you've gotta date them girls first before you can discover what is truly happening behind the scenes. It's definitely not a unique idea but since it's one of my first VNs that I properly sunk time into, I found it to be rather enjoyable. I was all for the story and twists by the end and I can say that I'm satisfied with regards to the narrative experience from the game. There was enough mystery to keep me going with the final few hours leading me through a sprint to find out the answer, there were some dark stories told that I actually enjoyed reading through, and the use of sound and visuals at certain points got me jumping a little out of fear. Some genuinely good stuff.
The game itself actually plays very differently from your typical VN. You don't just browse through text and select dialogue options to move towards one of the multiple endings. You'd actually have to choose which location to visit at different time frames during any given day and spend time with different people in different scenarios to unlock potential new routes as you go along the game. Characters can give you missions which require you to visit certain places at certain times, you have collectibles you can unlock that provides a bit more flavour and lore to the world and save scumming is actually a thing you have to do to progress past certain points. It's pretty clever so I won't spoil it here.
The game isn't very long I'd say for any given playthrough but this is where my issue comes to play. This is an issue that's common of VNs to employ much to my chagrin. It's the reason why I've waited this long to actually play them. VNs usually require multiple playthroughs to be able to experience the so-called 'true' ending or, at least, most of the content. This game is no exception. I won't spoil much but I can say that some girls are only available on subsequent playthroughs because...reasons I guess? The game wants you to play more but it doesn't know how to incentivize it other than to block some of the best content for the next playthrough. I don't get why some games do this. The game is pretty smart what with the unique save scumming feature as I mentioned but it isn't trying to do a Doki Doki Literature Club. It's a bit disappointing that I had to carve through multiple playthroughs to reach an ending I wanted to see. It's honestly not a good execution of any game. I paid full price for a game. If I like more than one girl, sure, I'd play it a second time. But don't force me to go through a character's route to unlock more routes if I don't even like said character. It's a bit unfortunate that they chose to develop the game that way.
But honestly, that's about my only real issue with this game. It's not an issue to most people but it's a problem for me. I want to continue enjoying VNs but please don't make me do this repetitive process to reach a satisfying conclusion. I can bear with some of the cringy dialogue and poor writing but games have to respect the player's time.
Was all the time I put in worth it though? I would say so. It's a fun experience by the end and I'm glad I gave it a try. I'd definitely look into any potential sequels this series might have. But of course, the true question is, who's best girl? Well, you have to wait for the conclusion of my next article to find out!
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See what I mean?
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