The Unexpected Is Expected: "World’s End Club" Review

By Teepu

Platform: Nintendo Switch, Apple Arcade
Player(s): 1

"World’s End Club" is an interesting tale made by the inventive minds behind Danganronpa and The Nonary Games. Does it live up to the type of thrills and twists these guys’ works are known for? The answer to that is a mixed bag.

First thing I’d like to make clear is that the game’s demo is not representative of what the game is. It is quite misleading, which is unfortunate. The game starts off with a group of kids witnessing a catastrophe and waking up in an underwater theme park where they need to play a "Game of Fate." The twist is that each player has another player’s task on their wristband. The first player to complete their task gets to leave the facility alive. The kids end up turning on each other in some interesting twists, but this only constitutes the first hour or so of the game. Soon after they leave the facility, all intact, you discover what the game is really about. It’s unfortunate that the demo leads the player into thinking it will be a game like Danganronpa. Once you purchase it and play further, you’ll discover it’s NOTHING like that, and that could lead to grief and wasted money. So be warned!

In "World’s End Club", Japan (and presumably the world) has gone through some kind of world-ending cataclysm. The party find themselves at the southern tip of Japan, and decide they want to journey together to Tokyo, in hopes of finding their families as well as discovering the truth behind the apocalyptic state of the country. It’s after this that the true twists begin to surface, with the game taking many turns and throwing many "wow did that really happen?" moments at you. This is particularly nice as it stays true to the nature of the games that the developers are known for, while still being an entirely distinct experience. It’s hard to say much more about the story without giving much away, as is the nature of a game like this.

Going along with that is a colorful cast of characters, each with their own blatant archetypes and flaws, meshing to create some really fun interactions. They each have a secret to hide, along with some kind of special ability. Some of these are intriguing and story-relevant, some of these are just silly. The characters are made even better thanks to the voice cast doing a solid job of elevating each character’s strengths and weaknesses via the acting. Most games like this, I tend to tune out the voice acting after a point and just read the text, advancing through it quickly. Here, I found myself listening to the character speaking before advancing to the next part of the dialogue. The music in the game is fantastic as well.

The real issues with this game lie with how it is put together. Between story sections there are "action" sequences where you do some basic platforming and utilize your character’s ability to solve simple puzzles. You’ll play as each character by the end, so you’ll see all the powers. On the one hand this is nice because there are a variety of puzzles catering to each power, but this also means that no particular puzzle type ever receives much depth. Making matters worse, the movement controls feel a bit clunky and floaty, making the game control like a college student’s side-project rather than a professionally made game. I understand the purpose of these sections, to try and break up the monotony of dialogue with something to engage the player, but frankly speaking the game would have been better off being a full visual novel. The story is compelling enough that it would have done fine without gameplay. Often, I dreaded the action sequences because they weren’t incredibly fun. There are a handful of exceptions, like the final boss or a couple of the platforming sections, but that’s a minor part of the whole. Admittedly, this could be a "me" problem, since I am familiar with how these guys present their stories normally.

To add to the problems, the tale is far too predictable. They often telegraph each twist a few events ahead of time, cheapening the impact every time. It’s unfortunate because the twists are quite good, but I only was genuinely surprised by one of these moments. The intent is clear. The game was designed for a far more casual audience due to it being initially released on Apple Arcade. It is unfortunate that the developer couldn’t distinguish between accessible and treating the player like an idiot. The player is rarely given a chance to feel clever. Most of the gameplay sections suffer from a similar problem, feeling overly simple with clear hints as to how to move on. The game even looks like a mobile game, with many textures being lower quality than the Switch can handle, and animations often being stiff.

All these things come together to make quite the mixed experience. On the one hand, you have an interesting tale that explores some intriguing ideas along with a fun cast of characters; on the other hand, you have gameplay that is overly simplified, feeling forced and story twists that are made far too obvious to have any value. I managed to 100% the game in about 20 hours, as there are multiple story paths you can explore as well as some stickers to collect throughout the game. It’s a rather linear adventure though. My entire experience is based on the Switch version of the game.

If you’re ok with these issues and are just looking for a delightful story out of a game that isn’t very demanding of your skills, then you can’t go wrong here. It’s an interesting tale that still touches on some mature themes while keeping it somewhat tame for a wider audience. You’re not going to get the fun marriage of gameplay and visual novel as you do with games like Danganronpa, so be aware of that before diving in. For what it’s worth, I don’t regret my time with the game despite my complaints.

For More Information On "World's End Club":
https://nisamerica.com/games/worlds-end-club

Note: This title was provided to us by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This has in no way affected our views on the game.

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Gameplay: C-
Graphics: C
Sound: A
Value: B

OVERALL: C+

Pros:
+ Motley cast lends itself to some wacky interactions
+ Story is thoughtful, fun, and always engaging
+ One of the story twists caught me off guard

Cons:
- Most of the plot is telegraphed and obvious
- The gameplay is lackluster and often intrusive
- Misleading opening chapter will lead player to think the game is something it is not

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