I’ve spent nearly ten hours playing World’s End Club (Too Kyo Games, 2020 – Apple Arcade/Nintendo Switch) and I have to be honest with you: I don’t think it’s a very good game. Its platforming mechanics leave a lot to be desired and the frequency with which you’re allowed to use any of the core characters’ awakened powers (aside from Reycho) is frustratingly low. But I do love it, nevertheless.
It was directed by some folks who have built their careers off making interesting games that resist a typical gameplay experience, like Kodaka Kazutaka, the scenario writer and planner of the Danganronpa series, or Uchikoshi Kotaro, who most notably directed and wrote the scenarios for 999, Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma, but also he was the 3D modeler on the 1999 PS1 cult classic endless runner Pepsiman. Also on board is Nakazawa Takumi, a prolific visual novel writer and director who also worked with Kodaka in 2020, on interactive film adventure game Death Come True.
I find the writing charming, if not particularly suspenseful or deep. I can’t help but be drawn to comparisons to Stand By Me and Tokyo Sinks 2020, both narratives about kids on a perilous journey (and Tokyo Sinks 2020 for that apocalyptic kick especially). The world has indeed ended, and if we have no other choice than to experience that through the eyes of peppy and precocious pre-teens, that’s fine.
I think if there’s one mistake a player could make it’s that they see the names of the writers and assume that this is going to be a story that they can map their experiences playing Zero Escape or Danganronpa onto directly. This game originally came out on Apple Arcade; given the corporation’s tendency to prefer more family-friendly joints, it’s reasonable to assume that World’s End Club was always going to be pared back a little bit in comparison with its spiritual predecessors. This is evident in the game’s name-change (it was originally slated to be called Death March Club).
Another mistake a player could make is to assume that their choices ultimately won’t matter, since the end is predestined. This is also just… not true. I won’t tell you specifics, but I reached the credits before the game’s “true” ending. I only got there because I fucked up somewhere. I let my guard down. I expected the game to be a simply linear visual novel/platformer. I was wrong. There are branching paths.
Was I frustrated playing the game, sometimes? Sure. It’s by no means perfect or even all that fun to play. But I was compelled enough by the interpersonal connections characters had with each other to keep going even though the game controls like a worse Donkey Kong Country. These kids are charming and the setting is interesting enough to make the dogshit worth it for me (even if I think Tattsun’s buddy power sucks because he turns into a big ol’ misogynist). Do I recommend that you play World’s End Club? I’m not your parent. Do I regret playing it? Not at all. And that’s enough.
