When approaching anything from developer Compile Heart, players tend to know what they’re going to get. Assets will be recycled to save on development costs, the plot will be silly and take a bulldozer to the fourth wall, and the gameplay won’t be extraordinary or even particularly original. Understanding that Faustian bargain, the player will tend to get a fun romp with enjoyable characters, a bubbly tone and goofy fun, which seems like a fair trade. Sadly, there’s an exception to be found withDeath end re;Quest: Code Z. This latest release is a dull affair with nonsensical plotting and rudimentary roguelike gameplay.
The word “rudimentary” covers it well, though one could view it as generous. The primary core of the gameplay involves wandering through a randomly generated dungeon built from tiles. The style is the old-school “simultaneous turn-based” that used to typify the genre before developers built upon the framework. So each action that the player takes will also allow all the enemies on the current dungeon floor to also make a move. Stay still and nothing will happen. Take even one step,and everything else also gets to do something, like take a step, attack or cast a spell. It’s a familiar and well-used design that allowed something like Shiren the Wanderer to pile on layers of complexity without overwhelming the player. Time can be taken to determine the best move, be it attacking, digging into the item bag to see if there might be a consumable to turn a bad situation into a beneficial one or plotting a hasty retreat.
WhereCode Zdiffers is that the entire system is extremely simplified. The player will wander around as Sayaka, the new protagonist, and pick up items. The items themselves are the typical healing items and a handful of types of buffs for Sayaka or debuffs for the enemy. Occasionally, and only through plot, a new weapon will be found that can add a minor wrinkle to the base, such as the ability to attack up to two tiles away instead of one, or have a chance to get a free counterattack without spending a turn. It may be possible to find weapon upgrades, in the form of “patches” or more rare “memories,” that’ll boost attack or defense. These can only be applied after the dungeon is lost or completed. The paltry amount of items, and their relative uselessness, means that the player will likely be pruning their limited inventory often.
There never seems to be a situation where the player finds that one lucky drop that turns an entire run around. There’s no armor or cool spells to find, but instead the gameplay consists of moving and slashing, and maybe whipping out a temporary status effect when fighting a boss. The only upside to this severe simplicity is that it could serve as an entry point for someone who has never delved into this antiquated gameplay style. Being as dull as it is, however, could also put that player off of looking into better titles in the sub-genre.
It doesn’t get much better.
The only other wrinkle is in the form of the sanity meter. Instead of maintaining the hero’s hunger level, there’s a sanity meter at the top of the screen that can be topped off with “Ether Codes.” Let the meter drop 50 percent and an annoying heartbeat and sizzling sound will start to constantly play and the screen goes all wibbly-wobbly. The noise is enough to prompt a desire for a quick remedy to that situation, but if it drops too far, Sayaka will start attacking herself. My guess is that she finds the screen and sound effects irritating too, and if the player won’t do something about it, then she will.
Review: Death end re;Quest 2
Death end re;Quest 2 follows the mold of its predecessor but is ultimately more enjoyable.
Code Zalso has a decent smattering of more modern roguelite sensibilities. In this particular style, a lost run usually indicates lost progress, which includes items lost (not much of a detriment in this case) and levels and cash vanished into the ether. On normal difficulty,Code Zinstead allows the player to keep all of that. Plus, if Sayaka dies to an enemy or trap that hasn’t gotten her before, she’ll receive a skill point to be used for a permanent upgrade on what could be described as a skill tree. I prefer “skill sapling.” The game encourages the player to find new ways to meet a bitter end with a lovingly detailed demise written in before being kicked back home. While the art for these deaths focuses on Sayaka getting ruined, without factoring in the enemy or trap, the writing for these portions is actually decent. The juxtaposition of the cheery tone of most of the plot against these grim moments is the one major highlight of this title, but it was still done better in previous series entries.
So, why are we doing this?
There is a plot, but it’s mostly nonsense. Acting as a spinoff of the mainline series,Code Ztakes place on an alternate Earth. Sayaka is a luden, a human with special abilities, who finds herself thrust into a situation where things are trying to kill her. With the help of the player, as in speaking directly to the person with the controller in their hands, she needs to navigate a continually devolving situation where others want to cause chaos and destruction for…reasons. Truthfully, the motivations of the antagonists don’t make a ton of sense, but they seem to be enjoying themselves. Sayaka soon finds herself in the employ of a game company beta testing their sequel project, as her coworkers bicker and find themselves in the crosshairs of the villains. The game expects that the player has gone through the first two games to pick up what is going on; this isnota good place to jump in.
Even with that advance knowledge, though, the story just isn’t interesting or fun. Fortunately, the visual novel scenes where the plot unfolds are relatively brief and to the point. Time is still taken for the lighthearted revelry and perviness that Compile Heart does well, but the developers made it a point to not allow these sections to overstay their welcome. If the player wants to mainline the game, most of these sequences can be skipped without missing out on the plot, though I went through all of them to try to get invested. It’s primarily gray and dull, fighting dull monsters with dull attacks.
It’s primarily gray and dull, fighting dull monsters with dull attacks.
Graphically, the game isn’t a powerhouse. The visual novel scenes are attractive with bright, vibrant colors and lovely character designs, but they’re still static images. Admittedly, these static images were created by fantastic artists, but there aren’t any of the effects and scene cuts that the better visual novels employ to make the story scenes pop. The dungeons are not so great. Sayaka’s chibi model is cute, but the tile layout of the dungeons is dull. There will be thematic elements thrown in to represent the location, like a dungeon that takes place in a hospital having some green crosses, but it’s primarily gray and dull, fighting dull monsters with dull attacks.
Closing Comments:
It’s truly disappointing howDeath end re;Quest: Code Zturned out. The previous two titles weren’t stellar by any means, but they were entertaining and precisely in Compile Heart’s wheelhouse. Compliments should be given to the developers for wanting to change things with this spinoff, but care should have been taken to make use of what the roguelike genre can do. Making use of the simultaneous turn-based combat is an inspired choice, but it feels like they slotted the core of the system into the title, but didn’t have time to build on it. As the plot doesn’t provide much of anything of interest, even fans of the first two games would be safe to give this a skip. This is an anomaly for the developer, as even their worst titles were good for a laugh.
Death end re;Quest: Code Z
Version Reviewed: PlayStation 5
Step into a tale of parallel universes…Iris was born in World DE-1, a world that mirrors Earth in the 2000s. With her birth, a series of tragic loops was set in motion, which were gradually unraveled by the efforts of Arata Mizunashi and his team.With her goodwill restored, Iris created a copy of World DE-1 named World DE-1.5. Here, feuds gave way to friendship, each person a perfect cog in a perfect world. But a new crisis threatens the peace…A mysterious man has entered the fray, and he leads a group of people who look identical to the world’s former heroes. Our new hero, Sayaka Hiwatari, confronts the rising chaos, where friends and foes seem impossible to distinguish.And so the battle with another world enters a new phase…
Review: Death End re;Quest
Death End re;Quest combines a well-constructed JRPG with a visual novel that results in an experience of varying quality.
