It’s Sword Art Online with Gore and Girls

Death End ReQuest is the aptly named title from the team behind the Neptunia series. Compile Heart make a return but with a new cast of characters who exist in a Virtual Reality MMORPG world much like the Neptunia series but this time they have opted for a much darker tone. The world in which these new characters exist is called World’s Odyssey. With the aid of Arata, one of the programmers behind World’s Odyssey, the journey begins to escape the world and only by getting the games perfect ending, is it possible.

Inside the world of World’s Odyssey isn’t the most pleasant. It is a world that is full of bugs, glitches and of monsters and NPC’s who are not what they seem. On top of this, the game is very gruesome indeed, there is blood and there is gore but most of it is told in the most unpleasant narrative with characters screaming in pain while their body parts are being torn apart. While this is a huge part of Death End Re;Quest and it does keep you on the edge of your seat it does sometimes feel like it’s going overboard in its narrative. It’s still enough to make you feel uncomfortable and you will definitely be questioning your choices throughout the game because if you don’t you will meet a gruesome end and will be forced to retry; but realistically that is what Death End Re;Quest is about. Being a game that is mostly story oriented; going back and making the correct decisions can be somewhat gruelling but there is a save feature which is available during cutscenes which alleviates this.

Battles take place after initiating combat out on the field map; once in battle you are free to move around the battle and attack enemies based on your characters range of weapons and skills but it is really hit and miss. Early on I was able to finish battles rather easy but there is no real way of knowing an enemies weakness; one example of this was being able to attack in a battle early on with Shina just fine but as soon as I tried to attack with Lily I was knocked back with a counter always as my attacks were always avoided, there is also a glitch mode which is a risk versus reward way of doing battle. On normal difficulty, most battles will feel ridiculously easy while having some more drawn out and long battles, levelling up is quite easy too as you will be gaining most early on even after just a few battles.

As there are traps littered during all battles, stepping carefully is necessary. By moving around the trapped area you can then target enemies and hit them into them. If you have your other characters in the line of sight a knock-back will occur where they blast the foe away from them doing a significant amount of damage. This is usually the tactic you will use for the majority of battles although using skills will be your primary still as you are able to learn the majority of skills by doing this. It is a great system and battles are surprisingly fun for the most part, but Idea Factory/Compile Heart are not really well known for amazing battle systems but rely on cliche overpowered characters who lose more clothing the more powerful they are. Still, the system in place is good overall, the shopping and upgrading of characters don’t feel out of place. Even though you level up really quick; upgrading your characters including weapons and armour and using consumables is also something you will find yourself doing.

Graphically Death End Re;Quest is great, I will say there are areas that could be improved aesthetically but because of the nature of the game it works well. The screen itself will glitch out as will cutscenes between characters, the music is also a clear reflection on the glitchy MMO World and works very well, the sounds and voice acting are great also although some strange decisions have been made in regards to placement. The most annoying aspect of Death End Re;Quest I found was the sound they added when Shina runs; after a few steps after running she will make a noise gasping for air, after approximately five seconds she will do it again, you might think it won’t bother you but until you experience it then you will realise just how annoying it can be. I have to say that the voice actors really put in the effort this time especially with having to scream out in agony and otherwise go overboard in their theatrics for all the bloodshed in this game.

There isn’t much else to say but if you find yourself a fan of the Neptunia Series, Omega Quintlet or Fairy Fencer F then you can’t go wrong with adding Death End Re;Quest to your collection. It doesn’t have the most gripping in terms of game-play but there is plenty of variations to keep you occupied and the dialogue and story will surely keep you on your toes.

A PlayStation 4 Review Code was provided by Idea Factory International