Death end re;Quest Reviews

good game

I have not yet made a character, but that opening is 10/10.

This game is 50% dungeon crawling, 50% visual novel. Both story and gameplay are Unique , fun characters, excellent characters development and worldbuilding for a short JRPG (40 to 50 hours of gameplay). The dungeons design is decent, and the soundtrack is really good. This is one of Idea Factory's best games.

its pretty fun so far but some systems are confusing :<

Good game with a really good story, but a lot of problems. Story: Revolving around Arata and Shina, Arata finds her after searching for a year in a scrapped project the two worked on, World's Odyssey. As it goes along, you see as the two realities slowly merge. And the true colors of Aggle and their partnerships. Along the way, you learn about Iris and Shina's connection to them. And ultimately why Arata is referred to as the God of Death. Hint, it has to do with all the Death Ends. This is a very endearing story, and funny as well. You see and experience the characters struggles, which is a strong point for the series. System: It revolves around a turn based system. However, each turn you can move a character however you want and string three attacks together. Depending on the linked attacks, new skills can be learned. On the field, there are corruption tiles. When it reaches 80% a character will enter glitch mode, which decreases by 10% a turn, if it falls to 70% they leave glitch mode. To note, if a character corruption reaches 100% they die. However, they gain an ultimate and tremendous stat boosts. To add to the system, there are cheats. Which on the most part are not useful, and kinda just wastes time. One allows you to manipulate the board, which can come in handy at times to at reset the board with corruption tiles. The second changes game genre, a fun one I suppose, and the third is to summon bosses you have beaten. Later on in the strain are you can power these up. The game also acts on a sort of affinity, which dictates if you can be countered or not as well as effectiveness of types. Art Style: Great Exploration: Great Side Quests: A lot and pointless. Need to complete 20 before Chapter 11 to unlock True End, and it must before a certain scene which prompts Arata to either Lend a Hand or Don't. The Don't option is only there if you do not meet the condition. Death Ends: A lot, and a lot also just to pad time. Though, it does have relevance but also uncessary with how many there are. Music: Great Problems: This game has a lot of problems. 1. Poor direction. --> The game can be very vague, and sometimes you have to completely leave an area with no hints at all. 2. Battle System lacks itself. --> The battle system is vague and more like trial and error. On top of this, the corruption tiles are misinformed. How much it fills is not what it says, and each character fills at a different rate. Glitch Mode isn't really usable. because for a large portion of the game. These tiles doesn't fill it enough. --> The movements are also kinda slow. --> Counters, this is linked to the character themselves. Which means if you have the wrong one, well, now you have essentially a dead slot. What I mean by this is based on the attack type of the character, rather than physical or magic. --> This goes into Glitch Mode. At a certain point, certain tiles can give corruption at a rate that cannot be manipulated, which means you'd almost certainly hit 100% and die. Another bad thing about it that wasn't thought out well but addressed in Death End ReQuest 2. 3. Bad decisions. --> There are quite a bit of times where you cannot save in a scene, and these are very long since it is a VN. This show absolutely no respect for the player time. And it gets worse, when you can't save after a boss battle and get stuck with a choice between a death end or not, which is hard to tell which will trigger it or not. --> The ending itself, you have to replay the game again to view other endings? This completely stupid, and once again showing no regards for player time. --> In a story driven game with sequels, multiple endings(As in the True End of the game) isn't a good decision, since it can just cause confusion. It really should not have been a thing in this game. Though, it is not hard to obtain, so I'm neutral on it, still a bad decision nonetheless. 4. Unbalanced. --> This game doesn't really have a good progression when it comes to balance. It is not hard, the enemies just become like damage sponges. So doing battles becomes very annoying. 5. Sexual Content. --> Normally, now and then isn't bad, but this game does it to the point that it is off putting, and questionable even. It is supposed to be focusing on the story, and it gets offtrack, and even worse at times. Death End ReQuest 2 addresses this issue. Now and then is okay, but the point is to focus on the story itself. No one is complaining that there is sexual content, but that there is too much in this game. And some of them are bad and even questionable. Etc. Overall: While the game is really good story wise, and the battle system is okay. It is lacking due to bad decisions, this game is about a 6/10. Death End ReQuest 2 fixes like all of these problems. The only thing I wished it did keep were the cheats, but that is fine. Story wise, really good, with NG+ actually having worth doing. They adjusted the battle system for all the issues I pointed out. The Death Ends don't pad time, but are still enough. They also fixed the game over issue that Death End ReQuest 1 have, as well as the ending issues. Anyway, I'll do a Death End ReQuest 2 review later, since I do find it a lot better of a game because of the improvements in the mechanics. Story wise, I love both one and two. Anyway, I recommend to play Death End ReQuest 1, but just know it has problems.. One in which at Chapter 9, don't save at the camp. You can possibly lock yourself and have to start back from the beginning of the game, due to a poorly placed Death End. If I had to rate the second game, once completing NG+. It is a 9/10. First is about a 6/10, but can easily be a 5/10 with all the problems it has. Still a really good story, but know what you're getting into.