Death end re;Quest

Compile Heart has produced something that’s more than a boob-based JRPG, with a very compelling story and a lot of interesting ideas.

Death end re;Quest's haunting atmosphere pairs up well with the dread-inducing story, making for a worthy experience.

The story is such a brilliant blend of science fiction and occult and, with the constant twists and turns, I didn’t want to put the controller down until I’d uncovered the truth behind everything.

Death end re;Quest proves it can tell an engaging and darker story in an RPG/visual novel, even though it doesn't do too much to make it stand out above the rest.

With it's disquieting atmosphere and horror-fueled setting, Death end re;Quest is one of Compile Heart's most intriguing titles to date. However, much like other entries under the Galapagos RPG brand, it occasionally feels like the core gameplay plays second fiddle to everything else.

A game that, despite being sufficiently effective, could have balanced more carefully not only the length of the conversations between the characters, but also the difficulty level, clearly set down.

Death end re;Quest is not a terrible game, but it certainly doesn’t do much to stand out from a crowded and trope friendly glut of JRPG titles. The battle mode plays like a game of pool and has a lot of interesting features, but the writing is tired, the characters are overly sexualized and mentally deficient as always, and the game is set in a bland world with little detail or points of interest. Death end re;Quest is another game for fans of long dialogues leading nowhere.

Such an amazing game, the dungeons can be bit annoying but overall its great story ,very text heavy. I recommend this game.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I want to give this game an 8 but I really can’t. Its a typical JRPG with multiple twists, but even those twists got stale. I really like the idea of switching genres from the usual turn based action, but it kinda fell off from what I thought it would be when I read the description for the game. Battles got kinda quick and boring after like a few chapters in considering I got multiple skills that could one shot enemies. It becomes a flow at some point with easy xp and just a temporary stop to the exploration that got really repetitive. Then, the skill gain system gets extremely tedious at some point, especially with achievements considering that finding combinations of skills to preform the flash drive with gets nigh impossible later in game. Then you have the dungeons, they end up becoming a “find the key to open a door” trope that I don’t like. They can end up being in corners you ran past multiple times but didn’t see it because they blended in so well that even perfect vision can’t spot it. Then you have times where you can’t open a door or get past a barricade until an event (technically a VN section or boss battle) is completed or you switch to reality to solve something in the real world, which you almost never realize until you have to pause for a break. All in all, this game would’ve probably been so much better as a Visual Novel instead. Now with the criticisms out of the way, lets get to the praise that earned this 7 in the first place. I never heard of a JRPG that allowed you to make it something else entirely in battle. Then the flash drive system is possibly one of the unique ways I’ve ever seen you could get a skill. The switch between reality and the game function is a great way to tell different perspectives. The soundtrack makes me wonder why people haven’t compared it to NieR Automata and Persona 5. The story makes me wonder why I stream this game because I have to cliffhang so much when the game has me captivated. The death end system can seem repetitive, but not only is it useful for getting items exclusive to that, it makes almost every choice seem so dreadful that you really have anxiety when you can’t save at a choice. The characters are great and when you learn the truth behind multiple characters (whether they are good, evil or aren’t what you thought) it can leave your mouth wide open. PLOT TWISTS ACTUALLY FEEL LIKE PLOT TWISTS! Did I mention the soundtrack? Caligula Syndrome hits different. The death ends can actually disturb you, and thats a good thing. The voice acting, both English and Japanese are absolutely great, but I love how the characters feel so alive in the English dub. All in all, not only is this game one of the best JRPGs I’ve ever played, I was questioning reality by the time I got off, and I haven’t even beaten the game yet.

Fan service and false advertising wrapped in a bouncy anime package. This game is a visual novel with some gameplay thrown in the middle of it. The actual plot seems pretty interesting, albiet it is the dot hack story rehashed. The first few minutes of this game make it seem like you are in for a gruesome adult themed game, and then it takes a hard U-turn and turns into a cutesy anime where you play ping pong with the enemies in a turn based JRPG format. Honestly, the game could have been good, if they knocked down the number of battles to 1/3. The battle system, albiet unique, is not overly interesting and becomes boring fast. This becomes infuriating when you hit a visual novel section and picking the wrong choice makes you redo 2 hours of grindy battles. The game seems like a really interesting graphic novel, but it is a pretty bad game.

No. No, this isn't a good game. Here's the problem with the game - it doesn't know what it wants to be. I'd peg it as 90% visual novel and 10% RPG. That's NOT a good mix. The bulk of the time you're advancing static images and text along (visual novel), then all of a sudden you get into a one-off fight that isn't very fun. Long stretches of non-action. The voice acting is good as is the art, but the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired.