A magnificent game… for perverted and humorous people.
Disclaimer: This review was originally published through The Gamers Camp.
I am fond of playing games that are story-rich and visual novel is one of the genres that gives highlight to it. I have to say, however, that It has been a while since I last played a visual novel but I can definitely say that I am a fan of VNs. From CLANNAD to Danganronpa to Ace Attorney to Doki Doki Literature Club and many others. In fact, I am still playing some other Visual Novels on my phone, but today’s highlight is Our World Is Ended, otherwise known as Judgement 7 – Oretachi no Sekai wa Owatteiru『JUDGEMENT 7 俺達の世界わ終っている。』in Japan. As I am fond of visual novels, I have high expectations from the game.
This is JJ-kun of The Gamers Camp bringing you my review of Our World Is Ended..
Our World Is Ended. is a visual novel game developed by RED Entertainment and published by PQube for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 that comes out on May 28th, 2019, though originally released in 2017 in Japan for the PlayStation Vita. This also marks its first time appearing outside Japan which has additional dialogues and CGs from the original release.
Our World Is Ended., set in Tokyo, follows a group of game developers called JUDGEMENT 7 as they test their new devices for a new game that they are trying to develop named WORLD END HEAVEN. In this game, you take the perspective of Reiji Misaki, a new part-timer in JUDGEMENT 7, to live the daily life of what it means to be in a game development company. However, while they are testing their device, they encountered a bug that brings them to a parallel world where they get stuck and that is when all their weirdness starts to happen.
I’ll be frank, the game has a very weak foundation for its story but that foundation made a very great story! At first, it is quite boring but the more you dwell with the game, the more you get hooked up to it.
One more thing to observe, however, is that this game is like Kingdom Hearts III; nothing really happens for the first few hours then everything just comes down to you by the end like an avalanche… or at least that is what I thought, originally. There are a lot of arcs within arcs in this game that you would not notice but it was delivered very well. I would point out, however, that I was kind of disappointed by the normal ending of the game. On the other hand, Our World Is Ended gave me laughs, grieves, and the occasional post-traumatic stress (thanks, Doki Doki Literature Club), fun, and enjoying, and I got attached to the characters. I got to relate to the characters. That’s how you’ll know a visual novel is great, when it is delivered good, and when you feel that you are part of the story.
You know how there are some projects that were made without much thought but just throwing whatever idea there is just for the sake of finishing whatever that project is? That’s what Our World Is Ended. is but instead, the end result was beautiful. And hey, there are 8 endings all-in-all, but the other 7 endings are for you to find out… and it’s not a spoiler that there are 8 endings as it is already laid out that there are 8 endings in the menu.
At the very start, what I first noticed was the aesthetics of the game – the visuals. It has an anime-sh style and used a bugging-effect with the lines from a CRT TV but not letting it become too old in style. I can’t explain it properly in words but everything fits for what it strives to be. It also makes use of the environment to highlight the characters. The game also has a signature design, the sparkles from each and every character making them stand out. In addition to this, the game has vibrant colors making use of each and every scenery, may it be night or day. Furthermore, the characters are full of emotion, may they be happy, sad, angry, jealous, or getting flustered. The CGs are well-done as well!
I have to say, however, there are some stuttering and some typographical errors in translations here and there and some are on crucial moments.
There is an abundance of game BGM in the game that was handled pretty well! I mean, the music represented the mood of each scene and act giving it a more impactful effect on you as the player! By being handled well, what I mean is that the way the music was used in the game, as I said, was to make the mood more effectively per scene but there are also scenes that had no BGM at all, making a suspenseful scene even more suspense. There are some games or films that use a suspenseful BGM to make them more suspense but this game had no need to do that. Just like in Doki Doki Literature Club before you gently open the door.
It’s your typical Visual Novel. You have the text, next, skip, choices that affect the outcome. But hey, there’s a neat feature that this game has, it has the backlog feature and you can go back to a specific dialogue that you’ve passed anytime.
That’s pretty much it, I guess.
The game is rich in its story. At first, you might think it’s just some random gibberish story without plot that was written by a 10-year-old but everything made sense by the very end. For its price, $59.99, as an enthusiast of Visual Novel, I can say that it could use a bit of cut, but at the same time, the length of the game, about 30 hours before finishing, can justify it. In addition to this, there are 8 different endings so you won’t play it just 1 time but 7 more times. The music and its visuals are very top notch as well.
Frankly speaking, however, I prefer the shorter Doki Doki Literature Club in terms of story length as the story of Our World is Ended was stretched out until it can no longer produce milk.
Our World is Ended. is a must-have for any Visual Novel enthusiast. It should be in your library especially if you like long reads. It can get you to be engaged with its humor than just its story. It has good control in its balance on the mood as well. For that, and its contents, I would give this a thumbs up!
REVIEWED ON PC
A REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED FOR THE REVIEW OF THIS GAME.
