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World's End Club Review


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1930112385_WorldsEndClubboxart.jpg.6fde3667dfc72dcda1fc78f0a86aacc4.jpgPart visual novel, part action/platformer and, frankly, entirely bizarre, World's End Club takes players on a supernatural journey with a group of elementary school students. Originally released on Apple Arcade, the game is now available on the Switch with additional content. An extended ending doesn't change much about the game's tedious writing or gameplay flaws, though.
 
You play as Reycho, a member of the Go-Getters Club. The group of students is on a school trip when disaster strikes their bus and they're all knocked out. When they wake up, they're in an abandoned amusement park where a creepy clown named Pielope tells them they must play a Game of Fate against each other to survive. Somehow the story manages to get weirder from there. For most of the game you've just got to be along for the ride because there are so many crazy ideas stacked on top of each other here that each new plot twist feels like it's completely out of left field. That sense of uncertainty can keep you engaged for a while, but ultimately World's End Club just feels like too many ideas stuffed together without a strong cohesive element to keep you invested.
 
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In theory that cohesive element is meant to be the characters, the club members who often talk with one another, argue about what to do next, and have their own intertwining backstories. Early on they all feel like cliché character tropes that can be seen in similar games or media, but by the end of the game…well, they haven't developed much. At least, most of them go through predictable small moments of character growth, but overall it's just not that interesting, especially when contrasted with the bizarre setting and larger story playing out that is too often pushed to the backburner in favor of children discussing their crushes. The game is also long-winded and repetitive, which makes the visual novel portions awfully hard to sit through at times.
 
However, World's End Club does feature some more traditional gameplay elements. Occasionally the game becomes a side-scrolling action/platformer, complete with enemies, puzzles, and even some stealth sections. Although Reycho generally feels like the main character, you get to control others as well, and each one eventually unlocks a unique special ability. Reycho, for example, can pick things up and throw them, thereby defeating enemies or knocking loose unreachable objects.
 
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These action sequences feel completely terrible. I might assume the main issue stems from the game's origins on a different platform, but that couldn't be the sole reason that the movement feels so uncomfortably slow and stilted, or how your jumps are stiff and awkward, or how special abilities feel clumsy to use most of the time. Granted, the visual novel side of the game is clearly the focus, but if a game is going to include these kinds of action sequences they should at least have some basic competency, especially when one hit will kill you on normal mode (you do restart fairly quickly, at least). This also all culminates in boss fights that are as tedious as they are boring. All of the platforming and action elements of the game feel sloppy and drag down the experience.
 
At some points in the story you're able to choose your path as the group of students decides to split up. In a rare show of competent game design, World's End Club gives you some agency and your choice feels like it has an impact. That is, until you reach the end of the game and discover that, in order to reach the true ending, you have to go back and replay all of the branching paths anyway. It's very strange that the game negates the concept of choices there. Ultimately World's End Club clocks in at around nine or ten hours, and like most story-heavy games there's not much replay value here.
 
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The game's presentation is at least one area that feels solid. The colorful art style does look good, at least for the main characters who all get to enjoy fairly distinct designs. And the contrast of cute chibi characters with a fairly bleak and bizarre story definitely gives the game a unique atmosphere if nothing else. The scenery can be pretty bland at times and the inherent repetitiveness of the characters just standing around talking to each other can be tiresome though. The voice acting does give the cast of characters some personality, but much like the writing the voice work leans too hard on cliché, played-out themes. The soundtrack isn't half bad though and has some solid music choices.
 
World's End Club is a strange mishmash of ideas, none of which is fully baked. The visual novel elements at least make sense as a game, even if it doesn't always make sense as a story, but the action/platformer segments are completely ill-thought out and would be disappointing to play in a game 30+ years old, much less one released this year. Its okay presentation isn't nearly enough reason to sit through the clumsy gameplay and a story that never feels like it reaches its potential.
 
Rating: 5 out of 10 Clubs
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