Estimated reading time: 6.5 minutes
What would
you do if you could witness your own death? To be able to try again after perishing?
How would you act knowing where your Dead End leads? Well, welcome to the world
of Death End Re;Quest Code: Z, the third major installment in the Death End Re;Quest
series.
If you’re
familiar with the series, be prepared for a bit of a different direction this
time, in both storyline and gameplay. First off, you’ll probably notice a big discrepancy
between returning characters and how you’re used to them. It’s ok, don’t worry.
It does get explained, and you don’t need to wait too long. Second of all, you’ll
probably notice that the gameplay has turned from adventure RPG with turn-based
battle system into a… well, rogue-like, I suppose? It’s definitely Rogue style,
but the specific style depends on your difficulty setting. Well, we’ll get into
that in a bit.
So, new and
returning players alike, what is this title all about? Well, without getting
into spoilers, #DERQZ (yes that’s the acronym we’re using) is set in a parallel
world to the main series, although connected. It is in the Strain Area that Sayaka
Hiwatari awakens, who may look somewhat familiar to you. You are then put in
charge of guiding her out of the labyrinth that is the Strain Area a la
rogue-like. Once out, Sayaka will meet a cast of characters working at a game
studio, who veteran players should recognize, and will be getting used to society. Not
everything is sunshine and rainbows however, because a sinister presence looms.
The main
gameplay loop for #DERQZ is pretty much: explore a Strain Area, need to leave,
explore again, escort an NPC out of the labyrinth. Now I know what some of you
are thinking: oh no, an escort quest. Don’t worry, the NPC will help a little. They aren’t dumb, and they can be brought out easier than you’d think. As a
nice bonus, you can go back and re-explore cleared Strain Areas. Why is this
important you may ask? Well, there are a number of reasons.
So first up
we need to talk about what a rogue style game is, in any form. A rogue style
game will involve you guiding a character through a randomly generated
dungeon consisting of large open rooms connected by thin corridors. Every step
or action you take, the enemies will take one in kind. Your goal is generally
to make your way to the bottom most floor, or top if ascending. You travel on a
grid and the map is hidden until you pass by the areas you are exploring.
Roguelikes generally work on a square tile basis where one tile movement is
considered one action. Be careful though, as there will be traps on the floor.
Attacking the tile they are on will reveal them.
Every time
you die or leave, your level will be reset and your gear lost. The dungeon
will be different when next you walk in. #DERQZ makes a bit of a change up here
though, as the difficulty changes what is lost on death. On the easiest
difficulty you lose nothing, and are just sent back and need to retry. You keep
any items, your weapon stats, and your level. On the hardest difficulty all
that is forfeit.
This is a
pretty neat idea, because if your luck is bad, it means you can keep the
difficulty lower and lose less, or lose nothing. This lets you enjoy the game at a
relaxed pace. Additionally, if you lose at a high level, you can always drop
the difficulty to gain your level and items back before rechallenging the
tougher areas. There is also an in-game store where you can register your
weapon, and pay to regain the stats on it.
Dying may
seem like a major setback on higher level expeditions, but it’s also pretty
important. Whenever you die to a new enemy or in certain fashions, you get to
view a “Death End”, which tend to be pretty gory. You are given a skill point
for your pain. These skill points can be used on a permanent upgrade tree so
you can improve your attack, defense, health, and resistance to status effects.
It is actually handy to die a decent amount for these points.
As you
manage your way through the labyrinths that are in the Strain area, you will find
many items, either left on the floor or from beating enemies. These may include
healing items, temporary enhancements, debilitating items, or upgrade your weapon stats. Speaking of weapons, you will get different weapons
as the game progresses, each with their own traits. Some may have a counter
ability, some may hit two tiles ahead instead of one. As you use weapons they
will “level up” and increase the improvement value, meaning you can upgrade the
attack and defense associated with the weapon even more.
Following
the theme of Death End Re;Quest, instead of stamina, which is a resource that
normally depletes as you perform actions and then drains your health fast when
out, #DERQZ uses sanity as a resource. At certain benchmarks for depletion, you
will notice certain changes, such as the borders of your screen going dark,
your map view shrinking, or icons disappearing from your minimap. When out of
sanity, you can still move around and attack and such, but you have a chance of
hurting yourself in confusion. It makes the stamina type resource a little more
manageable, especially as there are usually a lot of sanity recovery items that can be found on the floor.
Let’s take
a moment to talk about the escort portion of dungeon exploration. Now, if you’re
like me, you probably hate escort quests. In fact, I’m pretty sure most people
do. Thankfully the escort portions aren’t that bad at all. When you ascend back
through the labyrinth, any part of the map you have uncovered, as well as
traps, are still visible. The dungeon only changes on each new re-entry, not
while you’re still within it. This makes getting out fast much easier, especially
since you can see enemy icons on any uncovered map. This is extra useful if a powerful wandering enemy is on your floor, as they have a different icon. This makes it easier to avoid them. As an added bonus, there are “emergency exits” you can find
in the Strain Area which will let you leave. Using these while during an escort
segment counts as you successfully escaping. So if you’re in a 10 floor area
and find an exit on floor 9, congrats, you just need to go back there after the
boss to successfully leave.
#DERQZ has
some good music and visual direction, as I’ve come to enjoy from the series.
The music is a combination of new and remixed old tracks, providing a good
blend of fresh music and some of my favourite tracks from the previous games.
As usual for a Compile Heart title, the visuals outside of combat/exploration
are dynamic 2D models of the characters in an anime style. In
combat/exploration for #DERQZ has 3D chibi models of the characters and enemies.
An interesting choice to make them the chibi/cutesy style, which contrasts with
the bloody and gory Death Ends you’ll most likely be encountering.
Overall I’m
quite pleased with Death End Re;Quest: Code Z. The gameplay is customizable to
your desired level of difficulty without leaning too hard in either direction,
the visuals and music are good, and the gameplay loop is enjoyable without
becoming cumbersome. While I certainly can’t recommend Death End Re;Quest: Code
Z to everyone, mainly due to the gory nature of your deaths, for those looking
for a new roguelike addition to their library I feel it is quite enjoyable.
While it may not depart too far from the genre conventions, there are
enough aspects particular to the title to draw in players.
Score: 8.5 / 10
