Estimated reading time: 6.5 minutes
What wouldyou 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 worldof Death End Re;Quest Code: Z, the third major installment in the Death End Re;Questseries.
If you’refamiliar with the series, be prepared for a bit of a different direction thistime, in both storyline and gameplay. First off, you’ll probably notice a big discrepancybetween 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’llprobably notice that the gameplay has turned from adventure RPG with turn-basedbattle 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 intothat in a bit.
So, new andreturning players alike, what is this title all about? Well, without gettinginto spoilers, #DERQZ (yes that’s the acronym we’re using) is set in a parallelworld to the main series, although connected. It is in the Strain Area that SayakaHiwatari awakens, who may look somewhat familiar to you. You are then put incharge of guiding her out of the labyrinth that is the Strain Area a larogue-like. Once out, Sayaka will meet a cast of characters working at a gamestudio, who veteran players should recognize, and will be getting used to society. Noteverything is sunshine and rainbows however, because a sinister presence looms.
The maingameplay 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 youare 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 anice bonus, you can go back and re-explore cleared Strain Areas. Why is thisimportant you may ask? Well, there are a number of reasons.
So first upwe need to talk about what a rogue style game is, in any form. A rogue stylegame will involve you guiding a character through a randomly generateddungeon consisting of large open rooms connected by thin corridors. Every stepor action you take, the enemies will take one in kind. Your goal is generallyto make your way to the bottom most floor, or top if ascending. You travel on agrid 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 isconsidered one action. Be careful though, as there will be traps on the floor.Attacking the tile they are on will reveal them.
Every timeyou die or leave, your level will be reset and your gear lost. The dungeonwill be different when next you walk in. #DERQZ makes a bit of a change up herethough, as the difficulty changes what is lost on death. On the easiestdifficulty you lose nothing, and are just sent back and need to retry. You keepany items, your weapon stats, and your level. On the hardest difficulty allthat is forfeit.
This is apretty neat idea, because if your luck is bad, it means you can keep thedifficulty lower and lose less, or lose nothing. This lets you enjoy the game at arelaxed pace. Additionally, if you lose at a high level, you can always dropthe difficulty to gain your level and items back before rechallenging thetougher areas. There is also an in-game store where you can register yourweapon, and pay to regain the stats on it.
Dying mayseem like a major setback on higher level expeditions, but it’s also prettyimportant. Whenever you die to a new enemy or in certain fashions, you get toview a “Death End”, which tend to be pretty gory. You are given a skill pointfor your pain. These skill points can be used on a permanent upgrade tree soyou can improve your attack, defense, health, and resistance to status effects.It is actually handy to die a decent amount for these points.
As youmanage your way through the labyrinths that are in the Strain area, you will findmany items, either left on the floor or from beating enemies. These may includehealing items, temporary enhancements, debilitating items, or upgrade your weapon stats. Speaking of weapons, you will get different weaponsas the game progresses, each with their own traits. Some may have a counterability, some may hit two tiles ahead instead of one. As you use weapons theywill “level up” and increase the improvement value, meaning you can upgrade theattack and defense associated with the weapon even more.
Followingthe theme of Death End Re;Quest, instead of stamina, which is a resource thatnormally depletes as you perform actions and then drains your health fast whenout, #DERQZ uses sanity as a resource. At certain benchmarks for depletion, youwill notice certain changes, such as the borders of your screen going dark,your map view shrinking, or icons disappearing from your minimap. When out ofsanity, you can still move around and attack and such, but you have a chance ofhurting yourself in confusion. It makes the stamina type resource a little moremanageable, especially as there are usually a lot of sanity recovery items that can be found on the floor.
Let’s takea moment to talk about the escort portion of dungeon exploration. Now, if you’relike me, you probably hate escort quests. In fact, I’m pretty sure most peopledo. Thankfully the escort portions aren’t that bad at all. When you ascend backthrough the labyrinth, any part of the map you have uncovered, as well astraps, are still visible. The dungeon only changes on each new re-entry, notwhile you’re still within it. This makes getting out fast much easier, especiallysince 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 findin the Strain Area which will let you leave. Using these while during an escortsegment counts as you successfully escaping. So if you’re in a 10 floor areaand find an exit on floor 9, congrats, you just need to go back there after theboss to successfully leave.
#DERQZ hassome 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 goodblend 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/explorationare dynamic 2D models of the characters in an anime style. Incombat/exploration for #DERQZ has 3D chibi models of the characters and enemies.An interesting choice to make them the chibi/cutesy style, which contrasts withthe bloody and gory Death Ends you’ll most likely be encountering.
Overall I’mquite pleased with Death End Re;Quest: Code Z. The gameplay is customizable toyour desired level of difficulty without leaning too hard in either direction,the visuals and music are good, and the gameplay loop is enjoyable withoutbecoming cumbersome. While I certainly can’t recommend Death End Re;Quest: CodeZ to everyone, mainly due to the gory nature of your deaths, for those lookingfor 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 areenough aspects particular to the title to draw in players.
Score: 8.5 / 10
