Synopsis:
From the developers of Guacamelee! comes Nobody Saves the World, a new take on Action RPGs, in which you play as a featureless nobody that can transform into many different Forms, each with their own unique gameplay mechanics. Explore a vast overworld while clearing shape-shifting dungeons in an effort to stop The Calamity and SAVE THE WORLD!
Publisher: DrinkBox Studios
Reviewed on: PC (Intel i7-9750H, RTX 2070, 16 GB RAM)
Also available for: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One
Developer: DrinkBox Studios
Producers: Graham Smith, Ryan MacLean
Designers: Ian Campbell, Cass King, Steele Xia
Composer: Jim Guthrie
I’m sure many of us have come across this problem in a video game before: we’re making our way through a dungeon with our selected character and class only to come across a problem that another class would more easily solve. Enemies in the distance? Don’t you wish you had a ranged attack? Set upon by a swarm of enemies, do you wish your character was tankier? Tired of fighting? Don’t you wish you could summon a horde of rabbits to devour your enemies? Well, in Nobody Saves The World, all those options are possible all the time (mostly).
DrinkBox Studio’s latest game sees you take on the role of Nobody, a naked being with no memories of his past or how he got where he is. You go to the legendary wizard Nostramagus for help only to find out from his apprentice, Randy the Rad (who’s the worst!), that he has disappeared just as a blight called The Calamity is spreading through the world. After finding a powerful magic wand, you set off to help stop The Calamity and unlock the secrets of your past.
With the aid of the magic wand, Nobody is able to transform into many different forms, from a rat to a robot, necromancer and mermaid. Each form has its own signature move and passive ability, but they can be levelled up to unlock other special abilities, like a flurry of arrows, an acid blob or summoning demon familiars from the corpses of your fallen enemies. As the game progresses, you are able to mix and match these special abilities together, which is where a lot of the fun comes from, finding the best combination of skills to tackle the game’s many dungeons and demi-dungeons.
To level up each form, you need to complete special given tasks, like hitting 500 enemies with your signature move or hitting five enemies at once. This means you need to tackle your enemies in a certain way if you want to quickly complete the task, mixing up your gameplay or making you try a certain combination of abilities.
I found the loop of levelling up all the different forms very satisfying, as I tried to work out the best strategy to complete each task quickly. While I definitely found favourites that I liked playing as, if you don’t use all the different forms in this game, you won’t get very far as you earn stars with each completed task, stars that are needed to unlock the dungeons. I grew weary of the grind to level up each form towards the end, but that completionist allure is sure to have some players get each form to S rank before entering the final dungeon.
One aspect that I really enjoyed were the puzzles or mini-games. I would often be wracking my mind in the moment, like a trial in which you need to destroy a bunch of barrels in a set amount of time. But I would come back to them later, after using a bunch of abilities in different ways and having the solution click. It’s a very satisfying feeling to have found the right combination of form and abilities, one that I wish the game had more of.
The story of Nobody Saves The World is pretty light but fun and silly. The world is filled with interesting characters but very few are recurring or of importance. That said, a lot of them are very funny or set up amusing quests for you to complete, like finding a bunch of aliens really trying to blend in. The game made me laugh several times with DrinkBox’s surreal humour and general randomness filled throughout the game. The big reveals in Nobody’s story will unlikely come as a surprise to anyone paying attention but it comes together quite well with an ending that made the whole experience worthwhile.
Artistically, DrinkBox has done a fantastic job with each portion of the world feeling unique while each dungeon has its own personal flair. The cartoon look of Nobody and all his forms is a real delight to look at, and paired with a fantastic score by Jim Guthrie, it was very easy to get lost in this game for hours.
Nobody Saves The World has so many options of how to play that there will be something for everyone, but the real fun comes from figuring out what combinations work best for what problem. With beautiful art, great music and a satisfying gameplay loop, this game will have you captivated for hours as you explore every nook and cranny of the delightful world.
(Nobody Saves The World code provided for review)
