It’s hard to imagine a collaboration between Zero Escape and Danganronpa creators Kotaro Uchikoshi and Kazutaka Kodaka going under the radar, but an odd release schedule (involving dropping a half-finished experience on Apple Arcade) saw interest in the collaboration buried by the time the game hit PC last month. Which is a shame, since it’s a rather unique title in their respective careers, and it charts new waters for these cult directors.
World’s End Club was the first game the pair released since forming their own studio, Too Kyo Games, and can best be described as a bizarre but intriguing blend of platforming and death games, starring a cast of prepubescent children way too young to be fixing the world or dealing with cults. Think Danganronpa, if Danganronpa was a Saturday morning cartoon rather than a murder game filled with psychopaths.
Every year our clone forms degrade, and Katharine spends the winter break copying each consciousness into a new body. Don't worry: we can't feel a thing! Since our new forms are still coming online from their time spent in the primordial flesh soup vat of the RPS Treehouse, we can't post over Christmas, so we've prepared some Christmas Cracker jokes instead! You can help fund the research into longer-lasting clone bodies with the RPS supporter program.>
Now, time to enjoy your nice joke!
Q: How do you get to Death's Christmas party?
Sundays are for digesting the turkey and/or nut roast. Before you lay back, let's read this week's best writing about games.
Every year our clone forms degrade, and Katharine spends the winter break copying each consciousness into a new body. Don't worry: we can't feel a thing! Since our new forms are still coming online from their time spent in the primordial flesh soup vat of the RPS Treehouse, we can't post over Christmas, so we've prepared some Christmas Cracker jokes instead! You can help fund the research into longer-lasting clone bodies with the RPS supporter program.>
Now to enjoy your nice joke!
Q: What did Santa say to the elf struggling to pick up a heavy present?
So this is Christmas, and what have you done? As Katharine said, we're officially off until the new year but have lined up some guest authors and god-awful Christmas cracker jokes to tide you over until then. The death of the year does bring some sorrow, with Imogen leaving us, so do say goodbye if you haven't already. Then, return to tell me: what are you playing this holiday?
MERRY CHRISTMAS YA FILTHY ANIMALS! This time of year can be one that feels particularly apocalyptic, as well as, you know, good will to all I guess.> If I have> to. The indie games I've been playing recently all have a bit of an end-of-the-world flavour to 'em, whether literal or metaphorical or by your own hand, if you feel like it. I dunno, I actually found them strangely relaxing, as a sort of counterpoint to the chaos of my own life during the holiday season. See what you think.
It's the last day of the RPS Advent Calendar. This is it. It's all been leading up to this door, a wooden cabin door that's a bit tough to open. Wait, when did you put a pair of pliers in your pocket?
We're nearing the end of the year and my brain's battery is flashing red. There's some Christmassy-ness flowing in to tide me over, thanks to the mini-Christmas tree in my room. Every year it's popped on the wardrobe alongside an honorary Lynx Africa. They share the same festive colours, after all.
Having pondered my tree for a bit, I thought about trees in games and how they make for good side quests. Now join me by the bark, as I examine why this might be the case in a roundabout manner.
When I was younger I watched a nature documentary narrated by David Attenborough (I realise that doesn't narrow it down) and in this nature documentary David told me about a cave. It is a very big cave, and every night a huge colony of bats come screaming out of the entrance. They spend the day clinging to the ceiling of this big cave, and all their bat poo falls down and has become a towering heap carpeting the floor.
But then David said look, the carpet is moving. And it turns out that the whole bottom of the cave is covered in cockroaches and giant centipedes. And if ever a small baby bat or an old injured bat falls, it is eaten alive by this hoard of chittering insects. This nature documentary haunted me, for it was the worst thing I could imagine happening.
Anyway, Nate has been to that cave and he's going to tell us all about it for this episode of our supporters only podcast, The Nate Files. Thanks for being a supporter, pals!
It's been a busy, kind of mixed year for strategy games. Ever a broad church, 2021's seen enough releases to keep ten of me busy, from the easy-going Legion War to the month-consuming Shadow Empire. I don't know about you, but my personal "to play" list is out of control.
And yet, while we've had plenty to enjoy this year, it's felt like a period of build-up to something bigger. I'm not one for looking forward. If a game's not out yet it tends to disappear from my mind, making room for a hundred other recent releases in this age of plenty. That I've less interest in looking back over this year than I do pondering the next suggests that maybe we're in for something special in the coming twelve months. Or perhaps it's just been a rough one and I'm very sleep deprived and don't want to think about 2021. Either way, let's have a look at what's in store for strategy fans in 2022, yeah?