Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2022-05-22 09:37 am
rionaleonhart) wrote2022-05-22 09:37 am
Entry tags:
Please Stop Saying 'Human Sheepification'.
In our ongoing tradition of playing strange plot-twisty games together, Tem and I have finished World's End Club!
World's End Club is extremely weird. It feels very much like a murder game aimed at small children. My First Murder Game.
Tem pointed out that all the characters look like they could be Pokémon gym leaders, and xe's right. It's disconcerting.
'Even if the world comes to an end, Go-Go-Go-Getters will never fall apart' is a strangely on-the-nose lyric for a song they presumably came up with pre-apocalypse.
Tem and I absolutely lost it laughing when the characters came across the first other person they'd seen in this post-apocalyptic world, and they all started dancing and chanting, 'A human, a human, a human!'
Aniki is closed-off and self-loathing and, of course, became my favourite character as soon as this became apparent. My favourite character selection process went something like this:
World's End Club: Here's the silent protagonist, and the kid who exclusively talks about food, and the one whose entire personality is 'likes Power Rangers'...
Riona: I don't care about any of these characters.
World's End Club: ...and the closed-off, angry, self-loathing kid who's not as cool as he thinks he is and blames himself for the death of his sister. He tried to kill all his friends under brainwashing, so he's struggling with the guilt of that too. He's never dealt with anything healthily in his life and he's not about to start now.
Riona: holy shit
'If only I could lose my emotions...' Aniki muttered, darkly, after learning that most of humanity is now emotionless. 'Oh, my God, I fucking love Aniki,' I said aloud. He's so plagued by terrible feelings! The best sort of character.
Particularly bewildering moments in World's End Club:
- The revelation, halfway through the game, that one of the characters is a ghost and most of the others can't see them.
- The revelation that all of humanity lost their emotions? And the club formed because they were the only kids who still had emotions???
- The first ending we got: the kids see Tokyo has been destroyed, their helicopter is immediately hit by a meteor, credits roll.
- The revelation that one of the kids is a robot being controlled by one of the other kids, who, five minutes later, is also revealed to be a robot.
- The protagonist turning to the screen and directly appealing to me, the player, for information.
- The kids singing a song about friendship to a remote-controlled robot that did not contain any form of AI, leading the robot to become self-aware and help them? Again: this robot had no AI. They basically appealed to the humanity of an elaborate radio-controlled car.
- THE REVELATION THAT 'SHE'S GONE TO HEAVEN' ACTUALLY MEANT 'SHE'S GONE TO A RESEARCH FACILITY THAT IS CALLED HEAVEN', I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT TO INCLUDE THAT WHEN I FIRST POSTED THIS ENTRY
This game sort of feels like a final exam on bullshit murder games. It's got all the twists. Someone was a ghost all along! Someone was a robot all along! The apparent protagonist isn't really the protagonist! The death game was masterminded by someone in our group! There's a traitor amongst us! The characters can access information from different timelines! The player has a role in the story! All we need now is time travel.
And murder, I suppose. This game doesn't have nearly enough murder to be a true murder game.
At the end, when Pochi thumped his chest and gave a thumbs-up to the player, Tem and I both returned the gesture. I'd love to know the statistics on how many players do that.
World's End Club is not a very good game. It's awkward to play, the characters are largely one-note and the English voice acting is extremely variable. But I wasn't bored, so I'll consider it a success. I was extremely confused, but I wasn't bored.
Our cat Zuko wasn't bored either. He loved watching me play, and he went wild attacking the screen during one boss fight. It was delightful, even if I was concerned at points about whether our television would survive his interest.
Also, I've had the Go-Getters' Club theme stuck in my head for hours.
World's End Club is extremely weird. It feels very much like a murder game aimed at small children. My First Murder Game.
Tem pointed out that all the characters look like they could be Pokémon gym leaders, and xe's right. It's disconcerting.
'Even if the world comes to an end, Go-Go-Go-Getters will never fall apart' is a strangely on-the-nose lyric for a song they presumably came up with pre-apocalypse.
Tem and I absolutely lost it laughing when the characters came across the first other person they'd seen in this post-apocalyptic world, and they all started dancing and chanting, 'A human, a human, a human!'
Aniki is closed-off and self-loathing and, of course, became my favourite character as soon as this became apparent. My favourite character selection process went something like this:
World's End Club: Here's the silent protagonist, and the kid who exclusively talks about food, and the one whose entire personality is 'likes Power Rangers'...
Riona: I don't care about any of these characters.
World's End Club: ...and the closed-off, angry, self-loathing kid who's not as cool as he thinks he is and blames himself for the death of his sister. He tried to kill all his friends under brainwashing, so he's struggling with the guilt of that too. He's never dealt with anything healthily in his life and he's not about to start now.
Riona: holy shit
'If only I could lose my emotions...' Aniki muttered, darkly, after learning that most of humanity is now emotionless. 'Oh, my God, I fucking love Aniki,' I said aloud. He's so plagued by terrible feelings! The best sort of character.
Particularly bewildering moments in World's End Club:
- The revelation, halfway through the game, that one of the characters is a ghost and most of the others can't see them.
- The revelation that all of humanity lost their emotions? And the club formed because they were the only kids who still had emotions???
- The first ending we got: the kids see Tokyo has been destroyed, their helicopter is immediately hit by a meteor, credits roll.
- The revelation that one of the kids is a robot being controlled by one of the other kids, who, five minutes later, is also revealed to be a robot.
- The protagonist turning to the screen and directly appealing to me, the player, for information.
- The kids singing a song about friendship to a remote-controlled robot that did not contain any form of AI, leading the robot to become self-aware and help them? Again: this robot had no AI. They basically appealed to the humanity of an elaborate radio-controlled car.
- THE REVELATION THAT 'SHE'S GONE TO HEAVEN' ACTUALLY MEANT 'SHE'S GONE TO A RESEARCH FACILITY THAT IS CALLED HEAVEN', I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT TO INCLUDE THAT WHEN I FIRST POSTED THIS ENTRY
This game sort of feels like a final exam on bullshit murder games. It's got all the twists. Someone was a ghost all along! Someone was a robot all along! The apparent protagonist isn't really the protagonist! The death game was masterminded by someone in our group! There's a traitor amongst us! The characters can access information from different timelines! The player has a role in the story! All we need now is time travel.
And murder, I suppose. This game doesn't have nearly enough murder to be a true murder game.
At the end, when Pochi thumped his chest and gave a thumbs-up to the player, Tem and I both returned the gesture. I'd love to know the statistics on how many players do that.
World's End Club is not a very good game. It's awkward to play, the characters are largely one-note and the English voice acting is extremely variable. But I wasn't bored, so I'll consider it a success. I was extremely confused, but I wasn't bored.
Our cat Zuko wasn't bored either. He loved watching me play, and he went wild attacking the screen during one boss fight. It was delightful, even if I was concerned at points about whether our television would survive his interest.
Also, I've had the Go-Getters' Club theme stuck in my head for hours.