Unlike the original "EDF" series, which are drawn in a photo-realistic world, this game is boldly drawn in a voxel world! For people who just hate the look of huge real insects, or who are not so good at some brutal in-game expressions, this game can be your first EDF experience which you can exhilaratinglly defeat gigantic enemies.
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In light of the sequel to this game being announced, I decided to give this game a try, myself.
And I have to say, I am impressed. The art style may have taken me slightly aback, at first, but I quickly got used to it. The guns, the music (both from previous titles and ones from this game exclusively), the characters, heck, even the story managed to make it click for me.
If you ever feel like killing time, this is a perfect way to.
And I have to say, I am impressed. The art style may have taken me slightly aback, at first, but I quickly got used to it. The guns, the music (both from previous titles and ones from this game exclusively), the characters, heck, even the story managed to make it click for me.
If you ever feel like killing time, this is a perfect way to.
Disclaimer: This review is copy-pasted from my Steam review and is being reuploaded here in light of the sequel being relesaed.
tl;dr If you can look past the visuals you get one of the best EDF titles, but it lacks the class depth of the mainlines and unlike the others it's a little too self-aware.
I vividly remember thinking this game would suck when it was revealed. "EDF but for kids" sounds like a recipe for disaster and it being headed up by the Iron Rain team (a game I'm not too fond of) made it seem like it was headed for the bargain bin.
Fortunately, Yuke's surprised me. WB is not only excellent, it might be my favourite EDF title.
The first thing you'll likely notice is how different the format is. Mainline EDF gives you 1-4 classes and has a whole mountain of gear, weaponry and vehicles for you to unlock. World Brothers gives you the EDF5 Ranger with a single weapon and tells you to go recruit more people, who each come with one weapon and maybe an accessory. They have recharging abilities like air strikes, tapioca tea and molotov cocktails, and Special moves that recharge upon killing things which have an equally large variety of effects. Rather than unlocking new weapons for a class, you level up that class so they can use other people's weapons (the level cap is 10, which lets you use anything).
It doesn't sound very EDF, does it? But it is. Delightfully so, in fact. If you're familiar with Warriors games, this is to mainline EDF what Warriors Orochi is to Dynasty Warriors. Different framework, but the EDF core of charging into swarms of giant aliens, robots and insects is still intact. The team swapping and build flexibility just give you far more options, and the denseness of the maps (to accommodate the Switch's weaker hardware) honestly makes some later missions MORE chaotic than the mainlines, especially from Hardest onwards. Much like Warriors Orochi, this is also a crossover title, so you get to fight a wide variety of enemies and your favourite class from the other games is guaranteed to be in. There's a bunch of returning maps too, including London, so if you're an abolitionist you can take down Parliament.
There's a lot of replayability too. Around 150 characters to acquire and six difficulties with the mission pack (launching Jun 10th), and that's not factoring in higher level versions of weapons and accessories (up to level 5 with the mission pack). The story is a bit short, only 60 missions (71 with the mission pack), but they're good missions and there's not much filler.
That all said, the game does have a few issues. Despite the lower amount of weapon levels, some higher level variants are a downgrade. Some world brothers/sisters outright suck, and while you can build a team around them, you likely won't be so generous in higher difficulties. Unlike the mainlines, which are corny because they try to be serious, WB tries to be tongue-in-cheek and self-referential. YMMV, but the humour can get old. There are less maps than in other games, so there's a ton of repetition on that front. Some maps have really bad unit placement, which can make grabbing them a pain in the ass. The music gets repetitive FAST and I genuinely recommend disabling it. At the time of writing, the PC version has mouse smoothing that makes turning around a pain in the ass.
Despite these issues though, World Brothers is still my favourite EDF, and I've played all but one of them. The variety and fun on offer is amazing and I don't think we'll ever see anything like it again unless this game shifts millions. Buy it, play it, love it. And hey, if you hate it, you only need an hour to decide if this is for you or not.
Don't buy the season pass though, just get the mission pack. Unless you REALLY want to play as Sarge from EDF5 or whatever.
tl;dr If you can look past the visuals you get one of the best EDF titles, but it lacks the class depth of the mainlines and unlike the others it's a little too self-aware.
I vividly remember thinking this game would suck when it was revealed. "EDF but for kids" sounds like a recipe for disaster and it being headed up by the Iron Rain team (a game I'm not too fond of) made it seem like it was headed for the bargain bin.
Fortunately, Yuke's surprised me. WB is not only excellent, it might be my favourite EDF title.
The first thing you'll likely notice is how different the format is. Mainline EDF gives you 1-4 classes and has a whole mountain of gear, weaponry and vehicles for you to unlock. World Brothers gives you the EDF5 Ranger with a single weapon and tells you to go recruit more people, who each come with one weapon and maybe an accessory. They have recharging abilities like air strikes, tapioca tea and molotov cocktails, and Special moves that recharge upon killing things which have an equally large variety of effects. Rather than unlocking new weapons for a class, you level up that class so they can use other people's weapons (the level cap is 10, which lets you use anything).
It doesn't sound very EDF, does it? But it is. Delightfully so, in fact. If you're familiar with Warriors games, this is to mainline EDF what Warriors Orochi is to Dynasty Warriors. Different framework, but the EDF core of charging into swarms of giant aliens, robots and insects is still intact. The team swapping and build flexibility just give you far more options, and the denseness of the maps (to accommodate the Switch's weaker hardware) honestly makes some later missions MORE chaotic than the mainlines, especially from Hardest onwards. Much like Warriors Orochi, this is also a crossover title, so you get to fight a wide variety of enemies and your favourite class from the other games is guaranteed to be in. There's a bunch of returning maps too, including London, so if you're an abolitionist you can take down Parliament.
There's a lot of replayability too. Around 150 characters to acquire and six difficulties with the mission pack (launching Jun 10th), and that's not factoring in higher level versions of weapons and accessories (up to level 5 with the mission pack). The story is a bit short, only 60 missions (71 with the mission pack), but they're good missions and there's not much filler.
That all said, the game does have a few issues. Despite the lower amount of weapon levels, some higher level variants are a downgrade. Some world brothers/sisters outright suck, and while you can build a team around them, you likely won't be so generous in higher difficulties. Unlike the mainlines, which are corny because they try to be serious, WB tries to be tongue-in-cheek and self-referential. YMMV, but the humour can get old. There are less maps than in other games, so there's a ton of repetition on that front. Some maps have really bad unit placement, which can make grabbing them a pain in the ass. The music gets repetitive FAST and I genuinely recommend disabling it. At the time of writing, the PC version has mouse smoothing that makes turning around a pain in the ass.
Despite these issues though, World Brothers is still my favourite EDF, and I've played all but one of them. The variety and fun on offer is amazing and I don't think we'll ever see anything like it again unless this game shifts millions. Buy it, play it, love it. And hey, if you hate it, you only need an hour to decide if this is for you or not.
Don't buy the season pass though, just get the mission pack. Unless you REALLY want to play as Sarge from EDF5 or whatever.
I'm a big fan of the classic EDF series so I was genuinely surprised that World Brothers ended up being such a strong entry despite it's more kid friendly approach. Sure there's an inundation of novelty characters but they still pay homage to all of the older games with tongue-in-cheek jokes about the series.
If you're new to the series then expect non-stop waves of giant insects, robots, and UFOs to blast to smithereens with your crew of EDF heroes and their ridiculous arsenal - this time in a minecraft style. The action is fast, frantic, and satisfying while also being surprisingly nuanced as you hose down the invaders with bullets and lasers while carefully dodging and reloading.
This entry has tons of voxel character skins that unlock with each level and every skin has it's own weapon which means you're collecting your arsenal at a quicker pace than usual. Since you can bring multiple characters to each mission (even in single player) if you get downed you can swap to another character to keep playing which makes levels a little too easy, but this one is clearly built around accessibility.
If you're new to the series and want a gentle introduction or if you're an experienced player with kids or family you want to play with this will be a good buy since the voxel bugs are easier on the eyes and less intensive on the CPU. For older troopers maybe stick to 5 until 6 comes out.
If you're new to the series then expect non-stop waves of giant insects, robots, and UFOs to blast to smithereens with your crew of EDF heroes and their ridiculous arsenal - this time in a minecraft style. The action is fast, frantic, and satisfying while also being surprisingly nuanced as you hose down the invaders with bullets and lasers while carefully dodging and reloading.
This entry has tons of voxel character skins that unlock with each level and every skin has it's own weapon which means you're collecting your arsenal at a quicker pace than usual. Since you can bring multiple characters to each mission (even in single player) if you get downed you can swap to another character to keep playing which makes levels a little too easy, but this one is clearly built around accessibility.
If you're new to the series and want a gentle introduction or if you're an experienced player with kids or family you want to play with this will be a good buy since the voxel bugs are easier on the eyes and less intensive on the CPU. For older troopers maybe stick to 5 until 6 comes out.
This is my first complete earth defense force game. Even though I have played previous games in the franchise, The ability to switch characters and play whoever you want really varied up the gameplay for me in a way that previous EDF games couldn't provide. I really hope the upcoming EDF 6 can grip me the way this game has, and provide an easy to pick up to play and overall enjoyable experience.
5th Finished Game of 2023
Earth Defense Force: World Brothers (2021) (Steam)
To finish, or better, give a break in the Earth Defense Force series, follows analysis of the game I played in parallel to the other games.
Spin-off of EDF, World Brothers has a voxel graphic style, game is a parody/homage to the whole franchise, including other spin-offs as well as original characters.
Different from the original games, here instead of classes with their variety of weapons, we have 62 characters with unique abilities and their respective weapons, each character has 3 variations (basically a change of colour palette with different stats), each character has a SP bar which is basically their unique 'ultimate' attack and a secondary ability such as rolling, flying, dropping mines, protective barriers, etc.
Game is divided in bringing all classes of his franchise and original characters, being nothing more than caricature dolls of various countries like Cowboys representing the U.S., Ninjas and Maids representing Japan, Sambistas representing Brazil and so on, history boils down to an entity called Dark Tyrant who starts the game literally destroying the planet Earth leaving to the characters rebuild the planet as if it were pieces of Lego.
Game is great and very entertaining, but fails by the repetivity, dozens of missions on the same map, as previously said variations of the same characters with different colour palette, after finished, game only instigates you in question of catch all the variations of weapons of each character.
Difficulty: 05/10
Total game time: 38h40
Score: 07/10
Earth Defense Force: World Brothers (2021) (Steam)
To finish, or better, give a break in the Earth Defense Force series, follows analysis of the game I played in parallel to the other games.
Spin-off of EDF, World Brothers has a voxel graphic style, game is a parody/homage to the whole franchise, including other spin-offs as well as original characters.
Different from the original games, here instead of classes with their variety of weapons, we have 62 characters with unique abilities and their respective weapons, each character has 3 variations (basically a change of colour palette with different stats), each character has a SP bar which is basically their unique 'ultimate' attack and a secondary ability such as rolling, flying, dropping mines, protective barriers, etc.
Game is divided in bringing all classes of his franchise and original characters, being nothing more than caricature dolls of various countries like Cowboys representing the U.S., Ninjas and Maids representing Japan, Sambistas representing Brazil and so on, history boils down to an entity called Dark Tyrant who starts the game literally destroying the planet Earth leaving to the characters rebuild the planet as if it were pieces of Lego.
Game is great and very entertaining, but fails by the repetivity, dozens of missions on the same map, as previously said variations of the same characters with different colour palette, after finished, game only instigates you in question of catch all the variations of weapons of each character.
Difficulty: 05/10
Total game time: 38h40
Score: 07/10
amigo brother my beloved