Man, this game was a bummer. I thought after how good A.I.: The Somnium Files was that Uchikoshi had gotten away from the days of Zero Time Dilemma but unfortunately this game just isn't good. It kinda falls apart in two big ways for me; the gameplay and the story.

The gameplay is just unfun and was trying it's absolute hardest to make me stop playing. For a start, the movement and jumping in it feels terrible, which for a platformer is a pretty bad start! Just the jankness of the animations and the lag coming off pressing the jump button isn't great. Also the game design in these sections is pretty dull and barebones, to the point where I was kinda auto-piloting most of the game and getting a little bit B Word (Bored). This was made worse by having the gameplay stop every few moments so a character can interrupt to be like "woah! that thing is huge! if only there was a way to get by it!" or something, not only constantly grinding the game to a halt but also stopping any element of discovery. The gameplay overall just seems like a huge missed oppertunity, I was pretty excited to see what a game with Uchikoshi and Kodaka working on could add to the platforming genre but none of the creativity usually associated with them is found in these sections. They do start to add a bit more variety and challenge later on in the game (as well as the use of multiple powers in one level! woah!) but it's nowhere near enough.

As for the story, it was fine for most of the game. In case you don't know, the game starts a group of school kids leaving tokyo on a trip when a meteor hits the city and they wake up in an underwater theme park and forced to do a death game by a creepy cutesy robot. After one round, the game is cancelled and the group of kids find themselves on the other side of japan and it's up to them to walk back to tokyo. Sometimes the dripfeed of information and mysteries could be a bit slow at times but the game ended up building up a few questions and I was definitely intrigued as to what was going on. Unfortunately, once the main villain shows up and starts to explain their plan it all starts to fall apart (hey speaking of Zero Time Dilemma). I won't go into spoilers but the reason behind the death game and walking across japan was too dumb and unsatisfying that it kinda just fell apart for me. Especially the explanation behind the meteor. Hoo boy.

So okay, if the gameplay sucks and the story blows then is there anything good left for this game? Well, honestly, the shining star for me with World's End Club was the cast. I really liked these guys. For a start, their designs are excellent and Takegarou really knocked it out of the park with how colourful and individual each character's look was. Overall I thought they were all pretty likeable and well written. A bunch of them got character development, the clashing of each other's personalities and them coming together to help each other was really nice! Like, it's all pretty simple stuff but it worked really well and I kept invested in the game purely to see where they ended up. Also shout out the dub voice cast for doing a great job. There were times during the story where they really elevated certain moments with their performances.

So yeah, overall this game was a big disappointment! For as much enjoyment that I got out of just seeing the cast interact with each other and do shit, at the end of the day they're stuck in a game that's at odds with them.

A really nice, fun and charming adventure!
The group of kids that it follows are really wholesome and heartwarming, it is so cute.

The gameplay is a little undercooked. The platforming feels wonky and unresponsive at times which can lead to some frustrating moments though the checkpoints are very generous for putting you right back where you failed. It's also a little annoying how often the gameplay gets interrupted by characters telling you what to do but it is still enjoyable to play.

The story does have some familiar plot points if you've played any of the writers previous games before but they did an excellent job at throwing some really cool plot points during the last third of the game and it is a pretty gripping experience. There's some really strong heartfelt moments throughout (I love Vanilla and Pochi's arcs so much) and overall, it's just a really nice adventure across Japan with the cutest group of kids ever.

Go-go-go getters will never fall apart!

Eeeh, it was… alright?

I really enjoyed the story and the characters grew on me, but the platforming sections and bosses were a pain and the game just felt unpolished.

I probably sound more negative than I actually feel about this game. It‘s not a GOOD game, but I had my fun with it. Well, most of the time at least.

I reaaaally like the thing. It's just very, very wholesome overall and so entertainingly contrived in its story, I am just here for it. There are a few story ideas that Uchikoshi definitely reused (especially from VLR), but the biggest plot point of the game actually felt... relatively new? And I liked it a lot! There are a few ideas in here I would really love to see explored further. The character designs slap so hard, too! And if a mandatory musical sequence is now the norm for the games Uchikoshi writes I could not be happier tbh.

The weakest part is the gameplay. For me, it's serviceable enough, there are a few quirks I quite like (especially in context with the story), and a lot of other weird decisions I don't like. It really comes down to personal preference (aka "How much jank and mediocre level design can you tolerate?").

I'm very happy that this didn't become an actual killing game, because that would have been so, so much worse. What we got instead is very entertaining, incredibly wholesome, sometimes extremely clever in its story and just an overall good time! I can also actually see a child/very young teen play this, it's kinda perfect for that demographic.

If you know who made this you already have an idea of what exactly you're getting into.

Yes, World's End Club is developed with kids in mind, you can see that in the very simple gameplay. The controls can be a bit rough at times, but that doesn't take away from the experience.

The world, story and characters are all top notch and shouldn't be passed up because it looks like a "kids game"