Full video review: https://youtu.be/hnjo41l7oH0
From the same studio that brought you Guacamelee! comes a bit of a unique one. It’s a top-down action RPG hack and slash adventure with a very cool form-swapping mechanic.
Gameplay
So an immediate comparison I would make here is to that of Shantae. The core mechanic in Nobody Saves the World is that you’re able to freely swap between different “forms”. There are over 15 of these different forms and they each have a full slate of unique abilities to use in combat on top of their base traits like some being able to travel in water and some being able to go through tight spaces.
It’s a very cool mechanic and is made only better by the sheer variety and detail behind it all. Some forms are faster, some forms are tankier, some are ranged, some are melee, some are a mix of both - there are plenty to choose from and they fit all sorts of play styles.
That’s not all though, because shortly into the experience you’re granted the ability to customize each form further by equipping abilities from any of the other forms. You can get stuff like a horse with the poison traits of the rat or a ghost with the water spray ability of the turtle. Because each form levels up individually, you’re encouraged to hop around and not stick with just one form, but at the same time, this customization allows you to take some of your favorite abilities from one form and apply them to another - a very cool combo.
The combat was already fun enough on its own with most of the base forms, but the addition of ability swapping really elevates it and especially so later on once you have most of the abilities unlocked and come up with some crazy synergies. And it’s not just the combat - the quests and puzzles build off of this mechanic too. One quest, for example, has you destroy a bunch of targets using specific damage types in a limited amount of time and you’ll need to come up with some sort of form combo with just the right abilities to complete that task in time.
Maps & Aesthetic
The maps are a good mix of environments with cool designs, cool characters to meet, and fun quests to complete. Unlocking more forms gradually opens up more of the map, so exploration is encouraged too. And of course, the map greatly benefits from the game’s colorful art style. Great coloring, plenty of world detailing - it’s just an all-around good looking game and with some nice music to match too.
Quality of Life
My main complaints are mostly with the quality of life side of things. For example, the “quick select” wheel that allows you to change between forms is a bit finicky once you have enough forms to fill it up. In the event that you want to swap to a form that is not on the wheel, you have to pause the game, pull up the form menu, select that form, and hope that it does not replace another form that you also would like to swap to. I don’t know if my friend and I were missing something, but it seemed that the form would be put on the quick select wheel randomly, so it became a bit of a pain once we had to juggle all of these forms.
I also wasn’t the biggest fan of how quests are tracked and submitted. To do so, you have to pull up a menu manually and submit them before progress can be made on the next part of that quest. This is a bit of an annoyance because sometimes you’ll complete one in the middle of combat and have to pause right then to submit it or waste the next several kills not getting tracked towards your next quest.
Technical Issues & Performance
I did run into a few issues with the multiplayer. Whether that be the occasional lag spike that lasts a while or the random disconnect forcing me back to the main menu - both were annoying. The latter could easily be solved by keeping at least one player in the game instead of booting both, but as it stands that is not the case.
Otherwise, the game plays fine. I ran it at 1440p and 120 fps without any performance issues. The game lacks mouse controls but does have rebindable keyboard controls. They are a bit obtuse, but at least doable if you do not have a controller on hand.
Overall
I went into Nobody Saves the World thinking - okay, basically top-down Shantae, but it’s a lot more than just that. Fun combat with plenty of depth, quests that actually do something unique and don’t just have you running to and from, solid music and colorful art with plenty of detail - it’s got a lot going for it in spite of some technical and design flaws. It’s fun enough as a singleplayer title, but an absolutely easy recommendation if you have a friend to do online co-op with.
From the same studio that brought you Guacamelee! comes a bit of a unique one. It’s a top-down action RPG hack and slash adventure with a very cool form-swapping mechanic.
Gameplay
So an immediate comparison I would make here is to that of Shantae. The core mechanic in Nobody Saves the World is that you’re able to freely swap between different “forms”. There are over 15 of these different forms and they each have a full slate of unique abilities to use in combat on top of their base traits like some being able to travel in water and some being able to go through tight spaces.
It’s a very cool mechanic and is made only better by the sheer variety and detail behind it all. Some forms are faster, some forms are tankier, some are ranged, some are melee, some are a mix of both - there are plenty to choose from and they fit all sorts of play styles.
That’s not all though, because shortly into the experience you’re granted the ability to customize each form further by equipping abilities from any of the other forms. You can get stuff like a horse with the poison traits of the rat or a ghost with the water spray ability of the turtle. Because each form levels up individually, you’re encouraged to hop around and not stick with just one form, but at the same time, this customization allows you to take some of your favorite abilities from one form and apply them to another - a very cool combo.
The combat was already fun enough on its own with most of the base forms, but the addition of ability swapping really elevates it and especially so later on once you have most of the abilities unlocked and come up with some crazy synergies. And it’s not just the combat - the quests and puzzles build off of this mechanic too. One quest, for example, has you destroy a bunch of targets using specific damage types in a limited amount of time and you’ll need to come up with some sort of form combo with just the right abilities to complete that task in time.
Maps & Aesthetic
The maps are a good mix of environments with cool designs, cool characters to meet, and fun quests to complete. Unlocking more forms gradually opens up more of the map, so exploration is encouraged too. And of course, the map greatly benefits from the game’s colorful art style. Great coloring, plenty of world detailing - it’s just an all-around good looking game and with some nice music to match too.
Quality of Life
My main complaints are mostly with the quality of life side of things. For example, the “quick select” wheel that allows you to change between forms is a bit finicky once you have enough forms to fill it up. In the event that you want to swap to a form that is not on the wheel, you have to pause the game, pull up the form menu, select that form, and hope that it does not replace another form that you also would like to swap to. I don’t know if my friend and I were missing something, but it seemed that the form would be put on the quick select wheel randomly, so it became a bit of a pain once we had to juggle all of these forms.
I also wasn’t the biggest fan of how quests are tracked and submitted. To do so, you have to pull up a menu manually and submit them before progress can be made on the next part of that quest. This is a bit of an annoyance because sometimes you’ll complete one in the middle of combat and have to pause right then to submit it or waste the next several kills not getting tracked towards your next quest.
Technical Issues & Performance
I did run into a few issues with the multiplayer. Whether that be the occasional lag spike that lasts a while or the random disconnect forcing me back to the main menu - both were annoying. The latter could easily be solved by keeping at least one player in the game instead of booting both, but as it stands that is not the case.
Otherwise, the game plays fine. I ran it at 1440p and 120 fps without any performance issues. The game lacks mouse controls but does have rebindable keyboard controls. They are a bit obtuse, but at least doable if you do not have a controller on hand.
Overall
I went into Nobody Saves the World thinking - okay, basically top-down Shantae, but it’s a lot more than just that. Fun combat with plenty of depth, quests that actually do something unique and don’t just have you running to and from, solid music and colorful art with plenty of detail - it’s got a lot going for it in spite of some technical and design flaws. It’s fun enough as a singleplayer title, but an absolutely easy recommendation if you have a friend to do online co-op with.