by
Thomas Froehlicher
, posted 4 hours ago / 370 Views
Death end re;Quest Code Z is the first time I’ve played a Compile Heart game in three long years. After the PSVita years, I felt that the publisher had stopped innovating or improving, and my interest gradually dwindled in its projects until now. Death end re;Quest Code Z initially looked like it would be a downgrade compared to the first Death end re;Quest some eight years ago, but there’s definitely something about it that tells me Compile Heart is finally back in form.
Death end re;Quest is one of those rare games that I think aged rather well. In fact, I would rate it higher today than I did in 2018. Its lore, writing, gameplay, and art are far deeper and more novel than anything else Compile Heart has produced, and certainly far better than everything the company has marketed since its release. Code Z retains nothing from the first entry in terms of gameplay, since it’s not a fully-fledged, turn-based, teamwork-oriented JRPG, and is instead a cheap-looking dungeon-RPG with just one playable character. So at first I considered skipping it entirely, like I did other games from the studio in recent years, but out of respect and nostalgia for the illustrious first title, I decided to pick it up anyway.
Code Z features a brand new heroine, called Sayaka, who lives with Shiina, the heroine of the first game. They both work at Iris game development company, but suffer relentless attacks from Arata Mizunashi, the protagonist of the first title, who returns with a wicked personality. Every time Mizunashi strikes, Sayaka is sent to a dungeon in order to bring back a character from the series who is trapped at the heart of it. It would take a giant article to go over the series’ Kafkaesque lore and scenario, but unlike Death End re;Quest 2, which added nothing but confusing and unnecessary elements, Code Z offers a clearer, bolder narrative that’s much more in line with the spirit of the original game.
In sequels like this, there’s generally some option in the main menu to review the synopsis of past entries, and it’s precisely when I needed it here that it was nowhere to be found. That’s a pity, because it can be extremely difficult to connect this present narrative to the one of eight years ago, which might not be so fresh in a player’s memory. It’s also a bit painful to witness how the scenario here attempts to fit the second game into the general timeline. I definitely reckon it did more damage than anything, and it would have been better to discard it entirely, like Compile did with the very first Neptunia. Ultimately, that doesn’t hinder the comprehension of Code Z, but a certain knowledge of the original Death End re;Quest is definitely required.
Regarding the scenario in Code Z itself, I found that how the characters are featured felt much more compelling to me than in the sequel. Death end re;Quest 2 gave little importance to characters from the first game, which felt like an unbearable flaw. Code Z fortunately fixes this by giving every past heroine her time to shine, including with a large number of anecdotes and conversations that are useful in developing each characters’ personality and eventually making all of the dialogue very entertaining. The humor is deliciously sharp too.
I also found it particularly fascinating how some of the roles compared to the original are inverted, with Mizunashi playing a convincing villain, or Ludens actually helping you against the former Glitch Girls that are now coming after you. Even more than before in the series, Code Z features a huge visual novel aspect, because the narrative relies on 2D artwork this time. This meant that good balance between the characters, novelty, and the quality of the writing were paramount for enjoyment of this entry, and I’m pleased to say that the publisher got that right.
The other major part of the game is the dungeons. Dungeons in Code Z have a set number of floors that are randomly generated. You control Sayaka, in a 3D isometric field built on a grid with squares. Your goal is to reach the top and rescue the local heroine, while fending off prowling monsters. This isn’t so difficult in the first half of the adventure, when the number of floors is around 10 or 15. But it’s a whole different story when you tackle 25-floor or 30-floor dungeons, partly because you can’t save during your progression within these dungeons. You can interrupt your play and come back to it later, but you have to start all over when you die. The last one I cleared consisted of 35 floors, and believe me it felt like a monstrous achievement to complete it. If every floor is two or three minutes long on average, then this dungeon took around an hour and a half of roaming without saving – or dying, of course.
Code Z is the perfect example of exponential difficulty. It puts you very much at ease at first, and it drives you completely to the edge later on. The last five or ten floors of a dungeon are considerably harder than the initial ones, making you more likely to lose near the goal, exactly when it will cost you the most. When you reach floor 20 or 25, enemy levels suddenly increase and they start using lots of dirty tricks, like abnormal statuses, knocking Sayaka several squares away, or playing twice a turn… I even came across monsters that destroyed my inventory! An absolute and astounding first for me in more than two decades playing RPGs.
When the smallest misstep can cost you one entire hour of gameplay, your inventory is real life insurance. Besides the usual potions for Sayaka’s HP, you need to bring items to preserve her sanity. Sayaka’s sanity has a maximum of 100 and decreases inexorably when exploring dungeons. When it’s really low, you no longer see the map and she starts hurting herself. This means you can die by suicide if you’re short of a cure for sanity.
Other items allow you to counter the numerous difficulties: there are items for curing or preventing abnormal status, and others for casting confusion at opponents. You can also reveal the entire map of a floor or the traps hidden on it. The item list is endless and there are lots of available strategies to overcome the dungeons, but they must be learned and managed quite carefully. Additionally, each unique death grant you points for what is called the Death End Skill Tree: the more you lose, the more perks you can unlock in order to return to dungeons in a stronger position. You can reduce some types of damage, get more attack status points, and even resist some annoying traps and debuffs. There’s a lot of enjoyment to be found in actually thinking and coming up with solutions, like in say a good puzzle game. Code Z is ultimately very difficult – perhaps too difficult – but also incredibly rewarding because it drives you to truly study its mechanics and come back stronger.
But that’s not all. When you’ve beaten the boss, the dungeon doesn’t even end there. Sayaka has to go through the floors the opposite way while protecting the NPC she’s just saved. True, you can find a teleport device to exit more quickly, but there are still a couple of very tense floors to get through first. Perhaps the developers realized this at some point because, around mid-game, checkpoints are found in dungeons, but only after you’ve beaten them once. This is linked to a feature I’ll be discussing just below, but my opinion on the matter is that dungeons in the second half of the game should absolutely have checkpoints on the first attempt; a 40-floor dungeon will break you psychologically if you need to conquer it in one.
Compile Heart’s huge revolution for this title is symbolized by that one letter: Z. Death end re;Quest Code Z is rated CERO Z, which is the adult category in the Japanese rating system. You can’t buy this game if you’re under 18 in Japan and you’ll be asked to show an ID card. Z-rated Japanese games are extremely rare and it’s a first for Compile Heart. This allows the publisher to create gruesome bad endings that go far beyond what you could see in Death end re;Quest before. I sincerely get the feeling that the series finally becomes what it was destined to be with this entry, at least in terms of its horror atmosphere.
It so happens that those endings are especially difficult to unlock, and add some more thrill to the gameplay. For fans of gore, horror, and twisted anime stories, Code Z is the absolute best video game product you can find. Bad endings are extremely (and I do stress the «extremely» part) graphic, and the chilling narration that goes with them is no less horrific. I haven’t experienced anime-like grim scenes of such a level on console since Iwai Hime Matsuri, which is the only other Japanese CERO Z game I’ve played. So it’s no surprise that Nintendo opposed the publishing of the Switch version overseas. Death end re;Quest Code Z is thus a PlayStation console exclusive in the West – another reminder of the old days of Compile Heart.
Death end re;Quest Code Z marks a stunning comeback for Compile Heart and a treat for fans of the first game. Visually underwhelming and not very ambitious at first, it eventually boasts surprisingly complex rogue-like RPG mechanics and a compelling level of challenge. Compile Heart’s bold CERO Z bet makes no compromises in terms of gore and horror, making Code Z the hardline experience I really desired.
VGChartz Verdict
This review is based on a retail copy of Death end re;Quest Code Z for the PS5Read more about our Review Methodology here
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