Our World Is Ended. Review

 

Some in the gaming community argue that Virtual Reality (VR) is the next big step for the gaming industry…but what if you ended up being stuck in the world that you created? Well for the moment, you have Our World Is Ended. to help you explore that question! Our World Is Ended. brings a lot to the table in terms of a quality visual novel for a western audience. When I started to do my research into this game it gave me a huge Steins;Gate vibe, so I was a little skeptical about how original it was going to be. While that feeling never really went away, it was a very enjoyable experience none the less. Everything from the quality of the art to the seiyuu cast shows that a lot of time and effort went into making Our World Is Ended..

Our World Is Ended. focuses on Judgement 7, a small video game company comprised of seven members who embark on creating hit titles. The game opens up with the protagonist Reiji, a spirited part-timer, doing a field test of a new game engine that Judgement 7 created called The W.O.R.L.D Program in the middle of Akasaka on a hot summer day. On the verge of heat stroke, Reiji is rescued by another, airheaded part-timer who escorts him back to the office.  There you meet the other members of Judgement 7 who are all outcasts and misfits led by Sekai Owari. During a meeting Owari shows off The W.O.R.L.D Program to the rest of Judgement 7. After experiencing what they think is a glitch they take off their VR helmets to find out that they are actually stuck in the world they have created. I won’t spoil what happens next but it gets pretty exciting.

The seiyuu line up for Our World Is Ended. blows my mind with how many really big names are present.  For just the main cast in Judgement 7 alone:

• Sekai Owari (Seiyuu: Tomokazu Sugita)
• Iruka2Gou (Seiyuu: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka)
• Asano Hayase (Seiyuu: Eri Kitamura)
• Natsumi Yuki (Seiyuu: Saori Onishi)
• Tatiana Alexandrovna Sharapova (Seiyuu: Yumiri Hanamori)
• Yuno Hayase (Seiyuu: Ayane Sakura)
• Reiji Gozen (Seiyuu: Ryota Osaka)

This is a huge line up for a visual novel and it’s a treat to hear them work together. Though the one huge complaint I have with Our World Is Ended. is the writing isn’t as up to par with everything else. The main characters focus so much on their personality that it often gets in the way of serious writing. Using Asano, Judgement 7’s composer, as an example: Asano is tone def and unlike her sister, Yuno, is extremely flat chested and ill-tempered. With the other characters interact with Asano you would think that the only notable aspect of her character is her flat chest. Or with Sekai, who’s a genius programmer that’s also super perverted. You can’t get a full scene that Sekai is in without him cracking a perverted joke for most of the game.

As the game progresses there is really good character development but you have to go through a lot of filler dialog that doesn’t really amount to anything. Which in a small dose is nice because unlike other VN’s, the character interactions with each other doesn’t feel robotic. As the characters do learn more and get serious about their situation, but it takes so long to get there that I fear some players will lose interest because of all of the jokes. I really urge players to really stick around because it’s rewarding once they reach that point. The story was still written by Noki Morita, the author of Sakura Wars, so the overall story is still really enjoyable even if it does feel a little weak at points. A visual novel wouldn’t be anything without its art and it’s definitely one of the strong points Our World Is Ended. has going for it aside from the seiyuu cast. Eirl Shirai and Cre-P provide stunning character and background art. 

Overall, Our World Is Ended. brings a lot of heavy hitters out with a story written by Noki Morita, a very impressive seiyuu cast with the likes of Tomokazu Sugita and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka to go along with beautiful art by Eirl Shirai and Cre-P. While this game does have low points due to weirdly placed jokes in the writing, Our World Is Ended. is still a very enjoyable experience that I would recommend to people who enjoy sci-fi visual novels.