Nobody Saves the World (2022)

I am not quite getting this game. It just feels incredibly grindy without interesting mechanics or elements to it. I love the art style and the humor but early on the forms are too limited and don’t seem to play that different. I contrast that with a game like Children of Morta wherein each of the family’s combat mechanics was different enough to keep it fresh through the runs. I also agree with others that have said the mini-quests feel like a chore list and don’t make it more engaging.

It leaves GamePass soon so I am glad I tried it out.

Anyone thinking about picking up a Razer Kishi, reconsider. Compared to the Backbone One, it’s very poorly designed. Squishy buttons, poor grip on the phone, cheap materials, and no passthrough audio. Somehow I missed that last fact when reading reviews. If Backbone One is an A+ phone controller, the Razer Kishi is a D+, maybe C- at best.

Update: what an asinine move by Razer, omitting the passthrough audio. Of course all of my headphones use AAC as the audio codec over Bluetooth, and Android doesn’t support AAC, so there is immense audio lag when I play anything via Bluetooth audio. All the Kishi needs is a simple 3.5mm audio connection but nope, not on this thing. So this thing is ultimately pointless unless I want to invest in new Bluetooth headphones, which I don’t.

And I’m an ass for not looking thoroughly through reviews to find out that there was no pass through audio. But why wouldn’t there be? Why would you leave out something this basic and fundamental to portable gameplay? I hate returning products, especially because I didn’t do my due diligence and research it thoroughly. But this thing is useless. What a complete dingus move Razer.

Oh and again, this is Apple’s fault for not supporting game streaming apps in the first place.

iOS desperately needs a dedicated Game Pass app. The input lag via the browser app is horrendous. Under the same network conditions on a laptop with an Xbox controller there is really no discernible lag. Yet when played through the browser app, the lag is very pronounced with reaction to button presses severely delayed. And it’s not a controller issue because the lag is the same when using the touchscreen controls built into the web app.

I already have a Backbone One for my phone. I don’t want to have to buy a Razer Kishi for an Android phone just so I can play Game Pass using a dedicated app. Come on Apple, stop being jerks!

I found a review that hits on the problems I have this this game. Here are some relevant excerpts:

An action role-player vaguely in the style of Diablo, the central appeal of Nobody Saves The World is to unlock all the different forms and so long as there’s always another one to look forwards to it remains compelling. The further you get though, the more you start to realise that the underlying gameplay and structure is just a means to an end and there’s far too much anticipation and not enough payoff.

Each form has its own signature attack and passive ability, but they can also be mixed and matched with abilities from the other forms to create a character that’s able to perform all manner of different status attacks and special moves. It’s a great system, that’s cleverly thought out and very flexible, but it does have one important flaw: the combat it enables is extremely dull and repetitive.

Despite all the excellent work with the abilities and different characters the combat doesn’t involve anything more complicated than keeping your finger down on the attack button. Crowd control is important but beyond making sure you don’t get cornered, and dodging the occasional projectile, there really isn’t much tactics necessary at all; not given the very limited artificial intelligence of the enemies. This is underlined by the horribly dull boss battles, which are always anticlimactic and are usually just a slightly bigger version of a monster you’ve fought a dozen times before.

Nobody Saves The World has a number of interesting elements but in the end they’re largely wasted on a repetitive and frequently boring experience. The degree to which it manages to hide this, by repeatedly convincing you that the next unlock is worth slogging on for, is impressive but it’s really just hiding the fact that the gameplay is every bit as hollow as the main character.

I feel as though gamers have been so thoroughly trained to chase achievements that Nobody Saves the World is hitting bigger than it warrants. I do wonder once every form is unlocked and every achievement won whether the majority will stick around to see the game through. Somehow I suspect a good number who got hooked on the game’s cycle will quit before the end once that dopamine supply is exhausted.

I don't know that I'm going to make it through this one. I really enjoy shapeshifting in games -- I always loved playing a Druid in Diablo, for example. I don't mind that the combat is simple, it's just that there are some frustrating factors that frequently cause it to get into the "not fun" territory.

The visual and audio clarity is awful. Why are my ability cool downs hidden in the bottom right corner of the screen? Why isn't the health bar bigger? Why isn't there a stronger sound effect when I'm taking damage? The game really likes to swarm you with enemies, making it easy to lose your character. Instead of using some sort of indicator with transparency to show where you are, you get a large, completely opaque indicator that covers up enemies.

For a game based around shapeshfting, the interface to do so is horrible too. If you want to pause to do it, you have to go through a couple of menu pages and then navigate a tree to get to the form you want. If you want to do it on the fly, you get a fiddly menu that maps 8 directions on the joysticks to forms. That's frustrating enough, but there are more than 8 forms in the game. As far as I can find, you can't select which 8 you want on there. It just seems to be the most recent 8, with the positions filling in for the one that just fell out. Meaning, you can't just remember a certain form is in a certain spot. Just map triggers + face buttons to specific forms like a sane developer.

For all of those complaints, though, I really enjoy a lot about the game. Mixing passives and abilities from different forms together is fun. Being a horse and kicking enemies around or sliding around as a slug is just inherently fun for me. It'll probably have to go on the "play in short bursts when I feel like taking a break from a better game" list.

Nobody Saves the World doesn't make a great first impression. Combat is not particularly fun and I deeply dislike the fact that you have to enter a menu to redeem quests in order to level up. I have absolutely no clue why you don't just automatically level up after completing quests. And the quest mechanic feels like an achievement system, a game that has been gamified. If your game is fun, I'll play it. I'm not going to play it because you turned the entire affair into achievement hunting.

And while I usually enjoy Drink Box's 2D art, I'm not loving it in this game. It feels strongly like a game that would have been better served by a pixel art aesthetic.

I want to give this a fair shake so I might keep playing it but so far I don't know if this scratches any itch I have in respect to dungeon crawlers.