Shinsekai: Into the Depths
Main game
3.87 average rating based on 15 ratings
Release Dates
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How Long Is Shinsekai: Into the Depths?
One Of The Best Switch Exclusives
I'm doing a quick little review of this excellent game, because Capcom recently announced the game is being delisted from Apple Arcade. As such, the ONLY way to play this game after August 24th 2023 is on Nintendo Switch. I could bemoan the impermanence of digital media and plead for the gods to deliver a physical release of this gem... And I will. This game needs a physical release.
Anyway. What is Shinsekai? I almost have no goddamn idea, and that's precisely why I love it. It's an oddball little indie-scale game developed out of Capcom's "passion project" division. You start as, presumably, the last human left alive - isolated some depth beneath the sea, as glaciation forces you out of your home and deeper and deeper into the abyss.
That's the core conceipt of this game. Through events you never saw and that are not readily explained, the Earth is flooded and freezing over. The only place you can survive is the least hospitable place for an air-breathing human. The game has no dialogue, and the story is told completely through character animations and level context. You can only press on so deep before the pressure becomes too much …
I'm doing a quick little review of this excellent game, because Capcom recently announced the game is being delisted from Apple Arcade. As such, the ONLY way to play this game after August 24th 2023 is on Nintendo Switch. I could bemoan the impermanence of digital media and plead for the gods to deliver a physical release of this gem... And I will. This game needs a physical release.
Anyway. What is Shinsekai? I almost have no goddamn idea, and that's precisely why I love it. It's an oddball little indie-scale game developed out of Capcom's "passion project" division. You start as, presumably, the last human left alive - isolated some depth beneath the sea, as glaciation forces you out of your home and deeper and deeper into the abyss.
That's the core conceipt of this game. Through events you never saw and that are not readily explained, the Earth is flooded and freezing over. The only place you can survive is the least hospitable place for an air-breathing human. The game has no dialogue, and the story is told completely through character animations and level context. You can only press on so deep before the pressure becomes too much for the human body to bear... So you have to find parts discarded from the surface world in caves, downed ships, and sunken buildings to upgrade your gear so you can continue to descend.
I love this game A LOT. It's not perfect, of course - the graphics are most definitely mobile game graphics, and the gameplay can become quite difficult at unexpected times... But it's really a special game, and one people don't talk about nearly enough.
Check it out!
OMG, I just got punked by this Steam store page for the Shinsekai: Into the Depths soundtrack. For a second I thought that a PC port might be forthcoming, and I was stoked 😭
This game absolutely needs to be ported to additional systems. The fact that it was delisted from Apple Arcade and is now only on Switch feels like an injustice. It’s such a great game, but this is the second time playing it that I can see where it would benefit from a hardware boost. When it was available on Apple Arcade I had both the latest iPhone and Apple TV. Neither could really play Shinsekai without some frame stutter during things like boss fights. Now that I’m playing it on Switch, it’s clear that the problem persists. The Switch seems to drop to sub-15 fps during high action sequences and it hurts the otherwise beautiful presentation of the game (you’ll rarely hear me say that about 2.5D). And the fact that it was delisted on Apple Arcade means no one can access this game with the much faster SoCs that Apple is putting out today. This game deserves better. I don’t o ow if it’s a priority for Capcom, but maybe given they took the time to port it to Switch. Also given Kunitsu-Gami seems to be doing well (at least critically, I hope the sales match), maybe they’ll want …
This game absolutely needs to be ported to additional systems. The fact that it was delisted from Apple Arcade and is now only on Switch feels like an injustice. It’s such a great game, but this is the second time playing it that I can see where it would benefit from a hardware boost. When it was available on Apple Arcade I had both the latest iPhone and Apple TV. Neither could really play Shinsekai without some frame stutter during things like boss fights. Now that I’m playing it on Switch, it’s clear that the problem persists. The Switch seems to drop to sub-15 fps during high action sequences and it hurts the otherwise beautiful presentation of the game (you’ll rarely hear me say that about 2.5D). And the fact that it was delisted on Apple Arcade means no one can access this game with the much faster SoCs that Apple is putting out today. This game deserves better. I don’t o ow if it’s a priority for Capcom, but maybe given they took the time to port it to Switch. Also given Kunitsu-Gami seems to be doing well (at least critically, I hope the sales match), maybe they’ll want to boost the reach of this game by porting it to other consoles and PC. This would sing on any of those and would be lovely to play it without the severe frame rate dips.
I’d also love to see if porting this to more capable systems would reduce the degree this game relies on dithering.
Having a really hard time enjoying anything I play post Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. I bought Shinsekai on Switch to see if it can fill that void. I haven't played it since it was first on Apple Arcade, but I liked it then. Here's hoping it does the trick.
