Never have I experienced a title with two such jarring game genres packed into one product. Surprisingly, this unexpected combination was pretty engaging when it shines. The two genres in play here are the scrolling shoot’em up and escape adventure. One genre, with its guns blazing ships shooting at everything that moves and blowing things up and then the other genre, which is more story driven with puzzles that need to be solved. Developed by Japanese company IzanagiGames, The game in review here is Yurukill: The Calumniation Games and it’s a game so unique, it really took me aback. For that alone I can easily say I had a very enjoyable and memorable experience that is hard to compare.
You play as Sengoku, who is a convicted arsonist who apparently has killed over 20 people. Not everything is what it seems, could he actually be innocent? He, along with a group of other convicts as well as victims, is taken to Yurukill Land where they are required to play very intense escape room games. The upside to participating for the prisoners is the winners will get their criminal records erased and have a chance at life once again; the downside, of course, is likely death. As for the victims, they play the role of executioners and must pair themselves with a prisoner. Their reward if they win is to get one of their wishes granted, which usually entails avenging a deceased loved one. There is a TON of story in this game, lots of character backstories, mysterious intrigue, and all around well written dialogue. It is so much in fact, it can be almost too much, even exhausting. This really is a perfect example of a visual novel. Talking much more about it, may result in spoilers.
So, with the gameplay, the puzzle solving is what we get most of here, in between the long dialogue moments with decent voicework. The puzzles themselves were never all that difficult, as there is a sense of the game holding your hand the entire way through to make it difficult for you to struggle. There is even a hint option that makes it extremely easy and there’s no repercussions for using them. That being said, they’re still a fun time. After solving these life-threatening puzzles and dealing with an obscene amount of story and dialogue, “Yurukill” likes to break the ice and mix things up with these shoot’em up games, that honestly really help get you back engaged from feeling like you haven’t been playing a video game much. Unfortunately, the difficulty here is also not that high either. Lack of difficulty doesn’t make it any less fun though, these moments are really solid palate cleansers.
All-in-all, while everything this game achieves isn’t perfect, it still achieves a lot, I hope a game similar to this in the future comes out and perfects the mistakes made here. That being said, this was a very entertaining and gripping story to unravel, with characters I loved to love and loved to hate. Yurukill: The Calumniation Games is easily nothing like any other game I’ve played before. It’s incredibly strange and takes a lot of risks, which is something I always appreciate in video games. If you’re into very “wordy” games, or at least open to experiencing one, I highly recommend giving this a shot.
8/10
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Related: Nick Navarro Reviews
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Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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