Dead or School (2019) [Switch]

The road to freedom – here and everywhere on earth – begins in the classroom.
– Hubert Humphrey

Dead or School was an oddity that I discovered last year whilst looking for new games in my beloved ‘Metroidvania’ genre. I took a chance and imported a Japanese copy for the Nintendo Switch, which offered full English text throughout. This is the version of the game that I am basing this Dead or School review upon. As a disclaimer there may be further localisation and changes for the impending Western release of the game, but I am unaware of these at the time of writing.

I am a huge fan of unusual titles from other regions that rarely find their way over to this side of the planet. This was the case when I bought a copy of the rather wonderful Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament. This turned out to be a charming action-RPG based around elements of Chinese mythology. It certainly captivated my attention and made me eager to check out more exciting titles from other regions.

When I ordered a copy of Dead or School, one of my fellow Mages advised me to stop buying such unknown games from Japan. He showed concern because I was unable to say with any certainty whether it was, and I quote, “..one of THOSE games.” When the game arrived, some of the screenshots on the back of the box looked rather questionable and I did wonder whether I had made a bad purchase.

Having since played the game to completion, let me assure you all right here and now that Dead or School is thankfully NOT in that category. It makes some decisions that I personally wouldn’t have if I oversaw the project, but there’s nothing here that wouldn’t be unusual to players of Akiba’s Trip or School Girl Zombie Hunter.

A little more research into the development of Dead or School revealed that it is the brainchild of Studio Nanafushi, an indie development team comprising only three people. Their crowdfunding campaign for the game stalled, yet their drive and determination pushed them to complete their pet-project and deliver it on Steam, Switch and PS4.

Now with the game due to arrive in the west, it appears that Studio Nanafushi’s efforts have been thoroughly rewarded with an international audience for their work. However, is this an indie gem deserving of praise or should it be banished to detention?

I am very pleased to report that the developers’ hard work has paid off. Mostly!

Visuals: 8/10

Dead or School’s visuals are a curious beast. The game itself is constructed from simple 3D environments presented to the player on a 2D plane. They are generally washed down with the same colour palette from area to area, signifying the decay of the city and the downfall of what would at one point have been the bustling network of Tokyo’s many subway stations.

It’s dark, it’s depressing, and it makes for a suitably uncomfortable area in which to stage thrilling battles against hordes of mutated creatures. That said, the character models inhabiting this world seem somewhat at-odds with their surroundings. They just seem a little too… bright? They certainly pop out, which I suppose is to the game’s benefit, but in a strange way they look as if they don’t belong in the world around them.

It’s an unusual critique to make because the game’s visuals do not detract at all from the gameplay – if anything they enhance it – but at first glance the game itself seems nothing to write home about. So why have I given an eight up above? Well.. Dead or School has an ace up its sleeve in the form of its lead developer: comic artist ‘Jupiter Resident’.

This lead-developer is one of my new heroes for several reasons. First, their art is pasted across the game like a glossy photo-filter changing every scene from a standard-looking platform-adventure to something practically dripping with style. Also, they introduced the game through an Indiegogo video made whilst vacuuming the house! What a legend!

Add to this the gruesome monster designs and the way they leap from the foreground into the action, and you have a game that looks rough around the edges but appears splashed with waves of classy anime overtones throughout. Moreover, the HUD looks fantastic and just oozes quality; even down to showing changes in the protagonist’s facial-expression and currently held weapon.

It’s quite jarring to look from the action to the HUD and back again from time to time, and it isn’t something that everyone will appreciate. Personally, I feel the team made Dead or School in a style wholly unique to them and that’s worthy of some credit.

Audio: 9/10

The soundtrack to Dead or School is unbelievably good, providing some serious hard-rockin’ tunes to accompany the blazing action taking place on-screen. Some of the chunky guitar solos had me nodding my head along with them, in much the same way as some of the viciously memorable riffs that accompanied the original Doom.

It feels to me as though the developers played to their strengths and hand-picked a soundtrack that suited what they had already created so perfectly. Selecting tracks that offer a great sense of confinement and power to match the intensity of each battle scene: I really couldn’t ask for much more from a soundtrack.

 Narrative: 6/10

Okay, stick with me on this one. In the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse, most of humanity has been forced to live underground in order to avoid confrontation with surface-dwelling mutants. Their only mode of transport is the underground subway system, allowing them to access other parts of the city. So far so Metro, right?

Dead or School flips this from Russia to Japan, with the game taking place (mostly) beneath Tokyo in its labyrinth of subway stations. Hisako, a young girl who seemingly possesses the power to defeat the mutants, is told by her grandmother of a magical place known as School where everyone can go to learn and play together.

Entranced by this idea, Hisako sets out by herself on a quest to reclaim the surface from the mutant army in order to rebuild School and play with her friends. That… is the entire premise of the game, and the way that NPCs react to her quest pretty much sums up my own response to it: “What? You want to go to School? Okay, I’m intrigued. Let’s see how this plays out.”

Along the journey there are numerous characters who can be rescued and recruited by finding them and sending them back to the train that acts as both Hub and Fast-travel Device. These can offer further plot details, side-quests or new items to help Hisako on her way. Yet the more interesting ones in my opinion are the few who are considered primary cast-members.

One example is Yurika, the first character to be rescued, who turns out to be a much more complex character than Hisako and for a lot of the time I wished the game had cast her in the lead instead. The game takes a few rather predictable turns with its overall plot, yet Hisako thwarts all evil with her single-mindedness and her determination to find School.

It could be that Dead or School is making a grand statement on children growing up too quickly in the modern age. It could be that it’s using a simple anime trope that evil can be overpowered by child-like naivety. Which it is, I remain unsure. What I do know is that a lot of the more interesting side-characters were left unexplored; and that as much as the narrative itself develops, Hisako as a protagonist does not.

Such a shame because the premise behind it all could have been explored a lot further and could have made some excellent points about the value of education and being willing to fight for it. As it is, it’s a mindlessly thrown-together concept that plays second fiddle to the hacking and slashing portion of the game. It’s there, but it’s also skippable for the most part.

 Gameplay: 9/10

Speaking of the hacking and slashing, this is where Dead or School really shines. The Tokyo subway system is divided up into various stations, each becoming accessible in a linear progression once the end-boss of a previous stage is defeated. As Hisako travels across the Japanese capital, tougher enemies are introduced in accordance with the protagonist’s level increasing and skills being unlocked.

Each station comes with a Super Metroid style mini-map pointing out areas of interest, locked doors, potential survivors, key-cards and the like. It’s a very detailed evolution of the kind of map system players of other Metroidvania games would be familiar with and saves on a lot of diving in and out of menus just to determine the next location.

Experience Points are given for beating waves of enemies that impede Hisako’s progress through the tunnels, with Yen also being collected in order to purchase weapons, items and upgrades from the game’s shop. As Hisako’s level increases, so does her attack power, speed and stamina – each of which offering a noticeable boost to the character’s basic functionality.

All standard stuff so far, but where Dead or School really comes alive is in the looting and crafting menus. Hisako can carry one melee weapon, one firearm and one powerful projectile weapon at one time, and each has its own counter for how often it can be used. Each can be recharged at a save-point, but carefully consuming ammo and limiting melee use can be the difference between making it to the next save spot and perishing part-way there.

Adding this element of strategy in ammo / weapon conservation makes traversing every one of the areas in the game a fresh challenge. This, added to the difficulty level of the boss encounters, makes Dead or School a much more interesting game than it initially appeared.

Particularly, learning to use the dodge-roll in combat and switching between different weapon-types on the fly makes for fun and entertaining combat scenarios that never get stale throughout the game’s length. I was finding myself regularly beaten by some of the mobs of larger and quicker enemies, but never once did a death feel cheap. I always found myself with the urge to try again.

 Accessibility: 8/10

Each of the game’s mechanics are clearly detailed in simple pop-up tutorials at the beginning of the game. It does feel as though the player is being bombarded with a little too much front-loaded information, but it’s mainly a case of simple trial-and-error to discover which techniques and skills should be used in which situation and for what purpose.

Thankfully the game is very fair as it allows you to keep EXP after Game Over, at the expense of some Yen, making each run through an area worthwhile in its own way. In addition, the journey from save point to save point is usually just long enough that Hisako will have enough ammo to get there before running out and desperately needing that full recharge.

In addition, the game’s menus and skill-trees are relatively easy to navigate. Each of the new skills available to unlock are drawn on Hisako’s chalkboard in the menu and are ticked upon purchase. It’s a simple bit of organisation but one that certainly appeals to the collecting and checking-off style of play. If you’re the kind of gamer that enjoys ticking off objectives, there is a lot to accomplish here.

A lot of these abilities are passively added and give a simple boost to Hisako’s base stats, but others offer new abilities to her move-set. These are simply explained with controller inputs for how to perform them and may take a little time to practice before being able to use them effectively enough in battle. After a while, though, each of the new moves become like second nature.

Owing to the linear nature of the game, it is highly unlikely that the player will find themselves lost in any of the levels. It is usually a case of following waypoints on the map to the next point of interest, boss battle or occasional visit to the surface. It doesn’t have the sprawling freedom of Metroid, and as such makes it a good entry-point into the genre for anyone who might be interested.

 Challenge: 7/10

That’s not to say that Dead or School doesn’t offer a reasonable amount of challenge. In fact, I found myself struggling with a lot of the boss-fights as well as standard mobs getting the better of me just before reaching a new save point. Some of the bosses, in fact, were nothing but a huge nuisance. I knew their weak points, but they took so much ammo to finally destroy!

Thankfully the weapon upgrade system is on hand to offer an extra power-boost just for situations such as those. You can select from a wide variety of melee, ranged and explosive weapons each with their own extensive set of statistics. In fact, the sensible option would be to investigate this menu as soon as it becomes available to Hisako.

For myself, I chose to use the most powerful weapons available to me and stick with them until such a time that I discovered fresher weapons offering a significant boost in damage dealt. This worked for me as I’m not the kind of player who tends to enthuse over menus and gentle increments of weapon damage. However, for those who enjoy losing themselves up in number-crunching and investigating each tiny detail of every weapon, there is plenty here to sink your teeth into.

Each weapon can be upgraded to give an increase in stats, but the components required for doing so felt very few and far between. Hence my decision to only level-up the weapons I enjoyed using and felt most effective against standard enemies. The sheer variety in weapon types is certainly to the game’s advantage, even putting the number of different weapon and attack types in Bloodstained to shame!

To add to the game’s challenge, there are several puzzle-rooms to break up the otherwise constant action. These ranged from number-puzzles to platforming and weapon challenges and provided a very welcome respite from the usual flow of save-fight-save.

As such, Dead or School certainly isn’t an easy game! In fact, there were only a handful of moments throughout my time with it where I became slightly frustrated: the main one being the large-scale fight on top of a helicopter during the game’s final act. Other than that, and a couple of irritating boss-battles, there was always somewhere else to visit or something new to do.

 Replayability: 5/10

Even though Metroidvania games tend to have a lot of replay value in attempts to explore 100% of the map or collect all the weapons and objects, Dead or School doesn’t have an awful lot of replay value. The map is clearly visible so it’s easy to find all the secrets and there isn’t an awful lot of incentive to gather an exhaustive amount of weaponry.

By the endgame, it’s relatively easy to fast-travel back to earlier stations and mop up any survivors you didn’t rescue the first time through. That is, if there are any left to mop up: during my playthrough I managed to save everyone and collect everything on my way, so there was little left to do except head back to the train or take on the final boss.

Back on the train, there is a boss-rush mode of sorts. In fact, it is made up of battles against harder, higher-level versions of the same previously defeated bosses. These fights comprise most of the post-game content and offer various prizes to extent Hisako’s abilities if you succeed.

I found this to be a very pleasant touch to extend the life of an already long game, but one that I personally had very little interest in pursuing once I had reached the end-credits. Sure, I could have stuck around and levelled up further to take on Level 99 versions of the game’s bosses, but I can’t see myself wanting to take on some of the more frustrating enemies again in a hurry.

That said, this is a game I can see myself revisiting at some point in the future. It is a pleasant enough journey that it deserves a second trek, perhaps with a different set of weapons and abilities: after all, there are some that I didn’t even try on my first playthrough.

 My Personal Grade: 8/10

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Dead or School. There’s a lot it could easily have done without – the tearing-clothes mechanic seemed wholly redundant and made me less willing to play it on my Switch in docked mode – but as a fully rounded game it is extremely competent.

Considering that Dead or School is the product of a three-man development team with a singular vision and one heck of a lot of talent, it’s a joy to see the game getting a worldwide audience. I truly hope the team can work on a follow-up game or even a sequel, as this is quite clearly a passion-project that deserves more attention.

Of course, there are a few areas and ideas that could have been developed even further. Despite the claustrophobic nature of the tunnels, a little freer exploration would not have gone amiss. Upon arrival at each new station, only one route was available each time. By opening things up a little more, it could have offered even further opportunities for fresh challenges.

It may not be the best in its genre, but Hisako’s journey through the Tokyo subway system is a more than competent entry, worthy of standing alongside some of the heavier hitters from larger studios with much bigger budgets. Certainly not dead in the water, this is a game that could give many others of its kind a well-deserved education.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4EVqKSPrc

Aggregated Score: 7.5

The Regional Exclusive Mage is an avid video-game collector and literature enthusiast. When he isn’t educating the younger generation, he can be found sharing a wealth of obscure gaming knowledge as TeacherBloke85 on Twitter.

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