Nobody Saves the World is a brilliantly crafted dungeon crawler with tons of content with customization at its very core. The gameplay alone was pretty average, definitely enjoyable, but not incredible. What I truly loved was just watching the masterclass of game design unfold in front of me. Every detail is planned and perfected and designed to always give you something to do beyond just "kill the monsters" over and over. Played couch co-op.
Gamplay ★★★★
The base gameplay is not much different than any other dungeon crawler. Traverse the overworld, get quests from NPCs, find dungeons, beat them, level up, etc.
The unique aspect of NSTW is that your character has the ability to transform into 18 different creatures and classes, each with its own unique moves. You start with just one form with one move but continuously unlock more forms and more moves for those forms as you progress. The great part about this is that you can equip any active or passive abilities from any form you've unlocked to your currently active form. You can be a horse that shoots arrows and throws bombs. Or be a robot that summons rabbits and turns enemies into zombies. The number of available combinations is huge and you can tell that many of the abilities across classes were designed with the intention of synergizing well with other classes' abilities.
The next brilliant design choice is that each class levels up individually by completing class quests. These start out simple like "use your basic attack to poison enemies" and get more and more complex like "use X Class' ability to stun enemies". In doing so, the game takes what should be a hugely overwhelming number of options and choices and creates an easily discernable structure that teaches you how to envision your own combinations by guiding you through them. You also have to have previous forms at a certain level to unlock additional forms so this process serves as a way to keep you from sticking with one class for the entirety of the game and making sure that you experience the full breadth of what NSTW has to offer and making sure that you get all sorts of great abilities to equip with your favorite class.
Story ★★★
There is not a ton to be said about the story. It is fairly straightforward. World-threatening calamity, an amnesia-ridden protagonist. That being said the twist was fairly unexpected and is one of the better explanations for amnesia that I've seen in games that feature it.
Characters ★★★
NSTW is a humourous game written with an absurdist mindset. Therefore nearly every character you meet is ridiculous is some way and often at least a little bit stupid. Unfortunately, this concept is a bit contrived at this point, but NSTW manages to pull it off well without being derivative. There are also a number of moments featuring effective physical comedy as well. This is a very straight-faced way to describe humor, I realize, but that's because none of it was particularly side-splittingly funny. It was all fun, but no more than that. This is not a complaint, I appreciated what it had to offer and that it didn't try too hard to make a bunch of jokes. It let the funny moments just be funny in and of themselves.
Art ★★★★
The art style is reminiscent of a comic strip or cartoon and it uses this style to great effect. Many of the forms are very exaggerated and goofy, and the absurdity of the world fits perfectly with its visual depiction.
Music ★★
I don't actually remember hardly anything about the music. I am pretty confident that there was music because a lack of music always sticks out to me like a sore thumb, but for the life of me, I cannot remember even a short theme from this game. I guess that means it was mostly fine? You can find out for yourself on this one.
To wrap up, Nobody Saves the World is a very fun dungeon crawler that deserves your attention not only for the joy of playing it but also for the appreciation of its design. Try it for yourself and I bet you'll like it too.
Gamplay ★★★★
The base gameplay is not much different than any other dungeon crawler. Traverse the overworld, get quests from NPCs, find dungeons, beat them, level up, etc.
The unique aspect of NSTW is that your character has the ability to transform into 18 different creatures and classes, each with its own unique moves. You start with just one form with one move but continuously unlock more forms and more moves for those forms as you progress. The great part about this is that you can equip any active or passive abilities from any form you've unlocked to your currently active form. You can be a horse that shoots arrows and throws bombs. Or be a robot that summons rabbits and turns enemies into zombies. The number of available combinations is huge and you can tell that many of the abilities across classes were designed with the intention of synergizing well with other classes' abilities.
The next brilliant design choice is that each class levels up individually by completing class quests. These start out simple like "use your basic attack to poison enemies" and get more and more complex like "use X Class' ability to stun enemies". In doing so, the game takes what should be a hugely overwhelming number of options and choices and creates an easily discernable structure that teaches you how to envision your own combinations by guiding you through them. You also have to have previous forms at a certain level to unlock additional forms so this process serves as a way to keep you from sticking with one class for the entirety of the game and making sure that you experience the full breadth of what NSTW has to offer and making sure that you get all sorts of great abilities to equip with your favorite class.
Story ★★★
There is not a ton to be said about the story. It is fairly straightforward. World-threatening calamity, an amnesia-ridden protagonist. That being said the twist was fairly unexpected and is one of the better explanations for amnesia that I've seen in games that feature it.
Characters ★★★
NSTW is a humourous game written with an absurdist mindset. Therefore nearly every character you meet is ridiculous is some way and often at least a little bit stupid. Unfortunately, this concept is a bit contrived at this point, but NSTW manages to pull it off well without being derivative. There are also a number of moments featuring effective physical comedy as well. This is a very straight-faced way to describe humor, I realize, but that's because none of it was particularly side-splittingly funny. It was all fun, but no more than that. This is not a complaint, I appreciated what it had to offer and that it didn't try too hard to make a bunch of jokes. It let the funny moments just be funny in and of themselves.
Art ★★★★
The art style is reminiscent of a comic strip or cartoon and it uses this style to great effect. Many of the forms are very exaggerated and goofy, and the absurdity of the world fits perfectly with its visual depiction.
Music ★★
I don't actually remember hardly anything about the music. I am pretty confident that there was music because a lack of music always sticks out to me like a sore thumb, but for the life of me, I cannot remember even a short theme from this game. I guess that means it was mostly fine? You can find out for yourself on this one.
To wrap up, Nobody Saves the World is a very fun dungeon crawler that deserves your attention not only for the joy of playing it but also for the appreciation of its design. Try it for yourself and I bet you'll like it too.