
Ah, young love! Fixing eyes in freshman class… Inventing excuses to meet your crush… Daring to hope they like you back… Collecting and cataloguing candid photos of every girl you know… World End Syndrome successfully bottles the bristling potential of the summers of youth: before school’s back, perhaps you’ll solve a rash of serial murders; perhaps you’ll just get some ice cream and your first kiss. The only sure thing is you can’t live those exquisite moments more than once. Or can you?
If you’re not a visual novel fan, then World End Syndrome might ring some familiar alarm bells – a branching story you’re expected to read and re-read; doublethink contortions to manage what has and hasn’t actually happened on this run through as opposed to that one. But wait! This game softens some of the sharper edges of the genre and makes something accommodating enough to give a try.

If you are a fan of visual novels then perhaps those accommodations ring alarms bells for you. But wait! World End Syndrome strikes a great balance between relieving the mental management of story threads and keeping the spirit of a novel rather than a to-do list. This is worth checking out.
The scenario is genre-typical and bubblegum-light. New kid in school from out of town; exclusive after-school club; pretty girls and boys; long summer holidays by the sea. Throw in some murder and a possible connection to folkloric prophecy and you’re away. You could think of it as Dead Poets Society meets Fast Times At Ridgemont High meets Groundhog Day (if those ageing reference points clarify things for you then just be aware that all the characters in the game are half your age).
World End Syndrome’s first couple of hours is spent on its prologue. This is tightly linear and requests minimal player input. Energetic writing ensures this doesn’t become a slog, as does the voice acting (in Japanese) supplied for all but the protagonist’s lines. An auto-play feature lets the dialogue run.

Meet your teacher, Miss Yamashiro, dressed in a lab coat hanging open over attire that would raise serious questions on parents’ evening. In fact, even the lab coat raises questions since she’s supposed to be the history teacher. She runs an afterschool club strictly limited to Mihate High’s best scholars, all of whom are extremely beautiful girls, by the way. Down for some extracurricular activity? Join the club.
That scene-setting out of the way, you find yourself on summer break, crossing off August days as you pick your path through the holiday. In a mechanic reminiscent of the Persona series, you select a place to go each morning, afternoon and night, perhaps meeting your friends or taking on jobs and errands. Your choices determine who and what you encounter and your story grows from there.
The structure feels wide open. The possibility of frittering the days away with little action breezily recreates the sense of a youthful summer. However, some subtle railroading makes sure a narrative always develops and wraps up by summer’s end. This is a hard balance to get right – between player freedom and authorial control – and Worldend Syndrome sticks it very solidly.

The small-town map records all your previous choices and encounters – even across different saved games. This means you can try a route then reload an earlier save without having to keep track of what you learnt on your cancelled timeline. It’s a tweak to the save mechanics that gamers take absolutely for granted, so it can be confusing. However, it works seamlessly if accepted and ignored.
The skip mechanism for previously read text is also simple and functional, making retracing your steps quick and fun. It might have been nice to have a more detailed checklist of things done and things to do, but such bureaucracy would risk taking the heart out of the characters and story so can perhaps be forgiven.
The production is slick, with sumptuous artwork bringing locations to life and ensuring each character is distinctive despite being drawn, almost all, from the same stencil of conventional physical perfection. Blazblue’s Yuki Kato is the big name on the bill here. Meanwhile, Japanese voicework covers all key events, including the entire prologue, and the localisation is excellent in terms of linguistic and cultural translation. (It’s the simple parts they naffed up: the proofreader clearly needed another coffee and a quick rock-paper-scissors could have settled whether it’s “Worldend” or “World End”.)

Despite the cast of nymphs and waifs paraded about in the marketing bumf, surprisingly convincing and sympathetic characters emerge over the course of the game. It is sadly jarring that key plot developments are marked by (yes, luscious, bold, glorious) drawings of schoolgirls in compromising positions. These are saved in your camera for later (ahem) "study and contemplation". The artistic problem here is that this sort of bikini-based religion is just not befitting the protagonist, in contrast to his friend Kensuke, who would be its most brainwashed acolyte.
Conclusion
World End Syndrome has the branching story paths you would expect of a visual novel, but it manages to keep tons of fresh content in store for several times through, and makes the process of replaying fast and exciting. The core story is also built to offer more and more insight as you run different paths, making for a sense of a coherent game and not just a handful of alternative outcomes, each asking that you pretend the others never happened. It will inevitably have you barrel-scraping for story scraps if you have the 100 percent itch, but can stave off that kind of rote work for an impressively long run.
The story is teenage love and lust and corny, throwaway murder, all washed in seaside summer and decorated with knowingly blatant “twists”. If that sounds like your thing then there’s nothing here not to recommend for visual novel fans. For the visual-novel-curious, is this where you should take the plunge? The story signposting and interaction model are sophisticated enough that your patience through the linear prologue will be well rewarded. If you do feel like walking away after 8 or 10 hours, then the game will hand you a neat get-out at your first proper ending, which won’t leave you feeling like a quitter.

Overall, polish and craftsmanship elevate a lightweight but amusing story to something that really stands out. For visual novel freshmen, it could even be your first crush.
Comments 34
I do like visual novels, skipping this one though.
If i was going to get this i would order it online as i would be embarrassed to play or buy this in public.
I've had my physical copy of this one sitting in my backlog for a while. Haven't bothered looking at any reviews or anything as I'll be playing it sooner or later anyway as I enjoy almost all visual novel games even when they don't do so well critically. Pleasantly surprised to see it score so well here, that's quite promising.
World End Syndrome is a good VN but a little complex to understand for some, great addition to the Switch next to Nekopara and Steins Gate Elite.
@BacklogBlues people do worse stuff these days in public and nobody cares.
My GF plays such type of games every day on her way to work and only once someone said she is a pervert (she played Senran kagura on the 3ds)
Her answer was to that person was "you are a pervert too because you kept watching on my screen what I was playing for almost 10 minutes before saying that"
Total silence back.
@BacklogBlues @Rayquaza2510 I was playing Gal*Gun 2 on the train to and from work for a while. Don't know if anyone saw what I was playing and also don't care. If they have a problem with it then that's their problem, not mine.
Bikini-based religions are the best religions of all.
@Rayquaza2510 @BenAV Right on. Life is too short to waste it quavering in fear of what some prig in the seat next to you thinks of your entertainment choices.
Something about PLOT, I don’t know.
I was expecting a reference to World's End Girlfriend, alas.
Y'all made me expect The World Ends With You 2 smh my head
Played about an hour of the demo and got bored to tears. There was nothing to do except push A to advance the dialog. I'm all for VNs if there is actually something to do (I love the Ace Attorney and Zero Escape series), but this was horrible. The review makes it sound like only the prologue is like that, but the damage is done for me. Should have made a better demo.
Yeah, I noticed this on the shop. Was waiting for a review on this one. I think I’ll pick this up.
@Xyphon22 The demo is prologue only, and after that (it is around 2 to 3 hours) the game really starts (there is a reason for that I won't spoil)
THis review explains the game at it's best, good channel to watch reviews of such niche games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvLDGbVfi0A
@BenAV looking now at other less favourable reviews, I think it gets done down because the reviewers have low tolerance for VNs in general or don’t like the topic of the story. I personally find the subject matter a little hard to stomach but I can’t see that as a reason to mark it down. I also dislike high fantasy but it would be unheard of to drop points on a review just because a game had wizards and elves and stuff. On a personal level, I think the saucy drawings are a turn-off and if you took them away then this would be a very striking piece of YA romance fiction. If you’ve already picked it up then I think you will be really pleased with it. Enjoy!
@Xyphon22 yeah, the prologue is entirely linear and it then opens up. However, it never becomes anything like Ace Attorney or Zero Escape in terms of puzzles. If that’s what you like then you’re probably not missing anything here.
@nintendoknife well I had to leave something for you to add in the comments
(That and I had to google the reference…)
@BenAV dont let anyone tell wat you can play in public hell just ignore the sensitive people all together cause i would definitely play this,senran kgaura peach ball or other ecchi games anywhere i go.
@TalentedAtGames Glad you understand!
This is one of those "whatever floats your boat" games for a very... passionate audience.
Congratulations NintendoLife, your cheeky TWEWY sub-header got me to click.
"Sausage, going in."
-Miu Amana
I played the trial of this game recently. The game is trial and error, and it is very easy to make mistakes. The bad ending in the trial made me think that maybe I didn’t talk to certain people enough? This game might be worth my time. It will probably be rewarding to get the good ending in the full game.
Sounds decent. Might pick it up.
@CashMadness
Without wanting to be at all spoilery – and consider that fair warning, anyone reading this! – you probably didn’t mess up when you got the bad ending. Sounds like the demo only shows the most basic part of the game. If you play the full version then I think you will be relieved that it isn’t painfully trial-and-error. (But, as a branching narrative, it’s inevitably going to be a bit like that – especially if you’re a completionist.)
I was immediately partial to the backgrounds and the environment, when I first saw this on eShop. Other things in life have usurped my time, so I didn’t get around to buying this, but I have it in my list!
Question for those who have played this, how much is it an actual suspense or horror game? The original trailer for it made it seem very much in the horror domain. I might be down for it if there is more to it than just the romance and collecting girls.
On a related note, is this similar to Our World is Ended? That sounded a lot like this.
@JasmineDragon Although the core story includes horror-like themes, you can play for long stretches of time without really considering it in the slightest. I suppose this provided a contrast for the rare suspenseful moments but I wouldn’t call it a horror game at all.
How's the translation? It's PQube, so it's good and not americanized I guess?
@TalentedAtGames So was I, honk.
I figured you were trolling, it's pretty clear that I like VN games, just didn't see this one being interesting.
If you like visual novels, this is not one to skip. It's story is pretty good and could be compared to Grisea VNs or Death Mark. It handles the dark themes in a interesting way and has a unique animation style. I'd easily say this is one of the best VNs I ever played, and the game isn't too short like most VNs either. To get the true reveal of who/what the evil is, you have to get all 5 char romance endings (provided you don't make the wrong choices and get you or them killed).
I quit because Yamashiro isn't one of the girls you can get with.
@CurryPowderKeg79 You'd be very embarrassed if you were me then. I'm 39, have a high position in one of the highest rated hospitals in the country but also have a huge tattoo of Yui Hirasawa from K-ON! on my left arm.. you don't give a ***** what people think when you're my age
https://twitter.com/Solidgearmara/status/1423416090986700800?s=19
@Xyphon22 Cost me $150 so I hope I'm not disappointed 😅
@Morrow I'm getting this in the mail tomorrow ($150 European special edition). I don't want to flub up. Is there any non-spoiler guide available or any tips you can give? First gotta finish Aokana though. It's taken me 3 weeks just to finish my first route on that, lol. I was going for Mashiro but pretty sure I'm getting Asuka first, lol
gonna have to get this game. anime girls are my weakness.
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