Kawaii Deathu Desu

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

Kawaii Deathu Desu is an Arcade-style game released on PC in 2019 and ported to PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Nintendo Switch in 2020. This game has players taking on the role of a cutesy female pop idol version of Death and her friends as they put on a concert and violently murder otaku fans rushing on-stage to mob them.

If there’s one thing this game does well, it’s the presentation – this is an absolutely charming game with well-designed characters in a pixel art style that are well-animated and bursting with personality. The chiptune soundtrack is okay, but not all that memorable, which is something that’s disappointing in a game about pop idols.

The gameplay here is extremely simple and reminiscent of the One Finger Death Punch games – players can press L to attack left and R to attack right. That’s about it. They need to fend off fans as they rush up to the player, and the player can gradually power up a more powerful attack that has a longer reach and more power.

Unfortunately, while this game takes the basic idea of One Finger Death Punch, it lacks that game’s clever nuance, variety, and the need for precise timing. Where that game punished players who were too hasty to attack, Kawaii Deathu Desu seems to be all about button mashing – the faster you can alternate between L and R, the better. On occasion, I would try to hold off on attacking until enemies got closer, but pretty much every time I did that I found I was just better off going back to button-mashing.

I suppose after that, I could go into the game’s unlock system, it’s repetitive enemies, its various characters, or its two-player competitive mode… but what’s the point? The gameplay here is so basic and devoid of skill or anything to keep the player interested, it’s hard to see the point of bothering with any of that other stuff. It’s a real shame too, because with this game’s theme and wonderful presentation, I could see real potential for making this a Music-Rhythm game. But no, timing doesn’t matter at all here.

It’s rare that I see such a disparity between the high quality of a game’s presentation and its concept… and terrible gameplay… but Kawaii Deathu Desu seems like a game designed to disappoint. It looks like an absolute blast, but the gameplay is boring, monotonous, thoughtless button-mashing. Don’t bother with this one.

tl;dr – Kawaii Deathu Desu is an Arcade-style game where players violently slice up crazed fans of a pop idol version of Death. It’s a clever concept with a great presentation, but the gameplay consists of nothing but button-mashing. This game is a massive disappointment.

Grade: D

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