Nobody Saves the World

Genre: Top-Down Action-RPG

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local / Online)

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Review:

Nobody Saves the World is a Top-Down Action-RPG released in 2022 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game puts players in the role of an amnesiac mute protagonist hoping to meet with the local wizard to figure out just who he is and where he comes from, but who ends up getting roped into saving a kingdom from a menacing evil by using the wizard’s magical wand to transform into various helpful forms.

While the core elements of this game’s premise may seem well-worn, Nobody Saves the World nevertheless manages to have plenty of great characters and well-written dialogue to keep things interesting, starting with many of the characters you meet wondering aloud why you don’t have any pants, and moving on to absurd interactions like starting a romance with a horse.

A part of the reason this game’s style of humor lands so well is its unique art style, which uses somewhat crudely-designed cartoony 2D characters in detailed 3D environments with some decent lighting and atmospheric effects, that do a great job conveying this game’s offbeat humor. This is backed by a catchy soundtrack, with great tunes like Grand Castle, Dreams of Somebody, Ballad of N, and Nobody Saves the World.

The gameplay of Nobody Saves the World seems to start with the typical template of traditional 2D Zelda games, but quickly takes things in a different direction. You’ll be heading into dungeons and unlocking new abilities, but in Nobody Saves the World, only the overworld map remains consistent, with the dungeons shifting and changing like a Roguelike. And where in Zelda games you expand your abilities by finding weapons and helpful items in your exploration, here everything ties back to your magical transformations.

Each transformation comes with its own elemental affinity, unique attacks, special attacks, passive bonuses, and occasionally other unique traits, and these forms can be upgraded by completing form-specific quests, such as using a specific attack on 25 enemies, or using a particular combination of attacks. Tying progression to these goals is pretty smart – it ensures that players can only gain power through the mastery of their current abilities, and it rewards players who make effective use of a transformation with more powerful abilities when using this transformation..

The game’s transformation forms are arranged in a tree-like progression system, meaning that players who do a decent enough job mastering one form will gain access to others, which is a good way to encourage players to consider forms they may not otherwise play – the slow, clunky knight form may not appeal to everyone, but you’ll still spend a bit of time playing that form if you want to unlock the speedy horse form.

In addition to these form-specific quests, you’ll also get various other quests and mini-quests as you progress through the world, and this is mainly how you’ll progress through the game – as you complete quests you’ll gain experience, cash to spend on upgrades, and “stars”, the latter of which are needed to unlock doors necessary to pass for story quests. This means that players wanting to get the stars needed to unlock a door have options – they can take on mini-quests, complete form-specific quests, or even just buy stores from a merchant.

This ends up being a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the amount of freedom this gives the player is great, and really gives you the ability to focus on whatever transformations and quests you like. On the other hand, it can make exploration somewhat less enticing, because treasure chests you come across will generally only contain cash, healing food, or occasionally ability upgrade tokens, meaning you won’t get the thrill of discovering a rare item or relic just because you strayed off the beaten path.

Additionally, as so many ability quests are tied to defeating a certain number of monsters in the same specific way, completing these tasks can seem a bit grindy. And the randomized dungeons means that you won’t have the clever puzzle design of a typical Zelda game.

While there are definitely some gameplay elements here that seem like they could stand to be worked on a bit, overall I found Nobody Saves the World to be a delight, with a really deep and enjoyable form-changing upgrade system and a cleverly-written array of quirky characters. If you’re looking for an Action-RPG to fill that “old-school Zelda fix”, this is an excellent choice.

tl;dr – Nobody Saves the World is a Top-Down Action-RPG where players take the role of an amnesiac mute protagonist who must save the kingdom using a wizard’s wand that allows him to transform into various forms. This game has a great sense of humor, and an excellent variety of transformations and upgrade options. I do think the emphasis on transformations makes exploration less interesting, and I’m not thrilled with the randomized dungeons, but overall this is an excellent game worth considering for anyone looking for a game that does something a bit different with the old-school 2D Zelda formula.

Grade: B

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