Nobody Saves The World Review

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Fast Facts

Nobody Saves The World Has A Lot To Live Up To

I have loved every Drinkbox Studios game I have played. I loved the uncanny Mutant Blobs Attack, the Guacamelee series is one of my favourite Metroidvania’s ever created and Severed was so brilliantly unique on the PlayStation Vita. Their art style is unique, their gameplay rewarding but most of all, everything Drinkbox Studios make, is fun and let’s face it, that is why we are all here.

Nobody Saves The World then, another weird, uncanny creation from the mad minds of Drinkbox Studios. Think of it like an old school Zelda game, thrown into a blender with a Saturday morning cartoon and layered with form swapping abilities. It has Drinkbox’s brilliant art, it has lovely gameplay systems and as with their other games, it’s constantly entertaining.

Nobody Saves The World?

You begin your adventure as a nobody. A white, eyeless, forgetful soul barely capable of anything. You have no memories, skills, or even any pants! It’s all laughably odd. You mistakenly find a magic wand, end up channelled into a quest to save the world, and acquire an amazing ability to change into a vast array of weird creatures. What a day!

From a mouse to a mermaid and from a knight into a ranger, your character can change forms with a button press. That is where Nobody Saves The World shines. Each form has different skills, buffs and advantages which can be upgraded and lead to unlocking new forms. It’s a simple little system that really adds another layer to this bright, entertaining adventure.

Forms, with Function

Each form you unlock has different combat abilities and even abilities to help you traverse the open world. Such as the mermaid’s ability to swim to reach previously unreachable goodies. As you complete more and more of their associated challenges, you unlock more of their abilities. Later into the game, you also get the opportunity to slightly mix some of these abilities too, further adding to your combat options.

You will need to use this system too because not too far into the game you start to meet enemies with shields on them which correspond to different attack types from your various forms. Being able to add different types of attacks to other forms helps massively. Still, the whole system makes it impossible to rely on your favourites, especially early on. Nobody Saves The World encourages trial, error and experimentation and I like that. The whole game can be played co-op too, which is a big plus and does help with the combat sometimes.

Challenge, Challenge, Challenge Yourself

The challenges you need to accomplish to level up your forms are very well thought out. They sit on the left-hand side of your screen and as well as your main goals and side quests. There are also smaller quests relating to your current form. This normally is killing enemies using their different attacks. These challenges are not only a good way to funnel you into using each character but they also act as a small tutorial, making you use the different abilities to progress.

As you complete challenge after challenge, you will also level up your ‘actual’ nobody character. Each time you do, your stats increase by a small amount. You also get magic wands, which is a currency used to access the games many dungeons, both story and side quest alike. Lob this in with purchasable upgrades from a rather weird looking peddler and you have a lot of options when questing in this fantastical world.

Streamlined and Stunning to Look At

Along with discovering new forms, you have your standard RPG goodies littering the map. Finding fairies improve your mana, dungeons are there to be tackled, sidequests are to be completed, and uncanny characters are to be spoken to. It’s all standard fare for a title like this but with the great art style, humour, and how effortless the whole thing is, it’s a breath of fresh air to play something so pure.

Nobody Saves The World’s art style reminds me of things like the old Ren and Stimpy cartoons. It’s crisp, bright, beautiful and very peculiar. It perfectly fits the style of the game and how it is presented to you. It is the same story with the sound work. Even though there is no voice acting, the music and sound effects really help hammer home the amusing world you are meandering through.

Just Go and Play it, Play it Right Now!

Drinkbox have done it again! Nobody Saves The World is beautiful, brilliant and amazingly entertaining. It made me laugh and I relished exploring its beautiful world but most of all, I had a blast the whole time I was playing. Nobody Saves The World was a game I knew very little about but boy was it a game I needed. A beautiful RPG distilled down into pure joy, with old-school questing, humour and heart. Amazing. Everyone should give it a try.

Rapid Reviews Rating

4.5 out of 5

4.5

You can buy Nobody Saves The World from the MS Store here.