Dead or School is an indie action platformer created by Studio Nanafushi, originally created for PC in Japan.
Success on Steam lead to ports being released on PS4 and Nintendo Switch in Japan only, but now Marvelous Europe are bringing the adventure to the UK and US
Dead or School takes place in a dystopian future where a portion of humans have been infected with an unknown virus turning them into violent mutants.
The remaining humans battle for survival with these monsters in a war lasting three years. After failing to defeat the mutants the last few humans give up life on the surface and take refuge in Tokyo’s subway.
78 years later protagonist Hisako, hears about school and the surface world from her grandmother, thus her adventure to see the surface world and find a school begins.
Dead or School is an action platformer with RPG elements very reminiscent of classic games like Mega Man, Castlevania and Metroid.
Players will take control of Hisako and explore the 2D platformer set on 3D-rendered layout, running through Tokyo’s subway where each major station is a level in the game.
Dead or School doesn’t look amazing and could have done with a face lift for the PS4 and Switch ports. But considering the depth of the RPG elements and what the small team at Studio Nanafushi have accomplished, it’s safe to say the dated looking graphics will become an afterthought.
These levels may seem like a throwback to the Metroid games especially when you look at the map, however they are very linear and straightforward, with not a massive deal of exploration required to complete levels.
But if players stray from the main path they will be rewarded with finding crucial items and saving refugees- who come with huge benefits. Players won’t be able to restore health or weapons until they reach a save point so it’s important to remember where these are.
Melee weapons have a durability rating and will become less powerful if not restored. All of these features help create a tense atmosphere within levels pushing players to plan ahead be creative with their execution of each level, as opposed simply hacking everything in sight with no ramifications.
Combat is where Dead or School shines, the controls are fluid catering for the fast gameplay as players will be switching from close combat melee to long distance shooting. Mastering the dodge roll will be crucial when encountering enemies, especially as a perfect dodge which makes time slow down allowing you to pull off huge combos.
Hisako can learn new moves from the skill tree by expanding Skill Points that she gains from level-ups, sub-quests and select boss simulator battles. Each new move Hisako adds to her arsenal makes combat less repetitive as players will have fun mixing moves and finding new combos to hack down enemies.
Hisako will be given three weapons to choose from – a melee weapon, a machine gun, and an explosive launcher weapon each allowing different play styles.
Players will be forced to master all weapon types because each has a limiter and can’t just be used forever. Melee weapons have durability ratings and will lose power, guns run out of ammo and each weapon consumes a different amount of Hisako’s stamina bar.
At least this way players will be forced to try out different combinations of weapons which is a good thing as Dead or School has a vast amount, your favourite weapon will always be changing.
Throughout the game players will pick new weapons from boss fights and other characters. The customisation and upgradability of the weapons is very complex; there are so many kinds of effects and status changes that can be applied to them using the materials that you’ll find along the way.
Dead or School does suffer repetitiveness and lackluster enemies which take away from the high octane experience. Even though there are multiple types of enemies who can attack in hordes, there is enough depth of difficulty to challenge hardcore gamers. Luckily the boss battles offer more of a bite and variation for players to execute all the skills they have learnt throughout the game.
Verdict
Dead or School exceeds in delivering a fast pace hack and slash adventure that will keep players engrossed. There’s enough extra content away from the main story to keep perfectionist playing till they completed 100% of the game.
The weapon customisation and Skill tree is enough to keep players wanting to revisit levels and try out different combinations. However Dead or School does suffer from repetitive and dull enemies, even when attacking in hordes they don’t prove much of a threat.
Dead or School is available now on PS4 and Switch for £27.99
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