Nobody Saves The World Review: Triumphant Transformations
With each new project, Drinkbox Studios looks at a genre and crafts their own unique and clever interpretation. The Guacamelee series is now revered as a staple in the metroidvania genre. Severed delivered a fresh take on dungeon crawlers with a refined touch-input combat system. With Nobody Saves The World, Drinkbox now sets their sights on a larger canvas; the open world action RPG. The promise of a vast action RPG with, for all intents and purposes, over a fifteen playable characters - all with their own tailored mechanics and upgrade paths - sounded like a massive undertaking. But as nearly 25 hours disappeared in the blink of an eye, something became abundantly clear:
Nobody Saves The World is not only Drinkbox Studios’ most ambitious game to date, but is easily the best in their catalog of celebrated titles.
And They Say That A Hero Can Save Us
Drinkbox’s latest adventure follows the titular character Nobody, a humanoid blank canvas awoken in a cabin with no memory nor understanding of who they may be. In hopes to restore who they once were, Nobody is encouraged to seek the help of a powerful wizard. The only problem is that the wizard in question has been missing for a short time. In the wizard’s place, Nobody discovers a magical wand which grants the power to shape shift into a variety of forms all with their own unique perks and abilities. In a world riddled with the apocalyptic looming Calamity, it is Nobody’s newfound duty to find the wizard and ‘Save The World’ from utter chaos and destruction.
Initially staged as a tropey by-the-numbers fantasy narrative, the game proudly shares tonal inspirations from films such as The Princess Bride. While there are world-shattering stakes consistently present, the narrative as a whole is light, playful, and downright funny. Not to mention, for a lack of a better term, how batshit the world and its characters can be. Within delightful absurdity, the writing strikes a great balance in not taking itself seriously and enjoying the ride it’s on while peppering in dire and sinister moments with intelligent pacing. What’s impressive is that the balance and tone is consistent throughout the entire adventure, especially taking the game’s scale into consideration. But even with consistency delivering a pseudo-false sense of knowledge in what's potentially coming next in the story, particular moments - whether charming, dreadful, or plain ol’ surprising - pack quite the punch.
Where the writing and narrative truly radiates is within the game’s bevy of imaginative characters. For those familiar with Drinkbox’s previous work, this should come at no surprise. But with Nobody Saves The World, the dial is cranked up to eleven. Every character has their own unique, carefully developed voice in brilliant fashion. Whether it’s an antagonistic apprentice desperate for his master’s approval or a mummy with literally no dialog aside from incomprehensive murmurs, despite their motives or intentions, falling in love with the game’s characters is naturally effortless. Everyone is treated with such care and consideration to create the sense of a living being with heart. The same logic applies to the side quest crew and completely missable NPCs with fantastic one-liners. A prime example of accomplished development is through our protagonist, a husk of character who appears to be lifted from an untouched prototype of an empty coloring book. Little dialog, subtle actions, and surrounding moments deliver a hero with a surprising amount of depth. With thoughtful characters comes this vast, fantastical open world that feels believable and lived in; more-so than many big budget titles. That says a lot for a playable cartoon where you can have a heartfelt conversation with an anthropomorphic hammer as an egg that can breathe fire, blow bubbles, and summon a demon minion.
Enchanting Vibrancy
The tone of Nobody Saves The World pairs excellently with Drinkbox’s signature style. The game aesthetically exaggerates pure vibrancy with a bold and defined color profile. As briefly mentioned earlier, it truly feels as if you are playing a Saturday morning cartoon. With such a large map, there was a concern the visuals may lose their flair or would become a bit stale. Thankfully, that concern never came to fruition. Various biomes scattered throughout the map kept exploration fresh. With a grid-like map system akin to the original Legend of Zelda, each new area came with an amusing surprise when traversing screen to screen. I don’t want to spoil any of the areas here, but I was thrilled to see Drinkbox subvert the trope of having a map only sectioned off by cliche areas such as by-the-numbers forests, deserts, or wetlands. Even when the game touches on overused video game settings, the Drinkbox charm makes for unique and memorable environments.
Similar to the narrative, the art direction is brought to blissful life thanks to the world’s inhabitants. The character design is extravagant, giving off an impression that characters were pulled right out of a storybook or a child’s imagination. No matter the visual timbre - enchanting, humorous, sinister, or eerie - meeting a new face was always met with a smile. A personal favorite is the aforementioned anthropomorphic crisis-riddled hammer. The main cast in particular is given a brighter spotlight with dialog exchanges in the form of full-screen art similar to many JRPGs. Utilizing the larger real estate and subtle-yet-expressive animations to coincide with dialog gives the characters that much more personality. Using Nobody as an example once again, slight reactionary shifts in their abyss-filled eyes fleshes out the character wholeheartedly through these interactions. Simplicity paired with the vibrant aesthetic completely shines over and over again.
I’d be remiss to not touch on Jim Guthrie’s fantastic score. The synthwave-meets-retro bit-meets-garage overdriven rock is a mashup I never knew I desired so desperately. The contradiction of clean synths and midi orchestral swells with low-end leaning dirty guitars and grungy acoustic drums gel in an unexpected fashion. The entire score is filled with attitude and angst that only helps drive the adventure forward with style. While this is undoubtedly a score that will be played on repeat for years to come, my one critique lies in the lack of moment-to-moment variety while actively playing the game. In the 20 hour adventure, certain pieces such as the dungeon tracks start to become a bit repetitive. Don’t get me wrong, I was still bobbing my head throughout the entire ride. But tracks tailored to specific themes of the various dungeons would have been a welcomed addition to keep things fresh while beating down baddies (yes, enemies are officially referred to as baddies). That being said, I’m currently listening to selections of Guthrie’s score while writing this review and jamming. So clearly, this is a minor criticism.
This Isn’t Even My Final Form
On top of the fantastic writing and outstanding presentation, what makes Nobody Saves The World such a special experience is the moment-to-moment gameplay. Once again, this is hands-down Drinkbox’s most ambitious work to date. Addictive, engaging, and exceptionally fun; the core gameplay loop and the variety of systems in place are designed to melt time away in bewildering fashion.
Nobody Saves The World is an open world action RPG with a twist. Instead of focusing on a single character, you are fleshing out builds for over fifteen forms simultaneously. Forms, for all intents and purposes, are their own playable characters with unique abilities and perks. Ranking up is the key to unlocking and upgrading abilities. In order to rank up a form’s letter grade, you’ll be tasked in completing tailor-made quests for each form; hit ten baddies with X attack, poison 50 baddies with X ability, etc. Additionally, Nobody at their core has an overall numbered level reflecting base stats; attack, defense, health, etc.
The layered systems in place focusing on fleshing out form builds may appear overwhelming initially, but in practice, everything works eloquently in harmony with one another. Additionally, there are intelligent design choices in place to prevent the player from feeling too overloaded. As an example, the path to unlocking new forms is in the shape of a family tree-like system tied to ranking. The first form the player is equipped with is the rat. Building the rat up to Rank C unlocks the guard and the ranger. From there on out, forms branch out further with new rank goals in order to unlock. New forms are paced thoughtfully and the player never feels overburdened. This is, however, where engagement and completionist-driven addiction comes into play. Between dungeons and quests, the game constantly encourages the player to experiment with different forms by establishing attainable goals in a gratifying loop. Completing quests trigger new abilities, which in turn creates new quests, which then grants even more abilities or opportunities to rank up and unlock new forms. It’s an enthralling loop that is never a drag. Even when the ceiling is temporarily hit, opportunities for new forms, abilities, and quests are right around the corner in natural progression through the main quest or pure exploration. Expert pacing feels inherently built into the game’s intricate designs and systems to complete satisfaction.
What impressed me the most in terms of the playable forms is the sheer amount of flexibility Drinkbox grants the player. Each form has a main physical attack, three unlockable magic abilities, and up to four slots for passive abilities. What’s interesting is that only the main physical attack and first passive ability slot is locked to each form. The remaining magic and passive slots are completely customizable. Using the rat as an example, ranking up will unlock the poison and dark centric abilities designed around the rat. Once unlocked, the player is able to equip any of those poison and dark centric abilities to any other form. So if I like the guard’s main sword attack, but I want to use the rat’s Consume magic attack to steal HP upon hitting baddies, I can equip Consume to the guard. The same applies to passive abilities, such as the rat’s ability to grant mana when picking up healing items. So earlier when I mentioned an “egg that can breathe fire, blow bubbles, and summon a demon minion,” I was describing a totally viable and possible combination.
This level of customization and flexibility almost feels as if mods are in play. To my surprise, no matter the combination or build, everything felt fair and balanced. Even when I felt like a living god with particular builds, I never felt too overpowered to the point where it felt like cheating or breaking the game. With the amount of abilities available to the player, the combinations feel endless; particularly nearing the end game. Taking the time to complete quests and ranking up forms comes with the reward of complete player agency. How the player wants to approach combat with their seemingly tailor-made builds is entirely up to them. At the end of the day, mechanical feel is critical. And what’s astonishing is that no matter the build or wild combination I tossed at the game, every result I experimented with felt great and was effective. With all forms completely ranked up and every ability unlocked, I cannot wait to delve into New Game Plus with this expansive toy box from the beginning.
Utilizing the forms and all of the systems in place, the player is tasked in completing procedurally generated dungeons spread across the massive open world. There are two types of dungeons; five Legendary Dungeons tied to the main quest, and many smaller Demi-Dungeons that aid in completing form quests and looting treasure to spend stat boosts, passive abilities, and more. Quests not only play into ranking up forms, but are critical when it comes to Legendary Dungeons. Completing quests grants players the magical currency necessary to unlock the doors blocking the paths into Legendary Dungeons. Coincidentally, in addition to the side dungeons, a variety of engaging side quests, quests tied to guilds, and evergreen quests are plentiful to not only help build Nobody’s base stats, but aid in gaining access to the Legendary Dungeons.
Touching on design and mechanics, the dungeons are varied and immensely enjoyable to conquer. Each and every dungeon has its own visual aesthetic tied to subtle environmental storytelling bits in the surrounding areas outside. To keep the dungeon crawling experience fresh, dungeons may include twists in the shape of modifiers and wards. Modifiers vary from mana requiring an additional cost to baddies killing you with one hit. Wards are essentially shields that need to be broken by a particular type of attack. Different attacks cause different types of damage; dark, blunt, sharp, light. If a dungeon features baddies with dark wards, a build with a dark attack is critical for success. This is another system in place consistently encouraging the player to play around with different builds and combinations. No two dungeons are the same. Finding the right build for the scenario at hand is crucial, and success is always fulfilling.
Procedural generated assets are admittedly a tool that causes a bit of pause for me, personally. The anxiety of losing and completely starting fresh after spending so much time in one dungeon tends to lead into discouragement and end with completely giving up on a game. Thankfully, this is not the case with Nobody Saves The World. Drinkbox handles dungeons with accessibility in mind. The key factor here being respecting the players time. Successfully completing a dungeon can take maybe ten to fifteen minutes; possibly longer for the Legendary Dungeons. Typically Demi-Dungeons have three floors to explore, with Legendaries being a bit more involved. Both culminate in an ending boss encounter or thoughtfully placed waves of enemies. When you die, it never feels like a major loss nor trigger frustration. On top of that, the procedurally generated twist never delivers a layout that is vastly overwhelming. My favorite feature is a checkpoint just before the boss room that you can teleport to if you die. With accessibility in mind, Drinkbox encourages allure as opposed to fighting the player with unnecessary design challenges.
Breakdown
Game: Nobody Saves The World
Developer: Drinkbox Studios
Availability: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Game Pass, PC
Reviewed on Xbox Series X|S
Pros:
+ Fantastic writing across narrative, character, and world-building
+ The forms
+ Vibrant and bold artistic direction
+ Outstanding music
+ Imaginative characters brought to life in memorable fashion
+ Engaging, addictive, and fresh RPG systems
+ Outstanding flexibility and customization options
+ Co-op doubling down on flexibility and ability combinations
+ Varied dungeons that are a blast to conquer
+ Accessible approach towards procedurally generated mechanics
Cons:
- While outstanding, the music can begin to feel repetitive after many hours
Final Thoughts
Nobody Saves The World is an ambitious indie project with a number of intricate, multilayered systems simultaneously triggering and reacting to one another constantly; not to mention stress-tested with player flexibility. There is so much that can go wrong, and even more that can completely break the experience. But as always, Drinkbox delivers and exceeds all expectations. Everything works exquisitely and harmoniously resulting in a game that unintentionally melts hours away due to pure engagement. The experience is only enhanced with imaginative characters brought to life in a bold and vibrant fantastical world filled with excitement, surprises, and blissful delight around every corner. To simply put, Nobody Saves The World is a must-play for all.
Reviewed by Mike Towndrow