Dead or School (Nintendo Switch)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): March 13, 2020
- Release Date (EU): March 13, 2020
- Release Date (JP): August 29, 2019
- Publisher: Marvelous Inc.
- Developer: Studio Nanafushi
- Genres: Side-scroller, action
Game Features:
Overt sexualization of women in games has been a hot topic for some time now. While it crops up in all sorts of titles, of particular note are the Dead or Alive-style games where the cheesecake is as much of a focus as anything else. Personally, I have a hard time getting upset about it when a game is geared almost exclusively towards objectification. When it’s made clear from the outset that the game is primarily concerned with supplying gratification, the female characters stop being characters and the objectification stops being offensive and becomes, at worst, boring and at best, surreally funny.
Case in point: Dead or School. With a former hentai artist as its creative lead, it shouldn’t be surprising that there’s little pretence as to why this game primarily stars young women. Taking place in a world where an uprising of violent mutants has forced humanity underground, the story opens on a group of female survivors in torn, tattered and revealing rags. When they get attacked by mutants, they’re forced down into vulnerable positions. It’s pretty blatant, but the shamelessness somehow makes it more palatable. And while I don’t care to speculate on how intentional it is, there is an absurd escalation to the fanservice that I couldn’t help but find funny. One memorable section has the girls become enamoured with a pre-war dress they see in a catalog. After you track it down, it’s stolen and torn to shreds by a mutant. In vain, one girl tries it on and, I suppose to emphasize how ruined it is, bends at the waist with her back to the camera, looking back over her shoulder with puppy-dog eyes at the tattered remains she’s wearing. Our hero then reassures her that the dress is actually better this way as it’s easier to move in and, “besides, [the wearer has] a big butt!” It’s so boldly transparent it’s hard not to laugh, and in these moments, despite everything, Dead or School carries with it a very particular type of juvenile charm to it that sort of works.
There isn’t a ton to the story besides the fanservice - thankfully, because most of the story doesn’t really work. There is some interesting lore and consequences of this world (there’s a lot of talk about how the first generation of underground dwellers were strict parents and how that impacted future generations’ parenting styles, for example) but there’s a real problem of telling and not showing. The characters discuss underground culture as if they’re reading from a design document rather than real people with a lifetime of experiences to back up their thoughts and feelings. This wouldn’t be such a problem if the game wasn’t so verbose, with long expository scenes often slowing things to a crawl.
Truthfully, I expected a lot of that when I got Dead or School. One look at the trailer tells you everything you need to know about the amount of plot present, and the game lives up to the trailer. What I didn’t expect to find was a solid, by-the-books 2D action game. You mainly explore different underground train stations in Tokyo, as you work your way through the city, getting better gear and recruiting survivors to your party. The levels are well-designed, usually asking for a little backtracking as you collect keycards or find survivors who can help you get through an obstacle, and with a few optional objectives to be completed if you’re so inclined. The environments are a little repetitive, but the simplicity of their design and the convenient mini map make sure you never got lost.
The equipment system is fantastic, giving you three weapons to choose from with two add-ons apiece. You're flooded with choices, but it's easy to mark what you want to keep and to get rid of useless equipment quickly, so you’re never bogged down with the minutiae of micromanaging your inventory. Even if most of what you find will just be thrown away, the amount being offered does stimulate some loot-collecting part of the brain, and the fluidity of the inventory management means there’s no reason not to collect as much as possible. You can also reinforce your weapons to raise its stats or modify it to add a random status effect to it, so there’s plenty of incentive to explore and find as many resources as possible. The levelling system adds even more customization, even though it's an incredibly straightforward system - you get a skill point at each level that can be spent on a new move or stat boost. It's not much, but it keeps you hooked, working towards the next point that'll let you shave a few seconds off your reload time or extend your stamina.
The combat is also fast and satisfying, if a little rudimentary. You have three basic weapon types - melee, gun, and explosive - that all have their own specific skills and uses. I was resistant to use anything but the melee weapons at first, but different enemy types and a weapon durability system force you to switch things up regularly and I found myself quickly being able to switch between all three at a moment’s notice. You’ve only got two types of attacks - a strong attack and a weak attack that can chain combos - so being able to efficiently switch weapons is key to being able to form strategies. There’s also a stamina bar that stops you from simply wading into the middle of a horde guns blazing, forcing tactical use of the jump and evade buttons. New systems are introduced slowly through different weapon subtypes, but not enough changes to help fight off the stagnation over the game's long runtime. Still, the options provided by the customization features let you switch things up enough when you feel it's necessary to keep things fresh. There's nothing revolutionary about the combat, but it nails all the fundamentals enough that anything brand new doesn't feel necessary.
Most people will probably dismiss Dead or School as a fanservice anime game, but I don’t think that’s a classification the game itself would disagree with. Its fanservice is so shameless that it’s hard to be upset by it, and the combat is so smooth that it’s easy to overlook any bigger issues with the presentation. It's certainly not an essential title, but hack-and-slash diehards or those looking for some fanservice will get their money's worth.
Verdict
- Great customization features
- Fluid and fun combat
- Well-designed levels
- Plot
- Poor writing
- Combat can get repetitive
