QCF: Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~ (Switch)

Never judge a book by its cover; in this case never judge an RPG by its visual novel elements. I initially did not think I would play through this release from Sekai Games and Mr. Tired Media due to the bland and uninspired spin on breaking the fourth wall and using anime tropes with negative results.  However, after grinding out multiple hours of Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~ on the Switch and surpassing all the brutal objectives laid out in the zombie apocalypse I can say that the combat and challenging gameplay shows enough promise to make the title something worth checking into.

I often felt very creepy as the protagonist throughout the game

As I mentioned at the beginning, the visual novel elements of the game did nothing for me and prevented me from enjoying the game more. Players take the role of Reggie, who wakes up to find himself in the midst of a zombie outbreak that has claimed his best friend and other female companions they meet throughout their travels. The ladies you encounter range in varying degrees of overused love interest classifications from energetic athlete and brilliant but isolated heiress to well-endowed airhead and everything in between. The dialogue between the party members was at times too much to deal with and made me feel super creepy throughout. Also, each character has little to no depth or interesting qualities, other than they are all into the main character for some reason. Perhaps that was the intention of the writers to riff off of what we may expect from anime and role-playing games, but it just did not land with me at all. As the group go through parts of the ravaged town to take a possible cure to Reggie’s father for mass production, I struggled to find the dedication to continue on.

The developer really nailed the combat mechanics

What truly saves the experience and kept me invested through some major dungeon crawling and back tracking was the combat. It was a throwback to older Persona games but also had some new takes and utilized current mechanics to create rewarding and intuitive battles. The main draw is the EE system, which stands for Exponential Exploitation. Think current Persona games where exploiting an enemy’s weakness allows for the gang to initiate an all out attack, but in this case it fills a multiplier up until the player choses to use it up to create a more powerful strike or stronger heal or buff. It was very fun to use and incorporate into my strategy and played well into facing off with difficult enemies. Party members can also combine their attacks into powerful combo moves that are discovered through experimenting with the numerous maneuvers at the character’s disposal.

Weapons can break down over time, so plan accordingly

However, some elements that I could have done without was that weapons have durability and will often break quickly while exploring and it can be difficult to get out to utilize new weapons so planning ahead or hoping to find more weapons in battle was crucial. SP consumption for spells and heals can also go very quickly, so running out while trying to progress can hinder the momentum and will also require so item management going forward. All these elements did have me on tilt at times, but it was very satisfying to find my way out of an area after plenty of misdirection and limited supplies. I’m not sure if this is common place in dungeon crawlers but I just felt like being forced to stash items to conserve bag space only to require the item but wait until you could make your way back to the entrance to pick up those items made the grind more of a chore than it needed to be. In this game, breaking down items to scrap to increase bag space is necessary and should be completed early and often.

The voice acting could not save the mediocre story

I eventually feel like the story elements of the game got less offensive, but never added much to the fun. Interactions with different party members can change based on Reggie’s responses and some responses can only be unlocked by progressing their relationship. This also plays into the ending of the game, where there are multiple outcomes based on the communication and cooperation with different characters. The voice acting was actually decent in my opinion and it seemed like there was more voiced lines of dialogue that would normally be in a smaller indie release. The game did have some obvious areas that could have used some more polish in visuals and user interface, but Mr. Tired Media did an awesome job overall with the combat and I feel like they showed an aptitude for game mechanics that I hope they will explore further in future releases.

Enemy design was original, and often very strange

Overall Undead Darlings stumbles like the undead that populate their terrain when it comes to writing and storytelling, but was a zombie slayer in the gameplay department and I feel that it earns them some credit and should be something players can give a shot. It has it’s flaws and can be frustrating at times but it’s great to see a small developer take the genre and try some new things, and I hope they try to tackle some more challenges in the future.