Death end re;Quest: Code Z Review

Death end re;Quest: Code Z is a side story that takes place in an alternate world, after the events of the earlier games in the series.  If you haven’t played the other titles, like me, it may be a good spot to jump into the series. This parallel world has been created by an AI known as Iris, and we take on the role of newcomer to the series, Sayaka Hiwatari, who awakens in a place called the Strain Area.

The game offers a few options for difficulty: Normal, wherein death and escape won’t cost you anything; Elite, where death results in the loss of items and Eni (money); or Expert, where even advanced players will find it challenging. This can be changed at any time in the Options menu, so if you find yourself stuck, you can switch difficulties; changing this setting will not impact the story at all.

Death end begins with Chapter 0: “Hello, World. A Merciless Prologue” set in April of 2025. We see pieces of a destroyed Sagami City floating in the air, along with the voices of the dead. The sky is dark purple, and the fallen corpses are somehow continuing to grow. Some chunks of the buildings have changed into green binary code, which makes it almost look like they are inside a game.

There is a mysterious man warning you to chew your food well, because we don’t want to see any leftovers now that we’ve come this far. Around him, thousands of bugs hum eerily. The insects wrap themselves around the fallen bodies, consuming them, bones included. This creepy guy is Arata Mizunashi, apparently a returning character from the other Death end games.

He is speaking to a blue-haired woman he calls Candidate Shina. Shina Ninomiya is quivering with anger, and beside her lies a woman with red hair. She is mortally wounded, but still standing and glaring at him almost out of spite. He claims that if she had handed over the other woman, things would have gone more smoothly.

Following this interaction, there is an intense and nasty battle between Mizunashi and the women. Death end re;Quest: Code Z warns you right in the intro that there are graphic and disturbing elements here, and they weren’t wrong! This battle is brutal, and all you can do is sit and watch it unfold. There are a few moments I won’t forget any time soon.

Suddenly, we are in a mysterious monochromatic world. Floating doors open and close on their own, almost as if they are alive. Here we meet Alice, a character we apparently interacted with in the past. She will ask you a couple of questions where you select your response. Then we learn that this strange place is known as the “Strain Area.” The main question we need to answer is: why are we there? Alice changes the game’s perspective so we are looking down at a chibi version of Sayaka. This is where the game becomes a mystery dungeon roguelike and not just a visual novel.

Moving Sayaka is easy, using the directional pad or left thumbstick to move her one tile at a time. She can also move diagonally, and she has a dash available to avoid enemies. However, if there are items lying on the ground that you want, you will need to walk at normal speed or you’ll dash right past them. These items can be very useful, giving you stronger attacks, replenishing health, or things you can sell for money, like scarves.

Sayaka will encounter enemies trying to attack. They move in response to your movement, and in battle, it feels like you are taking turns. She has a sword to slash enemies in the dungeon and to fight the main boss that must be defeated to escape. Once foes are obliterated, you earn XP and can level Sayaka up, improving her stats like health and attack. 

Be aware, though: the dungeons are full of traps. If she steps on one, she may die a pretty brutal death. In one case, the trap became a weapon that pierced through her body — so that sucked. The game describes, in way too much detail, exactly how she died. I really didn’t need to know that she vomited all the blood inside her; I just wanted to jump in and try again.

The game switches between the visual novel and mystery dungeon sections. I preferred the exploring parts where I was in control of Sayaka, except for the times where she met a gruesome end. I really like the character, so I didn’t want to see her killed like that. I played over-cautiously, keeping her HP up and avoiding floor traps. Still, there is an upside — if you can call it that — because you are actually rewarded for dying. You earn Skill Points by unlocking Death Ends. These points can be spent on skills in the café on the Death Skill Tree to upgrade things like attack power and HP.

Death end re;Quest: Code Z has animated characters in the visual novel sections, even when they are standing still, their hair is always in motion, and their mouths move when they talk. The game has serviceable music that isn’t particularly memorable but isn’t annoying either, and there’s voice acting for all characters. I opted to play with Japanese voices and English subtitles, but multiple other languages are available. Each person you interact with has a unique look and hair colour, which I used to tell them apart, until some of them frequently changed it, making this method useless. Our protagonist is a pink-haired woman with a body type different from your usual anime girl. She actually seems to have some meat and muscle on her bones, which is nice to see!

I’ve been having an interesting time playing Death end re;Quest: Code Z. You may think this is a story all about well-endowed anime girls, but the story is actually a commentary on how people are becoming more involved in virtual worlds and what might happen to society if they lost control of them. This is a horror title, full of violence, and it rewards you for dying — so don’t start this expecting a happy, fan-service type of game (though there are some revealing outfits here).

If you like creepy and sometimes disturbing horror titles with attractive anime characters and an interesting story, Death end re;Quest: Code Z is worth checking out, even if you haven’t played the other games in the series.