Nobody Saves the World – The Old Video Gamer’s Review

The tropes of hack ’n slash RPGs are well codified, but you can occasionally unearth gems in this well-trodden genre. How about not having to play with the same character throughout your epic adventures? Wouldn’t it be nice to transform from a knight to a ranger instantaneously? Mixing and unmatching skills? A ranger that can bite monsters into zombies?

Story:

You wake up as Nobody, an inoffensive if congenial nobody that looks like a pasty white mannequin. You can slap monsters around, but that won’t do. With no memories and not pants, you fortunately stumble upon a magic wand that lets you transform into a rat with a poisonous bite… Discover new forms, mix their abilities, explore evolving dungeons, and save the world from a very ancient Calamity.

Playability: Multiple personalities

Nobody is everybody: a poisonous rat, a brash bodybuilder, a mermaid with mighty sharp fangs, a swimming yellow turtle, a dishevelled zombie lady, a slimy slime… You get to play all of these niftily crafted and choke full of personality characters. Of course, you’ll get the usual knightly paladin, monkish cleric, roguish thief, archer ranger archetypes at the tip of your controller. It just takes a couple of button presses to switch seamlessly between forms with unique strengths and weaknesses. Nobody Saves the World is a jaunty frolic, one minute you’re spewing slime on your enemies, the next you’re swimming away lobbing water balloons. The gameplay is refreshingly fun and the roster of heroes to choose from never gets stale.

Annoyance: Fairy creep

You do get a lot of headless torsos, spell casting cats and some sort of crawling warthogs, but overall the bestiary is very inventive, a little on the insane side, and occasionally inane even. The fairies tend to be back alley creeps though. As each form plays differently, Nobody Saves the World does keep players on their toes. Don’t get too enamoured with a specific character, or ability, as they may become totally inadequate for challenges to come. Some monsters are impervious to kicks, others to slashes and so on. Nobody Saves the World does an excellent job at teaching you new skills as you unlock new forms or heroes. Each form has its own unique set of mini quests: shoot a number of baddies with flurry arrows, or swim across rivers and lakes. This eases players gradually into new forms, making the switch from your all-time favourite character less annoying.

Beauty: Psychedelic lo fi

Nobody Saves the World is very bright and very colourful. So if you’re into subdued pastels, its palette might not be your cup of paint. The main music theme is chilled lo fi, which nudges you on smoothly, but you do occasionally get more jarring beats. We’re big fans of the big beautiful and imaginative world to explore, from bucolic Polynesian villages to irradiated dystopian wasteland.

The Old Video Gamer’s Prattle: Everyone can enjoy nobody’s adventures 9/10

Challenging, but not unfair, Nobody Saves the World requires tactical flair on top of a modicum of button mashing. There are automatic saving points scattered across the map and conveniently located fast travel portals, taking away much of the dreariness. Gameplay is as frictionless as a soothing breeze and repeating an ever changing dungeon rarely feels like a chore. Nobody is a playful, joyful and creative hack, slash, transform all you can, skills and abilities mixing role playing game and a welcome addition to our library.

If you’re more into Greek classics and would rather stick to a dashing hero, Try Hades, a hack and slash swashbuckler with stylish art and melodious accompaniment.