Screenshot: Nobody Saves the World
As a kid, I loved games where you gained a power-up and were able to change abilities—games like
Kid Chameleon (yeah, I’m old) and to a lesser extent the
Super Mario Bros. series.
Nobody Saves the World is a role-playing game all about changing forms from the developer of
Guacamelee! And
Guacamelee! 2.
Nobody Saves the World is an action role-playing game. In it, you play as Nobody—a bystander who comes into possession of a wand that allows you to change into different forms—like a slug, turtle, mermaid, bodybuilder, etc. And since it’s made by developer Drinkbox Studios, you can expect a healthy dose of humor along with it. Humor combined with the ability to change into over 15 different forms makes
Nobody Saves the World a pretty unique role-playing game.
Screenshot: Nobody Saves the World
While most role-playing games have you starting out fighting out small creatures (like rats) through your first few levels,
Nobody Saves the World turns you into a rat. But that’s not the end of it, as you unlock new forms, which you do by grinding out challenges for that form. I say grind, because oh boy—
Nobody Saves the World loves having you grind out progress bars. And while that’s okay for the most part, it can feel a little overwhelming to constantly have to recheck what your current tasks are—especially since you’re also going to be juggling so many different forms.
Forms are great, and provide unique solutions to swim, fit in small places, etc. Each form has its own set of attacks. The thing is, after playing long enough, eventually you will be able to mix and match many of these abilities. On one hand, I really appreciate the freedom to mix and match, and on the other hand, this feels like it takes away the real reason to switch between forms. But, ultimately,
Nobody Saves the World allows you to mix and match abilities to dispatch foes in many different ways.
Screenshot: Nobody Saves the World
While playing
Nobody Saves the World is fun solo, everything is better with friends.
Nobody Saves the World allows you to play through the entire game cooperatively with a friend. This allows for even more possibilities, and will help get through some of
Nobody Saves the World’s dungeons, which have their own surprises.
While most of
Nobody Saves the World is static—especially its overworld—dungeons change each time you attempt one. Not only does the layout of each of the dungeons change, but these procedurally generated dungeons also have mutations that make them surprisingly challenging, especially the further you get through the game.
Nobody Saves the World is a colorful and fun action role-playing game, and a great follow-up to
Guacamelee! 2. And while I enjoyed the variety and originally in its combat, the entire game is based around grind after grind. Luckily, combat is fun and new forms give sufficient impetus to keep trying to grind out the next—but if you don’t like the idea of having to fulfil arbitrary requirements to appease buttloads of progression,
Nobody Saves the World probably isn’t for you.
Screenshot: Nobody Saves the World
Nobody Saves the World is
out now on PC via Steam and for Xbox Series S|X, and is
also available on Xbox Game Pass.
An Xbox Series X|S key was provided to us for this review.