Love me some Metroid and love Me Some Castlevania...throw in RPG with it and it should be a hella good time. Starting out the next hundred with Dead or School at 600 for me.
STORY
Set 70 years after a war with mutants overran Earth, forcing the remnants of humanity to live underground in Japan's subway systems. The protagonist, Hisako (sometimes translated as Hakaco), grows up hearing stories from her grandmother about life on the surface.
Fascinated by the concept of a "school"āwhich she envisions as a paradise where children play and learn togetherāHisako puts on a school uniform and fights her way to the surface to take back Tokyo.
GAMEPLAY
Players navigate maze-like, 2.5D side-scrolling underground environments. Progression is linear but requires clearing blockades, triggering events, and fighting zombie or mutant hordes to unlock doors.
Hisako simultaneously equips three weapon types that can be cycled through instantly. Swords or axes for close-quarters combat. Machine guns or assault rifles for rapid, low-damage ranged attacks. Rocket or grenade launchers for high-damage explosions.
Firearms have limited ammunition, and melee weapons degrade with use. Reaching a safe point fully replenishes ammo and weapon durability. Attacking, running, and dodging consumes a stamina bar, requiring players to manage their aggression during fast-paced fights. Perfect dodges trigger a slow-motion mechanic.
Killing enemies grants experience points to level up Hisako. This rewards skill points that can be spent across three separate skill trees (one for each weapon type) to unlock new abilities and passive buffs.
Players collect gears and money to upgrade weapons up to level 10. Rare purple modification gears can alter weapon special abilities or attach random perks, altering attributes like life, power, and weight.
Exploring maps yields hidden souvenirs and stranded refugees. Completing side quests for these refugees permanently boosts Hisakoās base stats, including maximum HP and stamina.
CONSENSUS SCORE
65/100 š«© (User Score)
77/100 š (User Score)
Look, Dead or School absolutely nails that incredibly addictive, dopamine-hitting progression loop we all crave. The weapon customization is surprisingly deep, letting you min-max your loadout with random stat perks while seamlessly swapping between swords, rifles, and rocket launchers like an absolute badass. If you love a good loot hunt, the campaign is shockingly long and gives you plenty of skill trees and hidden collectibles to scratch that completionist itch.
That being said, the budget constraints are doing a lot of heavy lifting here. The performance on the Switch is rough, serving up choppy animations and frame rate dips that feel straight out of a janky early-2000s port. The pacing also hits a wall with some truly disrespectful difficulty spikes that force you to stop and mindlessly grind for stats, which is made worse by the repetitive, copy-pasted subway maps and some pretty awkward dialogue translations. If you're looking for a pallet cleanser in between Metroidvanias, this one will hold you up.
