NOBODY SAVES THE WORLD

The DrinkBox Studios team is best known for their Guacamelee games! one of the best metroidvanias of the 2010s. But the authors clearly do not want to get hung up on the adventures of the luchador, so from time to time they hit experiments. More than five years ago, they released Severed, an action game in which battles take place exclusively using the touch screen. And after Guacamelee! 2 took on the ambitious top-down action RPG Nobody Saves the World, which features almost two dozen playable characters.

Player cover
Jack of all trades (and paws, and wings) master
The protagonist is the same Nobody, rendered in the name of the game. He wakes up in a tiny hut with no memory of how he got there. After a couple of minutes, Nobody learns about the disappearance of Nostramagus, the greatest wizard, and after a few moments becomes the main suspect. Fortunately, he manages to grab the wand of Nostramagus and escapes from captivity, setting off on a long journey across the big map. The main goal of the protagonist is to save the world from Adversity – an infection that can be destroyed only by fragments of a gem, guarded by monsters that have appeared out of nowhere.

Monsters just don’t give up – even traps are sometimes used.
By itself, Nobody fully justifies his name (or rather, his absence) – except for miserable kicks, he can do nothing. But with the help of a wand, he can turn anyone, changing forms and gaining abilities. First, he turns into a rat – thanks to its size, it can penetrate narrow corridors, and also bites painfully and poisons enemies. Then – into a warrior armed with a sword, which deals more damage with a low health reserve. Or the archer, whose charged arrows fly through opponents.

Each form has tasks, the number of which grows as the story progresses. All of them are related to abilities: hit 50 enemies with such and such a skill, run so many meters with the help of a speeding skill, and so on. These mini-quests level up forms, unlocking not only new playable creatures, but also skills. It is impossible to say which of these is more important, since both are of interest. Forms differ in many ways: one is suitable for close combat, another leaves behind a slowing slime, the third moves quickly, the fourth swims in water. And new abilities allow you to more effectively deal with opponents, and tasks push you to try everything without exception.

This character calls for help from circus animals – they do not live long, but you can generate them at every opportunity. If, of course, mana is enough.
At the same time, the developers managed to make almost every form interesting. When I played the game, each new character became my favorite, even if at first the attitude towards him was negative. For example, a horse – to hit the enemy, you need to turn your back to him and kick. It sounds inconvenient (it’s easier to take a regular knight), but there are pluses – the horse repels targets, and they receive additional damage if they crash into a wall or into other opponents. And over time, she learns to gallop and can run into the crowd, causing damage to all affected monsters.

Another example is the strongman. He moves slowly, and his attack looks very strange – he throws a bar in the selected direction, that is, he does not injure enemies immediately after pressing the button. But over time, the strongman becomes a very dangerous character: he accumulates strength, increasing the damage from standard attacks, and also spins and punches everyone who is nearby.

Negative statuses can also be imposed on the player, but often you don’t even notice them.
Faster, higher, stronger
Abilities can (and should) be upgraded to make them even more devastating. Some recover faster, others deal more damage or require less mana. The same happens with passive skills, which are also completely different for everyone. Someone restores mana by destroying objects in locations, and someone’s attacks impose statuses on targets: they poison, slow down, stun, and so on.

The most interesting thing begins a few hours later, when Nobody learns about the ability to transfer abilities between forms. Here Nobody Saves the World is fully revealed, since many useful skills are allowed to be given to anyone. The archer is able to shoot a rain of arrows – give this skill to the horse. Zombies infect targets, and after death they turn into the walking dead – with a couple of clicks, transfer this ability to the turtle. Everything works like clockwork, there are no restrictions – upgrade forms and unlock countless combinations of active and passive skills, some of which are also available in local stores.
Mana can be replenished in many ways thanks to all sorts of “passives”, but the most effective method is to use normal attacks.
This freedom allows you to create powerful builds – even if one character is weaker than the others, his skills can be extremely useful.