|| REVIEW || The World Next Door (PC)
Let it be proudly known that the entire reason I know of this game's existence now is all due to my daughter at PAX East. I was buying some merchandise at one booth and while my wife was waiting with our two kids for me to finish, someone had come over from the Rose City Games booth to say hi to my daughter. This led to me heading over to check out their game, and the second I laid eyes on the art style I knew I wanted this game. So, after a couple of short conversations here we are, having completed a playthrough of The World Next Door on Steam and itching to jump right back into it.
Developed By : Rose City Games Published By : VIZ Media
Developed By : Rose City Games Published By : VIZ Media
Category : Narrative, Adventure, Match-Three
Release Date : Mar 28, 2019
Our Story Begins...with a Comic
The one thing I left PAX with in relation to this game, was the prelude comic that introduces some characters in the game as well as sets up the story. Whether or not you read this, all of the relevant information from it is presented to you in the early text-scenes of the game. There is a world that neighbors ours in another dimension, and the technology exists to be able to open a portal between these two worlds. The portal is opened every couple of centuries, and when it is there is a huge festival to celebrate.
Along with this festival, a lottery is held where inhabitants of this world are selected to go over to this world next door for a day. Why only a day? This other world is filled with all sorts of magic, and our bodies are unable to handle staying there for long periods of time. So if we stay too long, we die. Jun, the masked girl in the photo above, has spent the last several months communicating with Liza, the horned girl above, both of them desperately hoping that Jun will be selected in the next lottery to go through the portal for a day.
And she does! Ecstatic to finally meet her friend face-to-...mask, Jun goes over and meet's Liza and her friends. They convince Jun to go to a special place in hopes of seeing whether or not their human friend can cast some of the magic that is present on their world. While their experiment proves successful, it's not the happy time all were hoping for. Not only do they end up awakening something in the cave, the portal closes before Jun can get back to it. Trapped in this dangerous place, Jun must rely on her new friends in hopes that they are actually friends, and together they can find a way to get Jun back home!
A Match Like No Other
The World Next Door at it's core is a narrative adventure game. But, thanks to the dev teams inspirations going into making this title, things are a little more different and involved. In each of it's levels, you'll be presented with a floor covered in symbols of varying design and colors, and a Grievance (the game's name for enemies) patrolling around the floor with you. Later levels will have you duking it out with more than one Grievance at the same time.
Your way of attacking is by using the symbols on the floor, by making use of the dev teams flavorful twist. By moving the symbols around one at a time, you can rearrange them and make pattern chains of three or more. Standing within the chain of these symbols, you'll be able to activate the chain and invoke whatever the respective spell is, and there are a handful that you can play with.
Red spells will send a fireball soaring at an enemy, blue spells deal an instant attack, purple sends out a psychic-like orb which can slow enemies down if it hits them. Yellow spells create a sort of trap, electrifying all the spaces where those symbols were, and finally green spells are your source of healing during combat. All of these spells need a minimum of three chained together, but the damage dealt (or amount healed) can increase if you make bigger chains.
It's definitely a unique twist on the match-three style of play, and one that works incredibly well in my opinion. The dev team wanted to to enhance the strategic puzzle-solving by adding in the action of moving around the board. On top of this, there's also the sense of urgency as the threat your facing is wandering around on the same board, and in some cases, making use of the spells that you yourself are trying to build!
But these aren't the only ones you can talk to. Before heading off on your main quests each night, you'll have a period of time where you can wander the school grounds. There are plenty of other students out and about, all of whom can be interacted with as well. Some of these students may even mention that they are missing some sort of personal memento, activating side-quests for you to find and return these items. I didn't notice any sort of bonus for completing some of these quests, but I also didn't complete all of them so I don't know if that would make anything different. Other than, that is, earning Steam achievements.
Back to your main circle though. Not only are they trying to solve things to get you back home, they are also an active party for you to make use of while fighting the grievances. Above, I mentioned that you can make chains larger than the three required. Every time you do this, you'll spawn a new white symbol. These are crucial because you'll be able to have up to three of your party actively with you during your fights. Each one has a special ability that you can use during the fights, but to use this ability you'll need to arrange the white symbols in a special pattern. This pattern is specific to whoever you have with you, so you'll need to keep track of who you've got and what their pattern is, but utilizing them can be crucial and necessary.
Your way of attacking is by using the symbols on the floor, by making use of the dev teams flavorful twist. By moving the symbols around one at a time, you can rearrange them and make pattern chains of three or more. Standing within the chain of these symbols, you'll be able to activate the chain and invoke whatever the respective spell is, and there are a handful that you can play with.
Red spells will send a fireball soaring at an enemy, blue spells deal an instant attack, purple sends out a psychic-like orb which can slow enemies down if it hits them. Yellow spells create a sort of trap, electrifying all the spaces where those symbols were, and finally green spells are your source of healing during combat. All of these spells need a minimum of three chained together, but the damage dealt (or amount healed) can increase if you make bigger chains.
It's definitely a unique twist on the match-three style of play, and one that works incredibly well in my opinion. The dev team wanted to to enhance the strategic puzzle-solving by adding in the action of moving around the board. On top of this, there's also the sense of urgency as the threat your facing is wandering around on the same board, and in some cases, making use of the spells that you yourself are trying to build!
Quite the Cast
This game features quite a large amount of other characters whom you can interact with. Your main circle will consist of about half a dozen kids, all of whom are students at Liza's school. Between your action sequences, these are the kids you'll talk to and learn about what's going on in the quest to try and return you home. Their world is aware of a "rogue human" near the campus, so naturally you have to hide while all your friends go to classes, maintaining their cover that nothing is out of the norm.But these aren't the only ones you can talk to. Before heading off on your main quests each night, you'll have a period of time where you can wander the school grounds. There are plenty of other students out and about, all of whom can be interacted with as well. Some of these students may even mention that they are missing some sort of personal memento, activating side-quests for you to find and return these items. I didn't notice any sort of bonus for completing some of these quests, but I also didn't complete all of them so I don't know if that would make anything different. Other than, that is, earning Steam achievements.
Back to your main circle though. Not only are they trying to solve things to get you back home, they are also an active party for you to make use of while fighting the grievances. Above, I mentioned that you can make chains larger than the three required. Every time you do this, you'll spawn a new white symbol. These are crucial because you'll be able to have up to three of your party actively with you during your fights. Each one has a special ability that you can use during the fights, but to use this ability you'll need to arrange the white symbols in a special pattern. This pattern is specific to whoever you have with you, so you'll need to keep track of who you've got and what their pattern is, but utilizing them can be crucial and necessary.
Final Thoughts
The World Next Door was an absolute blast to play. Even before playing it, getting to experience the set-up for Jun's story via the comic was a good read, and a nice introduction to the world, characters, and story-telling abilities from those at Rose City Games. Normally, I'm pretty put off by games that utilize the match-X style, but this team found an amazing way to change it. Needing to manually move Jun around to pick up and drop the spells you want is much more involved than just picking a tile and swiping in a direction to swap. And needing to face the Grievances? Way more intense than having to beat a clock.
My one complaint after finishing the game was how short it was, I wanted more! I wasn't ready to let go of the world and the characters, so I'm absolutely waiting (a bit impatiently) for any extra content that could come into this game. The team has stated that they would love to continue telling more of Jun's story, and that it will all depend on how response is to the game, so I don't see an issue with it. This game was fun and amazing and an absolute must play, whether on PC or the Nintendo Switch. As of right now there are no plans for Xbox One or Playstation 4 releases, but the team is absolutely open to the possibility, so maybe The World Next Door can get it's own portal opened to other platforms.
Game Rating : 9.5/10
Played on : Steam (PC)
Also Available on : Nintendo Switch
