It’s always a surprise to find out what a new franchise is like. With so many games getting sequels, we’ve gotten used to the idea that we kind of know what we’re getting into right from the start with a lot of games. But to be honest, the joy of discovery is something that most people probably don’t enjoy enough, and that’s even more true for video games. Since the streaming revolution, gamers have watched large segments of games in advance, spoiled whole plot lines on a whim, and generally found out everything well in advance of playing a title. But it’s hard to do that with a new franchise.
Today, we’re looking at Yurukill: The Calumniation Games from developer Izanagi Games and publisher NIS America. Last year Izanagi released World’s End Club to middling reviews (see our review here). Now they’re back with a whole new game and a rather unique concept. Part visual novel, part shmup, Yurukill is a weird fusion of investigative puzzle solving and bullet-dodging prowess. In between these very disparate elements are a series of quick time quizzes and rapid fire conversations which force players to pay close attention to the dialogue in the game.
Combining a shmup and a VN is no mean feat. Yurukill follows the exploits of a group of convicted killers. They’ve been sent to a weird theme park in order to compete to earn freedom (The Running Man anyone?) and they are all collared with an executioner holding the ability to kill them at any moment. There’s plenty of reason to as well considering the heinous nature of their crimes.
As you play through Yurukill, you’ll take over each of the killers in turn, all trying vainly to proclaim their innocence. Along the way, you’ll solve puzzle after puzzle which give more insight into each of the crimes. But this is a game show too, and eventually you’ll come to the end of the bracket and have to compete against your fellow killers, all while the story takes some rather convoluted turns. More detail would spoil things of course, but it’s hard not to with the way things go in Yurukill.
There’s a lot of reading here of course. This is primarily a visual novel and Yurukill leans hard on the visual novel side of things, probably harder than on the shmup gameplay. Even when there are puzzles to solve and during shmup sequences, the words flow freely across your screen and there’s almost never a moment that you’re not treated to some sort of narration. Voices are in Japanese with English subs and the acting isn’t bad, though it still might have made things either interesting or super-weird to have a dub.
That’s because in Yurukill, while the voices are solid, the actual script is honestly somewhat painful. Characters feel shallow and two-dimensional and the dynamics between most characters are ineffectual. The main character Sengoku and his executioner Rina have a moderately effective dynamic and Raita and Futa manage to come off as fairly authentic but even those relationships suffer from a lack of depth. They just don’t feel real and while there’s plenty of visual novel to go around, it doesn’t really flesh out any of the characters particularly well. Some are actively loathsome and you may find yourself hating as much as half the cast by the end of the game regardless of their circumstances.
A visual novel with questionable writing is one thing, but there’s also a shmup here. Yurukill incorporates vertical shmup gameplay as part of the ‘pardon or kill’ process called ‘Yurukill Judgement’. Your starting lives are based directly on QTE questions asked about the investigation you’ve just done into your own crimes as each of the killers. Answer all five questions correctly and you’ll end up with 20 lives in the bank to beat each stage. There are 7 stages to the shmup portion of the game, corresponding with the 7 VN/investigation sections of Yurukill. However, veteran shmup players will quickly find that the shooting portion of this game is nothing particularly challenging.
While Yurukill uses the aesthetic and some of the bullet patterns common to traditional bullet hell shmups, the difficulty curve is exceedingly low on Normal. In fact, the chance of running out of lives is so low at maximum that most average to below-average shmup players will have no problem beating the game without a single Game Over. Every time you kill enough enemies, you also charge your Outburst Shot, which allows you to bomb to safety or use targeted ultra-powerful attacks if you max it out at 100%. Outburst shots get you through when nothing else will and they mostly recharge quite quickly so don’t hesitate to used them and don’t skip collecting any of the green gems that fall from defeated enemies! Additionally, every single stage has three hidden 1ups that you can gather for a maximum potential total of 23 lives per stage. That’s right, no carry over. Simply beat the stage and its boss and the next time around, assuming you succeed at the QTE and find the hidden 1ups, it’s 23 lives again. If that wasn’t easy enough, the actual combat is particularly underwhelming as well. Your hit box is remarkably small, enemies have clearly choreographed attacks, bullets are slow (at least the color patterns are good) and bosses are particularly uninspired in their attacks. Sure, you’ll lose a life here and there, but it’s certainly no challenge.
Each stage has a boss with multiple forms at the end of the Yurukill Judgement. However, one of the most irritating things about these bosses is that there are people piloting them and gameplay stops as you pause to talk to them. Every time you really start to get into a groove to play the shmup portion of Yurukill, gameplay stops for you to have a chat. When this happens multiple times during a boss fight and you have to literally stop to answer multiple choice questions about the motivations of a character, it throws off the entire flow of gameplay. From a design standpoint, this is unforgivable. At the very end, to add insult to injury, there’s a final timed question and answer period to clear each ‘mind labyrinth’ and then you actually get to kill the boss. The worst part is that this whole section looks super cool but has absolutely no purpose other than QTE trivia and you never actually get to fly in it!
So now we’ve got a decent concept with some mediocre writing, some QTEs, and a mediocre shmup. Sounds pretty average so far, right? You’re not wrong. It’s wild because everything about the concept behind Yurukill is excellent and this feels like it has the potential of the next 999. Unfortunately all those puzzles that you are doing to ‘investigate’? They’re all so easy that there’s almost no chance you’ll get them wrong. There’s just no challenge. On top of that, some of the characters are wildly morally questionable to the point that their plot lines are actually a bit offensive, including celebrating the lives of a family of drug dealers or blind devotion to someone who literally admits that they tried to murder you. With those types of damage being held up as positive in the context of the game, it’s hard to get behind the plot, puzzles, or gameplay of Yurukill.
Not everything is bad here though. Visually, Yurukill is excellent with solid character design, background visuals, and even decent bullet patterns and ship designs for both player and enemy ships in the shmup portions of the game. The music is quite good, the voice overs are excellent, and the GUI is simple and intuitive (even though it lacks touch controls on the Switch). In short, all the actual mechanics of Yurukill are great and it’s more a matter of whether you’re ok with the sophomoric script and simplistic shmup portions.
If you want a casual experience with a somewhat dark story, Yurukill is a solid game. You can breeze through the whole thing in about 10-15 hours of casual play if you read fast. Additionally, after accessing each new area, its shmup level is available for play or practice and by the end of the story you’ve unlocked a fully playable shmup that you can enjoy without the dialogue. Most serious shmup players will have to crank the difficulty up to ‘Hell’ to get any real enjoyment though. But the ability to fluff through a decent story without getting angrily stuck on a challenging puzzle is definitely appealing. It is definitely possible to choose the wrong item or make the wrong decision of course, but even a Game Over has no real consequences in Yurukill, so it doesn’t really matter how hard you try, especially with autosave protecting your progress.
Yurukull: The Calumniation Games is a unique and interesting experiment in genre fusion. It’s not the best thing ever made, but it’s not the worst either and honestly, it’s a darn sight better than World’s End Club. A good concept with average to above average execution still Yurukill up into the better releases out there but if you’re a hardcore fan of either shmups or VNs (and some of us are definitely both) then you’re likely in for a bit of disappointment, even at a $40 price point. There’s at least a solid conclusion to the game however and with a moderately satisfying conclusion, there’s no reason to actively dislike the game, other than the overall lack of challenge and a wistful longing for some deeper scripting. If you’re craving a somewhat dark, casual VN with some action stages and cool set design, Yurukill: The Calumniation Games will scratch your itch, even if serious players might pass.
This review is based on a digital copy of Yurukill: The Calumniation Games provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well in both. Yurukill: The Calumniation Games is also available for PS4 and PC on Steam.
