I am always a fan of mystery and detective visual novels, so hearing about a new one called Death Becomes You by Ratalaika Games and Quill Games Studios was something that made me interested. You play as a girl who is in a magic academy with your mentor, who is also your best friend. You have an argument that then makes you try to make up, but before you can talk to her, she winds up dead on the ground next to you. Now it is up to you to figure out who did it.
Game Name: Death Becomes You
Platform(s): PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X (Reviewed), Nintendo Switch.
Publisher(s): Ratalaika Games
Developer(s): Quill Games Studios
Release Date: August 4th, 2023
Price: $7.99
The Good
The game starts with four individuals who you meet for the first time, finding you next to the dead body of Lyra. Lyra is your mentor and best friend. Some instantly believe that you are the killer, and others believe that it is taking it too extreme to just judge someone as a murderer because they are over a dead body. You begin your playthrough by deciding those four individuals which ones are strange and which ones are genuine. This will decide how you interact with them in their routes. A really good choice as a way to begin a mystery visual novel. Most of your choices in the game will be based on if you trust or distrust certain things that are being said. You will decide if you want to follow and investigate some of the four individuals you meet. Your character is convinced that someone of the four is responsible, and you will have to figure it out.
The characters and their motivations are all very interesting, and it is good to be able to see how some of the characters and stories overlap or make other routes make more sense. I felt satisfied to see how routes ended with even making similar choices but being more or less trustful of that person in the beginning. There might not be a lot of changes based on the starting decision of who you think is genuine or strange, but I do appreciate that it does make a small difference. Based on who you investigate in the beginning will put you on a path of two basic routes that then turn into more and more routes based on other decisions you make during the path.
There are a total of 13 endings. You can keep track of the endings based on the extra menu on the main menu. It shows you CG backgrounds, extra features, as well as how many endings you have unlocked and which ones they were. Each character has three endings. There is then a true ending once you know enough of the way the story plays out.
A great thing about Death Becomes You is the plot twists. There are quite a few that I was not expecting. Granted, one of the reasons why I wasn’t expecting it will be on the bad side of the list, but overall I did like how this plays out. The narrative was pretty intense and shows a lot of the characters pulling your character along for the ride. They all have pretty strong feelings about Lyra and why they know her. My favorite character to learn about was probably Daniella. I will not say why, but she has a very intensive arc. The art is probably not the best blown up on a 4k screen, but they are still unique and make this visual novel stand out.
The Bad
Death Becomes You takes place in a magic academy. That said, there is hardly any magic that gets talked about in this game. It feels like it was almost an afterthought compared to the characters and the mystery itself. There are some cool instances of mind notes, or learning about crystals and necromancy, but overall this could be set in any school with supernatural elements, and the story wouldn’t change. I was disappointed with the magic system not being explored. The school doesn’t become an entity as much as just a backdrop for the characters. One of the reasons why I didn’t see some of the plot twists coming is because I kept forgetting we were even in a world of Magic in the game.
Death Becomes You has a lot of reused lines from other routes in the game. You can skip text you have already seen, so it surprises me when I make a different choice, but the skip button takes a lot of previous moments I had in other routes in different ones. I do appreciate some of the overlap, and I can mostly make out what they were during the skip, yet I was hoping for more diversity in the routes. Once you finish two of the routes, trying to finish the other routes takes no time at all.
The Verdict
Overall, Death Becomes You has a good narrative with some fun characters. It isn’t very long, but you will remember some scenes for the rest of your life when you play the game. The routes may overlap too much, and there can be some elements that you wish were more magic oriented, yet I think for $7.99, it is a worthwhile bang for your buck. With the game being on consoles, it also makes getting trophies or extra Gamerscore easy. If you are an achievement hunter who likes grabbing everything but with limited time, this is a must-grab. If you want a game to get immersed in the world and the locales, this probably isn’t the one for you.
Death Becomes You is available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and PC.
Review Disclosure Statement: Death Becomes You was provided to us by Ratalaika Games for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.
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Summary
Death Becomes You is an engaging narrative that has a fun element of mystery, but I wish it had more magical elements and overall diversity of the routes. A must play for its price point of visual novel fans everywhere.
Pros
- Compelling mystery
- Characters are interesting
- Lots of choice
Cons
- Routes overlap too much
- The world isn’t fleshed out
- Not enough Magic
