Death end re;Quest Code Z - TV Tropes
- ️Thu May 23 2024
While this game is a spin-off, it contains connections and plot elements related to Death end re;Quest and Death end re;Quest 2. As such, spoilers from those games are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Death end re;Quest Code Z is a Roguelike Role-Playing Game developed by Compile Heart as part of their "Galapagos RPG" line of games for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch. It was released on September 19th, 2024 in Japan, and is set for an International release on May 13, 2025 for America and June 27, 2025 for Europe for the former two consoles as well as for Steam later in the year.
Death end re;Quest Code Z takes place in an Alternate Universe known as the DE-1.5 World. Originally intended to be Iris's ideal world, the arrival of another Arata throws the world into chaos once again. The game was announced alongside a third mainline entry during an October 2023 interview with Famitsu
. The third mainline entry, tentatively titled Death end re;Quest 3, is currently in development.
Tropes associated with Death end re;Quest Code Z:
- Alternate Universe: It's stated that the events of the previous games have taken place in the DE-1 world, while the world this game takes place in is a copy created by Iris and is known as the DE-1.5 world and was intended to be an ideal one until the arrival of ARATA and the Glitch Girls.
- An Arm and a Leg: Mai gets her hand ripped off after fighting a monster.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Toward both previous games — which had implications of death and characters dying but were mostly tame on its use of gore — and most of Compile Heart's works for that matter note , as its Japanese release has earned their first ever CERO Z rating for extreme levels of violence and gore. From featuring a very bloody image of Shiina and Sayaka lying dead, to having Sayaka's own Buggy emerging out of her chest.
- Escort Mission: One gameplay mechanic are escort missions. After defeating certain bosses in the Strain Area Sayaka will have to then escort characters that she encounters back out safely, though they will be capable of supporting her in various ways.
- First-Episode Twist: After the first two levels in the Prologue, Alice reveals that Sayaka is actually a reformed Ripuka, completely made into a different person.
- Genre Shift: This is the first game to not be a standard turn based RPG, but instead a Roguelike dungeon crawler.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: The game has three difficulty settings, which generally just determine how true to the Roguelike experience you want the game to be. Normal is your standard RPG experience with no losses upon death. Elite will introduce the loss of items and equipment upon death, while Expert does that and resets your level to 1 when you enter any given dungeon.
- Implacable Man: There is one additional major obstacle during the various escort missions. The Glitch Girls may suddenly appear and begin hunting Sayaka down and are intended to be stronger than the boss of the area they appear in to encourage you to run. However, should they find the floor's escape point before you, they will destroy it to trap you.
- Interquel: It's stated that this game takes place in between the first and second Death End games.
- The Many Deaths of You: The game has over 100 Death Ends, primarily based on the many ways you'll end up dying in the Strain Area.
- Psycho Rangers: ARATA MIZUNASHI and the Glitch Girls are villainous versions of their respective counterparts, Arata, Shina, Lily, Al, Clea, Lucil, and Celia. ARATA's exact nature has not been explained, but the Glitch Girls are Ludens that he created using the data of the girls from previous Death Ends, and serve as a stronger than bosses obstacle in part of the core gameplay loop.
- Sanity Meter: Standing in for the genre's usual hunger system is the Reason gauge. Starting at 100%, the meter decreases over time, which in turn gradually cuts off your view and minimap range with glitchy black and red static and once it dips below 20% Sayaka becomes confused and may attack herself instead. Reason can be recovered with items called Ether Codes.