A Choose-Your-Own-Tragedy with a Clever Twist
Any writer will tell you that the worst bit about coming up with a story is not the initial idea itself, but how you end it.
There are so many tales and narratives in which an ending can ruin or champion its premise. Films with a twist, like The Sixth Sense or Seven, nail it completely, while others manage to ruin it with one bad decision.
Games can also do this, and I’m still wowed by how good the endings of Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Last of Us are.
BAD END THEATER is a game about endings and how bad they are – very much as the name suggests. You take four protagonists through a small story and try to unlock all the possible endings to get that one true one.
The Gameplay Loop
Growing up with Choose Your Own Adventure books was a sort of addiction of mine. BAD END THEATER uses these as an influence, where you come across a few decisions that will ultimately decide how the narrative goes, and in this case, it’s inevitably bad.
The game starts with a theater curtain and a narrator called Tragedy setting the scene. Here you can choose to play as four different protagonists. The first is the hero who goes out from a village to rescue a maiden whom he believes has been captured by demons. The next is the Maiden herself, venturing on a journey of her own, meeting a demon in the process. Next on the list is the Demon itself, who, on a day off from the horde, stumbles across the maiden outside the village. The last is the Overlord of the demons who finds a hero turning up at their demon castle.
Interconnected Fates
What is clever about BAD END THEATER is that each of these stories is linked to the others, with a sliding door moment that affects the overarching narrative. You also get a different perspective on the story, taking things in from multiple sides of the fence, from who we consider evil and who is considered good.
Work through things and you’ll discover many bad endings to unlock, and a story will only take you a short time to complete. The thing is, getting the one true ending will take a bit longer.
Unlocking Tragic Outcomes
Gameplay is in the vein of a visual novel. Here you are choosing your hero, and then you go on your little adventure. You see the text, take it in and then, every now and then, are left with a choice that will decide where the story goes. That’s very much it. At the end of that pathway, you get to go again with the same protagonist or a different one.
What is clever though is that when you unlock a bad ending from over 40 possible conclusions, it’s like unlocking a puzzle that affects the other narratives. Now some will find the sheer lack of gameplay mechanics a bit frustrating, and because the whole concept of bad endings is a bit unsatisfying at first, that may also threaten interest levels, but please don’t let that put you off because it’s all part of a bigger picture.
Presentation and Audio
BAD END THEATER has a great visual comic book tone that uses hard-drawn characters in a range of pastel colours that ping off the screen. I really loved the design of these stills and the characters themselves, and although it’s all very simple, the whole concept works for the game.
The soundtrack is neat too; like something straight out of a 90’s fantasy video game, working well with the contrast of the bad, violent endings. I understand how expensive it is to fully voice games like this for small indie developers, but it would have been great to hear these characters come alive.
A Unique Visual Novel with a Rewarding Puzzle Box of a Story
BAD END THEATER takes the visual novel genre and does something exciting and unique with it. The concept is one to love, as is the opportunity to piece together bits of the puzzle, with various outcomes changing up the narrative.
The lack of gameplay might just be an issue, but stick with it and you’ll find that something special is playing at the BAD END THEATER.
Important Links
Death is Inevitable (or Is It?!) in BAD END THEATER on Xbox, PlayStation and Switch – https://www.thexboxhub.com/death-is-inevitable-or-is-it-in-bad-end-theater-on-xbox-playstation-and-switch/
Buy BAD END THEATER on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/bad-end-theater/9p8mqd8d339q
