Yurukill: The Calumniation Games Critic Reviews

Yurukill: The Calumniation Games combines puzzle solving with bullet hell action to create a unique gaming experience. Its dark premise is handled with humor and an engrossing mystery that’ll push you quickly to a rewarding end, and various difficulty settings will make sure fans of both genres can get there.

Yurukill: The Calumniation Games blends visual novel story and Shmup gameplay to create a very engaging experience.

Yurukill: The Calumniation Games does a fantastic job of marrying a dark murder mystery with a rewarding shoot 'em up. IzanagiGames has managed to get the formula just right and I hope they invest in the series with a sequel that has an even larger scope.

While a murder mystery survival scenario may not be the most unique concept ever made, Yurukill manages to twist things on its head by going all in to make one of the most unique Visual Novel experiences. Even the SHMUP sections don’t feel unforgiving with multiple difficulty options that allow players to make things as easy or challenging as they’d like. The characters are all endearing in one way or another, and the story keeps being invested with every group and wanting to see just how everything will tie together in the very end. Whether people survive or struggle to make it is up to them and putting the pieces together correctly. Yurukill: The Calumination Games is well worth playing for those who love the mystery that awaits even if they’re hesitant about taking flight and shooting down enemies.

Mixing things so different might seem like a bad idea, but Yurukill made us believe that a bullet hell and a visual novel are a match made in heaven. It's also a fantastic game on both sides, meaning we have a great visual novel and a great shoot 'em up, all in the same package.

I’m not sure whether to think of Yurukill as a decent shmup with a good adventure game attached, or a good adventure game with a decent shmup minigame inserted into it. Perhaps it doesn’t matter, as the two disparate flavors taste great together all the same.

Yurukill: The Calumniation Games is an ideal game for fans of Japanese mystery games who are looking for a different experience from the usual. Mixing puzzles with shoot 'em up we have found a very original title that, without standing out too much in anything, has turned out to be an enjoyable experience.

Despite our relative indifference toward the shmup sections and our frustration with some of the puzzles, by the time we cleared each team’s attraction and really got to know the eccentric cast before the intense final chapters, Yurukill: The Calumniation Games had thoroughly hooked us. Individually, the puzzle-solving and shooter elements aren’t anything particularly special, but they come together with some ridiculous characters to form a game greater than the sum of its parts. We’d go so far as to say we like pickles on ice cream now, and – while you might think us as crazy as Binko – we think you might, too.

Yurukill: The Calumniation Games is certainly an oddity, but it’s not without its charm. It definitely shares some characteristics with the Zero Escape and Danganronpa games, even if it doesn’t quite hit the same highs.

Yurukill: The Calumnation Games has a decent storyline, and is a solid time, but for the price point, there are far better options.

Yurukill: The Calumniation Games is greater than the sum of its parts. The bullet hell sections are fun and challenging if a bit drab in design and variety while the escape room sections have good character interactions but are far too simple and tame for what you might expect in a game about an amusement park where people can be murdered with the push of a button. Tear them apart and you get two substandard games that likely wouldn’t be worth anybody’s time. Keep them together, however, and you’ve got a one-of-a-kind experience that’s worth checking out.

If I have to say who this game is for, it’s probably best matched up with people who enjoy adventure thrillers and also like shoot-em-ups. Even for that somewhat narrow range of players, it’s more of a good game than a great one.

So while it has some shortcomings and could stand a little more refinement, Yurukill: The Calumniation Games is exactly the kind of game I love to see: an unusual concept that puts creativity first and dares to experiment, even if the ideas don’t always quite click. And even with its pacing and puzzle design troubles, it’s still a rock-solid shoot ’em up, mixed with an engrossing crime thriller, carried by the most compelling villain since Monokuma.

Sufficient presentation, good story and some weird twist make Yurukill an experience worth its time for graphic novel fans. For all the others, its structure and boring shoot-em-up sections are not worth your time.

The beating heart of Yurukill is to be found in the visual novel component, intriguing even if at times verbose and repetitive, while the point and click inspiration from the escape room fails to affect with its bare backdrops and the boyish simplicity of the puzzles to be solved.

Yurukill is a great game, with awesome music and artwork, but specially well designed in all the variety of genres it provides. What makes it hard to recommend is that all the genres are very different from one another to appeal to all audiences. Without the capacity to play the Shmup sessions alone without the need to finish the game once, or disable the Shoot-em up sessions for those who only want to play the Visual Novel, the game may not appeal to you, even if you are a fan of one of those genres.

Yurukill: The Calumniation Games is a bit of a mess, but it definitely feels like a mess that someone tried really hard to make. While the gameplay elements sometimes feel at odds, it has a lot of charm in its characters and UI design. Even though the game’s plot can feel unfocused and confusing, it does have some really good moments. The characters especially do a great job of keeping the story engaging, even when it loses itself a little. Yurukill definitely has both hits and misses, but it feels very earnest and I hope to see more games by this team soon.

Yurukill: The Calumniation Games is a valiant effort to merge together two niche genres but it feels a bit underwhelming. The premise of the titular Yurukill Games is interesting and the characters have compelling backstories but there needs to be more meat and narrative justifications for the shoot-em-up gameplay sections. Without spoiling anything, the game’s ending is indeed sequel bait. If this game’s shortcomings can be addressed in a follow-up, there’s definitely potential here.

Yurukill: The Calumniation Games should've been a home run on Nintendo Switch since it blends two genres that perfectly suit Nintendo's hybrid console. Sadly, it doesn't feel as polished as it should, and ends up being a missed opportunity given the potential with the setting.