REVIEW / Depersonalization (PC)

I hate having to almost completely rewrite a review based on the fact that I don’t know what I’m talking about, but it happens every now and again. I’m happy to put my hands up and say I’m not perfect, so here we are. Importantly, my opinion of Depersonalization hasn’t changed. How I get to the same opinion is a different matter, though. Now that I’m done outing myself, I’ll stop rambling and explain as we get into it.

I started Depersonalization with a particular view in mind, and in fairness to me, I wasn’t actually wrong. I just wasn’t seeing the entire picture. This RPG plays out across a series of modular stories, all of which are very different narratively. The one I started with had a very story-heavy, Choose Your Own Adventure feel to it, and the majority of this review is based on that playthrough. When I went back, however, and chose a different module, the game had a much more straightforward RPG feel. I actually like this approach better than just using one format, as it allows for diversity and is a good way of keeping the game fresh.

Let’s start with what Depersonalization doesn’t do so well. Firstly, I’d have liked a bit more of a grounding than I got. Aside from taking place across very different stories, we have two major settings. The first of these is what I can only describe as a cosmic library. Here, you create personas you’ll take with you into the modules and follow the overarching plot. As you dive into the stories, you’ll take an avatar of sorts with you that you’ll create separately. This character creation is interesting and surprisingly deep. The choices you’ll make will reflect how easy (or more difficult) you’ll make life for yourself when you face the challenges ahead. The other world is, of course, whichever one is presented by the story itself. I love the setting, but apart from a bit of dialogue in your hub world, you’ll be jumping in with only a vague idea of why you’re doing all of this in the first place. As this is a game rooted in what can be fairly heavy narrative at times, I’d have liked a little more of a prologue.

There is a lot of text in this title. Now, I’m not saying that this is a problem as such; we know what we’re getting ourselves into when we start playing. The problem is that it appears quite slowly and in speech boxes. Where I can read a page of script very quickly and just move on, I’m having to click to get the next set of dialogue. The issue with this is that it slows down the whole process. In a game that’s naturally text-heavy, this starts to drag, and you get to the stage where you just want the next decision point, skill check, or battle. The danger here is that you switch off and you’re not processing the text, you’re just clicking to get through it. This is obviously not a good look for a game that emphasises the fun of reading.

Outside of these two main points, there isn’t a lot not to like. The rest of the game involves lots of reading and clicking (obviously), some skill checks based on your character, and a combat system that I’m not sure needs to be there in some of the modules. The only other thing is that some of the menus feel a bit awkward. I was in a battle where I really needed some help, and it took me a little while to get comfortable with equipping and using items. Again, this isn’t a reason to switch the game off and never come back to it, but you want things to feel natural, and they don’t always.

Combat is done in a fashion we all know well from our favorite JRPGs, and in a standard RPG module, this is absolutely fine. The thing is, Depersonalization has much more of a paper-and-pen role-playing feel with respect to some of its stories. Here, I think combat could have been a lot more fun if it were based on a dice-rolling system more akin to an RPG like D&D, for example. While having a JRPG format is a good way to break the long spells of reading, it feels a little bit alien with respect to what the theme is going for. This is more of a personal note than it is something that is going to detract from the Depersonalization. I get it, I’m just not sure I like it. Dice rolling is involved in combat checks, but it’s done for you and feels very RNG-heavy. Instead of having the satisfaction of rolling a dice and knowing what you’re going for and getting it, you just see a little dice roll and then a success or a failure. This obviously doesn’t apply to modules that use a more standard format, where we would expect all of the checks and rolls to be invisible and done for us.

Graphically, I don’t have a problem with the approach. Depersonalization has a very retro, anime feel, and this is simply a style choice. Even the artwork that goes with the written segments feels like something out of a 90s graphic novel. This being said, I don’t have any particular feelings either way about it. I get what they’re going for, and while it doesn’t do a huge amount for me, it isn’t putting me off playing either. The same applies to the sound; I’m not jumping up and down applauding it, but it isn’t putting me off. Having said this, the constant bleeping of appearing text gets really old very quickly. Along with the controls, nuts and bolt-wise everything is fine.

The stories themselves, just like some of the other choices that have been made, are going to be down to personal interpretation. I’m not going to say that this game is good or bad based on something so subjective. What I will say, though, is that there is a good amount of content to get stuck into. Just because one story isn’t floating your boat shouldn’t put you off entirely. The different stories cover a bunch of genres, but seem to have a theme of Cosmic Horror connecting them, so there should be at least something there for everyone. In addition to this, there is a big community element to the game where people are writing their own playable content. Anything that gets the audience involved in the continued success of a game is a win for me, plus it’s encouraging creativity, and that can only be a good thing.

All in all, Depersonalization is going to be a case of personal taste. That sounds like a cheap get-out, but with anything that focuses so much on narrative, regardless of how that narrative is portrayed mechanically, it’s always going to come down to the reader. Personally, I had a lot of fun with this title, and the fact that the library in the game is getting bigger is great for replayability.

I think, at the very least, Depersonalization is worth a try for those of you who like digital novels and the RPG genre in general, or like me, are fans of the Choose Your Own Adventure format. At the very least, this game has an interesting concept that’s worth exploring. Whether you like the content of the stories is going be very much down to you as an individual.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.