Death end re:Quest is a JRPG developed by Compile Heart and published by Idea Factory in 2018. It was a completely new IP for the company under the Galapagos RPG project. The game has been quite successful, considering it has already spawned two sequels, though I have only played the first one so far.

The story is centered around the "trapped in an MMORPG" trope that was widely used in anime, manga, and light novels in the past, but it includes a series of new twists to make it more interesting. Arata Mizunashi is a software engineer who was involved in a project to build a virtual reality MMORPG called World's Odyssey, until the project was canceled due to the disappearance of the main producer, Shina Ninomiya.

A year later, he receives a mysterious email with an attachment that prompts him to log into World's Odyssey, despite the game never having officially launched. He reluctantly tries it and discovers that Shina is trapped inside the game. She suffers from partial amnesia and does not remember exactly how she got there.

The game is extremely buggy because it was never actually released. Arata must help her by using his programming skills to reach the true ending, as that appears to be the only way for her to be free. However, things are not that simple. Arata begins to be targeted by mysterious masked people who want his laptop because of its connection to the server, forcing him to be continuously on the run.

This begins a story of mystery, the occult, and "debugging", with Arata and Shina working together across two worlds to piece together exactly what happened and how to solve the situation. As the story progresses, Shina encounters other people who seem trapped like her, but they are completely integrated into the game world and unaware that they were ever human.

As you go through the story, you also start to piece together the past of these other girls (both in and outside the game) and help them get through their trauma. There is a bond system that allows you to get closer to each of the girls based on a series of triggers in the game. 

The gameplay alternates between scenes in the real world, where Arata travels around the city finding hints about the mystery, and the virtual world, where Shina explores the RPG environment and clears bosses together with the other characters to progress toward the ending.

As the title suggests, there are many MANY Death Ends. If you make the wrong choice, either Shina or Arata will die. These are not just standard "game over" screens, but an integral part of the narrative, as they provide critical information needed to piece together the truth. I think there was even an achievement to get them all...

The game can get gruesome and, honestly, quite sickening during some scenes, especially near the end. You can start to guess what kind of ending they are planning because the darker it gets, the more it feels like a Mai Hime style conclusion. Of course, that is an older anime series, so I am not sure if everyone will catch the reference!

The gameplay is a standard turn-based RPG in a 3D environment. You can think of it as being very similar to the Neptunia series, but it also features a pinball element where you can knock enemies around the field to debuff or damage them. There are also bug skills that Arata can use from the real world to support Shina and the others during battle.

As is usual with games from Compile Heart, you can expect extremely high-quality CGs during the visual novel segments. The actual gameplay uses the same engine seen in many of their other titles. While there is a fair amount of resource reuse, it is not as noticeable as it is in the Neptunia series.

The game has two endings, the first is the normal end and the second one is the true end. In order to obtain the true end you must have completed at least 20 quests before chapter 11 which can be challenging if you, like me, were completely ignoring the quests until you were very into the game story.

The game was very entertaining overall. I was glued to my seat trying to figure out the identity of the culprit, where Shina actually was, and what led to this disastrous situation. I am hoping to start the second game soon to see what happens after that incredible cliffhanger they delivered right at the end.