If you've played other games in the series, you'll find the story confusing at first because Sally and Lily already graduated college, which should contradict the events of the previous game, "Case 03: True Cannibal Boy." This does build on a previous plot point in that game, namely that the elder gods can end the world at any time. We actually get to see the process here with Nya planting a seed inside women that grows into an evil baby Lovecraftian being, which summons Nya's real body into the physical world so that Nya can reset the universe. Although Sally manages to stop this plan, Nya still tricks her into initiating a time rewind to befriend Lily for real, which is a clever way of setting up the main timeline where Marty becomes one of Nya's playthings, as well as setting up Sally and Lily's horrible fate in Case 03. It also follows the pattern of how if the protagonists chose the seemingly harder path and accept losing their loved ones, they could avoid further tragedy in the future.

For the horror aspect, the idea of Nya's son bursting through the abdomen is terrifying, and I'd really like to see a proper CG of this. If this series ever gets a better budget, I think a lot of horror scenes like this should get a really terrifying CG from a skilled artist, even if it prevent me from sleeping for the rest of my life. Additionally, I wish we had more detail on Nya's final attack on the world in the bad ending, since it's not exactly clear what the powder will do. Will it kill people or transform them into monsters? Maybe we'll find out in a later game when Nya gets bored of the world again.

The inclusion of Shadow as a villain protagonist is quite good and we get to see Sally have a ruthless side as well when it comes to Nya. It drives home that despite Shadow being the evil version of Sally, she's still based on Sally's emotions and the two aren't that different deep down. Though it makes me wonder who the fourth portrait is in the old timeline, since Shadow never gave up on serial killing in this timeline.

The game has a lot of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure references, with Seer Nye looking just like Enrico Pucci while handing out discs and talking about fated encounters. The antagonist, Nya's son, can use time stop and the only way to defeat him is to use another of Nya's sons to see through the stopped time. The entire plot of the game is trying to prevent a universal reset, and Pucci's goal in Stone Ocean is to cause a reset. Then there's the true ending's name, which is Made in Heaven, the name of Pucci's ultimate Stand. There's probably a lot of other references that I missed, and I think the references flow very well with the story. Also, it would be very in-character for Nya to be a JoJo fan and take Pucci's form as Nye Arlat just for fun.


8.5/10

The game is short, but the story is good and it's also isolated enough that you don't need to play the other games first. However, playing the other games first does make the ending more significant and it gives us a glimpse of why Jade fears Nya so much.

[h1]Resetting ZA WARUDO[/h1] [h2]Story[/h2] If you've played other games in the series, you'll find the story confusing at first because Sally and Lily already graduated college, which should contradict the events of the previous game, "Case 03: True Cannibal Boy." This does build on a previous plot point in that game, namely that [spoiler]the elder gods can end the world at any time. We actually get to see the process here with Nya planting a seed inside women that grows into an evil baby Lovecraftian being, which summons Nya's real body into the physical world so that Nya can reset the universe. Although Sally manages to stop this plan, Nya still tricks her into initiating a time rewind to befriend Lily for real, which is a clever way of setting up the main timeline where Marty becomes one of Nya's playthings, as well as setting up Sally and Lily's horrible fate in Case 03. It also follows the pattern of how if the protagonists chose the seemingly harder path and accept losing their loved ones, they could avoid further tragedy in the future[/spoiler]. For the horror aspect, the idea of [spoiler]Nya's son bursting through the abdomen is terrifying, and I'd really like to see a proper CG of this. If this series ever gets a better budget, I think a lot of horror scenes like this should get a really terrifying CG from a skilled artist, even if it prevent me from sleeping for the rest of my life. Additionally, I wish we had more detail on Nya's final attack on the world in the bad ending, since it's not exactly clear what the powder will do. Will it kill people or transform them into monsters? Maybe we'll find out in a later game when Nya gets bored of the world again[/spoiler]. The inclusion of Shadow as a villain protagonist is quite good and we get to see Sally have a ruthless side as well when it comes to Nya. It drives home that despite Shadow being the evil version of Sally, she's still based on Sally's emotions and the two aren't that different deep down. Though it makes me wonder [spoiler]who the fourth portrait is in the old timeline, since Shadow never gave up on serial killing in this timeline[/spoiler]. The game has a lot of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure references, with Seer Nye looking just like Enrico Pucci while handing out discs and talking about fated encounters. The antagonist, [spoiler]Nya's son, can use time stop and the only way to defeat him is to use another of Nya's sons to see through the stopped time. The entire plot of the game is trying to prevent a universal reset, and Pucci's goal in Stone Ocean is to cause a reset[/spoiler]. Then there's the true ending's name, which is Made in Heaven, the name of Pucci's ultimate Stand. There's probably a lot of other references that I missed, and I think the references flow very well with the story. Also, it would be very in-character for Nya to be a JoJo fan [spoiler]and take Pucci's form as Nye Arlat just for fun[/spoiler]. [h2]Verdict[/h2] 8.5/10 The game is short, but the story is good and it's also isolated enough that you don't need to play the other games first. However, playing the other games first does make the ending more significant and it gives us a glimpse of why Jade fears Nya so much.