Mini Review: Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~ - Great Writing Lifts This Average Dungeon Crawler

Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~ is part-visual novel, part-dungeon crawler, and is very entertaining despite being a little rough around the edges. You’ll play as Reggie who, thanks to a spiked drink, manages to sleep his way through the end of the world. He takes the news pretty well, even though it’s delivered by his childhood friend, Pearl, who has been turned into a half-zombie.

While it’ll initially just be you and Pearl, it’s not long before you pick up a bunch of other half-dead (but utterly adorable) ladies to keep you company. You’ll be on a road trip across the remnants of civilization as you try to find your dad, as well as a cure for zombification. The writing is surprisingly amusing even though many of the characters fall into some very familiar tropes.

Your undead crew will have to stop occasionally for supplies and to find more clues about the whereabouts of your father. This is where the dungeon crawling aspect of the game kicks in. You’ll be solving simple puzzles, involving switches and locked doors, as you make your way through the labyrinthine corridors. It’s fun even though there’s nothing particularly innovative going on here.

The turn-based combat is pretty tough as many of the enemies you encounter have vast pools of health. You can chip away at these by exploiting enemy weaknesses and by building up attack multipliers, but the battles can sometimes still drag on. Even if you switch to an easier difficulty you’ll still probably end up having to grind a couple of levels in each dungeon to ensure that you’re strong enough to survive.

The most annoying system in the game involves weapon durability — they can only be used a certain number of times before they break. Unfortunately, your inventory is quite limited, especially at the beginning of the game, so you’ll end up throwing away lots of useful items just so you can keep a supply of weapons on hand for each character.

The monster designs are particularly wacky and memorable. It’s not often that you’ll have to save the world by fighting zombie pensioners and demonic-looking Humpty Dumpty's. Undead Darlings isn’t afraid to poke fun at itself and, minor gameplay annoyances aside, the strong writing and compelling characters make this one worth checking out.