Kamiab Ghorbanpour

I absolutely adore death games, and I don’t mean battle royale-type death games such as The Hunger Games. While those are also fun, and I did read through the entire series in a week when I was a teenager, I am talking about game-theoretic survival games, where, by design, people have to compete, individually or cooperatively, against one another in order to survive the game. While these games can be very violent, the result isn’t often determined by the extreme uncertainties of battle royale-style games, but rather they are highly organized and rule-based. So, potentially, anyone who knows the rules of the game should be able to defeat their opponent and win.

Since I absolutely love this genre, I have consumed almost anything I could get my hands on, and I just wanted to make a list here and write about the ones I constantly think about.

Raging Loop is probably my favorite in this genre. I have played it three times from beginning to end. You play as a metropolitan boy coming from Tokyo who has just broken up with his gf and is now trapped in this eccentric village. It turns out that in this village, the classic Soviet game of Werewolf (yes, it was originally designed by a Soviet psychology student) is real. Literally! It has all the goodies you look for in a strategic death game: social deduction, betrayal, mysteries, etc. And the characters, the atmosphere, the art, and the satisfying endings and humour make this ten times better. Unlike something like Tomodachi Game, which becomes more and more disappointing as you find out about the mysteries, this one leaves you fully satisfied, and with the branching paths, you can really get your money’s worth.

Speaking of branching paths, Zero Escape is the chef’s kiss. Saw-style, game-theoretic choices, voting, etc., with colorful and interesting characters, extremely unexpected twists, and amazing art… well, for the first game at least. I didn’t care much for the jump to 3D. The only gripe I have with this series is that I personally don’t really like most of the puzzles. I know that is very strange to say, since the puzzles make up almost 90% of the gameplay, besides making decisions and choosing dialogues and paths, but I am just not really that into this type of puzzle. Still, the story and everything else are so good that I had to include this series as one of my favorites, which probably tells you how good it is.

Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor and Squid Game are both very similar (purely in terms of being death games), and I think I like them to a similar degree. They both follow a gambler’s storyline, where he has to gamble for his life by overcoming games and gamified challenges. They’re both really exciting and fun. Squid Game has more social and political commentary and takes the series in an interesting trajectory that is very different from Kaiji, but anyway, it’s just so much fun to watch a man play a game over his own ear and eye.

I am somewhat always conflicted about Danganronpa. I mean, it theoretically has everything I love by combining death games with Ace Attorney, but man, I really, really, really do not like the gameplay. This is the same problem as the Zero Escape games, but far worse, because the main bulk of Danganronpa’s gameplay is made up of these peculiar quick-time events and timed puzzles, which are not in any way difficult, but you might lose them 30 times simply because you’re not fast enough. It’s a chore. Otherwise, I really like the story, the twists, and the general premise, as well as other aspects of the gameplay, such as exploration or Persona-style limited resources to spend time with people, and so on. Despite my hatred of the class trials, I am going to include it anyway, because I always go back to it for the past 13+ years.

This is a new one. I am including it very cautiously. I have always wanted to read Liar Game, but never did because I have an aversion to fan translations and my Japanese was never good enough. But now that there is an animated adaptation, I am watching it ongoingly, and so far, it has really captured my attention. As soon as the whole minority rule mechanic was announced, I realized this could find its way permanently on my list. But will it stay? We shall see.