Kazutaka Kodaka on World’s End Club Name Change, Nintendo Switch Version, and More

Back in 2018 when Too Kyo Games was established, director Kazutaka Kodaka announced Death March Club, a story about young kids trapped in a death game, with a story written by Zero Escape series writer Kotaro Uchikoshi. However, during the game’s re-reveal last month, the game received a name change to World’s End Club, and a surprising new trailer that revealed that the death game had been cut short. In an interview with Famitsu, Kodaka and Uchikoshi, as well as Shinsuke Umeda from Izanagi Games, talked about the game’s changes, the Nintendo Switch version, and more.

Editor’s Note: Slight spoilers for World’s End Club to follow.

Here are the highlights:

• According to Kodaka, he wanted to create a game about grade schoolers going on an adventure, similar to the Mother series, especially as there hadn’t been any such games recently. As they would be traveling a long distance, he wanted to use the term “death march” as a keyword as part of Part 1, which would feature the death game. However, he received advice that the term carried sensitive connotations in English, so in order to amp up the tension at the end of Chapter 1, there was originally going to be a sequence where the title would transform from Death March Club to World’s End Club. However, this would just cause name confusion, so they simply decided to change the title.
• Umeda added to this, saying that the team wanted to share Uchikoshi’s work with the world, but restrictions have gotten tighter, especially since the game will release in mainland China as well. That said, the concept of the death game ending in Part 1, and the kids going on a journey afterwards, has been around since the beginning.
• The reason why the game had such a sudden release was partially because of Apple Arcade’s side, where they don’t really advertise new games before release. The team decided to go with it and release Part 1 without any advertisement whatsoever. Kodaka says that he’s always had an admiration for developers who do these sort of guerrilla releases.
• As mentioned previously, the Apple Arcade version of World’s End Club is not complete, only containing Part 1. The continuation will be released in 2021, alongside the full story on Nintendo Switch. Umeda likened Part 1 as the Infinity War to 2021’s Endgame. The Switch version will also include English voice acting and extra elements like some collectibles. More information will be released later on.
• Even with just Part 1, the game should take at least 10 hours to complete. There are also two different endings.