Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Quest of Memories (PC)

Geoffrey Wright | July 12, 2024 | Review | No Comments

As Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation continues to grow in popularity with each series, its no surprise to get a game for it outside of the out-of-the-blue way it dropped on Steam. Given how the series plays out, the typical brawler or fighting game has been put aside for a dungeon crawling RPG. Worth retreading the steps of our heroes? Lets take a look

As the game follows the story of the anime/manga, the story skips most of the opening and starts with with Rudeus and Eris, who are teleported to the Demon Continent, joining up with the Superd Ruijerd. This is the start of a long journey to get back home to the neighbouring continent, with the party known as ‘Dead End’ having to face many trails & tribulations, until a safe port is found that can be used to cross the sea.

To start with, while the game is mostly a retelling of events from the start of the journey across the demon continent, the games opening does have a hefty spoiler for the story at its current anime juncture. For some reason it’s expected you are up to date (Season 2, Episode 22 to be precise) which I wasn’t as I’ve not started part two yet myself. To be honest I wasn’t too fussed, but its worth noting. Also worth mentioning the presentation of the story as its pretty much fully voiced and has some extra titbits to flesh out the anime’s first season at least.

While the sprites used for dialogue sections etc are generally good quality and look lifted from the show, 3D side of things seems a little barren in comparison. No doubt made with the Switch in mind, dungeons start off barren and don’t change much till later. Sure you start in a desert wasteland, but there’s dungeon crawlers on Vita & 3DS that look more interesting. Luckily some of the enemies & characters you find can look good, there’s a thick cel-shaded style layers on too, so its not all bad when compared to the 2D work.

As noted in the previous section, voice acting is plentiful with the cast returning to voice their roles – there’s also plenty of music brought over so it at least sounds like the series even if not always looking like it. Performance was fine, well its a Switch port again I guess, so my system (R7 5800X3D/32GB/RTX 3090) took a breather. Seemed stuck at 1080/60, which is perfect for the Deck, but not the big screen. Luckily I have Lossless Scaling to upscale to 4K and frame gen to 120 which makes it easier on the eye with a large display.

Primarily a dungeon crawler, in a similar vein to something like Etrian Odyssey, most of your time with the game will be spent finding your way through dungeons to reach the next area. The dungeon floors will need to be explored to find the exit, with plenty of goodies to find on the way alongside possible shortcuts should you need to retreat – all this is tracked on a map. There’s plenty of enemies, and bosses as well, that will make getting that exit a bit tougher. The bouts are turn based, also making use of that active time system (player moves are displayed at the bottom and can change depending on the attacks etc used) The earned XP & AP will allow you to get new moves, something needed early as even in the first dungeon enemies can hit hard – almost one-shotting Rudeus.

As you get through each dungeon and make it to the next stop on the journey, more will open up for you. Inns etc are a given to heal and save, with guilds offering jobs and reputation to earn, and stores allowing for trade and crafting. Your party will also be changeable as characters from the series, with others, can join the journey at a few points. To be honest there’s not much else. Outside of party management, AP earned during battle can buy you new skills as you level up for example, its pretty barren aside from dialogue sections when not exploring dungeons. There’s some added content for Roxy, story and a restaurant management mode oddly enough that’s surprisingly ok, it at least makes a change of pace from grinding dungeons as Rudeus & Co.

Working Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation into a dungeon crawler seems like a perfect fit, but it could also be seen as playing it safe – which is exactly what happens here unfortunately. Don’t get me wrong, It’s a decent dungeon crawler, but it doesn’t really try to do much beyond what it has to do outside of some extra for Roxy fans. Fans of the series will get the most out of this as you get some new perspectives on Rudeus’s journey, but for everyone else its really just a decent enough dungeon crawler suited to Deck owners.