All of Us Are Lifeless, the Korean tv collection, gained international curiosity and recognition when it launched on Netflix in 2022. It held the highest spot on the streaming platform for over a month, however do you know it’s truly based mostly on a preferred webtoon of the identical identify?
Effectively that webtoon, launched approach again in 2009, impressed Korean builders IKINAGAMES to show the goings on of the zombie horror right into a online game. As such, the All of Us Are Lifeless universe has now spawned a visible novel that’s wanting to attract in followers of the collection and newcomers alike. Can All of Us Are Lifeless, the sport, breathe new life into the well-trodden narrative, or is it a drained adaptation that’s bringing nothing contemporary to the get together?
I’m aware of the webtoon and have seen the live-action collection – twice – however I can safely say that the sport actually has one thing new to supply. It additionally lets itself down a bit too although, which I’ll clarify in the end.
It begins as only a seemingly strange summer time day in All of Us Are Lifeless, with the scholars of Hyosan Excessive going about their common studying schedule. That’s till a distraught classmate barges in, behaving fairly unusually and affected by some type of sickness. She’s contaminated by a zombie virus, and shortly, the college turns into suffering from extra of her sort. With the illness spreading, these but to be tainted should survive lengthy sufficient to flee, be rescued, from this hellish state of affairs.
The writers have actually fleshed out the unique story, including their very own touches to an already engrossing zombie-filled horror. There are such a lot of layers to the narrative that it’s difficult to know the place to start out. You’re not solely attending to see how college students and academics behave within the midst of a disaster, but in addition how egocentric wishes and pure worry can put a pressure on friendships. Very similar to The Strolling Lifeless, the contaminated aren’t the one risks when every part goes awry, with common folks doing irrational issues to save lots of their very own pores and skin.
It will get fairly darkish every now and then, and you’ll really feel virtually each demise, which truly enhances the uncommon cases of pleasure, romance and humour. Within the extra action-packed sequences, a very good job is finished to explain what’s occurring alongside the nonetheless scenes, enabling you to think about the way it would possibly play out in actuality.
None of it issues ought to there be no connection to the characters on the coronary heart of the survival journey. Thankfully, the character growth for what you’d historically take into account the protagonist, On-jo, is persistently nice, however these surrounding her are blessed with an analogous remedy too. Whether or not it’s the badass Judo specialist Su-hyuk, the potty mouth senior Mi-jin, or the morally questionable PE trainer Jin-cheol, they’ll all depart their mark on you. Heck, the villainous Gui-nam is completely detestable in each single look and that’s a credit score to those that crafted his character.
So as to create extra engagement and enhance your funding within the narrative, there are selections to be made at sure junctures. These vary from unimportant sorts like choosing a snack, to vital ones that may truly result in a ‘Recreation Over’, akin to rashly altering the plan mid-course. After a untimely demise although, I like how simple it’s to get again into the thick of it through the storyboard timeline; this lets you revisit completely different sections of every chapter at will. It’s particularly helpful when trying to realize all the varied endings, as a result of following alternate paths could be very simple.
Moderately impressively, there’s nicely over ten hours of content material for a single playthrough, and it seldom appears like a drag. It’s even longer in case you throw the three little further facet tales and different endings into the combo. Whereas the facet tales are bereft of voiceovers, they’re nonetheless able to satiating your inevitable thirst for extra.
From an audio perspective, the voiceovers are accomplished to a excessive normal by Korean actors – don’t fear, the textual content dialogue is in English – and go well with the characters nicely. Nice utilization of background music helps set the scene for thrilling and sombre segments alike. Visually, the character designs are good, nevertheless it’s within the CGs and extra gritty scenes that it really excels. The grisly deaths and gloomy vibes are actually captured brilliantly within the art work, creating unforgettable moments.
So, the place does it actually falter? For probably the most half, it’s within the textual content translation that you just’ll discover the problems.
Sadly, all through the entire of All of Us Are Lifeless, there are a good few errors inside the text-based English dialogue. I’m speaking about misspellings and sentences which can be tough to fathom resulting from an incorrect utilization of phrases. Translating from Korean to English isn’t any simple job, however the variety of apparent errors right here is difficult to miss. Moreover, a key choice making half within the latter phases has the alternatives labelled mistaken, with the highest choice following the motion said on the underside one and vice versa.
Finally, the narrative of All of Us Are Lifeless stays fairly trustworthy to the unique materials, nevertheless there’s much more meat on the bones and the grotesque nature of the scenario is conveyed excellently through the visuals. This makes it an attractive prospect, regardless of whether or not you’re aware of the story, or coming in with out a clue.
Regardless of the aforementioned translation errors, there are many constructive points to make sure that All of Us Are Lifeless is an excellent visible novel and I extremely advocate indulging in what’s on provide right here.
