The World Next Door

 Released over a year ago by the incredibly talented team at Rose City Games, World Next Door is a fantastical story involving spirits, teenagers, and separate-yet-connected worlds. It’s a delightful romp about town in another world that includes puzzle elements, simple quest progression, and a believable cast of characters you’ll come to care for more than you might have expected.

Published by Viz Media, The World Next Door originally released in late March of 2019. In a fantasy universe, where our own Earth lies parallel to another world called Emrys. Earth is never shown, though it is presumed that it is just as you might expect; humans rule the Earth thanks to our advanced technology. Emrys, on the other hand, is a world pulled from fantasy books, but with an Earth-like twist on it. Demons, Drakes, and Spirits Divine exist in harmony on Emrys, living, working, and attending school; doing mundane things just like humans. Earth and Emrys are connected via a magical portal. A portal that had until recently only been used for war between the neighboring worlds. At some point, the portal was closed, but the two worlds found new ways to connect and interact in ways less hostile. Now the portal only opens once in a generation and only for a single day.

The World Next Door tells a story about a young girl named Jun, who has been selected through a once-in-a-lifetime lottery to pass through the portal and visit Emrys for one day. Jun jumps at the opportunity to finally meet her internet friends in person. While she is there, however, she and her friends lose track of time and the portal closes before she can return. It would seem staying too long on Emrys is dangerous to humans, as human bodies cannot handle the magical energies Emrys gives off. Any more than a few days and there's a chance Jun could die. It is a simple setup for the story, but one that does a good job of getting the player immediately invested in the characters.

Gameplay consists of a mixture of match-three, puzzle-solving, and light visual novel elements. While the majority of the game is spent in dungeons, or shrines, as they're called on Emrys. Combat involves matching three or more symbols in sequence to perform a spell. More symbols, bigger spells, higher damage (or healing). As Jun and friends delve deeper and deeper into the shrines, they come against tougher opponents. Over the game's admittedly short five-hour campaign, the difficulty ramps up evenly, soon adding more combatants with new abilities that force the player to change up their strategy. 

The visual novel parts of the game are sparse, but they allow breaks between battles and help the game finds its pace more evenly. They also allow the player to explore Emrys and its residents more, some of whom give small side-quests. These are small events that help humanize the fantastical creatures who call Emrys home and can usually all be completed within that same afternoon, before heading to the next shrine. There are some slight conversation options to choose from here and there, but all told, they never seem to have a great impact on the overarching narrative. There is one surprising choice in the end, which appears to alter the ending you get. 

Most recently, Rose City Games have added a local split-screen multiplayer mode to The World Next Door, allowing two players to test their match-three strategizing skills against each other. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to try this mode for myself at the time of this review.

The World Next Door is a surprisingly good time. Rose City Games have managed to put a new twist on the match-three puzzle genre and build an engaging story around it while doing so. The story is short but engrossing, pulling the player along until it reaches a satisfying conclusion.