When I first encountered the Deathbulge webcomic several years ago, I was fully on board with the nonsensical, purposely hyperbolic comic. There was a degree of brutalism that made actions and reactions comical, and I could consume and appreciate the four panel jokes, even when they were chained together in a more sequential story arc. Naturally, I was curious how Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands would translate that style of writing and thought into a longform medium. The approach seemed sound: JRPG as a frontend was perfect to deliver a story, a game style and plenty of room to breathe. The result is a well rounded title that is able to capture the overall humor and atmosphere, but it still might not land in the long run unless you’re already a fan of the comics.

Be ready for this level of hyperbolic nonsense, and you’ll be fine.

Faye was mildly interested in the Battle of the Bands, but her frenemies in a rival group finally pressured her into joining and rocking out on stage in a big way. But it seems this battle is a little different than some. The host is Daemo, a demon/devil, which isn’t suspicious but still irregular. You have to battle against Pokalyps, a real, successful rock band. Also, the competing bands have to die and forfeit their souls if they lose. This is generally not great, and Faye wishes these details had been disclosed earlier. Racing against time to figure out how to either break the contract or come to terms with being indirectly responsible for the death of others, Faye grabs her bandmates, Ian and Briff, and they rally together to find a way to victory without sacrificing their friends! But first they have a lot of distracting sidequests. Like, a LOT.

Deathbulge is a solid, isometric JRPG where you explore the world of Faye and the different NPCs around her. While the main focus is to figure out what’s happening with the Battle of the Bands, you’ll be constantly beset by sidequests (called side gigs) that are issued to you after conversations with the most random people. Sometimes they’re straightforward concepts, like fetching food from someone’s fridge or defeating a certain number of mobs. One of my favorite side gigs was “Shut Your Mouth” where you’re challenged to simply keep your pie hole closed. It sounds easy: it was, but it played well into the humor and ideals of the game. Success in a side gig nets instant rewards, usually in the form of some kind of patch or merch. These are both items that help to make Deathbulge unique, though not always in the best way.

The traditional system of equipment and expendables goes to the wayside as Deathbulge experiments with a system that makes it more unique to the game’s atmosphere. The “merch” system means that items used in battle aren’t restricted to a finite number of a single item, but rather a finite overall number. Let me explain: let’s say you’ve got a healing item, a revival item and a resistance item. Usually, you’d be forced to stock up on a bunch of each or at least roll the dice as to what you think you’ll need for future encounters. Instead, you have a set amount of merch that you go into combat with that you can distribute on the fly. Use a couple small heal items or one big one, beef up one character’s defense or maybe everyone’s. The stronger the merch, the more of your stock it uses, so choose wisely.

Goddammit Ian, your positivity is not helpful here.

It’s an interesting mechanic that allows players to strategize without getting too overwhelmed with inventory choices. For longtime JRPG enthusiasts, it does feel a bit limiting, especially since you only end up with about twenty items, total, over the course of the game. But it also frees you up from the hazard of fixating on item collecting in that regard. You need to keep an eye out for where you can restock merch, but nearly every save tent allows you to do so, so it really isn’t an issue. Additionally, once you get Barry’s Tea Party (an earlyish game key merch), all healing items feel a bit more paltry simply because it’s a good catch-all healer. It’s a nice change of pace for how to approach consumables, even if it did take a bit getting used to.

Combat for Deathbulge is a rotating affair of the primary characters and a charging progress bar, with the option to swap between characters during the charge and even at the moment of selection. This made things fairly simple in early game, if only because you could equip patches (single player passive upgrades) to make one character significantly faster in combat, and then swap to a stronger character to deliver devastating blows. However, more strategic gameplay means finding a compromise. Characters that are “selected” may refill HP and MP at different rates than unselected characters, so striking a balance is key for longer battles. Once I realized that you could swap at any point, though, it did relieve any stress in terms of fast changing or timing. Just let Ian tank most of the time and go from there.

The best way to lay a boss low? SMOOTH FUNK BASS LINE.

As far as combat goes, you’ve got Beats and Mods. Beats are the standard attack that you begin with and also can earn from defeating enemies, stealing their attacks in essence. Beats are usually not spectacular, especially at the beginning, but the ones that you choose to level up and improve can become really useful and functional. Having said that, even later in the game, Beats were never my favorite attack style. They not only required a bit of time to become practical, they also just didn’t have the flair that Mods did. When the game can automatically recharge MP during a fight by simply waiting, and then combine that with the sheer audacity of most Mod attacks, and Beats, while they do get quite spiffy, are left in the dust.

I did honestly love not only the Mod system, but how it changed the characters. Mods serve as different skill attacks,  As Deathbulge is focused on rocking out, characters’ appearances will change depending on their primary Mod, and it’s not restricted to a single piece for the desired effect. So, if you’re a fan of Briff’s classic Tuner look, but don’t want to use the weaker Mod that he begins with, it can be swapped to a more powerful one as you discover Mods at the store and some treasure chests/side gigs. You can mix and match mods to create a variety of attack and heal patterns, though some I always ended up coming back to. Faye’s Hair Shredder was a great one to keep coming back to thanks to a low MP cost and high probability of status effect, and Zero Hertz for Ian was just a great sweeper.

While not a particularly long game, Deathbulge has some great aspects to it in the JRPG sense. For one, the world does feel incredibly dynamic and worth exploring. The dialogue between you and the NPCs is constantly evolving, and moving between zones is fluid and natural. When you go into buildings and certain settings, there’s no delay or load, so you feel more in tune with the game. While the environment gives fewer things to interact with than I’d like, there’s still plenty of visual easter eggs in the statues, shop names and sight gags that abound, so there’s a drive to want to explore instead of just moving to your next waypoint. Plus, seeing the effect of all the doors you kick in to access each house/shop/aquarium is…interesting.

I mean, LOOK at that form, Faye was born to kick open doors.

This is the crux for what may or may not sell the game to most. While the aforementioned items and equipment is different and the world feels spiffy, most players will want to get on board with the tonality of it all, and Deathbulge is definitely locked on a trajectory in terms of delivery. The characters will vacillate between moments of slapstick hyperbole, exaggerated bravado and quiet introspection, all in the name of delivering a joke that you hopefully understand from the beginning. Briff’s inability to wake up and Faye’s accidental brutalization of his prone form sets the bar: after all, a quick break in the fourth wall to acknowledge that music should not normally hurt (and it definitely does now) gives you an idea of the wink and nudge that’s happening here. 

All the archetypes are out on parade. Ian is intense and speaks in all caps all the time, but also bursts into seemingly ridiculous periods of grandiose, emotional display. Faye is the straight woman who sometimes needs to lean into the absurdity herself, especially when it seems unexpected. Briff is a little too happy-go-lucky, though he’ll come up for air and deliver almost chilling moments of awareness and exposition in the name of the joke. From single minded evil moments to oblivious existence in literal hell, NPCs will deliver line after line of casual non sequiturs that never quite go off the rails (there’s no “My spoon is too big” moments), but also are in vein with the rest of the nonsense occurring on and off camera. From reanimated singing fish to giant diva birds, the bosses (mostly) have an air of silliness played off seriously.

Talking back loses the quest, but GOD how I wanted to.

The result is something that works to a point. Deathbulge doesn’t overstay its welcome, but also doesn’t rush the joke all at once, which is good. The combat system and the degree to which there are side gigs to pad out the gameplay keep you locked into the game motif, instead of simply veering into a silly affair of nonsense. There’s a lot to see and do, and the way the actual story unfolds is surprisingly brilliant. Once you leave the initial town and get into the wider world, you feel and see more that hints at the depth of what’s going on, which was honestly intriguing and left me wanting to understand better and see more. Which is why it sometimes took the wind out of the sails when a character throws a one-off line in the middle of actual exposition in an attempt to lighten the mood.

I liked it well enough. There’s nothing about Deathbulge that would lean me towards discouraging players from enjoying the game. The music is great, the animation is brilliant, and the storyline, believe it or not, goes a lot of places that I didn’t expect in a positive way. The humor is great when it works, and it gives the player a brief moment of eyeroll when it doesn’t. It stands well enough on its own, and, I imagine, long time readers of the comic will really vibe and enjoy the references and drop ins from the rogue’s gallery. Much like Nice Day for Fishing, it’s a decent situation by itself, but the fans are the ones who’ll really thrive within the world. If you’re looking for a purposely audacious and irreverent adventure that still ties nicely together, you can go and thrash to your heart’s content with Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands.

Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands is available now on Steam, Epic Store, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5 and Xbox Series One X/S.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands was provided by the publisher.