Until about a week ago I had never heard of this game, which is a shame, because The World Is Your Weapon is one of the most delightful games I've played in quite a long time. I'm going to do my best to recommend it to you, dear reader, while also not giving away too much of the mechanical surprises in store for folks who haven't played it yet. Let's get to it!
You play as Weaco, a humble weapons merchant living in the town of Peaceville and running Weapon Shop Weapoyoyoyoon with her younger sister Ponmi. One day the two of them read an article in a weapons magazine that talks about an impossibly rare and legendary weapon, the Legend of Legends Sword. Realizing that finding the LOL Sword would bring immense fame and fortune to their shop, Weaco sets off to explore the island the game takes place on in search of clues to the sword's location. That's the basic setup for the plot; let's talk about gameplay.
This is from the opening tutorial. The World Is Your Weapon was developed in RPG Maker, but rather than using a standard turn-based system it plays more like a Mystery Dungeon game, with movement and combat taking place on a grid (you can hold the Shift key to bring up the grid at any time to check weapon ranges and such). The main gameplay mechanic, as the game's title implies, is that you can pick up absolutely anything you see and use it to fight monsters.
When you first pick up a weapon, its stats will be unknown to you - you have to use it in combat first to determine its capabilities.
Once you do, you then learn your chosen weapon's attack power and durability, as well as any auxiliary effects it might have - for instance, this shovel here has a chance of immobilizing an enemy for a turn.
You gain EXP from attacking and defeating enemies, so you tend to level up reasonably quickly. Once you do, you can choose to increase your max HP, raise the attack power of every weapon by 1 point, or increase Weaco's evasion (and also lower the chance of a weapon's durability decreasing on hit).
Now, shovels are all well and good, but I did say you can pick up absolutely anything you see, and I meant it.
For instance, you can also pick up the nearby cliffside...
Or an entire patch of grass. Each weapon has its own stats and effects, and half the fun of this game is figuring out just what the hell a given object can do in combat.
But that's not all there is to the game. Back in Peaceville, you can sell any weapons you've found in your shop, which is your main source of money. You can sell weapons even if you don't know what their stats are.
Selling weapons also gives you EXP, so it's pretty worthwhile to do. Selling weapons takes a few minutes of real time, and this works even if the game isn't actually running on your computer.
You can also talk to Ponmi to stock up on healing items and, more importantly, spend your hard-earned cash on bonuses like increased EXP gain or faster selling times.
I'll close off this post with a list of just a few of the hundreds of weapons you can use, including but not limited to:
A laundry basket. It has a unique "detergent" projectile that isn't found on anything else in the game.
A poison swamp. Eat your heart out, From Software.
A cluster of four trees, which does in fact hit an enemy four times.
A campfire.
The healing herbs enemies sometimes drop. (You shouldn't actually use this one, because hitting an enemy with it will heal them on contact.)
A large table.
A comfortable bed, which has a chance of putting enemies to sleep on contact.
Someone's stir-fried pork dinner.
And finally, you can equip (and sell!) your own house if you want. Any weapon that you discard or sell eventually respawns where it originally appeared, so there's nothing stopping you from selling your own shop (among other things) multiple times if you wish.
The World Is Your Weapon is $10 on Steam and is well worth it, in my estimation. Please give it a try!
This is from the opening tutorial. The World Is Your Weapon was developed in RPG Maker, but rather than using a standard turn-based system it plays more like a Mystery Dungeon game, with movement and combat taking place on a grid (you can hold the Shift key to bring up the grid at any time to check weapon ranges and such). The main gameplay mechanic, as the game's title implies, is that you can pick up absolutely anything you see and use it to fight monsters.
When you first pick up a weapon, its stats will be unknown to you - you have to use it in combat first to determine its capabilities.
Once you do, you then learn your chosen weapon's attack power and durability, as well as any auxiliary effects it might have - for instance, this shovel here has a chance of immobilizing an enemy for a turn.
You gain EXP from attacking and defeating enemies, so you tend to level up reasonably quickly. Once you do, you can choose to increase your max HP, raise the attack power of every weapon by 1 point, or increase Weaco's evasion (and also lower the chance of a weapon's durability decreasing on hit).
Now, shovels are all well and good, but I did say you can pick up absolutely anything you see, and I meant it.
For instance, you can also pick up the nearby cliffside...
Or an entire patch of grass. Each weapon has its own stats and effects, and half the fun of this game is figuring out just what the hell a given object can do in combat.
But that's not all there is to the game. Back in Peaceville, you can sell any weapons you've found in your shop, which is your main source of money. You can sell weapons even if you don't know what their stats are.
Selling weapons also gives you EXP, so it's pretty worthwhile to do. Selling weapons takes a few minutes of real time, and this works even if the game isn't actually running on your computer.
You can also talk to Ponmi to stock up on healing items and, more importantly, spend your hard-earned cash on bonuses like increased EXP gain or faster selling times.
I'll close off this post with a list of just a few of the hundreds of weapons you can use, including but not limited to:
A laundry basket. It has a unique "detergent" projectile that isn't found on anything else in the game.
A poison swamp. Eat your heart out, From Software.
A cluster of four trees, which does in fact hit an enemy four times.
A campfire.
The healing herbs enemies sometimes drop. (You shouldn't actually use this one, because hitting an enemy with it will heal them on contact.)
A large table.
A comfortable bed, which has a chance of putting enemies to sleep on contact.
Someone's stir-fried pork dinner.
And finally, you can equip (and sell!) your own house if you want. Any weapon that you discard or sell eventually respawns where it originally appeared, so there's nothing stopping you from selling your own shop (among other things) multiple times if you wish.
The World Is Your Weapon is $10 on Steam and is well worth it, in my estimation. Please give it a try!
