Earth Defense Force: World Brothers is an spinoff of the popular Earth Defense Force series from developer Yuke's. While not the first spinoff for the series, Earth Defense Force: World Brothers promises an entirely new experience for veterans and newcomers alike. While the game features beloved characters and fearsome giant enemies from across the Earth Defense Force series, they have all been transformed into a new 3D voxel style, similar to the art style of Minecraft or 7 Days to Die.
In Earth Defense Force: World Brothers, the world has broken into square pieces thanks to an attack from Dark Tyrant, and the attack has broken up the Earth Defense Force in the process. The player, as the commander of the new Earth Defense Force, must travel to the different countries of the broken world and assemble a team of local Earth Defense Force "Brothers and Sisters." Players will rescue more than 100 characters during massive monster attacks and can add them to their four-person team. Each character has unique moves, gear, and special abilities that can be mixed and matched to create the ultimate squad for any situation. From there, the squad will engage with massive voxel insects and monsters in action-packed shooter combat, like they would in any other Earth Defense Force game.
By far the best thing about Earth Defense Force: World Brothers is the combat. Like any other game in the series, combat is fast, bombastic, and full of twists. Players will clear a few monsters only to have double that number spawn somewhere behind them. Some of the creatures can fly, and others can climb buildings. There is always a chance one of the EDF soldiers will be knocked off the block of earth that serves as their battleground as well, adding to the excitement. Despite its fast-paced nature, the combat doesn't appear terribly difficult to pick up for newcomers to the series, following many core mechanics of other third-person shooters. Once cleared the first time, each level can be played at five different difficulties from easy to infernal, making Earth Defense Force: World Brothers accessible for players of all skill levels.
During the fights, players will always need to be on the lookout for new characters to add to the team. Between levels, players can change their squad to experiment with new weapons and special abilities. During combat, they will be able to take control of any of the other characters in their squad to get out of tough situations, detonate the character's special power once the SP meter is full, and grab healing items.
Defeating enemies comes with many perks, including the ability to level up and upgrade teammates and weapons. As characters level up, they will be able to share weapons with other teammates, gaining a wider variety of combat options. Some characters will be carrying accessories when they are rescued, and these can also be swapped between characters. The best gear will increase a character's power and skill to make it easier for them to clear tougher enemies, levels, and bosses.
The most striking thing about Earth Defense Force: World Brothers is its graphics. Every character and legendary foe has been rendered in the blocky, voxel style, making the game appear friendlier for newcomers and visually different from the rest of the series. In a gameplay preview of Earth Defense Force: World Brothers, Series Producer Nobuyuki Okajima said this style choice was deliberately made based on from the Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain spinoff. Okajima suggested the realistic style of Iron Rain was meant for core Earth Defense Force players, but the story and mechanics were too different from the traditional Earth Defense Force games to make it work. While he wanted to celebrate the nostalgia of the classic series and engage core players, he also wanted to try something new that could bring old and new players together. This, he said, lent itself to the voxel style of Earth Defense Force: World Brothers, which he hopes will appeal to families and varied age groups and prevent comparison with the series.
Based on what was shown in the preview, one potential pitfall for the title is that Earth Defense Force: World Brothers may start to feel repetitive over time. Once the newness of the style wears off, the levels, structures, and even some enemies do begin to feel visually and mechanically similar. It remains to be seen whether the flow of action-packed combat against waves of enemies, and the game's mix-and-match combinations, will be enough to help make every encounter feel distinct.
With exciting combat, a stunning new art style, and the return of beloved characters and giant, legendary monsters, Earth Defense Force: World Brothers has the potential to be a nostalgic celebration of the best of EDF. Earth Defense Force: World Brothers can also serve as an accessible entry to the series for new players. The ability to mix and match characters, weapons, and accessories to face every kind of enemy and challenge should also make for a large amount of replayability. Earth Defense Force: World Brothers seems poised to be an exciting and engaging EDF spinoff that unites old and new fans in the battle to save a fractured, voxel Earth.
Earth Defense Force: World Brothers launches May 27, 2021 for Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation 4. Screen Rant was invited to an Earth Defense Force: World Brothers preview session for the purposes of this article.
