Nobody Saves the World instantly caught our attention with its bright, cartoony art style and its curiously hollow-eyed protagonist. Its core premise — that you can assume new forms with new abilities — only increased our interest, and add to that the fact that it will join Xbox Game Pass on day one, and Nobody Saves the World definitely looks like one to keep your eye on. Nobody Saves the World comes from Guacamelee developer DrinkBox Studios, who we reached out to for more details. Producer and co-founder Graham Smith, lead designer Ian Campbell, and concept and animation lead Augusto Quijano were kind enough to answer our questions — read on to find out more about exactly how Nobody saves the world.What is Nobody Saves the World?Nobody Saves the World is an action-RPG with a twist — you can take on a number of different forms, such as a rat or a ghost, to use new unique abilities. When does Nobody Saves the World launch?We don’t yet have an exact release date, but Nobody Saves the World is currently scheduled to launch in early 2022. Will Nobody Saves the World come to Xbox Game Pass?Yes! Nobody Saves the World will be available on day one for Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass for PC. Smith explains how Guacamelee arrived for Xbox Game Pass in July 2017, followed by Guacamelee 2 in June 2019. “We’ve really loved working with the Game Pass team and the ID@Xbox team over the years, so when we were looking for a home for Nobody Saves the World we were definitely excited to discuss the game with Microsoft, including the idea of bringing the game to Game Pass at launch. Luckily, they were also excited about the idea!” Smith adds that the co-op mode is also a lot of fun, and that since Nobody Saves The World “supports drop-in/drop-out online multiplayer for the full campaign, we think Game Pass is a great place for the game to launch, as it will allow people to invite their friends to join them in their game at any point of their playthrough.”What’s it about?And just who is Nobody? As the game’s site tells us, Nobody is a “pale androgynous humanoid who wakes up without any memories (or pants).” It’s an interesting change, to have your hero be “nobody,” and Quijano expands on how this decision came about. “Originally we had a ‘wizard’s apprentice’ character in mind. A blank slate of potential who didn’t know anything at the beginning of the game. We were thinking conceptually of a character who starts at the very bottom, as a nobody, and over the course of the story learns to master all these abilities.” Quijano continues, adding,” one of the members of the art team, Mauricio, thought it might be funny to have the character be a literal Nobody, and he drew this featureless character with hollow eyes. When the team saw that character concept, they responded very positively, so we decided to move in that direction.” The thing is, it seems you don’t keep Nobody’s original form for long. And why is that? Well, in Nobody Saves the World, we are attempting to do just that — to save the world from The Calamity. Apparently, there had been a wizard capable of protecting the world already, except he’s gone missing. “Nostramagus is a very powerful wizard in this world,” Quijano explains. “He’s like a rockstar (he has his own clothing brand), and is the one who usually fights these world-threatening monsters. But something has happened and Nostramagus is nowhere to be found, so someone needs to fill that void. It’s a call to action for our hero, Nobody.” Nobody finds Nostramagus’s wand, which grants them the power to change into these different forms. “The Calamity is proving to be far more dangerous than was initially anticipated. Its minions are spreading far and wide throughout the world, and the fact that this is happening at the same time as Nostramagus’s disappearance seems like more than a coincidence…”How does Nobody Saves the World play?You’ll be spending your time solving quests, exploring dungeons, and discovering and unlocking new forms, to unlock new quests, to find more powerful forms, and so on. This core gameplay mechanic looks awesome — you’ll be playing as a number of different forms, including a rat, a robot, a ghost, a dragon, a rogue, and more. “There’s a huge amount of variety in the game’s Forms,” says Campbell. “There’s everything from the traditional tanky Guard and quick, arrow-slinging Ranger, to the weirder Magician (who pulls bunnies out of his magic hat to fight alongside him) or the Slug (who bombards enemies with status effects from its slimy trail).” There are almost 20 forms in Nobody Saves the World, and the team has “worked very hard to make sure each one is unique and enjoyable.” On top of this, you can also customise form abilities. “As you unlock more Forms and their abilities, customization will let you mix-and-match abilities between Forms. This can lead to simple, fun pairings like a Ranger who fights alongside magical bunnies — or it can lead to devastating combos, like a Slug that causes enemies to explode and suffer extra critical damage any time they get gooed up by its trail.” Campbell continues, adding, “I’m most excited to see what happens when players are unleashed on Form customization! The game’s tougher challenges really encourage players to get creative and craft the perfect Form to overcome them. The team is always discovering new exciting ability combinations, and it’s gonna be a blast seeing what players come up with once it’s in their hands.”Any news on the Nobody Saves the World achievements?“We started by making a big list of any event we might want to help the player celebrate, or encourage them to do,” explains Campbell, walking us through the design process for Nobody Saves the World’s achievements. “We divided those into categories, like main story progress, our favourite optional side quests and activities, thorough world exploration, and post-game content. Then we picked our favourites, making sure each category was decently represented, and started brainstorming funny names for them… getting players to try every form and eventually master all their abilities is a huge part” of Nobody Saves the World, Campbell adds; “we definitely have achievements around that.” Since those forms are so integral to Nobody Saves the World, we wondered whether we could expect achievements tied to unlocking every form or form combination. As it turns out, this would be no mean feat — “there are over 11 billion combinations you could put together” — but don’t worry, Campbell adds that the team have “steered away” from an achievement tied to unlocking all the combinations!
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