The World Next Door review for Switch, PC

I?m not usually one to complain about a game being too short. In fact, as someone with a massive backlog, my usual attitude is ?the shorter, the better.? But when I finished The World Next Door, all I could think was, that?s it?

It?s not that it?s a great game or anything. It?s an interesting mix of visual novel, match-3, and dungeon crawler, to be sure, but it?s far from being a GOTY candidate.

What it does have, though, is an engaging story about a girl trapped in a parallel universe, trying to get home with the help of her friends, that just kind of…ends. It goes to the trouble of establishing side stories, and even throws in a late game twist, and then it never follows through on any of them. It leaves all kinds of loose ends dangling, with no nod whatsoever towards resolving any of them. I?m not saying it needs hours and hours more cutscenes, but a couple more minutes — or even one more dungeon and boss battle — wouldn?t have been unwelcome.

Besides, it?s not like the gameplay is unpleasant. Outside of watching the friends interact, the core of the game is wandering through dungeons, fighting monsters by matching symbols. It?s hardly the most onerous task in the world, and even the boss battles are over and done with fairly quickly.

But again, the problem is that The World Next Door is over and done with fairly quickly, too. It?s got all kinds of good (and sometimes great) elements, but when it?s all said and done, you?ll be left wanting more, and not in a good way.

VIZ Media provided us with a World Next Door Switch code for review purposes.