Have you ever thought about how the Disney Villains could be humanized? Well, Aniplex has done just that! With the release of Disney Twisted Wonderland in collaboration with Walt Disney Japan on March 18th, 2020 to Japanese audiences and January 20th, 2022 to international audiences. As expected, the artstyle resembles a lot like anime shows and movies which have caught the attention of fans all over the world.

Disney Twisted Wonderland follows the ambiguous protagonist and their journey through Night Raven College with their companion, Grimm. It has a linear storyline through each of the different dormitories which correlates with each of the different Disney Villains, in the order of: The Queen of Heart from Alice In Wonderland, Scar from The Lion King, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, Jafar from Aladdin, The Evil Queen from Snow White, Hades from Hercules, and Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. The characters that represent each of the villains are: Riddle Roseheart, Leona Kingscholar, Azul Ahengrotto, Jamil Viper, Vil Schoenheit, Idia Shroud, and Malleus Draconia. With their character development, they will become the final boss of a chapter of the story which incorporates the turn-based minigame with infinite turns.

This game is unique because of its collective gameplay styles: the visual novel, rhythm-based minigames, and turn based minigames. This variety of gameplay styles attracts more players who would hesitate on wanting to play a game that is like a dating simulator game in its art style.

The first and most prominent is the visual novel aspect of the game, because the protagonist is going through the different stories of the villains, there would be a medium it needs to be told. The next gameplay style is the rhythm-based mini games within each chapter or “book” of a story. There are around 5-6 rhythm-based minigames within each book of the story which allows players to have access to electronic dance music (EDM) versions of Disney classics. The final gameplay style in this game is the turn-based minigames. This is an homage to the classic roleplay games (RPGs) which are very popular with gamers around the world with examples such as the Persona series. This serves as a fast-paced aspect of the game which sets it apart from the visual novel and rhythm-based minigames which tend to be slower.

I would recommend this game to anyone who wants to broaden the type of games they play or anyone who enjoys Disney Villains. The reason why I specifically said Disney Villains is because villains take center stage and are humanized to come from tragic backgrounds which would explain their ideologies and their actions in their respective Disney movies.

If you need something new to play and is Disney related, please check out Disney Twisted Wonderland. It is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for free!