One of the most popular anime adaptations of the most popular crime, suspense and horror anime is Death Note which features the main protagonists as the ‘vigilante’ Light Yagami by his alias ‘Kira’, the huge L who is in charge of chasing him, Misa his loyal sympathiser and an entourage of investigators as well as the Shinigamis Ryuk and Rem. The anime began in 2006 and 18 years later an official video game was released: Death Note: Killer Within, the game is a huge success as it has similar dynamics, but improved from another game that was another success at the time: AMONG US.
Death Note: Killer Within puts you in the role of Kira, L or his followers.
In ‘Killer Within’ the dynamic is similar, but not a copy: Before starting you are given the role of Investigator, Kira Sympathiser and L or Kira himself. As an Investigator, your role is to perform the missions you are given, such as interrogating NPCs, monitoring areas, monitoring other party members, protecting documents and discovering who Kira is through strategies that I will mention later…
As Kira’s Sympathiser your duty is to steal ID’s to give to Kira so that Light can start assassinating the rest of the game participants with his Death Note, you can also pretend to do joint missions and these are the perfect opportunities to steal the ID’s of your fellow players. Your second duty is to hide the Notebook when investigators suspect the real Kira and frame investigators to continue stealing IDs.
As L, your duty is the most crucial, for it is to prevent your ID from being stolen at all costs, as well as assigning missions. These will advance the progress of the investigation against Kira and his sympathiser: keep a close eye on the suspects in the interrogation room, as this is where the real sympathiser and Kira come to light with minimal attitudes.
As Kira, your duty is to steal ID’s and receive ID’s from your sympathiser, write the names very quickly in the notebook, know how to deceive the investigators and especially L and, when there are too many suspicions against you, pass the Death Note to the sympathiser. And, as always, complete most of the missions to get most of the IDs.
Incredible gameplay and customisation
One of the strong points of Death Note: Killer Within is definitely the gameplay, it is very intuitive and despite being with 9 other players in a web room sharing a game, at no time suffer from stoppages, this phenomenon is thanks to its graphics that are as simple as possible.
The investigations made towards the NPCs are very easy because, you only need to make 2 simple movements, the right joystick, when using the Death Note to kill the investigators or L, you need to make 4 movements. However, these moves need to be done much more quickly to avoid being discovered by another investigator or L himself.
The customisation is one of the most admirable sections of the game, as you can choose between several characters that you gain depending on the level increase, either: Light, Kira, L, Rem or Ryuk also adding Shinigami wings, the notebook on the back, dark glasses, dog ears, boxing gloves and endless accessories. In addition, you can add a nameplate with images of the main characters, phrases when you die or when you are arrested, which, as a bonus, have the official voices of the anime’s seiyuus.
Disappointing connectivity and accessibility
The connectivity within a game session is good for the simple fact that there is no lag or lag, what is frustrating and subtracts too many points to Death Note: Killer Within is the simple fact that if a player leaves the game for any reason (slow internet or in general because he didn’t like the role he played) the game ends and you are expelled to the lobby to start a new game unlike Among Us where if 2 or 3 players left the game continued and you were not expelled to the lobby.
Accessibility is another very weak point of Killer Within, in a game of 10 people you have to constantly listen to 9 extras talking at the same time, which is very annoying for the game. Although you can turn down the Dualsense volume and the volume of the players it is still annoying and the opinions are not clear to draw clear deductions, especially when you are L or to frame the weakest someone when you are a sympathiser or Kira.
Among the weaknesses of accessibility can also be criticized the fact that there is no writing function for people with disabilities especially hearing, there are only functions to give clues as player ‘x’ is role ‘x’ which is very time consuming if not mastered with micro off.
Keys to success in Death Note: Killer Within
To win at least 85% of the time in Death Note: Killer Within, depending on the role you are assigned, you need to first fulfil the following requirement: Turn off the bug, gain the trust of the host and the longest time players in the game.
Investigator: Complete a few missions and approach some of the participants (a few seconds before the end of the day) when they are alone so that they believe you are a Kira sympathiser or if they are Light and suspect you. If these people you approached are not Kira or sympathizers you won’t have your ID and you can write that they are ‘suspicious’, if you have it you can write that they are investigators and repeat this strategy with the rest of the participants until Kira and his sympathizer are caught.
L: Complete as few missions as possible, because in these missions your ID is likely to be stolen and the game is over immediately, as L you can assign missions: put those you suspect to be the sympathizer and Kira together, if they are not completed, you will have one of the 2 culprits and you can start giving suspects, do not reveal your identity until the last seconds of a ‘day’ when you are the last one standing, those who chase you are the 2 culprits.
Kira’s Sympathizer: Join joint missions where many users are crowded in Death Note: Killer Within and take the opportunity to steal as many IDs as possible, collect as many IDs as possible in the first round so that no one suspects you and communicate with Kira so that she doesn’t kill anyone until the second round. You should always be on the lookout to switch Death Note with Light when they suspect him and get the win all the way to L.
Kira: Complete missions so you’re not the suspect and wait for the second or even stubborn to start eliminating. Although you can do your first execution on the first one to frame the weaker investigator, sneak into joint missions to steal all the joint ID’s and constantly pass the notebook when they suspect you, do executions in lonely places together with your sympathiser so he has your back and incriminate him heavily every time everyone suspects him (once he has given you the ID’s).
The video game Death Note: Killer Within turns out to be a lot of fun and there is no shortage of laughs, although it does require a lot of game strategies, the most pertinent to win almost every time after a week of play is the one I have already mentioned. The ‘Death Note Game’ although it seems to be a copy of the legendary Among Us won a large number of followers in a very short time by the simple fact of having more roles and being an anime considered by many ‘cult’ has a huge flaw which is the connectivity and accessibility, however, with some patches its developers can improve it.
The game is available for PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 although it does not exploit all the features of this Next-Gen console from Sony, a PS Plus subscription is required to play online which can even be the ‘Essential’ resulting not very burdensome, the game Death Note: Killer Within is priced at $9.99 dollars plus tax, ie approximately $230 Mexican pesos which is indeed worth every penny to enjoy this pleasant surprise.