I Walk Among Zombies Vol. 0 Review – The Forgotten Stories

The idea of after stories and fandiscs for visual novels is to expand on the narrative and provide some extra content for fans. However, I Walk Among Zombies Vol. 0 takes a different approach by simply including short stories that could have been cut from the main game as they aim to fill in some plot holes. Additionally, we get some fantasy stories that are simply fanservice.

https://youtu.be/2B5h4yc6YKU

I was expecting I Walk Among Zombies Vol. 0 to simply be a series of stories where our main protagonist, Yuusuke, hooks up with the cast of heroines. However, it was actually nothing like that, and instead, I found a rather substantial amount of context within the several short chapters included in the release.

While the story encompasses all three heroines and takes place during volumes 1 through 3, the events within them flow if you’ve read through the base game. That said, it’s highly advised that you do read through each volume before playing because situations won’t make sense if you don’t.

Each chapter is around 20 minutes long and focuses on a different situation. They are pretty lighthearted for some, such as a story where Mitsuki wants to try to work things out with Yuusuke and makes him cookies. This also gives readers a chance to easily see how these characters’ relationships have evolved throughout the trilogy. Here, we see Yuusuke as his cold independent self where everything is symbiotic, and he uses people for his own benefit.

Other stories revolve around Makiura and her relationship with Yuusuke as well as her responsibilities at the town hall. Most of these stories are just short insights into the characters that expand on their personality a little, but I wasn’t completely interested in Makiura’s chapters here. I think she had such a substantial presence in volume 2, which fell apart in volume 3, so I didn’t personally care about knowing more about her.

The best chapters of the story would have to be the ones that feature Tokiko and take place before and after the crisis. I’m so intrigued by their relationship, and it was nice to see how Yuusuke even knew her. Interestingly, she’s always been an odd character, even before she was a zombie, but we see this play out and understand more about Yuusuke’s feelings for her, which was a nice touch to this short collection.

The entire experience is topped off with three fantasy scenarios, which are mostly just fanservice for fans of the girls. They involve “what if” scenarios that don’t really have anything to do with the story and are more like dreams. Again, I think Tokiko’s route was the best, but Mitsuki’s had some comical elements, making it a fun read.

I wish the stories contained a little more weight to them. Although I enjoyed the lighthearted atmosphere, I feel like they could have used this time to expand on some of the more important themes of the trilogy. Even giving a few chapters to the super zombies would have been cool, but I’m sure that will be saved for a volume 4 release.

The illustrations in the game are all reused from the base version, but some of the chapters include new CG’s which are great. The art of these games has always held up, and it’s no different here. There are also a couple of new backgrounds, but nothing that stands out.

I Walk Among Zombies Vol. 0 is a short visual novel experience that explorers some of the smaller stories that didn’t make it into the full game. They are often fun and lighthearted, but I wish they carried more weight. As of now, Tokiko’s route might be the best reason to play through it. It’s a must if you want more stories from this series, but you won’t be missing out on much if you don’t play it.