Ed-0: Zombie Uprising Review

Ed-0: Zombie Uprising to me is what you would get if you took the Dynasty Warrior series, turned all the enemies into zombies, and added a dungeon crawler RNG aspect behind it. If that doesn’t make sense, I promise after you read this review, you’ll realize how right I am. 

At its best, Ed-0: Zombie Uprising tackles the roguelike RPG genre by creating an atmosphere that can be both satisfying and challenging at the same time. It’s addictive to the point where after every failed run attempt, it makes you want to try again and get further than that last time. However, there are some aspects that do make the title tedious at times. 

The story behind Ed-0: Zombie Uprising isn’t something to rave about. The game takes place during the Edo Period in Japan and the country shut itself off from the rest of the world due to an outbreak. Even so, the zombie apocalypse has invaded and it’s up to a group of heroes to take charge and eradicate all opposition. That’s pretty much the story. There isn’t much but it generally isn’t all too needed considering the type of gameplay style it takes after. 

Gameplay in Ed-0: Zombie Uprising is pretty simple to understand in terms of mechanics. You have the choice of playing as a Sumo Warrior, Samurai, or Ninja. Regardless of your choice, each character can pick up different charms and skill scrolls along the way that give you the upper hand in battle. Charms can give you a boost in things such as attacks or health while scrolls give you access to new skills you can use to slay undead foes. 

Throughout the levels, you’ll encounter gates that act as pathways to dungeons that allow you to replenish your health, or pick up new charms or scrolls. Whichever gets you go through is all up to you, so choose wisely based on your current situation. 

Combat itself is pretty fluent as you can string together a set of combos to defeat the undead. At times, certain skills may take a while to charge up, so timing is everything if you don’t want to leave yourself open. It might get repetitive at times, but you can always switch things up by playing a different character or grabbing a different set of skills. 

Once you die, which will happen, you’ll take a trip to recover in Kuku Village. In Kuku Village, you can upgrade abilities that boost your stats and power, buy extra items like food to take with you, and more. 

Conclusion

Ed-0: Zombie Uprising is a nice time killer if you want to play something to take the edge off. The replayability is insane as you can up the difficulty in the dungeons if you want more of a challenge. Sure the zombie slaughter may not be something to scream to the hills about, but it is definitely worth mentioning to a friend or two that love the hack n slash genre. 

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox Series X/S. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.