I feel like DEATH NOTE Killer Within was always going to be a bit of a hard sell for me because I’ve honestly never really cared for the two things it’s based on. When I first got into Death Note, I thought it had a really strong opening, but it meandered way too much in the middle that I got incredibly bored and stopped watching—although I am aware of the ending. The same goes for Among Us—I respect it as a pretty fun little game of Cat and Mouse, but I honestly never really got into it.
But I’m always willing to give anything a try, and the idea of Among Us but its Death Note is actually a pretty decent concept. I may have been a bit skeptical going in, but honestly, it’s not a bad little experience, combining an interesting bit of intrigue from the series—the first 10 episodes anyway—with Among Us’ signature “hiding in plain sight” gameplay.
DEATH NOTE Killer Within is a fairly simple premise: one team of players takes on the role of Kira and his followers, with Kira attempting to kill a certain number of criminals or L without getting caught by the authorities, while his followers attempt to help him. The second team takes on L’s investigation with one player in the role of L—watching security cameras and feeding commands to the team—while the others take on the roles of investigators working to uncover the identity of Kira.
It’s got a really interesting vibe to it that I actually really prefer over something like Among Us due in large part to how it references the anime in several ways. While playing as Kira, players can learn the names of investigators by having their followers steal and deliver their IDs. If they have their names, Kira can use the Death Note to kill them and remove them from the game. Similarly, if players are suspected of being Kira, they can be accused, which will handcuff them to an investigator of L’s choosing for the next turn.
Death Note Killer Within brings a fun cops-and-robbers vibe that feels more involved, as players need to actively engage in the investigation while still appearing innocent. Something I never really enjoyed about Among Us was how anyone who isn’t an imposter just has to go about their business and hope not to be killed. Here, however, everyone has an active role on both offense and defense, making it really captivating.
“You’re incentivized to work together with everyone, and at the same time, everyone is considered a suspect.”
This is made doubly so by the fact that no one really knows who are Investigators and who is Kira and his follower, so there’s a balancing of trust and skepticism that makes games very tense. You’re incentivized to work together with everyone, and at the same time, everyone is considered a suspect. Although I don’t think it is entirely perfect mainly due to the fact that there aren’t any NPCs to potentially act as red herrings.
When I think about games like the multiplayer in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood or the Fruit micro-game in Game & Wario, what makes those games so deviously fun is how players need to act like NPCs in order to trick the ones hunting them. However, in DEATH NOTE Killer Within, there aren’t enough people cluttering the streets or wandering around, so players can’t help but seem suspicious at every moment. In this way, it always kind of feels like Kira has the upper hand in games.
But despite some minor flaws, I found myself enjoying DEATH NOTE Killer Within. It’s got a simple yet engaging premise, a fun aesthetic—I really like how the characters are essentially chess pieces being used between the real L and Light, and they all have goofy faces—and pretty engaging gameplay. For roughly $10 USD you could probably do a lot worse, and if you’re a fan of either Among Us or Death Note, you’re bound to get a kick out of this.
