Poison Control review : A beat of Belles’ Hell

Title: Poison Control
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: Nippon Ichi Software
Platforms: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch
Release Date: April 13, 2021

First released in Japan on June 25, 2020, Poison Control now hopes to conquer the minds in North America and Europe on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. Developed and published by NIS (Nippon Ichi Software), Poison Control starts with our protagonist waking up, gasping for air as she finds herself in a never-to-be world, the Belles’ Hell.

Standing right before a blood-sucking monster. No, wait! A flesh-sucking monster. Witnessing it, all that she can do is scream her guts out and faint, only to wake up as a skeleton.

You’re as perplexed as I was before starting the game. The monster that sucked your flesh is not as bad as you might think. She introduces herself as Ms. Poisonette who stole your body. And now you’re stuck with her, your soulmate, for as long as you’re in this hell.

As the game progresses, she explains how you are trapped in Belles’ Hell. And how you’re not the only chosen one. Several girls have been its target too and how they’re still trapped in it. And guess who’s gonna be their Messiah? You, of course.

Just a quick FYI, Belles’ Hell is created by negative, powerful emotions of various girls that are trapped in it just like you.

Now you, as the protagonist of the game, have to help all these girls escape hell. How do you do that? By purifying the hell. Didn’t quite get it? I didn’t either at first, but Ms. Poisonette didn’t leave my sight. Soulmates, after all!

She explains patiently that the negative emotions are formed by Poison Mires and the best way to get rid of them is to nip the bud. You do so by entering into Purge Mode where you run over the poison mires and continue to cleanse the hell.

You complete missions by running over the Poison Mires. If only it was that easy. What’s a game without constant hurdles and bite-sized puzzles. You have constant Kleshas spawning to make you sweat a little more. Amidst all the chaos, did I mention the massive hand cannon that you get equipped with? This cannon spits out lasers that help your get rid of the Kleshas in each hell.

Each hell has a girl and her weeping story attached to it. While you continue to purify each mire, each stage, a new chapter of her life opens up in the form of Belles’ Memories. This is what makes the game more fun and engaging, stories. Each girl has a different story that you get to know as you traverse through the map. There are five major hells that you’d have to beat in order to complete this game.

As the game progresses, you get introduced to different types of Kleshas equipped with stronger munitions. Some start to spawn more Kleshas while some start attacking you from range. The variety in Kleshas will keep you engrossed; but after a certain point of time, the game starts to feel repetitive.

The unique storyline is everything in this game. If you’re a diehard for RPG games paired with unrealistic storylines like me then this might be for you.

The fact that’ll keep our gameplay different is how we decide to build our relationship with our soulmate, Ms. Poisonette. Post every level you’ll be asked a question that will determine whether your relationship with the glamorous, the one who stole my flesh, Ms. Poisonette be toxic or empathy filled. Note: This helps you upgrade your in-game stats.

I’d tell you more about the storyline and the gameplay but that would just take away all the curiosity from it. So, I’ll leave that to you to play and explore various parts of the game.

A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.