I Walk Among Zombies Vol. 3 Review – Scary Attractive Zombies

The I Walk Among Zombies series has surprised me more and more after each release. Taking the concept of a man who isn’t affected by a zombie virus and seeing how he lives in a zombie apocalypse is inherently interesting on its own. In this entry, we see how human contact has changed Yuusuke, but survival is still at the top of his list.

Before reading on, we highly advise that you play the previous entries before starting this game.

I Walk Among Zombies Vol. 3 opens with our main protagonist Yuusuke finding a way to move supplies along with his group to a familiar lodging in the mountains. From these early moments, it’s interesting to see a side of him where he is actually looking forward to being with people. We also get to see him reunite with Mitsuki, which is rather awkward considering their past.

Yuusuke has grown the most in this entry, and you don’t see him constantly looking for a way to set out on his own. He also doesn’t explicitly use the people around him for his own benefit. However, there some tough choices that he has to make, which only gets harder as the list of people he cares about grows.

Things aren’t smooth sailing for Yuusuke and his love life, though. There are a few life-threatening factors that aim to work against the progress that he’s made. Until this point, his secret has been kept safe, but there’s a series of events happening within the group that will put his quick thinking to the test.

A rival group has infiltrated the town hall for starters and aim to take it over with deadly force. Surprisingly, there’s a lot of death in this entry, which raises the stakes much more than what we saw in Vol. 2. No one is safe, and it makes each passing scene all that more crucial. The story likes to mess with your emotions and do things quickly as if to make a statement that their are no heroic deaths in the real world.

I Walk Among Zombies Vol. 3 switches the protagonists a few times throughout the story. While most of the time, we see the world from the mind of Yuusuke, Makiura and Mitsuki also take the spotlight. This was a great choice as they aren’t always together, and seeing how they react to situations differently creates some of the scenarios’ better moments. However, Makiura doesn’t have the same weight that she carries in Vol.2 and ultimately takes a back seat.

I think where I fall on this entry is that it’s my favorite one, if only how it balances the main characters throughout the entire runtime. Regardless of Makiura being shunned in the later hours, it attempts to tie up loose ends, leaving some open to interpretation for a much-anticipated follow-up if possible. The conclusion is where I’m torn, and while I enjoyed it, I wished things played out differently.

The art of Saburo is back and better than ever. There are some new and returning backgrounds in this entry, but they really outdid themselves with a large cast of character illustrations and CGs. Yes, expect to see plenty of h-content here, but there are also a decent amount of non-h scenes that show off the range of skills Saburo has.

I really enjoyed the writing of this visual novel and the descriptive way that it explains situations. It understands pacing and when to speed up or slow down a scene for impact. The story also likes to play off the heavier themes of their adult content to make some scenes more dramatic. The way these scenes are detailed through the writing is nothing less than impressive.

Sadly the music isn’t all that great, with many of the songs from the previous games used. Furthermore, although the main heroines are voiced, many of the supporting cast isn’t, which means there are long scenes of no audio that leaves a lot of the immersion up to your interpretation of how you think they sound.

I Walk Among Zombies Vol. 3 caps off this trilogy with some of the best pacing the series offers. The main protagonists’ character growth shines, with only a few stumbles leading up to the conclusion. The art work and writing fuel the deadly themes for a genuinely captivating read. This entry alone is reason enough to play through the previous titles, which continually delivers a unique and thrilling narrative.