with colors by Digikore and letters by the talented Dave Lanphear.
So let’s be honest: I found this book entirely confusing. It doesn’t help that the entirety of the second chapter was presented not backwards but bizarrely out of order. It was about Vale and Levi going to look for answers in other people’s homes, maybe? That lack of attention to detail doesn’t inspire confidence in the final product, which has apparently had its actual publication date pushed back several times. Or it might be out already! Details online are very confusing still.
What I can gather from the digital edition I read is that the book is based on a video game of the same name (which I’d never heard of despite being part of a family of gamers.) It seems to be a pretty open sandbox where you get to decide how you play, whether as a village sim, a quest RPG or a hack and slash. The main character Vale is clearly a stand in for the average player, as he’s been adopted by a small village and has a cute pet rabbit named Alma. When a battered teenager falls on his adopted family’s doorstep one day, claiming to be the only survivor of a neighboring zombie-ravaged village, Vale and various other family members go on a quest to find out what’s going on. Bloodshed and heroics inevitably ensue.