Reverse Collapse Review | Baked With Love

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery is a story-driven, top-down tactical RPG. Read our spoiler-less review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Review Overview

What is Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery?

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery is a story-driven tactical RPG developed by the same team that created Girls Frontline (2016).

Set 30 years after the events of the mobile game, Antarctic Union special agent Mendo goes on a vital mission behind enemy lines. Their goal? To extract a high-value individual known only as "Bakery." However, as they were en route to their destination, their convoy was ambushed by forces of the URNC. He is fortunately rescued by a silver-haired girl, who turns out to be his mission target. Together, they navigate hostile territory and enemy gunfire, unraveling the dark secrets of the URNC's GRAVIRUL project.

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery features:
　⚫︎　Staggering amounts of strategies you can employ for each stage
　⚫︎　A narrative designed to drag you into the deeper rabbit hole that is Girls Frontline lore
　⚫︎　A completely stand-alone story despite the above
　⚫︎　Expressive sprites and intuitive visuals
　⚫︎　Goal-oriented gameplay encourages resourcefulness
　⚫︎　Great voice acting present in practically every scene
　⚫︎　Loads of accessibility options
　⚫︎　Collectibles to make the game very replayable

For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery's gameplay and story.

Steam Store

$24.99

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Amazing Story And Structure Boatloads of Customization Wonderful Spritework Great Audio Experience	Normal Is Easy

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Overall Score - 92/100

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery is an excellent, narrative-driven Tactical RPG that presents the perfect amount of gameplay features within a story-rich world. Its use of time-tested gameplay mechanics makes playing it intuitive and easily accessible. With a heavy focus on character development and worldbuilding, peppered with ample moments of gripping twists and gameplay-induced suspense, it’s easy to lose your sense of time trying to find out what happens next.

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Story - 10/10

In a vacuum, Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery already has a great story that uses familiar time loop elements present in popular shows. The pacing also feels very natural. Notably, it steers clear of text-heavy cutscenes and unnecessary expositions. Instead, the game provides that option to you organically as the characters mention essential keywords. There are even optional filler scenes between chapters, further developing the game's world and personas.

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Gameplay - 9/10

While its gameplay may be familiar to Tactical RPG players, there’s nothing inherently wrong with its cut-and-dry format. Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery utilizes those time-tested mechanics well, with many skills and items to expand your strategic choices. Story-driven events that inject enemy reinforcements also keep you on your toes. But despite its goal-oriented stages, it does lack a sufficient challenge unless you play it at the highest difficulty setting.

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Visuals - 9/10

The spritework for the game, despite looking like it was made in the early 2010s (a millennia ago in internet time), is excellent. Every sprite is expressive and smoothly animated. While some skills use recycled animations, it’s not in any way an egregious shortcoming. However, the game does rely on an outdated VN-style format for most of its regular cutscenes, even while it uses a more modern format with interacting sprites.

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Audio - 9/10

In terms of effects, there’s really nothing much to complain about. Gunfire is satisfyingly punchy, explosions are crisp, and item usage has intuitive sounds. The voice acting is also very good and even memorable at times. However, I would appreciate it if getting hit provided you with more feedback than pained grunts. Voice acting is also not omnipresent in the game, though it is present in most cases.

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Value for Money - 9/10

At $24.99, Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery does lean on the expensive side of the market. Despite the number of hours you can spend to earn every achievement, obtaining all of its collectibles, grinding every character, and jumping into the series’ deep rabbit hole, its current full price is a bit of an ask for what it offers. Still, if you’re willing to fork over a few extra dollars more than usual, the game is a must-have.

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Review: Baked With Love

Though I’ve stopped playing Girls Frontline, this game has been on my radar since I first learned about it about a year ago. After spending over a year playing the mobile game and loving it, I, of course, had to try out the spinoff. It’s the natural order of things for me, much like how the sun will always rise on the east and set on the west.

I stopped playing the mobile game because of all the salty gacha pulls.

Anyway, Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery. This game starts in a fashion similar to early 2010s or late 2000s visual novels, much to my particular surprise (and chagrin). It also begins with some fantastic voice acting. However, hearing that almost entirely disappear when I got onto a stage was quite jarring.

Suffice it to say that my first impression of the game wasn’t particularly remarkable. But I continued playing to learn more about it because I wasn’t the type of guy to not eat a cake if I didn’t like the fork. And as I did, I slowly became more thankful for my decision.

Hiding behind those eyebrow-raising first few minutes was a game affectionate to its design. Gameplay-wise, it provides just enough material in the form of skill customization, weapon upgrading, and consumable crafting to play with. Unlike other games with too many features or scaling that required excessive grinding, it never felt like there were too many things to balance at once.

In terms of the story, the pace was spontaneous and rightfully snappy. It progressed in a way that felt just right for the scenario. Not once did it dive into a several-minute-long exposition to force worldbuilding and character development down my throat.

Instead, the narrative is designed such that glossary entries are presented to you right as characters mention essential keywords. These are entirely optional, and you don’t need to read them if you don’t want to dive too deep into the story.

This freedom to modify your experience extends to its numerous gameplay options. You can set it so that your characters follow efficiently calculated paths or follow your cursor square by agonizing square. There are prompts to visually indicate threats on the battlefield in different ways. Environmental effect indicators and allied action prompts can also be modified.

In many ways, the game tries to make your experience of playing through its numerous chapters and reading through its well-crafted story as enjoyable as possible. And, in my opinion, it succeeds.

Pros of Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery

Things Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Got Right
Amazing Story And Structure Boatloads of Customization Well-Paced Narrative Great Audio Experience

Amazing Story And Structure

The original mobile game had a fantastic story of twists and turns, friendships and betrayals, sweet victories, and bitter defeats. In a way, Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery is expected to deliver something roughly similar. It does.

The use of time-loop story mechanics implies that there’s a reason to do everything again. This game delivers its justification through the personal stories of each central character using an unobtrusive narrative design.

While the story is great and the world is well-developed, the game still tries to make the experience more personal. In other words, you can choose how deep into the Girls Frontline lore rabbit hole you want to go. And just in case you spend a few days away from the game, it even provides you with a recap of the previous chapter’s events to jog your memory.

Boatloads of Customization

To further customize your experience in the game’s combat sections, the game possesses a handful of character personalization features meant to mold each character to your liking. Ergo, while each character has an obvious role, your skill investment ultimately determines how they can be played in every stage.

They also have a selection of weapons you can choose from, which are unlocked as you progress through the game. These are upgradeable equipment you can reset to fund the next tier of weapons, allowing you to continuously ramp your performance without fear of investing too much into one. There are even weapon accessories to personalize their performance.

But what really sells its combat experience personalization is its consumable items. These can be crafted before a stage starts or on the field. Each can potentially turn a hopeless defeat scenario into one of complete victory. And, just like weapons, they can be upgraded to provide more potent effects in battle. Oh, and there are dozens of them.

Wonderful Spritework

The character sprites in this game are very well-made. In fact, there are several instances in the game where characters can enact gripping close-quarters combat with just the sprites. Their expressiveness is also in full display during the mid-chapter filler cutscenes, which further develop each character’s personality.

Great Audio Experience

With the right audio equipment, you can enjoy the game’s excellent sound effects to the fullest. The game’s punchy gunshots and explosions offer an incredible amount of godly immersion. Plus, the way every enemy soldier moves on the battlefield with heavy, rhythmic, almost threatening footsteps adds a well-deserved urgency to each mission.

The fully voiced cutscenes are also a treat to listen to, regardless of whether you can understand the words. Although they are unfortunately absent in mid-battle expositions, they are present practically everywhere else.

Cons of Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery

Things That Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Can Improve
Normal Is Easy

Normal Is Easy

There are many different ways to increase a game’s difficulty. Some games adjust the enemy AI to make them much more aggressive or use more attacks. Others just turn the enemies into bullet sponges or spawn too many of them (also known as the lazy man’s method). This game, on the other hand, does all of the above.

Yes, that’s right. Higher difficulties mean extra enemies, tougher missions, limited save scumming, increased enemy capabilities, and an entire game mode is even disabled to stop you from leveling past what the story stages would place you in. That’s a wonderful set of tweaks that should easily make every difficulty feel significantly different.

And it does. In increasing order, Casual is a breeze compared to Standard, while the latter is nothing to Challenge difficulty. But the thing is, even for someone with an average level of exposure to Tactical RPGs like me, Standard difficulty feels almost wholly devoid of a challenge. Enemies die from just a few hits, especially from powerful attackers like Jefuty.

Evasion, for example, is overpowered except in particular instances. For the vast majority of the game, you can completely avoid damage by stacking Evasion buffs and items. Meanwhile, enemies have this strange obsession with grouping up, leaving them vulnerable to explosives or stopping in the middle of what is effectively a wide-open plain, allowing for easy hits.

If you’re looking for a challenge, steer clear of Casual and Standard difficulty. Because you can only adjust difficulty downward, start the game on Challenge difficulty on the get-go. And just in case you find it to be too much for you, simply head on over to the menu to lower the difficulty.

Is Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Worth It?

It’s A Bit Pricey, But It’s Definitely A Great Game To Get

At the end of the day, Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery is a great game through and through. Its problems, though not insignificant in quantity, are all very minor and don't at all detract from the overall experience. While it is true that the game is a few dollars above what’s justifiable for its contents, that shouldn’t hinder potential players from purchasing it if they have change to spare.

Platform	Price
Steam Store	$24.99

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery FAQ

Is Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery A Prequel To Girls Frontline?

No, the game is a sequel to the popular mobile game.

Do I have to play Girl's Frontline to understand Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery?

No. The game's story can stand alone. Any references it makes to the original mobile game are also given context through optional pop-ups that appear as they are mentioned.

When will Reverse Collapse release on Switch?

As of writing, no updates have been provided about the game's release on the Nintendo Switch.

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Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Product Information

Title	REVERSE COLLAPSE: CODE NAME BAKERY
Release Date	March 22, 2024
Developer	Shanghai Sunborn Network Technology Co., Ltd.
Publisher	XD
Supported Platforms	PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch
Genre	Adventure, Strategy
Number of Players	1
ESRB Rating	N/A
Official Website	N/A

Alfonso Majarucon

Writer of things from game, anime and manga reviews to news and webnovels. Hopelessly addicted to story-driven games, especially cross-platform ones. Favorite games include Punishing Gray Raven, Arknights, Limbus Company, Elden Ring, Touhou, Soul Nomad and the Disgaea series (except 3 and 6). Avid..