So, jump to now and Akiba’s Beat is coming up. This is literally a game I bought without having read a single thing about it or even checked the section on Xseed forum. I went in with no expectations. I didn’t even know the genre of game it was. From some picture, I’d seen I thought it was going to be a music rytheme game actually. However, much to my surprise it was a jrpg. Awesome, ISo, jump to now and Akiba’s Beat is coming up. This is literally a game I bought without having read a single thing about it or even checked the section on Xseed forum. I went in with no expectations. I didn’t even know the genre of game it was. From some picture, I’d seen I thought it was going to be a music rytheme game actually. However, much to my surprise it was a jrpg. Awesome, I love those but, the vitas kinda saturated with those right? Xseed also publishes one of the best jrpgs the system has with them publishing the Legend of Hero games. So, what would draw me to this game. Everything, simply put everything.
I instantly was drawn into the game because of the voice acting, the dialog and just the general sense of humor the game has. I remember years ago I’d gotten on Xseed because I thought it was a such a waste of time and money to dub stuff. Without the great work on the dub for this game I wouldn’t be nearly invested as I am. The voice acting adds tons of charm to the game. My first biggest complaint came when I found the game didn’t work with the pstv. This normally means I’m not going to even bother putting it into my vita to play it. Well I gave in and much to my surprise the portable nature of it enhances the way I play it. The game works great in 1 to 3-hour long play sections. Every night I get to play some once my wife’s asleep in bed and I just play until I’m tired. It’s a perfect balance of pick up and play. The chapters are perfectly set for short sessions instead of long drawn out events.
The story unfolds in a very similar way to persona. In fact, let’s just call it what is. It’s a persona rip off. You go into dungeons and you kill a person’s delusion. Does it suck because it’s a rip off of something? Hardly. In fact, the vita is flooded with things that rip persona 4 off from either a stylistic stand point, bonding event love. So, to fault one game for something that tons of people do is something I don’t really care about. Then comes the rip off of the tales of battle system. I love it, it’s simple its quick and it different. If you take 2 of the best systems and pair them together I’ve got no complaints. I always thought persona battle system were kind of boring so giving me a persona type world with a tales battle system is the best of both worlds for me. The game shines in the music department too. The main battle them and all of the additional battle music you get for your imagine attacks are great. The music doesn’t wear itself out either due to the brevity of its combat.
While the game has many great things it’s not without its flaws. Number 1 the loading is awful. It’s just so terrible it makes you wonder how they released a game in this state. Akiba Beat is a victim of a low budget for sure. The last game used a much better engine that handle more things on screen and could load them way faster. You can tell the company didn’t put much money into this one as they went with the awful Unity engine. A high unoptimized engine that really only performs well on PC’s due to most people having outrageously higher specs than the current generation of consoles and the ability to load from vastly faster HDD and SDD. The game is also missing some polish due to budget. You don’t get to view or go into any stores and they’re all the same. The shop menus aren’t as deep as new games and comparing and equipping can’t be done in a smooth fashion in the store. The city is filled with emptiness ala persona 5 style of shadow people. And lastly the the cheapness of nothing being licensed. You won’t get to see any of Akihabara’s classic locals because they simply weren’t paying for them.
If you’re going into Akiba’s Beat excepting Akiba’s Strip you’re probably going to be let down hugely. However, if you’re going into Akiba’s Beat looking for a fantastic action jrpg that’s great on the go, features tons of charm and features a fun battle system this will be for. This can easily be described as “Tales of Persona – Light Edition”. And theres absolutely nothing wrong with that if you’re looking for some enjoyable fluff. I give Akiba’s Beat a 8/10 and highly recommend it to tales and persona fans alike who aren’t looking to a seriously deep or complex game and mearly want something enjoyable to kill some time.… Expand
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