I left for a lengthy beach vacation equipped with only my Vita and a newly downloaded copy of Akiba's Trip as a form of entertainment. While fighting against boredom at work, I was browsing the GAMESTOP online store for interesting Vita games for this intended trip as a way to show a system that I used to play non-stop, some much needed love. It's vague open-world, Anime-trope humor struckI left for a lengthy beach vacation equipped with only my Vita and a newly downloaded copy of Akiba's Trip as a form of entertainment. While fighting against boredom at work, I was browsing the GAMESTOP online store for interesting Vita games for this intended trip as a way to show a system that I used to play non-stop, some much needed love. It's vague open-world, Anime-trope humor struck me as rare for a game State-side so I tagged it for my wishlist pronto.
As a disclaimer, I just want to say that the bar I was operating at was resting at about a C. All it had to do was provide entertainment, an easy to follow plot, and interesting mechanics. I wasn't looking for a profound experience or a hidden gamer-hipster (gapster?) gem that I could hold over peoples heads. I was look for plain ol' simple fun. And I'm not gonna lie, this game is really fun. But it also has a lot of infuriating problems.
(Note, you can name the hero. I named mine Raiden. Raiden, from here on out, is the player-character.)
Akiba's Trip is a small open-world game that takes place in Akibahara, a famous district in Tokyo that (to sort of sum up a whole lot of history and pop-culture) is an Otaku paradise. It has Maid cafe's, video game themed everything, cosplay festivals, and more. It's basically the place we all secretly want to go to when we're obsessed with a specific anime. In the game, you play a Raiden a kind of sardonic hero whose in-on-the-joke-but-so-far-away-from-the-joke he just can't sometmes. He's a collector of figurines (although I didn't find any in the first play through I did.) When he's in the middle of meeting with a potential buyer he's kidnapped! And basically made into a... monster with supernatural powers who has to keep his clothes on, or else he'll be destroyed in the sunlight. Through a series of events, you basically have to save Akibahara from these kind of vampire-witch people while cosplaying your heart out and ripping off peoples clothes... I know. It's an interesting game that has interesting mechanics but a lot of 21st Century video game problems that I'll get into below.
It's an action-rpg in terms of combat but when you rip your enemies clothing with your weapon, you have to hold down the attack button to grab hold of your opponents clothes and rip them off. You can combo with for hilarity and even do special-tag combos with your partner.
Overall, I give this game a C
It was funny at parts, you can explore Akibahara a little bit, you can decorate your character, it's badass when you string together combos, and the plot is shallow enough so it allows you to work on side-quests without feeling as if you're real job is to save the world. It's a great pick-up-and-play experience.
Things that I liked
-Finding out you can get new ways to rip enemies clothes off. (So many funny ones!)
-Playing dress-up like a cross-dresser. (What can I say? I like playing Drag queens.)
-Beating people with a keyboard. (note: I work in customer service and use a keyboard.)
-Wondering if I can get the cool clothes the enemy bosses have. (you can!)
-Having a lot of enemies to fight at once. (I love when Dynasty Warriors is invited to the party.)
Things I was OK with:
-Healing. You "refresh" your clothing to heal your HP. It's annoying because there's a pause in animation to let it happen, which means enemies have a LOT of time to interrupt it and infuriate you.
-The characters were all kind of lame. A lot of them were tropes but not done particularly well and all felt kind of "Well, we need a ninja girl in it."
Things I didn't like:
-The story line has no climax to it. It just begins, continues, and ends.
-There are no ways to track your side-quests in-game. There's just a red "?" on the map showing the area it's in. This isn't bad, unless you have to find a specific person...
-Load times are TERRIBLE. Since people don't load that fast, you're always running around a ghost town until BAM people show up. And when they do, pray they're for your side-quest.
-Side-quest times are crazy-short.
-Your sister is irritating as hell.
-The English voice-acting is mind-numbing.
-The game feels too small. It's the definition of a missed opportunity.
-Why did I give it a 7? Because even though the game was flawed, it nailed the absurd concept fairly well without being that indecent and it was fun. When you beat it, you unlock new character models and a new game+ mode that I'll check-out later. But I don't feel sad playing, and beating it, in 10 hours. It's a fun game to play poolside.… Expand
Akiba's Trip: Undead & UndressedYour Score0 out of 10User Score
