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Game Title: Akiba's Trip Undead & Undressed (Akiba's Trip 2 in Japan)
Platform: PlayStation 3/PlayStation 4/PC (Steam)
Developer: Acquire
Publisher: Acquire (Japan), XSEED Games (North America), NIS America (Europe)
Genre: Role Playing
Age Rating: CERO: C, ESRB: M for Mature, PEGI: 16+
Release Date: PlayStation 3 & PlayStation Vita: 7th November 2013 (Japan), 23rd January 2014 (Taiwan), 12th August 2012 (North America), 12th October 2014 (Europe) PlayStation 4: 3rd July 2014 (Japan), 3rd September 2014 (Taiwan), 25th November 2014 (North America), 6th February 2015 (Europe) PC (Steam): 26th May 2015 (World Wide)
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Game Score: 7.0/10
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Summery:
Akiba's Trip has it's charm that makes undressing your enemies fun while exploring Akihabara but the battle camera and technical problems will try to ruin the experience.
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Akiba's Trip Undead & Undressed is one of those games that makes you question what on earth did the crazy developers at Japan come up with when it comes to the concept. It is a game where many game critics at the time of it's release said that the game is perverted but actually the game is very self aware of that humour, reminding me of those scenes in some cartoons where characters comically end up in a state of undress and that is one of themes of this game. But do I think that this perverted? Well I am happy to answer that question.
First up is the game's overall setting, it takes place inside Akihabara one of Tokyo's famous entertainment districts of Japan that specialises in Anime, Manga and Video games that are advertised there. It becomes invaded by undead beings known as Synthisters who in which were ordinary people and they draining the life energy of the citizens. The way you defeat them I am not joking is to strip them down to their underwear so that they become exposed to sunlight and die. Your main character ends up becoming one but eventually sides up with his friends at the Akiba Freedom Fighters so that they can do what they can to stop the creatures. The characters are quite good but my favourite is Shizuku who does have an interesting character development over the course of the adventure, the voice acting in both English and Japanese dubs are well handled and again the humour including the obvious sexual content that most J-RPGs seem to put on these days are worth plenty of laughs.
Obviously some of the best moments of the game goes to the presentation. Like I said before you get to explore the actual district of Akihabara and all the areas, advertisements and some company logos are all shown and replicated into the game. It is also simply incredible that it does manage to actually show various trailer videos of selected games, anime and a even a music video on display screens across the district. You can also using the warping feature to get straight to the area you want to go which cuts down backtracking or you can take it slow and take in each of the sights. Of course the game graphics are really good as well, the texture work is great and the character models look really detailed and animated well. Their anime body portraits are well designed but there is an issue I noticed that some others characters do not ever open their mouths during the cutscenes.
Some of the cool things in the game are the smartphone which you can change the wallpaper on it with different wallpapers that you can unlock. The smartphone is used to keep track of your current objectives, you can check out your emails from allies as well as checking out Pitter which is a version of Twitter. You get to read on the messages that NPCs post on the game's events, some of the characters on there range from someone who always takes things in a negative way, someone who is messaging for the first time and so on and it gets more funny as you continue on.
The game's soundtrack is really good as well with plenty of nice technical beat and metal tracks that are worth fitting for battles even though they do not play whilst exploring.
As for items you do not actually fight with swords, axes or bows in an RPG sense instead you use umbrellas, bats, soccer balls, gloves or laptops. There are different types of stores that sell different types of weapons, clothing and accessories which will change your character's appearance that your character can equip. The game also has various items which are used to boost your attack, defence, item drop rate and experience points that are used to level up your character and increase strength.
After a while you get to unlock an equipment fusion system where you get to upgrade your weapons or clothing using different kinds of equipment that you currently have and upgrading only costs a small price. Good thing is that if you have a favourite then you can upgrade a type of clothing or weapon towards Max level. Compared to other J-RPGs with a crafting and upgrading system this is a very simple system that doesn't need to be anything complicated or restrictive when upgrading.
Now on to the actual gameplay in which it is the battle system. On the field you can shove a random NPC and he/she will draw out their weapon to challenge you and battles take place in the area you are in with no transitions much like in Chrono Trigger. In battles you have a low, medium or high attack buttons which target a part of a targets clothing, these include headgear, shirts and pants or skirts that your opponents are wearing. You can press it multiple times to create combos and when the clothing is damaged enough you can hold down one of the attacking buttons to strip it off, you can also enter a struggle if you didn't damage a clothing all the way but during a struggle you can damage it by rapidly pressing a button assigned to targeting a part of clothing and eventually you will strip it off. As you progress through the game you unlock the ability to do Chain Strips which allow you to strip everyone's damaged clothing in succession as well as a Strip Unison which strips down one enemy down to his/her underwear instantly while stunning everyone else in range. You can even get different stripping moves that you can assign to your character which gives your character different stripping animations and they are all humorous to see played out. To be perfectly honest I find the stripping mechanic to be very hilarious especially when you get to strip down not only Synthisters so that they burn to ash but also citizens who will end up running away screaming after they have been stripped down to their undies. It is a good thing that the stripping is done on equal terms with both male and females so you will see reasonable amounts of guys in White Briefs or different colour Boxers and females in different style panties. When you strip down a guy down his underpants with his reaction with a high pitched girly scream you know that you have having a load of fun. The more people you strip down the stripping experience for any articles of clothing goes up in which you can then take the clothes for yourself to wear when the experience for a type of clothing is maxed. The stripping does not finish there, if you can successfully pull off a high Chain Strip you can do a Strip Finisher which removes the enemy's underwear and humourlessly censors their naked bodies. I find this mostly amusing just as much as stripping plenty of guys or gals to their underwear.
While I do the stripping enjoyable the game does have its share of problems. First up is the weapons, while the game has a variety of different weapons like the aforementioned bats, umbrellas, balls, computer monitors or gloves but I find that computers and laptops to be very slow and their specials difficult to use which left me open to enemy damage. Mostly I can just relay on a bat and continue to upgrade it because they are the easiest to get used to. Another annoyance with the combat is the camera, for exploration it's fine but when you are in battle and when there many enemies around it gets chaotic and it makes it hard to set the camera position quickly to see who is attacking you. The true annoyance with it is that when you reach a street corner exit the camera locks into position making you lose track of where your character is. I found battles much easier in a larger open space area because you got plenty of room to manoeuvre around and get your bearings, just don't the police officers involved until much later because they are the most difficult enemies in the game. This does take time to get used to but the overall difficulty is manageable because you have a button which allows you to instantly heal your clothes which can take away the challenge. If you do want a true challenge try going through the game without grinding or playing on the Harder settings. I mostly found the game Easy because being the RPG kind of guy that I am I did overlevel and upgraded my weapon to max when I finished the game. One important issue to take notice is that the game does suffer with some random screen pauses and framerate problems when plenty of enemies are on screen and I also found out that when loading to a different area it takes time for the character models to load. I always find that an issue in the Tales of Xillia games if you have read my reviews on them and I find that an issue here, this is because when trying to get to sidequests you end up looking all over the place until you find the sidequest objective a short moment after you checked a spot once.
The game itself does take at least over 12 to 15 hours of playtime for both the storyline and optional content including 2 minigames and some fetchquests, they are not bad but are worth the small rewards. The game has multiple endings depending on the choices that you have made with any of the characters that you want to have an ending with and each are interesting to see played out. There is also a New Game plus option which allows you to use equipment from your previous playthrough as well as using different customizable options for your main character. In my playthrough it only took me about 39 hours from start to finish because I spent most of my time screwing around stripping people for no reason.
The appeal of this game goes to people who doesn't take their life too seriously but most people who look at the game without really knowing what they are getting into state that the game is perverted. In my opinion I find this to be very entertaining for what the game offers and I honestly find it hilarious just to strip down people to their underwear even though I might not understand how the developers managed to get away with this kind of concept and allow it in game stores. However I would honestly recommend this game to anyone who wants to see a different style in their RPGs and can also have a laugh at the stripping humour that is thrown at the player. Plenty of the positives that I already stated out way the negatives because has it's charm that makes undressing your enemies fun while exploring the Tokyo district of Akihabara, but the battle camera and technical problems will try to ruin the experience.
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The Good Points:
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1. You get to strip down various guys or gals to their underwear and it's hilarious
2. You get to explore the real life town of Akihabara and view it's stores and advertisements
3. Great equipment fusion system
4. Multiple endings and New Game plus mode
The Bad Points:
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1. Camera can sometimes be annoying in battle
2. Some minor technical issues
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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