A Trip To Plan or Miss for PC Gamers? – Akiba’s Trip: Undead and Undressed Review

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s Note&colon; This is a review for the PC port of Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>A<&sol;em><em>kiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip&colon; Undead and Undressed<&sol;em> has plenty of personality&comma; but falls flat with a wonky combat system&comma; repetitive gameplay&comma; and a lacking PC port&period; This might be a trip you might not want to embark on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the city district of Akiba&comma; the player takes the role of a man who is taken by an evil organization to be tested on&period; When signing a job contract to earn collectible figures&comma; he neglected to read over the fine print which allows them to test on him&period; The end result&quest; He becomes a synthister&comma; man made vampire&comma; a being which usually becomes irrational and kills for their own gains&period; However&comma; your character is different to the other synthisters&comma; and is saved by a mysterious girl called Shizuku&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While somewhat serious of an initial storyline&comma; <em>Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip<&sol;em> quickly becomes a bonkers narrative trip of funny moments and surprisingly good voice acting&period; Most of the characters are archetypes of previous J-RPGs&comma; and that&&num;8217&semi;s one of the developer&&num;8217&semi;s key concepts&colon; to satirize video game and anime tropes&period; You have the sexy businesswoman who is secretive in her motives&comma; an annoying exchange student who has an unnecessary high pitched voice&comma; and the badass girl with little personality&period; However&comma; there are a few saving graces&period; For one&comma; the main character&&num;8217&semi;s little sister&comma; Nana&comma; is hilarious with a non-traditional older sense of deadpan language&comma; and each comedic line is driven with great timing by the voice actress&period; The scenarios between the characters&comma; despite their archetypes&comma; can be funny as well&period; Another plus is that there is a dialogue tree that results in different responses from the characters&comma; and your decisions dictate which of the five multiple endings occur&period; Overall&comma; the story is well written with clever comedic localized writing&comma; and succeeds in its mission to satirize video game and anime character tropes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;84048" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-84048" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04224637&sol;akibas-trip-b-e1433350662689&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-84048 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04224637&sol;akibas-trip-b-e1433350662689&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Akihabara's culture really pops &lpar;Akiba's Trip&colon; Undead and Undressed&comma; XSEED&rpar;" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"450" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-84048" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Akihabara&&num;8217&semi;s culture really shows&period; &lpar;Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip&colon; Undead and Undressed&comma; XSEED&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>What <em>Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip<&sol;em> has just right is the environment&period; While minimalist with its anime style&comma; <em>Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip<&sol;em> brings personality to the city of Akiba through various animations and environment replication from the real world&period; You can hear music being played from nearby businesses&comma; trailers blaring from TV screens&comma; and the movement of cars in a busy landscape&period; <em>Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip<&sol;em> is able to replicate the city so much that they were able to include many brands from Japanese culture&comma; including <em>Ragnarok Odyssey<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Conception 2<&sol;em>&comma; Star Kebab&comma; Sega&comma; <em>Disgaea<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Hyperdimension Neptunia&comma;<&sol;em> and more&period; They even have the Gundam Cafe&period; On the official Steam page for <em>Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip<&sol;em>&comma; it <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;333980&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">claims that<&sol;a> &&num;8220&semi;all major outdoor locations from the town have been painfully recreated&comma; with over 130 real-life shops accurately represented&comma;&&num;8221&semi; and this seems to be the case&period;  The world and sound design for <em>Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip<&sol;em> is superb&comma; with an attention to detail for the culture of the geek-centric Akihabara&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The art created for the cutscenes and the in-game models match well with the thriving atmosphere of the city&comma; and the wacky nature of the game itself&period;  The NPCs however&comma; are a different story&period; There are so few character models that you will see multiple versions of the same person over and over again&comma; sometimes in the same instance&semi; It&&num;8217&semi;s really offputting in this phenomenal recreation of Akihabara&period; The music also lacks variety&comma; as the battle theme is as generic as it gets and the theme repeats in short loops&comma; and the melody of the theme gets irritating quickly&period; The music that plays during story cutscenes and more important battles aren&&num;8217&semi;t memorable&comma; either&period; However&comma; the lack of music while in the streets of Akihabara is a nice touch&comma; as it emphasizes the sound design of the city itself&comma; and the music for the characters&&num;8217&semi; hideout&comma; MOGRA has a catchy funky tune that is fun to listen to&period;  Like the battle music&comma; on the other hand&comma; it tends to loop certain parts of the song too much&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;83998" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-83998" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04224758&sol;akibas-trip-a&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-83998" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04224758&sol;akibas-trip-a&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Swedish international student&comma; Kati&comma; is annoying to listen to&period; &lpar;Akiba's Trip&colon; Undead and Undressed&comma; XSEED&rpar; " width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-83998" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Swedish international student&comma; Kati&comma; is annoying to listen to&period; &lpar;Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip&colon; Undead and Undressed&comma; XSEED&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Another disappointment is the wonky PC port itself&period; Almost every fault that a PC port can have is in this game&period; There is a simple graphics menu&comma; which has limited options&&num;8211&semi;including the amount of NPCs on screen&comma; the resolution&comma; v-sync&comma; and the ability to make the game full screen or in a window&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s it&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s very primitive&comma; and for a game that has a simple graphical style&comma; the specifications needed for <em>Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip<&sol;em> are ludicrous with its recommended specs at 3&period;3 GhZ with an Intel Core i5-2500K&comma; and a GeForce GTX 760 &lpar;which has 4GB of VRAM&rpar; and 8GB of RAM&period; The game on PC requires at least an Intel Core i3-530 at 2&period;93 GHz &lpar;or an AMD Phenom II X4 810 at 2&period;60 GHz&rpar;&comma; NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 with 1GB VRAM or an ATI Radeon HD 5870 &lpar;also with 1GB VRAM&rpar;&comma; and 6GB of RAM&period; If you were thinking it would run on a standard laptop or desktop&comma; you might want to check twice&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In addition&comma; the mouse and keyboard controls are lousy&period; The camera feels stiff with the mouse&comma; and controlling the game with the keyboard is awkward at best&period; The developers also weren&&num;8217&semi;t able to place mouse and keyboard inputs in the game&&num;8217&semi;s tutorials &lpar;with only controller buttons being shown&rpar; so it&&num;8217&semi;s confusing figuring out which button does what in game &lpar;unless you back out and look at the options menu outside of the game or write down the inputs&rpar;&comma; and with quite a lot of commands to memorize&comma; this gets frustrating&period; There a few benefits&comma; however&period; The game plays well with the controller&comma; and it allows you to set your inputs to whatever buttons you want in the options menu&comma; as well as allowing the player to use the DualShock 4 without any third party software&period; Among the various issues with the PC port&comma; there have been encounters of two inexplicable crashes within an hour of play time&comma; so save often&excl; A supposed representative from XSEED on the Steam community page is <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;steamcommunity&period;com&sol;app&sol;333980&sol;discussions&sol;0&sol;618463446166730445&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">claiming<&sol;a> that they will be addressing most known issues in a patch coming soon&comma; but we will have to wait and see&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game itself tasks the player with battling and taking enemies&&num;8217&semi; clothes off&comma; to either make them run away in an exaggerated fashion or become exposed to being a synthister &lpar;a vampire&rpar; by the sunlight&period; <em>Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip<&sol;em> features various ways of stripping people&&num;8217&semi;s clothes off in an elaborate fashion&period; You can beat the clothes off from hitting them over and over again&comma; wait until that part of the body is weak enough to activate an animation&comma; or activate a special move which has the main character and your chosen companion work together in an over the top cutscene&period; The animations for both stripping the characters off or the elaborate team up cutscene are funny at first&comma; but then they get repetitive and drag down the combat system quickly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;83997" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-83997" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04224813&sol;akibas-trip-1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-83997" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04224813&sol;akibas-trip-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"One of the cutscenes that have the main character and the companion tagging up&period; &lpar;Akiba's Trip&colon; Undead and Undressed&comma; XSEED&rpar;" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-83997" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">One of the cutscenes that have the main character and the companion tagging up&period; &lpar;Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip&colon; Undead and Undressed&comma; XSEED&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Another aspect of the combat system is that it&&num;8217&semi;s just as repetitive as these cutscenes&period; For hours upon hours&comma; the aim of the game is just to keep hitting and strip whenever they&&num;8217&semi;re weak enough&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s no strategy in the system itself&comma; but it switches up every once in a while when you get new items&period; You can pummel enemies with bats&comma; fists&comma; a monitor&comma; and much more&period; There are also a lot of clothes to purchase in the game&comma; which give the character higher defense&period; This switches up the formula a little bit&comma; but doesn&&num;8217&semi;t add enough to keep tedium at bay&period; The way the battles are controlled are also wonky&period; The locking system is not precise&comma; and most of the time your attacks will miss the opponent&period; The animations for fist attacks are also a nuisance&comma; as it takes a long time to reset and make another string of combos&period; The blocking and dodge systems are barebones&comma; and not completely reliable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What doesn&&num;8217&semi;t help is the lack of mission variety&period; In the main story&comma; the missions rarely derive from attacking hordes of enemies until all of them are eliminated&period; Sometimes you have to go to NPCs to collect items&comma; but other than that&comma; there isn&&num;8217&semi;t much to it&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s sad&comma; because the gameplay does not match up with the wacky nature of the game&&num;8217&semi;s story and environment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Akiba&&num;8217&semi;s Trip&colon; Undead and Undressed<&sol;em> is a flawed game with plenty of personality&period; It has few factors going for it&colon; The characters&comma; even though they&&num;8217&semi;re meant to be archetypes&comma; are well voiced&comma; the Akihabara district is presented superbly in the game&comma; and the addition of multiple story thread lines is a fantastic addition&period; The issues with the game plague it drastically though&comma; as there are many PC port issues&comma; an imprecise combat system&comma; and a repetitive mission structure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong><em>A press copy was provided by XSEED Games for the purpose of review<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Video version<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"qJ8zXbC&lowbar;thg" title&equals;"Bago Reviews - Akiba&&num;039&semi;s Trip&colon; Undead and Undressed &lpar;PC&rpar;"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;qJ8zXbC&lowbar;thg"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;qJ8zXbC&lowbar;thg&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"Bago Reviews - Akiba&&num;039&semi;s Trip&colon; Undead and Undressed &lpar;PC&rpar;"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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