Akibas Trip Undead and Undressed Review (PS Vita)
Given all the ‘sexy’ reviews I keep getting asked to write for Rice Digital, I’m beginning to wonder if the Editor has got the wrong idea about me. But though I do have something of a track record, I shouldn’t take this Akibas Trip Undead and Undressed Review as a slight against my character. Not least because, well, Akibas Trip Undead and Undressed isn’t really that sexy at all.
On paper, you’d think this is the perfect game for people to get properly hot under the collar about. I mean, honestly – stripping girls in the street? Disgusting, right? Well… er… wrong. Not only is Akiba’s Trip pretty even-handed in the way it approaches both boys and girls – it’s a curiously un-sexy experience. Silly, yes. Sexy? No.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here – lets start at the beginning.
You play a young man who, kidnapped by a sinister organisation, discovers he’s in the process of becoming a ‘Synisther’ – a vampire-like creature that feeds off the life essence of others, but is weak against harsh sunlight. You’re not the only one either – hundreds of the denizens of Akihabara, Tokyo’s mecca for techno-consumers and otaku culture, have been tricked into signing a contract – turning them into these shadowy minions of the organization, in exchange for rare figures and swag. Seriously.
Just as it’s all about to go wrong for you, you’re rescued at the last minute by a mysterious girl. In making your escape you’re mortally wounded and, by kissing blood into your mouth, she saves your life, but in doing so turns you into something… less than human.
And so Akiba’s Trip begins. You make your way back your HQ base of MOGRA (essentially a back street bar) where you meet the rest of the cast and can be let loose on the streets of Akihabara.
Akiba’s Trip’s structure is mission based. At MOGRA (and via side missions selectable from a menu) you’re tasked with patrolling the streets and getting rid of these Synisthers. Missions ask you to go to a certain place in Akihabara – usually to meet someone – before dishing out justice to the enemies you find there. These are groups of people that you have to take down via the game’s unique beat-em-up mechanics.
You can attack the head with triangle, body with circle and legs with X. Damage your opponents clothes enough and you can strip the clothes off their bodies. Remove all their clothes and they’ll be exposed to sunlight and disintigrate before your eyes. If they’re not Synisthers (you can strip anyone you want if you so chose) you’ll get them down to their skimpies whereupon they’ll run away embarrassed at having their modesty compromised.
It’s a basic system which is enlivened by a few extras. You can wield different weapons – which range in category from gloves, simple sword-like objects (posters, umbrellas etc) to larger swords to heavier weapons which cause more damage but prove less speedy and more unwieldy.
Damage enough clothing on enough enemies and, when you initiate a strip, you’ll be given the opportunity to chain strip – where stripping once, might give the opportunity for a rudimentary QTE to successively strip off the clothes of other nearby enemies. Cause a large enough chain strip and you can go into some kind of HYPER strip, which basically whips off everyone’s underwear so they’re naked. Their disgusting genitals and breasts obscured by a blinding light to stop any of you getting too excited, or appalled.
This is Akiba’s Trip’s central hook – and the aspect you’ve probably heard the most about. It really doesn’t get much more sophisticated than that – other than, later on, you and a partner can perform more flamboyant tag team strips. As risque as this theme is,only rarely does it present this aspect of the game overtly sexually. And in reality, you’ll be stripping people so much, so often that it quickly becomes ‘normal’ and you’ll barely bat an eyelid. It’s not that you’re desensitized to it – it’s just not particularly erotic in the first place with the game rarely lingering on these moments unnecessarily.
It mightn’t be sexy – but it is funny. Akiba’s Trip is an unusual little game in an unusual setting – a bright, sunny idealised, version of Akihabara. There’s a sizeable map to explore (though it’s not truly open world) divided up into smaller districts that you can fast travel to via the in game map. It’s a very sterile representation of a real-world location, complete with shop fronts advertising hoardings and a general public that comprises entirely of 18-20 somethings in maid outfits, casual clothes, pretty dresses and various otaku attire.
As I’d already played the Japanese version on import, I can’t say I was disappointed by the lack of true open world exploration, because I already knew what to expect – although I suspect some of you may be. This isn’t a go-anywhere-seamlessly-and-explore city like GTA or Sleeping Dogs. It is a shame that you can’t explore the game world as freely as you’d like (there’s a loading transition every few streets) but it’s not a deal-breaker for me, as the game requires a lot of back and forth, and a true open world game may well have grated for all the backtracking. And it’s hard to stay mad at it for not being hugely technically proficient, particularly as Akiba’s world, for all it’s simplicity, has an eternally sunny disposition.
Akiba’s Trip really isn’t that kind of traditional open world game anyway – I’d rather not berate it for what it isn’t, rather concentrate on what it is.
Akiba’s Trip gameplay is almost entirely focused on combat – which is broken up by sequences of VN style dialogue with plenty of little in jokes around Japanese pop-culture. No prizes for guessing that’s kind of well sited to me.
The dialogue is consistently strong and it’s nice that the game is also heavy on the (mostly) great voice acting. XSeed have gone the extra mile to polish the localisation and it’s much appreciated. In fact, the overall presentation is unusually high for an Acquire game. I’ve enjoyed my last two Acquire games – Gladiator Begins and Shinobido 2 – they’re always entertaining despite their obvious budgetary constraints and Akiba’s Trip Undead and Undressed feels like a little step up from their normal output. That’s nice to see.
One could argue that Akiba’s Trip can be very repetitive – and sure enough, you are essentially doing the same things over and over. Fetch quests and combat make up the bulk of the missions, although the game does throw up increasingly amusing means of justifying the combat against different groups and enemy types which are sure to please fans of Japanese culture and will often make you chuckle to yourselves in the self-aware ridiculousness of it all.
I also like the implementation of the camera – particularly as it allows you to explore in first person and so gives you just a little more intimacy with the game world and also throws up some missions centred around taking photos of certain parts of the world or it’s citizens.
The camera also opens up another facet of the gameplay which I found oddly compulsive and didn’t really concentrate much on in my Japanese import. Akiba’s Trip’s camera allows you to identify clothing types via the camera scanner and, by targetting certain clothing types, you can level up and make yourself more proficient in disrobing that kind of garment. I hate to admit it, but I quite enjoyed maxing out my levels here and it really appealed to the completionist part of my personality.
One thing I will say however is that it seemed odd that the game doesn’t allow you to save photos you’ve taken – instead you have to remember to utilise Vita hardware’s built in screenshot facility.
Overall I found Akiba’s to be good fun second time around. And it was certainly enlivened by the fact I could understand the dialogue and get to know the cast of very likeable characters, which was something I missed the first time. Sure, it’s not to everyone’s tastes – neither the beat-em-up aspects or the RPG elements are that in depth, but somehow it manages to hang together nicely, so much so that it’s repetitive nature is no where near as problematic as you might otherwise expect it to be.
Do I wish it was sexier? Yes, a little, I’ll admit that – but there’s no doubting that this is a fun, unique and nicely put together little beat-em-up (or should that be strip-em-down) adventure. I hope it’s a series that Acquire will continue to develop in future.
Akiba’s Trip Undead and UNdressed is in the Rice Digutal store right now. They have the PS Vita version (which is the one I’ve played. Twice) for the very reasonable price of £27.99. There’s the PS3 version as well for £34.99.
- Wonderful new Konosuba game gets release date and pre-order - January 11, 2024
- Kandagawa Jet Girls gameplay featuring Senran Kagura DLC - January 16, 2020
- Japanese politicians look to limit videogame play time for kids - January 13, 2020
