AKIBA’S TRIP: Hellbound & Debriefed Review

Akiba's Strip Switch review

Akiba’s Trip was released 10 years ago! That is insane. I remember reading about this game releasing on the PSP like it was yesterday and I’ve always wanted to try it, but for some reason, I never got around to it. Thankfully, we now have an updated version of this title in Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed. As the game was originally released on a handheld, I am reviewing the Switch version, although there’s a version for PlayStation 4 and a Windows version available on Steam.

Akiba’s Trip is an Action Beat ‘em up RPG set in otaku paradise Akihabara. The game starts with our main protagonist and friend being attacked by vampire-like beings referred to as Shadow Souls. Shadow Souls, for all intents and purposes, look like regular people except with a big taste for human blood.

After being spared, you end up captured and interrogated by NIRO, an anti-Shadow Souls organization and you soon join their ranks. It turns out you are naturally gifted at combating and disposing of these vampiric creatures.

The bulk of the game has you scouring the streets of Akihabara using a special setting on your mobile phone to take pictures of passing people, the reason for this is these Shadow Souls, like all self-respecting vampires, don’t appear in photographs, thus making them easy to identify.

Once you have ascertained the identity of a Shadow Soul you can confront them which will result in a brawl. The combat system and method of fighting reminds me slightly of the Yakuza series, except for this games unique mechanic which is to strip your opponent of all their clothing (besides underwear). Now, you may be thinking, why on earth would you strip someone in a fight? What type of advantage would that give? Well, Shadow Souls are pretty much traditional Vampires so a great way to dispatch them would be exposed to direct sunlight! So, Stripping people is not actually perverted at all, it’s a necessity to save lives.

To get Shadow Souls into a ‘strippable’ state, you need to deal enough damage to the appropriate area. You have three main types of attacks, High, medium and low. So, for example, Repeadtly pelting your enemy with low attacks will allow you to whip off their trousers with the aim being to remove all their clothing, once that’s gone, they will dissolve in the sunlight.

I will be completely honest and say the combat isn’t great. It really feels like combat that is designed for a PSP game with actions feeling a little clunky at times. Also, the combat itself has a minimal level of skill involved and relies heavily on your characters stats which can be improved by procuring different items of clothing that act like armour would in your typical JRPG. Sadly, this can be somewhat of a double-edged sword making you go from extremely underprepared to becoming quite tanky all after a couple of wardrobe changes.

I have to say, Acquire has done an amazing job with their portrayal of Akihabara, it really does feel like you walking around the real place at times, well, if you removed say 70% of the people you normally find wandering around. I also loved seeing the fake brands such as SECA instead of Sega, it did make me smile, however, one thing that did not make me smile was the textures. I know this was originally a PSP game and I should cut it some slack in that regard but on the Switch, even in handheld, a lot of textures look like a blurry mess. I feel these textures should have been reworked as it was almost impossible to work out what some of them were, this became even more annoying with the various shops and buildings you can enter. Akiba’s Trip does not give you a good indication of the shop you are about to enter. Sure, after a while you’ll get used to which shop does what but it can seem very daunting at first.

Another disappointment is the performance of the game, the whole game seems to lack a little polish. Some of the prompts look a little cheap, especially the ones that indicate someone can be stripped. That’s not all, the frame rate seems to take a nose dive quite often which can be quite jarring. As I have the Switch version, it’s hard to say if this persists in the PS4 and PC version, but surely the Switch is powerful enough to run an upscaled PSP title with no issues.

Akiba’s Trip will take you around 8 – 9 hours to complete depending on your playstyle and once you’re done you are done. From what I can tell, there seems to be a complete lack of new content here, it’s almost as though they have just taken the PSP game and upscaled it. If you do want some replayability, there are a few paths you can take through the game which will see you helping different sides and will give you a slightly different story.   

Conclusion

Although I have somewhat dunked on Akiba’s Trip here in this review, I do have to admit the package as a whole is pretty good, provided you know what you are getting yourself into. The story is full of humour and although some of the characters can be a little cliché, they are still well written and made the plot-side of the game very interesting although I would say the second half of the game went in a little heavy almost feeling like a visual novel at times. The battle system can be rewarding and it does on occasion, make you feel like you’ve made some real progress, but I would say it still needs some work and is definitely a product of its time.

7/10

7

Nintendo Switch review code kindly provided by Marvelous Europe

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