REVIEW : AKIBA’S TRIP: Hellbound & Debriefed (PC)
Due to unusual circumstances, you can read the AKIBA’S TRIP: Hellbound & Debriefed review today. Fans of the series (you should be able to find some), and most likely the makers themselves, will respond that this remake follows the success of AKIBA’S TRIP: Undead & Undressed, a game that sold around half a million copies.
Despite the intertwining of the names, which makes it nearly impossible for most people to orient themselves within the franchise, as well as the fact that they were changed several times during the transition from the eastern to the western edition, AKIBA’S TRIP: Undead & Undressed is a relatively new title.
Akiba’S trip: Hellbound & Debriefed is much earlier, almost coinciding with the start of the saga. The remaster of this authentic relic of the PlayStation Portable era was not designed in response to the millions of units sold but instead to commemorate the franchise’s tenth anniversary (2011-2021).
Reading the evaluation from this perspective, you will ponder if the operation made sense overall and, more importantly, if it could have been done better.
Plot: vampires and secret agencies
The plot of AKIBA’S TRIP: Hellbound & debriefed centres around shadowy beings known as Shadow Souls. In the original Japanese, Kageyashi means “inhabitants of the shadows” or “creatures of the gloom.” These vampires rely on ordinary people’s blood to exist and retain their powers (they are more agile, solid and generally dangerous than other living beings). For the remainder, no one would be able to tell a Shadow Soul apart from any other Japanese girl in the Akihabara neighbourhood with the naked eye.
Things are sure to change, of course. The adventure’s protagonist, portrayed by the player, is the youthful Akihiro Tanaka (although you can change his sex, name, and every aspect immediately before the game begins), who is swiftly reduced to death by one of the city’s vampires, Yuu Abeno. Fortunately, the Shadow Soul’s sister, Rui Fumitsuki, who, moved by Akihiro’s predicament, decides to give her a portion of her blood, changing the protagonist into one of the supernatural entities infest Akihabara.
The player controls the storey from here on out. Akihiro is recruited by NIRO, Akihabara’s secret agency that seeks in every manner to halt the rise of the monsters of darkness and has patented a flawless battle method to send them permanently to the other world. The protagonist meets many side characters, some more stereotypical and mundane than others, but all “justified” by the narrative’s requirements.
The intriguing part of AKIBA’S TRIP: Hellbound & Debriefed’s storey mode, just as it was ten years ago, is the prospect of affecting the story’s outcome. Several endings depend on whether you choose to remain on the NIRO’s side, the Shadow Souls’ side, or the third way of coexistence. Expect no great twists, startling disclosures, or highly innovative outcomes, but it is excellent that the player has some control and choice.
Gameplay: See how I undress you
It would help if you guessed from our recent experience that the gameplay of AKIBA’S TRIP: Hellbound & debriefed was quite enjoyable. Acquire’s title remains an action-coloured RPG, although the mechanics of undressing are scarcely found elsewhere. If the game’s foes are vampires, the only way to get rid of them once and for all is to incinerate them in the sunlight… a fate that may also touch the protagonist, who would inevitably encounter the game’s end.
Taking off your opponent’s clothes as a battle element in a video game is part of the particular sensuality that the Land of the Rising Sun has nearly always thrived on. However, the drift is never obscene because the places on the human body you are most likely considering are always hidden from view by underpants (a necessary contradiction because otherwise, the game’s publication would have been completely blocked). In the early hours of the game, a true professional of the sacred technique demonstrates the mechanics of undressing to the player; in truth, it all boils down to pressing three repetitive fundamental orders that weaken the opponent.
After the adversary has been appropriately beaten up, the command will appear on the screen to be executed to remove a specific section of the enemy’s clothing. If you remove the upper, middle, and lower pieces, the opponent will be defeated: if he is a human, he will flee; if it is a Shadow Soul, it will disintegrate. We expected some upgrade, a refining of the options during the main adventure, but in the end, this will have to be enough for you in combat.
Exploration and customization: an aged title
If the plot of AKIBA’S TRIP: Hellbound & Debriefed does not pique your attention and the gameplay becomes tedious after a while, you can still place your bets on other intriguing features of the products that have remained (like all the others) essentially untouched since 2011.
Exploration, for example, because there was a certain amount of effort put into renovating the Akihabara neighbourhood and some other places and areas in Tokyo. These regions are gradually made available from the main map, chapter by chapter, and maybe reached using easy on-screen navigation.
However, roaming around inside each space is severely restricted due to invisible walls and the inaccessibility of internal areas. Therefore, exploring the numerous buildings or houses, even businesses selling equipment are limited to simplistic menus.
Speaking of stores, this is where the alter ego’s personalization comes into play. Everything from cosplay accessories to new weaponry and consumables can be purchased or obtained by completing secondary quests. The pieces of equipment can be upgraded by adhering to certain conditions. In general, after the first five or six hours of play, it is recommended to irritate the opponents only if resistance conditions are inadequate.
The repetition element is unavoidable. It will come to overwhelmingly remember all of the limits of a product that, while unparalleled in our country, was nonetheless created for platforms two generations ago.
REVIEW : Unbound: Worlds Apart (PC)
