2014 was certainly the year in which PlayStationVita saw the arrival of several Japanese videogame exponents, from niche games to visual novels, up to jrpg and strategic games: the PlayStation laptop certainly managed to entertain the enthusiast of Japanese animation and video culture.
In this rich autumn another title joins the collection on October 9th, simultaneously with PS3, will be available Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed, developed by Acquire and published by the tireless NIS America, a controversial and decidedly different title.
Version tested: PlayStation Vita
Dirty vampires
As with Conception II, too Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed is a sequel, whose first chapter developed exclusively for PSP has never crossed the Japanese coast: unlike the title of Spike Chunsoft However, Akiba's Trip 2 it has lost the numbering, keeping the subtitle and becoming a stand-alone game from its predecessor.
Anyone can approach Akiba's Trip with this western iteration: the events narrated in this Akihabara are completely dissociated from those of the first, including the protagonists and supporting actors.
Akiba's Trip puts you in the shoes (it should be said) of Nanashi, an otaku passionate about action figures who, moved by selfishness and materialism, decides to sign a contract and sell his life in the service of the Synthisters.
When he realizes the huge mistake made, it seems to be too late, the transformation into Vampire has already happened and he will have to submit to the rules of the new bosses: fortunately Shizuku, a loli girl armed with an umbrella able to stand up to the Synthisters, appears.
To save the newcomer from an attack from behind, Nanashi acts as a human shield, proving to Shizuku that he is not selfish like most vampires.
The girl manages to save him and escape, deciding to make a blood pact with the protagonist, a pact that will kick off all the events of the title of Acquire.
This is in fact only the prologue of Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed: you will be immediately catapulted to Akihabara and you will discover in spite of yourself, that a large part of the population has turned into Synthister, emotion-sucking vampires that can be defeated only if deprived of their clothes and exposed to the sunlight.
Akiba's Trip's plot is anime-worthy, with enticing twists and heroines, and provides the player with different themes to tackle such as growth, love and friendship.
Acquire has also followed Conception's example: depending on which co-star you bond the most with, you'll unlock an ending, for a total of six different epilogues to the Nanashi adventure.
But how do you "S" dress?
As happens more and more often too Akiba'sTrip is a hybrid of multiple genres: Partly date-sim, with a small RPG component for leveling up and the item upgrade system, but the bulk of the title is a 3D Beat 'Em Up on the streets of Akihabara.
Nanashi will have to strip hordes of enemies after going into Attack mode by pressing L, you can inflict damage in three different ways: with Triangle you will attack the opponent's head, with Circle the torso and with X the legs, Square instead will allow you to jump into any moment.
By holding down one of the three attack buttons Nanashi will try to tear the corresponding garment if weakened enough, you can start a chain of Strips, after the tenth combo it will activate a final QTE that will put the naked opponents to flight.
In addition, each hit will fill the Unison bar, once it is full, just press the directional cross upwards to unleash a "Unison Strip" with our current mission partner, this move in addition to conspicuously damaging the opponent , also plays all Synthisters in the area.
To parry the opponent's blows you rely on the R key, while remaining in defense you can also counterattack using one of the three keys. Unfortunately on PSVita it is quite uncomfortable and the game tends not to react immediately to pressure; the same problem even when you have to regenerate your clothes by holding down the back L, risking to deactivate the Attack mode and suffer considerable damage.
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Welcome to Akihabara
Acquire has staked everything on the setting, recreating Akihabara with all the streets and above all with all the really existing shops: something very similar to what Square enix did with The World Ends With You and Shibuya, but further improved by some collectibles.
Akiba's Trip becomes a real tour guide of Akihabara
While wandering in search of opponents to undress, Nanashi will be able to collect advertising flyers regarding the real Akihabara shops: the same game suggests taking PSVita with you during a possible trip to Japan, to be able to use it as a real tour guide of the neighborhood.
While traveling through the alleys of Akihabara you may come across advertising billboards of other NIS America games, trailers of titles such as Conception II, Mind 0 or Snipa (still unreleased by us), or stores famous for fans around the world such as Kotobukiya or the SEGA store, making the virtual neighborhood more and more alive and real.
If from the buildings and setting side the work was masterful, the same cannot be said for the NPCs who are all the same, decidedly careless and characteristic, breaking the "magic" of virtual Akihabara.
You could "s" dress a little better
The technical sector of Akiba's Trip instead represents the sore point, with a polygonal modeling of the characters not up to the abilities of either PSVita nor PS3, fortunately if the 3D models are elementary, greater care and detail has been given to the illustrations 2D and the now usual two-dimensional sprites of Japanese titles.
On this portable version there are also persistent uploads, whenever we change the area, or a movie of the story should start: nothing dramatic but too much the pace of the game.
Dubbing is available in both Japanese and English, and each scene in the story is fully dubbed: again the quality is much better in Japanese, and we advise against using English dubbing.
The title has no Spanish translation and due to the high content of slang and technical terms it requires a good knowledge of English.
Verdict 7/10 Can I see her panties? Comment Akiba's Trip is a particular title, suitable only for a circle of Japanese animation fans and which would also make many of them turn up their noses. While there is an interesting concept and a pleasant storyline, on the other there are many technical flaws that were easily avoidable, and which we sincerely hope will not remain in the PS4 version coming out next year. However, Acquire has managed to package a perfect guide to Akihabara, which could help enthusiasts on their travels in Japan. Pros and cons ✓ Interesting concept and storyline
✓ Akihabara recreated in every detail x Graphically dated
x Small flaws in the control systems
x Annoying camera
