Every so often there comes a game with such an absurd premise that you just can't help but try it out. Akiba's Trip is one such game. It was developed by Acquire and published by XSEED in North America. It was released in August of 2014 for PS3 and Vita, and on November 25th for the PS4. This game's setting is the Otaku and gaming Mecca of Akihabara. It also involves sun-fearing vampires and combat that revolves around stripping said basement dwelling Otaku vampires down to their skivvies. Otaku burn to a crisp from slight sun exposure after all! The main character is actually turned into one of these vampires in the introduction, and is saved by a pretty young girl with a kiss.



As the main character, you are a hardcore Otaku, and are apparently the leading authority on figurines in your circle of friends. The game has plenty of items to collect, and keeps any you find in a database. There are also titles, character profiles, and fliers for the businesses of Akiba to collect. Later in the game, you can start fusing items to make them stronger, and since you can restart the game with cleared data over and over again, these items can get extremely powerful. Getting clothes off of your enemies levels up your stripping abilities, which in turn keeps the clothes from getting ripped so that you can collect them and put them on your main character (or the lasses).


The combat system is in real time and clothing is the armor for all of the characters in the game. As you beat up on each other, the clothes take damage.  Once they've taken enough damage, they can be ripped off or you can go through a button mashing event to weaken them enough to rip them off. Most of the time, people will just be wearing a shirt and pants, maybe a skirt on the girls. An item like a hat or headdress can be equipped on the head to give some added durability. There's nothing like establishing dominance by ripping another man's jeans off and leaving him in his underwear, with nothing but an anime poster or CRT monitor to retaliate with.

That's right, the weapons range from completely ridiculous to actual weapons. You can equip glowsticks that are wielded in the same way that Wolverine uses his adamantium claws, you can swing around laptops, keyboards, monitors, posters, bus stop signs, handbags, batons, night sticks, microwave ovens, etc. Almost any random object you can imagine can be used as a weapon. The weapon you have equipped changes your normal attack animations. You'll be fighting many large groups of enemies, but they seem to have a hard time maneuvering quickly around obstacles. Use the terrain to your advantage to fix your clothes when it's needed, or use those obstacles to funnel in enemies one at a time until the rest can catch up, then move again.


As the player, you can chain together your stripping if there are multiple items on opponents weak enough to rip off their bodies. This really streamlines battles overall, but the animations are always the same, so you'll end up seeing these stripping animations dozens of times. There are some accessories that can change the animations, but you'll end up seeing those for dozens of times as well. At least there is some variation. There are special attacks that can be used with the partner you are traveling with. Each girl has her own animation, but the accessories do not change this animation, so its always static. This attack gives the added bonus of stunning nearby enemies, so it is best used against groups and to get cheap damage on bosses.

Akiba's Trip does have its share of problems though. The combat system can get jerky. Even outside of combat your character can jerk around while running in a straight line. Loading times are relatively quick, but they just load the area for you to explore at first. The people in the area load in after you're able to run around. This is not the biggest problem normally, but when you're looking for an NPC for a side mission, or group of enemies for said mission, this style of loading can get annoying. These NPSs or enemies can be right next to where you spawn in, but you won't be able to immediately see them and might run around the rest of the screen looking for them. I would not have minded an extra few seconds of loading if it meant that NPCs would be already loaded into the area.


There are also issues with the combat system. Each attack button serves as a high, mid, and low attack. If you want to attack somebody's shirt you hit "O" for a mid attack for example. The problem is that tapping it once can lead to about three different possibilities. When you need short, quick attacks you'll get the long winded attack animation that almost never hits. Then you'll get smacked upside the head by an enemy to the side of you before you'll get a chance to set up your defense for a counter. When you need that long winded attack as a finisher, you'll get a flubbed quick attack. Holding the attack button down will lead to the stripping animation, or button mashing QTE depending on damage to the targeted cloth. If there is little damage, then you'll be denied the QTE! I feel like the shoulder buttons could have been used to better effect in combat, letting you get easier control over exactly what attack you perform. This opinion may be the result my recent experience with Tales of Xillia, which has amazingly smooth combat and tight controls in comparison.

Akiba's Trip is a good game overall, even if it is rough around the edges. The setting is cool and filled with random, wandering vampires to take down; the trick is finding them. The characters are well written and there are branching story paths to travel down. The path you take depends on which girl you wish to romance. This game would be much better if it gave you the option of romancing the best girl in the game, Finnish exchange student, cosplayer maid Kati Raikkonen! I actually did enjoy the English voice acting. None of the characters were overbearing or grating over the course of the game, and each voice felt like it fit the character well. English dubs are easier to follow when you're hammered, so you can refrain from the superior Japanese dub comments. I have not played the PS4 release, but understand that it has some extra features and content not in the first wave of releases.

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