Akiba's Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed (English) · Test

The origin of Akiba's Trip finally localized

10 years ago a unique action-adventure game was released that took place in Akiba and the main feature was stripping off clothes. 3 years later, the sequel that we all know as Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed found its release in the west. At that time NIS Europe was handling the publishing duties in Europe. Their partners at PQube published the spiritual successor Akiba’s Beats. Both games were handled by XSEED in the US.

Meanwhile Marvelous created their publishing branch in Europe with Marvelous Europe, including an online store where you can usually find many special editions at the launch of their games. Though this one is digital-only because of its niche nature.

Akiba's Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed is a faithful PS4 port of the PSP version, so technically there's not much to expect here. The biggest new feature is the translation, brand-new English voice acting, and the ability to control the camera with the right stick.

The bigger question, however, is... How has the game held up?

With great power comes great responsibility to undress vampires.

The story begins with the main character Nanashi (can be renamed) being fatally beaten by a vampire-like creature, while his friend has already been drained like a Capri Sun. But don't worry, these beings are not deadly bloodsuckers, but are instead motivational killers. The victims become shut-ins due to the loss of motivation and spend all their time at home.

Back to the action. To save Nanashi, another vampire transfers her blood, turning him into one himself.

Before he can even recover, he is already a captive of the government secret organization NIRO and was "persuaded" to help them.

In the process, he learns that these beings are "Shadow Souls" and they for quite some time within the specific circles. Unlike the usual vampires, they show a higher resistance to the sun. Their fast regeneration is enough to survive with normal clothing. Strip them and their healing powers are no longer sufficient. The plan of these Shadow Souls is apparently to occupy high positions in society to exercise their power from the shadows.

After Nanashi is released, it is up to him and his "Akiba Freedom Fighters" friends to protect their favorite city Akiba from the looming threats.

Just like the sequel, Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed, there are multiple endings here, achieved through the player's choices. It's pretty clear to see how you reach them, as there are 3 factions and you have to decide who to support. The branches start with a universal main path until a noticeable split. If you want to look at all the endings, you can skip some of the story content in New Game+.

Overall, it’s a simple plot with slightly exaggerated characters that have their specific merits. For example, one of them is a hardcore 2D fan and doesn't care about the female gender in the real world, another is a big fan of idols that haven't been established yet, etc.

While there are serious scenes, the casual atmosphere pretty much runs through the entire game. It's a relatively short story with a lot of filler missions, which in itself isn't too important to the plot. Nevertheless, it is entertaining and amusing for the most part due to the humor throughout the game.

Gameplay & Steuerung

As mentioned earlier, a faithful port is present and you get the full PSP experience. L2 and R2 have no function, while the touch button replaces the select button. The only major addition is the right stick for controlling the camera outside of combat.

Adventure in Akiba

Akiba is divided into about 10 small areas. Here you can easily see the limitations of the PSP hardware at that time so they tried to preserve the liveliness of the city with a higher number of pedestrians by limiting the size of the areas. You can see many homages to famous brands like Sega and Casio (licensing be damned). I assume that the parts of the city have been recreated as much as possible, but players who don't know Akiba will find it difficult to feels some familiarity.

The only exception, of course, will be players of the other Akiba's Trip games.

But what can you find in Akiba? Not much, it mainly consists of stores where you can buy fighting techniques and better weapons and clothes. From a tourist's point of view, there's not much to be found, minigame-wise I could only discover a crane game and in one scene a simple fighting game.

3 stores stand out especially. The Junk Store extracts the upgrade materials from objects that have a “+” at the tail end of their name.

In the clothing store in front of the station, you should sell all your clothing because it collects them and allows the player to rebuy them. Lastly, the Maid Café is a store where you can buy some food or play some simple mini-games like a multiple-choice puzzle.

On the Rooftop, you can fight against selected teams of opponents from the Strip Master. Unfortunately, it's not an isolated arena and random enemies can interfere in your fights.

Missions and... The younger sister's room

Most main missions are combat-based. When that's not the case, it's time to look for new clothes to go undercover by either buying the clothing or strip them via acquired knowledge from specific opponents that wears them. There is a bit more, but these two mission types are the most common.

The Information Broker is there to present you with some of the possible sidequests. He’s only there to show you where the clients are waiting and is not a requirement for the quests. These sidequests can take the player to the Maid Café, Sister among many other things.

Speaking of Sister. She doesn't have much of a role and is mainly there to wear the clothes you acquired and so you can take pictures. The main character is a so-called siscon (sister complex)?

The mission structure is very simple and you have specific menus that guide you through them. Some might be a little bit confusing but nothing that’d prevent you from finishing a mission.

Equipment

The equipment consists of three parts: Headgear, shirt, and pants. The better the status points, the more they will withstand your enemies' attacks before either being stripped or shredded by high damage. Later on, it will be possible to wear women's clothing.

Players who only equip themselves according to status points will see some weird combinations of clothing.

Very important, the equipment and weapon can only be changed in the overview/map menu.

Weapons and fighting styles

There are only three weapon types here: Fists, one-handed, or two-handed. Accordingly, there are also only three fighting styles. Fist combat is fast, but has a shorter range and does less damage. One-handed weapons are the best of both worlds with medium speed and damage.

Two-handed weapons are slow, have short-range, and offer bigger damage in exchange.

All fighting styles are upgradeable via items. Among them are, for example, a third attack and special attacks.

Practically speaking, all fighting styles are very similar. The decision to use the current strongest weapon. It is possible to just stick to the strongest weapon you currently have as the additional attacks are not that important.

Combat

The combat system is quite rudimentary with almost everybody fighting the same way, this is because they all share the same attacks. The only exception are the bosses that have unique attack animations.

The goal in combat is to weaken the clothes and then take them off by holding the specific button and works as a throw. It is also possible to shred the clothes with a lot of damage.

With the right skills learned, the clothes remain intact and can then be used themselves or sold.

Lock-On and movement

As far as I could see, there is no manual aiming. You automatically target the person you hit or were hit by the last time. Thus the combat system is not designed for fighting multiple enemies at once. It’s possible but doesn’t make for a good experience.

You can also dodge when in combat. While it doesn't have invulnerability, it is still useful for positioning and dodging some of the attacks.

Normal attacks

Just as with equipment, it is possible to target three specific parts of the body. Attacks with the triangle button aim for the head and are the fastest. Attacks with the square button go towards the upper body at medium speed. With the X button, you target the lower body with the slowest attacks simultaneously dodging attacks to the head due to crouching.

Putting all the information together, you come up with a triangle: attacks to the head defeat attacks to the upper body, attacks to the upper body defeat attacks to the lower body, attacks to the lower body defeat attacks to the head.

Defense

This game has one of the most interesting execution of defense mechanics. The characters aren’t blocking the attacks but are dodging instead. It is one of the strongest universal abilities, as you automatically dodge all normal attacks.

The only exceptions are moving out and slow unblockable attacks or stripping.

Counter

While defending, it is possible to launch an extremely strong counterattack. All you have to do is pay attention to the opponent's attack and enter the same attack button during the dodge animation. But be careful, your opponents also have this ability.

Special attacks

Besides the simple attacks, some require additional inputs. The majority of them are normal attacks that are slower and have more range.

Input a quick back and forth, you execute an unblockable attack. You’ll see a short white aura as an effect before the attack. If the opponent is close enough, you can respond with a simple attack.

The main character has exclusive Shadow Soul attacks such as shooting bats or sucking blood. The inputs are performed in conjunction with R1 and have a fairly strict input window. As a downside, you lose a bit of clothing stamina.

The stripping

The main focus of the gameplay is to strip the pieces of clothing but it would take a lot of time to do that individually. To solve that issue you can chain strip them via a QTE as long as their clothing are weakened enough. Each successful attempt decreases the time for the next one.

Gameplay Impression

Being a direct port of a PSP game, there are a lot of limitations due to the hardware at that time. Small areas, same combat animations for all characters with few exceptions, and a focus on replayability with the multiple endings.

Is the gameplay bad because of this? No. It's just good enough to be entertaining.

You can see some big improvements in the sequel due to the reduction of technical restrictions.

Graphics & Sound

While it is technically an HD version, the assets are designed for the PSP and have a very low resolution. Akiba's Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed, like the classic Guilty Gear, is a snapshot from another time. Of course, everything is still recognizable by making the most important details recognizable.

You can just see from the modest graphics how strong the technical limitations were and you’ll be able to make a very good comparison with its successor.

There is little to write about the sound. You get the appropriate music for the respective ambiance. The sound effects for the attacks and hits are well chosen and bring the proper oomph.

As always, the voice acting is very good and the new English VA is no slouch either.

Conclusion

Akiba's Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed is an eccentric product that has keeps everything from the original. You can see that a lot of effort has been put into reproducing Akiba in 3D, even if some sacrifices had to be made. Unfortunately, the gameplay suffered a bit in the process and turned out a bit rudimentary as a result. The stars of the show are the story and the characters, unaffected by the changing times. They convince with funny moments and reactions. Overall, it's a game with satisfying gameplay and a relatively good story.

The price of 39.99€ is slightly high, especially when the gameplay-wise better successor is already offered for less.

For Akiba's Trip fans it is a clear recommendation. The same thing applies to Newcomers who are curious and want to play the Akiba trilogy to follow the evolution of the series. Everyone else should give it a little more thought.

Still, I'm thankful that Marvelous finally localized this classic and saved another game out of the dark ages of localization.

Wertung

7.0 Gut

Kaufempfehlung

60% Kaufempfehlung

60%Angebot abwarten