Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound and Debriefed is a repetitive, rough, and strange game. Its premise is uniquely weird, but the shoddy combat and dated mechanics make it hard to recommend for any but the most hardcore fans.
Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound and Debriefed
Developer: Acquire
Price: $50
Platforms: PS4 (reviewed,) Nintendo Switch, and PC
MonsterVine was provided with a PS4 code for review
There are few games like Akiba’s Trip, for better or for worse. It’s the kind of game that makes people give you a strange look upon describing the concept, or provides a great story for friends when you mention the weirdest games you’ve reviewed or played. Unfortunately, that novelty is almost all that the game has going for it, as the gameplay and visuals are stuck in 2011.
In Akiba’s Trip, you play as a young individual who has recently become a half-vampire. After being kidnapped by the organization called NIRO, you learn that vampires are slowly taking over Japan and turning their victims into shut-ins. It’s up to you to battle these vampires by stripping them of their clothes, which you learn how to do from a stripper who is above the government. You can hunt down vampires or do quests for them, resulting in different endings. It’s a very peculiar story, but I have to recognize the eccentric and totally individual story concept. The characters are goofy and likeable, as they’re primarily giant dorks.
Most of Akiba’s Trip has you running around various areas of Akihabara and battling ne’er-do-wells on the street. The problem is that combat doesn’t always work, and when it does, it just isn’t that fun. In combat, you try to smack your opponent’s clothes until they either break or are weakened enough to be pulled off. You then enter a quicktime event to rip off their clothes. Once it’s all ripped off (other than undergarments, thankfully,) your opponent either dies if they’re a vampire or runs off if they’re a human.
“There are some fun songs on the soundtrack, and the voice acting is quite expressive. It’s just all part of a game that feels a bit like a chore to play.“
The camera often gets lost in combat, and the lack of a substantial targeting system means you often swing at nothing. This leads to accidentally hitting other people, leading to you being ganged-up on by a number of enemies while you try to aim at them unsuccessfully. If the uneven combat wasn’t enough, there are a lot of obtuse design choices that should have been updated. You can only save and change your clothes on the world map, side quests can be finicky with a limited number of them allowed to be accepted, and story progress slows to a halt at times. There are a lot of small things that build up to make Akiba’s Trip tough to stomach, as it’s just the same thing over and over.
There are things that I like about Akiba’s Trip, though. My favorite thing about the game is the livelihood of Akihabara itself. People bump into each other, fight one another, and run up to you to bug you at any given time. It feels like a real street that you’re exploring, with an attention to detail that is impressive for the PSP. I also like how customizable your character is, as there are quite a few outfits to equip from different stores across Akihabara. This lets you dress how you like, leading to some delightfully weird ensembles.
Akiba’s Trip doesn’t look good. It originally came out on the PSP, and you can definitely tell right away. The models are pretty simple with janky movement and a lack of detail, with many of the same models being around each area at once. The 2D art seen in cutscenes is quite nice though, as the illustrations give each character much more personality. There are some fun songs on the soundtrack, and the voice acting is quite expressive. It’s just all part of a game that feels a bit like a chore to play.
The Final Word
Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound and Debriefed is a rough game all-around. Its core concept is certainly unique, but the execution leaves much to be desired. The repetitive gameplay loop, combined with spotty combat and dated visuals, make Akiba’s Trip tough to get into.
MonsterVine Rating: 2.5 out of 5 – Mediocre
