Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed (PlayStation 4) Review

Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed starts off with the main protagonist getting kidnapped by an organisation after signing a contract where he basically sells his soul for Manga, videogames and special edition figurines. If this plot hook does not sound appealing, run away and run away quickly because it doesn't get any saner than this. If it sounds right, welcome to several hours of fun otaku jokes and stripping ladies.

Basically, the lead character, Nanashi, gets transformed into a vampi... erm... Synthister, which is this game's name for the classical mythological blood sucking creature. When Nanashi refuses to work with the organisation behind his transformation for any reason - ranging from not wanting to help them do evil to the fact he simply did not get the special edition figurines he was promised - he has to be saved by a mysterious girl as the head honcho tries to kill him off.

Nanashi gets hurt during the rescue, and for strange reason he has to drink Shizuku's blood (the mysterious girl) to heal, which most likely is solely there to satisfy someone's fetish for blood. It does get weirder, though, so hold on. Now Nanashi and Shizuku must defeat the vam...sorry, Synthisters by exposing them to their one weakness: the sun. How to do that? Easy, strip them! This also seems to be included to satisfy any perverted minds out there.

To disrobe the enemies, Nanashi must hit them on a particular area where they are currently clothed. Head, torso, legs are the areas that must be removed, and each area has its own button, so it is easy to target where to hit. However, during the fight Nanashi also has to avoid getting hit - and stripped - due to him also being a Synthister, and if someone gets completely bare, they die. When the clothes are damaged enough it is simple enough to pull them off the enemy who is left exposed to the world and, more importantly, to the sun.

The fighting system, which could have been fun if done right, does, however, feel like nothing more than a chore. The fun of stripping someone disappears very quickly after doing it constantly. The main selling point of this should be its take on otaku culture.

The main story of Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed is nothing to brag about either. The issue is that it is drawn out in all the wrong places and rushed where more story focus would have been a plus. Over half of the main story quests are about Nanashi going on patrols to find and kill Synthisters and story defining moments are only given brief moments of exploration; even the climax is extremely short and appears out of nowhere in quite a horrible way. More emphasis should have been given to story-defining missions and less on simply going out to unclothe some Synthisters.

The point where this game performs best is on its take on said otaku culture and its jokes and cultural references. First off, Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed takes place in Akihabara, a place where anime shops and maid cafés are located on every corner. Then there are jokes that consist mostly of references to otaku media and personalities. Here is where the true value is decided. The issue is that a lot of the jokes are references to media most might have never seen. Sometimes during the main story it is simple Internet memes anyone should have stumbled upon. Too often, though, there are extremely obscure jokes like one side-quest where the aim is to go after a "Boy's Love" fan-girl who has gone out of control and her friend wants help to make her snap out of it because she has a reputation to care about. This might, to some, seem homophobic, but it is basically a joke that is in reference to the fact that Yaoi fan-girls have a horrible habit of pairing together people in an out of character way that takes no account of how the characters in question are as persons and how they would be seen in such a relationship with that character, which in some otaku circles is extremely frowned upon. This is seen when she instantly tries to pair the hero with all male characters she sees comes by. A joke that is extremely easy to miss and be mistaken for simple homophobia if gamers are otherwise unexposed to this phenomenon. The list could go on and on…

If these jokes strike a chord, though, then this game is worth buying just for its comical value alone. Otherwise, it has no other redeeming qualities to make it worth getting. Between a perverted and boring fighting system, and an at best whimsical story without deeper meaning, this is a mediocre adventure that could have been done so much better. Not even the story is engaging as it focuses on the wrong parts while rushing through those that have any interest to the player. Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed is a game that has its audience, and its audience will love it, but it completely lacks appeal to anyone else.