AKIBA'S TRIP PLUS（アキバズトリップ・プラス）

AKIBA'S TRIP PLUS is the enhanced version of the first game on the PSP, not to be mistaken for the sequel, which was localized without the 2 (ala FF2 vs FF4). This game, unfortunately for the non-Jhipsters, has never been officially localized and probably never will be.

As avid readers of this blog would know, I've seen some dumb ass English titles so it's refreshing to see a title that actually makes sense and is even a clever play on words (albeit in ALL CAPS AGAIN). The way the title is formatted: AKIBA'STRIP, makes it pretty obvious that it was intentional. (No, it's not "Aki bast rip", dumbass.) I was pretty stoked for this game for the #gamergate clickbait revenue... err I mean for the clever concept but unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to the hype.

This image is featured in my doctorate thesis that your tax dollars paid for. #journalism

First of all, even though the game is really short (I was able to beat it in a little over 10 hours), it took me YEARS to finally finish it. My biggest mistake was starting the game as I do all games on hardcore gamer difficulty. However, this is one of those games with multiple endings and a new game+ mode so starting the game on the harder difficulty was a very bad idea. If you had asked me how the gameplay was after the first 10 hours, I would've said it sucked donkey balls. Of course, no professional reviewer would state such strong opinions without playing through the entire game, right? (*cough shitaku cough*)

Honestly, with these textures, I'm not surprised it's only Cero C

Now that I've completed the entire game including all the endings, I can say that the combat becomes a lot more fun after you buy all the upgrades scattered throughout the various stores in town. My weapon of choice is the boxing gloves. If you hold R to always block, you look like a boxer. Once you unlock all the moves, you can skip around while blocking (aka "footwork") to dodge or you can block and go in for a 1-2 counter combo.

Definitely give this one time to unlock all the mechanics before you judge the combat as it starts out as a shitty "button mash and hope for the best" type of game in the beginning. And whatever you do, DON'T try to finish all the 5-star side quests on gamer difficulty without figuring out how to upgrade your equipment. This is done by selling weapons and clothes you stripped with +1 or more stats. This makes upgrades available in the junk store which you can use to add stats to your current equipment.

The OG version must have sucked pretty bad

As for the plot, there's a fair chunk of dialogue and all of the main story lines are voiced in this enhanced plus version. The story was nothing special but it was entertaining enough. I really like the artwork and illustrations even though the in-game models didn't really live up to the character design.

This game has a total of 5 different endings and I ended up playing through the game 3 times to see all the endings as they each have quite a bit of story. The first time was because I was playing blind and didn't know what I was doing. The second time, I figured out how to upgrade my equipment and decided to carry it over onto the third playthrough in order to save enough money to give to your imouto to unlock her ending. If you look up where the branching paths are, you can reach all the endings in two playthrough by keeping additional saves at the correct points.

Oh yeah, imouto time is BACK

One really neat aspect of new game+ is the ability to choose to play as any avatar from the game. There are some minor differences in dialogue if you play as a girl vs the default male avatar. It also unlocks a new "otaku" difficulty level which I didn't bother to try without any trophies to show for it.

Given the choice, ofc I would pick a girl. Not really into men's undies.

Score: 2.5 can't wait to try out AT2 er... I mean AT1, oh not this FF number shit again! out of 5. (28 hours to beat all endings)

Yeah, the game definitely has some flaws and the concept behind this game was perhaps too much for the PSP to handle if they were hoping to go for something like an Akiba version of Ryu ga gotoku, err... excuse me, Yakuza (as non-Jhipsters call it). The map locations are extremely limited in size and while the graphics look pretty darn good for PSP standards, it didn't quite stand the test of time. Maybe Acquire didn't have the resources to make this game for the PS3.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this fun little title after I gave it a fair shake and persevered through the first 10 extremely frustrating hours. Plus, it was successful enough to kickstart the series and the sequel looks WAY better and closer to what they originally wanted to make (though I prefer the art style in this game). I'm looking forward to checking out the rest of the series.

You goddamn riaju you.

This game is also available digitally on PSN which is the best version because you can remap the shitty mon-han camera controls to the right analogue stick on the Vita. Because I'm a sucker, I ended up getting that on top of the UMD. Of course, it's not an issue if you're a flithy emu DS3 controller pirate.


Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely