THE MAIDS ARE AT YOUR SERVICE! NEW AKIBA’S BEAT TRAILER TEASES HELPER MAIDS AND SECRET CHARACTERS
Who Do You Want Taking Point on Your Expedition?
With just seven days left until the May 16 launch of AKIBA’S BEAT, XSEED Games released a new trailer featuring the game’s cast of marvelous Maids. Headed to PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®Vita systems, the satirical JRPG features dual audio support with both English and Japanese language dialog options covering each of its nearly 22,000 spoken lines. Players who pre-order AKIBA’S BEAT can still receive the game’s mascot character, Pinkun, who comes to life as a pocket plushie.
When every day is Sunday and the streets of Akihabara lead to “Delusionscapes” filled with monsters, maids can be your greatest guides. Once you’ve convinced them to join you, they’ll alert you to whatever’s nearby – treasure, enemies, Delusionscapes, the works! If you’re lucky, they might even help you out a little in battle.
Maid Characters’ English Voice Cast
- Moé Suzumori – played by Alexis Tipton
- Yoshino Saionji – played by Lauren Landa
- Kanata Saotome – played by Karen Strassman
- …and more?
Further information on the game’s characters, narrative, and otaku offerings can be found on the recently launched website at http://www.akibasbeat.com.
About AKIBA’S BEAT
A spiritual successor to AKIBA’S TRIP: Undead & Undressed, AKIBA’S BEAT is a modern-day satirical spin on the classic Japanese RPG formula. Set in a true-to-life recreation of Tokyo’s Akihabara district (“Akiba” for short), players will take control of a party of characters led by protagonist Asahi Tachibana as they seek to rid the town of anything out of sync with reality during a repeating Sunday from which none of them are able to break away.
There are two sides to the gameplay: first, players will wander the streets and question the quirky Akihabara residents on a variety of subjects related to the mystery at hand, ultimately unlocking fantasy-themed dungeons known as “Delusionscapes” which are infested with monsters called “deluseons.” These deluseons are encountered on the map and fought in a party-based action battle system, putting players’ skills to the test and creating a uniquely challenging experience that seamlessly blends a real-life locale with the secret delusory world of its residents’ innermost desires.
AKIBA’S BEAT also features dual audio support with both English and Japanese language dialog options covering each of its nearly 22,000 spoken lines. Players who pre-order AKIBA’S BEAT will receive the game’s “cute little uggo” mascot character, Pinkun, who is phasing into reality as a 3.5” tall pocket plushie that will come with all pre-orders at participating retailers while supplies last.
Developed by ACQUIRE and published in North America by XSEED Games, AKIBA’S BEAT is headed to the PS4™ and “PSVita” systems for $49.99 and $39.99 MSRP respectively on May 16, 2017. This title has been rated “T for Teen” by the ESRB. PQube will be bringing the title to Europe on May 19.
For more information on XSEED Games products, please visit www.xseedgames.com. Fans can also follow XSEED Games on Facebook at www.facebook.com/XSEEDGames and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/XSEEDGames.
Every time Liane returns home Firis asks her about the outside world and she often visits the large door that separates the village from the rest of the world in an attempt to be close to nature. Through the appearance of a certain alchemist and her friend Firis finds that she may just have what it takes to be free from the city. The problem is that the only way she can hold onto this freedom is if she can prove to the village that she can indeed become an alchemist like the one who opened the door for her. To do so Firis must complete an official exam and become a licensed alchemist in a year or find herself removed from society once again.
Thanks to Firis’ isolated lifestyle it is rather interesting to see her enjoy the world with fresh eyes is a delight most of the time and while the threat against her does feel fairly significant, this does feel like the weakest entry in the series when it comes to the various side characters and party members that join you in your travels. Not only will the aforementioned familiar faces appear but other characters from past entries return in slightly changed ways but these little callouts do little to help out with a cast of characters that feel underdeveloped compared to what fans of this series should come to expect.
That being said, exploring the field is an even bigger blast than before and while there is a real lack of open world content to take advantage of, the sheer size of some areas and the fact that players now have a portable atelier makes the title feel like a real adventure. You see, by removing the need for a hubcity Firis carries around a workshop that she can unfold and enter, where its deceptively small outside ends up being incredibly large inside, to access her synthesizing features. In fact you can even customize the workshop in various ways to benefit Firis.
Another element that has been added into the game to add some variety to the exploration is that there is now a day and night cycle as well as various weather cycles as well. The enemies you encounter and materials you can gain from gathering points will change depending on the environmental conditions with some only appearing at specific times meaning players will have extra incentive to search locations more than once. In fact, players will even be able to change Firis’ costume to better match her environment and potentially give her various stat boosts.
The soundtrack for the game is fairly impressive featuring a number of great tracks that fans have come to expect from the series and the voice work on both the English and Japanese voice tracks are handled quite well though the Japanese voice track does appear to feature more voiced dialogue than its English counterpart.
