This is probably the first time Ive disagreed with a review on here for the past few years, not the score or anythin, but the general body of the review. It’s a lot of effort, and not one that feels like it pays off, especially when you have to sit and watch as your player character leans over, panties showing, and utters lines like “Do you like my behind?” and “I’m so sexy." The more monsters that you convince to like you, the more powerful your ultimate attacks will become. These fetishes range from Graceful and Hyper to Sadist and Masochist, and when you’re dressed as that particular role, that’s how your protagonist will act. Your main character can switch “jobs” – or fetishes – on the fly, and the goal of this is to convince monsters to like you. There’s another system on top of this one, and that’s where things begin to get a little creepy. Grinding is still a pain if you choose to do it, but a basic playthrough probably won’t become too dull. These allow for a certain level of cleverness on the player’s part, meaning that you can position yourself in such a way to literally cut damage in half while also boosting your own magic power – it’s simple but effective. Each arena has a set of crystals, which, when activated, grant boosts or have negative repercussions. You move around your party, positioning them for maximum damage. Every female character lives up to the Saturday Morning Anime stereotype, and it sounds like they were voiced by the same cast as well.īattles are vaguely tactical, with some nice ideas added to prevent things from getting stale. The game is based around Moe – the Japanese fad for liking cuteness, usually in women – and boy does it try to tick that box as often as it can. It devotes pages of dialogue to grunts and moans, to little reactions or anime rants, but when something of substance comes along, it’s dealt with as quickly as possible.
This is the biggest problem with the game's plot.
There’s a whole host of characters to learn about, and it happens a little too quickly to make sense. “Look at us,” the company screams, “forcing you to read this 15 page how-to on changing underwear – isn’t that so JRPG?” Yes, changing underwear. The vast tutorials are presented almost as a parody of other JRPGs, but as is so often with titles of this type, the developer falls into the trap of doing exactly what it's satirising. The battle system is standard, although still enjoyable, and most of it is controlled via self-explanatory menus. This is funny, because the mechanics themselves are actually fairly simple to grasp. You’ll keep being introduced to new ideas for a long time. This Metal Gear-busting figure includes countless cutscenes, a few tutorials, and a music video, but it’s by no means the end of your learning experience. More surprising, it takes up to two hours to get to the basic gameplay. She decides to take over twelve more planets, but her plan quickly unravels when she’s accidentally transformed into a powerless chibi version of herself.
It follows on directly from Mugen Souls, the first title in the franchise, and the ruler of the universe, Lady Chou-Chou, is tired of the little piece of space that she spent her last adventure obtaining. Starting the game is something of a chore. Earning the Platinum may get you put on some sort of list. Charged with “cuteness” and a little too risqué for its own good, this is a game that’ll leave you feeling a little creepy. That’s not the weirdest thing that you’ll see either. Its main character is a young goddess who carries around a coffin, not for any reason in particular, just because the writers needed some kind of container and that seemed to make sense.
There aren’t many games as unusual as Mugen Souls Z.