There’s a fun challenge to games that feature a variety of endings a player can earn. The key for those motivated by more than simply reaching completionist status is the fun factor of the game. XSEED is a favorite developer of mine, and while Akiba’s Trip: Undead and Undressed was a revisit for some, it was a first-time experience for me. Does it offer enough to warrant ending-hunting the campaign over and over? Here’s my review of Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed Director’s Cut on the Nintendo Switch.

Akiba’s Trip was originally released in 2013 for the PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC. The Director’s Cut is a welcome collection of all of the DLC costumes for the slew of characters you interact with, plus it brings the game to the Nintendo Switch. First things first, let’s get graphics out of the way. This looks rough at times, much like you’d expect a game from 2013 to look in comparison to other modern releases. Even on the Switch, we’re dealing with some less-than-stellar graphics.

Looking past that, however, isn’t all that difficult thanks to a fairly solid gameplay loop. In the game, you’re working to defeat Synthesizers, alien-like creatures who are hunting down otaku and residents of Akihabara. To defeat them, you need to expose their skin to sunlight, which can only mean one thing. Button-mashing combat ends in stripping them of the clothes on their head, upper body, and lower body to kill them.

As you play through the game, there is an actual story here. A secret organization seems to be involved heavily in why these Synthesizers are hunting residents down. You also get to know the members of your defense club, who vow to protect the streets of Akihabara. There are a number of different endings you can earn depending on your choices, including an all-new route featuring the character Kati. One run of the story, without too many explorations into side missions, should run you about 10 hours.

The side missions, however, are fun ways to extend your adventures. Over 130 real-life shops are featured in the game, many of which are key side mission opportunities to earn bonus items. If you’re strictly ending-hunting for certain outcomes, you can bypass these. That said, they do offer more time in this world, which overall is very pleasing to explore and enjoy as you progress through the story. No side mission truly stands out, however, and follows rather formulaic patterns like fetching and fighting.

If you are seeking a game you’ll struggle to put down, I don’t know that this is it. Gameplay isn’t a mindless breeze, but it does lack the challenging obstacle you might seek from an action-adventure title. With rough graphics, and (as you can imagine) some pretty over-the-top and fan-service dialogue, this isn’t for everyone. If you do enjoy these types of games that are ripe with the ability to carve out your own path to the end, then this is a great edition of a pretty solid game. Not to mention, there are a ton of costumes included.

After two playthroughs of the main story to achieve different endings, I’m not sure I’ll grind away for more. That said, Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed Director’s Cut entertained me enough to play through the game back-to-back and try out new dialogue trees, relationships, and costumes. You might spend the majority of the game stripping enemies, but there are some decent story beats in here. They just don’t happen to be all that memorable once you move on from your time in Akihabara.

A Nintendo Switch Review Copy of Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed Director’s Cut was provided by XSEED Games for this Review.

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Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed Director's Cut

$29.99 USD

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• An entertaining return to the Akiba's Trip series
• Includes all costumes and a new character story
• Fully voiced and exactly what you want from this sort of game dialogue-wise

Cons

• Graphics are rough all around
• Gameplay loop is not addictive nor inventive
• Plenty of other similar titles that execute this story-gameplay loop more effectively