It’s time to bring the beat back to the Akiba Strip!
In 2013, game developer Acquire unleashed Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed upon the world. It was a delightfully dumb game, which placed players in the role of a common otaku who, applies for a mystery job with a shady organization… all for rare figures. One thing leads to another, and our intrepid dork finds himself strapped to a table, converted to a crazy reverse vampire-ish creäture known as a “Synthister.” Before he can be reprogrammed into a good mindless slave, the geek avenger’s busted out by a mysterious young lady.
Thus, the stage is set for an all-out battle for Akihabara. The two (plus a gaggle of well-meaning misfits) must fight back, and destroy the vampires by stripping them to their skivvies.
It’s a silly concept, for sure, but the game quickly earned a reputation for its simple-yet-addictive gameplay and obsessive attention to detail in recreating Akihabara. Popular landmarks, shops, and locations were recreated in exact detail at the time, from the iconic Sega Akihabara Tokyo, to the now-retired Dejiko Akihabara sign. The store song plays at Sofmap and MaiDreamin, and dozens of real flyers were scanned in to collect through the course of the game.
The folks at Acquire are heading back to Akiba for another trip. New title Akiba’s Beat, will hit Sony’s PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita consoles this fall. Kohta Takano (Divine Gate) is in charge of the project, while UCMM provides character designs. ClariS will perform the opening theme.
Akiba’s Beat will be set in a Groundhog day-ish world, where the protagonist and his friends find themselves in a world tainted by delusion, trapped in never-ending loop as Sunday repeats. The title will feature dungeons, which are the embodiments of these delusions. The main characters will be able to augment their combat abilities with special headphones.
The characters include:
- Asahi Tachibana: A 19-year-old NEET who traveled to Tokyo in order to attend college. Asahi couldn’t find a reason to continue his studies, so he dropped out of classes after a year.
- Saki Hoshino: An 18-year-old woman who moved to Akiba to attend vocational school. She’s been working with a familiar named “Pin-kun” to fight against the world of delusion that’s overtaken the region.
- Pin-kun: A familiar who works with Asahi. It believes it’s beautiful.
- Riyu Momose: A 14-year-old idol who performs throughout Akiba
- Yamato Hongo: A 16-year-old boy who doesn’t realize that everybody thinks he’s cute, despite his attempts to look cool. He seems to be the butt of everybody’s jokes.
The studio released a short trailer for the project, which you can check out below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl3dF_M-YQ4
Akiba’s Beat is the third major installment in the “Akiba’s” series. The first title, Akiba’s Trip, was a Japan exclusive, which Acquire released on Sony’s PlayStation 3 and PSP systems in 2011. An updated version of the game, titled Akiba’s Trip Plus, hit Japanese retailers in 2013. XSeed released Akiba’s Trip: Undead and Undressed in 2014. They released a PC version of the game in May 2015. NIS America handled the European release of the game.
