[PSP] Gods Eater Burst

[Ultiɱℯciɑ]

Namco's response to Monster Hunter series, got one extensive story mode (unlike Monster Hunter) and some awesome fights

Summary of the game: HUGE SWORD WHICH IS A BFG AND A SHIELD IN ONE AGAINST GIANT MONSTERS

The story goes like this: in a future not too far away, a life form known as Aragami appeared. At first they were unicellular organisms, but soon they turned into colonies with a hyper-accelerated evolution, one uncanny capacity to adapt to their environment and to consume every-freaking-thing they can get: animals, plants, humans, buildings and all. Even assimilating things they consume (there's a Aragami which evolved from a freakin' TANK).

A Aragami ATE this freaking building. Holy---

They also are invulnerable to most type of weapons, bringing mankind to the brink of the destruction. The only thing capable to destroy a Aragami is using ANOTHER Aragami. So some mad scientists DID IT. They do managed to create a bio-weapon attached to certain individuals, called "God Arc". The protagonist (created by the player, of course) enters the Fenrir organization to fight the Aragami and keep what's left of the human kind safe. The player also got a updated version of the weapon, capable of switching between Sword and Gun modes.

My characters as a lil' newbie. Good times

An obnoxious dude called Kota (dubbed by Johnny Yong Bosch noneless) also enters at the same time with you. You're also introduced to your squad leader and instructor, the fun-loving, beer-loving, women-loving and awesome Lindow; his girl, the experienced medic-sniper Sakuya and the dark-and-mysterious Soma (Yuri Lowentha! Again). Soon another newbie using a new-type god arc called Alisa comes straight from Russia. That's your active team for the storyline, there are many another minor NPCs, each one with their own skills and quirks

Just the way Lindow like it: mission accomplished, everybody alive, he got beer waiting for him and Sakuya. What else a guy like him can wish for?

The first story arc (the 6 first "ranks") are the original God Eater storyline, where the group meet, get well together, the protagonist becomes the main man (or girl) and all. They find about some people with hidden agenda, conspiracies, raving mad scientists, brainwashing and lots of cliches, but the story was well-written so it's never boring. The small side-stories aren't half bad either.

The second arc (rank 7 to 10) is the "Burst" storyline, originally released separately like Persona 3+FES back in PS2 but the American release got 2-in-1. So the protagonist party saved the world but no one except your Fenrir branch can know about it, which kinda sucks but that's life. The player character is now some sort of living legend, a respected leader and everything. There are fewer Aragamis, but they are far fiercer, which makes the top guys sending all available personal almost non-stop.

Then your weapon gets broken thanks to a even stronger Aragami and hells breaks loose.

Pictured: a god-named tank Aragami vs not-so-newbie-anymore me.

Gameplay-wise, everything is about this "Gods Eater" concept really. All God Arcs are living weapons tied to the users' bodies. Most NPC characters got a single-function God Arc (or gun or sword mode) and only a few can switch it. It only takes a single button to change between Sword or Gun mode and each one of them got three categories: small/fast, medium and heavy/slow modes.

In sword the character have the fast combo, strong combo, can combine them and use the "Devour". When you "Devour" you actually BITE the enemy, having a energy burst overloading your cells or something like this for a short time, granting you bonus. Also, using the sword is possible to use the shield to...Well. Block

Sword mode on: Cloud can eat his heart out

The gun mode allows the player to use a over the shoulder aim using the directionals while moving with the stick. The cool thing is the bullet editor, where you can actually customize it to your very needs: do you want a healing flamethrower? You got it! Do you want to do a Tetsaiga-like bullet? Sure. Gatling gun? You have it! And you can change the element, add poison and stuff. And you can test it in a training range and continue editing instead of having to pick a mission. Of course, this costs money to do.

When you use the Devour command, you can also adquire limited ammo based on the Aragami's unique attack

Gun mode and hadouken-user bird-like monster. Let's see who got the longest range?

The player character can add upgrades to the God Arc with stuff that only activates when he/she is in Burst mode (the "Control Unit") and two pieces of updates to boost. They can grant stuff like extra health (which is quite handy as there is no level up) or overall less damage to elements. All weapons and shields also comes with their own boosting skills.

The only way to upgrade or get better weapons is to beat the Aragami to get some more money and materials so there's a lot of sidetracking and extra missions to be done and this game can be quite difficult if you're too lazy.

This may be a little too close and personal

The Aragamis themselves are impressives. They range from common place to huge creatures as big as a small building, just like the Monster Hunter formula as mentioned, and some might be a little disturbing (damn Amaterasu +_+). They have many breakable parts and weak points, some of them are only when the creature is enraged (and, therefore, more dangerous). The thing is at first every battle is epic: giant monster, overwealming dificulty and stuff. But after a while you just want to go to the next boss fight or story scene while trying to get some more resources to survive the next batch.

Is this a monster or a freakin' Colossus?

It's a Namco game so as expected they use anime style, similar to the Tales of series. All characters got good models and it's strong suit is the customize part: there are plenty of eyes, hairs and skin tones. During the story mode you can only change your hair style and color, besides getting more outfits. It's just like Phantasy Star Portable, even some NPCs outfits are unlocked after finishing a story arc. Every weapon got a unique texture and they affect the cutscenes, not surprisely.

Enter the Mid-Boss wannabe!

Most locations are urban-type ones, reflecting the setting with great ammount of detail: while you're tracking your target you can see the ammount of destruction caused by the Aragami. Places once blooming with life are now abandoned and in decay, being dangerous predators' hunting ground while humans live in some sort of "slums" or ghettos nearby the Fenrir branchs.

The places are usually large, and sometimes the monsters may run away from you and start eating the buildings to recover their energy but it's not hard to track them again: they all have their own sounds and roars, you can actually hear them before even seeying them, which is pretty useful

NPCs at work

The soundtrack was composed by Go Shiina (Klonoa 2, Tekken 6 and Tales of Legendia). Each area got their own music and combat music, but you can also select your own choice before the mission,

Also the most important scenes got full foice-acting, with Crispen Freeman as the director Johannes, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Tsubaki, Kyle Hebert (Ryu from Street Fighter IV and Ritcher from ToS:DotNW) as Lindow, Michelle Ruff as Sakuya and Kate Higgins as Alisa.

Because you guys like boobs

It's a pretty fun game for those who likes Monster Hunter-like games, challenge-loving players and it got a nice story to boost. This game is also pretty fun to play in multiplayer mode, as expected. It got tons of extra missions, requiment and stuff to do. The sequel is comming to Japan this year

The obrigatory multiplayer shot because reasons

A AMV I did last year, it was my first one

http://mugenfreeforall.com/public/style_emoticons//tongue.png

[Yagami Brando]

Beat the game in kinda two weeks, not bad at the beginning, but gets boring and repetitive by the end. Quite a few locations, and not that much monster species (altho there will be lots of different color variations, barf). The story made me continue playing, and yeah, the story is not half bad. Also, Soundtrack of the game is awesome! I especially liked "Endless Erosion"(Black Hannibal theme - from final battle), "Deo Volente"(that Soma's father boss thing theme in the middle of the game), "Tearing up the storm" and main theme "God and man". The game is worth playing just because of these tracks, they are epic http://mugenfreeforall.com/public/style_emoticons//smile.png

[Ultiɱℯciɑ]

Most Monster Hunter-type games get repetitive, and without story it's just plain grinding Yeah, I loved the soundtrack, it puts you in the mood for playing

[ArtistofLegacy]

Music shouldn't disappoint. It WAS made by Go Shiina after all. Anyway, This game > Monster Hunter. I loved playing it when I had a PSP.

[OskeinO]

beat this in 4 days wasn't hard and shorter than monster hunter really didn't get attached to this one cause unlike the orginal one i played from japan that was online while this didn't hopefully the next one will have it.