On the earth of Kaiju No. 8, titanic, otherworldly beasts are a relentless risk in Japan: to the extent that not solely is there a navy organisation – the Japan Anti-Kaiju Protection Pressure (JAKDF) – set as much as cope with them, however there are additionally regimented clean-up crews whose jobs are to return in and lower up then cart away the usually skyscraper-sized foes as soon as they’ve been felled.
Lead character Kafka Hibino goals of being a JAKDF officer, however at first of the sequence is working in clean-up, and hoping that when there’s work to be achieved he doesn’t get assigned the intestines… for apparent causes. It’s not lengthy, nevertheless, earlier than he’s – season one spoiler alert right here – each a member of the JAKDF and coping with the truth that he’s someway been gifted/cursed with the powers of a kaiju himself, designated by the powers that be as Kaiju No. 8.
Fashionable motion, goofy humour and bad-ass characters all come collectively to make what follows an entire heap of enjoyable, and albeit, glorious fodder for a online game. Why so? Effectively, when it comes to motion, the sequence focuses round squad-based fight towards weird and menacing enemies each giant and small, with battles determined by exposing every creature’s core (i.e. weak level) and ending it off. Pair that with extremely particular person characters, who’ve a spread of experience in several weapons and preventing kinds, and also you’ve received a online game ready to occur.
Enter Akatsuki Video games, and Kaiju No. 8 The Game. This free-to-play turn-based RPG on cellular (with PC to observe) very a lot matches the mould for contemporary Japanese dwell service cellular video games, with gacha rolls for characters and weapons, and quite a few totally different currencies and crafting supplies that can help you stage up characters, strikes, weapons and extra. It is a recreation with each day test in rewards, time-limited occasions and grinding for supplies so you possibly can improve your characters and tackle the subsequent problem.
Whether or not that’s your form of factor is as much as you, however there’s little question that the staff has put a number of effort into this title. Akatsuki Video games has been engaged on Kaiju No. 8 The Game for greater than two years – since properly earlier than the anime began airing – with a staff dimension of round 200 individuals.
The result’s a recreation with glorious presentation, due to well-realised 3D character fashions, a great sense of scale, and tremendous slick fight animations. The core gameplay loop is compelling too, placing you in charge of a 4 particular person squad in turn-based battles that transfer rapidly and have loads of room for strategic depth.
Kaiju No. 8 The Game additionally has a formidable quantity of content material out of the gate. Not solely does it have an authentic story to play by means of (set through the second season of the anime, which is airing now), full with a formidable quantity of voice performing (in Japanese), but it surely has different modes that spotlight iconic moments from the manga/anime’s story, inform facet tales for the principle characters, and so forth. It even has a side-scrolling fight mini-game.
Let’s dig into a number of the specifics.
What’s the Story?
In Kaiju No. 8 The Game, Dimensional Gates are opening up within the sky and a stream of kaiju threats are swarming out. Is that this a job for the JAKDF? Sure, however with slightly assist from CLOZER (that’s the moderately awkward “Closing Order With Zero Restrictions”, in case you’re curious), a particular organisation tasked with sealing mentioned gates. The plot twist, nevertheless, is that the captain of CLOZER is Sagan Shinomiya – considered one of a handful of brand name new characters – and fan fave Kikoru Shinomiya’s sister.
The set-up permits for a endless stream of gameplay as you combat by means of the kaiju from a specific gate, culminating in a boss battle and shutting the gate, then transferring on to a different. It’s a enjoyable premise, nevertheless, because the gates themselves connect with a special dimension, which means that iconic kaiju which have already been neutralised in Kaiju No. 8’s world can nonetheless seem, permitting the sport to dive into battles solely referenced within the manga/anime. My hands-on, for example, culminated in a combat with an alternate model of the legendary Kaiju No. 2.
One other essential level is that whereas the manga/anime is about completely in Japan, these gates are opening up globally, so the sport can roam far and wide. You may think about how a dwell service title may reap the benefits of travelling to totally different elements of the world.
Along with Sagan, and a few different completely new characters, Kaiju No. 8 The Game is packing all of the sequence mainstays you’d anticipate, from the captain of the Third Division Mina Ashiro (and her tiger Bakko) and her vice captain Soshiro Hoshina, by means of to the captain of the First Division (and otaku slacker) Gen Narumi and Kafka’s associate Reno Ichikawa. Every, as you’d anticipate, has a signature weapon and preventing model, from Hoshina’s twin swords by means of to Sagan’s defend, which she makes use of like a blunt weapon.
Kafka is maybe essentially the most attention-grabbing, as he’s primarily two characters in a single. All the opposite fighters unleash a flashy assault when their Final is triggered in battle, however Kafka’s Final sees him remodel into Kaiju No. 8 for the remainder of the encounter, giving him a very totally different set of strikes.
Squad Up!
The battle system permits you to select a squad of 4 earlier than every mission, and the order during which you place them creates two pairs of “battle buddies”, dictating who executes follow-up assaults if you expose a kaiju’s core. (Extra on that in a sec.)
Fight is turn-based, with the upcoming transfer order proven on the backside of the display screen. As you’d anticipate, characters have a big selection of choices from single and multi-target strikes by means of to buffs and debuffs, however there are a few key methods that open up technique. The first is that your social gathering has a shared SP pool (mana, primarily). A standard assault restores a pip, whereas utilizing a fight talent depletes one. This strategy means it is advisable be tactical in the way you handle your assets with the intention to use your characters’ strongest strategies.
On high of that is the system for exposing an enemy’s core – a pivotal a part of fight within the manga/anime that’s been introduced throughout to the sport. Enemies have discreet shields (known as plates) that scale back the quantity of harm they’ll take, so the principle precedence in any fight encounter is understanding essentially the most environment friendly approach to break them. Some plates might be damaged with any assault, others require particular varieties of assaults. You may want to make use of an elemental assault, or much more particularly, an assault utilising one of many 5 parts within the recreation (fireplace, ice, wind, lightning and water). Clearly totally different characters have various kinds of assaults, so making certain your squad has the affinities vital for the fight encounter you’re going into is vital.
Breaking enemy plates is significant as a result of when you destroy all of them, the kaiju in query’s core is uncovered, triggering an automated follow-up assault from the attacking character’s associate and forcing the foe to skip a flip, bumping it again down the flip order sequence on the backside of display screen. It’s fairly satisfying knocking a kaiju again simply because it’s about to assault, or higher but, stopping it from unleashing its Final.
Talking of Ultimates, every character has a gauge that fills as they combat (with follow-up assaults boosting it considerably), and these are – as you’d anticipate – a number of the flashiest and strongest assaults within the recreation. Ultimates are nice for ending off kaiju with their core uncovered, and might be triggered at any time, overriding the upcoming assault order. One factor to keep in mind is that missions are made up of a number of fight encounters, one after the opposite (with fast-paced ninja working in between, because the squad dash to the subsequent battle), and your SP pool and Final costs carry over from battle to battle so, if the ultimate encounter is considerably more durable, you possibly can prep for it.
Fight total is quick and slick, letting every character showcase their particular person kinds whereas additionally working as a staff. You’re usually preventing smaller kaiju that assault in teams, however the recreation does additionally pit you towards the sorts of towering monsters the manga/anime is understood for, with the digicam set low to essentially assist promote the size of the encounters.
Enhancing and Ascending
There’s a great strategic basis to Kaiju No. 8 The Game’s fight, however as with most RPGs, your characters must be continually leveling to maintain up with the opposition you’ll face subsequent. There are a considerably overwhelming variety of methods in place to permit your characters to develop extra highly effective, they usually’re just about all centered round materials drops.
Simply to rapidly offer you an thought, you utilize Protection Pressure Manuals (of which there are a number of rarities), together with credit, to “improve” (i.e. stage up) your characters. These all drop from enjoying the sport and are primarily spendable XP. Initially your characters max out at stage 20, however the stage caps might be expanded, boosting the character in query and likewise rising the problem stage of story missions and opening up greater issue coaching choices. (Coaching, by the way, is the way you get the supplies to boost particular person abilities, however is topic to a stamina system.)
Characters may also “Ascend”. This requires you to have a double of the character and different assets, and provides you a bonus perk. On high of all this you possibly can improve your characters’ weapons and particular person abilities. There’s so much to maintain monitor of, and it feels such as you’ll must have an honest pool of aggressive characters with the intention to swap your squad round for those who want particular plate-breaking talents, which suggests partaking with a tonne of various collectables.
New weapons and characters are acquired by means of the sport’s gacha rolls, and utilise a star system for rarity. For essentially the most half you’ll be getting three star weapons, and it stays to be seen what number of rolls free-to-play gamers will be capable of generate, in addition to how pretty priced the gacha system might be for paying gamers. One factor is definite, although – the pool of characters and weapons is fairly giant, and the rarest drops rare, so for those who’re looking for one thing particular, it could be a protracted course of.
Regardless of the numerous trappings of free-to-play cellular recreation design, Kaiju No. 8 The Game’s second to second gameplay has so much going for it, with intelligent core battle mechanics, slick animations and spectacular visuals. And with its robust emphasis on story, and clear reverence for the supply materials, this adaptation will certainly be value a search for followers of the sequence. Kaiju No. 8 The Game is out on August 31.
Cam Shea visited Akatsuki Video games in Tokyo as a visitor. He’s a former IGN staffer, now freelance author and beer geek.