Akiba's Beat Reviews
Akiba's Beat may not set the JRPG world on fire but it is quirky enough to enjoy.
Akiba Beat's biggest failure is, undoubtedly, its disconnect with what makes Akihabara so enticing. It is missing the heart of what you'd expect a game of its kind to have.
Akiba’s Beat is definitely not for everyone and for most players it would be a boring affair. If anything, I recommend playing the Vita version instead; at the least it can be played in small bursts absentmindedly.
What could have been a decent visual novel was marred by unnecessary walking, dungeon repetition, and a dull combat engine. Unless you are really dedicated to your purchase, trudging through to the end of this game doesn't seem like something that most people will do.
Akiba's Beat stirs too far away from the mechanics that made the first game so fun, resulting in a sequel that is merely a shell of its former self. It is a not a bad action RPG if you can ignore its connection to the past games.
Akiba's Beat is a music based combat game that rarely misses a note. When it does miss, however, it loses its beat.
Ultimately, Akiba's Beat is a poor sequel, a weak homage, and a lackluster game. The strong localization elevates it slightly, but it's crippled by its attempts to impersonate better games. With Persona 5 and Tales of Berseria still fresh on the shelves, it's hard to justify why you'd play this over those games, and once you do, you'll find it difficult to stop noticing the game's "me too" trait. It's not the worst JRPG on the market by any means, but it has very little going for it in terms of strengths. The humor hit enough to give the experience some value, but otherwise it's something for those who've burned through the other top-notch JRPGs on the PS4 and are desperate for a little more.
Akiba's Beat is an ambitious game that, in rare moments, manages to create interesting narrative and characters. However, those are its only redeeming qualities, since the whole rest is terrible. For a better experience with the Akihabara neighbourhood, I'd recommend visiting it in person, playing Akiba's Trip or wait for a next game that might be good. Akiba's Beat just isn't worth anyone's time.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
While the game might not be better than its peers, it would fare better if it were judged separately.
Akiba's Beat really only works every so often, but fans of the genre will likely appreciate it on some level. While the dialogue is difficult to get engrossed in, and the combat feels unresponsive at times, there's still a cult classic buried in this little title. Not every game can be perfect, and that definitely applies to Akiba's Beat. Still, it's clear it will be perfect for many people out there, and that's what matters.
Playing Akiba's Beat is a test of will and patience. Instead of building up from the previous game, it stripped it down to a simple 4 stage adventure. The standard cycle should be this: Find the person causing the delusions, convince them that this is bad, destroy the Grand Phantasm and break the delusion.
If you're in the mood to watch a cast of charming characters have often humorous conversations for lengthy periods of time then Akiba's Beat is a game for you.
Akiba’s Beat is a poor JRPG and it’s much worse than it’s predecessor. There are so much better JRPG’s out there.
A competent, if not stellar, JRPG. Despite poking fun at many of the genre's tropes it can't quite help falling into them itself. Self-aware humor, a decent plot, and some endearing characters elevate the game above the mediocre affair it could otherwise have been though.
It’s obvious that Akiba’s Beat is inspired by hit titles like Persona and to a lesser extent Tales Of, but it misses the mark and doesn’t manage to deliver what made those titles great. The story has its moments, but its bogged down by a wordy script and clichéd characters. The repetitive combat doesn’t help, and Akiba’s Beat goes down as another forgettable JRPG.
NEET: Short for “Not in Employment, Education, or Training.”Typically considered to be underskilled shut-ins who live by themselves in humble yet comfortable apartments, NEETs are known to mooch off their parents’ good will to play video games and watch anime all day instead of looking for work.
Fans of the developers previous work (Akiba's Trip) will find a lot to love in Akiba’s Beat, as this not quite pseudo-successor emulates much of its gameplay loop and even the barren cityscape of Akihabara itself. With a cast of your usual archetypical characters and a ton of mindless gameplay on offer there’s a lot of bang for your buck and you’ll easily spend up to a hundred hours chipping away for that elusive Platinum trophy. For everyone else though, the quirky character interaction whilst delving into a few dungeons may present a chuckle two, but it’ll only get you so far. You’ll quickly find there’s just not a whole lot to Akiba’s Beat, as it attempts to pad out its 20 hour or so content into an 80 hour package that misses out on delving into a truly intriguing story and a lack of cohesion in its mechanics for the overall themes presented.
If you’re into otaku culture, or are itching for another Tales experience, Akiba’s Beat is a title worth looking at. Its competencies create a game that’s, while not amazing, worth the time I put into it.
If you can appreciate a trope-filled homage to Japan’s nerd culture as a whole, Tales and Persona-style gameplay, and enjoy a game with plenty of dialogue, then this one’s for you.
Akiba’s Beat is a strong entry in the series, and one that I absolutely prefer over the previous ones. It’s a shame that the game received such poor critical reception, because I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for an addicting battle system, fun and engaging story, and interesting characters. There are some negatives that can’t be ignored though, such as the amount of backtracking required, the times when the story just falls flat and isn’t as interesting as other portions, and not streamlining other features. All of that aside though, I still found enough enjoyable with Akiba’s Beat, and hopefully the series will continue on and continue to get even better!