Akiba's Beat Reviews
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.
Akiba's Beat is a poor game, with poor combats, poor RPG mechanics and poor customisation. Acquire forgot everything that made Akibas' Trip such a great game.
Review in French | Read full review
Akiba's Beat is a step down from its predecessor on almost every level. A bland, soulless JRPG that yearns to emulate more successful titles without any of the style, grace, or nuance.
Even if Akiba's Beat had a higher budget and more time, it lacks any unique features, mimicking what other games do, but worse. For 40 hours you'll mash X through slow dialogue, then run around a dead environment, and then do more dialogue until you get to mash square against sponges. If Akiba's Trip is the shirtless jock who kicks the door with beers in hand, Akiba's Beat is the timid cocktail-drinker standing in the corner with one hand in his pocket. Technically functional, but spiritually dead.
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.
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
Akiba's Beat is a tedious action RPG that has very few redeeming factors and one that has made me appreciate Akiba's Trip even more and that is saying something.
Akiba's Beat is a bad game, but it's an even worse sequel. So many aspects of the previous game, Akiba's Trip, are abandoned or watered down in this title, from the downgraded graphics, to the lack of customization, the poor characters, and more. Akiba's Beat abandons it's roots, instead trying so desperately to fill shoes far too big for it. Like the Chinese knockoff Transformers toys in my local deli, Akiba's Beat attempts to emulate many big franchise without the budget, skill, or style of any of them. You will buy it for a steep discount and know exactly what you're getting into, or you will laugh at it and walk away before buying the game it tries to be.
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.
Akiba's Beat tries really hard to show off an interesting combat system with a full story but falls short when faced with one dimensional character, repetitive dialogue, and lack of variation between many important locations. JRPG and Anime fans may enjoy but games extremely slow start hurts chances of players picking up the game again.
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.
Overall, "average" is the perfect descriptor for Akiba's Beat. While there is nothing particularly bad about it, it does little to stand out among the most recent releases that truly revitalize the JRPG genre.
Akiba's Beat is a generic and mediocre videogame. Instead of improving the flaws of its predecessor, it loses its personality. It is a standard JRPG that gives no satisfaction when playing it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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' has a real personality and aesthetic all its own, but once you get into the core gameplay, it disappoints at every turn. Its uneven ratio of combat to NPC wrangling make this an unentertaining and uninspired experience.
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.
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.
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 is a generic, me-too JRPG that takes inspiration from both the Persona and the Tales of series, without adding any new ideas, failing to recapture the feeling and gameplay of both of them. Still, it can be a solid choice fo the uninitiated to the genre.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Akiba's Beat is in a strange position, having been released right after two other Japanese role-playing games dealt with very similar topics. While it doesn't have strong enough writing to eclipse these titles, it does feature a few story beats that keep it from being a D-grade Persona. From a combat perspective, the game feels like a Tales game, but without any of the polish. There's room for improvement in practically every area, but it's still a decent RPG that is worth playing for those that somehow ran out of RPGs in their backlog.