When Akiba’s Trip 2 was announced for a Western release, I was pleasantly surprised. Surely a game written solely around exploring Electric Town while fighting off vampire-like synthisters and stripping clothes off couldn’t possibly see the light of day outside of Japan, yet somehow it came to positive fanfare. Shortly after its debut on PlayStation 3 and Vita, a PlayStation 4 release was announced to be on the way. While largely remaining the same game, Akiba’s Trip: Undead and Undressed for the PS4 offers a healthy amount of changes and new content but is it worth taking a second trip back to Akihabara?
Much of Akiba’s Trip: Undead and Undressed remains similar to the original PlayStation 3 release earlier this year. So much so that reviewing the story and characters would be redundant, so I advocate having a look to my previous review to get the basic gist. With no cross-save functionality or perks for previously owning the game on another platform, you’ll be starting your adventure in Akihabara anew.
One of the big new additions to Akiba’s Trip is the Toybox Mode. This new mode allows you to start the game fresh with one of every equippable and cosmetic item in the game. Trophies and the like are disabled, but it gives you a good chance to experience the city without having to strip everything in sight (although that will still be handy if you plan on upgrading your gear any). Rather than just dropping you into the world to do whatever you want, you’ll be playing through the story in its entirety once more, only without the incentives of expanding your trophy collection.
Another amusing addition to the PS4 version is streaming functionality. Viewers on any platform can join in and have a little fun with your game by saying certain words in chat, possibly joining in as a random NPC and giving you some words of encouragement. Viewers can also cause a passerby to attack you out of the blue (if you have a whole stream of people chanting Attack,this quickly becomes a bloody endurance match), Pantydrop will cause a female character chosen at random to drop her underwear on the ground, saving you the hassle of having to get a strip bonus to grab it. Another useful command is Unison which instantly refills your Unison gauge with your partner, handy for cheesing your way through the battle arena or a tricky boss fight. There are a number of other chat commands that you’ll have to experiment with firsthand if you ever see someone streaming Akiba’s Trip online.
