If the concept of an action game where you’re stripping of people’s clothes in order to defeat them sounds pretty intriguing to you, then Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed is a game you should check out. Stripping foes down is the main premise and it’s what you’ll be doing throughout the game. There is more to the game than its unique concept, like an open-world and various customizable options, which help flesh out the rest of the package, making Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed into a fairly good action title.

The setting of Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed takes place in Akihabara, Japan’s huge shopping district for all things Anime, video games, and technology. You assume the role of the main character, who starts off the game strapped down onto a table and told that he is no longer human and is now a Synthisther, which is a type of undead whose goal is to suck the life force out of humans and has a weakness to the sun. You are then saved by a mysterious girl named Shizuku. After a couple more events, you meet up with your group, the Akihabara Freedom Fighters, and you all set out to solve the mystery of the Synthisthers and save Akihabara.

In order to fight off the Synthisthers, you must expose their skin to sunlight, by removing all of their clothing. So the whole stripping clothes off foes actually plays a part in the story, and it’s not just some random thing that feels out of place. The way the combat is set up is that you’ll need to weaken the clothes of enemies before you can strip them off. This part plays out like a typical brawler where you’re just attacking with combos. Buttons are mapped to the head, body, and legs so you can target a piece of clothing. There are also mechanics in place for blocking and countering. Once an article of clothing is weak enough, hold down the button for the piece of clothing you wish to strip and off it will go.

The Good: Since this is a game that’s all about clothing, there is a wide assortment of clothing options available for you to outfit your character in. Buy them from stores, or even obtain them from the clothes you strip from enemies. The latter of which occurs if your stripping level for that particular set of clothing is high enough, which goes to show that there’s a bit of depth to the stripping mechanic.

Akihabara also plays a huge part in the game, as the developers really aimed to bring a true to life representation of Akihabara. The world you explore in the game is full of various stores, with plenty of people walking around. You’ll also hear real ads playing on the big screens of buildings and also posters showcasing various items like you would in real Akihabara. I’ve never been to Akihabara before and always had a desire to go, so seeing how much effort went into this representation only increased my urge to see the real thing and helped me enjoy the game more.

The other part of the game revolves around the story. You’ll come across multiple female lead characters, whom you will partner with to aid you on your quest. As you progress through the game, you’ll be faced with many dialogue choices, and these choices will deepen your bond with each of the female partners, so there are aspects of a dating sim featured in the game. And much like other dating sims, if you want to see everything, you’ll need multiple playthroughs, which helps increase the game’s replayability.

Presentation of the game is nicely done overall. There are lots of sounds and music constantly playing in the background that help bring the environment to life. The look of the game is very much Anime, which fits well in line with the game’s setting. English and Japanese voices are available for you to choose. I found the English dub to be quite alright for the most part, but you’ll find a couple voices that won’t be to your liking at certain parts.

Combat is simple to understand and the action is fast-paced. It’s quite satisfying too when you’re pulling off multiple strip combos from numerous enemies. While it’s all you’ll be doing in this game, I just found it very enjoyable that it never felt repetitive or tedious. May sound weird, but I had a lot of fun stripping clothes off my enemies.

Even though the combat is fairly simple, it still does feel a bit rough at times. However, I feel that’s mainly to do with how a lot of factors come into play with how your experience plays out. Like with the clothes you wear, the weapon you equip for fighting will have its own set of properties, like how it attacks and combos. It can also be a short or long range weapon. So there’s a bit of experimentation involve to find a weapon type that fits your style of play. You can also upgrade your weapons and clothes so that you can stand up against the stronger foes that await you later in the game.

The Bad: Parts of the combat can become frustrating due to this as well. You may be stuck using a weapon you’re not all too pleased with, but kind of have to since it’s your strongest weapon that’s available. Blocking in order to counter can also feel inconsistent at times, but I have a feeling it’s more to do with the rules of the game. Once you better understand it, it does become a bit more tolerable, but you may still have your moments of frustration. This is especially true when it comes to the game’s more tougher challenges, where you’re facing off with numerous enemies at once.

Which brings up one other small complaint I have with the combat. You’re often fighting more than one enemy, and alternating opponents is kind of key if you’re looking to collect all clothing items or perform special attacks, like Strip Chaining when facing multiple enemies with weakened clothes. And that process would have been a lot simpler if a lock-on system of sorts was present. The way it works currently is that it’ll auto lock-on the nearest enemy to you, but when you’re surrounded, the lock-on doesn’t quite cooperate so well and can take a little while to actually hit the target you really want. A minor thing, but one that I found a bit irritable to deal with at times.

Another tedious thing to deal with at times is when travelling around Akihabara. NPCs take a while to load, so they just slowly appear on screen as you move. This becomes problematic when you’re looking for a specific NPC, since there’s no clear indication of where they are located. And even when you do know where they are, it can still take a while for them to appear in that location. This could have been easily remedied if there were efforts to make quest-related NPCs stand out more, especially ones who are located in enclosed locations.

While the Akihabara setting is nice and lively, it does become repetitive. There’s simply not enough changes going on as you play through the game, so expect to see the same ads playing in the background. I can understand the limitation with those things, since real ads were involved. While a small nitpick, I still would’ve loved to see more variety in order to really bring life to the backgrounds.

Overall Thoughts: In the end, Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed is a fairly good action game. A huge amount of content present, with multiple things to collect and customize your character with. Also, multiple endings to encourage more than one playthrough. Those who find themselves liking the game will certainly have plenty of play time to be had. Being a fan of Anime and Japanese culture help with enjoying the game, though not entirely necessary, unless you really dislike those things. For those looking for something different in the action genre, I highly recommend Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed. It’s ridiculous enough to warrant a check out.