Are you a fan of cute anime girls? What about dark Japanese fantasy tales? Would you rather run your own farm or fight dark deities? All of these were options while visiting the XSEED PAX East 2023 Booth. At PAX East 2023, we were supposed to preview Loop8: Summer of Gods, Trinity Trigger, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, Melon’s Journey, & AKIBA’S TRIP: Undead & Undressed Directors Cut.
Sadly there was just not enough time to see everything due to our packed schedule. Despite having a busy schedule, we still had the opportunity to play Loop8: Summer of Gods, Trinity Trigger, and Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life; we also had the opportunity to look at AKIBA’S TRIP: Undead & Undressed Directors Cut.
If you are unfamiliar with any or all of these titles, that is perfectly fine because we will help you on your journey. For this preview, we will be covering what we experienced with Loop8: Summer of Gods & AKIBA’S TRIP: Undead & Undressed Director’s Cut.
If you want to check out our Trinity Trigger or Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (Harvest Moon) preview, click here. Before getting into this preview, I will state that I had never heard of these titles before PAX East. I know how shameful of me but at least I have now. Oddly, the XSEED demo stations would restart if you did not push a button after a few seconds but that did not stop us.
Loop8: Summer of Gods
For those who have never heard of it, Loop8: Summer of Gods is a fantasy JRPG game focusing on relationships and time loop mechanics. As the player looks to break the time loop, they must friendship with the people in town. If you fail to break the loop or you die in battle, the loop will reset.
Even after the reset, friendships and experiences carry over. Rather than traditional experience, the bonds the player makes with allies determine their likelihood of success. Before challenging enemies, the player needs to examine each character’s friendship affinity with themselves and potential partners.
The AI in the game is controlled by Corral system simulation of real-life decision-making and emotions; Each character is driven by their own will and emotions. Their affinity towards the player will change based on the decisions they make.
Focus on building the best relationships possible to achieve success. The battle system focuses on the bonds each character has with one another; a mission can be failed if one ally hates another.
For the demo, we were thrown already into a loop and tasked with saving an ally. The tutorial fight was fairly simple once you know the base mechanics. Sadly during our fight with the boss, the game reset due to watching the cutscene.
Moving through the levels in Loop8 was fairly simple and the map indicated which characters were in each zone.
We look forward to playing more of Loop8: Summer of Gods when it releases on June 6th, 2023 on PC (Steam), Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.
AKIBA’S TRIP: Undead & Undressed Director’s Cut
During our free time, we made sure to go back to the XSEED booth to check out AKIBA’S TRIP: Undead & Undressed Director’s Cut. Sadly due to it being popular and having a line, we did not get to play the game; instead, we choose to watch someone else play a portion of it. Combat within the game follows the typical action RPG style similar to Yakuza or Final Fantasy 15.
According to the developers, AKIBA’S TRIP: Undead & Undressed Director’s Cut features, “all the awesome otaku content from the previous release, including the original game’s DLC, plus an all-new story route focusing on the lovable Finnish maid Kati Räikkönen, complete with an all-new voice-over in Japanese and English featuring the original cast.”
As a newcomer to the franchise, it will be interesting to see how the story plays out and if the game breaks the typical vampire mold. The game will be released for the first time on Nintendo Switch; PlayStation 4 and PC players who already own AKIBA’S TRIP: Undead & Undressed will be able to download Director’s Cut as DLC rather than having to pay for the game again.
