The Dreamcast was Sega’s final console and to this day it is home to some obscure classics that most people don’t know about or were misjudged by misguided game critics. Some interesting games are still stuck on Dreamcast like Illbleed, Blue Stinger, D2, and even one of the better Berserk games, and in some cases, there are a few that were ahead of their time and were misjudged.

Dreamcast was also home to some first-person shooters, a genre mostly absent on consoles at the time. Quake and Unreal Tournament were the go-to choices for FPS maniacs, and there was even an unreleased, near-finished port of Half-Life. While the choices were slim, it was impressive that the console got any in the first place.

This was during the days before dual analog stick control became the standard, and the Dreamcast only had one for movement. How could any developer hope to make a first-person action game with the Dreamcast’s restrictive controller? Of all the developers, it was Atlus who innovated with an ingenious control layout for a first-person hack n’ slash that also had ties to their Shin Megami Tensei universe. How did they do it? Does this game hold up almost a quarter century later? Find out in our Maken X review!

Maken X
Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Sega
Platforms: Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 (as Maken Shao: Demon Sword)
Release Date: April 25, 2000
Price: n/a

Set in a world where science and the supernatural clash, Maken is an organism that is designed to be the ultimate weapon. When the story begins, a team of researchers test it out during a visit from the researchers’ kids. Everybody has a bad time, however, when an army of Neo-Nazi terrorists invade the lab and Maken fuses with Kei, the daughter of one of the researchers.

Kei was never meant to be the hero of this story. Maken was meant to be wielded by the man who gave up his life protecting her during the attack. She becomes one with the Maken organism and players assume the role of the lifeform which can “brain jack” hosts and possess their bodies to do its bidding.

She continues using Maken, putting herself at risk of losing her identity as it further scrambles her sense of self with every brain-jacking. Her quest to save her father won’t come easy, especially since the player decides her fate by assuming the role of Maken and choosing the path of the narrative. Players will navigate complex situations, battling enemies and wrestling with the moral implications of wielding such a powerful and potentially dangerous weapon, and preventing World War III.

Maken is functionally a parasite that can also become almost any weapon. At several points during the branching story, players will be given the option to brain-jack other characters and Maken will transform from a sword to all kinds of unusual weapons. This not only will change the course of the story, but it will also change how the combat mechanics work and the player’s stats.

Not all characters will be awesome fighters. Some might be mundane regular people and will be required because they might have access to some place or because it would be easy to fit in as a mechanic, Hitman-style. Brain-jacking ultimately pays off since Maken X has seven different endings and has a short run time of about four to five hours, replays are exciting since gamers can try different hosts to jack into.

The host’s combat abilities can be leveled up from earning XP and performance is graded by not taking any damage during a fight. This is a fair challenge since successful blocking doesn’t require timing within a window and side-stepping offers reasonable i-frames and distance. The drawback is most foes hit hard and health pick-ups are often far and few between, so when you make a mistake or get greedy, you feel the sting of your error.

The different hosts can vary in playability with their basic combos and special attacks, but every one of them has the same general control scheme. The Dreamcast controller is not ideal for first-person action, but Atlus’ solution is surprisingly forward-thinking and is very similar to the control layout of Metroid Prime in Gamecube which wouldn’t come out until two years later. Analogue movement is tank-like and holding a shoulder button will go into a strafe mode and the other is a free-aim.

The pace of the action and speed of the foes match the range of movement players will have and on-screen indicators will point to the edge of the screen in the direction of off-screen threats. Just like Samus, Maken’s hosts can lock on to targets to strafe around them and side-step. Battles rarely have more than eight enemies and most of the time, some will be long-ranged sentries. The action is methodical and has a palpable sense of tension.

The only drawback to the controls is that there is no 180-degree turn. Maken’s hosts turn slowly and while it isn’t too much of a hassle in combat since the lock-on can quickly, targeting any nearby threats while exploring and platforming you feel the sluggishness. Apart from this quibble, Maken X‘s gameplay holds up and mixes up combat sequences with some adventure game setpieces depending on who is Maken’s host.

Kazuma Kaneko’s character designs are at their most insane in Maken X. It feels more like it is his game than if he was just the character artist because every aspect of the visuals has his signature. There are details in the designs that are eyebrow-raising and perplexing, but the narrative never explains any of them, as if they’re normal.

He incorporates a lot of Chinese design motifs and naturally includes his panache for monster designs and sex fetish gear. Some characters barely look human and nobody questions their unusual appearance. It makes the world feel surreal like the game is some kind of puke dream where you can’t shake off the sweats.

Shoji Meguro is a staple of the Shin Megami Tensei games and he brings his flair for surreal and airy electronica to Maken X with aplomb. The tracks while in battle are an upbeat and pulse-pounding, frantic elegy where you feel the chaos of a scrap. When exploring, the music is hypnotic and otherworldly, perfectly capturing the weird aspects of the story.

The art direction looks undeniably cool but everything is animated very fluidly. The frame rate is a solid 60fps, a rarity for first-person action games on consoles in the 90s and 2000s. Maken X looks and feels polished to a mirror sheen with no noticeable bugs or glitches. The enemy A.I. is simple, yet effective for what the combat calls for.

Maken X was one of the better action games on Dreamcast and was easily the best first-person game on the console. It holds up thanks to its control scheme, solid frame rate, intense visual design, and novel premise. There was a port to the PlayStation 2 known as Maken Shao: Demon Sword, but it never came to the U.S. and made changes that worsened the experience. The P.O.V. was changed to third-person, which the game was not designed around.

Maken Shao: Demon Sword was buggier, had no English audio, and had a worse frame rate due to the PAL version topping out at 50 hertz. It was a more awkward experience and the version released on PlayStation 3’s PSN PS2 Classics was broken so badly that it was delisted. Thankfully, Maken X on Dreamcast is affordable in the second-hand market. I was able to acquire a factory-sealed copy for this review for about $50, which is in the upper range but mileage may vary.

While emulation is always an option since Maken X was never ported to any other platform, in my tests the game had audio bugs that ruined the experience. This is a worthwhile game to seek out for anyone who enjoyed the action of Metroid Prime on Gamecube and wanted a melee take of it, or is a fan of Shin Megami Tensei. Maken X is a light but highly replayable and intense experience with a lot of style that you can’t get anywhere else.

Maken X was reviewed on Dreamcast using a copy purchased by Niche Gamer. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Maken X is now available for Dreamcast.