This game took me a good ass time to understand. It kinda throws you in there and explains none of its mechanics, which are not orthodox by any means. HOWEVER once you start engaging with those mechanics, you find an unique, charming experience with absolutely insane music and phenomenal character/world design. Beating this game was a very memorable experience for me. I take away one star for having to replay potentially 15+ minute long levels every time you die.

Also, definitely 10 times better than the PS2 version.

On paper this game seems really really awesome, its plot and worldbuilding are cool, the whole brainjacking thing is a very awesome concept, and just has a lot of that old ATLUS charm. After replaying both this and Shao on the PS2, my opinion has changed radically, and I'm really not sure how I enjoyed it as much as I did before.

Gameplay is a very very early first-person hack and slash type game. (third-person on the PS2, apparently people got motion sickness from the first-person gameplay, which i can understand) My biggest problem with it is that its so tanky and clunky, attacks and animations are so annoying to deal with when you can't combo moves at all (you have a special move list but good luck getting them to work at all lol), and it's the exact same on the PS2, they didn't change anything at all and I find that incredibly stupid. It's better because you can see a lot more enemies on-screen without slowly turning around like a snail, but the clunkiness is still there and it frustrates me.

Oh yeah, and the music is pretty good. I'm pretty sure this was Shoji Meguro's first soundtrack he composed, and he did a damn good job in both versions. Most tracks are able to fit the stages pretty well, and he used some of the motifs for these songs in other Atlus games, which I find cool. It's definitely worth a listen if you're into Meguro music, or Atlus OSTs in general.

I also find it funny how the Dreamcast version has really bad voice acting, but a fine translation, and the PS2 version has fine voice acting, but a really really bad translation. It's weird since they could have copy pasted the whole thing, but nah, they had to redo it and make it worse.

It's hard to decide which version is definitive. They both have their pros and cons, but personally I'd go with the PS2 version since it's easier to see what's in front and behind you, and I prefer the OST as well.
It's quite a shame, if this game was developed in collaborations with other studios who knew how to make games, this could be really awesome.

I played a little bit of this and, what a weird game. First person mind control adventure whose reputation for wonky voice acting is perhaps only partly deserved. Some of the voice actors are doing fine and some have clearly been given no direction. Definitely ambitious for the time in its delivery of cutscenes and dialogue. The actual gameplay is very odd, and the difficulty seems to waver wildly; an optional boss I elected to fight was a pushover, while the main story has some much more difficult parts.

There’s also a body-swapping mechanic, “brainjacking,” which while poorly explained initially in-game, robs the people you take over of their “psi,” putting them in a vegetative state whilst outside of your control. One early point sees you deciding whether to accept a mission given to you by a character, and if you accept they offer for you to use their body to do so, knowing full well that it robs them of life. If you don’t accept, they just sort of stand there awkwardly, and it seems that you can either decide to kill them and take their body anyway (which the character you’re sharing a mind with chastises you for) or possibly walk away (I only just thought of that possibility, the game doesn’t make the next objective clear in that case, might have to see what happens there…)

Your first opportunity to brainjack as the player is presented as the only obvious means of progression, but it appears that none of them are actually mandatory, and the character you get there as might in fact be a better choice for the next few missions?

The actual combat is kind of neat, you have a lock on, which makes the single-stick controls vaguely workable. I’d have appreciated a quick 180º turn button, but no such thing is present. Most enemies will take critical damage from behind, so if your character can jump high enough, you can leap over them and attack from there. Once you’re in the rhythm of this it’s pretty fun. Some enemies know what you’re up to and will spin around quickly. There’re also some enemies whose pattern I’ve yet to work out, they attack twice in a row, which your block can’t handle, and they’re very difficult to hit without a ranged attack otherwise. There’s a trick I’m missing there for sure.

Anyway, it’s interesting, and I seem to be doing okay so far. I’m curious where it’s going.

The first game directed by the man who caused not just one, but two revolutions in JRPGs (Persona 3 and Shin Megami Tensei 3) and saved his own company, unfortunately, is a mixed bag.

Sure, being an Atlus game involving Hashino, Okada, Meguro, and Kaneko gives it plenty of vibes, but the game itself is rather weak.

The gameplay idea seems flawed from the start. A first-person game on a console like the Dreamcast and before these types of games were comfortable to play on the console. The camera works extremely poorly, the tracking of the game is quite awkward, and the combat is very tough and simplistic.

The game has a series of one-note enemies, the levels have sections with frustrating enemy placements, and the game never hits a nice rhythm. The brain jack system is a cool idea, but ultimately, the characters you play with are never different enough to justify it.

And of course, this first-person system never really works.

I love the idea of traveling the world; one of my favorite series does it (Shadow Hearts), Atlus has proven several times to be great at representing these real-world locations, and this game is no different, but the strong vibes don't save Maken X from being an extremely mediocre game.

That said, I played the early stages of the PS2 version and found a significant improvement. Of course, it loses some of the novelty of the game, but what it loses in that, it gains in a better experience. Not only in terms of camera and gameplay control (in an early PS2 style that I particularly enjoy) but with better features and quality of life improvements like save points in the stages.

Furthermore, there is also a manga that apparently is an adaptation of the interesting scenario found in this game.

In the end, the potential exists here but is never realized. This is one of the games I most wanted to see Atlus try again, but that must be impossible, unfortunately.

Endings got: Blademaster, Sacrifice
Who knew a random ass megaten adjacent dreamcast game would blow up the way it did huh
This was never on any list of mine, never clocked it as actually being a game. Thankfully Exellocks and Drifter hopped on and spread the word of peak
It's a really fun game with a weirdly in depth first person action sword fighting combat I was not expecting a company like Atlus to do.
The only reason it doesn't get any higher is that I feel like it doesn't delve into its characters enough, anyone outside of the blade masters and hakke just feels left to the side. with only 1 ending where you're able to play as Kay who I wish we got more ability to play since she controls really well and I just really like her character.
Also near the end some areas just feel like you can't get through without taking damage and something you'll just need to tank.
While I adore what true blademaster did with the optional ending FMV, Sacrifice is probably my favourite ending, the reveals as well as the ability to fight the final boss with the true main character just felt like a perfect end to the game.
So True Blade Master has the best story end while Sacrifice has the best playable end

An experimental game on the part of Atlus, Maken X is a solid adventure game, despite it's flaws. It's plot is interesting, and has some unique premises, but falls into the trap of making little sense at time, and being difficult to follow. The characters designs are top notch, and the gameplay is a unique hybrid a fps and combat mechanics found in action adventure games. I personally enjoyed it, due to branching paths which allow for replayability, however, the first person view may not be for some. Better than it's remake of sorts on the ps2, which changes the perspective to 3rd person, despite the combat system being developed for 1st person.