This game was the first game that made me ever cry.
Aaaand the gameplay is shallow, but there hasn't been a piece of media that has nailed the visuals, sound, designs, ambiences and storytelling that made me feel so specifically nostalgic, guilty, ill and empty with such a fascination.
This is obviously insanely subjective, but the story is really good, wouldn't miss on it.
This is also my favourite black rock shooter instance, above any other peice of media produced that isn't the original illustration or the vocaloid song.
Aaaand the gameplay is shallow, but there hasn't been a piece of media that has nailed the visuals, sound, designs, ambiences and storytelling that made me feel so specifically nostalgic, guilty, ill and empty with such a fascination.
This is obviously insanely subjective, but the story is really good, wouldn't miss on it.
This is also my favourite black rock shooter instance, above any other peice of media produced that isn't the original illustration or the vocaloid song.
Best thing to come out of this franchise. Also, the OST is really damn good.
way better than the anime lol
It's in parts a shooter, a turn-based game, an action game, and an RPG. BRS blends these things well enough and creates a combat system which is fun to play. You aim, you shoot, use skills and can pause to use various items, but you can't move in a normal way and have to dodge instead. You can't just spam either, as trying to brute force, although possible in some cases, will make you go into overload and not be able to do anything for a few seconds.
There is a certain rhythm you have to find in order to beat what the game throws at you. It's fun but what severely brings it down is the rather limited enemy variety.
The game is divided into 6 stages, each with 5 main levels (with the exclusion of stage 6 which has only 2 levels) and by the time stage 3 started, it already felt like the enemy variety began drying up, which diminished a lot of the enjoyment. The bosses at the end of each stage remained pretty cool though.
The story is anime, basically, and was alright. Without spoiling too much, it takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting.
I haven't watched Black Rock Shooter (which I probably should have), so I can't say whether it was a good or bad adaptation.
Overall environmental design felt ok, although with the exclusion of the last two levels, there weren't any memorable set pieces.
The game is structured in a way where it's perfect to play on the go. As I already mentioned, there are 6 stages and 27 levels in total. Each level can be completed rather quickly and with the exclusion of some bosses, it isn't that difficult. Beating the base game took me about 10 hours. Although it's short, I would recommend playing it in 1-2 hour sessions at a time, since the rather limited enemy variety can make it a bit of a slog otherwise.
An overall decent game with a fun combat system and cool boss battles, but stuff like the lack of memorable set pieces and limited enemy variety prevent it from being great.
There is a certain rhythm you have to find in order to beat what the game throws at you. It's fun but what severely brings it down is the rather limited enemy variety.
The game is divided into 6 stages, each with 5 main levels (with the exclusion of stage 6 which has only 2 levels) and by the time stage 3 started, it already felt like the enemy variety began drying up, which diminished a lot of the enjoyment. The bosses at the end of each stage remained pretty cool though.
The story is anime, basically, and was alright. Without spoiling too much, it takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting.
I haven't watched Black Rock Shooter (which I probably should have), so I can't say whether it was a good or bad adaptation.
Overall environmental design felt ok, although with the exclusion of the last two levels, there weren't any memorable set pieces.
The game is structured in a way where it's perfect to play on the go. As I already mentioned, there are 6 stages and 27 levels in total. Each level can be completed rather quickly and with the exclusion of some bosses, it isn't that difficult. Beating the base game took me about 10 hours. Although it's short, I would recommend playing it in 1-2 hour sessions at a time, since the rather limited enemy variety can make it a bit of a slog otherwise.
An overall decent game with a fun combat system and cool boss battles, but stuff like the lack of memorable set pieces and limited enemy variety prevent it from being great.
Mi juego favorito de PSP y uno de mis juegos favoritos en general.
Estaré eternamente agradecido con mi amigo que me lo recomendó.
Estaré eternamente agradecido con mi amigo que me lo recomendó.
Um dos 2 fãs de Teresina, Piauí
Esse jogo é a melhor mídia de Black Rock Shooter,se você é fã da franquia jogue
O jogo oferece uma boa gameplay com uma história interessante e uma excelente trilha
sonora,se fosse para aprontar um defeito eu diria que o combate fica um pouco repetitivo mais pro final do jogo
O jogo oferece uma boa gameplay com uma história interessante e uma excelente trilha
sonora,se fosse para aprontar um defeito eu diria que o combate fica um pouco repetitivo mais pro final do jogo
As an avid Black Rock Shooter anime and Black Rock Shooter: Dawnfall fan, I was naturally interested in Black Rock Shooter: The Game.
It turned out to be a great game, Black Rock Shooter is a great protagonist, the voice acting provided for Black Rock Shooter is great, portrays Black Rock Shooter's emotional growth and big moments well.
Nana is a great duo for Black Rock Shooter, their dynamic adds some life into the desolate apocalyptic wasteland Black Rock Shooter finds herself in. As do the soldiers that accompany Black Rock Shooter on her quest, with some great emotional moments coming from them.
The antagonsints fun designs and personalities make up for their simple writing, which isn't a bad thing as it allows them to instantly mesh well with Black Rock Shooter creating some short but interesting dynamics.
The gameplay for Black Rock Shooter is pretty interesting, hard to describe what kind of game it is. Blend of 3rd person shooter, turn based rpg and at times Bullet Hell. Can be pretty intense with fast pacing and managing resources and being aware of what's going on all the time. Rarely natural lulls in the combat. Some enemy types and bosses can be a bit annoying.
The OST for Black Rock Shooter is amazing, a nice array of tracks that nail emotional tones and hype action really well.
Overall I once again love Black Rock Shooter. Thank you Black Rock Shooter from Black Rock Shooter the anime. Thank you Empress from Black Rock Shooter: Dawnfall. And Thank You Black Rock Shooter from Black Rock Shooter: The Game.
It turned out to be a great game, Black Rock Shooter is a great protagonist, the voice acting provided for Black Rock Shooter is great, portrays Black Rock Shooter's emotional growth and big moments well.
Nana is a great duo for Black Rock Shooter, their dynamic adds some life into the desolate apocalyptic wasteland Black Rock Shooter finds herself in. As do the soldiers that accompany Black Rock Shooter on her quest, with some great emotional moments coming from them.
The antagonsints fun designs and personalities make up for their simple writing, which isn't a bad thing as it allows them to instantly mesh well with Black Rock Shooter creating some short but interesting dynamics.
The gameplay for Black Rock Shooter is pretty interesting, hard to describe what kind of game it is. Blend of 3rd person shooter, turn based rpg and at times Bullet Hell. Can be pretty intense with fast pacing and managing resources and being aware of what's going on all the time. Rarely natural lulls in the combat. Some enemy types and bosses can be a bit annoying.
The OST for Black Rock Shooter is amazing, a nice array of tracks that nail emotional tones and hype action really well.
Overall I once again love Black Rock Shooter. Thank you Black Rock Shooter from Black Rock Shooter the anime. Thank you Empress from Black Rock Shooter: Dawnfall. And Thank You Black Rock Shooter from Black Rock Shooter: The Game.
Tetas
Recommended by Squigglydot as part of this list.
Of all the things to turn into a multi-media franchise, Black Rock Shooter has to be one of the more bizarre things to do so. All the way back in 2007, Pixiv user 'Huke' posted a sketch of a girl simply titled "Black Rock Shooter". This would eventually lead to a collaboration between Vocaloid band Supercell and Huke to create a song and music video named after the eponymous sketch, "Black Rock Shooter". The resulting unprecedented success of the music video lead to the creation of a multimedia franchise that, while nowadays, is a relatively obscure property with a mostly dormant fanbase, once ruled as a mainstay of late 2000s-early 2010s weeaboo culture referenced by video games and anime alike, with an OVA, an anime series, and the topic of today's writing, a PSP action-RPG released all the way back in 2011.
Black Rock Shooter: The Game is a third-person rail-shooter/action RPG hybrid about our eponymous Black Rock Shooter fighting an alien menace to save the last remnants of humanity from extinction, and as interesting as that sounds, it's unfortunately dragged down by its own ambition. The story has its moments, being a pretty somber affair that can get get surprisingly dark at times (the whole "saving humanity" thing goes tits-up by the halfway point and things don't really get better for our hero afterwards), but there's a lot of drawn out cutscenes full of fluff and nonsensical expository dialogue that fails to explain anything of worth. The gameplay is novel but it shows all its cards from Hour 1 and never really evolves in terms of strategy or intrigue. The mission based structure and numerous optional challenges suit the handheld ecosystem but often lead to busywork that makes the game feel incredibly padded despite its relatively short length. It's very "one step forward, two steps back" in execution, but in all honesty, the game itself is the least interesting part about Black Rock Shooter: The Game, when its very existence is a much more intriguing topic.
There's something to be said about the intersection of internet media and the mainstream in this specific cultural era, when the internet was still a relatively untested medium for entertainment and anything that saw a modicum of success online would often be poached by bigwigs in an attempt to turn that viral success into real-world profit. It's this line of thinking that could put flash hits like Alien Hominid and Super Meat Boy on official storefronts, or on the other side of the coin, lead to endeavors like "Fred: The Movie" or "The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange", efforts to capitalize on internet stardom before their Fifteen Minutes of Fame expired. In an era before itch.io, modern YouTube, and video streaming, where avenues for smaller creators to publish their work were much more limited, going "official" was simply seen as the only option for any IP, a relic of thinking from before the internet was such an integral part of our lives.
But despite the cynicism I've presented thus far, Black Rock Shooter: The Game has a surprising amount of money and talent thrown at it for being a late PSP budget title, including the writer for Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts II, the director behind Persona 3 & Valkyria Chronicles, and high-budget voice talent like Miyuki Sawashiro. Hell, the very fact it got an official western release (despite being limited to only America and Europe) is nothing short of a miracle. This production information, contrasted with the game's middling reception, makes coming back to Black Rock Shooter: The Game over a decade later feel like discovering the ruins of Ozymandias' works, a once mighty glimpse at a media powerhouse, the ashes of a firework, its luster a mere memory to those around to witness it. But if anything, it serves as a reminder of simpler times, the era of rags-to-riches stories born of the most unlikely of circumstances, the kind of meteoric stardom you see less and less of nowadays as independent publishing venues and thousands of talented artists competing for attention online render the multi-media fame of any other potential Black Rock Shooters more and more of a fantasy as the years go by.
Godspeed you, Black Rock Shooter.
Of all the things to turn into a multi-media franchise, Black Rock Shooter has to be one of the more bizarre things to do so. All the way back in 2007, Pixiv user 'Huke' posted a sketch of a girl simply titled "Black Rock Shooter". This would eventually lead to a collaboration between Vocaloid band Supercell and Huke to create a song and music video named after the eponymous sketch, "Black Rock Shooter". The resulting unprecedented success of the music video lead to the creation of a multimedia franchise that, while nowadays, is a relatively obscure property with a mostly dormant fanbase, once ruled as a mainstay of late 2000s-early 2010s weeaboo culture referenced by video games and anime alike, with an OVA, an anime series, and the topic of today's writing, a PSP action-RPG released all the way back in 2011.
Black Rock Shooter: The Game is a third-person rail-shooter/action RPG hybrid about our eponymous Black Rock Shooter fighting an alien menace to save the last remnants of humanity from extinction, and as interesting as that sounds, it's unfortunately dragged down by its own ambition. The story has its moments, being a pretty somber affair that can get get surprisingly dark at times (the whole "saving humanity" thing goes tits-up by the halfway point and things don't really get better for our hero afterwards), but there's a lot of drawn out cutscenes full of fluff and nonsensical expository dialogue that fails to explain anything of worth. The gameplay is novel but it shows all its cards from Hour 1 and never really evolves in terms of strategy or intrigue. The mission based structure and numerous optional challenges suit the handheld ecosystem but often lead to busywork that makes the game feel incredibly padded despite its relatively short length. It's very "one step forward, two steps back" in execution, but in all honesty, the game itself is the least interesting part about Black Rock Shooter: The Game, when its very existence is a much more intriguing topic.
There's something to be said about the intersection of internet media and the mainstream in this specific cultural era, when the internet was still a relatively untested medium for entertainment and anything that saw a modicum of success online would often be poached by bigwigs in an attempt to turn that viral success into real-world profit. It's this line of thinking that could put flash hits like Alien Hominid and Super Meat Boy on official storefronts, or on the other side of the coin, lead to endeavors like "Fred: The Movie" or "The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange", efforts to capitalize on internet stardom before their Fifteen Minutes of Fame expired. In an era before itch.io, modern YouTube, and video streaming, where avenues for smaller creators to publish their work were much more limited, going "official" was simply seen as the only option for any IP, a relic of thinking from before the internet was such an integral part of our lives.
But despite the cynicism I've presented thus far, Black Rock Shooter: The Game has a surprising amount of money and talent thrown at it for being a late PSP budget title, including the writer for Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts II, the director behind Persona 3 & Valkyria Chronicles, and high-budget voice talent like Miyuki Sawashiro. Hell, the very fact it got an official western release (despite being limited to only America and Europe) is nothing short of a miracle. This production information, contrasted with the game's middling reception, makes coming back to Black Rock Shooter: The Game over a decade later feel like discovering the ruins of Ozymandias' works, a once mighty glimpse at a media powerhouse, the ashes of a firework, its luster a mere memory to those around to witness it. But if anything, it serves as a reminder of simpler times, the era of rags-to-riches stories born of the most unlikely of circumstances, the kind of meteoric stardom you see less and less of nowadays as independent publishing venues and thousands of talented artists competing for attention online render the multi-media fame of any other potential Black Rock Shooters more and more of a fantasy as the years go by.
Godspeed you, Black Rock Shooter.
Aynı isimde bir anime serisi de var hangisi hangisinden kaynak aldığını tam olarak bilmesem de brs genel olarak güzel bir oyun. Kendisine tarz bir oynanışı var. Bölümler koridorvari olsa da çeşitli farklı mekaniklerle oyuncuyu oyunda tutmayı başarıyor. Kısa bir oyun zaten anime kızı ile oynamak istiyorsanız şans verebilirsiniz.
I don’t know much about Black Rock Shooter, but I know it’s highly popular in Japan and has made its way toward the US. The premise of the story is interesting. Mankind was destroyed by machines and only a few humans remain alive. Black Rock Shooter is mankind’s heroine and you play that role in the game. There’s some shooting involved and minor exploration but the game feels like a cheap cash tie-in for the franchise.
Exploration consists of wandering extremely linear and ugly environments to find enemies to kill. When you get into battle you are stationary and must use the analog nub to control your gun and press square to fire. As you continue to fire your gun will overheat and will do less damage. This is an interesting idea, so you don’t spam shots. Enemies advance on you and you need to block or use defensive special powers to reduce damage taken. There are many special powers to unlock but they have long cooled down timers. This seems fun at first but after the first few levels, it gets tiring. It’s really easy because you are given plenty of health packs and it’s not hard to judge the enemy. Each battle plays exactly like this, even bosses.
When you’re not shooting you’re just running around and that’s the entire game. There’s no handing out stat points, and the story drags on and is pretty incoherent. I didn’t get attached to any of the characters, and couldn’t even finish the game. The game has good Japanese voice acting but the game is downright ugly even for PSP standards. The textures are so low resolution and muddy that you can hardly make out what it is. The models are ugly with hardly any detail and everything looks out of proportion. BRS is nearly taller than 5 story buildings and all the environments look the same. There’s honestly not much fun here even for hardcore BRS fans. They may trudge through it for the story but that’s about it.
BRS could have been so much more given the license. Instead, we get an ugly dull shooter RPG hybrid that isn’t interesting at all to play. Why the game got a US release is beyond me seeing a lot of people have never heard of BRS and the game is so hard to find. There is a collector’s edition released in Japan and it has done much better over there.
Exploration consists of wandering extremely linear and ugly environments to find enemies to kill. When you get into battle you are stationary and must use the analog nub to control your gun and press square to fire. As you continue to fire your gun will overheat and will do less damage. This is an interesting idea, so you don’t spam shots. Enemies advance on you and you need to block or use defensive special powers to reduce damage taken. There are many special powers to unlock but they have long cooled down timers. This seems fun at first but after the first few levels, it gets tiring. It’s really easy because you are given plenty of health packs and it’s not hard to judge the enemy. Each battle plays exactly like this, even bosses.
When you’re not shooting you’re just running around and that’s the entire game. There’s no handing out stat points, and the story drags on and is pretty incoherent. I didn’t get attached to any of the characters, and couldn’t even finish the game. The game has good Japanese voice acting but the game is downright ugly even for PSP standards. The textures are so low resolution and muddy that you can hardly make out what it is. The models are ugly with hardly any detail and everything looks out of proportion. BRS is nearly taller than 5 story buildings and all the environments look the same. There’s honestly not much fun here even for hardcore BRS fans. They may trudge through it for the story but that’s about it.
BRS could have been so much more given the license. Instead, we get an ugly dull shooter RPG hybrid that isn’t interesting at all to play. Why the game got a US release is beyond me seeing a lot of people have never heard of BRS and the game is so hard to find. There is a collector’s edition released in Japan and it has done much better over there.
A pretty fun Action RPG with a unique combat system, it's not an everyday thing that an on-rails shooter gets fitted into a JRPG.
The story was surprisingly a lot better than the terrible anime, attributed to the fact that it was written by Kasushige Nojima of Final Fantasy 7 fame, whereas the anime was handled by Mari Okada - the queen of non-sense melodrama.
Either way, a pretty fun experience although it does overstay it's welcome by the end of it, as the game drops more and more Extra missions on you the instant you think you've hit 100% completion.
The story was surprisingly a lot better than the terrible anime, attributed to the fact that it was written by Kasushige Nojima of Final Fantasy 7 fame, whereas the anime was handled by Mari Okada - the queen of non-sense melodrama.
Either way, a pretty fun experience although it does overstay it's welcome by the end of it, as the game drops more and more Extra missions on you the instant you think you've hit 100% completion.
Imagine Mega Man Star Force, but with a stamina meter (yay, fun!! /s) and rather than your available attacks being dealt to at random, you just start with all of them you had currently equipped. This means that every single normal battle plays out exactly the same. And since your attacks include board clearers you often are able to KO all enemies within the first second, rendering all non-boss-battles even more pointless.
The boss battles on the other hand.. ah yes, the boss battles! These are INFURIATING due to aforementioned stamina meter, aside from the first boss and maybe one other boss where their attacks come in a steady rhythm and are telegraphed. Imagine being bombarded with attacks every second but not being allowed to dodge them all because your meter-that-lets-you-do-anything is running dry.
World 5 boss is heckin' cute, though! Waifu dibs. Too late, I called it!
The boss battles on the other hand.. ah yes, the boss battles! These are INFURIATING due to aforementioned stamina meter, aside from the first boss and maybe one other boss where their attacks come in a steady rhythm and are telegraphed. Imagine being bombarded with attacks every second but not being allowed to dodge them all because your meter-that-lets-you-do-anything is running dry.
World 5 boss is heckin' cute, though! Waifu dibs. Too late, I called it!
unfinished for the moment... after getting my savefile deleted like twice for some god damn reason I don't wanna touch it again after a long long time. I kinda wanna read the manga first too
O combate se torna repetitivo com o passar do tempo, e a história não conseguiu me prender até o fim.
As someone who loved the Black Rock Shooter OVA and TV Anime back when they were brand new a decade ago, I hadn't checked out just about anything else related to this series until the past couple years. The Game was my final pit stop after checking out just about everything else.
A quick thing to note: Black Rock Shooter as a series operates in an interesting way. If you were wary of starting this game due to having not seen the anime, the one thing you need to know is that quite literally every Black Rock Shooter adaption is 100% original, and the only things they share for the most part are the characters (You should always expect to see Black Rock Shooter at the bare minimum in every adaption, this game aside, Dead Master is also a common character). I still recommend checking out the original OVA if you can though, less than 50 minutes and it's a classic IMO.
To sum up my experience? It's about 10 hours long in total which isn't too bad. The story is kinda lacking unfortunately, I wanted to be invested in it but I really couldn't. That said, when the game goes full anime, it's genuinely so cool. The gameplay itself is very interesting, in that it's a turn based system and you can't willy-nilly throw your gun or dodge out due to overheating. So there's some strategy to this system, though the real time stopping the second you open your items and Skills being able to be used whenever as long as they're charged up enough puts a bit of a damper on this for early/weaker opponents. The harder enemies and bosses more than make up for that however.
One Stage has you using the bike, and it's okay? You just time pushing left and right to slash enemies on the road. It's honestly nothing to write home about. Graphically it looks pretty alright for a PSP game, and the soundtrack is pretty good. Areas are mostly nothing to write home about, until the last two stages. No spoilers, but it was cool.
Difficulty-wise, it's not really too challenging. I got three Game Overs in total, and with one exception, it was more or less me being careless. The game practically showers you in health items, so the final boss fight ended up unironically being one of the easiest in the game.
Overall, it's a pretty good game. Nothing outstanding, and if you ask me there's still some better Black Rock Shooter media out there more worth your while, but if ya wanna play a short RPG with interesting gameplay that gives you some super cool anime like moments here and there, this one might be your next favorite.
P.S., that opening anime movie with "No Scared" by ONE OK ROCK? Audiovisual equivalent to sex. It's genuinely so cool.
A quick thing to note: Black Rock Shooter as a series operates in an interesting way. If you were wary of starting this game due to having not seen the anime, the one thing you need to know is that quite literally every Black Rock Shooter adaption is 100% original, and the only things they share for the most part are the characters (You should always expect to see Black Rock Shooter at the bare minimum in every adaption, this game aside, Dead Master is also a common character). I still recommend checking out the original OVA if you can though, less than 50 minutes and it's a classic IMO.
To sum up my experience? It's about 10 hours long in total which isn't too bad. The story is kinda lacking unfortunately, I wanted to be invested in it but I really couldn't. That said, when the game goes full anime, it's genuinely so cool. The gameplay itself is very interesting, in that it's a turn based system and you can't willy-nilly throw your gun or dodge out due to overheating. So there's some strategy to this system, though the real time stopping the second you open your items and Skills being able to be used whenever as long as they're charged up enough puts a bit of a damper on this for early/weaker opponents. The harder enemies and bosses more than make up for that however.
One Stage has you using the bike, and it's okay? You just time pushing left and right to slash enemies on the road. It's honestly nothing to write home about. Graphically it looks pretty alright for a PSP game, and the soundtrack is pretty good. Areas are mostly nothing to write home about, until the last two stages. No spoilers, but it was cool.
Difficulty-wise, it's not really too challenging. I got three Game Overs in total, and with one exception, it was more or less me being careless. The game practically showers you in health items, so the final boss fight ended up unironically being one of the easiest in the game.
Overall, it's a pretty good game. Nothing outstanding, and if you ask me there's still some better Black Rock Shooter media out there more worth your while, but if ya wanna play a short RPG with interesting gameplay that gives you some super cool anime like moments here and there, this one might be your next favorite.
P.S., that opening anime movie with "No Scared" by ONE OK ROCK? Audiovisual equivalent to sex. It's genuinely so cool.
Realmente me gusta mucho este juego y siento que es lo mejor de la franquicia, pero al ser de PSP es algo corto
Game does injustice to the BRS anime, but still manages to be sort of fun. Either that, or it's because it's my only PSP game.
Interesting game, story is okay, albeit short. Gameplay was neat but nothing amazing. Honestly a 4 just because of the character alone
This game, for a PSP game, is actually really fun. It's a fresh take on the shooter and rpg genre, and it really makes everything work well. It can be quite repetitive, and there's a significant lack of rewarding feelings when doing things well. But it's fun, and it's definitely up there with my favourite PSP games.
Black Rock Shooter: The Game is a boring and repetitive slog of a game. It took me 20 hours to fully 100% the game, but it feels longer than 20 hours. My advice, don't try to 100% this game.
The story starts when an android named Black Rock Shooter (BRS) is awakened years after an alien invasion almost wiped out humanity. When she is awakened, there’s apparently only 12 humans left on the whole earth, all of them male. Your role as BRS is to fight back the alien, since you’re an android and a lot stronger than all 12 humans combined.
BRS starts off very innocently, not understanding anything about humans, though by the end, she does get a nice development. However, it doesn’t really help that the overall story is just boring and full of padding for the sake of padding. Stage 4 and 5 is the worst culprit here.
Now, if the story is boring but the gameplay is good, I wouldn’t have that much to complain about. In combat, you can shoot like a Third Person Shooter, but can’t move except dodging left and right, you can also guard and use skills. There are a bunch of skills, most of them I never use except to complete a certain challenge, because some skills are just too powerful and there’s really no reason not to use them.
The combat is also very repetitive caused by the lack of enemy varieties making you use the same strategy over and over again.
I do like the boss fight though, while still not as varied as I hoped, they do offer a bit of a challenge and have unique skill animation. There are only 7 of them in the whole game though, and you will have to fight them 4 times if you want to 100% the game (each time with no variation but only bloated HP).
There are only 6 stages in the whole game, now if you’re not trying to 100% the game, this won’t matter that much (it might even be a saving grace for your enjoyment of the game). But if you do, be prepared to run the same stage a bunch of times. Though I do admit that they are very varied, some are clearly worse than the others though, stage 4 and 5 is the culprit again.
Overall, it’s still an enjoyable game if you just go from start to finish and not care about the alternate ending or trying to 100% it. Just don’t let yourself play long enough to feel the repetitiveness of the game and it’ll be fun.
The story starts when an android named Black Rock Shooter (BRS) is awakened years after an alien invasion almost wiped out humanity. When she is awakened, there’s apparently only 12 humans left on the whole earth, all of them male. Your role as BRS is to fight back the alien, since you’re an android and a lot stronger than all 12 humans combined.
BRS starts off very innocently, not understanding anything about humans, though by the end, she does get a nice development. However, it doesn’t really help that the overall story is just boring and full of padding for the sake of padding. Stage 4 and 5 is the worst culprit here.
Now, if the story is boring but the gameplay is good, I wouldn’t have that much to complain about. In combat, you can shoot like a Third Person Shooter, but can’t move except dodging left and right, you can also guard and use skills. There are a bunch of skills, most of them I never use except to complete a certain challenge, because some skills are just too powerful and there’s really no reason not to use them.
The combat is also very repetitive caused by the lack of enemy varieties making you use the same strategy over and over again.
I do like the boss fight though, while still not as varied as I hoped, they do offer a bit of a challenge and have unique skill animation. There are only 7 of them in the whole game though, and you will have to fight them 4 times if you want to 100% the game (each time with no variation but only bloated HP).
There are only 6 stages in the whole game, now if you’re not trying to 100% the game, this won’t matter that much (it might even be a saving grace for your enjoyment of the game). But if you do, be prepared to run the same stage a bunch of times. Though I do admit that they are very varied, some are clearly worse than the others though, stage 4 and 5 is the culprit again.
Overall, it’s still an enjoyable game if you just go from start to finish and not care about the alternate ending or trying to 100% it. Just don’t let yourself play long enough to feel the repetitiveness of the game and it’ll be fun.
a classic.
Great game. When I first started the combat was tough to get used to but once I got the hang of it, it's pretty fun. The story is pretty good as well. Very chunni and gave me KH2 vibes. Enjoyed this game's soundtrack, toward the last half of the game they were some banger tracks. Overall, it very solid game.
I don't understand Japanese, but it was fun to play!
Megaman es más divertido
Empecé a jugar este juego porque recordé que lo tenía agarrando polvo en la carpeta de Isos de PSP ya que en algún momento me llamaría la atención por su estética... Y es justamente lo único que me llegó a gustar.
El sistema de combate si bien me parece una buena idea, termina siendo ejecutado de la peor forma posible haciendo que todas las peleas que no sean jefes se sientan extremadamente repetitivas y sistemáticas, llegando a un punto en que simplemente tienes que repetir una y otra vez las mismas skills para barrer a los enemigos en pantalla, aún más cuando no hay un sistema de MP que te límite el abuso de estas, si, tienen cool down, pero este se resetea una vez entras a un nuevo encuentro.
Es por eso que el verdadero desafío se encuentra en la jefes finales de cada Stage, siendo 6 en total, ya que estos son los que presentan los movimientos y patrones más interesantes y difíciles de controlar, teniendo que saber bien cuando esquivar y contraatacar. Bueno, por lo menos hasta el mundo 4, porque en los mundos 5 y 6 serás tan poderoso que también serán medio de chiste.
A esto agrégale una barra de estamina que está puesta medio al pedo, como una forma de limitar al jugador para que no abuse del sistema, y ponte que entiendo que se gaste cuando disparas porque se supone que se sobre calienta el arma... Pero al esquivar?? No tiene ningún sentido que eso suceda, hubiera Sido más coherente que la animación de esquivé tenga cierto "end-lag", no que tú arma se sobre caliente cuando se mueve es la protagonista.
Para rematar tiene un diseño de niveles casi inexistente, totalmente plano y pasillero con nula exploración, que todavía se la pasa señalizando todo no vaya a ser que el pobre jugador se vaya a perder. Incluso cuando se atreven a hacer un mapa más laberintico como el bosque, gracias a este abuso de señales termina sintiéndose igual de recto que los demás.
El sistema de combate si bien me parece una buena idea, termina siendo ejecutado de la peor forma posible haciendo que todas las peleas que no sean jefes se sientan extremadamente repetitivas y sistemáticas, llegando a un punto en que simplemente tienes que repetir una y otra vez las mismas skills para barrer a los enemigos en pantalla, aún más cuando no hay un sistema de MP que te límite el abuso de estas, si, tienen cool down, pero este se resetea una vez entras a un nuevo encuentro.
Es por eso que el verdadero desafío se encuentra en la jefes finales de cada Stage, siendo 6 en total, ya que estos son los que presentan los movimientos y patrones más interesantes y difíciles de controlar, teniendo que saber bien cuando esquivar y contraatacar. Bueno, por lo menos hasta el mundo 4, porque en los mundos 5 y 6 serás tan poderoso que también serán medio de chiste.
A esto agrégale una barra de estamina que está puesta medio al pedo, como una forma de limitar al jugador para que no abuse del sistema, y ponte que entiendo que se gaste cuando disparas porque se supone que se sobre calienta el arma... Pero al esquivar?? No tiene ningún sentido que eso suceda, hubiera Sido más coherente que la animación de esquivé tenga cierto "end-lag", no que tú arma se sobre caliente cuando se mueve es la protagonista.
Para rematar tiene un diseño de niveles casi inexistente, totalmente plano y pasillero con nula exploración, que todavía se la pasa señalizando todo no vaya a ser que el pobre jugador se vaya a perder. Incluso cuando se atreven a hacer un mapa más laberintico como el bosque, gracias a este abuso de señales termina sintiéndose igual de recto que los demás.
The second and weakest game in the Fate/EXTRA trilogy.
It kinda starts off feeling like a diet Fate/EXTRA (similar themes and even story beats) but by the end it pulls through as its own beast with a very bitterweet story about identity.
In contrast to the anime interpretation of BRS, we follow Miss Black Rock Shooter herself as the MC, known as Stella in this continuity.
A very interesting thing to do with BRS as a franchise is to analyze how each new interpretation of the character uses the original song for its narrative. Through this world's lenses, it's probably sang by the last remaining humans, pledging for Stella to save them from the aliens.
On the topic of Stella, she's a great MC. Maaya Sakamoto does a fantastic job characterizing her cold yet soulful nature. Her character arc sees her going through a global odyssey in search for the meaning of her existence in true Kazuya Niino MC fashion. One of my favorite aspects was her relationship with Nana, a classic tale of familial acknowledgement (or supposed lack thereof in Nana's case) that culminates in a beautiful conclusion.
Nana is a fantastic deuteragonist, acting as an insanely charming foil to Stella's personality (especially during the extra missions, a must see) while delivering the heart of the story during its true ending.
The soldiers are great, extremely charismatic and insanely charming, they work really well considering the limited screen time they receive (Rothcal my beloved).
The aliens are extremely stylish and unique antagonists. What they lack in pure writing they more than make up for with charisma and distinct personalities. WRS receives minimal screen time and still manages to solidify her presence as iconic.
The combat functions as third person shooter that plays like a turn based jrpg.
I need more directors like Niino in my life, pushing for a mentally deranged new take on the old rpg formula for no fucking reason other than his distaste for the generic and formulaic. Thank you Niino.
It's very similar to EXTRA's in the sense that it gets WAY better as the game progresses, it's an extremely odd but kinda fun combat which again much like its older brother, also is at its best during boss fights. I wish the bike sections were in it more cus they're very fun.
The OST is fucking amazing. The level themes set such a thick atmosphere, it's hard to not get sucked into the scenario by them. The battle themes are varied and insanely funky. Niino's unparalleled mastery of the PSP hardware shows itself once again with the visual direction being as good as always, from the dystopic streets of NY to the gorgeous and relaxing Fuji Forest.
Criticisms? Well, this game introduced the True Ending formula that carried to CCC (which I explore more in depth on that game's review) which I don't particularly like, even if in this game it's a lesser evil since you don't have to replay the whole game again due to the mission based structure. However, it still robs the initial playthrough of one of the nicest parts of the story for no reason so that's definitely its biggest con.
Overall, it's a Kazuya Niino game, you know what you're gettin into. A fantastic title that ages like wine in my mind the more time passes.
It kinda starts off feeling like a diet Fate/EXTRA (similar themes and even story beats) but by the end it pulls through as its own beast with a very bitterweet story about identity.
In contrast to the anime interpretation of BRS, we follow Miss Black Rock Shooter herself as the MC, known as Stella in this continuity.
A very interesting thing to do with BRS as a franchise is to analyze how each new interpretation of the character uses the original song for its narrative. Through this world's lenses, it's probably sang by the last remaining humans, pledging for Stella to save them from the aliens.
On the topic of Stella, she's a great MC. Maaya Sakamoto does a fantastic job characterizing her cold yet soulful nature. Her character arc sees her going through a global odyssey in search for the meaning of her existence in true Kazuya Niino MC fashion. One of my favorite aspects was her relationship with Nana, a classic tale of familial acknowledgement (or supposed lack thereof in Nana's case) that culminates in a beautiful conclusion.
Nana is a fantastic deuteragonist, acting as an insanely charming foil to Stella's personality (especially during the extra missions, a must see) while delivering the heart of the story during its true ending.
The soldiers are great, extremely charismatic and insanely charming, they work really well considering the limited screen time they receive (Rothcal my beloved).
The aliens are extremely stylish and unique antagonists. What they lack in pure writing they more than make up for with charisma and distinct personalities. WRS receives minimal screen time and still manages to solidify her presence as iconic.
The combat functions as third person shooter that plays like a turn based jrpg.
I need more directors like Niino in my life, pushing for a mentally deranged new take on the old rpg formula for no fucking reason other than his distaste for the generic and formulaic. Thank you Niino.
It's very similar to EXTRA's in the sense that it gets WAY better as the game progresses, it's an extremely odd but kinda fun combat which again much like its older brother, also is at its best during boss fights. I wish the bike sections were in it more cus they're very fun.
The OST is fucking amazing. The level themes set such a thick atmosphere, it's hard to not get sucked into the scenario by them. The battle themes are varied and insanely funky. Niino's unparalleled mastery of the PSP hardware shows itself once again with the visual direction being as good as always, from the dystopic streets of NY to the gorgeous and relaxing Fuji Forest.
Criticisms? Well, this game introduced the True Ending formula that carried to CCC (which I explore more in depth on that game's review) which I don't particularly like, even if in this game it's a lesser evil since you don't have to replay the whole game again due to the mission based structure. However, it still robs the initial playthrough of one of the nicest parts of the story for no reason so that's definitely its biggest con.
Overall, it's a Kazuya Niino game, you know what you're gettin into. A fantastic title that ages like wine in my mind the more time passes.
Fascinating piece of work, a swan song both to Black Rock Shooter as a franchise and the PSP. Surprisingly compelling characters, fantastic art style, fun and unique combat, just a neatly designed game that had no business even existing, let alone being as good as it is.
Despite the clunky gameplay, this is by far my favorite piece of BRS media. The story isn't too dark but it also isn't your typical happy-go-lucky moe anime plot, and the supporting characters are a bit interesting despite the short time you spend creating bonds with them, and the bosses all have their uniqueness, both mechanically and visually, not that I was expecting anything less from huke's designs. The original score by Manabu Namiki is well composed and adds a lot to the presentation, and the theme song "NO SCARED", made in a collaboration with ONE OK ROCK is a banger and easily one of my favorite songs ever. This was one of Imageepoch's last games before they got dissolved in 2015 but is clear that there was an effort put into this game and that it isn't just a cash-grab made while BRS was booming in popularity, and, despite its short budget, it still looks good in the PSP's small display, with a high-light going to the use of motion capture in cutscenes. The only thing that felt weird is how the story unfolds, little context is given to the alien attacks that supposedly decimated the human race, and White Rock Shooter (not her actual name, but if I said it here that would be a spoiler.) has way too little background for such a major character, but maybe that was solved with the manga adaption which I have yet to read. I yearn for the return of BRS in some form despite fretting it wouldn't be true to its roots due to how the landscape of entertainment is nowadays, but, until then, this is one of the best iterations of the character in the entire franchise.