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.

This isn't the only Dreamcast game I've ever beaten, but it's one of the few I have. It's a game I owned back in the States and tried for a bit but never played too much of. I bought a Dreamcast really cheap for the TR this month, and this was a game I also found cheap a few months back. This isn't nearly as much of a second chance as a lot of games I've beaten over the past year, but it was still a long time coming. However, this was certainly a game where finishing it became more of a matter of principle after a point, because the 4-5 hours I spent with the Japanese version of it were notttt the best time of my life XD

Maken X is a first-person sword fighting game as well as one of the few straight-up action games Atlus has developed and published themselves. You play as the spirit of a magical weapon called the Maken (in Japanese the kanji mean literally "magical sword"). Maken has been acquired by a secret research lab who are studying its ability to merge souls with people, and the research director's daughter, Kei, is visiting with her friend on the day that they're attacked by a mysterious organization. The sword master who was going to use Maken is killed while defending Kei, and Kei grabs Maken and chases after the weird robot/gorilla/soviet thing that stole her father after merging with Maken. It only gets weirder from here in a way that is very definitively "Atlus" XD

The story and presentation themselves are interesting and honestly one of the game's stronger points. It shares a main character designer with Shin Megami Tensei 2, and it really shows (particularly with some of the later boss enemies). The story itself has several branching paths with it and you can get an assortment of different endings based on a series of moral questions Kei (to Maken inside her mindscape between stages) and other characters ask you, very much like an SMT game or an earlier Persona game. It's not really anything to write home about, but it's more than serviceable. The presentation and enemy design is also constantly really weird and quirky for no real reason (TONS of not at all secret Nazis in what is supposed to be modern day-ish setting, I think, and that's never narratively addressed at all), and this weird style is definitely one of the most charming parts of the game.

What makes that boss design even more excellent is the game's mechanic of "Bran Jacking", where you can gain experience as you kill enemies to level up Maken's ability to merge souls, and this allows you to hop into the bodies of defeated bosses and gain all new move sets. Granted, these move sets only really consist of different jump, speed, and power stats as well as new basic mash-A combos and charge abilities, but it really does change up the way the game plays in a way that keeps things really interesting. There is a very clear power-creep as the game goes on, and there's very little reason not to hop into the latest boss you've defeated (especially as some stages can only be completed while playing as a certain character) given how much stronger they tend to be than the character you just were, but it keeps the action for the game fresh at the very least.

That action though, and the overall playing of the game, is where the game really falls apart though. At the end of the day, Maken X's biggest problem is that it's a Dreamcast game, and an early Dreamcast game at that (released very close to launch). It's a first-person melee-based action game on a system with only one joystick. While there are other first-person games on the Dreamcast that play much better (a good FPS on DC isn't impossible or anything), the nature of the melee combat makes already less than perfect controls even worse to bear.

Given that there's only one control stick, you can't turn and move at the same time. You can hold R to strafe, and you can press Y to lock on to enemies, but that's it. Bundle that in with how you need to hold backwards to block (like this is Street Fighter II or something) and how overall poor the lock-on system is and you have a recipe for a game that is constantly frustrating to play. You are also very mobile in first-person, not only being able to strafe-hop around targets, but even jump clear over their heads to face them from the back (and you keep "eyes" on them the whole time), so at times Maken X can be downright sickening to play with how bad the head-bob is. I never experienced any problems with that myself, but I've read enough reports online of people having trouble with that that I felt it needed to be mentioned here.

Verdict: Not Recommended. Even though there is such a good deal of "good enough" in Maken X, I believe it is not a game actually worth the time of the staunchest Dreamcast fan. It's a pretty cheap game in either America or Japan, so it's hardly gonna break the bank if you just wanna try it as a curiosity, but it's just such a bad time to play that I can't recommend it in earnest. I think most people would be far better served just watching a playthrough on Youtube instead of playing it themselves, because all of the good things in Maken X can be partaken in without actually playing it yourself (and the VA in the English version is way more campy and fun than the Japanese version's is).

This is definitely one of the most unique games I've ever played, a first person hack n slash that's like.. 3 - 4 hours long with 20 different endings and it was sick. Controls were the biggest gripe I had with the game since I feel like there should've been a quick turn command similar to a resident evil/silent hill game. There were also some spots where i lost my footing for a second. But other than that this game was just a smooth vibey ride from start to finish, memorable enemies and all of them have different patterns. A boatload of characters to take control of with different abilities and weapons, good level design with a bunch of exploration, and the music is so damn good, has this bad acid trip club rave sound that is very intoxicating. Very good listen. The last quarter of the game gets a little BS with the amount of strong enemies there are surrounding you, yet I still had a great time killing things, I don't think others will like this game as much as I do and I don't care. Good ass game that I'll replay for the other endings due to it's short length.

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

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.

I played about 2/3 through of this one, but got really sick of it in the end. It’s a first person sword-fighting game, and it's actually pretty fun in 1v1 but falls apart completely against multiple opponents: Your vision range is very narrow, your turning speed is very slow and you’re unable to strafe or quick turn, which means that the very mobile enemies will often get around you while you’re fighting another one and do basically unavoidable damage while you can’t even see them. You can lock on and then begin to strafe, which is fine against one enemy but doesn't hold up in the above situation.

Additionally, enemies with ranged attacks are particularly annoying, because you can't actually move towards them without getting hit (lock on has a pretty short range), which means you can't actually look at them at all until you somehow manage to find yourself in their melee range. There's one boss with a laser attack who just killed me with one attack three seconds into the fight because I made the foolish choice to actually move towards her and couldn't turn and move away from the beam in time once it began hitting me. I guess there's some fun to be had in mastering Maken X, but I don't think it holds up. I dropped the game after being frustrated with most levels I had the ability to play and getting stuck in the Brazil one. I think I was something like 2/3 into the game, so I'm fairly confident that it won't change too much since that.

The game's primary draw is the ability to switch between bodies, and that is admittedly very cool, there's enough difference between characters for the change to make things a bit fresher, but ultimately that can't redeem the fundamentally unfun gameplay. Also, this is secondary, but stages go on forever with no checkpoints and sometimes have annoying gimmicks. They're kinda lame too, I expected something way wilder considering that Kaneko's style is definitely felt in the character designs.

Overall Maken X is just an almost unbearable experience, which is a shame, because despite the laughably awful VA, the story is actually pretty interesting, casting you in the role of a sentient, mind-controlling weapon and giving you a lot of freedom in your choices, leading to a variety of endings. Unfortunately the game was just too frustrating for me to even want to get to one of them. Perhaps someone with more patience could enjoy it. Even then, while I hated it, I keep thinking back about Maken, months later, much more than many games that I adored, ignored or despised. It must have been doing something right, in the middle of the awful design choices. Those aren't going anywhere and neither is my overall opinion, but it's a shame. I wouldn't expect one, but this is one of the rare games that'd definitely benefit greatly from a remake.

EDIT: There's a Maken X manga (Maken X Another Jack) made by the Dorohedoro mangaka and it fucking rules, go read that if you have literally any interest in the game whether you have played it or not.

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.