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.

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.

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.