Over the past year, Japan has entered the Western PC market, releasing on the digital platform Steam numerous porting of titles coming mainly from the portable console PS Vita as this Valkyrie Drive Bhikkikuni
The playground of the unfortunate member of the Sony family has in fact completely flourished again, thanks to a massive marketing and distribution operation by the numerous development houses, which have received immediate support and jubilation from buyers in Europe and America, happy to be able to take advantage of it. of brand new titles and often never heard of in the West.
After the various Danganronpa, fighting games and remastered versions of past titles, however there was a gigantic wave of titles with dubious moral and modest taste: visual novels, RPGs and games in general Ecchi (from the Japanese "frivolous").
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Games that in the past were considered niche by gamers and perverted by the rest of society, are now almost the norm in the digital delivering landscape, and their low price as porting often stimulates the purchase. Among the various development houses specializing in these titles is the Marvelous, best known for the Senran Kagura, titles Musou starring attractive ninja girls. After the more than good sales of the ports of their latest titles on Steam, have just released a new IP from the now distant 2015.
Another weird piece of Japan makes it to European computers with its load of "exotic" fun
It is Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkuni, a game that appears to most people as a clone of the much more famous saga of the Marvelous, but that underneath hides the potential that could greatly improve the future of this genre of games, always if you compromise with the countless quantities of fan service and "Japanese" typical of these titles.
The story of the game has a decently developed background perhaps also thanks to the help of the animated series that aired in 2015: a mysterious virus, theA-Virus, affects a large part of the female population of the world, forcing various nations to take timely measures. Artificial islands are created where you can manage, isolate and above all study patients.
The peculiarity of this virus is to give some women the ability to transform themselves into weapon under sexual stimulation, while to others the ability to wield such weapons. These are called, respectively, Exters e Liberators. The island of Bhikkhuni it hosts one of the most advanced research facilities for this virus, specialized above all in the study and control of the V strain, which gives its host both skills. The game, after a short exposure, will introduce the protagonists, the sisters The market e Ranka Kagurazaka, upon their arrival on the island, where they will meet the various non-playing supporting actors and the other five protagonists, each with its own peculiarity both in appearance and in behavior, typical characterization of this genre of games
A story of boobs, slaps and viruses with strange functionalities
The story will be told through cut-scenes in which the in-game models of the characters meet to discuss the events in a simple fixed screen, interspersed with some visual novel-style images.
Although the dialogues are stereotyped beyond belief in writing and dubbing and the static nature of the cut-scenes tends to be boring after a short time, the Story presents some twists and moments not at all evil, and has a certain seriousness in the narrative that conveys the whole plot. The player able to overlook these problems will be able to appreciate a discreet story containing all the various elements of the lightest Japanese animation, a plot certainly superior to that proposed in other Marvelous titles.
The game also supports a simple competitive online mode, where you will have to fight against up to others three players o CPU pursuing various objectives, such as a simple KO or the complete breaking of the enemy's clothing to earn points.
At the time of writing the netcodeunfortunately, it was not very stable, and the practice games against human opponents were very frustrating.
We then shop, from where we can buy the numerous accessories, images, sound-tracks and alternative costumes that we will unlock during the continuation of the story.
La Dining Room instead it is a sort of central hub from which we can access all the modes of the main story and activate secondary conversations between the various protagonists, although these scenes are only dubbed but not animated.
Finally there is the Dressing Room, in which we can change the clothes, accessories and hairstyles of the various damsels and even “play” with them in a particular mini-game of a very ecchi mold.
A full-blown musou, funny but chained to the stylistic features of a genre that is extremely equal to itself.
The main core of the entire title is, as can be guessed, the gameplay. The title is a Musou, a genre that here in the West has never taken root because it is considered too much repetitive, and although Valkyrie Drive is an excellent member of his family, with ideas and mechanics that move the monotony of the classic a little bit one man (or in this case girl) vs one army, it is not a game that can please everyone.
In combat sequences the player will take control of one of the seven protagonists chosen from the sequence of events, and will have to make their way through waves of decidedly few but very, very diversified enemies (there are about a dozen different types of mobs, each with particular attacks and defenses, a rarity for the genre).
What makes the title special is the presence of at least two unique combos for each protagonist that will be carried out by alternately pressing the Square / X and Triangle / Y buttons, and each combo evolves with each transformation of the girls, here called Drive: one once a certain bar is filled, the Liberator and outside they can be merged with each other up to a maximum of 4 times, the aesthetics of the weapon and, ultimately, of the protagonist change. The combos are choreographically well done, each one reflects the fighting style of its girl and, above all thanks to the evolution of the Drive and with the constant change of characters, they remain diversified and never get bored.
Another very important focus of Valkyrie and the air combat: by pressing the Circle / B key the character will make an upright that will lift the enemies, and the next time you press the same key he will fly towards them.
Each aerial combo can be increased with successive sprints and struts, and each combo scored in this way will increase the maximum damage by a percentage directly proportional to your Drive. Furthermore, from the Second Drive onwards, it will be possible to carry out three devastating special attacks, one for each subsequent Drive, always with the filling of the appropriate bar.
Unless you want to take damage to undress the busty protagonists, it is advisable to use the often dodge (with mechanics similar to that seen in Bayonetta), especially against the numerous ones boss fight. Here too a novelty: we will not only have to clash with the other young protagonists (often over and over again consecutively, given the lack of the roster), but also with huge robots with animal-like features at the end of each chapter.
A breath of freshness that grandly breaks the monotony of the most classic fights.
The downside is that in order to fully enjoy the gameplay the characters will have to be leveled upon completion of each mission, thus unlocking the most advanced Drive merges.
This experience system is very boring in the first game missions, which will be full of tutorials and various limitations, but already after the second act of the campaign you will be able to make all possible combinations. The response of the commands is almost instantaneous, and in the review there were no problems due to combo delays, which usually affects this kind of titles.
On the other hand, when you are not fighting on the rather closed and dull maps of History, you are looking for the various collectibles, here in the form of a medal divided into three parts, a hidden robot that will "test" the qualities of the girl on duty and of the secret levels with small and simple challenges.
The award for completism?
Lingerie.
Precisely.
From a technical point of view there is not much to say: the title is a port of a 2015 game for PS Vita, so the textures of the environments and their resolution are quite unpleasant. On the other hand, the framerate is granite even in the most agitated situations, the sufficient particle effects and the polygonal models of the protagonists, with animations and textures dedicated to them, are the highlight of the entire sector.
Technically, there's no big complaint once you consider the porting and low budget nature of the title
The game holds i 1080p and native support for resolutions up to 4K, plus it is very light and scalable. The sound sector is of excellent quality, integrating a complete dubbing for every form of dialogue, anime-style sound effects and a pretty good soundtrack that is very apt with the various atmospheres of the locations. The use of a joypad is recommended, although the use of a mouse and keyboard is possible.
Pros Cons
3. Unique and well characterized protagonists
4. Simply fun
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