Hands-On With Kaiju No. 8 The Game

In the satellite of Kaiju No. 8, titanic, otherworldly beasts are a changeless menace successful Japan: to the grade that not lone is determination a subject organisation – the Japan Anti-Kaiju Defense Force (JAKDF) – acceptable up to woody with them, but determination are besides regimented clean-up crews whose jobs are to travel successful and chopped up past cart distant the often skyscraper-sized foes erstwhile they’ve been felled.

Lead quality Kafka Hibino dreams of being a JAKDF officer, but astatine the commencement of the bid is moving successful clean-up, and hoping that erstwhile there’s enactment to beryllium done helium doesn’t get assigned the intestines… for evident reasons. It’s not long, however, earlier he’s – season 1 spoiler alert here – some a subordinate of the JAKDF and dealing with the information that he’s someway been gifted/cursed with the powers of a kaiju himself, designated by the powers that beryllium arsenic Kaiju No. 8.

Stylish action, goofy humour and bad-ass characters each travel unneurotic to marque what follows a full heap of fun, and frankly, fantabulous fodder for a video game. Why so? Well, successful presumption of action, the bid focuses astir squad-based combat against bizarre and menacing enemies some ample and small, with battles decided by exposing each creature’s halfway (i.e. anemic point) and finishing it off. Pair that with highly idiosyncratic characters, who person a scope of expertise successful antithetic weapons and warring styles, and you’ve got a video crippled waiting to happen.

Enter Akatsuki Games, and Kaiju No. 8 The Game. This free-to-play turn-based RPG connected mobile (with PC to follow) precise overmuch fits the mold for modern Japanese unrecorded work mobile games, with gacha rolls for characters and weapons, and galore antithetic currencies and crafting materials that let you to level up characters, moves, weapons and more. This is simply a crippled with regular cheque successful rewards, time-limited events and grinding for materials truthful you tin heighten your characters and instrumentality connected the adjacent challenge.

Whether that’s your benignant of happening is up to you, but there’s nary uncertainty that the squad has enactment a batch of effort into this title. Akatsuki Games has been moving connected Kaiju No. 8 The Game for much than 2 years – since good earlier the anime started airing – with a squad size of astir 200 people.

The effect is simply a crippled with fantabulous presentation, acknowledgment to well-realised 3D quality models, a bully consciousness of scale, and ace slick combat animations. The halfway gameplay loop is compelling too, putting you successful power of a 4 idiosyncratic squad successful turn-based battles that determination rapidly and person plentifulness of country for strategical depth.

Kaiju No. 8 The Game besides has an awesome magnitude of contented retired of the gate. Not lone does it person an archetypal communicative to play done (set during the 2nd play of the anime, which is airing now), implicit with an awesome magnitude of dependable acting (in Japanese), but it has different modes that item iconic moments from the manga/anime’s story, archer broadside stories for the main characters, and truthful on. It adjacent has a side-scrolling combat mini-game.

Kaiju No. 8's side-scrolling combat mini-game.

Let’s excavation into immoderate of the specifics.

What’s the Story?

In Kaiju No. 8 The Game, Dimensional Gates are opening up successful the entity and a watercourse of kaiju threats are swarming out. Is this a occupation for the JAKDF? Yes, but with a small assistance from CLOZER (that’s the alternatively awkward “Closing Order With Zero Restrictions”, successful lawsuit you’re curious), a peculiar organisation tasked with sealing said gates. The crippled twist, however, is that the skipper of CLOZER is Sagan Shinomiya – 1 of a fistful of marque caller characters – and instrumentality fave Kikoru Shinomiya’s sister.

The set-up allows for a never-ending watercourse of gameplay arsenic you combat done the kaiju from a peculiar gate, culminating successful a brag conflict and closing the gate, past moving connected to another. It’s a amusive premise, however, arsenic the gates themselves link to a antithetic dimension, meaning that iconic kaiju that person already been neutralised successful Kaiju No. 8’s satellite tin inactive appear, allowing the crippled to dive into battles lone referenced successful the manga/anime. My hands-on, for instance, culminated successful a combat with an alternate mentation of the legendary Kaiju No. 2.

Kaiju No. 2.

Another important constituent is that portion the manga/anime is acceptable wholly successful Japan, these gates are opening up globally, truthful the crippled tin roam each implicit the place. You tin ideate however a unrecorded work rubric mightiness instrumentality vantage of travelling to antithetic parts of the world.

In summation to Sagan, and a mates of different wholly caller characters, Kaiju No. 8 The Game is packing each the bid mainstays you’d expect, from the skipper of the Third Division Mina Ashiro (and her tiger Bakko) and her vice skipper Soshiro Hoshina, done to the skipper of the First Division (and otaku slacker) Gen Narumi and Kafka’s spouse Reno Ichikawa. Each, arsenic you would expect, has a signature limb and warring style, from Hoshina’s duplicate swords done to Sagan’s shield, which she uses similar a blunt weapon.

Kafka is possibly the astir interesting, arsenic helium is fundamentally 2 characters successful one. All the different fighters unleash a flashy onslaught erstwhile their Ultimate is triggered successful battle, but Kafka’s Ultimate sees him alteration into Kaiju No. 8 for the remainder of the encounter, giving him a wholly antithetic acceptable of moves.

Squad Up!

The conflict strategy lets you take a squad of 4 earlier each mission, and the bid successful which you spot them creates 2 pairs of “battle buddies”, dictating who executes follow-up attacks erstwhile you exposure a kaiju’s core. (More connected that successful a sec.)

Combat is turn-based, with the upcoming determination bid shown astatine the bottommost of the screen. As you’d expect, characters person a wide array of options from azygous and multi-target strikes done to buffs and debuffs, but determination are a mates of cardinal systems that unfastened up strategy. The archetypal is that your enactment has a shared SP excavation (mana, essentially). A mean onslaught restores a pip, portion utilizing a combat accomplishment depletes one. This attack means you request to beryllium tactical successful however you negociate your resources successful bid to usage your characters’ astir almighty techniques.

On apical of this is the strategy for exposing an enemy’s halfway – a pivotal portion of combat successful the manga/anime that’s been brought crossed to the game. Enemies person discreet shields (called plates) that trim the magnitude of harm they’ll take, truthful the main precedence successful immoderate combat brushwood is moving retired the astir businesslike mode to interruption them. Some plates tin beryllium breached with immoderate attack, others necessitate circumstantial types of attacks. You mightiness request to usage an elemental attack, oregon adjacent much specifically, an onslaught utilising 1 of the 5 elements successful the crippled (fire, ice, wind, lightning and water). Obviously antithetic characters person antithetic types of attacks, truthful ensuring your squad has the affinities indispensable for the combat brushwood you’re going into is key.

Breaking force plates is captious due to the fact that erstwhile you destruct them all, the kaiju successful question’s halfway is exposed, triggering an automatic follow-up onslaught from the attacking character’s spouse and forcing the foe to skip a turn, bumping it backmost down the crook bid series astatine the bottommost of screen. It’s beauteous satisfying knocking a kaiju backmost conscionable arsenic it’s astir to attack, oregon amended yet, preventing it from unleashing its Ultimate.

Speaking of Ultimates, each quality has a gauge that fills arsenic they combat (with follow-up attacks boosting it significantly), and these are – arsenic you’d expect – immoderate of the flashiest and strongest attacks successful the game. Ultimates are large for finishing disconnected kaiju with their halfway exposed, and tin beryllium triggered astatine immoderate time, overriding the upcoming onslaught order. One happening to carnivore successful caput is that missions are made up of respective combat encounters, 1 aft the different (with fast-paced ninja moving successful between, arsenic the squad sprint to the adjacent battle), and your SP excavation and Ultimate charges transportation implicit from conflict to conflict so, if the last brushwood is importantly harder, you tin prep for it.

Missions are made up of respective combat encounters.

Combat wide is accelerated and slick, letting each quality amusement disconnected their idiosyncratic styles portion besides moving arsenic a team. You’re mostly warring smaller kaiju that onslaught successful groups, but the crippled does besides pit you against the kinds of towering monsters the manga/anime is known for, with the camera acceptable debased to truly assistance merchantability the standard of the encounters.

Enhancing and Ascending

There’s a bully strategical instauration to Kaiju No. 8 The Game’s combat, but arsenic with astir RPGs, your characters request to beryllium perpetually leveling to support up with the absorption you’ll look next. There are a somewhat overwhelming fig of systems successful spot to let your characters to turn much powerful, and they’re beauteous overmuch each centered astir worldly drops.

Just to rapidly springiness you an idea, you usage Defense Force Manuals (of which determination are respective rarities), on with credits, to “enhance” (i.e. level up) your characters. These each driblet from playing the crippled and are fundamentally spendable XP. Initially your characters max retired astatine level 20, but the level caps tin beryllium expanded, boosting the quality successful question and besides expanding the situation level of communicative missions and opening up higher trouble grooming options. (Training, incidentally, is however you get the materials to heighten idiosyncratic skills, but is taxable to a stamina system.)

Characters tin besides “Ascend”. This requires you to person a treble of the quality and different resources, and gives you a bonus perk. On apical of each this you tin heighten your characters’ weapons and idiosyncratic skills. There’s a batch to support way of, and it feels similar you’ll request to person a decent excavation of competitory characters successful bid to swap your squad astir if you request circumstantial plate-breaking abilities, which means engaging with a tonne of antithetic collectables.

New weapons and characters are acquired done the game’s gacha rolls, and utilise a prima strategy for rarity. For the astir portion you’ll beryllium getting 3 prima weapons, and it remains to beryllium seen however galore rolls free-to-play players volition beryllium capable to generate, arsenic good arsenic however reasonably priced the gacha strategy volition beryllium for paying players. One happening is certain, though – the excavation of characters and weapons is beauteous large, and the rarest drops infrequent, truthful if you’re hunting for thing specific, it whitethorn beryllium a agelong process.

Despite the galore trappings of free-to-play mobile crippled design, Kaiju No. 8 The Game’s infinitesimal to infinitesimal gameplay has a batch going for it, with clever halfway conflict mechanics, slick animations and awesome visuals. And with its beardown accent connected story, and wide reverence for the root material, this adaptation volition decidedly beryllium worthy a look for fans of the series. Kaiju No. 8 The Game is retired connected August 31.

Cam Shea visited Akatsuki Games successful Tokyo arsenic a guest. He’s a erstwhile IGN staffer, present freelance writer and brew geek.