AKIBA'S TRIP: Hellbound & Debriefed Review

Vampires and nudity, has there ever been a more popular combination? Well, in the world of AKIBA'S TRIP: Hellbound & Debriefed (a remaster of the original), that’s exactly what you get, because it’s a third-person action game about literally ripping the clothes off of vampires.

The game was originally released on the PlayStation Portable in Japan in 2011, with this remaster bringing it to modern systems in 2021, some years after the sequel had been released worldwide. But don’t ask why, ask why not!

When your friend is attacked by a vampire and you’re injured stepping in to help them, it results in you being imbued with the powers of the undead. Not just their strengths, unfortunately for you, but also their weaknesses. Well, really it’s just the one weakness as garlic and Catholicism never factor into the game; you’re weak to sunlight. Luckily, when the sun is only touching part of your body things are fine — but that’s where the game’s combat system comes into play.

In Hellbound & Debriefed you have to damage clothing using a weapon (for example a big book, a keyboard, or an umbrella) and either destroy it or rip it from their body. Everyone wears a top, bottoms, and something on their head, so that means three places to hit per person. Every weapon will do a different amount of damage, and each item of clothing has its own durability, so while your french bread might be fine for taking out maids, you’ll need a baseball bat to win against a cosplayer! Unfortunately, you don’t know how durable something is, so you usually just have to whack away until it starts flashing to indicate it’s breaking.

As the game is set in Akihabara, known as the nerdiest area of Tokyo, you’ll come across all sorts of people. Otakus, photographers, rockers, crossdressers — and you can strip them all of their clothes and wear them yourself. If you’re having trouble obtaining a specific outfit that you want, then hit up one of the many shops to find a book that should help you to remove that stubborn bear suit without destroying it. You’ll also find books to help you do chain attacks, depending on what sort of weapon you have, which really come in useful as the game progresses.

Unfortunately, the thing that shows Hellbound & Debriefed’s age as a PSP title is the fact that each area is separate and only accessible via the map screen. Sure, it makes getting from one end of the city to another easier, but it’s a lot of time loading and not undressing vampires. The save menu is only available on the map screen, as are your costume and weapon options, which can make it a little tricky to evade a savage beating when you need to leg it out of the street to put on some new jeans.

Okay, I keep calling them vampires, but in this universe they’re known as Shadow Souls, and are basically strong humans who age slowly and occasionally drink blood. There is a government agency out to kill them all, NIRO (National Intelligence and Research Organization), and you’re unofficially inducted into their ranks because of your newfound special abilities. You’re given training on how to remove clothes and largely left to your own devices, since they don’t particularly know where the Shadow Souls are unless they stumble across them in the street.

The stakes do rise as Hellbound & Debriefed goes, as you might expect, mainly due to the Shadow Soul who gave you your powers, albeit accidentally. There are also side quests that you can take on from one NPC, and two mini-games that let you gain extra outfits. Personally, however, if someone asked me to play Rock, Paper, Scissors and the loser dies as their skin burns, I don’t think I’d take them up on that… Oh, there’s also a whole sister thing that is tied to an ending, you can go to her room and speak to her, get her to insult or praise you, and pay her to dress up in clothes that you give her, before moving the camera around to look at her.

Honestly, I’m glad that this was remastered as the sequel has been on my list for a while. I do hate experiencing only part of a story, so I’m hoping that they will tie together. On its own,while it does suffer from its age in some areas, the graphics are never a letdown, and the fact that they had a cast in to dub things as well was a huge positive in its favour. For just one of AKIBA'S TRIP: Hellbound & Debriefed’s endings I was playing for 11 hours, and there are multiple. I didn’t even get around to all of the side quests, or find all of the clothing! The game is fairly priced as a remaster, so if you can put up with its limitations it’s recommended.