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| Released in North America for the Sega Dreamcast on April 26, 2000 by Sega, and developed by Atlus, Maken X features first-person hack-and-slash gameplay. |
The Sega Dreamcast is not exactly a system known for its first-person shooters.
The console only features a handful of games in the genre, and few of
those could best be described as "good," let alone "great." How even more bizarre then, that it is
home to a first-person...stabber?
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Starring Stabby McStabberston? |
Maken X, directed by Persona-series director, Katsura Hashino, is
certainly an oddball. The 2000 release contains the perspective and most of the mechanics of a first-person
shooter, but your character generally carries some variation of a sword, and can
rarely launch any sort of projectile. Instead, the game focuses on close-up,
hack-and-slash combat. Befitting this unique concept, is a bizarre, nearly
nonsensical story about a spirit/AI-infused sword that must brainjack various
sword-fighters in a battle against some type of cosmic force foolishness. This plot is absolutely ridiculous, and pushed forward by lengthy, unskippable cutscenes, which are just about the strangest things to ever feature into an American-released
video game. The cutscenes are so incredibly ludicrous and difficult to follow, they'd
almost succeed on entertainment factor alone, if they weren't so tedious.
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| Yes. |
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| No. |
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| Maybe. |
Thankfully, the gameplay aspect of
Maken X, though simple, is
pretty fun. The game's combat system allows the player to lock on to an enemy,
and features weapon-swinging and blocking, quick backward-dodges, and a gnarly leap-over-your-enemy-and-stab-them-in-the-back-critical-move that's a cinch to pull off,
and nearly always satisfying. The controls are pretty tight and intuitive, and
the game runs very smoothly, as you blaze a fast path through your enemies. You
can even use the R-trigger to strafe in conjunction with the Dreamcast
controller's joystick, which is actually an ingenious and successful remedy for
the controller's lack of dual joysticks.
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I feel like this person's idea of "dual sticks" is different than mine.
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You can also unleash a special attack by holding down your weapon-swinging
button for a few seconds, then releasing, which drains a little bit of your
health. Pick-ups include health packs, and a special power-up that temporarily
increases your attack power. That's about it. The basic game mechanics are
pretty minimal, but quite successfully utilized, and lead to some pretty epic
sword fights as the game progresses. Of course, the twist here is the game's
brainjacking mechanic, which allows the player to--permanently, if they choose--take over the body of new characters.
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You will want to brainjack out of some of these characters just because
of their obnoxiously obtrusive HUDS.
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Several of the game's roughly 20 stages give the player a new brainjacking target, as long as the player's psi-level is high enough. This brings a light
RPG element to play, as the player earns psi-orbs for every enemy they defeat.
Grab enough, and you fill your psi-meter, and thus level up. Better fighters
require a higher level in order to be brainjacked, especially some of the late
game badasses. I say "late game," but really,
Maken X is a short one. Your
average player will make it through to the end in under ten hours, though the
game does at least include multiple endings, which depend upon which brainjacked character you
beat the final boss with.
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Just like Q said it would be! Just kidding. Somehow, even the storyline for
this game is more believable than QAnon.
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As far production values go,
Maken X is solid, with workmanlike
graphics. The environments generally consist of hallway areas, though there are
a few outdoor sections that are generally just outdoor corridors. The wall and
floor textures look fine. Character design fits the crazy storyline. The bad
guys in this game look like mutated insanity, with a flying gangster butterfly
man standing out in particular. The most important thing is that, at all times,
the game runs silky smooth. I can't stress enough how fast
Maken X feels for a first-person game from this generation.
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Smooth like a butterfly gangster man.
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I told you this game was crazy!
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The music is your general Dreamcast clubby-dance sound, not much different
from the background music in
Sega Marine Fishing. It does its job, and
that's about it. Sword slashes sound great, though it's weird that you're doing
all that slicing and dicing and not drawing any blood. Overall,
Maken X is
about the most balanced combo of "plays just fine" with "but this game is
bugnuts crazy" as possible. It's uniquely weird, but doesn't really play out of
the ordinary, despite its unique concept and nutso story and character design.
For those curious,
Maken X is most definitely fun enough to warrant a playthrough.
There's little frustration here, even if there's also little wow factor.
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| Yeah, you're right, that last statement was overly harsh. I really do like this game. |
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