Less Than Divine- Gods Eater Burst Review

Contrary to my evangelism, Monster Hunter hasn’t exactly clicked with the US audience. Whenever I ask my fellow American gamers “why,” they generally counter with insightful critiques: they tell me it needs a lock-on system, a more robust offline narrative, less farming between missions, a more unique setting – the list goes on. I often wonder if they’re right. What if someone made a game, just like my beloved Monster Hunter, but listened to all of the suggestions from people who admittedly dislike the game? Namco-Bandai’s Gods Eater Burst is one such social experiment, and although it doesn’t scratch quite the same itch, it has its own merits.

Gods Eater (silent “s” in the US version) is a mission-based cooperative slasher for the PSP. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic Japan, filled with bloodthirsty monsters called “Arigami.” Your character joins an organization called Fenrir, which is tasked with hiring “Gods Eaters” in order to defeat the Arigami and keep the human race safe. Donned with tight jeans and feathered hair, your Fenrir coworkers look like they were outfitted by Hot Topic, and sadly, that’s the nicest thing I have to say about them. Each character’s whiny, grating, personality is exacerbated by their to-the-lowest-bidder voice acting, which is not quite on par with Shining Force III, but still notably terrible.

Battle controls are clumsy and complicated. Each button has two commands mapped to it, one as a button press, one as a hold, but as unresponsive as the game can be, you’ll end up issuing the wrong command nine times out of ten. Combat is frenetic, fast-paced and mash-heavy, similar to Dynasty Warriors, but with fewer enemies. As a result, it never feels terribly strategic. Basic attacks always follow through the same way, and enemies rarely show signs of pain. The only visual difference between a critical hit and a miss is a slight variation in the color of the impact flash. That basically means a good hit never feels satisfying, even when you find a weak spot. “Monster Haters” will rejoice in the fact that there is a lock-on, however it is only available while in Blade mode (no ranged weapons) and it makes the camera so floaty, that it is barely useful.

There is an item crafting system, but a great deal of it seems arbitrary. There is really only one weapon, which can be used as either a gun or a sword, and it can be upgraded and re-crafted to look cooler and raise different stats. However, there is no armor in this game, so any items you collect toward making yourself a new t-shirt or fancy jeans are completely for the sake of aesthetics. I can imagine a near future, where every player is carries a massively leveled super-blade, but is still wearing their starter outfit in fear that they might need those items necessary to build hipster capris to craft a better gun later.