Black Rock Shooter: The Game
Developer: Imageepoch
Publisher: Nippon Ichi
Genre: Action RPG
Release Date: 04/23/2013
I have to admit, I’ve always been somewhat taken with Black Rock Shooter since I first saw a documentary on it on NHK (Japanese equivalent of CNN). I was fascinated with how one piece of artwork by Ryohei “Huke” Fuke could become such a massive phenomenon over in Japan, especially when it was originally created as an afterthought. It’s spawned music, an OVA, an anime series, multiple video games and a manga –all of which have completely different stories from each other, including different personalities for the main character, casts and time periods! Black Rock Shooter: The Game was originally released in Japan back in 2011 and even though I had enjoyed the anime and OVA, I held off on importing the game – mainly because it was done by Imageepoch, who has mainly made some incredibly big stinkers, chief of which were games like Sands of Destruction. I think the kindest anyone on staff has ever been to an Imageepoch release was Aileen with her review of Arc Rise Fantasia, which she referred to as a “decent game.” So with this in mind, I think it’s obvious why I held off. Still, Nippon Ichi decided to localize and release the game stateside (but not the anime, which is odd as they publish both), so when we were offered a review copy, I happily snapped it up. The good news is that Black Rock Shooter is by far the best game Imageepoch has ever put out. The bad news is that, while fun, it’s still flawed in many ways. Let’s take a look at it.
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