Kill la Kill – If Evaluation (PS4)

If there is 1 issue Kill la Kill – If gets ideal, it is capturing the relentlessness of the supply material. Even outdoors of combat, nicely created cutscenes do a terrific job of replicating the madness of the anime, ideal down to the entirely more than the leading facial expressions of its crazy characters. From the word go, the story mode is a barrage of dramatic colours and absurd interactions. Needless to say, if you are not familiar with Kill la Kill, then you are going to be in for a rough ride.

Certainly, this is 1 for the fans. As its name suggests, Kill la Kill – If basically tells many ‘what if’ tales in which original scenarios play out. For these with prior information of the house it gives an alternate take on events that is somewhat exciting, but the storytelling itself feels stunted. Of course you can not count on an complete anime’s worth of exposition and character improvement in a story mode for a fighting game, but the narrative components normally really feel cobbled with each other.

The very same is accurate of the combat itself. Unique attacks in unique are striking, sporting some super slick animation. There is no denying that Kill la Kill – If is a labour of really like, but even with its beautiful aesthetic, it is hard to ignore the game’s several flaws.

Its lack of a narrative hook implies that the story mode undoubtedly begins to drag as battles get far more and far more drawn out. Usually speaking, 1-on-1 fights are fine, but when the title begins pushing skirmishes with several opponents your way, aggravation sets in — and not just mainly because of the horribly unruly camera.

Kill la Kill – If’s combat technique can manage duels among two characters, but it sh*ts the bed when you are tasked with placing down groups of enemies. Irrespective of whether you are up against one more playable character who has backup — normally in the kind of hilariously low-cost projectile attacks from off-screen — or an army of faceless foes, basically focusing on and reacting to the instant threat is a tall order when everything’s so chaotic.

Combat revolves about a sort of rock-paper-scissors technique which incorporates standard, rapidly attacks, projectiles, and unblockable blows. The gist of it is that every thing has a particular weakness — if your opponent’s hiding behind their guard, hit them with an unblockable. If they are spamming speedy strikes, dodge to the side and punish with a heavy hit. In theory it all tends to make great sense, but in practice it devolves into a bit of a guessing game. When most characters can throw out an unblockable attack practically as speedily as a regular strike, then what is stopping you from forcing your foe into a 50-50 mix-up anytime they are not mashing buttons? Issues gets cheesy way as well speedily, particularly if you are playing on the internet.

It is a shame that Kill la Kill – If falls really, really flat as soon as you wrap your head about the low-cost stuff, and sadly, there just is not a lot else to distract you from these failings. As a complete cost fighting game package this is a disappointingly bare-bones release. Outdoors of the story mode there is a survival mode and a mode that sees you clash with groups of enemies (ugh), but that is about it. Neither one’s going to preserve you coming back, and as hinted, the online’s a bust as soon as you come across players who have discovered to exploit the flaws in the game’s combat technique.