In this installment of Buried Treasure, we will be taking a look at the Black Rock Shooter: The Game. This Action RPG was developed by Imageepoch, and released by NIS America way back in 2013 for the PSP and is 100% PlayStation Vita compatible. It took so long for NISA to actually get this title released that a lot of us at the time thought that it may not ever happen, but thankfully it did. I didn’t really know what to expect going into this title when I reviewed it. I had seen both the Black Rock Shooter anime and OVA, but the game has nothing to do with either one. This story is completely independent and honestly took my by surprise at how well it was written and the amount of feels it contained.
The story follows the Black Rock Shooter as she is awakened by the remaining humans. She has real difficulty communicating with them at first. She has no concept of human emotions and doesn’t really know who friends and foes are. NIS America did a great job localizing this title, the writing gives the characters a real human feel. You soon find yourself immersed in this world, struggling to survive and keep humanity alive. I had to fight back the tears a couple of times during this emotional ride, and could go on and on about how great it is.
The gameplay for this title is just as great as the story. The combat system is action based but has many RPG elements. I honestly thought at first glance this was a third person shooter with RPG elements, but that is not really the case here. It’s much more like an RPG with a completely active battle system. You aim at enemies using the left nub or the d-pad on PSP; don’t worry, it will lock you onto enemies once you get close to them. Pressing the square button will burst fire the Black Rock Shooter’s cannon. A heat gauge increases as you fire bursts out of your cannon. Dodging will also raise your heat gauge, however, defending will not raise it. Being idle makes the Heat gauge decrease. If it reaches 100%, you will overheat and have to cool down before you can fire, dodge, or defend, which makes you a sitting duck, so you need to plan accordingly between attacking and dodging.
I remember thinking at first thinking this combat system was really complicated, but after about 20 minutes I had it down pat. When you add in the great areas to explore, various items and costumes you can unlock, and even a couple of motorcycle stages to spice up the gameplay this becomes a very solid title. If you’re into Black Rock Shooter, or enjoy a solid action RPG you head over to the PlayStation Network and pick this one up.
Here are a few random facts about this game:
- It features animated cut scenes by Ufotable
- The Opening theme is “No Scared” by One Ok Rock, and is bad ass in my opinion!
- This game is still not available in Canada, Mexico, and some European countries due to legal reasons.
- This game has a Metacritic score of 66 with a slightly higher user rating of 7.2 .
- The Japanese Premium Box Release came with this awesome White Rock Shooter Figma.
That’s it for this edition of Buried Treasure! If you have a game you would like us to check out for this series drop us a comment below and tell us about it.
