It is unclear who and why decided to release a game based on it so late Kill la Kill, but the fact remains that fans who, apart from the anime that ended in 2014 and a small manga adaptation, did not receive anything related to this universe, can be satisfied. Team A+ Games and publishing house Arc System Works have prepared a gift for fans of the crazy story of Ryuko Matoi and Satsuki Kiryuin – an arena fighting game Kill la Kill – IF, with familiar characters, revealing costumes, crazy transformations, but with a changed storyline.

Hack and slash

The events of the campaign begin with the eighth episode of the anime, in which the general elections of Hannoji Academy came to an end and Ryuko had to fight with representatives of the Elite Four. The developers clearly did not expect that an audience unfamiliar with the story would suddenly want to play IF, therefore, the plot will be only very vaguely understandable to beginners. It’s definitely not worth starting your acquaintance with this universe by playing a fighting game – and you’ll see some of the characters earlier than you should, and in general the anime is wonderful and unique in many ways, don’t miss it.

IF practically frame by frame it repeats everything that happened at the academy before and after the elections, but within a few minutes viewers of the series will begin to notice inaccuracies. This is due to the fact that the game tells a different, alternative story, in which the characters are the same, but the events are either greatly accelerated or follow a different scenario. An animation studio participated in the development Trigger, which names the plot IF canon and suggests that this should be considered another bonus episode.

The campaign lasts less than four hours and is divided into two parts. In the first, Satsuki becomes the main character, in the second, we observe what is happening from Ryuko’s side. Although some sequences are repetitive, in most cases, playing as Ryuko will still take you to different locations and fight different enemies. Both characters have moments when during an entire chapter they are not allowed to play as them at all, and you watch videos on the engine. Fortunately, there are not very many such chapters – most often you are forced to fight, and often not one opponent comes against you, but two or even a hundred.

When a 2D anime is transferred to 3D, the result can be disastrous – in the same way, God forgive me, Jump Force some of the characters look cool, and some look scary, with their bulging eyes and strange hairstyles. Kill la Kill – IF survived the transformation perfectly – the models are drawn in such a way that the game really resembles a come to life anime. The angles during the videos are chosen in such a way that 3D is indistinguishable from 2D, and the same can be said about attacks during battle. The characters fully correspond to their types in the anime: Nui is still just as annoying, Gamagori still evokes fear and respect thanks to the ability to change in size, even Mako was able to animate funny (it’s a pity that you can’t play as her yet – you have to wait for the free DLC).

There are few of them, but they are evil

The desire to please fans is also noticeable in the gameplay. The roster here is, frankly speaking, tiny – ten fighters (two of which are alternative styles of Ryuko and Satsuki). This is too low a number, especially considering the cost of the game. IF takes advantage of the dissimilarity of the heroes from each other – they act completely differently and have unique techniques. Gamagori, as in the series, beats himself with whips or relies on attacks from his opponent, thereby increasing his strength. Nui creates copies of himself, Hoki has an enemy analysis indicator, which, when filled, grants him new abilities. It’s a pity that Nonon’s orchestra doesn’t appear during her attacks, but she has a lot of musical techniques (with a changing soundtrack in the process).

All heroes have two https://madslotscasino.co.uk/mobile-app/ attack buttons (most often melee and ranged, although there are exceptions), a separate block button with the ability to dash, as well as a slow strike that penetrates the enemy’s defense and leaves you vulnerable for a short time. Well, it couldn’t be done without a jump – some combinations are performed in the air, others can only be used on the ground. All this is explained during the tutorial, however, when you then go to the list of techniques during combat, you find much more information there. And there is a short description of the character, and a bunch of combos are written out – you start trying everything and realize that the combat system is much deeper than it seems at first glance.

The most interesting feature is the SP scale located under the player’s health bar. It has several purposes. Firstly, if you have two cells out of four, you can interrupt the enemy’s unstoppable combo to save your life. The scale is gradually restored not only when damage is dealt, but also when received. Secondly, with the same two cells it will be possible to activate one of three strong combinations by simultaneously holding down L1 and any attack button.

Logical and methodical

But the main thing that the SP scale is needed for is the so-called heroic enhancements (valor enhancements): by pressing L1 and R1, you activate the special Bloody Valor mechanic if you hit your opponent with this move. In this case, a “battle” is launched, reminiscent of the game “Rock, Paper, Scissors”: each participant in the match presses one of three buttons – inflicting heavy damage on the enemy, restoring the SP scale or restoring health. One button defeats another and loses to a third, and if they win, the initiator of the fight repeats the process with the opponent until he chooses the correct button and stops it all.

The mechanics are simple, but it makes multiplayer battles much more interesting – here you need to literally read your opponent, predicting his actions. If you have almost no health left and you start Bloody Valor, it is logical that you want to return the “life” and stretch out the process. But a smart enemy will understand this and block your attack, depriving you of the opportunity to continue the battle. Therefore, you can try to deceive him and punish him for his prudence. The same thing can be done if you already have a lot of health – it’s unlikely that you would press this button, but here’s such a surprise.

There are three levels of heroic upgrades in total, and on the third the character receives a powerful ability that destroys the enemy with one blow. All this is accompanied by a beautifully drawn video in which the hero uses the features of his costume, but in practice it is very rare to take advantage of this opportunity. However, other levels of improvements also turn out to be useful – for example, at the first, Ryuko’s speed increases and the damage from some attacks increases, and Gamagori’s energy scale for torture expands and other bonuses appear.

As a result Kill la Kill – IF looks great and plays great. The combat animations of the heroes are a little jerky, which makes the fights look like fights in anime, and powerful attacks are always preceded by spectacular inserts with screams and interference on the screen, as was the case in the series. The musical accompaniment is absolutely wonderful – in the campaign you constantly hear both familiar melodies and excellent new compositions. Here even the size and shape of the arenas are different – some are square, some are round, some are large and some are small. Since some of the attacks slam the enemy into an invisible wall, which makes him motionless and allows him to continue the combo, even for the same hero, tactics can change depending on the location.

Puncture wounds

The game’s shortcomings stem from its price – $60, which is equal to the cost of a full-fledged big-budget release. The roster, as I said, is ridiculously small – even when Mako and DTR are added to the game for free, the character list will remain tiny. This is compensated by how different they are from each other in terms of gameplay, and in the anime itself there are not so many heroes, but still. It would be funny to see the heads of the tennis and boxing clubs – in the anime they appear for a few minutes, but their costumes are interesting enough that you can come up with unusual techniques and abilities.

The high price will certainly have a negative impact on multiplayer, which turned out to be surprisingly stable. I played about 15 matches, and I never had a “lag” nightmare, although the opponents were probably not from my region. Some "lag" occurs before the start of the battle, when the characters are demonstrated, but after that either everything goes as smoothly as possible, or literally the game freezes for a split second two or three times. Judging by the actions of opponents in such situations, the same thing happened to them at these moments, so everyone remains in an equal position. There are both regular and rated battles to choose from.

If the multiplayer ever stalls, then in addition to the story campaign, which can be replayed on different difficulties for high scores, there are several other modes. In Survival, you fight one-on-one with random opponents, transferring your health and SP to the next fight. The level of heroic improvements also remains, but decreases over time. In other similar modes, you fight with coverings (animated clothes – those who have watched will understand): either trying to destroy as many enemies as possible in a minute, or dealing with a hundred as quickly as possible, or fighting endlessly. All this is fun until you get the trophies associated with the bonus modes – after that you’ll hardly want to return to them.

However, the story mode recreated the crazy and driving atmosphere of the anime so well, and I had so much fun in the multiplayer that I gave it a low rating Kill la Kill – IF it doesn’t work. Yes, the price is too high, and the publisher has jeopardized the development of the online component. Yes, the roster is too small. But it’s hard not to notice how interested the developers were in a high-quality transfer of the anime universe into the game. Casual passers-by who don’t know anything about Ryuko, Satsuki and Honnouji Academy have nothing to do here, and if you’ve watched the series, then at least at a discount it’s worth checking out the game.

Pros: coolly recreated anime atmosphere; the visual style is very similar to the series, although it is made in 3D; different fighting styles for characters; interesting combat system; stable and fun multiplayer with regular and ranked matches; availability of Japanese and English dubbing with all original actors.

Cons: too high a price may lead to the withering of the online component; There are not enough fighters, even if there is practically no one to add to the list.