Tokyo Underground Killer

I give this game a very mixed recommendation and I'd like to explain why. What this game has in its superb voice acting, incredibly well made 2d art and overall cool storytelling and vibe... It also loses in very flawed gameplay, poor character representation (despite the cool story) and abhorrent visual design. To start, the voice acting is really superb. Being in Japanese, I could've sworn I heard some actual prolific voice actors in here. I haven't confirmed this, but every voice actor felt like they did an actual fantastic performance as far as I can tell. The 2D art used in cutscenes, loading screens, basically anywhere is fantastically drawn with a very cool and consistent style to them all. I quite enjoyed everything shown to me and felt like every visual was great. The story kept me interested enough to push through the flaws, but here is where I have to begin talking about said flaws. The characters themselves are quite absurd, with the protagonist being such a one-note airhead pretending to be the coolest and edgiest guy around that I have to wonder how this moron ever got to be where he is now. Almost every character he encounters tells him the truth that he is being…

DAMN fine gameage!

Tokyo Underground Killer takes elements of Doom and Shadow Warrior and blends them into a slick and stylish action slasher. Combat can take some getting used to, with guns being tricky to aim on the fly, but the sword and blood-arts are the star of the show. Each level feels different and challenges / tools ramp up as you play. Bosses are serviceable, but just cutting through waves of enemies is where things really shine. It has elements of countering and perfect dodging, but you might also end up just swinging wildly as everything catches fire. The plot and characters are fun and interesting, and the use of lights and simple touches really shine out to give even shops, levels and even your apartment a distinct feel. An absolute gem if you want an anime action slasher or wish Killer 7 just let you cut loose and start chopping!

This game is criminally under-discussed AND underpriced. Even at $20, it would easily be worth a full-price purchase. At $10? Just buy it already. The visuals are incredibly unique and stylish BECAUSE OF the clearly limited budget. This is the definition of making the most of what you've got, and there's far more to enjoy here than certain AAA or even "AAAA" titles I could name. That goes for everything to the 3D-modeled environments and enemies to the 2D sprites that make up the main cast. I'll admit, it was a little jarring at first to see the speaking characters in 2D while the enemies and background NPCs were all 3D, but it ultimately adds to the psychedelic unreality of the setting. Not to mention, those 2D designs are all gorgeous and full of character. Not to mention, the cutscenes are all done in this lightly animated manga style which OOZES style from every single panel. There's one particularly creative shot towards the end of the game that had me literally cheering at my desk -- both because it was so narratively satisfying and because it made such brilliant use of the format. Speaking of cutscenes, I've seen a few other reviewers recommend switching to the Japanese…

underrated game. Good vibes good fun so far.

Not gonna lie if i could give this a neutral taking i would, as i type this i only have one mission and 3 arcade missions left before starting ng+ to get the missing moonrose rooms. This game has an amazing aesthetic/visuals and a really high paced, upbeat, catchy soundtrack. The ability upgrades which are blood based are pretty cool too, especially if you spend your time to go to swallow tail and level them up, they become op. However optimization in this game is very iffy and sometimes just straight up bad. In the hub/apartment i get a steady 60fps, and it holds decently even in some missions, but in certain areas and in certain fights, and even in arcade missions (specifically 9) i was seeing fps as low as 38, but it would fluctuate right back to 60. even after lowering the settings the performance was only slightly better, but the stutters and aggressive drops were still present, on default 1080p setting it only uses 4.5 gb of vram yet there's still texture glitches, like the bento point notification essentially becoming blocks. Guns in this game are also a mixed bag, the flame thrower, and ichimatsu dolls are extremely overpowered while the smg, deagle, and shotgun are a…