The director of Akiba’s Beat, Kohta Takano, has officially stated in an interview that there will be no fanservice like in the previous game, Akiba’s Trip. The reasoning was for finding a new audience, to appeal to those that may not have liked Akiba’s Trip.
In case you weren’t aware, Akiba’s Trip had a stripping mechanic. Since the enemies were vampires and required direct exposure to sunlight, the clothes needed to be torn off to defeat them. For those worried that this will affect the narrative, XSEED had also assured players that the game will still feature funny dialogue, like from the previous game.
Akiba’s Beat will have other differences from the previous game, taking more of an action-RPG route. Graphics will also be updated, showing a more detailed Akihabara too. There will even be dungeon-crawling combat which is a bit reminiscent of a few series such as Persona (mainly boss designs) and the Tales series (for 3D combat). Takano also stated he was very interested in working on this type of combat.
Akiba’s Beat is set for a fall release in Japan, and a winter release for North America of this year.
