Let's all put aside the odd fact that the "Gods" in "Gods Eater Burst" is plural. In doing so, we can avoid scratching our heads hard enough to draw blood. Think about something more important. For example: why are you eating gods? Because the world is dead, and it's your job.
Of course, you're not actually killing and eating gods in Gods Eater Burst. In this devastated world, mankind has been wiped out by a powerful new organism collectively called the Aragami (a Japanese term invoking gods and demons). The organisms devoured other life in order to survive, assuming different forms in the process. Only a few factions of humanity remain, and they've been united under Fenrir, a military organization intent on rebuilding the world.
Gods Eater Burst is similar to the Monster Hunter series that infected Japan like a PSP-powered plague. It's a real-time role-playing game which tasks you with killing a bunch of creatures and collecting raw materials to craft new equipment and upgrade the old. With this new equipment, you're better prepared to face even nastier monsters and collect even better raw materials. And so the cycle continues.
It's great fun at first, but it gets dangerously repetitive. Even though killing gods is a thrilling task, and I'm a sucker for anything that takes place after the apocalypse, I started to get fed up with the experience towards the end. Not to say there isn't a lot to appreciate here; it's just a shame there wasn't more variety to keep the god-slaying at its best.
While I could never get behind the fur-wearing, dino-killin' antics of Monster Hunter, the visual style of Gods Eater Burst appealed to me from the start. A stunning anime opening introduces a harsh world filled with colorful, stylized characters and living weapons. It's great stuff, especially for you anime nerds out there. If only the character models animated and emoted more. As it stands, the whole story is like a mannequin theater.
At first, the combat in Gods Eater Burst is incredible, but it gets tired with time. Multiple weapon and shield types, as well as various upgrades, all lend to a customizable experience where characters can fight monsters in different ways. The Gods Eater weapon of choice -- the God Arc -- can transform from a sword into a gun and back again. This is an entertaining dynamic both visually and strategically. In one moment I'm hacking and slashing away at some toothy beast and the next I'm rolling back and firing ice blasts into its face.
Bullets are much more important in combat than you might expect. In order to properly prepare for battle, you'll need to craft your very own ammo. There's a complex bullet crafting system in place that lets you make just about anything you want. If you're interested in designing a bullet that flies through the air, stops, and drops small bombs on your enemies, you can do that.
Bullet crafting is one of many fantastic ideas in Gods Eater. I was just as impressed with the unorthodox method that you harvest raw materials for item crafting. As the title of Gods Eater suggests, your God Arc can transform into a giant mouth with pointy fangs that bites your enemies. On a living opponent, this boosts your character's performance for a short time. On a fallen foe, this is how you gather resources.
For the first several hours, this was all sorts of sweet. I had a blast running around post-apocalyptic Japan with a transforming weapon, killing monsters as I went. It's always rewarding to gather materials that can be used for item creation, and I appreciate the fact that you can tackle missions with friends via ad hoc wireless in order to better coordinate attacks. Even though my comrades were dropped a few times from the game, Gods Eater does support a seamless re-connection option for getting people back in the game.
But Gods Eater Burst gets old. After more than 20 hours of play time, I was still fighting the same monsters in the same set of environments. There's a painful lack of variation to be found and the battle system just isn't spontaneous enough to support that kind of grinding. Even against difficult opponents, I found myself defaulting to the same ol' strategies. Run behind him, attack, block, wait. Repeat for 20 hours with little variation and you'll see why it gets old.
It was even more frustrating to fight larger groups of Aragami at a time. In-game tutorials recommend "running and hiding," and trying to separate the Aragami in order to fight one at a time. This was next to impossible for me. Even after using a stun grenade (a special item that blinds Aragami), I would try and run away only to have the entire group of monsters come along for the ride. Death followed soon after.
If I did manage to isolate an Aragami from the rest of the pack, I would spend most of my time chasing it down as it leapt around like a fish out of water. I know these are supposed to be fast, dangerous creatures, but battles aren't fun if I'm doing more running than I am slashing.
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