When a popular anime receives a video game adaptation, more often than not it's some form of arena fighter. On Switch alone, we've already seen the likes of My Hero One's Justice, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and more transform hit anime licenses into enjoyable spectacle fighters. With a sea of competitors, does Arc System Works' latest arena fighter (developed by the studio APlus, which was also responsible for the likes of Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time) Kill La Kill: IF, deserve a place in your Switch library?
Simply put, that would depend upon your knowledge of the original Kill La Kill anime. Unlike the newcomer-friendly introductions of mainstream arena fighters like Naruto or Dragon Ball, players are immediately thrown into a confusing set-piece event that will leave newbies utterly bewildered. A short introductory voice-over attempts to fill you in on the story’s foundations, but those who don't have at least a basic understanding of the anime should fill themselves in before attempting to jump in.
Surprisingly, for a fighting game, there’s a huge focus on providing fans with a satisfying narrative. Overseen by the original creators and amazing animation studio TRIGGER, Kill La Kill: IF offers fans the first official piece of original narrative content since the anime's finale. It certainly starts strong; beginning with a high-calibre, action-packed opener, IF wastes absolutely no time in throwing players straight into the thick of it.
Unlike most games based on anime properties, A+'s fighter is designed as a “What If” scenario that starts partway through the original narrative. Instead of entirely focusing on series protagonist Ryuko Matoi, players will spend a great deal of time playing as student council president Satsuki Kiryuin. The further you play through the four-or-so-hour campaign, the more apparent the narrative differences are; every event seems more fan-service-y than the last.
Kill La Kill: IF does a fantastic job to make sure each character's personality is perfectly represented, so you get an idea of what they're about even if you've never seen the original anime. While only a few appear even somewhat likeable as real human beings, their motivations are clear. While we won't spoil it here, certain events down the line will manage to both hype fans up and make at least a lone tear escape from their eyes. It's nothing extraordinary, but it's at the very least well-executed.
Taking into account the fighting game pedigree of Guilty Gear developer Arc System Works, which is publishing the game (in North America and Japan, at least), Kill La Kill: IF should be a masterful shakeup the genre surely needs. With Arc System Works’ near-perfect entries in the 2D fighting game genre providing gamers with some of the best examples of virtual fisticuffs you can get, we were hoping that the arena fighter would finally receive a technical, balanced and rewarding entry. Unfortunately, Kill La Kill: IF stands as one of the weakest fighters we've played in quite some time.
Unlike the technically deep fighting mechanics found in Guilty Gear, this title is effectively a three-button fighter in a 3D space. Each of the game's ten playable characters has access to a short-range attack, long-range attack and a guard break. Every move is conveyed with style; firing off an onslaught of combos results in gorgeous sparks and hit effects filling the screen, sometimes at the cost of smooth performance.
Just like most fighters, landing and taking attacks will fill up a super meter that will allow you to use powerful special attacks. Each attack is lavishly animated: gorgeous 24fps animated sequences open each move with build-up, weight and satisfying hit effects. Unavoidable gratuitous camera angles merge with grossly indecent outfit designs to create an extreme level of sexualization that some will feel is alluring, but most will surely find off-putting. Not one to play in front of your family, then.
If the insanely sexualized character designs don’t matter to you, Kill La Kill: IF is a fantastic-looking title on Nintendo Switch – even when blown up on a large TV. Performance does suffer in places; most of the game’s major fights involve numerous characters all duking it out in one arena which can noticeably tank performance in both docked and portable mode. 1v1 fights don’t fall as far below, but a rock-solid framerate is seemingly off the table here. With a small lineup of just six arenas to fight in, repetition kicks in far too soon for a fighting game.
Dash mechanics and an intriguing 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' mechanic attempt to keep fights intriguing, but a shoddy camera and uncontrollable lock-on make a lot of the fights feel frustrating to play through. Any match that involves more than a 1-on-1 match-up is an exercise in patience. Most of the extra modes consisting of unsatisfying group fights.
Outside of fighting, there’s nothing that will keep players entertained for long. Playing through fights will earn you gold that can be used to unlock music, 3D dioramas and more. While the extra fluff is appreciated, they’re simply extra unlockables that you need to grind to access.
Conclusion
Unless you’re a fan of the anime, Kill La Kill: IF is not the game for you. While the story mode is beautifully presented, it’s not as lengthy or engaging as the hours-long experiences offered by other arena fighters. While the potential of an Arc System Works arena fighter sounds promising (even if it was only publishing in this case), this 3D fighting game ends up being a bigger disappointment than many of its contemporaries. The visuals are pristine, the animation is gorgeous, but everything else feels barren. Kill La Kill: IF feels like a budget title – too bad it costs $50.
Comments 77
I expected this kind of score. Lovely pass which means time to do other things (gaming related of course).
Whoa, that's uhhh... Some interesting artwork.
I would say I would love to see some promotional material without a giant green mech stain on the screen.
Yay the perv anime gets a game. Unleash your inner perv!
I downloaded the demo earlier in the week and after about 15 minutes of it not actually being a demo and no gameplay, I turned it off and deleted it.
It may be fun... I don't know. But I don't have the patience.
Sigh. Always seems to be either-or. Either we get a game with strong sex appeal or we get a technically good, well-developed game that's fun to play. Devs can't seem to do both anymore... the search continues.
@Dualmask That's because fanservice and good gameplay typically don't mix. Why bother spending extra time making your game awesome when you can just flash bewbs and butts amd make bank anyway?
Obviously, there are some exceptions out there but we all know they are rare.
Demo was awful lol
Such a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge disappointment
ASW aren't actually the developers on this one, they're publishing A-Plus' game.
Dragon Ball FighterZ with Kill La Kill characters. That's what I want.
Nintendo Life gave Pokken Tournament a 9/10 and this a 6/10. This is a fighting game with a bad story, but at the end of the day its a fighting game. And I thought the gameplay was really unique compared to other fighting games I have played, including Pokken Tournament. I thought it was fun, not to mention all you can do with the fighting options they give you. Fighting was also more fluid than other fighting games.
One of my favorite anime ever, but I’ll easily skip this game. Probably. ....maybe a good sale will tempt me, haha.
@Kalmaro yeah, that seems to be the nature of most licensed products... As long as the fanservice is covered (boobs, butts or otherwise), the actual quality of the product is of secondary importance.
@Heavyarms55 i agree especially since im seeing a pattern of them complaining about some skin being shown in these games just like with peach ball which is ridiculous it makes me wonder if some of them actually support censorship which is causing them to have bias against these type of games and dont get me wrong not everyone has the same taste in these games and thats ok but it bugs me if their deducting points because of these games being too revealing but the other complaints about the game seems justified it does look it missing some things to make it a great fighting game.
@Toshiro_Baloney Same. I liked the anime ok, but the demo started off with a bunch of long unskippable scenes rehashing events from the anime that I already saw years ago. I wanted to see what gameplay was like but I got sick of waiting and quit the demo before it even got that far.
Well at least the DLC might make it more interesting.
The game has some great artwork and solid gameplay.
And that's it, I tried it and it's boring to say at least.
I agree with the score, unless you're a fan of the series this game is meh.
You say it looks great, runs great, and give it a "Not Bad" score. But your headlines kind of imply that it's bad. |:-`
Actually a great game for what it is. Deep enough game play beautiful presentation and most importantly fun. The anime is hilarious and yes kinda pervy but most of them are. I think the characters are awesome and the idea of social justice and hierarchies are handled very well. Main character is very sassy and motivated. Anyway good game I give it an 8, but this will have to wait on my play list because well... just look at July releases lol. My advice to enjoy this to the fullest if anything is to watch the anime and then pick this up. You will def want to control all the colorful characters in this game.
Taking away points because it has a lot of fan service means you probably didn’t pay attention to the anime which had loads of fan service it’s definitely not a game you play in front of your family or if it makes you uncomfortable but it doesn’t mean it’s a bad game some aspects could have been better but if Trigger wanted to give us another story probably should’ve given us a movie otherwise it’s really for diehards like myself
As a game this should get an 8 @nintendolife stop screwing up their metacritic score lol! Other sites are giving this great praise. Def a fun game to collect as a fan or if you love beating **** up in crazy style!
Super oof, 6 seems incredibly generous. Then again the anime itself was not good either.
@LetsGoSwitch you certainly haven’t seen the anime if you talk about it that way.
KLK has fanservice (which is something I despise), but it’s only there for narrative/subversive reasons: the whole point of the anime is to subvert and play with “Magical Girl anime” tropes, hence the whole “living clothes that give people power and leave them pretty much naked”.
Also, seeing famservice is talked straight im this review, I’m not sure the reviewer gets it either. Not saying he doesn’t, he just simply doesn’t show his understanding of this.
@Fazermint wholeheartedly disagree, I found it to be very imaginative, subversive and funny.
Just out of curiosity, what kind of anime do you like?
@clvr If the anime is like this and has fanservice, I'd probably agree with Fazermint.
I like random anime, lot of the stuff like Rorinikenshin (forgot how to spell that) yuyu hakiso (I can't spell that either)
Detective Conan (finally, an easy one!)
Uhhh... Black butler was interesting, I'd probably like Boko no hero but I'm reading the manga. Same for 1 punch man. Reading the manga on Shonen jump app, haven't watched the show.
I giggle every time I read “fan service” when what is really meant is “T&A”.
Gotta love that fan service. There’s a couple free websites that are just jam packed with it on the internet.
@Fazermint huh really? Kill la kill has fluid animation and unique style. Are you really watching it?
@Kalmaro well, if you can conclude that an anime is not good because of a couple shots of a licensed video game and the notion that there is fanservice, sorry my friend but you’re completely missing the point.
You don’t even know what the story is about, what the themes are, and how it all is communicated, which are the basis for judging good storytelling against bad storytelling.
I understand that it might not be for you: I also was very skeptical at first and didn’t like the premise, but by the end I loved it because of its very unique storytelling; that said, dismissing it on those basis is plain unfair.
It’s like saying the Nolan Batman trilogy is made up of bad films just because you don’t like superheroes: I don’t, but they’re objectively and undeniably great films I thoroughly enjoyed because of their craft, despite them being about a superhero.
@clvr I don't have to know what the story is about, I don't like the art direction/style. It's as simple as that, so I won't watch it.
Just like how I don't care what the story of Adventure time is about. I don't like how the show looks.
The reviewers here really need to get over being so squeamish when it comes to fanservice. If a game has any at all its bumped down to a 5 and then it may or may not improve in score. Correct me if I'm wrong but you should score a game on its own merits and not your personal feelings on its subject matter. I'd much rather see fanservice in games that copious amounts of blood and gore personally but I'm not going to say Mortal Kombat is a bad game simply because it's gory, I'd say it's bad because it's controls are so stiff and doesn't flow as well as Street Fighter for example.
I'll add it to the collection after it gets a steep discount physically.
"That's only for fans of the anime"...no kidding, that's what these type of games are for, the fans of the original series
@Kalmaro well that’s your choice and it’s ok, just don’t act like the show isn’t good based on your biases if you don’t know anything about it. That’s all.
@Kalmaro it makes fun of common anime tropes like fanservice ...that's the thing
@Aaronnnnn That's all well in good, doesn't make me like it any more though.
@clvr It's my opinion and I've never claimed more than that.
Huh. Once again my review and NL's are at complete odds with one another! Go figure.
I will admit that the roster feels a little small and that there could have been more modes, but everything else was pretty great. The combat is spectacularly fast and captures all the insanity of the anime. Quite a bit like Smash Bros. in terms of how it's simple on the surface but offers plenty of flexibility and complexity. Also, every character is super unique, so I thought that that made up for the roster size. I'd rather have ten distinctive fighters than thirty copy and paste characters. When it comes to the story, it's nowhere near as good as the anime but still offers an interesting new perspective for series fans.
Regardless, that's just my opinion on the game!
Honestly you guys always seem to give lewd games lower scores than most other reviewers , Senran Kagura Peach Ball was actually a fun game and you gave it a lower score than every other reviewer, I played the demo of this game and it was pretty good. When it comes to games that feature a lot of lewd fan service watch some game play of it and decide for yourself, most game reviewers are against games like this ( either they are ashamed of them, ideologically against them or just want to look good )
@JoeyJoJo89 To me that is just a big aspect of why I no longer take video game reviews too seriously. At the end of the day they are just nothing besides someone's opinion, and more often than not I am finding myself disagreeing with the critics these days. When I read the reviews it becomes pretty obvious why that is, I am simply looking at video games differently than they do and I am looking for different things out of them as well. They just seem to play the games differently than I would, what they like and are put off by is different from me, and they always seem to have these agendas or biases that I disagree with or simply don't care about.
@GameOtaku Couldn't agree more. So long as games come from Japan, we'll get games with fanservice. No one changes their culture because a video game reviewer doesn't agree with it.
That said, there are so many of these templated arena fighters this gen that I don't see a need to buy yet another, particularly not with FE:Three Houses out today as well.
@GameOtaku personally, I think they would be remiss not to mention the “fan service” (hehe) in the main body of the review, but I don’t get the sense it factored in to the decision based on the review’s conclusion paragraph. This game got a 5/10 on IGN. I just don’t think the gameplay on display here is that good. Even the 7/10 from Gamespot is from a self-professed die hard fan of the show, and it’s got a lot of critique on the gameplay.
@JoeyJoJo89 I didn't deduct points for fan service. Personally, while it is off-putting due to the armour designs not making any sense, it doesn't annoy me as much as it would others – Japanese games are from a different culture where this is the norm and I can begrudgingly accept that. Would it be surprising to hear I gave it a 6 because the gameplay isn't very good?
While I found the demo kinda fun, I really wish anime IPs would get more 2D fighters rather than these arena fighters.
Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax and DragonBall FighterZ are examples of fun games that can be as casual or deep as the amount of time the player puts into them, while also being a treat for fans of the IP included.
Imagine if this and Jump Force were 2D sprite-based high-speed fighters. They would have been extremely fun.
@Toshiro_Baloney Did you do the story mode? I had just jumped straight into versus mode. I haven't tried the story mode in the demo yet.
@OdnetninAges Dengeki Bunko NEEDS a new version.
I expected this to have better gameplay. Oh well.
You guys compared this to My Hero One's Justice as one the 'enjoyable spectacle fighters' previously released on the Switch, but in the end you gave the two the same score.
My wish of an anime game I want to see a Zombleland Saga video game were you play as the six main characters of the anime Sakura, Saki, Ai, Junko, Yugiri, and Lily in each of there own perspective with a gameplay style of a classic LucasArts or Serria Entertainment point-and-click adventure game specially Full Throttle if your playing as Nikaido Saki. If anyone want to know more feel free to ask me.
Regardless of the fanservice, arena fighters are always hollow and unsatisfying. Mash mash mash mash mash... Next!
It sounded to me like the reviewer's main problem here was that he was pinning his hopes on Arc System Works working a miracle and making this genre fun.
I never understood why "fanservice" is often used in a negative light... Isn't that what we want?? Especially when we're always screaming that so and so company "isn't listening to its fans"?
@commentlife yeah, it bothers me because I don't know what people are talking about. Are you talking about light, non XXX porn, or are you talking about including lots of references and characters that people love? At least call it sexy fan service or something!
@60frames-please yeah, I agree. I tend to use the term way differently. Like, to me Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is an example of fan service. DC Universe Online is fan service. My Nintendo Rewards are fan service. But here, it kind of makes it seem like every anime fan is just in it for the tits or something haha.
I was surprised at how much I liked the demo! There's a lot of compelling music, cool stylized graphics, and dramatic attacks. Even with the constant dropped frames I was having fun playing it! At least it goes up to 60fps sometimes : ) I also don't know what to say about the sort of non-clothing the girls or women wear. When the camera zooms in on a 99% bare butt I find myself thinking "they could at least put some shorts on her!" It's like the clothes are designed to be as titillating as possible. Complete nudity would be more normal, it seems to me. Anyways, Kill la Kill isn't trying to be normal, so um, mission accomplished! If they patch the frame rate to stay at 60fps I'll be strongly tempted to buy this! I also now want to watch Kill la Kill. I've only enjoyed Miyazaki films, Grave of the Fireflies, and Steamboy in terms of anime. Maybe I could expand my anime horizons...
@commentlife Yes, your definition makes sense to me. Using it the other way just seems like a euphemism, like people are ashamed so they call it something less "dirty". Oh well, I'm sure I won't change how the phrase is used.
@Kalmaro Ehh have you seen Kill La Kill? The game is just emulating the show, where the fan service is actually done in jest. But it is probably hard to understand this if you haven't seen it.
@LewisWhite I think this review could have used a better description of the fighting and why it is so bad. The amount I know about this game before and after I read this is not that different.
Like you said it is 3 buttons, but are there like combos or something or is it just mashing?
@60frames-please lol I’m gonna start using it IRL.
“Hey dude, check out the fan service on that one...”
“Hey girl, I really like your fan service”
@GameOtaku i agree which is why peach ball should be reviewed again without any bias towards it.
@Tedikuma How so?
@RiasGremory I disagree.
Reviews are subjective. No such thing as no bias. If a certain aspect of a game detracts from that reviewer's enjoyment, it's fair game.
That's why you read the review rather than simply looking at a number score. A deal breaker for one, may be part of the appeal for another.
@secret333 I've seen images from the show. That's kinda enough for me.
@Toshiro_Baloney
That is exactly the problem with all news media outlets! They are supposed to be unbiased and fair.
@60frames-please Kill la Kill is probably my favorite anime (if we are talking strictly about TV shows and not movies). However if you haven't seen some other shows it isn't nearly as fun, because it is basically a parody of typical anime tropes.
But the music is awesome indeed, the animation is great and I loved the characters and story. There's a lot to enjoy even if you don't get some of the jokes.
@countzero I'm probably going to watch at least some of it soon. I just love so much about the game demo on Switch! What would you say is the classic show that gets spoofed by kill la Kill? Like the one most parodied?
@TempOr Same here, I am actually enjoying it, in my opinion that score is not reflective of the game at all... May be a 7.5 for me..
@60frames-please I can't think of a single show it's more making fun of typical anime clichés in general. For example shows like Dragon Ball often spread out one big epic fight over several episodes while Kill la Kill sometimes has multiple climactic fights in one epsidoe.
One show that I was think about a lot while watching it was Gurren Lagan, but that's probably because it was made by the same people.
Not familiar with the anime, and I found the demo unforgiveably dull. Cutscenes are nice, but not being able to skip or pause them is a baffling design decision.
@countzero Cool, got it. Probably going to watch some KLK today.
@Toshiro_Baloney thats bs go read peach ball review again and compare that to other sites reviews they actually reviewed it without being bias towards characters being revealing/showing skin and most of the sites gave it positive reviews.
Soy Boy score 6/10!
Have the game ordered. The anime was great. Will need to get my Joy cons fixed or a new pair first.
@RiasGremory The other game reviews have no bias? The other articles stating their opinions are unbiased? Opinions are unbiased?
@TempOr it's the best game I have ever played........sadly not but demo was good for 15 mins just stick to that.
Definitely liked the demo, but with only 8 characters and minimal modes ... this is the one time I’m actually waiting for a price-drop (£20 and then I’ll pick it up).
Tried demo. It sucked.
GOOD NEWS! It's on sale right now at Gamestop for $20.
@Kalmaro Do you really not know how to spell the word boobs or was that intentional?
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