• Platform: Dreamcast
• Developer: Atlus
• Genre: Hack and Slash
• Year: 2000

Maken X is a first person hack and slash released back in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast. At its core, it's a game about learning your opponent's attack patterns and striking when they're vulnerable. It's almost arcade-y, which feels at home on a Sega platform.

You run through levels striking down your foes, often times strategizing which ones to take down first. There's a guy shooting at you from the top of a pile of crates. You have to make your way up there to kill him, but there are a couple of swordsmen that you have to take care of first before you can reach him. You're avoiding the attacks of the guy shooting you and the other swordsman slashing at you. It's a balancing act for sure.

Most of the combat is melee based, exceptions include the special attacks for some characters (more about that later). A typical encounter goes like this: You run into an enemy or group of enemies. To attack one, you lock onto them in a way similar to Z-targeting in Ocarina of Time. You can then strafe around the enemy, jump-strafe to quickly move around them, or jump over them at the perfect moment so that you can perform a critical strike on their backside. You can attack them head-on, of course, but you'll want to do it when they're vulnerable. This could be right after they perform a heavy attack or they are pulling their arm back in preparation for their next swing. When you move backwards, you can block their attack if timed correctly. This is essentially the main combat loop. The variety comes from what the enemy's vulnerabilities and how their attacks affect your movement around them.

The best way to describe this is with some of the level-unique enemies. In the Istanbul level, there is an iron-maiden-like enemy that only moves and becomes vulnerable when your back is turned to it. When you turn your back on it, you'll hear it make a shrieking noise, which tells you that it's on the move.

These freaky abominations are only vulnerable when they're moving, and they run directly towards you with their sharp interior exposed. They're too tall and spiky to jump over, and being nudged by them at even 75% health could be instant death. However, they have very little health. If you side-jump them right before they reach you, and attack their side before they retreat into their impenetrable shell, you can take them out in only 1-2 hits. As mentioned earlier, it's all about learning their patterns, discovering a weakness, and striking at the right moments.

Speaking of unique enemies, I'd like to take this moment to shout out the chaingun-piss-man in the London level. Truly terrifying to fight as his blades do a lot of damage if you're not careful, and at a distance he whips out the chaingun and relaxes his arms behind his head.

I'd like to get into how this game punishes the player. The player has unlimited lives, however the levels have no checkpoints. If you die, you have to restart the stage, although the levels aren't usually very long. All of my deaths felt fair, as in it was my fault that I died and not poor collision or something. When restarting a level I'd be upset with myself for dying to something that I should have seen coming, or for my own bad timing, but I'd be eager to try again with what I've learned. I was now prepared for the surprises that caught me off guard. Having unlimited lives meant unlimited times to learn from failure and try again.

There is a pretty wide variety of levels. I haven't beat the game, so I haven't seen all of what the game has to offer, but some set-pieces include a research facility, a plane, a neon-lit rainy city, and the ruins of war-torn london. Your travels will take you to various environments around the globe, and you decide which place to take on next. All with a very cool, late 90's soundtrack to fuel your bloodlust.

So what is your goal? Why are you travelling across the globe, slaying those who stand in your path? To be honest I'm not entirely sure. The story is a bit confusing, but I haven't really followed it too well either. It seems to be a story of questionable scientific ethics, saving your kidnapped chief-scientist-daddy, the mysteries of the soul, and the end of the world. Kinda gives Evangelion vibes, as dumb and probably cliche as that sounds.

You start off the game as a girl named Kay, who is the daughter of the scientist in charge of a groundbreaking project. The project is essentially a synthetic life form with an artificial psi, that can merge with the psi of humans. This life form is Maken, and often takes the form of its user's weapon. The game seems to hint that the player is the synthetic life form taking control of the humans, which is pretty neat.

Kay's father is kidnapped by some kind of military force who wants to take control of Maken, and use it to takeover the world and kill everyone or something. Kay, in desperation to save her father, merges her psi with Maken, which transforms into a sword for her to wield. In turn, her psi is locked in some kind of purgatory, which is concerning to the scientists and her friend who is just kind of there. Maken takes control of her body, and she rampages through the facility hunting down her father's kidnapper.

The search for her father takes her far, and she encounters a few allies who know more about the kidnappers and their goals.

Between levels, sometimes a cutscene will play showing Kay in what I think is purgatory for the merged psi. Kay talks directly to he player about her goals, and some of the decisions you've made throughout your journey (I assume there's different endings?). In one of these she just drops her life story and anime credentials such as her age and what high school she goes to and shit. Damn that's crazy but can I go kill things now? This is also the only cutscene I've seen in the game so far where a character's mouth moves when they talk.

As shown by the images above, the writing can be incredibly profound. It's worth noting that the voice acting is very cheesy and of its era. It's fantastic.

A big gameplay element that I've not yet mentioned is the brainjacking mechanic. During some stages, you may defeat a boss or meet someone who you can brainjack. Brainjacking is when you take control of another character and therefore gain their abilities. Lorewise, I think Maken is taking over their body while banishing their psi to limbo or something.

Some characters, like the airplane pilot early on, is super lame and has no abilities. He's pretty slow, doesn't jump very high, and has a weak stun baton that sometimes stuns. Some characters, like Shaja (a boss you can encounter), has multiple arms and can throw sword projectiles. Special abilities such as this, however, sacrifice a little bit of health whenever it's used. For most of my playthrough I've played as Fei Shan Lee, who feels really good to control, attacks quickly, and has a ranged special attack. I think you can brainjack other characters at will, but I haven't tried this yet. I'm unsure as to if it's something you unlock later, or if you have to re-enter whichever level you left the character you want to brainjack.

You can rank up as well, which I assume boosts damage and speed for the current character you are brainjacking. To rank up, you need to kill enemies and pick up the glowing thing that they drop upon death. These glowing things can also be found within the levels.

As you might imagine, first person controls on a controller with one analog stick is going to be a bit odd. You do get used to it, and it works well once you understand it, but it's still pretty weird. On its own, the analog stick moves the player with tank-style movement, keeping the view straight forward doom-style. When you hold the right-trigger while using the stick, you can strafe left and right. While holding the left-trigger, you can look around freely without moving the character. Most enemies are at eye-level, so you don't need to look around during combat most of the time. Looking around is best for after combat when you're trying to figure out where to go next or when you're searching for powerups or switches. The main buttons on the controller are used for locking onto enemies, jumping, interacting, and attacking.

Maken X has been one of those games lately where all I'm thinking at work is "Damn, I kinda want to be home playing that right now", and I don't think I've felt that for a game in a hot minute. It's super fun to analyze and take down the enemies and bosses, and the challenge keeps me coming back. It's unbelievably cheesy, but also very charming.

As far as I know, it hasn't been re-released digitally on any platform. It was ported to the Ps2 in Japan and Europe, but this port totally changed the game by turning it into a third-person game with the same controls. This game definitely deserves to be preserved on modern platforms.

[January 25, 2022]