Giant weapons that eat things, post-apocalyptia, highly customizable weapons (right down to the ammo). At first glance, Gods Eater Burst is the coolest thing I have come across in years. Hyper-kinetic, crazily designed, and probably having its genesis in someone’s fever dream, the game is an amazing, fresh take on the monster hunting genre. 

We’ll begin with the story of Gods Eater Burst. A bunch of stylish anime characters (the God Eaters) have to defend themselves from an army of mutant beasts in a post-apocalyptic world. Using their massively cool, yet ridiculous weapons, called God Arcs, they are able to ‘consume’ these beasts to upgrade their weapons. The basis for the story is great, and the anime opening and graphics really bring you into this world. Right away, you’ll find yourself ramped up in a stylistic, over-the-top game world, with giant weapons (akin to Cloud Strife’s buster sword in FF7) and even bigger enemies. The graphics and character design (despite the so-so voice acting and generic individual character stories) bring everything together. 

- I'm going to make you my... blade! -

The coolest part about Gods Eater Burst is just how customizable everything is. By using your weapon to ‘eat’ enemies, you are able to power up your weapon and customize it. The customization is insane. From the gun, right down to the ammo, to how your character looks, there is no end to making things how you want them. This is the coolest part of the game for sure.

The battles are fast-paced, slick, and fun. The mutant beasts, called Aragami, look great, and can be tough, but if you eat an Aragami while it is still alive, you go into Bursts mode, which makes you more powerful for a few moments. 

However, Gods Eater Burst does suffer somewhat. What I mentioned above is about where the game ends. It becomes a blatantly repetitive grind, and it makes you wonder if you need to play more than a few hours before you’ve realized you’ve seen it all.  Battles rarely change, and there isn’t much to keep this game going strong. Though you can switch between melee and long range, or approach a battle defensively, it’s not enough to really keep things amped up. It is also unfortunate that the world seems very small and condensed. This game could have benefited from large, expansive maps and areas.

Other small problems can be found with both the controls and camera of Gods Eater Burst. The controls, which aren’t terrible, are not as tight as they should be for a game such as this. The camera tends to get annoying as things happen quickly, especially as some of these beasts are quite large and take up a lot of screen space. Also, some of the A.I. for the monsters gets insanely annoying, because eventually they all start to seem to run away as they get low on HP. I found it absolutely frustrating to chase these critters down to finish them off. In fact, this got so annoying, there were times I was wondering why I was still bothering with the game.

- Big enemies are no match for multiple heroes toting huge weapons -

Oddly enough, most of the flaws are probably so disappointing and glaring because the game itself is so cool, so you’re expecting for it to be just a bit better. At times, the game feels more like a really long demo or an uncompleted game, rather than something full and complete. Replacing the A.I. heroes with live human players can spice up the gameplay a bit, but other than that, there is very little to keep you interested after the first four hours or so.

Gods Eater Burst will most appeal to anime fans and those who appreciate games for their look and visuals. J-Pop fans out there will love the addition of songs by Alan, which lends a real Japanese-feel to the game. 

Perhaps another Gods Eater game will fix the flaws, and then we will have something truly magnificent. 

GameDynamo's Score for Gods Eater Burst (PSP)

	Score	Description
Graphics	92	Awesome design and great animations – visuals are one of the highlights of the game.
Sound	90	Great J-Pop songs by Alan.
Gameplay	80	Despite, a few minor problems, it has some really cool customization features. Still, repetitive gameplay hurts Gods Eater Burst the most.
Play Value	76	The game has some awesome things to enjoy: highly customizable weapons and characters, a cool setting, a great feel to it, and a decent story. However, there is not much more than that.
Final Score	78	A game worth checking out, with lots of cool elements, but it suffers from a small world and not enough action to keep it exciting past the first few hours.

[View Gods Eater Burst images / screenshots +]
[Watch Gods Eater Burst videos / trailers +]
[View more Gods Eater Burst articles (news, previews, reviews) +]
[View Gods Eater Burst cheats / guides +]

Stories from around the web