Zettai Hero Project!

A Tokusatsu inspired video game? You have our attention.




Zettai Hero Project: Unlosing Ranger vs. DarkDeath Evilman
Game: Z.H.P (Zettai Hero Project)
System: PSP (UMD and PSN)
Price: $29.99

ZHP is one of those obscure games that you can’t picture it coming  to America. Why? Because It’s filled with numerous Japanese superhero (or Tokusatsu, Toku for short) references that the average gamer or American superhero fan wouldn’t know or understand. Luckily NIS America chose to bring this game over to the States in all it‘s Japanese glory. I’m going to try and keep this review as spoiler free as possible so feel free to read it all the way through. Although I do recommend watching the official trailer first. It does a much better job at explaining the game then I can (What do you expect. That’s it job). Anyways let’s dig into ZETTAI HERO PROJECT!
  
Story: 
       The story is your basic hero setup. The evil Demon General: DarkDeath Evil Man is threatening to take over the world! A hero known only as  the Unlosing Ranger must henshin up and save the world from destruction! …Well that’s how if would have happened if he hadn’t been hit by a car on his  way to the final showdown. Ouch. As our “hero” slowly dies on the side of the road he passes his Morphing belt onto the first person he sees, Main Character. Main Character is, obviously, the hero of the game. Armed with Unlosing Ranger’s belt you must become the next hero who will take down EvilMan and save the world….hopefully.

GamePlay:
       ZHP is a “rouge like” game. This means that dungeons are generated randomly and anything can happen. This also means that the game can be really hard at times. Thankfully you’ve got more than just a fancy costume to help you fight evil. You can customize your hero with various pieces of equipment that you acquire throughout the game. Everything about your hero can be changed. From his Head, Arms, Torso, and Legs. Want Tank Treads? Go for it! (Unless you wanted a toyline of you made. Only secondary heroes use tank treads.) Feel like duel wielding swords? Go for it! Want a spiffy new mask that screams “dark hero“? DO IT ALREADY! Depending on the parts you have equipped your theme song also changes to fit your heroes theme. So far my favorites are the 8-bit and “Super Robot” versions. Eventually you get strong enough to take on DarkDeath again and as a little treat you fight him in an 8-bit RPG style like in Dragon Warrior! One of the characters even questions why the final boss battle looks so “craptastic”. Apparently it’s because the “main character sucks.” Coming from your mentor that’s not much of a compliment. Thankfully the other character says “Can’t we just sell it by saying “We’re going for a retro look?”” If you’ve seen the trailer than you know what’s gonna happen. Not going to spoil it but you don’t win...again. Oh well the only thing left to do is to modify your body by using chips and implants! A Cybernetic superhero? Kamen Rider would be proud. You do this by visiting a Clinic at your base. It’s a lot like the customization system from the MegaMan Battle Network games. You have to place chips on a grid that looks like your body. Depending on what chips you place your stats are affected. Simple as that.

Losing:

       Yes losing is a big part of this game. With a name like Unlosing Ranger you would think losing wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately our main character is a wuss and you will die numerous times. When you die you loose all your items and you start back form level 1 (Your chip implants remain however). But before you rage and throw down your PSP in anger there is a benefit to this. You actually have two levels: Your regular level and your Total Level. When you die your current level is added on to your Total level and becomes a stat boost for your hero. You may be level 1 again but you’re now a much stronger hero than when you died. Your items can also be put into storage inside your house so if you have something really valuable you want to save it’s best to put it in there. Every time I died I didn’t get mad at all. If anything I felt stronger because of it and next time I entered the dungeon I could tell my character my was stronger as well. Despite the difficulty, through modding your body and leveling up you can overcome the challenges the game throws at you. There’s always a way to win.

Graphics: 
     I’m not the kind of person to nitpick graphics but I must say ZHP has some nice visuals. The dungeons look really cool and the character sprites stick out in a  way that makes them look really cool and unique. If you’ve played Disgaea or Prinny than you’re probably familiar with this style.

Sound:
     I LOVE this soundtrack. Even as I’m typing this I have my headphones plugged into my PSP. The Unlosing Ranger Theme is really catchy despite being in Japanese. Speaking of Japanese there is a Japanese audio track option for people who want to have the option of listening to the original voices. I like both vocal tracks. The English acting is all over the top and campy but the Japanese is the same way. It all comes down to what you prefer. On a side note the Japanese voices remind me of watching a Sentai show. Lot’s of over the top yelling and whatnot. If you’ve seen a Tokusatsu than you can probably get what I’m trying to say here.


Cameos:
     I feel like I can’t mention this game without mentioning the various anime and game cameos that are present. Prinny for example shows up at your base (One can even become your “wife”). Also anime characters such as Kirino from OreImo aka My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute have their own dungeons and beating these dungeons nets you a piece of equipment. In Kirino’s case it’s her schoolgirl uniform…creepy. I’m surprised this part of the game was localized. Anime such as OreImo (which just started airing in Japan and was based upon a book of the same title) are completely unknown in America. I only found out about it when I heard it was getting an anime about 2 months ago. Still the dungeons are fun and even if you don’t know the characters you’ll enjoy the challenge, and the reward at the end. (Btw OreImo is an awesome show. Check it out!)


    Overall this is an amazing game. If you told me about this game earlier I would have said it had zero chance of coming to America. Thankfully I‘m glad NIS proved me wrong on that part. It’s a really fun game and I recommend it to fans of NIS’ other releases or fans of the Toku genre. If you’re a Toku fan you’ll find references everywhere! Literally. On the main menu I found a lyrics list for Unlosing Ranger’s them and one of the lines said “It’s Morphin’ Time!” There’s also references to Dragonball, Ranma, and other anime scattered about. It’s really fun trying to see how many you can spot. If you can track down a copy definitely add it to your PSP collection. As of writing this there seems to be difficulty in finding this game in stores. I had to order my copy from Amazon because not one single store in my area had a copy, or had heard about it. I’d like to thank that random GameStop employee for staring at me in a daze for 30 seconds after I mentioned the title. You made my day. ZHP is available on UMD and PSN for $29.99. A great price for a great game.


Pros:
Long game, lots of replay ability
Dungeons are randomly generated so no two areas will ever be alike
Numerous combination possibilities for equipment
Funny dialogue
Dual Audio
 Lots of hidden references

Cons:
Later dungeons can become unfair
One mistake can screw you over in a boss fight
BGM is sometimes louder than the voices
Moving takes a few minutes to get used to. Not a big deal to me but some will find it as a flaw.

I give this a game a 9/10 if you’re into superheroes or are a fan of grind fests. If you’re not then it still maybe a great game for you to try but I wouldn’t rush out to get because you might not get all the hidden references or understand why the plot’s so crazy awesome.

Until next time this is Aegis for GameRenja singing off!

 (This review is also viewable on Blistered Thumbs' Forum. Yea I'm not letting Vulkan steal all the glory.)