112. Maken X (Atlus, Dreamcast, 2000)

Maken X is a first person hack & slash game from the team who worked on the Persona series of RPGs, in between the two Persona 2 games. Catherine was another game from much of the same team, between Personas 4 and 5, and I really dug Catherine's themes and gameplay, so I was excited to see what they were able to accomplish more than 10 years prior. And man, this is probably the weirdest game I've played this year, and one of my favorites.

The plot of Maken X is just bonkers. It takes place in a near future where souls are proven to be real, and a team of scientist have created a being (known as Maken) capable of taking over people's souls (known as brainjacking). Eventually you learn that the scientists are being used by a corporation to create Maken to save earth from an evil being called Geist trying to destroy humanity. There is also a worldwide network of freedom fighters called Blademasters who you can brainjaick to gain their powers. It's overwhelming, bleak, and comes at you fast and I love it.

The gameplay is...interesting. The Dreamcast being a single analog stick system, the analog stick is used to move / look, and you can hold either of the 2 triggers to move without looking (extremely useful) or look without moving (rarely useful). The face buttons are used for jumping, slashing your weapon, and locking on. I won't say playing the game is a comfortable experience, but I've found a certain type of claw grip does the trick, and I think the game would feel much better on a modern controller. It was eventually released on Playstation 2 in Japan and Europe as Maken Shao, but I don't own that particular version, which also took away the first person, which I think is a big part of the personality of Maken X.

The levels themselves are pretty varied, though it's hilarious how blocky and not naturalistic the levels feel compared to modern titles. The layouts are generally easy to navigate, so while the game doesn't give you a map, I rarely found myself getting lost. Most enemy encounters come down to knowing when to block, and then jumping over an enemy and stabbing them in the back. After the first few levels, the game introduces larger enemies with more health, and fighting these foes really felt like a duel, and reminded me of the best parts of Castlevania.

5/5, maybe the Persona team should just stop making Persona games