By: Hikachan 4/21/2012
Awhile back, I bought the k-on psp game from play-asia.com. Being a hardcore K-on fan, I was extremely excited to play this game. I had already watched the trailer of the game and saw that sega was producing the game. Already playing project diva, I had a good feeling of buying this game for about 70 dollars which is normal for an imported game. When it did finally arrive in my front door step, I took it out of the package, took it to school, and played it through my English class.
Well at first glance the game is in complete Japanese characters.In result, anyone who can't read Japanese will probably have to take a Japanese class or just fiddle around until you get to the performance button. There is also a clock, event, ad hoc play or multiplier, title, album, and dress mode. This is quite a lot considering its a fan service game.
The game play is quite simple. Its a standard bar that runs in real time going over notes. Although the game content does persuade for a sub-par game for fans, the game play actually has a very difficult and strict grading system. even compared to guitar hero, the game is stricter on its judgement of timing. The first time I played the game, I had major problems of getting used to the timing of the notes. Instead of hitting them right when the tempo line crosses the note, you must actually hit the note slightly before as if you were actually playing an instrument. The punishment for the missing notes however is very light. Individuals are pretty much able to mash buttons and still pass the song with a very low rating. However, that is were the game gets hard. The game contains many rewards such as costumes and in game menu items. These items usually require some sort of rating in able to unlock them.
The presentation is simply amazing in my opinion. The menus were very cute with their chibi-like character. The dynamic menu had me staying their for quite awhile. Not only do they move in real time, they will react to items you give them, place furniture in the room, and simply do things that are just weird. However, the menu does get old if you don't like to interact with the characters on the screen. Yet, the menu is quite simple to move through and the font is unique to the anime giving it a K-on type of feel.
The graphics are pretty good for PSP. Even compared to guitar hero animation, Its good to see actual actions from every character to matches the music. For example, Ritsu or the drummer will hit the cymbals when a cymbal crash goes off in the actual soundtrack. On top of that, the characters will act accordingly to the other characters when they are preforming. They will sing in unison when needed, and they will move there body when their part is played. Another plus to the game, the game has very fluid animation, every body aspect of the 3d models will move except the fingers which is understandable for PSP capabilities. There are also facial expression which really adds to the game appearance and tone. The models are very life like, fluid, and represent their anime counterparts.
On to sound, the game has an amazing amount of songs to pick from. They took the most popular opening and ending to keep fans happy. However, it may be unique to some K-on fans since it contains many of the character songs of each character. I really like the songs that came from the character albums which provide a unique essence from the anime. Although, the opening and ending still make an appearance to pay homage to the original anime. The music is very nice and being K-on fan makes it all the better. In a nut shell, people that like the K-on anime soundtrack will like the K-on PSP game soundtrack.
K-on Houkago Live's lasting appeal is quite strong. I will have a hard time forgetting about this game because of the unique existence it has. I love watching the music video that comes with the character songs. This is mostly because they are not in the anime. The songs are catchy and being able to play all the individual instrument makes it even better. Also the 3 difficulty levels will make replay value a bit more amusing. The soundtrack combined with the very well cell shaded 3d models will have many K-on fans playing this game for many days to come. I give it two rating for K-on fans and regular gamer.
K-on fan rating is a 9/10. Regular gamer is 7/10.
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