Developer: Atlus Publisher: Sega Released: April 26, 2000 Genre: Action
For many years the first person view was only used for shooters and adventure games. It is easy to see why: games like Doom and Quake with their twitch action and multiplayer are an easy sell. But adventure games in that style usually failed. I like Turok as much as the next man but the platforming in those titles can die in a fire. Years before Metroid Prime would turn the genre on its head Atlus created Maken X, a first person hack and slash that combined adventure elements with melee combat to make something wholly unique for its time and one of the better games in the Dreamcast library.
Maken X takes place in a near future Earth where the spirit is proven to exist and is referred to as Psi. Spirit resides in the world of Psi and is responsible for emotions and sensations. Scientists create a tool they call the Maken that can interact with this world to treat ailments, specifically mental illness by brain jacking its host. But the Maken’s use as a weapon attracts the wrong kind of attention and results in the kidnapping of its creator Hiro Sagami. His daughter Kei Sagami uses the Maken to follow in his footsteps and hopefully save him before it is too late.
Set aside any expectations around Maken X based on its viewpoint. Maken X is a first person adventure that focuses on melee combat rather than shooting action. In fact outside of a few characters there are no long range weapons. Combat is simple through the use of an excellent Z-targeting feature. Once locked on you can strafe, dodge, block, and leap over enemies to attack from behind for a critical hit. There is weightlessness to your movements but that is a minor annoyance. Thanks to the game’s high framerate combat is fluid, feels great and is very intuitive. The game introduces new enemies at a decent clip to always stay engaging right up until its conclusion.
Although you start the game as Kei your journey will allow you to control over fifteen characters. The Maken allows you to brainjack select characters throughout the game with everyone featuring their own individual strengths and weaknesses. Fei Shan Lee has low attack power but fast attacks with a wide range while Blademaste Tyrus is slower but can attack every enemy in his range simultaneously. The choice to brainjack is entirely up to you. If you like a particular character you can stick with them however it will impact your path through the game. Brainjacking is the game’s most unique feature and one that is incredibly fun to engage with and part of what makes the game so great.
While the controls in combat are excellent exploration will take some adaptation. Maken X was released before dual analog control became standard. Since the Dreamcast controller has one stick looking around and strafing is done by holding a button. It is clumsy in practice but for the most part the game presents few scenarios where these actions are mandatory. Most of the game sees you moving from one combat scenario to the next with only brief moments to explore.
The story in Maken X will take you around the world and has significant branches. For the most part it is up to you as to how you progress through the game. Many locations are optional and offer the chance to brainjack new characters. Brainjacking becomes critical for progress but also to access some of the story branches. Bringing the right character to a prior location will unlock new missions on the map. All told there are seven possible endings, giving the game huge replay value.
The freedom to tackle the game in any order does however hurt its narrative. Maken X is full of various different subplots that have little to do with the overall narrative. While many of these are nice little self-contained stories they do make the plot feel disjointed. Even the main story has its own issues. It could be issues with the localization but there are many points that are never elaborated on which is disappointing. The central conflict between the Blademasters, who want to protect the world and the Hakke, who worship the supposed God Geist and follow him in trying to destroy mankind is cool. If they had drilled down on that more specifically the story would have been far better.
Maken X has held up pretty well over the decades and at release was a bit of a showcase. It runs at a smooth 60fps and is incredibly fluid. To achieve that level of performance the environments are compact and you rarely fight more than three enemies simultaneously. The tradeoff is worth it however. The true star of the presentation is the fantastic art direction. Featuring veterans of the Megami Tensei series Maken X was the first time seeing Kazuma Kaneko’s esoteric designs in 3d. The character designs are incredibly striking and to this day there are few games that have this game’s sense of style. The only downside would be the lack of lip sync during cutscenes and average voice acting.
In Conclusion
Maken X is a unique game in the Dreamcast library and an excellent action adventure. It is a little rough around the edges but its sense of style and fluid pace make it entertaining for multiple sessions. This is one that I easily recommend to all gamers.
