BUBBLEGUM CRASH! KNIGHT SABERS 2034

BUBBLEGUM CRASH! KNIGHT SABERS 2034 is one of those games that you never knew existed unless you recently went digging through the console's library, like me lol. It's a VN based on the Bubblegum Crash OVA which itself is the sequel to Bubblegum Crisis. The story picks up after the original series, with the Knight Sabers having gone their separate ways. Only Nena is still hanging around the AD Police when these major bank robberies start happening and surprise! It's all connected to something way bigger. From what I've gathered, it's kinda a what if scenario that uses character from the anime, so even if you're not deeply familiar with the source material, you can still follow along without feeling completely lost.

The gameplay is mostly what you'd expect from a VN from its era, you're navigating through a point and click interface with all the standard commands like talk, look and move. What's cool is that it's not one of those frustrating adventure games where you're pixel hunting for some random object you missed three hours ago. Most of the key items just come to you automatically and the game usually points you toward where you need to go next through dialogue. However, reviews mention it has an annoying quirk where you sometimes have to repeat the same action multiple times before the game decides to progress. The world map gives you a decent number of places to explore but it's mostly straightforward if you're paying attention to what characters are telling you.

Now, here's where things get weird and a bit messy. About ¾ of the way through, the game suddenly remembers it's supposed to be an action title and throws in some segments that feel like they belong in a completely different game. First, there's a motorcycle chase where you're just moving left and right dodging missiles and reviewers seem pretty united in saying it's tedious and overstays its welcome. Near the end, you're dropped into this first person dungeon maze with random turn based battles, and when I say random battles I mean like, every two seconds random battles. The combat itself is super basic with only two enemy types and there's no strategy beyond switching party members around to stay alive but the worst part is that if you die, you have to restart the entire maze from scratch and it's sprawling enough that you'll probably want to map it out on paper. Most people agree they should have just stuck to the VN format instead of forcing these action elements in there.

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The difficulty is pretty forgiving for the most part, at least until that final dungeon. You can basically stumble your way through the adventure segments without much risk of dying, it's more about your tolerance for repeating actions and reading through dialogue. Still, it's worth checking out, but if you're looking for deep gameplay or a gripping story, you might find yourself wishing you'd spent those hours on something else.

Pixel Perfect

 

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