There's simply no denying that our brothers in the East have a decidedly different view of the world than we do. So when a publisher takes the risk of localizing a title in the west that's clearly aimed at the Japaneses market, it's understandable that certain nuances can get lost in translation. Then again, we too often cite cultural differences as an excuse for poor writing, ugly visual design, or esoteric gameplay systems. Compile Heart's new RPG, Mugen Souls , is guilty of all these offenses and more, and none of it has anything to with the nationality of its creators or its intended audience.

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Sometimes, a bad game is just a bad game.First impressions are always crucial and Mugen Souls fails to make a good one. It opens with an acid-induced bang – an airship with a giant bunny head mounted on the bow and a pair of seemingly underage girls performing a high energy J-pop number. Panty shots and face palms abound as the game tries ever-so-hard to be both funny and naughty, yet succeeds only in being juvenile and creepy. It's a trend you'll grow familiar with as you trudge through the vapid tale of Lady Chou-Chou, the self-proclaimed Undisputed God of the Universe whose only goal is to make every person she meets and everything she sees her loyal “peon”.To its credit, the game does take a few witty shots at common RPG tropes and even tries to wring some humor out of mild Sub/Dom relationships and sadomasochism. I actually appreciate it when games try to tackle topics that are largely considered taboo, but when delivered so ham-handedly from a cast of characters who look and act like they're 14, it comes off as fetishistic rather than satirical. “Are you really going to peon me?” one character excitedly asks Chou-Chou. The writing is just sophomoric enough for me to wonder if the decision to use the word “peon” throughout the entire game instead of “henchmen” was made specifically to facilitate this pun.And you will indeed hear the word peon a lot. There's nothing Lady Chou-Chou loves more than gathering new peons. She makes heroes and demon lords her peons. Continents, planet-spanning energy barriers and even random inanimate objects must all be brought into the fold. Naturally, she accomplishes this by determining what turns them on and transforming into a girl that suits their tastes. This is an actual gameplay mechanic used in place of the usual elemental affinities you see in other RPGs. Regardless of whether or not you find it conceptually insulting, it's a needlessly confusing system that unfortunately has to be dealt with often in order to maximize your party's effectiveness.Ok, pop quiz, hot shot: what beats ice? (Hint: rhymes with ire!) Oh and I hear that water usually beats fire because, you know, SCIENCE! But in Mugen Souls, instead of easy to understand elements, we've got stuff like “terse,” “graceful,” and “bipolar”. I mean, what the hell beats “bipolar?" “Hyper?" “Sadist?" It's not like it's impossible to work out, but it's still a layer of false complexity that doesn't add anything but confusion to the experience. The same can be said for nearly every one of the myriad systems the game introduces to you over the first 20 hours of the game.Take the Moe Kill system for example, which allows you to charm monsters in battle much like you would in a Shin Megami Tensei game. First, you need to transform Chou-Chou into the type of girl the monster likes, but doing so in combat is limited to a handful of uses, meaning constant switching is ill advised unless you want to keep heading back to your ship to replenish the ability. Once you've matched your affinity to the creature's tastes, you attempt the Moe Kill by picking a series of three vaguely described phrases to hurl at them. Not only do your available options seem random, but the monster itself has moods that change during each round of combat, further complicating the process. Even if you're making the right choices, it can take three turns or more to win him over, and because Chou-Chou is the only one who can do it, everyone else needs to target another monster or simply stand around and do nothing while she works her charms. I love systems like this in other games, but the way Mugen Souls handles it makes it so tedious, I could barely stand using it.Much like the Disgaea series, the game has a ton of moving parts to learn in order to get the most out of it. Such intricacy usually sucks me in and swallows me whole, but only if all the pieces fit together in a way that challenges me to make tough decisions while doling out appropriate rewards. In Mugen Souls, you can customize skill load-outs, exploit the status altering effects of crystals strewn across the battlefield, create and fuse new party members from a variety of jobs and classes, and much more. But after sitting through countless interminable tutorials, I couldn't help but feel like the same depth could have been achieved by less cumbersome means.Despite throwing everything but the kitchen sink at you, none if it seems to have as significant an impact on combat as you'd probably like. Ideally you would want to feel rewarded for taking the time to learn and apply advanced tactics, but at the end of the day, basic move and attack routines nearly always work well enough. Exploration and progression feel just as empty, as you do little more than follow a clearly marked breadcrumb trail of trigger points for the next inane cutscene or story event.And whether you're picking fights or wandering about, the game is an absolute eyesore. The environments are so sparse, and enemy models so basic, you'll be left wondering why the framerate is constantly in south-of-30 territory. Textures are flat, low resolution messes, and an overbearing blur filter makes anything not in the immediate foreground look like it's been smudged over with a whole jar of Vaseline. Whether you dig the aesthetic Compile Heart was going for or not, it's impossible to ignore how badly they failed at achieving it.