Liberation Maiden

Genre: Action

Players: 1

.

Review:

Liberation Maiden, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2012, is an Action game that has you playing as the newly-elected president of Japan as she pilots a flying mech to take on enemy forces threatening to take over the country.

With a premise like that, it’s fairly clear that this is going to be a game with some loony anime-style craziness going on, and there most certainly is. The game’s voice acting is decent, and the anime-style cutscenes are quite good, but don’t try to follow this game’s bizarre plot.

Liberation Maiden is a visual spectacle on the Nintendo 3DS. While perhaps not a technical marvel, there is always a lot of fast-paced action happening onscreen as you zoom around 3D environments in your mech, with enemy gunfire and missiles constantly filling the sky. The game does a great job emphasizing this fast-paced action and making it truly invigorating.

When it comes to the gameplay… well… here’s the thing. Players move their character around using the circle pad and aim using the stylus, and both of these elements have issues. Movement is awkward and imprecise, and it’s difficult to feel like you’re in full control of where you go. Even making use of holding down the L button to strafe, movement feels very awkward and clunky. Things get even worse when you get into a boss confrontation, and the controls change, locking you into a pattern of movement that gives you even less control than usual.

Aiming, on the other hand, works great, but it gets really repetitive quickly – move the cursor over enemies, then release to fire, then repeat… then do it again… and again. This is made worse by enemies that keeps spawning into the environment, making even small tasks feel like they never end.

While none of this is horrible, and there’s still a lot of fun to have blowing stuff up, between the repetitive nature of the gameplay and the awkward controls, Liberation Maiden feels like a game that’s a lot of flash and not much substance. It’s unique enough that it’s still probably worth the $8 price tag, but it definitely feels like this game could have been a lot more fun if its gameplay and control issues were worked on some more.

tl;dr – Liberation Maiden is an action game where players take the role of the newly-elected Japanese president as she pilots a flying mech and blasts away enemies. It’s a silly premise and the presentation is similarly fun and over-the-top, but unfortunately awkward controls and repetitive gameplay make this feel like a far more shallow and frustrating experience than it should be. There’s still fun to be had here, but it feels like this could have been a much better game with more work.

Grade: C+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Andy Miller, Exlene, Johannes, Homer Simpin, Ilya Zverev, Eli Goodman, Kristoffer Wulff, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Francis Obst, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}