The Plot: (FULL Spoilers)
On Juliet Starling's (voiced by Tara Strong in English and Eri Kitamura/Yōko Hikasa in Japanese) eighteenth birthday, she goes to San Romero High School park to meet her boyfriend, Nick Carlyle (voiced by Michael Rosenbaum in English and Kenichi Suzumura in Japanese) who is going to meet her family for the first time.
Unfortunately, a zombie outbreak has occurred, which leads to Juliet fighting off hordes of Undead on her way to meet Nick. When she arrives, she discovers Nick fighting off a zombie which was trying to eat her, and so Nick is bitten in her place. Realizing he will become a zombie, Juliet decides she must decapitate him to save him.
When he comes to, Nick discovers he is somehow still alive, despite being a severed head, and so Juliet reveals to him that she is a zombie hunter, and that she performed a magical ritual on him which keeps his soul from being turned into a zombie and retaining his humanity, thus explaining his continued existence as a severed head. Juliet attaches Nick's head to her belt, and she fights hordes of zombies on her way to meet her tutor, Morikawa (voiced by Keone Young). Once they are united, Morikawa explains the situation, and explains that the Universe is divided into three realms: Earth, the Land Beyond Words, and the Rotten World, an infernal realm where demons and zombies reside. Morikawa tells Juliet and Nick that somebody has cracked open a portal between Earth and the Rotten World by a combination of black magic and explosives, and Morikawa sets out to find the culprit.
Juliet reunites again with Morikawa after fighting zombies intent on blowing her to oblivion, and finds the person responsible for the outbreak, an evil goth named Swan (voiced by Sean Gunn in English and Nobuhiko Okamoto in Japanese) but she cannot prevent him from summoning five demons to the world, which take the form of zombies centered around themes of rock and roll. Morikawa attempts to stop Swan from unleashing the demons, but he is mortally wounded.
Swan sends the first zombie overlord, Zed, after her, but she kills him in a fight and sends him back to the Rotten World. Morikawa tells her to purify the school and kill the four remaining zombie overlords before dying. Juliet hunts down the overlords, while receiving advice from her sisters Cordelia Starling (voiced by Linda Cardellini in English and Mayumi Asano in Japanese), the elder one, and Rosalind Starling (voiced by Kimberly Brooks in English and Mariya Ise in Japanese), the younger sister. Juliet continues exploring the school and fighting zombies, and encounters Vikke, the second zombie overlord summoned by Swan, whom she duels onboard his airborne longship and sends him back to Rotten World. The longship crashes into the O'Bannon Farm. Juliet is attacked mentally by nightmares projected from Mariska (voiced by Shawnee Smith), the zombie Queen of Psychedelia, but Juliet eventually shakes off the nightmares and faces Mariska herself, defeating her and sending her back to Rotten World. Juliet's father, Gideon, arrives and takes her back to the city, where Juliet, Nick and Gideon infiltrate the Fulci Fun Center upon realizing it is full of gamer zombies. Josey, the zombie overlord in charge of the center, summons Juliet to his lair atop the building, and in a duel, Juliet also defeats him. Finally with one zombie overlord left, Juliet's family all team up to infiltrate an unfinished Cathedral in the heart of the city, where the final overlord, Lewis Legend, lurks. Upon accessing his lair, Swan taunts Juliet about Lewis being more than a match for her; ultimately, though, the situation is reversed. Just like all the other overlords upon their deaths, Lewis utters a Latin chant.
Swan appears and applauds Juliet for her work and reveals the cruel fact that she was a pawn in his game, and he allowed all the zombie overlords to die so the true zombie lord could be returned to this world. Swan also tells Juliet that it was she, and all the other students at the school, that made him into a monster through torture and bullying. (However, the flashbacks shown imply that Swan might have had feelings for Juliet and that her relationship with Nick pushed him further over the edge.)
Essentially, the zombie outbreak was his act of vengeance against the school's students, and society in general for making him an outcast. Juliet tries to reason with him, but Swan, indifferent towards any attempt to get him to see the error of his ways, shoots his head off to finish the ritual and is absorbed along with the rest of the Undead into a black vortex, which solidifies into the zombie of all zombies: Killabilly, whom Juliet is forced to fight.
Juliet battles Killabilly and is contacted by the ghost of Morikawa, who gives her advice along with Nick. Halfway through the fight, Juliet's father, Gideon, drives his motorcycle packed with explosives into the maw of Killabilly, and is seemingly destroyed. Juliet mourns her father, but Nick and Morikawa encourage her to enter the mouth of Killabilly before he regenerates. Juliet complies and lands in the demon's stomach, where, in his heart, she encounters Swan's headless corpse. She learns she must put Nick's head on top of Swan's body to make Killabilly explode into nothing, and tearfully does so after expressing her love for Nick.
Nick tells her he loves her, and sacrifices himself for humanity. Killabilly explodes, and in a near-death experience Nick learns from Morikawa's ghost that it has been decided Nick's honour grants him new life, with a new body, but there will be a "mix-up" on the resurrection. Nick learns this means he gets Morikawa's body, which is far shorter than his previous one, but neither he nor Juliet really care.
Eventually, it is revealed Gideon, Juliet's father, did survive the explosion, and together the Starling family make their way home in return for Juliet's birthday, which can be a positive or negative experience depending on how the game has been played.
Should the player save all available people during the course of the game, Juliet's birthday will go swimmingly and Nick will present his present of a box of luxury lollipops to Juliet. If the player allows one or more people to die, however, Juliet's mother will act strangely and turn around to reveal she has been zombified. -- via Wikipedia
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| I don't think this is what that zombie had in mind when he wanted some penetration... |
As the game progresses, Juliet will also receive the Chainsaw Dash, which allows her to charge with her chainsaw and fly off ramps, and the Chainsaw Blaster, a long range weapon used for blasting enemies and obstacles. Throughout the game, Juliet can also collect lollipops which allow her to recover health. The maximum number of lollipops Juliet can hold depends on the difficulty setting. Juliet will die if she loses all her health or fails certain scenarios, though in the case of the former, Juliet may be able to come back to life by successfully winning a roulette spin.
Throughout her journey, Juliet is accompanied by her boyfriend, Nick, who is a disembodied head hanging from her waist. At certain points in the game, Nick's head can be attached to a decapitated zombie's body, during which the player will rhythmically press buttons in order to have him move about and clear the way for Juliet. By obtaining 'Nick Tickets', Juliet can activate the 'Nick Roulette' in which various moves can be performed using Nick's head, such as a bombarding attack or making masses of zombies groggy. By filling up her star meter by defeating zombies, Juliet can activate a special state which powers up her chainsaw for a limited period, allowing her to easily defeat zombies and obtain Sparkle Hunting more easily. --via Wikipedia
The Verdict:
Goddammit, Suda51, you just had to make another crazy game. That being said, this is going to a tough cookie to review.
Going into this game, I thought this would be another one of those titles that I would add to my gaming collection that I'm personally embarrassed to admit publicly that I own or have played, including both Rumble Roses games, Onechanbara, and Bayonetta to name a few. But unlike Onechanbara, I didn't take the game back to Blockbuster after less than a hour of playing, I actually finished this game.
What? Don't look at me like that for trying Onechanbara. I was curious, dammit!
Let's start off by talking about some of the things this game doesn't quite get right.
First and foremost - the damn god-awful camera angles in closed-in areas. In several sections of the game, Juliet is forced to rely on the Chainsaw Blaster to deal with foes from a distance. It works fine until the camera starts shaking around when enemies begin to swarm around you up close, making it hard to keep a clear shot of your target.
Second, the lack of depth in combat. Starting the game off, it's a bit underwhelming as Juliet's combat options are severely limited. As you progress through the game, she manages to acquire a formidable arsenal after Juliet receives all of her birthday presents. If you are a fan of the average over-the-top action games, you may be a bit disappointed here on the lack of options and depth in terms of Juliet's combat ability. I found myself relying on the chainsaw-oriented heavy attacks over the silly pom-pom light attacks, which are recommended for stunning your opponents, but I had little issues relying entirely on primarily heavy attacks while tossing in a few dropkicks and evades on bigger mobs of enemies throughout the entire game. The flying enemies and the "stronger" zombie types don't switch up the strategy on combat enough to make it more different as you're essentially just dealing dropkicks to stun your opponents then using either heavy attacks or the Chainsaw Blaster to finish them off. For bosses, the strategy doesn't change up much either as you can easily rely on evades and heavy attacks to take them down with little life lost to Juliet at all. While all of the bosses sported some cool designs, I was very disappointed that they didn't live up to the hype.
In terms of story, that's where this game really shines. You can definitely tell the influences from both James Gunn and Suda51, while Tara Strong and Michael Rosenbaum's chemistry together as Juliet and Nick works naturally from the start of the game to the finish. Sure, some of Nick's jokes fall flat and there are some times where I wish Juliet would shut the fuck up - like how she has to say "Chainsaw Blaster!" every time you use it, but it's well worth the laughs. The story is pretty basic, but it will make you laugh around every corner from every pop culture, adult humor, or zombie outbreak film reference that you can catch. Not many video games can make me laugh this much while playing.
This game sports one feature that I wish more action games had - a customizable soundtrack/playlist. You can mix and match your favorite tracks from the game and set them up as your own playlist during gameplay. The last game I can fondly remember having a feature like this was Def Jam Fight For New York and NBA Street Vol. 2. I don't know about you guys, but I would like to customize the soundtrack I kick some serious ass to. That would be a welcome addition to any next generation over-the-top action title's list of features.
One thing I don't get is why they left out the Valentine's Edition outside of Japan? That's as fucked up as the Climax Edition of Bayonetta being limited only to that country. This game happens to be Grasshopper Manufacture's highest selling game this generation, so you would think they would want to give fans more of what they like...
Oh well... back on topic.
Most players will finish this on Normal in roughly no time from how easy the campaign is from start to finish in no less than about 6 to 8 hours. There is a bit of replayability across the different difficulty settings while players and achievement hunters can strive to find all of the hidden lollipops and "special" zombies (those with names above their heads), max out all of Juliet's stats, purchase all of her combat skills, MP3s (for the Playlist feature), and alternate costumes from ChopShop.Zom. There's also two different endings, depending on whether or not you have saved all of Juliet's classmates. If you ask me, those individuals offer some of the funniest dialogue in the game upon rescuing them.
The unlockable costumes are pretty sweet (they are NOT DLC - all unlockable in-game) as there's some from some popular gory or zombie-related animes, such as costumes from popular characters in High School of the Dead and Deadman Wonderland. Other costumes involve some alternates that allow Juilet to dress up as her siblings or swimwear for those perverts out there. There was also an Ash from Evil Dead costume, but that was limited only to pre-orders. I don't think they ever released that outside of pre-order exclusives.
For those of you guys out there who are afraid to play this game just because the protagonist is female, grow the fuck up and give this a shot. Those of you reading this review may laugh but we are in 2013 and yet we still have people who call themselves gamers and are afraid to experience gaming from every possible perspective.
This definitely isn't No More Heroes, but it's definitely well worth the ride from start to finish if you're a Suda51 fan or just a fan of bad ass chicks killing zombies. I'm giving this a 7.5 out of 10. If it wasn't so incredibly short and had a bit more depth on the combat system I would have easily rated this game higher.
Going into this game, I thought this would be another one of those titles that I would add to my gaming collection that I'm personally embarrassed to admit publicly that I own or have played, including both Rumble Roses games, Onechanbara, and Bayonetta to name a few. But unlike Onechanbara, I didn't take the game back to Blockbuster after less than a hour of playing, I actually finished this game.
What? Don't look at me like that for trying Onechanbara. I was curious, dammit!
Let's start off by talking about some of the things this game doesn't quite get right.
First and foremost - the damn god-awful camera angles in closed-in areas. In several sections of the game, Juliet is forced to rely on the Chainsaw Blaster to deal with foes from a distance. It works fine until the camera starts shaking around when enemies begin to swarm around you up close, making it hard to keep a clear shot of your target.
Second, the lack of depth in combat. Starting the game off, it's a bit underwhelming as Juliet's combat options are severely limited. As you progress through the game, she manages to acquire a formidable arsenal after Juliet receives all of her birthday presents. If you are a fan of the average over-the-top action games, you may be a bit disappointed here on the lack of options and depth in terms of Juliet's combat ability. I found myself relying on the chainsaw-oriented heavy attacks over the silly pom-pom light attacks, which are recommended for stunning your opponents, but I had little issues relying entirely on primarily heavy attacks while tossing in a few dropkicks and evades on bigger mobs of enemies throughout the entire game. The flying enemies and the "stronger" zombie types don't switch up the strategy on combat enough to make it more different as you're essentially just dealing dropkicks to stun your opponents then using either heavy attacks or the Chainsaw Blaster to finish them off. For bosses, the strategy doesn't change up much either as you can easily rely on evades and heavy attacks to take them down with little life lost to Juliet at all. While all of the bosses sported some cool designs, I was very disappointed that they didn't live up to the hype.
In terms of story, that's where this game really shines. You can definitely tell the influences from both James Gunn and Suda51, while Tara Strong and Michael Rosenbaum's chemistry together as Juliet and Nick works naturally from the start of the game to the finish. Sure, some of Nick's jokes fall flat and there are some times where I wish Juliet would shut the fuck up - like how she has to say "Chainsaw Blaster!" every time you use it, but it's well worth the laughs. The story is pretty basic, but it will make you laugh around every corner from every pop culture, adult humor, or zombie outbreak film reference that you can catch. Not many video games can make me laugh this much while playing.
This game sports one feature that I wish more action games had - a customizable soundtrack/playlist. You can mix and match your favorite tracks from the game and set them up as your own playlist during gameplay. The last game I can fondly remember having a feature like this was Def Jam Fight For New York and NBA Street Vol. 2. I don't know about you guys, but I would like to customize the soundtrack I kick some serious ass to. That would be a welcome addition to any next generation over-the-top action title's list of features.
One thing I don't get is why they left out the Valentine's Edition outside of Japan? That's as fucked up as the Climax Edition of Bayonetta being limited only to that country. This game happens to be Grasshopper Manufacture's highest selling game this generation, so you would think they would want to give fans more of what they like...
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| Lollipop Chainsaw: Valentine's Day Edition... Sorry, you won't be seeing this unless you import it from Japan, folks. |
Most players will finish this on Normal in roughly no time from how easy the campaign is from start to finish in no less than about 6 to 8 hours. There is a bit of replayability across the different difficulty settings while players and achievement hunters can strive to find all of the hidden lollipops and "special" zombies (those with names above their heads), max out all of Juliet's stats, purchase all of her combat skills, MP3s (for the Playlist feature), and alternate costumes from ChopShop.Zom. There's also two different endings, depending on whether or not you have saved all of Juliet's classmates. If you ask me, those individuals offer some of the funniest dialogue in the game upon rescuing them.
The unlockable costumes are pretty sweet (they are NOT DLC - all unlockable in-game) as there's some from some popular gory or zombie-related animes, such as costumes from popular characters in High School of the Dead and Deadman Wonderland. Other costumes involve some alternates that allow Juilet to dress up as her siblings or swimwear for those perverts out there. There was also an Ash from Evil Dead costume, but that was limited only to pre-orders. I don't think they ever released that outside of pre-order exclusives.
For those of you guys out there who are afraid to play this game just because the protagonist is female, grow the fuck up and give this a shot. Those of you reading this review may laugh but we are in 2013 and yet we still have people who call themselves gamers and are afraid to experience gaming from every possible perspective.
This definitely isn't No More Heroes, but it's definitely well worth the ride from start to finish if you're a Suda51 fan or just a fan of bad ass chicks killing zombies. I'm giving this a 7.5 out of 10. If it wasn't so incredibly short and had a bit more depth on the combat system I would have easily rated this game higher. Definitely pick this up if you can find it for $15 or lower. Anything higher is a complete rip-off for such a short campaign as I can see why those who originally bought the game for $59.99 at launch were pissed.
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