HomeVideo GamesZ.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman - Review

Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman – Review

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Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman - Review 1Title: Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman
Published By: Nippon Ichi Software America (North America)
Based on: A Unique Series by Nippon Ichi Software
Console: Playstation Portable
Release Date: November 2010
Genre: Roguelike, Superhero, Tactical RPG
Audio: English Dubs at least
Subtitles: English
Region: This review was conducted on a North American version of the title.
Cost: $29.99 from the Playstation Network Store
Blurb: When Nippon Ichi Software America promotes their game as a grindfest in a trailer, then you had better expect one. Zettai Hero Project released by NIS America for the PSP is sort of like your normal Mystery Dungeon game, only with more of a comedic and cheesy storyline and all the other little touches that makes the game less serious. You play as yourself, who after witnessing the Unlosing Ranger get run over by a car and die…. decides to take over his legacy and attempt to defeat the Final Boss of the game Darkdeath Evilman who you will spend the whole game trying to defeat. An overall enjoyable storyline with strong Disgaea-style graphics for a PSP title and has an equally strong music backing to it.

This is the second and possibly final review in my “Waiting for Disgaea 4 Review Session” and is therefore more of a mini-review then my normal ones. This title is a bit older then Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! and is very hard to find in a physical copy – however can easily be purchased through the North American Playstation Store. This game includes a mixture of dungeon crawling, high-degree customization, a super hero storyline and the writing team of Nippon Ichi Software…. what could possibly go wrong? Does anything go wrong? Read on to find out in my review of Zettai Hero Project for the Playstation Portable. 

Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman - Review 2

While the main character was on his way back from the neighborhood convenience store, he witnessed a hit-and-run happen right before his eyes. He quickly went to go help, but the dying victim (Pirohiko Ichimon Ji) handed him a strange belt instead. That belt was the Morphing belt for the “Absolute Victory Unlosing Ranger!”

The main character was entrusted with that belt, but now the fate of the world rests on his ordinary shoulders! The man who gave him the belt died not long after. If the main character refused to become a hero, all of Earth would fall into the hands of Evil. Now, unable to escape from it, he goes on to take part in the final battle!

Have you ever wanted to be a superhero? Come on, we all have at some point… so now is your chance to become one! Of course, contrary to popular belief suddenly donning a belt and hero outfit will not give you anything in terms of super powers – in fact it could leave you just as weak as a Prinny. Despite this, after receiving the Morphing Belt from the late Unlosing Ranger – you run off to the final battle to rescue the Super Baby (A super human baby who apparently is useless at defeating bad guys) from the boss and become one with the gravel. Whilst the world watches on in disbelief that their hero could be dead (After all, the end of the world would be televised), you get whisked away to Bizarro Earth – a parallel earth where the World Hero Society has set up bases to train heroes in their quests of superhero-dom.

Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman - Review 3

There are two sides to the story, both of which hold equal footing towards the overall story. From the start you are introduced to a number of characters from a news reporting covering the events that are unfolding to your own family. Each of these characters have their own strife’s that are directly caused by their counterparts on Bizarro Earth. Your purpose for running through the dungeons besides levelling up is to find and defeat the cause of their counterparts problems which in turn improves the personality of the Earth characters. Preference on this would vary between the gamer – but I found these a clever way of both giving a bit of reward every couple of levels you grind – and they are done in a way that gives the story a bit more of the “game” feel – so instead of not wanting to marry someone – a character might want to not marry the main boss of the level. Simple things like that go a long way and provide ample character development.

The second storyline which will be more of an appeal to Disgaea fans is the Super-Hero storyline which throws out every quirk imaginable from the repetitive comedic “Final Boss” battles to different choices of sending the new hero back to Earth, this is evidently more familiar territory to their writers and they do a brilliant job at doing this. Sure you might think that targeting every generic aspect of the genre sounds stupid – but you definitely get many laughs from this story and it works!

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In terms of design quality, I think they have provided a solid performance in both using the PSP’s graphical capacities whilst retaining the Disgaea-esque charm that was evidently intending. Environments are split into several different categories from the factory environment to the more lush and green environment that is pictured above. All of these are colourful and whilst not perhaps going the extra mile as in previous games, is appropriate considering that most of these environments are randomly generated (The whole 40 million times thing). The character sprites for enemies are pretty limited, and you will find yourself against swarms of the same enemy at time which is slightly disappointing (At least give us some colour changes or more enemy classes). Despite this, the NPC characters have both great portrait art and good quality sprite art that puts it on bar with the Disgaea 2 PSP game.

The most memorable aspect of the design is the hero design. In previous Nippon Ichi games you have been able to equip different equipment but with the exception of weaponary (In some games), the sprite art doesn’t change. In this game, you are given the choice of modifying the characters Helmet, L/R Hands, Cape and Legs with equipment that actually appear visually on the character – something that needs to be done in more of their games (Everything from cat ears to a Prinny Wagon can be added). Upon unlocking the Costume Shop (Spoiler: Talk to the Prinny at the bottom of the base 10 times in very quick succession to unlock.), you are able to change your characters design to one of many unlockable costumes – from Disgaea characters such as Laharl, Etna, Asagi etc to Anime Characters such as Celty from Drrr!! and Taiga from Toradora!!. To make matters even better, you can customise these characters in the same way as your main hero – making him the ultimate customization character.

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The music in this game is great, even if you may find yourself wanting a few more songs to the mixture until you progress further into the game. The music is generally suited to both the environment your character is in as well as the hero setting of the storyline – therefore you can expect from the title screen is faster-paced epic “hero” music with some slower paced but similarly themed music spread out through the series. As well, the game has a number of lyrical tracks which are limited in use but can be purchased from the in-game music store and played during the random dungeon segments. A highlight of the series was the voice acting. The game is surprisingly limited in the number of voiced scenes they include – with a silent protagonist to boot, but the narrator that occasionally appears (The same one from the games trailer) does a brilliant job at this role. The other characters have quite good voice actors/actresses assigned to them as well.

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Gameplay wise, the fundamental basics don’t stray far from similar games of this style. You traverse through a randomly generated world whilst attacking enemies with either an X-Button attack command or using one of several skills you can unlock depending on the weapon you have equipped. You can also lift, throw and do all sorts of normal things to the environment and enemies as well. That is all that conforms to the usual gameplay style. When you enter the game world – you are usually empty handed with only a cape on your back, and instead you have to find weapons and armor lying around on the floor to defend yourself with. As well, whilst the game is fairly generous with the amount of HP you are given – regardless of the level you are at the mercy of your characters EN (Energy Bar) – which unless replenished, can cause you to rapidly lose HP. Gripe #1 – After the first few levels, you will find yourself dying more from loss of Energy as the random generation of levels never seems to be as generous with food then other things.

Also noted early off is the fact that you as a character are weak. So weak that you will begin every level with a big ol’ Level 1. So what is the purpose in leveling you might ask? Not only is it to keep the difficulty up keeping your HP/EN in check whilst being able to progress through the levels, but all levels are added are tallied up for bonus stat boosts – which are some consolation for dying, which you will be doing a fair bit. The issue would be, you start at level one and only slowly build up your character… fortunately they have the answer for that – character modifications! If you have excess equipment lying around you can convert it titles which you can place on your character to boost a single stat depending on the item. As weapons don’t usually sell for that much and are lost upon death, it is actually a suitable action to take with items you have left over.

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As the game progresses and the levels get harder – you are afforded a number of other services which build upon the customisable nature of the game. Your base allows you a limited number of buildings which can be unlocked through certain tasks. These can be anything from services to improve your character through character modification to a home where you can store your money and have a family to more important things such as having a caravan meet you on a pre-determined level to let you use all your bases facilities and then escape or continue on. Services like this whilst requiring additional planning for the most effectiveness, are well implemented features to provide some relief to the gamer. Other customisation features include buildings to customize the names of your characters and weapons to changing the difficulty of the game.

In terms of replayability, the game does not claim itself to be a game that can be played over 40 million times for no reason. There is something of a New Game+ included, however if anything you will find more enjoyment playing through the four Mastery Caves, special dungeons that have 60+ levels within them – containing swarm after swarm of enemies, ever changing (trapped) environments and allow you to collect cards which unlock other dungeons to unlock character costumes. These are definitely some of the tougher levels which require a high degree of strategy but are rewarding all the game.

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When it comes down to it – this is not the game for a casual gamer who might be won over by the witty storyline or colourful graphics. If this is the case, it is possible you will succumb to the high grind – and therefore considerable time investment needed to complete this game. Personally however, I loved the game – sure it was perhaps a bit simple in the basic gameplay concept but everything else made it into a rewarding experience that I stuck around for to unlock a few of the character costumes for.

Final Score

Storyline: B+
Character Development: B+
Design: A-
Music: A
Voice Acting: A-
Gameplay: B
Replayability: B
Personal Opinion: A

Overall Score: B+

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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