Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed

Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed is an unabashed celebration of fandom and a love letter to otaku everywhere. It’s also a game where you run around Akihabara ripping the clothes off of vampires to expose them to the sun.

The game’s ludicrous premise is mostly an excuse for its novel gameplay, but the emotional core comes from its cast and their relationships. These people care about the properties they’re fans of, but they care about each other and their home even more. As thin as the story is, it’s hard not to be drawn in by the characters.

Waifu Tier

ⓘ

The best of the best. Only one character may be in this tier for a given work or medium. This character... is Mai Waifu.

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  Shion Kasugai

  from Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed

  Shion is an intelligent and capable woman who exudes confidence and poise. She’s CEO and President of a drug conglomerate called Daishihon Pharmaceuticals, but in contrast to the common portrayal of business executives she is perhaps the most morally responsible character in the game. You meet her under circumstances that make it hard to trust her, and her company’s obvious connection to the Synthisters keeps the ambiguity going for a while, but everything she does is a step toward saving Akiba.

  She’s observant and connected enough to have noticed the odd events occurring in Akiba - the Synthister attacks and the victims drained of life energy. Her investigation doesn’t get far until the player character and Shizuku show up and start fighting back against the Synthisters. To make sure you’re the real deal, she has some of her staff ambush you and watches as you trounce them with superhuman combat ability. She then reveals herself, apologizes, and offers her help.

  I like this a lot. It would have been very easy to characterize her as arrogant, having her tell you that you might be “useful” in the fight against the Synthisters and refuse to give you any key information. That’s not what happens here. She’s smart enough to understand that the Synthister situation is serious and warrants extreme measures - including ambushing you, though this didn’t put you in any real danger - to find out if she’s on the right track. She’s humble enough to recognize that it’s a situation that you clearly understand better than she does and that you’re better suited to doing the fighting than she is. She doesn’t try to take over, she doesn’t hide anything, she just provides the benefit of her considerable resources to aid your cause.

  She also displays consistent scientific curiosity, and this approach allows you to become more proactive. She notices that Synthisters give off a glow that’s not visible to humans, and creates the app that uses your phone’s camera to identify Synthisters in a crowd. She provides a drug that allows you to drop your outdated human muscle memory and take full advantage of your new inhuman strength. And when Rin clearly doesn’t trust her, she realizes it means someone at her company is working with the enemy and roots out the traitor.

  She’s the one cast member who acts like an adult. She’s thoughtful and proactive, she takes her work seriously but not personally, and she does what she has to do to make the world better.

Harem Tier

ⓘ

The characters who, while not quite waifu material, rise above the rest.

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  Touko Sagisaka

  from Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed

  Touko is an athletic tomboy, a cute spunky redhead, and the player character’s childhood friend. Throughout the game, she has a relaxed and supportive relationship with the player character. When she picks up some beef bowls for him, she notes that she ordered extra onions because somebody has to watch out for his health. That’s when I knew I liked her.

  Having been by the player character’s side their whole lives, she’s a little distressed to learn he’s no longer human, but quickly reassures him that he’s still the same person and that’s what matters. If you pay more attention to her than the other girls, she reacts to your increasing strength and the increasing threat level of your foes by forsaking her own humanity in order to become strong enough to keep fighting by your side. She promises that you’ll never have to go through anything alone, and that she’ll always be there to help.

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  Kati Räikkönen

  from Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed

  Kati is a native of Finland who has come to Akiba to study Japanese culture. She occasionally mixes up her idioms since Japanese is her second language.

  She works at the game bar MOGRA that serves as the protagonists' headquarters. She enjoys cosplay and wears her maid outfit even when off-duty, reflecting her desire to cheer up those around her. She’s always upbeat and when things are at their most grim she rallies the Akiba Freedom Fighters to keep them moving forward in high spirits.

  Kati also convinces Touko and Shizuku to do a group cosplay with her for a festival, allowing Touko to explore her feminine side and Shizuku to lower her walls a bit and become a true member of the team.

Imouto Tier

ⓘ

From the Japanese for "little sister", characters at this tier are not love interests in the romantic or sexual sense, but are characters that make you want to protect and nurture them.

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  Nana

  from Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed

  The player character’s little sister Nana is something of a self-aware parody of little sister tropes, frequently referring to herself with third-person phrases such as “your adorable little sister,” especially when trying to get you to do something for her. I have no proof, but I speculate her name is a reference to Nanako from Persona 4, who plays the little sister tropes straight. Nana also calls you many “bro”-based puns or portmanteaus, such as Brotato, Brokedown, and Brotector.

  She asks for a lot of favors, but it’s clear she cares about you a great deal and she gets upset when you’re in danger. One of her side quests has you running all over town collecting items for a charm, and when you finally deliver them all, Nana makes the charm and gives it to you. All along it was an attempt to do her part to keep you safe. And when the truth comes out that the game’s events have left the player character no longer exactly human, she’s taken aback but is the first to assure you that who you are hasn’t changed, and she’ll always be your sister.

  During the course of the game, Nana is mostly a shut-in, living at MOGRA and rarely venturing outside. An optional side story reveals the cause as a falling out between her and her friends, and presents an opportunity to help reconcile them. If you do, you’re treated to a special post-credits ending scene in which Nana thanks you for all your help while smiling for the first time - an image you can then use as your phone’s wallpaper on subsequent playthroughs.