"Tonight I'll die here, and I'll take all you sons of bitches with me."
— Akane
Akane is a Cyberpunk Three-Quarters View arena arcade slasher developed by Ludic Studios and released on September 10th, 2018 for Windows, Linux, and Mac. It also received a Nintendo Switch port on May 17th, 2019.
It's the year 2121 in Mega-Tokyo and Akane pissed off the Yakuza with no way out. Now she's making her Last Stand against them. That's it, get to building a high score.
Akane is armed with a Sword and Gun and must make strategic use of them as almost everyone, including her, is a One-Hit-Point Wonder. As her killcount increases, so too does the enemy density, number of Elite Mooks, and difficulty of the Boss Battle that takes place between every 100 enemies. In between runs, Akane can swap out her gear for an assortment of alternative equipment provided that the associated challenges are completed.
Akane provides examples of:
- 100% Completion: Getting every piece of equipment unlocks the Final Scene. It's a flashback of Akane as a child when she confronts Master Ishikawa over wiping out her family and kills him in a duel.
- Ace Custom: Akane's starting katana Kurosawa was specifically forged for her as a gift to her family.
- Achievement System: Every piece of equipment has an associated challenge to unlock them. However, only 5 challenges (one for each equipment type) are active at a time and items must be unlocked sequentially.
- Badass Biker: Implied. Akane was riding a motorcycle that crash and burns due to being shot at by the Yakuza.
- Baddie Flattery: Katsuro spends his dying breath complimenting Akane's swordsmanship though noting she still won't make it out alive.
- Charged Attack: The alternate katanas grant the ability to Spin Attack and throw Akane's sword respectively.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: The Adrenaline Bar automatically drains when fighting Katsuro to prevent oneshotting him with Dragon Slayer.
- Cyber Ninja: They show up as an Elite Mook and Katsuro is one. They're all immune to damage until they leave an opening after attacking.
- Denial of Diagonal Attack: Akane can only slash in the four cardinal directions, but the gun can be aimed anywhere.
- Do Not Run with a Gun: Everyone, including the Cyber Ninja, stands still when aiming and shooting.
- Elevator Action Sequence: Implied. The loading screen features Akane waiting in a blood-splattered elevator with 3 dead goons by her feet.
- Elite Mooks: 3 types:
- Tanks are big and need 5 katana strikes to kill.
- Shooters take a moment to aim before firing a burst of shots at Akane.
- Cyber Ninjas are immune to damage (besides Dragon Slayer) until they leave themselves vulnerable after their dash strike.
- EMP: The Magnetic Pulse Emmitter item releases these with lethal effects by violently displacing the Yakuza's metallic limb implants when Akane is aiming.
- Firing One-Handed: Akane and Katsuro both fire this way as they never let go of their katana.
- Given Name Reveal: In the Final Scene we find out that Akane's family name is Sugahara.
- Gun Twirling: Katsuro spins his pistol as a tell before firing.
- Handguns: Akane's starting gun is a basic pistol.
- Informed Equipment: It doesn't appear that the equipment physically appears on Akane in the Gear menu.
- Kill Streak: Having a higher combo enables faster adrenaline buildup and is one of the things tracked on the scoring screen.
- Last Stand: Akane knows there's no way out after pissing off the yakuza and aims to take as many of them down with her as possible.
- Limit Break: Akane has two:
- Dragon Slash uses 1/3rd of the Adrenaline Bar with Akane dashing and slashing through everything in her path. This technique was taught to her by Master Ishikawa.
- Dragon Slayer uses the full Adrenaline Bar and has Akane Speed Blitz everyone on-screen. She developed this technique in secret as a child and uses it to kill Master Ishikawa.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The tutorial features Akane as a child going through a training session.
- Mix-and-Match Weapon: The Katana Gun item is slotted onto a katana's grip which causes bullets to shoot out during a Charged Attack.
- More Dakka: The SMG has the most ammo and firerate amongst the guns.
- One-Hit Kill: The Dragon Slayer technique oneshots everyone on-screen including Tanks and Cyber Ninjas. The only exception is Katsuro as the ability can't be used due to Contractual Boss Immunity.
- One-Hit Polykill: The magnum can kill 2 enemies at once. The Gravitional Beam Emitter meanwhile deals infinite damage and pierces everyone unless it gets deflected.
- Only Electric Sheep Are Cheap: The double-barrel shotgun is noted as being an extremely rare firearm due to being made of non-synthetic wood.
- Parrying Bullets: Akane can deflect bullets by taking a defensive stance or by striking it (though ill-advised) and the Stabilizer Bracelet's Flavor Text says it was created to help slice bullets in half. Similarly, the Cyber Ninjas and Katsuro deflect bullets when fired upon unless they're vulnerable.
- Ray Gun: The Gravitional Beam Emitter fires a mining laser meant for excavations on the moon with its usage being banned on Earth. Gameplay-wise though, it just fires a powerful bullet that can be reflected.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: The magnum has the best mix of ammo and lethality amongst the guns, being capable of killing 2 Mooks with a single shot.
- Rocket-Tag Gameplay: Everyone dies in one hit besides Tanks and much of the gameplay is spent managing Akane's various meters (stamina, ammo, adrenaline) while clearing out crowds and not getting hit.
- Rule of Three: Katsuro leaves himself vulnerable after his 3rd katana strike or 3rd dash-slash and shoots 3 rounds when firing at Akane.
- Scoring Points: After dying, there's a score screen showing the number of enemies killed, max combo, and Boldness with a comparison to your best attempts.
- Short-Range Shotgun: Both the regular and double-barrel shotguns have wide spreads which can be helpful for crowd clearing.
- Shout-Out: Lots of them from the Flavor Text and the acheivement names:
- The Scope Visor lets the wearer see over 9000 meters with the unlock achievement asking not to be sued.
- The Sprint Shoes mention reaching 88 miles per hours in tests and the unlock achievement calls it fast enough to time travel.
- The achievement for the Gravitional Beam Emitter is outright named Blame!
- The achievement for unlocking the SMG is called YOU'RE GONNA CARRY THAT WEIGHT.
- The achievement for unlocking the double-barreled shotgun is called "THIS IS MY BOOMSTICK!"
- One of the cigarette unlock achievements is called CO CO CO COMBO BREAKER!
- The achievement for unlocking every gun is called A WOMAN WITH NO NAME.
- Smoking Is Cool: Akane keeps a cigarette in her mouth at all times and an equipment slot is dedicated to different smoke packs which do nothing, but change the color of her dash trail.
- Speed Blitz: The Dragon Slayer technique has Akane go so fast that she's not visible when using it and it's a One-Hit Kill since no one can react.
- Spin Attack: The Charged Attack of the 2nd katana Rebi.
-
Spiritual Successor: To Ludic Studios earlier game, Saigo's Ultimate Battle, which can be found on its website. It also may count as a Stealth Sequel as well, since Saigo is referenced throughout the game, and makes a Cameo amongst the pedestrians. He's even featured in a Steam trading card. - Sprint Meter: Rather than the spammable dash, the stamina gauge acts this way for Akane's katana strikes. It recovers quickly when using special techiniques or after a delay of not using the basic attack.
- Super Move Portrait Attack: Using Dragon Slayer has a cut-in of Akane glancing around before killing everyone in sight.
- Sword and Gun: Akane and Katsuro both carry a katana and a sidearm.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The Charged Attack of the 3rd katana Tadus. It needs to be picked back up after using it though. The Flavor Text mentions an incident during a yakuza meeting where one man decapitated 7 others by throwing his sword.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: There are plenty of pedestrians walking around and not paying any mind to the bloodshed happening by them.
- You Killed My Father: Akane sought out Ishikawa for killing her family and trained under him until she could take vengeance.
