When I originally saw Too Kyu’s newest game TRIBE NINE I was immediately turned off by it being a combination of RPG and baseball mashed together. I haven’t been interested in baseball outside of video games why would I be suddenly interested in it now? “Change my mind” I thought and Too Kyu said “Hold my drink”
Friends at Akatsuki games/ Too Kyu graciously allowed us to try out TRIBE NINE closed beta test, many thanks! Too Kyu has made games such as Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, Akudama Drive, World’s End Club and of course Tribe Nine. Here’s my first impressions of Too Kyu’s upcoming Release of TRIBE NINE
I usually know more about a game I’m going to play but not time with TRIBE NINE, all I knew is that baseball was some how included in this action, story rich, RPG that the writers from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc made to branch off into something new. I also want to say that I am keenly aware that baseball is extremely popular in Japanese culture so I wasn’t too surprised that it would eventually make its way into video games, but not like this. I didn’t have any expectations for TRIBE NINE and honestly I was very uneasy about playing anything related to sports – my interest with sports stops at SSX 3 so baseball was literally a completely different ball game.
However, I think that Too Kyu games has done a great job at combining all of these different aspects and weaving it into a game that can be enjoyable for a sport that isn’t I also think it is important to note that there is an anime that may be informative as the game goes into detail in to the backstory of Tribe Nine as well as characters mentioned in the game.
Knowing that Tribe Nine was going to be a different ball game, I was super impressed with the combination of the 2D pixel art to 3D art/ battling. I feel that this was well done but of course there is some kinks that need to be worked out. It’s a bit nostalgic to have the two art styles mixed together as well as having them transition between the two, being honest I wasn’t expecting this type of transition into battle, in fact I wasn’t expecting any type of battling for this game but was pleasantly surprised at the diversity of the hack and slash to a myriad of different battles with regular enemies to mini bosses.
After a few hours of extensive dialogue it becomes blatant on how baseball or XB is weaved into the game and how important it is to the story that makes of TRIBE NINE. I also find it super unique and how baseball or XB is played out in the game, of course there’s more remnants of Danganronpa in the XB part of the game and also how you approach it also provides different dialogues depending on the answer picked at the batter’s plate. I love and appreciate the fact that you are able to use all the characters that are on your team and all of their various personalities, fighting styles and the way they step up to the batter’s plate.
I’m actually excited to play a sports RPG which I was not expecting, Too Kyu said they wanted to “take a different approach to games” and I believe they are doing an amazing job so far with their games they have developed and with this upcoming release of TRIBE NINE, it definitely hits the ball out of the park.
This is just a beta test! There are some things I believe that needs to be worked out such as the over explaining dialogue that can drag out a scene between the characters and the minor things while battling but Either way I was blown away by this direction that Too Kyu went for their upcoming release and can’t wait to see more of what’s to come when they finally released to the public!
