Maken X
Developer - Atlus
Publisher - Atlus (Japan); SEGA (North America and Europe)
Director - Katsura Hashino
Producer - Kouji Okada
Designer - Tatsuya Igarashi
Artist - Kazuma Keneko
Composers - Shoji Meguro, Takahiro Ogata
Genre - Single Player First Person Hack and Slash
Dreamcast Release Dates - November 25, 1999 (Japan); April 26, 2000 (North America); July 7, 2000 (Europe)
Additional Releases - Sony Playstation 2 (Maken Shao: Demon Sword) (released in Japan and Europe only)
Current Average Price - $49
Maken X is a noteworthy game for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it’s notable because of the people who made it.
Maken X’s producer, Kouji Okada, was one of the original founders of Atlus (in 1986) and a co-creator of the Megami Tensei and Persona series. It was directed by Katsura Hashino (director and producer of Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne, Catherine, Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5 and more); with art from Kazuma Keneko (original art designer of the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series, Zone of the Enders, and more); and with music composed by Shoji Meguro (music composer on SMT III Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga who rose to international fame with his work on Persona 3 and Persona 4).
Maken X is additionally noteworthy because it’s the only SEGA Dreamcast game developed by Atlus (coincidentally now a subsidiary of SEGA), and it’s one of the very few Atlus games which is not an RPG. Unusually, Maken X is a first-person hack and slash melee combat game.
It’s got a sophisticated story, branching pathways with seven possible endings, excellent art direction, and a fairly inventive core gameplay mechanic (“brain-jacking”).
Maken X also has flaws, and it is in no way a perfect game. But it’s a good and unique game, and if only for the pedigree of its creators and their unique vision, it’s a game worth owning and experiencing even today. (And hey, if you don’t want to play it yourself you can always watch me play it on YouTube.)
Gameplay
Maken X is a first person hack and slash melee combat game in which the player controls various characters who all wield the Maken, a sentient sword. Through the Maken, the player is able to “brainjack” different characters who are integral to the story of the game (sometimes these characters are of great importance to the story, and other times they are not). The Maken sword changes shape and abilities with every brainjack, and characters have differing strengths and weaknesses. Which characters the player chooses to brainjack impacts the course of the story, changes which stages the player will visit and in which order, and even determines which ending the player will see at the end of the game. Brainjacking certain characters will also cause other characters to interact with the player in different ways, depending on which body the player is inhabiting during each encounter.
The game is divided into two types of scenes - Event Scenes and Action Scenes. In Event Scenes, the story of the game is advanced through cutscenes (in-game cinematics and CGI cinematics). In Action Scenes, the player controls their character through linear stages populated with enemies, and is required to traverse the stage while eliminating the enemies in an effort to reach the endpoint. Stages also feature simple platforming elements. Throughout the stage are various acquirable items such as health pick-ups (which replenish the player’s health), X power-ups (which temporarily increase the player’s attack damage), and PSI tokens (the accumulation of which increases the player’s PSI level, which dictates who the player can brainjack - PSI levels must be equal to or higher than the character who the player is attempting to brainjack).
When in combat, the player locks onto enemies via a button press or by holding the R Trigger. When locked on, the player can perform a number of maneuvers to avoid enemy attacks and deal damage - these include circle strafing, a rapid backstep and side hop, and a block. In addition the player can vertically leap over the enemy, spin 180 degrees, and deal a critical attack to the enemy’s exposed back. It’s also possible to deflect some projectile attacks with a well-timed slash of the Maken. Melee combat includes combos performed through successive button presses and the ability to charge a powered attack (the EX gauge).
Premise and Plot
Maken X is set in the near future (five minutes into the future, as stated by the game’s manual). More from the manual’s prologue:
The world is tumbling into chaos. Chin and the USA have reached a standoff in their battle for supremacy. The European Union is about to be engulfed by the shadow of misfortune and is losing its strength like a dying old man. People will be embraced by a sense of uneasiness that they have never felt before.
Japan - At the Kanagawa Research Institute, funded by an overseas Chinese merchant, epoch-making research is being carried out on a treatment for mental illness that involves PSI engineering. PSI - the existence of the human spirit, scientifically proven…
Maken - the first medical instrument in the world that can extract PSI and modify it. The development of artificial life is based on Plan X. Maken is about to awaken.
The game begins with the Maken's activation. Kay, the main protagonist and daughter of the Kanagawa Research Institute’s head scientist, watches as her father prepares for Maken’s awakening. Kay’s tutor, Fei, possesses the genetic material needed to bond with Maken (a trait amongst “Blademasters,” a group of people who have the special “D Gene” and who have protected humanity in secret throughout history). Fei prepares to wield the Maken. But before he and Maken can bond, the institute is attacked by Hakke Andrey, a leader of the Sangokai, a Hong Kong-based crime syndicate who desire the Maken’s power. Kay’s father, Hiro Sagami is kidnapped and Fei mortally wounded. Before he dies, Fei tells Kay to take up the Maken. Brainjacking Kay, the Maken defeats the Sangokai but fails to prevent the kidnapping.
Initially motivated to save her father, Kay and the Maken must travel across the globe encountering numerous Blademasters and Sangokai. She and the Maken must brainjack members of both groups to learn the truth of the world, eventually discovering that the Sangokai, whose members include the President of the USA, are being influenced by a god-like being of the PSI realm known as Geist. Geist, who seeks to preserve humanity through more extreme measures than the Blademasters, intends to use the Sangokai to reduce the human population.
Depending on brainjacking and dialogue choices made by the player throughout the game, several different narrative paths and endings are unlocked. The game has seven endings in total, and these are hinted at in the manual’s introduction:
But there is only one future. Should he sacrifice everything to save a single girl? Or should he abandon her for the sake of righteousness? Should he defeat the people’s enemy in order to save the world? Or, as ruler, should he reign over it… Through all the struggles, he will find the true nature of power. Creation and destruction, life and death, joy and sorrow… What is it all for? Who is it for? The answer lies in his future…
Origin and Development
Partway through the development of the Persona 2 duology (Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment)for the original Sony Playstation), the concept for Maken X arose. It would be produced by Kouji Okada, one of the founders of Atlus and one of the original creators of the Megami Tensei series. Kazuma Kaneko was quickly brought in from his work on Megami Tensei and Persona as the game’s art director and character designer. Katsura Hashino directed Maken X, his first time working as director (though definitely not his last, as he’d go on to direct some of the greatest Atlus games of all time).
The game was developed by Atlus’ internal studio R&D1 and the team was comprised of mainly of those who had been working on Persona 2. The team was immediately impressed by the specifications of the Dreamcast after a long period of developing for the first Playstation, and since the console was such a new frontier they decided to create something similarly new. Producer Okada said that the team’s main desire when creating Maken X was to develop something wildly different from their usual RPGs.
Okada and Kaneko both remarked in an interview that the development cycle for Maken X was turbulent, and that the game was somewhat odd. But over time the game became immensely important for Kaneko, in particular. As the game’s scale increased the development process became more chaotic and more staff was brought on to help with development. Because the game was so different from what Atlus was accustomed to creating, the trial and error phase of development lasted much longer than normal. Maken X was the first game that Atlus had made which featured full voice-acting, fully 3D characters and environments, and 3D CGI cutscenes, further lengthening the development cycle to two years.
An important narrative element brought over from the Megami Tensei franchise was the ability for the player to make choices based on their feelings and morality, which would influence the course of the game as well as the game’s ending.
Legacy and My Thoughts
Maken X was first released in Japan, where it sold strongly and was well-received by critics. It sold 66,000 copies in its first week, making it the best-selling Dreamcast game of that week. Its total sales figures would eventually place it as the 50th best-selling Dreamcast game in Japan, all-time.
Japanese Dreamcast Magazine’s three critics scored it 9, 9, and 7 out of 10. Famitsu gave the game a score of 32/40, enough to earn the magazine's "Gold" award.
Western reviewers’ reactions were more mixed. Edge Magazine said that it was only the game's lack of multiplayer and level design that kept it from contending with the likes of GoldenEye 007, saying that it was otherwise a good Dreamcast game for adventure players and praising its combat as a refreshing change from other first-person games. Edge also noted that the game’s sophisticated narrative set it apart from other first-person games.
Lee Skittrell of Computer and Video Games felt that Maken X was not worth purchasing other than by those desperate for an action game, remarking that the story segments were “boring and far too long.” James Mielke of GameSpot called Maken X a strong addition to the Dreamcast library, while IGN's Anoop Gantayat felt the game should be rented rather than immediately bought. Nerys Coward of Official Dreamcast Magazine praised the story, calling it "theatrical and intriguing."
Multiple reviewers faulted the controls as cumbersome or inappropriate for the gameplay, and many reviewers called the voice acting poor.
A port to the Playstation 2, titled Maken Shao, received a number of alterations, most notable of which was the shift from first-person perspective to third-person. The game was released in Europe and Japan only and was well-received in Japan, like the original.
Today, Maken X is an under-appreciated, virtually unknown game. Most gamers have never heard of it, and those who have have likely never played it.
But Maken X really is a great game, and one which deserves more attention than it receives. It’s got a unique story, interesting gameplay mechanics, and intriguing characters, and it’s worth owning and playing. It’s a wild departure from the usual Atlus fare, and a worthy game if only for the pedigree of the legendary game developers who created it.