Less Than Divine- Gods Eater Burst Review

Contrary to my evangelism, Monster Hunter hasn’t exactly clicked with the US audience. Whenever I ask my fellow American gamers “why,” they generally counter with insightful critiques: they tell me it needs a lock-on system, a more robust offline narrative, less farming between missions, a more unique setting – the list goes on. I often wonder if they’re right. What if someone made a game, just like my beloved Monster Hunter, but listened to all of the suggestions from people who admittedly dislike the game? Namco-Bandai’s Gods Eater Burst is one such social experiment, and although it doesn’t scratch quite the same itch, it has its own merits.

Gods Eater (silent “s” in the US version) is a mission-based cooperative slasher for the PSP. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic Japan, filled with bloodthirsty monsters called “Arigami.” Your character joins an organization called Fenrir, which is tasked with hiring “Gods Eaters” in order to defeat the Arigami and keep the human race safe. Donned with tight jeans and feathered hair, your Fenrir coworkers look like they were outfitted by Hot Topic, and sadly, that’s the nicest thing I have to say about them. Each character’s whiny, grating, personality is exacerbated by their to-the-lowest-bidder voice acting, which is not quite on par with Shining Force III, but still notably terrible.


The mediocre story is particularly unfortunate, because it gets in the way of one of Gods Eater’s best traits: the quickness and efficiency of the hub town. Unlike similar hub worlds in this genre, the Fenrir base is optimized to get players into their next mission as quickly as possible. No more farming, no more home management, no more side missions – just a terminal to check your inventory, a counter to get your mission, and some optional rooms, should you decide you want to check up on your irritating sidekicks. Although I personally enjoy all the buildup that Monster Hunter provides in-between quests, it is very nice to be able to squeeze two or three hunts into a bus trip, rather than spending an hour fishing and cooking every time I want to take down a dragon.

Battle controls are clumsy and complicated. Each button has two commands mapped to it, one as a button press, one as a hold, but as unresponsive as the game can be, you’ll end up issuing the wrong command nine times out of ten. Combat is frenetic, fast-paced and mash-heavy, similar to Dynasty Warriors, but with fewer enemies. As a result, it never feels terribly strategic. Basic attacks always follow through the same way, and enemies rarely show signs of pain. The only visual difference between a critical hit and a miss is a slight variation in the color of the impact flash. That basically means a good hit never feels satisfying, even when you find a weak spot. “Monster Haters” will rejoice in the fact that there is a lock-on, however it is only available while in Blade mode (no ranged weapons) and it makes the camera so floaty, that it is barely useful.


The mission types themselves are hardly varied at all. Before advancing to a new rank, you’ll find yourself leading your team through the same area, fighting the same Arigami over and over again, with only slight deviations. After the fourth or fifth time I slayed the same monster, I wondered how many of the “over 100 missions” were actually unique. What’s worse is that most early missions don’t reward with very much useful loot, and without a leveling system, it just feels like grinding for grinding’s sake.

There is an item crafting system, but a great deal of it seems arbitrary. There is really only one weapon, which can be used as either a gun or a sword, and it can be upgraded and re-crafted to look cooler and raise different stats. However, there is no armor in this game, so any items you collect toward making yourself a new t-shirt or fancy jeans are completely for the sake of aesthetics. I can imagine a near future, where every player is carries a massively leveled super-blade, but is still wearing their starter outfit in fear that they might need those items necessary to build hipster capris to craft a better gun later.


By all accounts, Gods Eater Burst is not a bad game, but it certainly could use another go-round. I like the world they have created, and I think the creature designs are fantastic, but the parts that make it a game are severely lacking. The controls are unruly, the characters are obnoxious, and the missions are repetitive, but if they offered another chance to take out the Aragami, I would probably take them up on it. I would love to see what a year of hindsight and a new platform would do for this franchise, but as far as its initial stateside release is concerned, I would suggest waiting for a good sale, at least.

About Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

36 comments

  1. NOLA is the go-to guy for all things where 4 players fight big things?

    So there is lock-on?

  2. The S is silent in my review too.

    SLooks Slike Scrap.

  3. dude, why are you hating on Hot Topic? They sell some pretty cool vgames shirts there.

  4. Hipsters wear capris now? Damn what the hell else goes on in California?

  5. online or just local co-op?

    You know how the game is doing in Japan?

  6. So I guess even Deagle wouldn’t have liked it, then?

  7. So stick with Freedom Unite for your daily quest craving?

  8. AYOOOOO!

    Also, my name is now “eanNOLA” and you are now the “auageKing”

    See what I did there?

  9. you o illy, ean.

  10. thanks, NOLA. It’s been a while since you last review.

  11. There is indeed lock-on, but it’s floaty, and it shares a button with the Camera Reset button, which leads to some really frustrating moments. If you are locked on to a monster, but want to turn your head to, say, run away or grab an item, you can’t without breaking lock-on. It super irritating.

  12. Seems like this could have been ok, bad they fixed a few things. Don’t people test games anymore? NOLA- you should offer you services as a Monster Hunter Fixer.

  13. really you’re going to knock a game for the clothes that the characters wear?

    I can see control issues, but that’s pretty petty.

  14. Did you get the GS preorder content? Is that worth buying at GS for?

  15. I heard you can even change the flight patterns of your bullets, and arc them into monsters. That sounds cool.

  16. a 71 on Metacritic right now. C- seems dead on.

    (Although Play did give it a 88!)

  17. ok, how about a Crysis 2 review- a game more than 5 people care about.

  18. Maybe if there’s a PSN sale.

  19. Whose the girls with the boobs in the top pic?

  20. It came out about a year ago and sold It sold 295,000 copies in the week of release there!

  21. People who rag on Hot Topic and hipsters are just as bad as the people that shot there, IMO.

  22. first time I’ve heard of GEB. I guess I don’t follow the PSP market too much.

  23. how many different weapons/classes are there? Do they kind of match MH’s classes?

  24. doesn’t sound too good. Too bad I was looking forward to it.

  25. It isn’t the same as Monster Hunter, where you have 10 different weapons to choose from – It’s really only 1 weapon. Your sword turns into a gun and a shield on the fly, and you can upgrade all three parts separately.

  26. Colonel Dion Sanders

    Someone got shot at Hot Topic? Yes, it’s a start!

  27. Someone should make a Power Ranger game thats like Monster Hunter, where the group can take out Rita Repulsa.

  28. Actually, that would be kind of fun is the right developer tackled it. It’s clear that making a good Monster Hunter game is harder than it looks. Has there been a single decent imitation?

  29. I wouldn’t mind seeing a double review from NOLA and Deagle. I’m just saying.

  30. Strangest title ever. Somethings I think you guys just go for the funny names.

  31. What was the extra content?

  32. This is the most amazing thing that has ever been written on this site.

  33. I’m sure Deagle would argue that!

  34. You guys review this but not Dragon Age II? You must not want web traffic, then.

  35. Hmm, Amazon just decided to send it today.