Genre: Sexual Content Nudity Violent RPG Strategy
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software, Inc.
Publisher: NIS America, Inc.
Release Date: Jan 11, 2017
Once in awhile there comes a game that gets so hated on that it don’t make sense as to why. Criminal Girls: Invite Only definitely falls into that category. After getting as far into the game as time allowed for me to due to deadlines, I decided to do a bit of research to see what others said about the game. I discovered that a lot people were equating it to softcore porn, and shaming NIS America for release the port. I can see where they get that from, but from a lot of what I read, it seemed like well over half of them only played it for a short time. To be honest, if it wasn’t for the motivation time mini game they would have nothing to complain about with the game. As to what motivation time is, I will get into that later. First we need to get into the background and genre for the game.
Criminal Girls: Invite Only is the western port of the JRPG Criminal Girls PSP game in Japan. The only differences between the two is in the motivation time where in the western release, there is a pink cloud covering parts of the screen, and the girls talking back is taken out. Other than that, both copies of the game are absolutely identical. The story of the game revolves around your character arriving in hell after answering a job ad in the paper. What is the job, you ask? Well, to escort and rehabilitate several young women who have lost their way and are doomed to hell if they do not change their ways. Its simple, you guide them through four trials and upon reaching the end, if they have been rehabilitated, they are give the chance to return to life.
With all of that out of the way, let’s discuss what gives people so many issues with the game: Motivation Time. In addition to leveling up with experience from combat, you also gain CM from battles, which is used to start Motivation Time, and also to buy items from the store. There are five different types of motivations you unlock as you play the game. Each one boosts different stats, and gives different skills at an increasing cost. I will explain the first two motivations since they’re acquired really early in the game; They are Maintenance and Edgeplay, and require different actions to complete and use a different item. In Maintenance, you use a whip to knock away the girl’s temptations by hitting them as they appear on the screen. The temptations will appear as two different colors requiring you to use a different button.
In Edgeplay, you use a Shock Stick to remove the girls temptations, which appear as slider which you have to click and hold and drag in the indicated direction. That brings us to combat, and therein lies my only complaint with the game. The way combat progresses is that you are presented with an option from each girl. These can range from the girl attacking by herself, or using a skill to attacking with one or more of the other girls. In typical RPG fashion, the fastest person goes first, however the turns are very sluggish and take what seems like forever to finish. That is honestly the only complaint I have about the game.
Moving onto the graphics and audio, both of which are amazing to me. The level designs remind me a lot of 16 bit rpgs like Chrono Trigger and Secrets of Evermore, two my favorites from that era besides Secret of Mana. The overall character designs ranging from the chibi form you walk around with, to what they look like in during Motivation Time, which accurately reflects the girl’s personalities to a T, based on the writing of the story. Each character is unique and possible waifu material. All of the story dialog, except for what you say and do, are fully voiced. Let’s not forget to mention the amazing opening song which actually surprised me. I was not expecting such a high quality opening song.
BoxCatHero gives Criminal Girls: Invite Only a Drastik Measure of 8.0 out of 10 (80).
Pros:
- Unique way to gain skills
- Wonderfully written dialog
- Unique character personalities
Cons:
- Combat way to slow
Criminal Girls: Invite Only is available on Steam for $19.99 USD.
The above video is an addendum to this review.
