[Review] Kamen Rider Travelers Senki

Kamen Rider Travelers Senki
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Genre: Action Adventure
Release Date: November 28, 2013
Bandai Namco Games, 7Seventh Chords

Kamen Rider Travelers Senki unofficially become the sequel for All Kamen Rider Rider Generation 2 that was release on Playstation Portable and Nintendo DS. I can said that unofficially because it still has the previous game elements like the characters sprites and some mechanism that resembles a lot All Kamen Rider Generation series although in this new installment we face new genre gameplay.

Story

The main story in this game is taking the event after the OOO series finished, a mad scientist trying to revive King OOO using the power of cell medals & Gaia Memory. He also knew that the riders might meddling in his plan, he also revives some badass Rider enemies from each series. Some Riders beside OOO also get some portion for they own story, but unfortunately only Gaim that didn't get his own story.

Playable Characters

• Kamen Rider Gaim (Orange Arms, Pine Arms, Strawberry Arms, Wizard Arms)
• Kamen Rider Wizard (Flame, Water, Hurricane, Land, Flame Dragon, Water Dragon, Hurricane Dragon, Land Dragon & Infinity) 
• Kamen Rider Beast (Buffalo Mantle, Chameleon Mantle, Dolphin Mantle, Falco Mantle & Beast Hyper) 
• Kamen Rider Fourze (40 Astro Switch, Elek State, Fire State, Magnet State, Cosmic State, Rocket State) 
• Kamen Rider Meteor (Meteor Storm)
• Kamen Rider OOO (Tatoba, Gatakiriba, Ratorata, Sagozo, Shauta, Tajadoru & Putotyrano )
• Kamen Rider Birth (versi Date Akira)
• Kamen Rider W (Cyclone Joker, Heat Metal, Luna Trigger, Fang Joker & Cyclone Joker Extreme)
• Kamen Rider Joker
• Kamen Rider Accel (Booster & Trial)

Enemies

Wizard Enemies
Phoenix Phantom, Medusa Phantom, Gremlin Phantom, Caitsith Phantom, Legion Phantom, Dragon Phantom & White Wizard.

Fourze Enemies
Libra Zodiarts, Aries Zodiarts, Scorpio Zodiarts, Leo Zodiarts, Sagittarius Zodiarts &Dustard Troops.

OOO Enemies
King OOO, Ankh Greed, Lost Ankh Greed, Kyoryu Greed (Dr. Maki), Kazari Greed, Uva Greed, Mezool Greed, Gamel Greed, Ageha Yummy & Kuzu Yummy Troops.

W Enemies
Utopia Dopant, Weather Dopant, Nazca Dopant, Taboo Dopant, Ice Age Dopant & Masquarade Dopant Troops.

Non Playable Character

Non playable character sometimes act as a key character to finish your mission. You must talk to them to trigger some event.

Wizard: Koyomi, Shunpei Nara, Rinko Daimon, Wajima Shigeru & Masanori Kizaki.
Fourze : Kengo Utahoshi, Yuuki Jojima, JK, Tomoko Nozama, Miu Kazashiro & Shun Daimonji.
OOO : Hina Izumi, Erika Satonaka & Kousei Kougami.
W : Akiko Narumi, Mikio Jinno & Watcherman.

Gameplay & Features Inside 

Unlike the previous 7seventh Chords work : All Kamen Rider Rider Generation 2, Kamen Rider Travelers Senki brings RPG genre as new implementation for this game. You can freely explore some place that resemble a lot some places from Kamen Rider W until Wizard series, such as : Fuuto City, Narumi Detective Agency, Fuuto Police Department, Fuuto Tower, Digal company, Kougami museum, Kougami Company, Amanogawa High School, Wajima's house & Masanori HQ (I forgot the name) and fighting some enemies if you touch them, then the sudden loading will bring you to a stage where you can beat that enemies.

When you encounter the enemies, all of your move such kick, punch and special move are limited by Rider Counts, for example the Rider Counts show number 4 it means that all kick & punch that you can give to enemies is until 4 times after that you must wait until it reload again. At this rate we also must learn how to defend and dodge the enemies (if you choose hard difficulty). Kicking enemy butt also can fill the special gauge that will give your some abilities such as : Invincible Mode that make you won't flinch from enemies hit, access finishing move and changing form into ultimate form.

This also make the game flows very slow compare with All Kamen Rider Rider Generation 2 games that using beat em up gameplay because we got a lot of loading in here like encounter the enemies & changing form from Rider Belt Menu.

Transform With The 'Real' Rider Belt

Wizard can use both his changing forms rings and magic rings

Although the genre is different than previous All Kamen Rider series games, Kamen Rider Travelers Senki seems still using some elements similar from All Kamen Rider games with some improvisation. Now we can change A.I behavior (implementation from All Kamen Rider Rider Generation 2 Playstation Portable version) to help us attack the enemies & the interesting one is changing the form change menu into the real Rider belt view and the mechanism of the rider belt seems very similar like how it works in the series.

Rider Party

 

We can bring up to three characters in this game but sadly we can't pick only 2 or 1 character, as we level up to more higher level this game become more easy to beat, although we can choose the difficulties that suitable to our taste.  

Pros & Cons

+ Now we can play as Kamen Rider Joker, Kamen Rider Wizard & Kamen Rider Beast . Also several other forms from some Riders now playable after form changing, like W Fang Joker that acted as moveset in previous All Kamen Rider Rider Generation 2.

+ This new implementation genre is good, but it is more good if we can choose only one character to expore or fight with the enemies. 

- Characters selection are too few compare with previous game, there's no surprise or unlock Rider (consider that Gaim as the new Rider that still aired on TV).

- There's no story for Gaim, and the stories are too short even you can finish this game less than a day.

- Too much loading time.

Sephiawind Score:

STORY: 4/5

The Story is really good, as I expected from All Kamen Rider Rider Generation series successor, Kamen Rider Travelers senki even comes up with new story taking from the event after OOO series finished.  

GAMEPLAY: 2.5/5
 
I though that side scrolling beat em up like All Kamen Rider series are the best after all, RPG wannabe in Kamen Rider Travelers Senki only make this game looks a little bit complicated and it really make slow the pace. Also too much loading time that will make you not enjoying this game anymore, especially for changing your Rider forms.  

GRAPHIC: 2/5

There's no improvisation for graphic quality, the sprites character seems taken from previous games and sadly Kamen Rider Travelers Senki didn't support 3D feature from Nintendo 3DS. The rider belts menu also look very cheap, the visual effect after changing forms also not that cool. Also the human form from the Riders that developer show off in the teaser only appear in story scene, we cannot cancel the transformation from Rider form into human form.      

SOUND: 4/5

The Background musics and Rider Belt sounds are very cool 

REPLAY VALUE: 1/5

There's no new game + for this game and I guess there's no reason to play with another difficulties since there's no unlock rewards for this.

2,7/5       

Conclusions

I dunno what the developer think when they create this game, is it as franchise/ fan service so they only create this to amuse the Kamen Rider Fans or trying to more serious with RPG wannabe genre. With the new genre this game sure is good but at the same time it really failed in terms of maximizing the engine platform with old characters sprite design from previous game, slow pace gameplay and too much loading time in the game. It just like there's no significant improvement from the Nintendo DS version into Nintendo 3DS version. For Kamen Rider fans, this game still recommended to play because there's new Riders and form that you can play only in this game but for enthusiast fans I guess All Kamen Rider Rider Generation series still the best afterall (especially the Playstation Portable version).