is a Japanese action role-playing video game developed by Japan Studio for the PlayStation Vita. Released in 2014 and set in the distant future where the majority of humankind is imprisoned in penal city-states known as Panopticons which wage war against one another, the game involves players cooperating to fight enemies and contribute towards their Panopticon. The game was one of the most successful first-party PlayStation Vita titles in Japan, achieving the second highest all-time opening sales for Vita software sold there.
Gameplay
The game is a third-person battle action game, and features local and online multiplayer functionality, both co-operative and competitive, for up to eight players. The game features a grappling whip that the player can use to zip across the battlefield and pull giant enemies to the ground. Different classes of thorns also grant various special techniques, such as traps, healing, and shields. Players fight alongside androids known as Accessories which provide combat support during missions; the player gives a set of commands to their Accessory that they execute, which include holding a position, collecting materials, or rescuing civilians.
The game features a system known as the "League of Panopticons", where players are separated into 47 Panopticons within the Japanese version of the game, with each representing one of Japan's 47 prefectures, and 50 Panopticons representing select global cities within the Asian and western localised releases. Each Panopticon competes with the others in development, where players set out to seek natural resources and invade other Panopticons. Developed Panopticons have the capability to place other ones under their control, and leaderboards are used to compare each City-State. Within this mode, criminals fight amongst other criminals from rival Panopticons. At the end of each mission, players can choose to give the materials they collect to the Panopticon as a "contribution" which reduces their sentence and adds points to their Panopticon on the leaderboards, or they can keep the material for personal use later on; however, refusal to hand over certain prohibited material will result in the player being penalized with additional years in their sentence. The top few Panopticons with the highest total score are granted special rewards and bonuses.
Missions involve players fighting against giant mechanized weapons known as Abductors, and rescuing civilians captured by them. Accessories can be abducted by enemy Abductors once they have fallen, and in such cases the player is required to rescue them. There are also item collection and capture the flag missions. In some missions, players will need to fight against other teams from other Panopticons, and attempt to rescue civilians for their own side. Players collect resources known as abductor parts which fall from enemies, which are used for crafting or contributing to the Panopticon; those who contribute to their Panopticon are rewarded with customisation options for their accessory and player appearance. At the beginning of the game, the player has no rights, and is required to "buy" back their privileges to do certain things using points gained from contributions in the form of entitlement requests, such as lying down or walking more than five steps in their prison cell, customising their appearance, or having access to certain weapons; violating any restrictions results in a penalty of years being added to the player's sentence. The Japanese and other Asian versions of the game utilise text-to-speech functionality to generate accessory voices triggered during the game which can be customised by the player.