Yes; Kunio Kun's MMORPG Lives Again...As a Pathetic Zombie.

Back in January, I reported on the revival of an MMORPG based on the Kunio Kun series, which I had previously tested back during its 2010 beta.  As a person who was saddened by that game's apparent discontinuation, I was delighted to stumble upon news that it was back in China, and the wide array of screenshots I saw seemed to promise a robust game.  Not having an iPhone with enough room to install the game, I've just had to rely on searching around the Internet for footage.  Then last night, I found extended footage--and unfortunately, the game seems pretty bad.

Sure; it's pretty, colorful, the animation is nice, and the female protagonist is rather sexy for a chibi, but that's where my praise ends.  Beyond looking immensely button-mashy and prone to a lot of the standard flaws of MMORPGs, as someone who played a past incarnation of this game, I can say that this one has been stripped down from where it was. 

For example, the 2010 incarnation of this game. had a fully explorable world from which you entered dungeons; a genre standard, while this new version has a mission select, and that's about it.  The 2010 incarnation gave you a wider degree of character designs options, while this new version gives you only three choices at the start, a male character who looks exactly like Kunio, a male character who looks exactly like Riki, and a female character whom I earlier said was Hasebe, but might not be, as there's another girl who looks more like her in the game. (A digital translation rendered her name as "Penetration Spray"; I could make a joke there, but you've probably already made it to yourself.)  While I previously pegged that for some sort of deemphasis on MMORPG aspects in favor of telling a story following canon characters in the Nekketsu series, the reality is this still a MMORPG; just one where legions of players that all look like one of three people show up. As you do missions, you get money, and then you can buy things that chance your character's appearance.  A lot of them probably depend on Microtransactions, too.  This game nickel-and-dimes you for things that used to be available at the start.

As to the weapons and vehicles I reported on you being able to buy, they're indeed in the game, but when it looks like battles are winnable just by button-mashing, why bother?

The worst part is that this is, by all evidence, a finished, fully available app, meaning it's essentially the sad ending for a project that's had Kunio fans intrigued since 2008.  It's free to download if you're curious, but I say it's better to keep waiting for River City Ransom Underground.


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