After the series ending in 2014, Kill la Kill makes a return in video game form with Kill la Kill –IF. A loose adaptation of the series, Kill la Kill –IF is a flashy fighting game that has just as much spirit and fire as its anime counterpart.
If you’re a fan of the series or just of anime fighters in general, it’s easy to quickly jump into things. After all, Kill la Kill did make its name off of throwing caution to the wind. Even then, there are still some things you can’t help but wish you knew before diving headfirst into this action-packed fighting game.
10 10. The Actual Anime
It goes without saying that if you’re excited about playing this game then you’ve probably seen the anime. But for those that just want to pick up a new fighting game—and possibly never even heard of Kill la Kill but thought it looked interesting—you’ll probably find yourself pretty lost in the game’s story mode.
As a loose adaptation of the show’s story, the game actually skips over some context that the show covers. The game’s ending cutscenes even employ the player to just go watch the anime if you feel like you missed anything. Which just feels like a giant, lazy slap to the face.
9 9. How Bad The PC Port Is
It’s 2019 and developers are still having trouble making proper PC ports. The PC version of Kill la Kill –IF is rife with bugs, glitches, graphical errors, and other nonsense that makes the game borderline unplayable. Every loading screen is a chance for your game to crash and some fights give you noticeable frame rate drops.
It seems as though we still don’t fully understand the overwhelming power of anime girls in revealing outfits engaging in over the top duels to the death just yet to properly optimize it. It is quite the power to try and comprehend after all.
8 8. How Much There Is To Unlock
Kill la Kill –IF has a large surplus of content to unlock. Unfortunately, a good portion of that content isn’t really substantial and requires you to save in-game currency to unlock it. So, while the game does reward you for playing it, it still requires you to grind for a few hours to get everything it.
It is not like you’re unlocking extra skins, colors, or cosmetics for characters. You’re unlocking stuff like musical themes, voice lines, and poses for diorama figures. It’s stuff that feels like you should get automatically from just seeing or hearing it in-game or as a special reward for achieving a goal. It’s a ridiculous amount of content with an equally ridiculous way to acquire it.
7 7. How Easy The Fight System Is To Pick Up
Fighters are notoriously known for being hard. Kill la Kill –IF takes a surprisingly simple approach to its system though. It uses auto-combos similar to Dragon Ball FighterZ but with a Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm spin on it where you essentially only need to mash one button.
There are no complicated motions to do special moves and canceling into them correctly takes only a little bit of easy timing. This makes the combat system a blast for newcomers of the fighting genre. It doesn’t take much effort to pull off cool maneuvers. It’s an anime fighter to the tee.
6 6. How Uninformative The Tutorial Is
That being said, fighting games, anime or not, also often try to inform the player about all of its intricacies as much as possible in a proper tutorial mode. Kill la Kill –IF does an incredibly lackluster job of this. The tutorial mode is bare-bones and basic, only telling you about simple actions and special moves.
It barely even tells you about the applications of each action or their properties. Also, frame data in the game is non-existent and some core concepts like wall-splatting and crumple states go completely unexplained to the player.
5 5. How Annoying Zoners Are
Projectiles! Projectiles! Projectiles! Zoners get so many on-screen projectiles in Kill la Kill –IF. They even have projectiles that cover their projectiles and guard break attacks in the form of projectiles which makes it hard to know where the gaps in their pressure are.
Fighting zoners can be annoying in any fighting game but it’s borderline excessive in this one. The problem is how many of their zoning tools can knock you down and juggle you. If you don’t have a perfect defense, then they are nearly always guaranteed to have enough space to set up another round. And the defensive options in this game aren’t the most reliable against the auto-tracking.
4 4. The 1 v. 2 Fights
In the story mode, Kill la Kill –IF occasionally puts the player up against more than one CPU opponent. A fun concept but questionable in its execution. The game’s combat system just isn’t really suited for this sort of confusing arena brawl. There’s no reliable way to lock on to an enemy during the fight, making it harder than it needs to be to focus on a target.
Furthermore, if you make even one mistake prepare to be juggled for what feels like an eternity. The game does offset the handicap a bit, so the player does more damage and takes less, but it’s hardly an excuse for this kind of frustrating design.
3 3. How Directional Orientation Works
One of the basic mobility options in Kill la Kill –IF is dodge stepping. There are four directions in which you can dodge; left, right, front and back. As you fight, using these movement tools to your advantage is a great way to keep your opponent off guard. The issue is the camera. When fighting, the dynamic camera will attempt to keep up with both fighters and constantly rotate between positions around them. This, in turn, will cause you to keep re-thinking your directional orientation at any given time which will more than likely cause you to mess up your dashes.
It’s the worst when you’re up against the walls of the arena and the camera is fixed on the players’ sides. Pushing the control stick to the left thinking you’ll dash towards your opponent will just make you sidestep right into the invisible wall.
2 2. How Limited The Roster Is
Perhaps Kill la Kill –IF’s biggest sin is its incredibly small character roster. There is a total of 8 characters currently playable, 10 if you count the Ryuko and Satsuki variations. While they all feel very distinct from each other, for a fighting game this is an unacceptable amount of characters for a base roster.
What’s worse is that there are some character variations in the game that aren’t playable outside of the story mode. You could maybe claim they’d be overpowered, but c’ mon, this is an anime fighter! Being overpowered and over the top is the name of the game.
1 1. How Good The Soundtrack Is
Kill la Kill has a pretty good original soundtrack. Its most recognizable track, Before My Body is Dry, is practically meme-worthy in its popularity. The developers could’ve just as easily reused tracks from it in the game. Thankfully, instead they made their own original soundtrack for the game and it’s really good too!
A few tracks from the anime are in the game but the majority of the musical score is all original Lots of hard rock and orchestral vocalizations and instrumentation liter character themes when in a fight and it’s all really nice on the ears, much more than reasonably expected.