Deception IV: Blood Ties review for PS Vita, PS3

Platform: PS Vita
Also On: PS3
Publisher: Tecmo Koei
Developer: Tecmo Koei
Medium: Digital/Vita Card
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: M

Hereโ€™s the full extent of my knowledge of Deception IV: Blood Tiesโ€™ plot: youโ€™re playing asโ€ฆa woman? A witch? A she-devil? Something like that?

In all honesty, I have no idea. Iโ€™m pretty sure itโ€™s in that ballpark. I mean, youโ€™re dressed all provocatively, you talk toโ€ฆwitches or demons or something, and you lure your enemies โ€” who Iโ€™m 99% sure are โ€œthe good guysโ€ โ€” to their deaths. Oh, youโ€™re possibly after something called the Holy Verses. Or you need to stop other people from getting them. Again, not totally sure.

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As you can tell, I wasnโ€™t paying very close attention to everything that happened during cutscenes. In my defense, however, this is because I was speeding through those to get to the good part of Deception IV โ€” otherwise known as killing all those aforementioned good guys in the most delightfully gruesome and inventive ways I could come up with.

In this respect, Iโ€™m kind of tempted to compare Deception IV to Earth Defense Force. After all, in both games (at least for me), whatever story or plot there may be takes a back seat to the joys of sending people to their bloody dooms and blowinโ€™ stuff up real good, respectively. Though that comparison isnโ€™t entirely perfect, since plot is much easier to ignore when it comes to EDF, on account of the fact itโ€™s so basic; in Deception IV, there was clearly some effort put into creating some kind of narrative, and I just chose to ignore it.

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I donโ€™t feel that bad about doing so, however. Like I said, itโ€™s really hard to care too much about this like plot development and characterization when you just want to launch your enemy into a furnace shaped like a cow. Or, better yet, when you just want to drop a pumpkin on their head, catch them in a bear trap as theyโ€™re lurching around, hit them with a giant swinging blade while theyโ€™re stuck, have them step on a rake, and then watch as they stumble forward and land in a heap. Right in the path of an oncoming train, naturally.

Now, if that description didnโ€™t get you all tingly insideโ€ฆcongratulations on not being a psychopath, I guess. But more to the point, a) whatโ€™s wrong with you? Cow furnaces and whirring blades of death and whatnot!, and b) then this game probably isnโ€™t for you. Because, attempts at story aside, thatโ€™s really all you do in Deception IV: plot out elaborate Rube Goldberg machines of death, and then hope that your enemies step on just the right space so the mayhem can begin. And when they donโ€™tโ€ฆyou run around avoiding being hit until your traps have a chance to reset, and the cycle begins anew.

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Is it repetitive? Sure, if you donโ€™t get a perverse thrill out of launching people through the air and into the path of an oncoming boulder. But if you do โ€” and boy, do I ever โ€” then Deception IV should be right up your alley.

Grade: B+
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