Akiba's Beat is a spin off from the Akiba’s Strip series in an alternative continuity and takes place in the fictional town Akihabara. Asachi Tachiban is a college dropout with few prospects who gets caught up into the world of “Delusions” that only he and his friends can experience. These delusionscapes cause the day to be repeated and its is up to Asachi and his friends to solve the mystery behind the delusions and how its tied to Akihabara.
The combat like in the Akiba’s games, its beat em up action focused and this also mixes some rhythm game elements with the “beats” meaning the more you attack the more damage you inflict. The combat borders on the button mashing territory to the point it just becomes boring and lacks the variety of the original game. You can customize equipment and upgrade it as you progress in the game. Lots of the stores in Akihabara are based on real life Akihabara stores. There is a lot of filler and moments in the story where it drags on longer than it should have. There is repetitive dungeon grinding and exploration of the same areas which is annoying. The environment design of Akihabara is the same as before.
The graphics were below average even by mid 2010 Playstation and Vita standards but the music was decent. The voice acting on the other hand is incredibly bad and the dialogue the same. The maid system in the game is where you can select support members of the party to give you special benefits. You can take on side quests too and sub stories.
Overall, this was a below average spin off.
It gets 2 out of 5 stars.