Maken X

Maken X is a first-person action hack and slash video game where players control a variety of characters wielding a sentient sword dubbed the Maken. The game is divided into "Event Scenes", cutscenes related to the story; and "Action Scenes", the gameplay segments; and the world map used to select levels. On the world map, players can select a variety of levels including main story missions, zones holding new playable characters, and levels involving key non-playable characters. If the player character's health is fully depleted, the game ends. Players take control of a number of people through the Maken's "brainjack" ability, enabling them to take control of different story-related characters; each character wields a version of the Maken, but also have unique abilities and different statistics such as higher health and greater attack power, or character-specific abilities such as ranged attacks or stunning enemies.

Players navigate linear levels with the selected character, able to interact with certain environmental elements and jump over obstacles or onto higher platforms. During combat, the player is able to move freely within the environment, and has access to a variety of moves including a back step and strafing to avoid attacks. Enemies encountered in areas include humans, hostile animals, machines, and supernatural entities. The player character, who can lock onto enemies during combat, has a standard attack option, with combos achieved through consecutive attacks.

Maken X is set in a near-future version of Earth, described as "five minutes" into the future, the limit of precognitive vision. In the world of Maken X, the spirit is a scientifically proven concept referred to as PSI, which arises from a separate dimension and is the source of emotion and sensation. Amid rising tensions and flagging negotiations between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China, the European Union is collapsing due to growing misfortune across Europe. Two key factions are the Blademasters, a society who maintain world peace at all costs and share a special gene dubbed the "D Gene"; and the Sangokai, a Hong Kong-based crime syndicate which splintered from the Blademasters and are responsible for the catastrophes engulfing the world.

The Sangokai are led by the Hakke, humans with warped PSI that has malformed their bodies. The central cast are staff at the Kazanawa Research Institute in Japan, which is secretly funded by the Blademasters from a base in China.

The concept for Maken X arose while Atlus was part of the way through developing the Persona 2 duology (Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment) for the PlayStation. Producer Kouji Okada was one of the original creators of Atlus' Megami Tensei series. Longtime Megami Tensei artist Kazuma Kaneko acted as art director and character designer. , Maken X was his debut as a game director.

The game was developed by internal studio Atlus R&D1. Most of the development team were directly carried over from the second Persona 2 game. The Atlus staff were beginning to feel limited by the scope of the Megami Tensei universe, so when they were shown the specifications of the Dreamcast console, they immediately decided to create something new for that console. Okada later said that Atlus' main desire when creating Maken X was to develop something new after making role-playing games for most of the company's lifetime.

In Japan, the game received high scores from critics. The Japanese Dreamcast Magazine gave Maken X scores of 9, 9 and 7 out of 10 from three critics, placing it among the issue's highest-scoring games. Famitsu gave the game a score of 32/40, consequently receiving the magazine's "Gold" award. The remake Maken Shao received an identical score of 32/40 from Famitsu, which praised the overall gameplay and varied character choice.

The game received above-average reviews internationally according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. In an import review, Edge Magazine said that it was only the game's lack of multiplayer and level design that kept it from contending with the likes of GoldenEye 007, saying that it was otherwise a good Dreamcast game for adventure players. In contrast, Lee Skittrell of Computer and Video Games felt it was not worth purchasing other than by those "desperate" for an action game due to the many faults he found. James Mielke of GameSpot called Maken X a strong addition to the Dreamcast library and a good game in its own right, IGN's Anoop Gantayat felt the game should be rented rather than immediately bought due to his own complaints, while website GameRevolution said that Maken X was "one of those games that could have been great."