Black★Rock Shooter THE GAME

Black★Rock Shooter THE GAME (ブラック★ロックシューター THE GAME, Burakku Rokku Shūtā THE GAME) is a role-playing video game developed by Imageepoch in partnership with MAGES. Inc. and GOOD SMILE COMPANY. It was released on PlayStation Portable on August 25, 2011 in Japan, and on April 23 and 24 in North America and Europe respectively.

The game's opening animation was done by ufotable, with ONE OK ROCK performing the theme song "NO SCARED".

Synopsis

 * See also: Black★Rock Shooter THE GAME/Event Timeline

In the year 2032, an alien race descended from the clear blue sky, and the invasion began. And then, in the year 2051... There were only twelve humans left on planet Earth, all of whom came together and put their last hope in the hands of BRS. Recently awakened BRS ascends into a crumbling world to destroy the aliens and deliver peace to the remnants of mankind.

Gameplay
The player takes control of the game's protagonist BRS and navigates around stages in 3D map environment. Enemies appear on the map, and may approach BRS if she gets close. Upon contact with an enemy, the game screen transitions from the map to a battle screen typical to many role-playing games.

Battles occur in real-time. The player can control BRS to shoot enemies with her Rock Cannon by aiming the reticle, or evade an attack by sliding to the left or right, both of which would slowly fill up the heat gauge. The heat gauge slowly reduces over time, but should it gets filled completely, BRS will not be able to fire or evade until the gauge depletes completely. BRS can also block, which will reduce the damage occurred by enemy attacks, but doing so will prevent the heat gauge from depleting.

BRS can equip up to four skills that can be used in battle. Skills have unlimited uses and can be activated on command, but they have a recharge time afterwards. Restorative items can also be used mid-battle, but they are limited by the number available in the player's inventory.

Other common elements of role-playing genre, such as level-based progression and equipment, are also present in the game.

The game features two endings: the first one can be obtained by completing the story for the first time, while the second one, which is named "A Better End" in the challenges, requires the player to replay certain story missions after the first playthrough.

Characters

 * BRS
 * Nana Gray
 * WRS

Development
According to Imageepoch's CEO Ryoei Mikage, his first meeting with huke on creating a Black★Rock Shooter game and the eventual release of the PSP game was around two years apart. At the time he chose PlayStation Portable over the PlayStation 3 for the game's platform, as the latter's popularity had yet to mature. The game has a high degree of action genre, but Mikage stated that players who are not good at action games can still clear the game and enjoy it via its RPG framework of leveling up and customization.

A sequel for the game was planned, but development was terminated "due to various reasons".

Related Media

 * Black★Rock Shooter THE GAME (manga)
 * Black★Rock Shooter THE GAME (yonkoma)