Akiba's Trip

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A series of two games by Acquire (otherwise know for the Way of the Samurai series among others). Set in Akihabara, the otaku mecca that houses Acquire's office, the player fights vampiric creatures who pray on Akihabara's residents by tearing off their clothes. Unfortunately the player is also infected by this new threat and shares their vulnerability.

Despite the seeming Excuse Plot, the two games have well developed (and highly eccentric) stories.

An animated series with its own plot by GONZO titled Akiba's Trip: The Animation premiered on January 4, 2017. On June 6th 2019 an HD remake of the original game, with a western release, was announced for PC and PS4 before being released on July 20th 2021.

Tropes used in Akiba's Trip include:

• Affectionate Parody: While the game acknowledges otaku are a very eccentric and often rowdy bunch with some really bad examples, it truly loves Akiba and otaku culture.
• The Anime of the Game: In 2017 by Gonzo. The story is a new plot built on the basic premise outlined above instead of a direct sequel to either.
• Captain Ersatz: The Striprism girls are transparently based on the cast of Kodomo no Jikan.
• Clothing Damage: If you don't have the right training (in the first game) or your skills aren't high enough (the second) you will destroy clothes instead of stealing them.
• Cosplay Otaku Girl: Nana is an odd example in that while she enjoys dressing up other girls, she won't wear the costumes herself (In story. You can equip her with whatever you want in gameplay once you unlock the ability to change her equipment). Shizuku doesn't start as this, but after marathoning Striprism...
• Creator Provincialism: The Acquire office is in Akihabara. It can be seen in game from Akihabara station.
• Crossdresser: An unlockable ability in both games and mandatory in the first.
• Defeat by Modesty: While vampire NPCs melt when defeated, normal humans flee when stripped.
• Discontinuity: Played for laughs. The last episode of Show Within a Show Striprism is apparently awful, with both hardcore fans and newcomers hating it. Kati mentions before the marathoning the cast can enjoy "all 47" episodes of it .
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: A frequent NPC in Akiba.
• Funny Foreigner: Also a common NPC. In the first game, one needs to purchase a very expensive dictionary to understand them.
• Improbable Weapon User: Things that are meant to be used as weapons (wooden swords, police batons, the final boss's sword, armored gloves) are far outnumbered by the increasingly bizarre things that you would never expect to be (rhoombas, figurines, microphones and much much more).
• Loan Shark: You'll be hounded by them if you ever get into negative money in either game, though such good sources of money beating them up will quickly get you out of debt and, if you plan ahead and work to avoid your liquid assets rolling over to positive, it's actually a good way to make money. Heroine of Show Within a Show IT Witch Maria had to deal with them in the anime version of her backstory due to her deadbeat parents.
• Noodle Incident: What makes the final episode of Striprism so awful is never explained.
• Misfit Mobilization Moment: At the end of the first game all the NPCs you met in sidequests show up to help defend Akiba. Completing all of them adds far more people helping out.
• Mugged for Disguise: At one point in the first game the player needs an IT Witch Maria cosplay outfit to progress. The gameplay mechanics leave method of acquisition obvious. A set of sidequests in the second game has the player asked to get a woman some clothing. You could buy it or gain it as a reward for excess patronage to maid cafes, but its much quicker to strip some poor maid down to her underwear (or less).
• My Real Daddy: Played for laughs as part of the overly convoluted backstory for Show Within a Show IT Witch Maria. IT Witch Maria was created by her original creator as a gag character for a very short one off black and white comic in a magazine. When her design unexpectedly got popular and caused the strip to be expanded he hated having to draw such a cutesy character, had his Author Avatar repeatedly hit Maria, stopped putting effort into his drawing and eventually tossed the art duty to a separate artist. When the strips became an anime, the original author refused to do anything except collect the money and everything else about the adaptation was handled by the replacement artist. The fandom is well aware of this, though a few characters claim to have been fans since the original strip.
• No Export for You: The first game until the remake.
• Non-Lethal KO: Despite clearly burning to a crisp, the second game claims all transformed NPCs apparently show up alive but hospitalized.
• Purely Aesthetic Gender: Averted, but only temporarily. Until you learn crossdressing, male and female characters have completely different non-weapon equipment options but story wise everyone (except optional maid cafes) treats the player as male.
• Fanservice
• Magical Girl: IT Witch Maria in the first game, Striprism in the second.
• Occidental Otaku: Kati.
• Idol Singer: DBP and Rin in the second.
• Instant Cosplay Surprise: While Touko agrees to cosplay a Striprism character she doesn't realize just how lewd the costume is till she actually puts it on.
• Non-Linear Sequel: There are no story connections between the two games or the anime.
• Springtime for Hitler: Despite the original author's best efforts to sink the character, IT Witch Maria became exceptionally popular. Now that its a megahit, he's content to just ignore the franchise outside of the royalty checks.
• Shout Out: To everything.
• Take That: While the games showcase and promote various real life businesses in the Akihabara area, an art shop that's clearly supposed to be Galerie BRAVE has multiple sidequests dedicated to beating up its employees and all around the target for the game's scorn. Their pushy, high pressure, sales tactics, deliberately blocking the paths of those they seem to harass into making purchases, and tendency to "abduct" people from the street to their shop as part of this has gotten them the local nickname name "eurian" (or "Artlien" as the official translations render it).
• Updated Rerelease: Plus and the HD release for the first game, the PS4/PC release of the second. A Switch port with a new Kati route for the decade old second game, and a DLC to add the new additions to PS4 and PC release.