Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman (PSP)
For many a hero’s origin story, they suddenly acquire their powers and learn to come to grips with them against their first ever villain, stumbling along the way but rising to the occasion in the end. In Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman though, the freshly christened Unlosing Ranger doesn’t even have time to learn how to fight before they’re suddenly thrust into battle with a world-ending threat, and the fight goes rather predictably as a result. Luckily, despite their absolute failure, the name Unlosing Ranger holds some weight, there still being a chance for the hero to improve and potentially save the day in this tactical role-playing game.
This unusual situation first begins because of a powerful being known as the Super Baby, the impressive little infant prophesied to help save the world one day and thus earning the attention of the equally powerful Darkdeath Evilman. Unfortunately, Super Baby’s incredible powers are mostly defensive or geared to assistance, meaning unless a hero steps forward to protect her, the world and its savior will be lost. The original Unlosing Ranger is expected to save the day… but gets hit by a car on the way and dies, having to pass the mantle onto a bystander who is then thrust into this scenario and loses quite quickly. A girl name Etranger is able to pull this new ranger away right before they’d die though, taking them to Bizarro Earth where every human has a monster counterpart and an entire system has been created to help fledgling trainees grow into heroes by fighting against willing creatures. Etranger and the ghost of the previous Ranger, Pirohiko Ichimonji, end up working together to try and utilize Bizarro Earth’s resources to turn the player’s character into a true hero.
If this all sounded rather absurd, it is certainly deliberately so. Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman is a very self-aware hero’s story, people talking about superheroes like characters from a television show and monsters referring to themselves with video game adjacent terms like Darkdeath Evilman being identified as the “last boss”. While this can sound like a metatextual, fourth-wall-breaking kind of humor, it actually slots rather well into the game world that was created for this adventure. On Bizarro Earth the monsters are literally employees, and while they do try to kill fledgling heroes, it’s because they’re playing the role assigned to them for this training program. Heroes like the previous Unlosing Ranger are identified as having brand deals and their appearances on news broadcast do tend to unfold like episodes of a television series, so people have come to expect certain tropes that line up with the kind of things we see in our superhero fiction. This does allow the characters to rather frankly discuss these elements as well, and with the game being rather silly overall in its writing, it is certainly to its benefit. Even outside the hilarious deconstruction of superhero conventions there also is a rather sizeable cast of quirky characters with their own strange behaviors and mindsets that help to give this game many more avenues for comedy, the considerable amount of voice-acted lines benefiting it even further thanks to what the delivery adds to the personality of the roster of unusual but likeable people.
The actual events of the story benefit heavily from the game being willing to look directly at how superhero stories are told as well. While you are training to grow stronger through battle, the actual dungeons you dive into all help you understand the nature of being a hero better as well. The two characters who assist you most are key here, since your player character is completely silent. Etranger is hot-headed and immature, the kind who believes the Unlosing Ranger simply needs to be powerful enough to take out Darkdeath Evilman, but the lingering spirit of Pirohiko Ichimonji brings his experience as a hero to the table and presents it with an earnest optimistic energy that is easy to get swept up in. Pirohiko is a bit dorky and a little self-indulgent at times, but his emphasis on a hero’s character and their psychological influence on others helps him stand in opposition to Etranger’s more naive understanding. The different dungeons are actually themed around exploring some new idea of what it means to be a hero as well, since each dungeon actually involves a mission to help someone in a rough situation. With Darkdeath Evilman threatening the world, many people have lost hope or are considering drastic actions before the possible apocalypse, and while the Unlosing Ranger can’t beat the last boss yet to give them hope, the people of Earth have a subtle emotional connection to their monster version on Bizarro Earth. By helping their creature counterpart overcome a similar trial, either through action, advice, or example, you can help adjust the mindset of the people back on Earth. Some of these can be serious issues like the cycle of bullying, others can be surprisingly high stakes like trying to help the U.S. President see that nuking Japan to stop Darkdeath Evilman isn’t worth it, and others can be more personal family matters like helping Super Baby’s mother see the powerful infant as a daughter instead of a savior again. Your part will mostly be fighting some boss or participating in a battle with a gimmick involving the monster versions of relevant characters, but as you explore the associated dungeons you get plenty of cutscenes to build up these individual stories. Rather than simply being interesting vignettes, they also work well in helping the main characters evolve since Etranger in particular comes to understand what makes a true hero more and more through these interactions, and because these are interesting in concept, can balance humor and serious moments well, and tie back into the broader themes of the game well, it becomes exciting to see which character you help overcome their issues in the next story dungeon.
One choice that may seem unusual at first is the fact that each chapter of the story caps off with you returning to Earth to rematch Darkdeath Evilman, the player’s growth through the dungeons pacing it so you can’t really have a hope of beating him and thus you mostly just fight a show battle you’re doomed to lose. However, it is quick and more importantly, this helps give an update on your progress, the people of the world reacting and able to show off if their mindset has changed or if they’re still despairing over the hopelessness this situation has caused. For the real involved combat though, that comes into play after your latest lost to the last boss, the player teleporting back to find a new dungeon to dive into. Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman is a turn-based dungeon crawler where every action you take progress time a little. Each step in the grid-based dungeons comes with enemies getting a chance to move forward or attack, and your attacks also serve as a single turn in this system. Thus, to effectively manage a battle you need to figure out when and where to move and how to line up your attacks. Many basic dungeon enemies can often just be smacked with whatever weapons you have scavenged, but tougher foes might lead to you utilizing spells or skills that first must be cast one turn and then executed whenever you’re ready to unleash it. These powers are tied to the equipment you have on or story progress and they aren’t always necessary so long as you’re strong enough and know how to smartly approach enemies, but the nature of your strength is rather interesting because each time you dive into a dungeon, you get knocked back to level 1.
Drawing from the rouge-like approach of having each run start you back from basics, Z.H.P Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman requires you to restart your character growth every time you enter a new monster-filled dungeon. At first this might sound disheartening because later areas do expect you to be quite strong and reach rather high levels, but while you will need to fight monsters for experience points each time you delve into a dungeon, your strength does carry over in a way. The levels you earn in a dungeon are wiped on completion or death, but they do contribute to a Total Level, this boosting your inherent stats and helping how quickly you grow in power when you level up on your next dungeon run. You do need to put in some effort beating up baddies every time you attempt a dungeon as a result, but you can feel gradual growth in how much damage you deal and how much damage you can take, meaning there can be long term payoffs for exploring an area purely for training purposes or diving into optional areas. There are things you can permanently lose though, the player’s inventory and equipment wiped if they die in battle. It can be disheartening to lose a lot of good gear, but dungeons have a good amount of items to find so equipping yourself with what you can scavenge is feasible and thus you’re not really losing anything that’s irreplaceable.
Rather importantly, when you head back to home base after a dungeon completion or death, there are many facilities that can help you out in the long term. An insurer can be paid to help save some items from being lost on death, a delivery service can be installed that will carry out vital items from the dungeon if you fear your end is near, and perhaps most importantly you can visit the Dark Clinic for some more permanent boosts to power. All equipment has a certain level of durability that wears down from use in battle, meaning even good gear must be replaced in the dungeon regularly unless you invest in aid from the blacksmith back at base. However, even weak gear can help at the Dark Clinic where it can be turned into power implants, these bolstering your inherent abilities based on how they are arranged and a system of modifying boosters and synergies that can get rather complex. While Z.H.P Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman has a fairly manageable set of story dungeons there are many additional challenges, superbosses, and even special dungeons featuring cameos of characters from anime series like Spice and Wolf, Durarara!, Toradora!, and Baccano!. These are here mostly for long term players to get many more hours of play out of the game and there are even alternate endings to unlock where you alter the story by breaking away from its intended path, and here some of the more complex systems get to shine. Essentially, the complicated balance of power and management allows for more secondary content but still has a small but appreciable and approachable influence on the story, the game allowing you to dabble it in a bit or fully explore its intricate elements based on how much the systems captivate you.
Even if the rich systems for improving your character despite the inevitable end-of-dungeon setback of being knocked back to level 1 don’t engage you, the main plot still provides some diverse dungeons and a good mix of new enemies in them to keep the exploration interesting. Many dungeons have some sort of navigation gimmick to account for such as one where you grab balloons to float between separated segments or you need to navigate a large open desert to find the rooms with enemies and items in them. Not every idea is a winner and some are fairly simple, but there is always a sort of tense air to exploration since you have an energy meter to worry about. Movement, battle, and especially the skill casting system wear down your energy, a meter separate from your health but still tied to it. To keep energy topped off you need to eat and its gradual wear down can strain you since it is vital to remaining healthy. As long as your energy is good, you will passively recover health while walking, but if you start to starve, you instead lose health with each action. You can still survive when starving, especially if you have healing items, but keeping well fed remains an important feature and scrounging around for food in a dungeon gives you incentive to always look around and the fear you might run out by doing so. More intelligent decisions are required on whether you keep going deeper into the dungeon, stick around to train, or look around every corner for potential goods, so while a good deal of foes can be easily clobbered with your basic attack, the broader importance of your actions makes them feel more layered and meaningful. This system is both helped and a little hurt by the fact the dungeon design is randomized a bit on each visit, meaning you can’t memorize layouts and will always be on the hunt and making judgment calls based on incomplete information. Unfortunately this randomization does mean sometimes the game just doesn’t give you enough food to feasibly keep your energy topped off, but beating a dungeon does let you keep your items and it is possible to build up some storage back at base so you can bring meat or strong equipment into a new dungeon to offset potential scarcity. An interesting balance of preparedness and figuring out how to approach searching new areas develops over time, your long term efforts still paying off despite the occasional setbacks caused by both failure and success.
Boss encounters make some fairly creative use of the battlefield as well, their fights often involving some new element to learn and overcome to properly defeat them. For example one has you having to knock down trees to make a path to the boss, but you can’t be sure if the tree might be hiding additional enemies and thus the optimal path might not be the safest one, especially since getting outnumbered or boxed in is one of the most dangerous situations to be in since it means each turn you can take damage from many different angles. Again some ideas aren’t as strong as others, one boss requires fiddling with mirrors that refract lasers and it doesn’t control the best in the game’s grid-based movement system, but these battles do top off their dungeons well and ensure that the areas you explore can have interesting ideas beyond how the specific character tied to the location is connected to the game’s themes of heroism and perseverance.
THE VERDICT: Z.H.P Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman ties its progress resetting mechanic to a narrative about the dogged persistence of heroes while also making that story amusing and frequently hilarious. Strong characters like Etranger and Pirohiko can debate the nature of a superhero’s work with it feeling like a natural conversation arising from the work to train up the player character and the dungeons each tying back to an entertaining secondary character’s moral dilemma gives the dungeon diving action an enjoyable secondary element to follow. The grid-based exploration is varied and the value of battle and item discoveries keeps you constantly considering how to approach it while the home base holds ways to continue to grow despite the risk of losing good gear on death. This tactical RPG certainly understands how to accommodate its version of character progress into its plot and play, giving you deep systems to explore if you wish to pursue it further but a strong and accessible main plot to motivate you to persevere even after a disheartening failure.
And so, I give Z.H.P Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman for the PlayStation Portable…
A GREAT rating. The story of Z.H.P Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman is certainly the shining pearl that elevates this dungeon crawler into something special. While it is certainly wacky and self-aware, it uses those elements to keep you laughing and invested in a range of likeable characters who you want to see succeed and grow, the Unlosing Ranger’s efforts to turn a doubting public into ardent supporters well portrayed by the way people’s opinions evolve each time you have to face Darkdeath Evilman in battle. The game is happy to be ridiculous but still understands certain characters do need to be more layered, Etranger in particular having a character arc that progresses well but even the ongoing story of people like the couple that ran over the previous Unlosing Ranger is checked in on enough that you come to care for them and hope to inspire them through your actions. The Bizarro Earth allows for a direct means of impacting their lives since it’s not like a super-powered hero could sit people down for effective therapy, and those dungeons that feature the recontextualizations of the cast’s woes both explore the topic well and give you a good amount to do along the way. The randomization sometimes leading to some dungeons being less accommodating does sting but the nature of a loss here means the setback is both felt but not so damaging you would outright give up. Going in again will likely go better and some elements are consistent like the enemy types and dungeon gimmick, plus your total level and the base’s many helpful services can be utilized to continuously improve so the next attempt has a higher chance of success. It would be nice if there were more interesting abilities to justify their use more and it’s hard not to wish for some adjustment to energy considering its existence as a concern more than something that contributes new activities, but it is important to keeping dungeon exploration tense and purposeful, the player not able to cover every inch and thus they have to make choices on how risky to play. Too much freedom would mean you’d not likely be lacking in good gear and items, but you still won’t often feel strained so long as you balance your actions well and moments like the boss battles can demand more immediate tactical approaches to succeed.
It’s easy to think of superheroes as paragons who simply need to be powerful to stop villains, but Z.H.P Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman tries to show why they can be truly inspiring with an approach to character growth that ties into the narrative conceit that you are going to be up against something that will knock you down again and again. Its wonderful eccentricities provide many laughs along the way rather than this being too introspective or preachy, and it manages to do so while providing a character progression system that can be heavily involved if you wish to pursue greater challenges or just a way to ensure future success with just the surface level features. As the game is quick to remind you, losing only happens when you give up, so even if you die or fail, Z.H.P Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman gives you a way to dive back in and keep on getting better to help save a world you learn to love.