Rating
Mind Zero
Mind Zero is an action-packed dungeon-crawler RPG. Play as Kei, a high school student whose life turns upside down when he forms a contract with a “MIND,” a weapon/being with deadly powers. With the government and other forces trailing him and his friends, Kei will need to discover the secret behind “MIND.” Will these newfound powers help him or ul...
Details
- Released
- July 31, 2013
- Developer
- ZeroDiv, ACQUIRE Corp.
- Publisher
- GungHo Online Entertainment, Aksys Games
- Platforms
- PC
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Mind Zero Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
Let’s just get this out of the way: Mind Zero is a blatant knock-off of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona with a bit of Etrian Odyssey mixed in. Luckily for us, and developer MindDiv, those are both good games. Even though I uncovered few traces of originality in Mind Zero’s depths, I still found an enjoyable dungeon crawler with engaging turn-based battle mechanics, lively voice acting, and interesting exploration.
It’s unfortunate that Mind Zero chose one of the greatest JRPG franchises to ape, because the core combat system is really quite entertaining and mechanically sound. It’s also unfortunate because for all my criticisms above, Mind Zero is still a very entertaining game, it’s just that when you deliberately compare yourself to the greatest, you’re inevitably going to disappoint. Were Mind Zero to stand with its own narrative drive, and free of the comparisons to Persona, this game would have appreciated for what it is, rather than what it is not.
What is the mind? Is it just a system of impulses or is it something tangible? In this case, it's very much the latter.
Mind Zero is in no way a travesty, but despite glaring shortcomings, it’s very average. A premise that sets the stage for an exciting thrill ride gives way to a rickety dungeon crawler with little to offer in the way of combat genius, looting, or even life sim elements. A game will collapse if there’s nothing in it, and while it’s not “nothing” per se here in Mind Zero, there certainly isn’t enough good to recommend it as even a Persona competitor, let alone imitator.
Without a doubt, Mind Zero appears to be a genuinely high quality JRPG. It has an enticingly sleek art direction, an atypical twist on its familiar gameplay, a diverse cast of characters, and a promising story premise, so we were naturally impressed by the brainpower that must have gone into the game. But as we delved a little deeper into the core experience, we were left craving far more creativity and depth to bolster the otherwise great potential that this game possesses.