When I saw these reviews, I was really worried. I thought I'd thrown away my money when I preordered this game. When I was a kid I remember Deception II - Kagero being one of the best games on the PS1. At the time I enjoyed playing a game that cast you as the villain. The concept has aged, these reviews make sense, compared to modern games this is a bit lacking. But if you enjoyed the Deception games, this is the best game in the series. It's everything I could want out of a sequel, hundreds of traps, lots and lots of heroes foolishly entering your domain with detailed backgrounds, good graphics, decent writing, a deeply evil main character, they're sacrificing people to summon the Devil, and, well.... It's got sexy girls, I get that in the post Anita age any manifestation of male sexuality is automatically evil, but as a guy I enjoyed the main character's outfit. Anyway that's a minor aspect. Being able to play this game again on handheld is wonderful. The story is pretty decent, with lots of backstory for each character. The only thing I'm not sure about is how long the game is. I assume and would be happy with 10 hours, no entry on howlongtobeat, and gamefaqs says the game is 60 hours which must be trolling. Still, it's a pretty substantial game. Be prepared to sink a pretty serious amount of time into it if you want to beat the game. Incidentally, this game is stupid hard, 1997 hard. You can only save every third fight, you can expect to spend well over an hour on some of the chapters, you die again and again and again. But when you finally kill the boss or get a perfect combo it's very satisfying. It's far from perfect, but it's fun. I'm enjoying it. It's another great game in the Vita's growing library of excellent titles. Also, you're not just fighting foolish heroes that invaded your domain, you will also encounter civilians. And of course Laegrinna coldly kills them, because she's a jerk. In the GTA era this isn't particularly shocking, but for me this is delicious nostalgia. This is my retro fix for the next six months. Some of the descriptions actually made me feel bad for killing them. I also really like the way your sisters exert a terrible influence on Laegrinna, encouraging her to murder her victims in strange and cruel ways, for big rewards. In addition they have 100 challenge missions, a mission editor, and a practice mode. Also, hey, multiple endings. I assumed they'd cheap out on that for the sequel, but they're present. This is everything you could want from a Deception game. Not everybody want's a Deception game. It's not amazing, but it's not bad either, people who enjoy that sort of thing will find that this is the sort of thing they enjoy.

Deception has never tested well with critics. It's playfully irreverent, single-minded in what it tries to accomplish, and highly stylized. But if you have ever played and enjoyed a Deception, then this latest installment will likely exceed your expectations, as it is the meatiest and most user-friendly (yet still challenging) game in the series. Complaining that its gameplay is repetitive is like saying Tetris **** because it's nothing but falling block puzzles. Deception players want a large variety of traps to set up chain attacks and inflict tons of pain on their opponents, and IV gives you more tools than ever, even allowing you to create missions and share them online once the story campaign is done. There are about 100 challenges to clear, plenty of unlockables, and a handful of unique locales to explore. The graphics are clean and run at a smooth framerate, even if they're not the most cutting-edge on the system, and while the game isn't exactly focused on narrative, what's there is fun and well-written (and in its original Japanese audio only, which is a good thing). Don't be fooled by the mediocre reviews; those are kind of expected from any Deception game. This is an unapologetic puzzle-strategy mash-up, and it won't be for everyone. But it's fantastic for any fan of the PSX cult classics, and it's actually not a bad entry point for new players. I do recommend the Vita version over PS3 if you have the choice, both because its gameplay style really shines on the portable and because it's a lower risk at $40 instead of PS3's $50.