Beat em ups are some of my favorite games to kick back with and enjoy. One exceptional example of this genre has to be the Yakuza series, which involves players doing everyday tasks when they aren’t knuckle deep in combat. The series has shown how important it is to balance out these multiple tasks as well as making the combat fluid and fun. Unfortunately, Troublemaker: Raise your gang does not hit the same high notes as other games in this genre and leaves a lot to be desired.
Story
Troublemaker: Raise your gang follows the protagonist named Budi who is a high school delinquent who is gifted in the art of putting bullies in their place. The game starts off with our protagonist getting into a small scrap and getting into some heavy trouble when the police show up. His mother bails him out and tells him how important it is that he gets his act together before it’s too late. We find out that Budi lost his father a few years ago and that the small family is struggling with this loss. Budi’s mother explains that it is time they moved to and got Budi into a better school so that he can be more than just a street tough. Although he protests at the beginning, Budi soon finds himself at a new school with old problems.
I personally had a hard time digesting the story due to a multitude of issues with the writing. Budi and the gang are all high school students and the writing has them speaking as if they have lived their entire lives on the internet with no interaction with the outside world.
The merchant is a direct reference to the merchant from Resident Evil 4 and the game makes sure you know this by both his design and the way he speaks. Rani, The internet icon of the group, is so wrapped up in live streaming all the fights and her internet presence that it’s hard to appreciate her character when it feels as if she is only there to pressure Budi into fights.
Gameplay
Fighting is the main activity we will be taking part in during Budi’s journey and the game makes sure you are aware of how cool Budi is. There are moments where he will take on 4-5 different enemies in a fight only for one of his friends to talk about how cool it was or how unstoppable he is. Budi has a strong personality and wants to protect his friends but that’s about it for his character.
When we get into fights, the game gives us the usual heavy and light attack as well as an array of special attacks. There is also a parry mechanic but I found that it only worked a handful of times. The enemies are capable of interrupting your attacks and laying into Budi, which may result in a quick game over. During one of my fights with Zaenal, I got cornered against a wall and was unable to deliver any damage since he kept interrupting my attacks and the parry didn’t trigger. It was at this time that I dropped the game’s difficulty from normal down to easy simply so I could see the credits roll.
When you aren’t fighting, there are some minor things you can do in the small school. At a certain point in the game, you unlock the ability to hang out with Budi’s girlfriend but by this point, I was ready to graduate from this troublesome school so I spent little time with her. Budi can earn money during his fights that can be used to purchase new skills as well as items that can recover his health during fights. Each new skill costs a handful of money but you can honestly get by with the bare basic attacks and the beginning skill. The skills you can obtain range from a basic chair being thrown at the enemy to an arrangement of pop culture references, including JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. When I saw a T-Pose attack, I lost all interest in trying to obtain the higher skills and just wanted to rush through the basic story.
Final Thoughts
When I started this game, I was genuinely excited to see how Budi’s journey would end and was really rooting for him. By the time I hit the mid way point of the game, I was checking the achievements to see how much longer I would have to endure this game. There is a lot of good that can be salvaged from this game and if the team decided to do a sequel with another group, I hope that they can leave some of the internet humor behind. The game’s cast has the potential to be a lot stronger but this is buried behind a ton of vulgarity and inability to be fully aware of what is going on around them. I would love to recommend this game for those looking for a good beat em up but I strongly advise that you go into it with low expectations and understand that the game really relies on your ability to stomach mediocre combat, stale writing, and cheap humor.
