Rebuild of Evangelion Sound Impact

Overview

Rebuild of Evangelion 3nd Impact is a rhythm game based upon the Rebuild of Evangelion movie series. The game was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture with Suda 51 serving as creative producer. It was released September 2011 for PlayStation Portable. There are six different rhythm games based upon the music from the Rebuild series, with music being arranged by Akira Yamaoka, most known for his work on the Silent Hill series. The game's title, 3nd Impact, is a pun on the Japanese word for three (三, San, Sannd Impact), effectively creating the alternate title Sound Impact, representing the game's content.

Namco Bandai originally approached Grasshopper about creating an Evangelion title. Several concepts were created including one for an Action-RPG, before settling on the rhythm game. Akira Yamaoka, along with several other Grasshopper members, remixed and created new compositions for the game. Because the soundtrack for the series, composed by Shiro Sagisu, is so distinctive, the team described wanting to treat the source material with respect as to not upset fans of the franchise. This came as a challenge because the team had to dissect the soundtracks and arrange them so they worked as a rhythm game, but not too much as the change the music too drastically.

Gameplay

While essentially a rhythm game, Akira Yamaoka stated that he did not wish to create a typical button-mashing rhythm game in the vein of games like Pop'n Music or Taiko no Tatsujin, because the music in Evangelion is not suited for this kind of gameplay. The gameplay in 3nd Impact features more atypical rhythm gameplay seen in titles such as Rez or Space Channel 5. The game modes in 3nd Impact all feature visuals from the movies in the background. It mostly consists of FMV directly taken from the films, but in several modes this can include original graphics or rendered visuals. One mode sees the player hopping over obstacles in the EVAs in time with the music which is fully rendered and at the end of each Apostle Session, the player has the ability to launch missiles and other weapons at the Angels, which is also rendered.

Game Modes

• Apostle Session
• Hex
• AT
• Call of Fourteen
• Number 5/Beastie Girl
• Teardrop

There are 30 individual 'tracks' in 3nd Impact. After the player has cleared all 30 stages, hard mode is unlocked. Like most rhythm games, the player receives a score at the end of each stage indicating how well they performed.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the game was included in the Limited Edition copy of the game as well as being published digitally by King Records alongside the release of the game. The soundtrack is available for purchase on iTunes.