"Sadism has never been so much fun"

Trapt is a little known game and sequel to the PSX title Kagero: Deception II. The basis and idea for Trapt is that your character, Princess Allura, has the power to set traps at the click of her fingers. You are unable to kill her enemies in any other way so the gameplay consists of leading Alluras foes into the traps you have set while avoiding being killed in the process. The variety of traps at your disposal is very large although the vast majority of them have to be unlocked, giving the game a bland feel when you first begin as you will find yourself using the same traps over and over again. Once your arsenal of traps has increased the game really picks up as you can create some tremendously fun combos. Creating combos (chain hitting your enemies with a number of traps) is a key element of gameplay as it gives you lots of extra points and allows you to unlock more traps and buy keys (which allow you to run to new areas during fights). You also have some limited trap customization options too, such as adding an extra fire effect or increasing the traps base damage.

You may only set 3 different traps at any one time so ensuring your traps compliment each other and are placed in good positions is of the utmost importance. Traps are set off by pressing the contextual button (they do not trigger automatically if an enemy walks over them) and have a cooldown period, you have to be smart with placement and avoid getting trapped in corners with no way to defend yourself.

As well as the traps you set yourself the rooms and courtyards you fight in have their own set of traps you can trigger, these are useful in setting up chain combinations and doing damage to late game and boss characters who have strong resistances to many of the traps you can set. Some of these environmental traps are really kickass, shooting some unfortunate sod out of a cannon never gets old.

The downside to Trapt are the generally godawful cutscenes (all in spoken Japanese with English subtitles) which will soon have you mashing the start button in fury. The problem is that nothing really happens in the scenes, just alot of talk, and the plot is not interesting enough to warrant it. Each enemy has an intro and death scene as well, which are a little pointless to say the least. Every enemy has a small bio too, which is a nice touch and may make you feel a tiny pang of guilt (ha!) for killing them.

All in all nice little niche title which provides hours and hours of sadistic amusement.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/06