This model suggests that there exists a relationship between performance and arousal (the state of a strong response). An increased in arousal will be able to help improve performance, though only up to a certain level. When the level of arousal becomes excessive, performance declines.

Csíkszentmihályi outlines that flow is one of eight mental states that can occur during the learning process. These mental states, apart from flow, include arousal, anxiety, worry, apathy, boredom, relaxation and control; they result when a learner experiences a combination of skill and challenge levels of a given task in non-optimal combinations.

The most optimal of these states for learning is flow, as the skill level and the challenge level of a task are at their highest. Thus, it creates an opportunity for learning and intense focus; learners can feel that they lose track of time because they are so engrossed in their tasks.

We will further discuss about the game in relation to these two models below.

God Eater 2 Rage Burst is a continuation of its prequel, God Eater Resurrection. The struggle of God Eaters had ended, as the “Devouring Apocalypse” (from its prequel), a threat that would engulf the world, changed its form into a structure known as “Spiral Tree”. The members of Blood (an elite unit of fighters) set out for an investigation when something odd in the “Spiral Tree” happens. Thus, they must confront the “Spiral Tree” once more, as the balance of the world and a promise with a comrade lies in their hands.

The game revolves around these themes:
Action (hunting and battling against monsters, known as the Aragami);

Role-playing (taking on a role of a character, in order to move the story forward);

Adventure (fighting for survival against the Aragami);

and Anime (Japanese Animation, in terms of character design).

Before going through the game’s character designs, we should first explain what (or who) God Eaters are. God Eaters are humans who undergo intensive training to learn to control God Arcs (weapons). These humans must go through “aptitude tests” under Fenrir (the organization) in order to be paired with a God Arc. This is so that they can control such formidable weapons to fight against the Aragami (the monsters found in the game).

The character design for God Eater is heavily based on a Japanese Animation (Anime for short) style with a three-dimension view. It has a good, though average, rendered quality to it that is pleasing to the eyes. There are 23 characters in total, and each of the character has a unique design of their own, in other words, they possess their own personal style from the way they dress, to the way they carry themselves in the game.

They wield God Arcs by attaching a big, metal bracelet around their wrists. This is done through a surgical experiment. The God Arc activates itself during battle.

The game’s graphics was average in quality. This is probably because it was ported from its original platform, the Playstation VITA. Since the PS4 has an improved, enhanced and high-definition graphics, the stark contrast between these two platforms was obvious.

There was also a short opening theme before the start of the game, and it was presented in 2D format with high-quality graphics. The colors were rich and vivid, and it has a cinematic quality to it.

The game’s audio was clear and the sound effects were also good. The only downside to the audio is that, because the theme used is Japanese Animation, we expected the audio would be Japanese dubbed, but this was not the case as the game uses English dub, with English subtitles. In our opinion, if the game had used Japanese dubbed audio, it would have added a more fun experience to the game.

This is a single player game, so we took turns to try out the gameplay.

The first hour of the gameplay was spent on going through character customization, where we created the protagonist (a male character) per our own preferences. Then we tested out the way the character moves, and went through a series of basic tutorials of the game, basically, the controls of the game, how to attack and defend, how to unlock special skills and so on. We were only allowed to venture outside of Fenrir’s terminal after we finished the basic tutorials.

After completing the basic tutorials, we were given the first mission to hunt down a few Aragami that was threatening the environment and its surroundings. To do the mission, we had to request them beforehand at the request desk located in the terminal, before we can deploy ourselves to the field.

The attack skills were delivered easily during battle, so it became a lot faster to hunt down and destroy the targeted enemies. Once the mission was completed, a timer was displayed indicating the amount of time left before we were being transported back to the terminal. This part of the gameplay repeats itself: we undertake a quest at the terminal, deploy out to the field, search for the Aragami and destroy them before they do anymore damage.

There are also cut scenes included during the interval of the gameplay, and these cut scenes narrated the game’s story line, so we could understand what was going on. Since the game’s genre is action RPG (role-playing game), it added more interest to the gameplay.

From our viewpoint, the story line appears to be compelling and engaging to an extent (for how long we played it). Based on the Yerkes-Dodson Law, it resulted in a strong response (an increased in arousal) within us, as it motivates us to want to play the game, especially after watching the opening theme.

We have experience in playing an action RPG from other games, therefore, our skill level is quite high during the gameplay, and we managed to pick up the game’s mechanics pretty easily as the challenge level is not up to par to our skill level. The fact that the game mechanics was pretty repetitive, it did not pose much of a challenge for us to complete the first few missions we undertake. This resulted in a relaxation mental state, according to the Csíkszentmihályi Flow Model (high skill level + low challenge level = relaxation mental state). Furthermore, there is a decrease in arousal (our strong response towards the game) after we went through the game’s mechanics’ repetitive state.

After the game progresses for a period of time, both our performance and arousal level begins to decline as we entered the “distress” state, because we lost our focus and interest in the game, as the missions given were not as challenging as we would have thought, and based on the Csíkszentmihályi Flow Model, we experienced these mental states as we progressed through the gameplay (in chronological order): Relaxation and Boredom.

Overall, it was a good experience but it only lasted for a short while as the game mechanics was repetitive. We quickly got disinterested as we progressed through the game further, and stopped playing eventually.