Ever since I had the chance to play EX Troopers at the Tokyo Game Show last month, I’ve been chomping at the bit for another chance to get my hands on it. Thankfully, players in Japan didn’t have to wait until the title’s November release date to give it another spin, as Capcom released a demo for the game on the Nintendo 3DS eShop October 17. Enjoying the demo in the comfort of my own apartment as opposed to a noisy show floor definitely made for a better experience.

The demo has three missions, one for single-player and two for multiplayer. You can still go through both multiplayer missions all by yourself if you don’t have anyone around to play with, though. These two missions were available on the TGS show floor; for more information about them, read my previous set of impressions. With this recent demo, I spent most of my time with the single-player mission. Even though the demo is mainly a tutorial-like stage, it offers a bit of a challenge. As opposed to the other multiplayer missions of the demo, which primarily have you fighting insect-like creatures, the single-player stage has you up against humanoid characters with guns. You and two AI-controlled partners blast through the level fighting through numerous enemies. I went into close detail about the controls in my last set of impressions, and they still feel great. Boosting around with the B button in conjunction with the Circle pad is fun, and it’s still satisfying to go in close for a melee roundhouse kick. The only issue I noticed this time around was with the lock-on mechanic. To initiate the lock-on function, players have to press and hold the R button. Most of the time this works great, with the exception of when your character has to reload his weapon. Reloading is done automatically and when it happens, you are not longer locked on to the enemy. For smaller foes, this doesn’t pose much of a problem. However, it can make boss fights a bit hectic. Depending on your positioning, the camera may veer away from the boss, which can open you up to attacks you might not see coming. This doesn’t happen every time, but it was a small annoyance I picked up on.

I was reminded of one thing as soon as I loaded up EX Troopers—this game is absolutely gorgeous! The manga aesthetic, complete with words and letters popping up here and there, and cel-shaded graphics make it seem as if you are playing through some kind of comic book. The single-player demo stage took place on a snowy mountain, and while most of the environment was full of whites and grays, the costumes for the characters on your team are extremely colorful and vibrant (for example, the main character you control has an orange jacket and pink hair) and stand out from the white. To top that off, the game has great 3D effects and a smooth frame rate that never stuttered at all during my time with the demo.

I cannot emphasize enough how much of a pity it is that Capcom is not planning to bring this title to the West. To an extent, I can understand some of the changes to the aesthetic that would have to be made, with obvious things like voice acting, and changing the pop-up text to English but still keep the manga vibe. Regardless, if you have access to a Japanese 3DS around the end of November (or a PlayStation 3 and a Japanese PSN account, which you can find more about here), this is a game to look out for. Its beautiful visuals, breathtaking 3D, smooth frame rate, and intuitive controls make for an outstanding experience.