Valess, a boy earning petty cash in a commune of drifters is suddenly met by Lock, a stand-alone golem. Valess' mother was kidnapped by a terrorist organization, and upon discovering that the leader of that organization has an enormous bounty on his head, Valess receives a golem of his own from Lock and decides to join him on an adventure into the unknown where numerous bounties await. Thus begins their journey of grit and oil across several continents!
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KEY NOTES
-JRPG with turn-based combat with mechs
-No Voiceovers
-Short game overall ~15 hours
INTRODUCTION
Armed Emeth was developed by Hit-Point who has a long history of developing games for Kemco. This was actually one of their earliest titles that was originally released back in 2008 for mobile phones. It never got a western release until 2021. At the time of this review, my only other experience with Hit Point was with their other game called Monochrome Order which had exceeded my expectations despite its shortcomings. Armed Emeth ended up as another solid experience which was unfortunately, also hindered by a very small budget.
STORY
The games begin with a very lengthy prologue exposition detailing the background story for the world. Many years ago, mankind was able to harness the power of Edea, life energy that exists in every living organism. The usage of Edea allowed the mighty Dernier Empire to develop highly advanced technology most notably the golem machines. With the powerful golems, the Dernier Empire greatly expanded its power and establish a paradise for its people. The peace was shattered when Black Edea, an impure form of Edea came to exist which decayed vegetation and the land. Black Edea grew from negative emotions so the empire imposed an era of silence to control the people's emotions.
This new heavily controlled rule eventually lead to an uprising and eventual collapse of the empire when a moon was sent crashing down.
A few years later, the story picks up in a small remote town with the main character, Valess. His relatively mundane life as a small time bounty hunter came crashing down when his childhood friend gets kidnapped by an unknown group. Together with his other childhood friend, a small Golem with sentience and a quiet girl, he roams the world searching for the kidnapped girl's whereabouts.
As interesting as the backstory of the empire and Edea, it was something that would've been more enjoyable to experience than simply be told about. The actual sci-fi story is not quite as interesting, but it managed to keep me engaged throughout due to its relatively short length and solid pacing. There's a lot of story beats, but none felt liked they were unnecessary dragged out.
Building on the backstory, there is a decent amount of worlbuilding that you get from talking with various NPCs. The story is straightforward, but does have its share of surprising plot twists. There are also a number of solid emotional moments as well.
My main issues with the story is that it could've spent some more time fleshing out certain story segments. Events seem to move on a bit too quickly at times and despite having a large number of towns and cities, they rarely have any story significance to them. Most of them are used as simply pit stops to purchase the latest equipment and look up any new bounty.
Overall though, the story was enough to keep me interested to progress the game and see the next story event.
CHARACTERS
The main playable cast is quite small with just 4 characters. In turn, it made the group chemistry great with their dialogue between each other. They bicker a lot, but done in an amusing way. Valess himself is a solid lead that displays rational sense at times while being driven forward by his emotions other times. He's likable and bounces off well with the other party members. His strong passion for money often makes serious situations turn into comedic ones. The other party members are also no stranger to quirky character traits which makes the group dynamics quite interesting to watch.
The main characters have interesting backstories and some have decent character growth. None of which are unique to those that have played many JRPGs, but they were executed well in this game at least.
Outside of the main characters however, the other characters aren't as good. Many minor characters are mostly forgettable and are there just to move the story along. There were a few major story characters that were decent, but don't get enough screen time to leave a strong impression. The antagonists as well lack any real depth and come off like cartoon villains which I thought was a detriment to the story.
GRAPHICS
The graphics in the game aren't really good. Even for a game that makes use of old school graphics, it doesn't have much that actually stands out. The sprites for the main four characters are decent and do stand out, but many of the NPCs lack sprite variety so it can be very difficult telling who is who. I did enjoy some of the sprite animations for the core four though. None of the characters have any in-game character portraits which is pretty surprising these days. The only visual clues you get from the character designs are through their pixelated sprites.
The level designs and world map are unremarkable. Towns could've used some more details to them since most are quite small and not much to them. Many of them share a similar post-apocalyptic wasteland look to them. Fortunately, they at least look different from one another which was an issue with Monochrome Order.
MUSIC
The game's soundtrack is quite limited so the same songs will repeat often. Overall, not much actually stood out, but none of the songs are particularly offensive or terrible at least.
GAMEPLAY
Now we get to the core of the game and what makes Armed Emeth fairly interesting and unique. Each character can pilot a golem which either comes in a humanoid mech or tank design. None of them have any exclusive golem so you're free to switch golems with one another.
The golems themselves comes with some deep level of customization. Each one can equip a main weapon and a sub weapon. Main weapons only consists of cannons while sub weapons can be machine guns or just standard rifle guns. Machine guns have the benefit of being able to target an entire enemy line while guns can only target one person, but deal stronger damage. Some skills are also dependent on whether a gun or machine gun is equipped.
Other than weapons, golems can equip cores, CPUs and Edea stone accessories. The cores determine the maximum amount of a golem's health while the CPUs adjust the golem's stats based on individual stat rank such as A/B/D for Attack, Defense and Mobility respectfully. This CPU example gives good attack, decent defense, but terrible Mobility. Depending on how you want to build your golem, you equip the appropriate CPU.
Edea stone accessories provide either active skills to use in battle or provide passive bonuses. This helps with creating a golem build type.
At a golem workshop, you can further customized the golems by allowing you to tweak and improve each stat, but at a cost of the golem's maximum health. This mechanic left me with mixed feelings since it doesn't take much stat improvements to drastically cut your golem's health down. You can increase its attack to be fairly strong, but then its health becomes so low that it will die quickly. It only feels practical enough to do minor stat improvements so that the golem remains effective in battle.
While traversing the map, the characters ride in their golems and will be in them if a battle is initiated whiling riding them. However, there are a few occasions where a golem cannot fit into a narrow pathway so you have the option to manually get off and travel on foot. In cases of battles that occurs then, you won't have the option to ride a golem during battle.
COMBAT
The battles in Armed Emeth is a turn-based one at its core. A character's turn is based on a dynamic turn order bar that constantly moves when nobody is taking any action. A character's mobility stat affects how fast they move on the turn order bar.
A golem's main weapon has a noticeable cooldown time ranging from 2-3 turns. Sub weapons do not have any cooldowns. Golem's active skills do have cooldown and can be as long as 6 turns. Passive skills don't have any cooldown and will activate if the conditions (if any) are met.
Even while piloting a golem, you can still use items to heal or buff a golem. A golem however cannot be revived so once its health drops to 0, the pilot is automatically ejected and that person will fight on foot. If the individual is KO'd, they can be revived using items, but there are no way for them to get back into the golem until it is repaired at a workshop.
While the golems have various skills and attacks, the human characters don't have any unfortunately. They are limited to the basic attack, defend, run and item commands. They can't use any skills at all. You can however equip them like normal party members in JRPGs since they have their own weapon, armor and accessory slot. Despite other similar games that uses mechs or tanks, the humans can hold their own and deal decent damage while retaining decent health. Their lack of skills are what makes them clearly inferior to golem units.
One large exception to the golem and human dynamic is Lock who is a miniature talking golem. He himself is a golem and thus have the same equipment and skills that a typical golem has. He does get his own unique set of accessories and skills from them as well.
Upon leveling up, characters' stats increases, but for the most part, don't affect the golem's stats since they are mostly reliant on equipment and customization. Like before, Lock is an exception who will increase his stats when leveling up. He also gets stat points that can be freely distributed so you can create a unique build for him.
One surprising aspect of the combat was that items have limited usage despite how much you actually have. You can only use items 10 times total per battle. In most cases, that's a non-issue, but might actually be a problem during the final parts of the game where bosses provide a much bigger challenge. Other than those situations, the battles are somewhat on the easy side. The game does have an auto-battle mode and triple battle speed which helps end random encounters quickly.
BOUNTIES
Valess' title as a Golem Bounty Hunter isn't just for show. Most of the game's sidequests consists of hunting bounties for money and sometimes equipment. You unlock more bounties as you progress and they are categorized into different difficulty ranks. The majority of them don't have any story to them and you just find them as random encounters in specific locations. Others you need to actually find them in the world map or dungeons and the remaining ones are story related ones.
The Bounty mechanic isn't all that unique and it's just like any other hunting quest. The random encounter related ones can be annoying to do since they are RNG dependent to even find. Sometimes, you need to figure out their location by doing detective work and piecing together information and clues. The rewards are worth it especially the ones that give you exclusive equipment.
The Bounty fights themselves provide a decent challenge when they are first available, but progressing further in the story and grinding will make earlier bounties much easier to do.
EXPLORATION
Armed Emeth's world map isn't quite as large as some other games, but it does have its fair share of secret locations. There are a number of optional dungeons that are away from the main path and you never visit normally through the story. These are great places to obtain new treasure including new optional golems giving you a big incentive to just explore.
FINAL REMARKS
Armed Emeth has been compared to the Metal Max games and although my only experience with those is Metal Max Xeno, I can see the comparisons. A post-apocalyptic setting where you ride and customized tanks to battle large creatures. The Metal Max games themselves have their own niche which makes Armed Emeth special among the countless seas of JRPGs.
The game is on the short side though and it only takes about 15 hours to complete the main story. The post game does have an additional dungeon and a few more bounties, but otherwise, not much additional story. Despite all of that, the game was entertaining and the story was more interesting than expected. Not as good or ambitious as Monochrome Order, but another good entry from Hit Point.
KEY NOTES
-JRPG with turn-based combat with mechs
-No Voiceovers
-Short game overall ~15 hours
INTRODUCTION
Armed Emeth was developed by Hit-Point who has a long history of developing games for Kemco. This was actually one of their earliest titles that was originally released back in 2008 for mobile phones. It never got a western release until 2021. At the time of this review, my only other experience with Hit Point was with their other game called Monochrome Order which had exceeded my expectations despite its shortcomings. Armed Emeth ended up as another solid experience which was unfortunately, also hindered by a very small budget.
STORY
The games begin with a very lengthy prologue exposition detailing the background story for the world. Many years ago, mankind was able to harness the power of Edea, life energy that exists in every living organism. The usage of Edea allowed the mighty Dernier Empire to develop highly advanced technology most notably the golem machines. With the powerful golems, the Dernier Empire greatly expanded its power and establish a paradise for its people. The peace was shattered when Black Edea, an impure form of Edea came to exist which decayed vegetation and the land. Black Edea grew from negative emotions so the empire imposed an era of silence to control the people's emotions.
This new heavily controlled rule eventually lead to an uprising and eventual collapse of the empire when a moon was sent crashing down.
A few years later, the story picks up in a small remote town with the main character, Valess. His relatively mundane life as a small time bounty hunter came crashing down when his childhood friend gets kidnapped by an unknown group. Together with his other childhood friend, a small Golem with sentience and a quiet girl, he roams the world searching for the kidnapped girl's whereabouts.
As interesting as the backstory of the empire and Edea, it was something that would've been more enjoyable to experience than simply be told about. The actual sci-fi story is not quite as interesting, but it managed to keep me engaged throughout due to its relatively short length and solid pacing. There's a lot of story beats, but none felt liked they were unnecessary dragged out.
Building on the backstory, there is a decent amount of worlbuilding that you get from talking with various NPCs. The story is straightforward, but does have its share of surprising plot twists. There are also a number of solid emotional moments as well.
My main issues with the story is that it could've spent some more time fleshing out certain story segments. Events seem to move on a bit too quickly at times and despite having a large number of towns and cities, they rarely have any story significance to them. Most of them are used as simply pit stops to purchase the latest equipment and look up any new bounty.
Overall though, the story was enough to keep me interested to progress the game and see the next story event.
CHARACTERS
The main playable cast is quite small with just 4 characters. In turn, it made the group chemistry great with their dialogue between each other. They bicker a lot, but done in an amusing way. Valess himself is a solid lead that displays rational sense at times while being driven forward by his emotions other times. He's likable and bounces off well with the other party members. His strong passion for money often makes serious situations turn into comedic ones. The other party members are also no stranger to quirky character traits which makes the group dynamics quite interesting to watch.
The main characters have interesting backstories and some have decent character growth. None of which are unique to those that have played many JRPGs, but they were executed well in this game at least.
Outside of the main characters however, the other characters aren't as good. Many minor characters are mostly forgettable and are there just to move the story along. There were a few major story characters that were decent, but don't get enough screen time to leave a strong impression. The antagonists as well lack any real depth and come off like cartoon villains which I thought was a detriment to the story.
GRAPHICS
The graphics in the game aren't really good. Even for a game that makes use of old school graphics, it doesn't have much that actually stands out. The sprites for the main four characters are decent and do stand out, but many of the NPCs lack sprite variety so it can be very difficult telling who is who. I did enjoy some of the sprite animations for the core four though. None of the characters have any in-game character portraits which is pretty surprising these days. The only visual clues you get from the character designs are through their pixelated sprites.
The level designs and world map are unremarkable. Towns could've used some more details to them since most are quite small and not much to them. Many of them share a similar post-apocalyptic wasteland look to them. Fortunately, they at least look different from one another which was an issue with Monochrome Order.
MUSIC
The game's soundtrack is quite limited so the same songs will repeat often. Overall, not much actually stood out, but none of the songs are particularly offensive or terrible at least.
GAMEPLAY
Now we get to the core of the game and what makes Armed Emeth fairly interesting and unique. Each character can pilot a golem which either comes in a humanoid mech or tank design. None of them have any exclusive golem so you're free to switch golems with one another.
The golems themselves comes with some deep level of customization. Each one can equip a main weapon and a sub weapon. Main weapons only consists of cannons while sub weapons can be machine guns or just standard rifle guns. Machine guns have the benefit of being able to target an entire enemy line while guns can only target one person, but deal stronger damage. Some skills are also dependent on whether a gun or machine gun is equipped.
Other than weapons, golems can equip cores, CPUs and Edea stone accessories. The cores determine the maximum amount of a golem's health while the CPUs adjust the golem's stats based on individual stat rank such as A/B/D for Attack, Defense and Mobility respectfully. This CPU example gives good attack, decent defense, but terrible Mobility. Depending on how you want to build your golem, you equip the appropriate CPU.
Edea stone accessories provide either active skills to use in battle or provide passive bonuses. This helps with creating a golem build type.
At a golem workshop, you can further customized the golems by allowing you to tweak and improve each stat, but at a cost of the golem's maximum health. This mechanic left me with mixed feelings since it doesn't take much stat improvements to drastically cut your golem's health down. You can increase its attack to be fairly strong, but then its health becomes so low that it will die quickly. It only feels practical enough to do minor stat improvements so that the golem remains effective in battle.
While traversing the map, the characters ride in their golems and will be in them if a battle is initiated whiling riding them. However, there are a few occasions where a golem cannot fit into a narrow pathway so you have the option to manually get off and travel on foot. In cases of battles that occurs then, you won't have the option to ride a golem during battle.
COMBAT
The battles in Armed Emeth is a turn-based one at its core. A character's turn is based on a dynamic turn order bar that constantly moves when nobody is taking any action. A character's mobility stat affects how fast they move on the turn order bar.
A golem's main weapon has a noticeable cooldown time ranging from 2-3 turns. Sub weapons do not have any cooldowns. Golem's active skills do have cooldown and can be as long as 6 turns. Passive skills don't have any cooldown and will activate if the conditions (if any) are met.
Even while piloting a golem, you can still use items to heal or buff a golem. A golem however cannot be revived so once its health drops to 0, the pilot is automatically ejected and that person will fight on foot. If the individual is KO'd, they can be revived using items, but there are no way for them to get back into the golem until it is repaired at a workshop.
While the golems have various skills and attacks, the human characters don't have any unfortunately. They are limited to the basic attack, defend, run and item commands. They can't use any skills at all. You can however equip them like normal party members in JRPGs since they have their own weapon, armor and accessory slot. Despite other similar games that uses mechs or tanks, the humans can hold their own and deal decent damage while retaining decent health. Their lack of skills are what makes them clearly inferior to golem units.
One large exception to the golem and human dynamic is Lock who is a miniature talking golem. He himself is a golem and thus have the same equipment and skills that a typical golem has. He does get his own unique set of accessories and skills from them as well.
Upon leveling up, characters' stats increases, but for the most part, don't affect the golem's stats since they are mostly reliant on equipment and customization. Like before, Lock is an exception who will increase his stats when leveling up. He also gets stat points that can be freely distributed so you can create a unique build for him.
One surprising aspect of the combat was that items have limited usage despite how much you actually have. You can only use items 10 times total per battle. In most cases, that's a non-issue, but might actually be a problem during the final parts of the game where bosses provide a much bigger challenge. Other than those situations, the battles are somewhat on the easy side. The game does have an auto-battle mode and triple battle speed which helps end random encounters quickly.
BOUNTIES
Valess' title as a Golem Bounty Hunter isn't just for show. Most of the game's sidequests consists of hunting bounties for money and sometimes equipment. You unlock more bounties as you progress and they are categorized into different difficulty ranks. The majority of them don't have any story to them and you just find them as random encounters in specific locations. Others you need to actually find them in the world map or dungeons and the remaining ones are story related ones.
The Bounty mechanic isn't all that unique and it's just like any other hunting quest. The random encounter related ones can be annoying to do since they are RNG dependent to even find. Sometimes, you need to figure out their location by doing detective work and piecing together information and clues. The rewards are worth it especially the ones that give you exclusive equipment.
The Bounty fights themselves provide a decent challenge when they are first available, but progressing further in the story and grinding will make earlier bounties much easier to do.
EXPLORATION
Armed Emeth's world map isn't quite as large as some other games, but it does have its fair share of secret locations. There are a number of optional dungeons that are away from the main path and you never visit normally through the story. These are great places to obtain new treasure including new optional golems giving you a big incentive to just explore.
FINAL REMARKS
Armed Emeth has been compared to the Metal Max games and although my only experience with those is Metal Max Xeno, I can see the comparisons. A post-apocalyptic setting where you ride and customized tanks to battle large creatures. The Metal Max games themselves have their own niche which makes Armed Emeth special among the countless seas of JRPGs.
The game is on the short side though and it only takes about 15 hours to complete the main story. The post game does have an additional dungeon and a few more bounties, but otherwise, not much additional story. Despite all of that, the game was entertaining and the story was more interesting than expected. Not as good or ambitious as Monochrome Order, but another good entry from Hit Point.