Fuga: Melodies of Steel

released on Jul 28, 2021

Fuga is set in a war-ravaged world where a village is destroyed by the fascist Berman Empire. Eleven child survivors band together after the attack and board a gigantic tank known as Taranis - a relic of an ancient but technologically-advanced civilization - in order to travel across the dangerous landscape and rescue their families who were taken prisoner. The Taranis houses a super weapon called the Soul Cannon which is capable of immense destruction at the cost of a crew member's life, with the main characters having to choose when and whom to sacrifice in order for the group to reach their destination.


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Can I please shove Wappa in the cannon

The furry child soldiers did indeed invoke strong emotions in me. Quite a big departure from the earlier Little Tail games, but honestly I appreciate it. From a purely mechanical perspective it's the most actually fun of the games, though it goes from platformer to RPG. Since you're all in a tank there's only one target for enemies even though you have 3 people fighting at once, and enemies can do a fair bit of damage, so it does capture the feeling of constantly being on the verge of loss without going into the deliberate unfun territory. Has resource management as a real factor. Compared to the other games, the world/environments aren't as memorable, though I guess being set in a war that's fitting.

this is one of the first strategy rpgs i played and its the best, especially with the warmth the artstyle gives off but it can get cold sometimes

I liked this game but didn't love it. Due to budget constraints, the scenarios are not as varied as one would expect, and most of the game is spent inside of turn-based battles.

The story is told through static scenes, which sometimes minimizes the impact.

What this game does differently is a new instant-win weapon called the "Soul Cannon", which gives you an automatic win as long as you sacrifice one of your party members. In theory, it's a cool concept, but in practice I never used it because I didn't want to permanently lose anyone. So it felt like the Soul Cannon wasn't really there. I think it'd be much cooler if the game forced us to use it.

That said, the game is very addictive. There is a social aspect in which you can nurture relationships between the characters, and it's really fun, although a bit limited in the time you have for interactions. The RPG aspect is also great and does involve some strategizing early on in the game, but the game turns easy at around the 10 hour mark.

Overall, the game is enjoyable, but nothing to write home about.