The Little Tail Bronx games continue to be, to me, a symbol of what I have come to appreciate and love about video games over the years. From its humble origins as a quirky PS1 platformer, to the ambitious, gorgeous, and incredibly fleshed out successor on the DS, this series has spanned two decades of very little success, but undeniable passion. CyberConnect2’s team very clearly has a love for this series, and despite losing a lot of money due to the series’ lack of being known to the world, they are still at it, expanding this world, and with the release of this game, a trilogy despite a lack of success. There is a lot I can say about this series as a whole, but I want to start by saying, I believe FUGA: Melodies of Steel is once again another triumph of a game from this team. A new direction for this series that has changed complete genres, tone, and feel from their past platforming entries, into a strategy RPG, life sim, visual novel based adventure. It is such a bizarre little game that has just about everything that the series is known for baked into its DNA despite the extreme shift. I love it wholly with all my heart.
These games are niche simple little adventures that don’t often feature the most enriching gameplay experience, at least for most people. But they make up for it with their insane visual detail, beautiful world, and intriguing lore and characters that make the games such a treat. Personally, I actually really enjoy the gameplay loop of Tail Concerto and especially Solatorobo; even I have to admit they aren’t the most in-depth games. They’re like the comfort food of games to me, something where the simplicity is able to make way for depth or become it.
With FUGA, a lot of those similar arguments come up, and I think I personally heavily disagree with the criticism lauded towards its gameplay loop. This is a very different take on strategy RPGs where you technically have a full party of 12, but they all share the same HP and Mana system. And it is also very difficult, decently long, and honestly exhausting. A full chapter can take a good two hours, and if you are not careful, you can instantly find yourself in a terrible situation. I can definitely understand it seeming unappealing, but personally, I really found myself adoring the loop of the game. Much like the war these children are facing, battles feel like they take real doing in order to succeed, you need to be paying attention at all times or else everything will be for naught. Resources are scarce, you don’t even get money in this game, so deciding to take a more dangerous route is a genuinely risky move that can certainly pay off, or shave an hour away from your game time in total shame. And the exhaustive feel really plays well with the tone, this is still definitely a kid’s game, but even in concept, having to deal with twelve children dealing with the effects of essentially World War II is just grim, and you can feel that wear in the gameplay. I love it dearly, it can definitely veer into the more egregious habits of the series at times, but I think they absolutely nailed what they were going for here.
However where this game truly shines is that aforementioned passion that you can just feel here. The characters you get here are incredibly simple, but the charm that makes a game like Solatorobo shine is still present and wonderful. I love all these designs, and with such a wide range too, and considering the situation they’re in, there is a real threat that they can just die if you feel yourself desperate enough to sacrifice one of them. The music is once again amazing, with tracks like the main boss theme really standing out as a truly wonderful and haunting piece that plays as you are likely dealing with the stress of incredibly powerful attacks. Gasco feels as fleshed out as any of the islands you visit in previous games, and most importantly, the art of this game is absolutely unreal. So many gorgeous pastels, and water colours make every character pop. And there is just so much wonderful art, even getting all of their ending chapter cards from a bunch of Pixiv artists was just such a treat. The aesthetic is just wonderful, you can really tell they had a ton of fun with it.
I think it can be very easy to be critical with games like Fuga because by no means is it a masterpiece. I can definitely make a lot of critiques about the game being shallow or frustrating, and I definitely do have some nitpicks I would like to see addressed in the second entry. But honestly, I’ve come to realize with games I want something that interests me and is willing to show me something in earnest. Even in spite of its darker premise, Fuga is still the same comfort food that made me love Waffle and Red’s previous adventures. It is a game that welcomes you with open arms and wants to show you all the cool ideas, and art, and worldbuilding that it has come up with, and there is just such a wonderful joy to it all. With this game being a financial failure, the fact the team essentially looked at it, and essentially went ahead and announced the sequel a year after its release is a sheer sign of love. And it's a love I too share for this wonderful series. I urge you all to give it, and the other Little Tail games a shot. I can only hope you would get as much from them, as I did.
These games are niche simple little adventures that don’t often feature the most enriching gameplay experience, at least for most people. But they make up for it with their insane visual detail, beautiful world, and intriguing lore and characters that make the games such a treat. Personally, I actually really enjoy the gameplay loop of Tail Concerto and especially Solatorobo; even I have to admit they aren’t the most in-depth games. They’re like the comfort food of games to me, something where the simplicity is able to make way for depth or become it.
With FUGA, a lot of those similar arguments come up, and I think I personally heavily disagree with the criticism lauded towards its gameplay loop. This is a very different take on strategy RPGs where you technically have a full party of 12, but they all share the same HP and Mana system. And it is also very difficult, decently long, and honestly exhausting. A full chapter can take a good two hours, and if you are not careful, you can instantly find yourself in a terrible situation. I can definitely understand it seeming unappealing, but personally, I really found myself adoring the loop of the game. Much like the war these children are facing, battles feel like they take real doing in order to succeed, you need to be paying attention at all times or else everything will be for naught. Resources are scarce, you don’t even get money in this game, so deciding to take a more dangerous route is a genuinely risky move that can certainly pay off, or shave an hour away from your game time in total shame. And the exhaustive feel really plays well with the tone, this is still definitely a kid’s game, but even in concept, having to deal with twelve children dealing with the effects of essentially World War II is just grim, and you can feel that wear in the gameplay. I love it dearly, it can definitely veer into the more egregious habits of the series at times, but I think they absolutely nailed what they were going for here.
However where this game truly shines is that aforementioned passion that you can just feel here. The characters you get here are incredibly simple, but the charm that makes a game like Solatorobo shine is still present and wonderful. I love all these designs, and with such a wide range too, and considering the situation they’re in, there is a real threat that they can just die if you feel yourself desperate enough to sacrifice one of them. The music is once again amazing, with tracks like the main boss theme really standing out as a truly wonderful and haunting piece that plays as you are likely dealing with the stress of incredibly powerful attacks. Gasco feels as fleshed out as any of the islands you visit in previous games, and most importantly, the art of this game is absolutely unreal. So many gorgeous pastels, and water colours make every character pop. And there is just so much wonderful art, even getting all of their ending chapter cards from a bunch of Pixiv artists was just such a treat. The aesthetic is just wonderful, you can really tell they had a ton of fun with it.
I think it can be very easy to be critical with games like Fuga because by no means is it a masterpiece. I can definitely make a lot of critiques about the game being shallow or frustrating, and I definitely do have some nitpicks I would like to see addressed in the second entry. But honestly, I’ve come to realize with games I want something that interests me and is willing to show me something in earnest. Even in spite of its darker premise, Fuga is still the same comfort food that made me love Waffle and Red’s previous adventures. It is a game that welcomes you with open arms and wants to show you all the cool ideas, and art, and worldbuilding that it has come up with, and there is just such a wonderful joy to it all. With this game being a financial failure, the fact the team essentially looked at it, and essentially went ahead and announced the sequel a year after its release is a sheer sign of love. And it's a love I too share for this wonderful series. I urge you all to give it, and the other Little Tail games a shot. I can only hope you would get as much from them, as I did.
que joia escondida no gamepass
uma trama basica, sem grandes reviravoltas mas q cativa muito com seus personagens, é tão bom ver a evolução das crianças
a gameplay é bem simples e acaba ficando enjoativa se vc jogar por muito tempo seguido
a trilha sonora tbm acaba ficando repetitiva mas melhores momentos ela aparece de uma forma incrível
recomendo a todos q curtem um estratégia e uma trama simples e envolvente vai fundo.
uma trama basica, sem grandes reviravoltas mas q cativa muito com seus personagens, é tão bom ver a evolução das crianças
a gameplay é bem simples e acaba ficando enjoativa se vc jogar por muito tempo seguido
a trilha sonora tbm acaba ficando repetitiva mas melhores momentos ela aparece de uma forma incrível
recomendo a todos q curtem um estratégia e uma trama simples e envolvente vai fundo.
genuinely fantastic strategy rpg with snappy, satisfying combat and perfectly fleshed out mechanics. incredibly fun. the story and characters are absolutely wonderful, there's such a cohesive vision and heart behind this world you rarely ever see in a game. passion seeps through every part of it. also i screamed at that ending teaser holy shittttt
Maybe its time that I start up my local chapter of Felines against Fascism...
Jokes aside, Fuga: Melodies of Steel is a game, that on paper is just about everything I love. For starters it's a tactics game, a genre that I find myself more in tune with, with each release I dip myself into. Secondly the setting is right down my alley. Something about media (in particular anime like Full Metal Alchemist and games like Valkyria Chronicles) that take place during that creative interpretation of the inter-periods between World War 1 and World War 2 just gets me hooked. From the get go that's exactly what Fuga is, it jumps you into a world of anthropomorphic cats and dogs that are at war as Nazi-Germany (I mean come on, the villains are called Bermans) and France standins, with the latter fighting off an invasion by the former. From the get-go I was completely sold on this idea, especially when coupled with some beautiful character design and illustrations and a phenomenal backing soundtrack that was right on the money for the time period and vibes the game gives off.
Mechanically speaking, Fuga is pretty simple which initially drew me even further in. I'm all for tactics games that get more difficult or add in extra conditions and actions that change the game, however sometimes simplicity in combat and in understanding the mechanics of each character can go a long way. There are three weapon times, a machine gun (blue) mostly used to take out air targets, a small cannon (yellow) for the ground, and a larger cannon (red) also mostly meant for ground units. These operate in a sort of Fire Emblem weapons triangle style, not that one beats the other (because only the player equips the three types) but in the way that they all are necessary to take advantage of enemy weaknesses throughout the game. Each party member is coupled with another, meaning that you're pretty much operating in a six man squadron of three pairs. It gets cool here because each of these little canines and felines possess unique support passives in addition to their main skills. I ran with a yellow-yellow, red-yellow, and blue-red for most of the game because of the way this was able to use these secondary skills. My healer was able to take advantage of heir pair's passive that lowered skill point cost, my red big cannon was able to take advantage of her partner's increased critical hit chance. This made for an interesting game of constantly trying to find the best and most optimal pairs. Another aspect of Fuga that makes this pairing of characters nice is that it uses a Final Fantasy X type turn wheel in that it shows the player who will act when, and what the consequences of switching characters out will be. Switching is free at any time (provided you're not doing it too much,) but you want the right weapon at the right time.
Now I'd said a lot of good about the game but I'm giving a 3.5/5 for a reason, and unfortunately that 1.5 is a big 1.5. Fuga is fundamentally a tactics game, but it operates in its mission structure on a sort of roguelite/like mantra. A chapter consists of story beats, intermissions where you can upgrade your tank and take care of your party's needs, treasure hunts, fights, and places to heal. On paper this doesn't upset me too much, having a base camp to upgrade your party is pretty standard for tactics games (see recently Valkyria Chronicles 4 and this year's Triangle Strategy,) but the way its built into Fuga is most unfortunate. This is the only place to upgrade your equipment, it is the only place to bring back characters who have been knocked out and correct their status effects, and its the only place where you can battle prep. Status effects in Fuga are just downright annoying. You can be knocked with the "afraid" bug which is okay... because it only halves your accuracy for a few turns. Should you be tacked with "depression" though, which can be sprayed by certain enemies throughout the game like a normal attack, your party members cannot use skills or linked attacks until you talk to them at one of these pre-set intermission points. These can be few and far between in chapters meaning that you can go forever without being able to heal your party through skills and are forced to use items. In that same vein, if your party is KO'd, which can happen just because an enemy used an unavoidable move (which defending does no good against,) then they will remain KO'd until you can sleep and revive them at this intermission. I didn't game over more than once after the first two chapters but this made the playthrough beyond aggravating at times.
In all, Fuga was priced at the right point (Game Pass.99) but I probably wouldn't rush to buy this on my own unless it was on sale. It's got a lot of things going right in its aesthetics, design, and overall vibe, but has much to work on in the realm of mechanics and its roguelite elements. I hope the sequel addresses my complaints when it releases.
Jokes aside, Fuga: Melodies of Steel is a game, that on paper is just about everything I love. For starters it's a tactics game, a genre that I find myself more in tune with, with each release I dip myself into. Secondly the setting is right down my alley. Something about media (in particular anime like Full Metal Alchemist and games like Valkyria Chronicles) that take place during that creative interpretation of the inter-periods between World War 1 and World War 2 just gets me hooked. From the get go that's exactly what Fuga is, it jumps you into a world of anthropomorphic cats and dogs that are at war as Nazi-Germany (I mean come on, the villains are called Bermans) and France standins, with the latter fighting off an invasion by the former. From the get-go I was completely sold on this idea, especially when coupled with some beautiful character design and illustrations and a phenomenal backing soundtrack that was right on the money for the time period and vibes the game gives off.
Mechanically speaking, Fuga is pretty simple which initially drew me even further in. I'm all for tactics games that get more difficult or add in extra conditions and actions that change the game, however sometimes simplicity in combat and in understanding the mechanics of each character can go a long way. There are three weapon times, a machine gun (blue) mostly used to take out air targets, a small cannon (yellow) for the ground, and a larger cannon (red) also mostly meant for ground units. These operate in a sort of Fire Emblem weapons triangle style, not that one beats the other (because only the player equips the three types) but in the way that they all are necessary to take advantage of enemy weaknesses throughout the game. Each party member is coupled with another, meaning that you're pretty much operating in a six man squadron of three pairs. It gets cool here because each of these little canines and felines possess unique support passives in addition to their main skills. I ran with a yellow-yellow, red-yellow, and blue-red for most of the game because of the way this was able to use these secondary skills. My healer was able to take advantage of heir pair's passive that lowered skill point cost, my red big cannon was able to take advantage of her partner's increased critical hit chance. This made for an interesting game of constantly trying to find the best and most optimal pairs. Another aspect of Fuga that makes this pairing of characters nice is that it uses a Final Fantasy X type turn wheel in that it shows the player who will act when, and what the consequences of switching characters out will be. Switching is free at any time (provided you're not doing it too much,) but you want the right weapon at the right time.
Now I'd said a lot of good about the game but I'm giving a 3.5/5 for a reason, and unfortunately that 1.5 is a big 1.5. Fuga is fundamentally a tactics game, but it operates in its mission structure on a sort of roguelite/like mantra. A chapter consists of story beats, intermissions where you can upgrade your tank and take care of your party's needs, treasure hunts, fights, and places to heal. On paper this doesn't upset me too much, having a base camp to upgrade your party is pretty standard for tactics games (see recently Valkyria Chronicles 4 and this year's Triangle Strategy,) but the way its built into Fuga is most unfortunate. This is the only place to upgrade your equipment, it is the only place to bring back characters who have been knocked out and correct their status effects, and its the only place where you can battle prep. Status effects in Fuga are just downright annoying. You can be knocked with the "afraid" bug which is okay... because it only halves your accuracy for a few turns. Should you be tacked with "depression" though, which can be sprayed by certain enemies throughout the game like a normal attack, your party members cannot use skills or linked attacks until you talk to them at one of these pre-set intermission points. These can be few and far between in chapters meaning that you can go forever without being able to heal your party through skills and are forced to use items. In that same vein, if your party is KO'd, which can happen just because an enemy used an unavoidable move (which defending does no good against,) then they will remain KO'd until you can sleep and revive them at this intermission. I didn't game over more than once after the first two chapters but this made the playthrough beyond aggravating at times.
In all, Fuga was priced at the right point (Game Pass.99) but I probably wouldn't rush to buy this on my own unless it was on sale. It's got a lot of things going right in its aesthetics, design, and overall vibe, but has much to work on in the realm of mechanics and its roguelite elements. I hope the sequel addresses my complaints when it releases.
Been waiting for this since it was announced in 2019 and it definitely didn't disappoint. CC2's just incredibly committed to their little furry game series and I can't help but admire the amount of passion and dedication on display here. It definitely made me feel like a terrible person at several points. I absolutely had a big silly look on my face when I saw how it tied into Solatorobo.
I can only hope that they get to keep on making their own stuff rather than being tied down to anime fighting games. Would really like the unlockable movie that you can get to go somewhere because I'd love to see them do more with this.
I can only hope that they get to keep on making their own stuff rather than being tied down to anime fighting games. Would really like the unlockable movie that you can get to go somewhere because I'd love to see them do more with this.
Um jogo muito legal com os combates e carismático com os personagens, gostei bastante do gerenciamento da base antes das batalhas e durante o combate com armas diferentes e na afinidade entre os personagens.
A arte é o principal aqui, muito linda.
únicos defeitos são a trilha sonora q achei muito repetitiva e a duração do jogo, achei q se estendeu muito.
A arte é o principal aqui, muito linda.
únicos defeitos são a trilha sonora q achei muito repetitiva e a duração do jogo, achei q se estendeu muito.
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.
Que jogo incrível desenvolvido pela Cyber Connect 2, que é conhecida pela franquia Storm, e nesse jogo eles não fogem do padrão de qualidade que eles tem, esse jogo conta com uma história incrível, com personagens carismáticos e divertidos, além de uma trilha sonora incrível, esse jogo é um must to play, e que venha a sequência para continuar a aprofundar mais nesse universo.
Furry Horrors of War with satisfying battle system
Fuga Melodies of Steel (2021): La historia es horrible e ingenua hasta para un niño y los protagonistas literalmente no llegan ni a cliché, pero el gameplay es una delicia que te mantiene enganchado durante horas, con un loop jugable adictivo y perfectamente diseñado. Con ganas de su secuela (7,35)
Cool game! Whilst I don't have real strong feelings towards the game overall, it's still something I appreciate as a passion project for the dev team with wonderfully drawn art, cute anthro designs and a lovely soundtrack set to their vision of a fake franceland full of cats and dogs at war. Ther fact they even chose a french dub over an english one shows how commited they were to their setting (and it's appreciated).
Whilst aesthetically the game is great, the gameplay felt a little to be desired. Battles kinda lost their luster for me after the ten hour mark and the S O U L C A N N O N was kinda a let down. When it got introduced, I was really excited at the possibilities of it, the gameplay narratives that would unfold from being put in situations where I might have to sacrifice one of the children, dealing with the consequences and just having that choice, that THREAT, looming over me as I played through the game! But in the end, the difficulty meant that I was generally steamrolling dudes so I never felt the need to use it at all. OP healing spells + just reloading a checkpoint if things get REALLY bad meant that the cannon was kinda wasted mechanically which is a huge bummer! I think if maybe the difficulty/gameplay had been tuned differently or something then they could've had something really special with it, in terms of both the soul cannon and just enjoyment.
Which honestly is the biggest shame, because the game is generally good and it wraps up nicely but apart from it's aesthetics it didn't really leave any lasting impression with me.
Whilst aesthetically the game is great, the gameplay felt a little to be desired. Battles kinda lost their luster for me after the ten hour mark and the S O U L C A N N O N was kinda a let down. When it got introduced, I was really excited at the possibilities of it, the gameplay narratives that would unfold from being put in situations where I might have to sacrifice one of the children, dealing with the consequences and just having that choice, that THREAT, looming over me as I played through the game! But in the end, the difficulty meant that I was generally steamrolling dudes so I never felt the need to use it at all. OP healing spells + just reloading a checkpoint if things get REALLY bad meant that the cannon was kinda wasted mechanically which is a huge bummer! I think if maybe the difficulty/gameplay had been tuned differently or something then they could've had something really special with it, in terms of both the soul cannon and just enjoyment.
Which honestly is the biggest shame, because the game is generally good and it wraps up nicely but apart from it's aesthetics it didn't really leave any lasting impression with me.
TLDR/Closing at bottom.
Coming from Tail Concerto I can't really get over how jarring this game is, gone are the entirely character-driven story dialogue and comfy 3D world with nooks and crannies to explore with lovely flavor text that hits like chicken noodle soup on a cold winter's morn; replaced now with interaction grind akin to dating sims of all things to get any new flavor text; the characters will always be in the same little ship they command.
The game also is given a much more tonally dark story and themes, and it goes as far as to make you sacrifice a literal child in the tutorial to show you its hook (the Soul Cannon) they so proudly showed off in the trailer; except (and this is a spoiler kind of but also not really, as it's made almost immediately clear) you will never have to use it, the tutorial tells you to reload your save and then play without it, even for narrative reasons; the game is perfectly doable without it (and you're rewarded w/ an achievement for keeping all party members alive). That said, the story itself is literally only "There's a war, these kids' parents/homes were kidnapped, now they hijacked an ancient tech tank to go find them." The real meat is in their interactions but it doesn't contribute to the overall story, it's just cute, generic filler and a lot of "wow that's kinda fucked up" when they inevitably melt some totally-not-nazis "BERMAN" (or "Bermin?") soldiers and generals.
The gameplay, or rather, the half or two thirds of it that is the action queuing party combat is especially good for a JRPG, but then there's this other half or third of the game that's just doing menial chores that have a chance to fail and do nothing or explore "ruins" for materials; said ruins are generally only 4 or 5 chambers with 3-4 enemies that are insultingly easy, things like the walking and shooting animations of the child characters frankly look really bad as well.
The music is pretty solid, but it's kind of weird they felt the need to reuse the bit with the fictional language from Solatarobo during a key scene.
The 2D artstyle is great though, when the characters aren't walking sideways with their funky 3D models lol.
TLDR - - -
It feels like Fuga: Melodies of Steel completely misses what makes the previous two mainline Little Tail Bronx games have cult followings, and trades a lot of the unique gameplay mashups of those in favor of slightly above average JRPG combat based on an action queue/timeline; probably to both appeal to a wider audience, and to cut as many corners as possible (which is wild to think about since it's been 12(?) years since the last mainline title). JRPG fans will probably really enjoy it for the combat alone. Here's hoping they try to rekindle and refine the old formula, but given how much better this did financially I very much doubt they'll do that again.
Coming from Tail Concerto I can't really get over how jarring this game is, gone are the entirely character-driven story dialogue and comfy 3D world with nooks and crannies to explore with lovely flavor text that hits like chicken noodle soup on a cold winter's morn; replaced now with interaction grind akin to dating sims of all things to get any new flavor text; the characters will always be in the same little ship they command.
The game also is given a much more tonally dark story and themes, and it goes as far as to make you sacrifice a literal child in the tutorial to show you its hook (the Soul Cannon) they so proudly showed off in the trailer; except (and this is a spoiler kind of but also not really, as it's made almost immediately clear) you will never have to use it, the tutorial tells you to reload your save and then play without it, even for narrative reasons; the game is perfectly doable without it (and you're rewarded w/ an achievement for keeping all party members alive). That said, the story itself is literally only "There's a war, these kids' parents/homes were kidnapped, now they hijacked an ancient tech tank to go find them." The real meat is in their interactions but it doesn't contribute to the overall story, it's just cute, generic filler and a lot of "wow that's kinda fucked up" when they inevitably melt some totally-not-nazis "BERMAN" (or "Bermin?") soldiers and generals.
The gameplay, or rather, the half or two thirds of it that is the action queuing party combat is especially good for a JRPG, but then there's this other half or third of the game that's just doing menial chores that have a chance to fail and do nothing or explore "ruins" for materials; said ruins are generally only 4 or 5 chambers with 3-4 enemies that are insultingly easy, things like the walking and shooting animations of the child characters frankly look really bad as well.
The music is pretty solid, but it's kind of weird they felt the need to reuse the bit with the fictional language from Solatarobo during a key scene.
The 2D artstyle is great though, when the characters aren't walking sideways with their funky 3D models lol.
TLDR - - -
It feels like Fuga: Melodies of Steel completely misses what makes the previous two mainline Little Tail Bronx games have cult followings, and trades a lot of the unique gameplay mashups of those in favor of slightly above average JRPG combat based on an action queue/timeline; probably to both appeal to a wider audience, and to cut as many corners as possible (which is wild to think about since it's been 12(?) years since the last mainline title). JRPG fans will probably really enjoy it for the combat alone. Here's hoping they try to rekindle and refine the old formula, but given how much better this did financially I very much doubt they'll do that again.
Honestly Im super biased cause I just love CyberConnect2's world building and art style and always have, but its a really fun RPG! Its straight forward and just throws you into the action, and it honestly offers plenty of challenge if you choose to seek it out. The balancing felt good, I never felt overpowered or like I was falling behind the curve (though I was always taking the hardest path for maximum rewards). The game doesnt overstay its welcome either, with a nice roughly 20 hour playthrough just to see the story through, and the pacing felt great.
The time management aspect of the intermissions was fine, it added some depth with deciding what you wanted to do but it definitely felt like your choices were pretty obvious (upgrades -> build character bonds -> maybe a meal/restocking cooking supplies), at least the scenes between characters as their bonds built were cute and definitely gave something to look forward to each intermission
The real focus of the game was definitely the combat and it delivered well on that front, its tight and bombastic, landing stuns on enemies feels great and engaging with mechanics like character swapping and pairing felt plenty of rewarding, and most skills felt like they had their uses. If I had to pick my biggest complaint, I would have liked it more if the game put more pressure on you to use the sacrificial cannon, at least in my playthrough it was super easy to ignore the mechanic entirely and never consider its use at all, which given its story impact was a bit disappointing! Ruins exploration could have been more too, I dont expect them to package an entire side game necessarily but if its going to be a little walking minigame I think some world building would have been cool to include and give me more reason to actually spend SP on it during intermissions
Overall I really enjoyed it as a tight RPG experience with challenging and fair turn based combat with a cute art style and fun juxtaposition with the darker tone of the story, no bugs or crashes in my playtime and load times were snappy
The time management aspect of the intermissions was fine, it added some depth with deciding what you wanted to do but it definitely felt like your choices were pretty obvious (upgrades -> build character bonds -> maybe a meal/restocking cooking supplies), at least the scenes between characters as their bonds built were cute and definitely gave something to look forward to each intermission
The real focus of the game was definitely the combat and it delivered well on that front, its tight and bombastic, landing stuns on enemies feels great and engaging with mechanics like character swapping and pairing felt plenty of rewarding, and most skills felt like they had their uses. If I had to pick my biggest complaint, I would have liked it more if the game put more pressure on you to use the sacrificial cannon, at least in my playthrough it was super easy to ignore the mechanic entirely and never consider its use at all, which given its story impact was a bit disappointing! Ruins exploration could have been more too, I dont expect them to package an entire side game necessarily but if its going to be a little walking minigame I think some world building would have been cool to include and give me more reason to actually spend SP on it during intermissions
Overall I really enjoyed it as a tight RPG experience with challenging and fair turn based combat with a cute art style and fun juxtaposition with the darker tone of the story, no bugs or crashes in my playtime and load times were snappy
tro stylé
Crianças furry se fudendo num tanque de guerra na Bósnia
Fuga: Melodies of Steel makes a compelling pitch. It’s a JRPG that distills the formula down to its essential elements. Gone are the random battles, the dull sidequests, and the gratuitous cutscenes, leaving only combat, dialogue, and party building. It sounds like a juicy formula but does it deliver on expectations?
Fuga is the story of bunch of anthropomorphic kids and their giant tank. The game opens with Free Lands of Gasco fighting a losing war against the Berman army. Taking refuge in a cave to escape an attack on their hometown, the group of children stumble upon an ancient tank, the Tanaris. A voice from within the Tanaris invites them aboard, and off the children go to save their captured families.
It’s a journey that could be summed up as “Turn-based JRPG Battle: The Game.” The Tanaris only moves one direction – forward – and automatically initiates combat with any and all resistance. To JRPG veterans, combat will feel familiar. Characters come in three varieties – light, medium, and heavy. Lighter fighters do less damage but their turns come around more quickly, and vice versa. Turn order for both allies and enemies is displayed on a timeline, and enemy turns can be delayed by hitting them with certain combinations of attacks. The Tanaris only has three seats for attackers, so you’ll often find yourself shifting party members in and out of the gunner seats to exploit enemy weaknesses. It’s not the most original system but it gets the job done.
Then there’s the Soul Cannon, a feature prominently mentioned in the game’s marketing materials. If you’re about to lose a boss battle, you’re given the option of sacrificing one of your children to the cannon. Doing so instantly annihilates the boss, but the downside is that you lose one of your characters for the rest of the game. This is no small sacrifice; each character is unique and non-replaceable.
Unfortunately, I found this choice to be less interesting than it sounds. First of all, the cost vastly outweighs the benefit. Sure, you win one battle instantly, but enduring a handicap for the rest of the game is a very high price. While there is enough redundancy between the characters for you to limp ahead while missing one or two of them, your tactical agility will nonetheless take a hit. This will in turn make later battles harder, increasing the likelihood that you’ll feed more kids into the cannon. It’s a vicious cycle.
The bigger issue with the Soul Cannon, however, is that there’s not enough incentive to use it. JRPG veterans won’t find much challenge in Fuga. During my playthrough, my crew and I plowed through the entire Berman Army without encountering a single Game Over screen. Winning strategies are easy to sniff out, healing items are abundant, and if you rotate characters in and out of the gunner seats regularly, you’ll be overleveled before you know it. The game’s relative ease combined with the Soul Cannon’s high price meant I never had to seriously consider firing it.
Worse yet is that the Soul Cannon and its sacrificial cost don’t just impact combat; they have downstream effects on the story as well. Because Fuga lets you feed (nearly) any party member into the Soul Cannon, the narrative can’t rely on individual characters to drive its story. The tale will limp along regardless of who is or isn’t still in your party. Events occur, the narrator reads a few lines, and the surviving members of your party chime in with a line or two of lighthearted dialogue. This result is a flat story with limited character development.
The game tries to compensate for this by allowing you to build support between characters, as in Fire Emblem, but these trope-heavy conversations are a poor substitute for a dynamic, character-driven narrative. Perhaps memorable villains could’ve made up for this shortcoming, but here too the game falls short. The bad guys are simply bad dudes, doing bad things for bad reasons. I’ll be surprised if I remember them a month from now.
What does this leave us with? While I appreciate the effort to create a streamlined JRPG, in the end Fuga is too threadbare for its own good. The combat is mechanically sound but never pushes the player hard enough. Likewise, the plot is somewhat interesting but feels too detached from the one-note characters. It’s a shame, too, because I really wanted to love Fuga. It’s clearly a work of passion, and the Ghibli-esque stylings are extremely charming. While I did enjoy it in fits and starts, the overall experience left something to be desired. Only time will tell if I decide to continue on with the sequel or just let sleeping Caninus lie.
Fuga is the story of bunch of anthropomorphic kids and their giant tank. The game opens with Free Lands of Gasco fighting a losing war against the Berman army. Taking refuge in a cave to escape an attack on their hometown, the group of children stumble upon an ancient tank, the Tanaris. A voice from within the Tanaris invites them aboard, and off the children go to save their captured families.
It’s a journey that could be summed up as “Turn-based JRPG Battle: The Game.” The Tanaris only moves one direction – forward – and automatically initiates combat with any and all resistance. To JRPG veterans, combat will feel familiar. Characters come in three varieties – light, medium, and heavy. Lighter fighters do less damage but their turns come around more quickly, and vice versa. Turn order for both allies and enemies is displayed on a timeline, and enemy turns can be delayed by hitting them with certain combinations of attacks. The Tanaris only has three seats for attackers, so you’ll often find yourself shifting party members in and out of the gunner seats to exploit enemy weaknesses. It’s not the most original system but it gets the job done.
Then there’s the Soul Cannon, a feature prominently mentioned in the game’s marketing materials. If you’re about to lose a boss battle, you’re given the option of sacrificing one of your children to the cannon. Doing so instantly annihilates the boss, but the downside is that you lose one of your characters for the rest of the game. This is no small sacrifice; each character is unique and non-replaceable.
Unfortunately, I found this choice to be less interesting than it sounds. First of all, the cost vastly outweighs the benefit. Sure, you win one battle instantly, but enduring a handicap for the rest of the game is a very high price. While there is enough redundancy between the characters for you to limp ahead while missing one or two of them, your tactical agility will nonetheless take a hit. This will in turn make later battles harder, increasing the likelihood that you’ll feed more kids into the cannon. It’s a vicious cycle.
The bigger issue with the Soul Cannon, however, is that there’s not enough incentive to use it. JRPG veterans won’t find much challenge in Fuga. During my playthrough, my crew and I plowed through the entire Berman Army without encountering a single Game Over screen. Winning strategies are easy to sniff out, healing items are abundant, and if you rotate characters in and out of the gunner seats regularly, you’ll be overleveled before you know it. The game’s relative ease combined with the Soul Cannon’s high price meant I never had to seriously consider firing it.
Worse yet is that the Soul Cannon and its sacrificial cost don’t just impact combat; they have downstream effects on the story as well. Because Fuga lets you feed (nearly) any party member into the Soul Cannon, the narrative can’t rely on individual characters to drive its story. The tale will limp along regardless of who is or isn’t still in your party. Events occur, the narrator reads a few lines, and the surviving members of your party chime in with a line or two of lighthearted dialogue. This result is a flat story with limited character development.
The game tries to compensate for this by allowing you to build support between characters, as in Fire Emblem, but these trope-heavy conversations are a poor substitute for a dynamic, character-driven narrative. Perhaps memorable villains could’ve made up for this shortcoming, but here too the game falls short. The bad guys are simply bad dudes, doing bad things for bad reasons. I’ll be surprised if I remember them a month from now.
What does this leave us with? While I appreciate the effort to create a streamlined JRPG, in the end Fuga is too threadbare for its own good. The combat is mechanically sound but never pushes the player hard enough. Likewise, the plot is somewhat interesting but feels too detached from the one-note characters. It’s a shame, too, because I really wanted to love Fuga. It’s clearly a work of passion, and the Ghibli-esque stylings are extremely charming. While I did enjoy it in fits and starts, the overall experience left something to be desired. Only time will tell if I decide to continue on with the sequel or just let sleeping Caninus lie.
Gorgeous, heartfelt, satisfying and charming. Fuga is a hidden gem that knows exactly what it is and doesn't try to bite more than it can chew; every element in it fits perfectly with the rest and forms part of a very well balanced, elegantly designed experience.
If you like short RPGs (took me 14 hours), with relatively large playable casts and where narrative and gameplay are closely intertwined you absolutely have to give it a try.
One of the better experiences I had in 2021 and the biggest surprise by far.
If you like short RPGs (took me 14 hours), with relatively large playable casts and where narrative and gameplay are closely intertwined you absolutely have to give it a try.
One of the better experiences I had in 2021 and the biggest surprise by far.
A linear turn based strategy game about children that end up using an ancient giant tank to drive an invading army out of their homeland. Breaks in the combat sections allow you to upgrade parts of your tank, cook to temporarily increase stats, explore dungeons, and have the characters talk to become better partners in battle and to access three story scenes between each of the 12 characters. A powerful weapon, the soul cannon, can be used to instantly destroy boss enemies by sacrificing one of the children.
Beautiful art, illustrations, and expressive character animations when walking around the tank and good though limited variety of music.
A fun and interesting battle system that has you constantly swapping characters and teams and positions to make use of the type of weapon they use as well as character abilities and team attacks against a wide variety of enemies. Each character fires a cannon, grenade launcher, or machine guns with different speeds, damage values, critical hit chance, and skills. Enemies can be knocked back down the turn order list if they are hit by certain types of weapons. Some enemies are faster and are harder to hit with the stronger cannons or grenade launchers. Machine guns can break armor off defensive enemies to weaken them with their users skills. You can have three characters actively preparing to attack at a time on your top, middle, and bottom guns, with each of those three supported by another character and swap out characters every three turns (even using this as a way to move them around to get slower characters their turn faster). Each child has their own support skills that might increase damage, heal the tank, recover SP, allow for faster recovery, prevent injuries or fear effects, etc and if the pair has improved their relationship they can charge a powerful link attack over time that you can use right away or save all the way to the chapter boss. Each child also has a hero mode they can activate if the desire they had on a checklist was fulfilled (eating a type of food, performing an activity, talking to someone, upgrading something, etc) putting them in a powerful mode for five turns where they can do things like heal for twice as much, double the power of skills, gain another turn as long as skills are used, normal attacks fire twice, break all of an enemy armor and delay them, etc. Even with so many characters using the same type of weapons and some skills being shared their stats, unique skills, and unique abilities make each one of them useful and different.
While the battle system and art are great, the game is lacking in almost everything else. The story is fairly uninteresting. The three possible scenes between the characters are short and of varied interest but you will be spending so much of your downtime doing other things that raising your relationships to the levels to see a lot of scenes isn't practical on your first playthrough. An issue with the battle system is that every combat gives you a ranking and high ranks increase your XP and character relationships by as much as an additional 1.5 multiplier, meaning it punishes doing poorly and really punishes doing poorly early on as you learn the game. Like a lot of games with temporary ability increases, one of the cooking options gives you more XP and relationship points during the entire section you are in until your next rest point, meaning you should obviously always cook that dish. The game can further punish failure with almost everything you do in the down time having a percentage chance of failure, so it's great when you waste 1/4-1/3 of your time failing 80%-90% upgrade chances where you could have been getting to know the characters more. The dungeon exploration elements it adds to the game are extremely dull, you just pick three kids to walk around an area that might have simple obvious traps or enemies where you pick up items until you find a key to open a chest that will have a larger cache of those items.
Each chapter has about three breaks in it where you do the side activities. You get a break, travel through spaces fighting battles, picking up items and materials, and driving over health an SP recovery crates. You do that again, and then after your next break you get a large health and SP pick up and fight a boss. This is linear and automatically driven with you being able to see a few sections in your path ahead for what is going to happen and you will get route splits of safe, normal, or dangerous routes. Dangerous routes giving you enemies worth more XP (even if you were to rank lower) and better quality items. I chose the dangerous route every time, this was fairly difficult in a few early chapters but then the entire game became very easy (even with my conservative playstyle of saving almost every link attack for the boss and never using any of the healing or special ammo items ever, you know, because I might need them later) and bosses were pitiful. I imagine going the other routes would make everything easy in normal gameplay and the bosses maybe almost slightly threatening.
Like a lot of games with permanent death features, in this game's case through the use of the Soul Cannon, it is a pointless feature that takes away from the game. To begin with, there is just no practical reason to ever use it at all, so other than being a minor narrative feature it serves no purpose. If you did use it you are only going to be losing out on unique characters. By having something like this it would also mean that the game would have to be designed so that anyone could be dead at any point which means that many sections are just filled with generic style of dialogue that can be filled by a character at random instead of a more meaningful story or character moment. Though the times that there is more focus on a particular character I would be interested to see how events play out differently (like if you don't have Sheena when you get Britz) but I'm not going to replay the game in a more boring fashion to see that. Even the paired endings with sibling characters just give you no text if you were to kill one of the siblings, giving you no unique illustration or ending for the surviving character.
Recommended to turn based fans for fun main gameplay, art, and good music, though would be a stronger recommendation if the balance, story, and side activities were improved on.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1463636996610351106
Beautiful art, illustrations, and expressive character animations when walking around the tank and good though limited variety of music.
A fun and interesting battle system that has you constantly swapping characters and teams and positions to make use of the type of weapon they use as well as character abilities and team attacks against a wide variety of enemies. Each character fires a cannon, grenade launcher, or machine guns with different speeds, damage values, critical hit chance, and skills. Enemies can be knocked back down the turn order list if they are hit by certain types of weapons. Some enemies are faster and are harder to hit with the stronger cannons or grenade launchers. Machine guns can break armor off defensive enemies to weaken them with their users skills. You can have three characters actively preparing to attack at a time on your top, middle, and bottom guns, with each of those three supported by another character and swap out characters every three turns (even using this as a way to move them around to get slower characters their turn faster). Each child has their own support skills that might increase damage, heal the tank, recover SP, allow for faster recovery, prevent injuries or fear effects, etc and if the pair has improved their relationship they can charge a powerful link attack over time that you can use right away or save all the way to the chapter boss. Each child also has a hero mode they can activate if the desire they had on a checklist was fulfilled (eating a type of food, performing an activity, talking to someone, upgrading something, etc) putting them in a powerful mode for five turns where they can do things like heal for twice as much, double the power of skills, gain another turn as long as skills are used, normal attacks fire twice, break all of an enemy armor and delay them, etc. Even with so many characters using the same type of weapons and some skills being shared their stats, unique skills, and unique abilities make each one of them useful and different.
While the battle system and art are great, the game is lacking in almost everything else. The story is fairly uninteresting. The three possible scenes between the characters are short and of varied interest but you will be spending so much of your downtime doing other things that raising your relationships to the levels to see a lot of scenes isn't practical on your first playthrough. An issue with the battle system is that every combat gives you a ranking and high ranks increase your XP and character relationships by as much as an additional 1.5 multiplier, meaning it punishes doing poorly and really punishes doing poorly early on as you learn the game. Like a lot of games with temporary ability increases, one of the cooking options gives you more XP and relationship points during the entire section you are in until your next rest point, meaning you should obviously always cook that dish. The game can further punish failure with almost everything you do in the down time having a percentage chance of failure, so it's great when you waste 1/4-1/3 of your time failing 80%-90% upgrade chances where you could have been getting to know the characters more. The dungeon exploration elements it adds to the game are extremely dull, you just pick three kids to walk around an area that might have simple obvious traps or enemies where you pick up items until you find a key to open a chest that will have a larger cache of those items.
Each chapter has about three breaks in it where you do the side activities. You get a break, travel through spaces fighting battles, picking up items and materials, and driving over health an SP recovery crates. You do that again, and then after your next break you get a large health and SP pick up and fight a boss. This is linear and automatically driven with you being able to see a few sections in your path ahead for what is going to happen and you will get route splits of safe, normal, or dangerous routes. Dangerous routes giving you enemies worth more XP (even if you were to rank lower) and better quality items. I chose the dangerous route every time, this was fairly difficult in a few early chapters but then the entire game became very easy (even with my conservative playstyle of saving almost every link attack for the boss and never using any of the healing or special ammo items ever, you know, because I might need them later) and bosses were pitiful. I imagine going the other routes would make everything easy in normal gameplay and the bosses maybe almost slightly threatening.
Like a lot of games with permanent death features, in this game's case through the use of the Soul Cannon, it is a pointless feature that takes away from the game. To begin with, there is just no practical reason to ever use it at all, so other than being a minor narrative feature it serves no purpose. If you did use it you are only going to be losing out on unique characters. By having something like this it would also mean that the game would have to be designed so that anyone could be dead at any point which means that many sections are just filled with generic style of dialogue that can be filled by a character at random instead of a more meaningful story or character moment. Though the times that there is more focus on a particular character I would be interested to see how events play out differently (like if you don't have Sheena when you get Britz) but I'm not going to replay the game in a more boring fashion to see that. Even the paired endings with sibling characters just give you no text if you were to kill one of the siblings, giving you no unique illustration or ending for the surviving character.
Recommended to turn based fans for fun main gameplay, art, and good music, though would be a stronger recommendation if the balance, story, and side activities were improved on.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1463636996610351106
😭😭😭😭😭😭
A tank tactics game.
Fuga: Melodies of Steel has players joining a group of children in a tank and fighting against an invading army, hoping to save their parents. The game focuses on advancing on a mostly linear path and trying to fight against each enemy group, which they battle using a trinity of weapons, each of a different color, and each with a different purpose. It’s a solid tactical game with interesting characters.
The downside is this game can be very long-winded with its story. The combat is tactical so far but I haven’t seen anything too challenging outside of the boss combat, and even there it’s mostly just blocking at the right time. There’s a moment I would talk about in the prologue but I don’t want to ruin it. Oh, and everyone’s a furry, though it works well here.
Pick this up if you like tactics games. Their anime-style story at the core here is good but you’ll be spending most of the time in the tank or trying to improve your gear or team so you can keep moving forward. This was a pretty enjoyable game.
Before I get to the last game I’m going to cover a couple more. During the TGS 2022 game show, Microsoft just announced a ton of games coming to the service include Fuga. I've played the rest of these previously and so I’m going to just give you quick looks at each of them due to limited time.
If you want to see more from me: Check out my video on this last month of Game Pass games: https://youtu.be/5_7MTcN1-Ac
Fuga: Melodies of Steel has players joining a group of children in a tank and fighting against an invading army, hoping to save their parents. The game focuses on advancing on a mostly linear path and trying to fight against each enemy group, which they battle using a trinity of weapons, each of a different color, and each with a different purpose. It’s a solid tactical game with interesting characters.
The downside is this game can be very long-winded with its story. The combat is tactical so far but I haven’t seen anything too challenging outside of the boss combat, and even there it’s mostly just blocking at the right time. There’s a moment I would talk about in the prologue but I don’t want to ruin it. Oh, and everyone’s a furry, though it works well here.
Pick this up if you like tactics games. Their anime-style story at the core here is good but you’ll be spending most of the time in the tank or trying to improve your gear or team so you can keep moving forward. This was a pretty enjoyable game.
Before I get to the last game I’m going to cover a couple more. During the TGS 2022 game show, Microsoft just announced a ton of games coming to the service include Fuga. I've played the rest of these previously and so I’m going to just give you quick looks at each of them due to limited time.
If you want to see more from me: Check out my video on this last month of Game Pass games: https://youtu.be/5_7MTcN1-Ac
FUGA: Melodies of Steel has a great turn-based combat, It is just like a rock-paper-scissors game, it is quite fun and combats made me feel a bit challenging especially in the boss fights however I don’t have an issue with that because the game forces to use Soul Canon to you, It is a gun that kills anything with one shoot but requires bio-power. If you want to use that gun, you have to sacrifice one of the children and it affects the ending
This game was a complete ride. It's a really fun SRPG that can be lighthearted at some points, but the fact that these children are actively involved in this war leaves a bitter taste. The story is poignant, and even now it still affects me. My only negative comment is that the gameplay can get repetitive at points, but it doesn't even begin to undermine how great of a game this is. It's truly made with the heart. Can't wait for Fuga 2 !
I loved this. As a long time fan of the Little Tail Bronx games, this is an entirely different feel from the rest of the series. The characters were lovable and the story was very solidly written. The gameplay, while occasionally repetitive at times, is very referencing and has an innovative combat system. The combat system is honestly a top 3 RPG combat system for me. I adored many of the characters and loved the different endings. One thing that is a major draw to this game is it’s soundtrack. It has a beautiful mix of violin and choral tracks that set both and adventurous and meaningful tone to the game. The soundtrack is incredible in all of the games in the series but this one is likely my favorite or at least on par with it. Truly an incredible experience, please buy this game and support its creators. Or at the very least, listen to the soundtrack.
i love u cc2 shawty
MID OF STEEL
- FURROS!!! -
Este es uno de eso juegos que visualsmente me atrapo de una y esa fue la razon por la cual lo inicie. Me gusto mucho al inicio como había el factor de poder perder a tus niños si decidias usar el Cañon de almas, el combate de inicio tambien me gustó y los personajes todos se me hicieron muy agradables y su historia me pareció bien.
Lo malo fue que una vez jugabas, el sistema de combate era muy monotono y cansado, tanto que por ratos pense en dejarlo por ser así de repetitivo y pocó variado.
Este es uno de eso juegos que visualsmente me atrapo de una y esa fue la razon por la cual lo inicie. Me gusto mucho al inicio como había el factor de poder perder a tus niños si decidias usar el Cañon de almas, el combate de inicio tambien me gustó y los personajes todos se me hicieron muy agradables y su historia me pareció bien.
Lo malo fue que una vez jugabas, el sistema de combate era muy monotono y cansado, tanto que por ratos pense en dejarlo por ser así de repetitivo y pocó variado.
The only worthwhile thing about this game is the gameplay, if it wasn’t for that I would’ve dropped the game. The story presents itself like a children's tale, the narrator kills any attachment I would’ve developed from these characters. Instead of trying to give the characters screen time or development the game disconnects itself from them and just narrates their journey. The story (what little there is) is just boring and a chore to go through
I was extremely hyped for this, and much to my surprise it exceeded my expectations. The game is a fairly simple turn based rpg with strategy centering around weaknesses and "types" where you alternate between machine guns, cannons, and grenade launchers on your giant tank the taranis. The story is a bit anime silliness, but mainly in terms of late game. Everything else is centered around the kids controlling it, going through trauma and growing their bonds with some pretty poignant moments. The characters are all interesting and varied, and while it's all pretty streamlined and not too revolutionary, it still feels great.
Plus all the characters are furries! The history of the game is tied to Little Tail Bronx, Tail Concerto and Solatorobo series and cc2 who are major supporters of the kemono community in japan only have made one a decade more or less, but theyre so great when they do.
Plus all the characters are furries! The history of the game is tied to Little Tail Bronx, Tail Concerto and Solatorobo series and cc2 who are major supporters of the kemono community in japan only have made one a decade more or less, but theyre so great when they do.
A decent foundation that's led down by several aspects.
1) The game is too long and too many of the encounters are samey and start to repeat themselves. Repetition can be somewhat mitigated by making the leveling process rewarding and fun, but I don't think that was the case here.
2) The presentation is really boring. The way you're constantly driving from left to right, looking at nothing but your vehicle the whole time makes the game feel even more monotonous.
3) The micro management feels tedious. The way menus work makes it more annoying than it should be to switch out your party members and their partners. Same goes for the Tanaris sections, where the way from A to B can feel a bit more tedious than it should be. Feel like you shouldn't walk around the Tanaris but rather make it a menu.
4) The combat, while pretty challenging at times and dependent on ressource management, is a little let down by it's story bosses. Never are those the actual challenging part of the game. Which leads to the next problem:
5) The soul cannon. The big interesting game mechanic that pretty much got me interested in the game or at least more curious about it. The harrowing decision of sacrificing a character for good to get out of a sticky situation is a really cool idea, but doesn't work, because there's never a reason to use it and you even get a bad ending by doing it. The whole mechanic is useless and not encouraged to use at all. Honestly, the game would work better as a shorter roguelike, where a sticky situation is more likely to occur and can't be save scammed or if the game forces them on you anyway and the decision who to sacrifice is what it's all about.
And finally:
6) The story. I can't even really say much about it. It was bland and the characters felt like stereotypes. Obviously nobody can have a huge stake in the main story because since they can be sacrificed, nobody is allowed to be really relevant. So the party feels like one big hivemind aside from one example.
So, even though this was super negative, I don't hate the game. I like myself a turn-based game that forces me to manage my ressources and time (AP) to take priority in one thing over the other. The decision making is what made the game for me. It's the Persona style of RPG, where everything you can do has an advantage, but you could always spend your time in another (better?) way. Deciding if I want to cook for great buffs and EXP boosts, working on relationships, go for more materials or plant more vegetables can be tough! And the biggest success of the game for me.
I'm probably going to give the sequel a shot to see if they made it a bit more interesting. Some of the critique I had are things I could look past in the sequel (like a mediocre story and the presentation, whatever) but I hope the game gets more challenging, encourages the use of the cannon maybe and works on the QoL stuff.
1) The game is too long and too many of the encounters are samey and start to repeat themselves. Repetition can be somewhat mitigated by making the leveling process rewarding and fun, but I don't think that was the case here.
2) The presentation is really boring. The way you're constantly driving from left to right, looking at nothing but your vehicle the whole time makes the game feel even more monotonous.
3) The micro management feels tedious. The way menus work makes it more annoying than it should be to switch out your party members and their partners. Same goes for the Tanaris sections, where the way from A to B can feel a bit more tedious than it should be. Feel like you shouldn't walk around the Tanaris but rather make it a menu.
4) The combat, while pretty challenging at times and dependent on ressource management, is a little let down by it's story bosses. Never are those the actual challenging part of the game. Which leads to the next problem:
5) The soul cannon. The big interesting game mechanic that pretty much got me interested in the game or at least more curious about it. The harrowing decision of sacrificing a character for good to get out of a sticky situation is a really cool idea, but doesn't work, because there's never a reason to use it and you even get a bad ending by doing it. The whole mechanic is useless and not encouraged to use at all. Honestly, the game would work better as a shorter roguelike, where a sticky situation is more likely to occur and can't be save scammed or if the game forces them on you anyway and the decision who to sacrifice is what it's all about.
And finally:
6) The story. I can't even really say much about it. It was bland and the characters felt like stereotypes. Obviously nobody can have a huge stake in the main story because since they can be sacrificed, nobody is allowed to be really relevant. So the party feels like one big hivemind aside from one example.
So, even though this was super negative, I don't hate the game. I like myself a turn-based game that forces me to manage my ressources and time (AP) to take priority in one thing over the other. The decision making is what made the game for me. It's the Persona style of RPG, where everything you can do has an advantage, but you could always spend your time in another (better?) way. Deciding if I want to cook for great buffs and EXP boosts, working on relationships, go for more materials or plant more vegetables can be tough! And the biggest success of the game for me.
I'm probably going to give the sequel a shot to see if they made it a bit more interesting. Some of the critique I had are things I could look past in the sequel (like a mediocre story and the presentation, whatever) but I hope the game gets more challenging, encourages the use of the cannon maybe and works on the QoL stuff.
Meine Güte was ein Spiel.
Ich bin wirklich froh über Fuga gestolpert zu sein.
In der Regel mag ich keine "Vertierlichung" von Menschen, weil es die emotionale Bindung verhindert und keine nennenswerte Vorteile hat.
Hier finde ich den Artstil aber so gelungen, dass es mich nicht gestört hat.
Um das Spiel vorweg zusammen zufassen:
Für mich war es ein Valkyrie Chronicles light.
Es hat ein neues Kampfsystem, das nicht so komplex wie bei VC ist, aber auch nicht so selbstlaufend wie in einem Standard JRPG.
Die Story ist nichts besonderes und auch die Spielwelt wird nur angeschnitten. Eine wirkliches Worldbuilding entsteht nicht. Der Großteil der minimalistischen Story dreht sich um ein kleines Land, das von einer Militärmacht angegriffen wird.
Doch gleich zu Beginn ziehen einen die Stimmung, der Soundtrack und das Gameplay rein.
Es ist nie zu leicht, aber auch nie unlösbar schwer. Man hat während eines Kapitels mehrfach die Möglichkeit schwere Gegner zu machen und damit mehr Erfahrung und Gegenstände zu erhalten, als bei leichten Gegnern und kann hier spontan die leichtere Route nehmen, wenn ein Kampf mal nicht so gut gelaufen ist. DAS ist die beste Lösung für Schwierigkeitsgrade!
Schwerer = belohnender.
So fühlt man sich nie verarscht, wenn man im Vorfeld schwer auswählt, weil man es ja auch hätte einfacher haben können oder unterfordert, weil man sich eben nicht mehr unnötige Arbeit aufhalsen wollte.
In jedem Kapitel gibt es 2-3 Punkte an denen man eine Art "Daily Life" hat.
Man kann 20 AP im Panzer verwenden um mit Leuten zu sprechen um die Bindung zu erhöhen, etwas zu Kochen, was bis zum nächsten Rastpunkt verschiedene Werte erhöht oder seinen Panzer ausbauen.
Am meisten überrascht hat mich der Soundtrack.
Keine der oben beschriebenen Punkte wirkt je langweilig, weil die musikalische Untermalung immer passend und charmant ist.
Gerade die Endbossmusik ist perfekt.
Alles in allem sicher kein Muss wie VC, aber dennoch ein schönes kleines Spiel für Zwischendurch.
Ich bin wirklich froh über Fuga gestolpert zu sein.
In der Regel mag ich keine "Vertierlichung" von Menschen, weil es die emotionale Bindung verhindert und keine nennenswerte Vorteile hat.
Hier finde ich den Artstil aber so gelungen, dass es mich nicht gestört hat.
Um das Spiel vorweg zusammen zufassen:
Für mich war es ein Valkyrie Chronicles light.
Es hat ein neues Kampfsystem, das nicht so komplex wie bei VC ist, aber auch nicht so selbstlaufend wie in einem Standard JRPG.
Die Story ist nichts besonderes und auch die Spielwelt wird nur angeschnitten. Eine wirkliches Worldbuilding entsteht nicht. Der Großteil der minimalistischen Story dreht sich um ein kleines Land, das von einer Militärmacht angegriffen wird.
Doch gleich zu Beginn ziehen einen die Stimmung, der Soundtrack und das Gameplay rein.
Es ist nie zu leicht, aber auch nie unlösbar schwer. Man hat während eines Kapitels mehrfach die Möglichkeit schwere Gegner zu machen und damit mehr Erfahrung und Gegenstände zu erhalten, als bei leichten Gegnern und kann hier spontan die leichtere Route nehmen, wenn ein Kampf mal nicht so gut gelaufen ist. DAS ist die beste Lösung für Schwierigkeitsgrade!
Schwerer = belohnender.
So fühlt man sich nie verarscht, wenn man im Vorfeld schwer auswählt, weil man es ja auch hätte einfacher haben können oder unterfordert, weil man sich eben nicht mehr unnötige Arbeit aufhalsen wollte.
In jedem Kapitel gibt es 2-3 Punkte an denen man eine Art "Daily Life" hat.
Man kann 20 AP im Panzer verwenden um mit Leuten zu sprechen um die Bindung zu erhöhen, etwas zu Kochen, was bis zum nächsten Rastpunkt verschiedene Werte erhöht oder seinen Panzer ausbauen.
Am meisten überrascht hat mich der Soundtrack.
Keine der oben beschriebenen Punkte wirkt je langweilig, weil die musikalische Untermalung immer passend und charmant ist.
Gerade die Endbossmusik ist perfekt.
Alles in allem sicher kein Muss wie VC, aber dennoch ein schönes kleines Spiel für Zwischendurch.