[NSW/ PS4] Megaton Musashi

[briareos_kerensky]

I'm not the biggest Level 5 fan, but this game has giant robots in it, so I had to buy.
The game is available for Switch and PS4, with these impressions based on the latter. I think, however, Level 5 built the game on Switch and later ported it to PS4 by just upping resolution, because this game really likes to load. This is how parts between missions go: you start somewhere, you want to move to another location, and the game loads. Naturally, nothing wrong with that. The location you get to has a cutscene, and after the cutscene the game loads again. Your character is there, most probably all characters from the cutscene are there, the background is the same, only that there are more secondary characters that might or might not be interactive. This is the loading I don't quite understand, esepcially on PS4; the loading itself is short, between 5 to 10 seconds but it's very distracting, and on PS4 the game has a 11GB install...I could understand all of this on Switch with its limited RAM, but even there I doubt the console wouldn't be able to hold a couple of screens worth of background, common character animations, and a few audio files that could be easily streamed from the original media.
Yes, I'm making a storm in a teacup out of this, but it's something you notice.

Anyway, Megaton Musashi is divided into tw main parts: the adventure part and the action part.
In the adventure part you go around as the spike-haired Yamato interacting with people trying to figure out the plot and hit the correct locations and/or dialogues to proceed to the next action phase.
The base story is that aliens have invaded Earth and wiped out 99% of its population, and the remaining few are housed safely in a city-sized shelter unaware of what's going on. Our Yamato is very good at an arcade game about giant robots, and gets recruited by the defence force to pilot the Musashi along two other characters.
How events unfold is very anime-like, and the character design tries hard to recall Kill La Kill, but kinda fails to do so because it's not as over-the-top as that anime and the various cutscenes lack exagerated camera angles.

Once you get all the required plot points you can progress to the action segment, where you control Musashi directly and lay waste on hordes of hostile aliens. You have the usual assortment of ranged and physical weapons, dashes, jumps, guards, special attacks, and heals. Controls are fluid and responsive, though movement feels a bit floaty and your close-range hits go through enemies like they were butter, lacking the weight and impact you'd expect from a giant robot. The mission areas look a bit sparse but render at a constant 60fps, and while the fighting isn't particularly deep or technical, it still feels good. But then again, my latest action game was Senran Kagura X Neptunia, and even Kuro No Kiseki has a more engaging and in-depth action combat system than that...
Musashi can be upgraded with parts collected during missions to improve basic stats or change weapon loadout. There's a good variety of weapons, although they don't feel all that different from each other, but this might be just because I'm at the very beginning of the game.

During the first mission your offensive systems come online one-by-one, and I must say that was pretty cool, although I was able to defeat the boss by spamming the first special attack before the other two came online...oh well.

And then it dawned on me: an anime boy going around locations talking to everyone to progress to the next action part? This is 13 Sentinels! It's 13 Sentinels without Vanillaware's awesome art and most probably without the complex story (really, the subtitle for Megaton Musashi could be "giant robot anime cliches: the game"), but the structure is pretty much the same. Whether this will be a bad thing or not it's too early to know.

[chopemon]

Been looking forward to impressions on this. I was tempted to import but I want to enjoy the adventure parts as well as the action.

[kryss]

Do we have confirmation on a localisation yet?

[briareos_kerensky]

It's unlikely we'll see Level 5 games in English altogether:

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/10/professor_layton_dev_level-5_has_no_plans_for_future_games_outside_of_japan_says_report

[importaku]

Do we have confirmation on a localisation yet?

Looks like we might not see it after all, seems it dived in price by 4000 yen on amazon japan i think i'll be picking it up on there not a good sign if it dropped so bad. Shame level 5 can't get a break as they do make really nice games that are well polished but it seems it's not enough.

Signs point to the brand been discontinued in the west

https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/r23d72/level_5s_megaton_musashi_brand_has_been/

[kryss]

Maybe Atlus or Xseed will cut a deal for localisation.

[fuse]

Just had a quick skip through the video and this looks pretty relevant to my interests; wasn't on my radar before but definitely is now. Huge bummer about the current Level5 localisation situation though. It's reminding me of EX Troopers in both good (stylish, fun, lots of story) and bad (under-appreciated and likely never localised) ways.

[briareos_kerensky]

Spent a bit more time with the game after finishing Kuro No Kiseki, and I have to almost completely revise my initial impressions.
This is not 13 Sentinels, it's more of a story-driven Gundam Breaker.

In all missions you collect new parts and weapons for your Megaton-class robot, and there's plenty of customisation options to play with.
Musashi is composed by a torso, two arms (left and right are independent), and legs; three types of physical weapons and three types of long-range weapons; up to four special attacks; and chips.

Body parts and weapons are classified in five ranks and improve different stats (HP, attack, defence, reload, etc etc) and can mixed and matched as you see fit; it's possible to change some surface properties and reposition decals, but unfortunately not colours, and your giant robot can end up looking like an hodgepodge of styles...my "craziest" look was a blocky grey torso with "police" emblazoned on the chest, a standard right arm, a neon pink left arm, and camo legs. Not that looks really matter, because at least for now parts are exchanged after every mission.

There's a good variety of weapons, and I've tested twin swords, giant hammers, shield and baton, and double drill hands for physical weapons. Long-range weapons include revolver pistols, shotguns, bazookas, and machineguns.
Swords, drills, and baton felt very similar to each other, fast and almost no pause between combos; hammers felt slower, with some recovery time between combos, and not particularly destructive...I'd say that twin swords are the best weapon type right now: fast, they stagger enemies, and allow for good mobility without decreasing attack intesity.
Long-range weapons felt more unique, though the shotgun fire several smaller projectiles with limited homing capabilities leaving other types in the dust.

I didn't expect something like chips. By collecting materials in missions, you can craft chips and other computer parts to further customise your robot: you can create chips with new special attacks, cooler fans to improve cooldown times (duh), resistors to increase power, and so on. These components have to be placed on a motherboard and some of them have a facing. It's kinda neat, though it has to be seen if this actually has an impact on how you play.

After the second story mission you unlock optional missions and even multiplayer. Haven't tested the latter yet, but optional missions seem to be story missions without the story bits, but are an excellent way to stock up on materials.

A new mechanic introduced from the 2nd mission onwards are repairs during battles. Body parts get damaged, which in turn will affect something: broken arms mean no damage (though you can still attack), or no radar and lock-on without a working head. To repair parts you need to enter first-person view by pressing start and selecting the part to be repaired. Time doesn't stop while you do that but I'm not sure if you become invincible. Unfortunately no first-person combat. Oh, and even the cockpit can be customised by trinkets and stuff.

Actual combat is a bit bland though. After settling down with twin swords and shotguns, I breezed through every mission available: standard enemies aren't dangerous, and bosses have two/three attacks in easy recognizable and avoidable patterns. So far, strafing to the right while shooting your guns seems a tactic no boss has an answer to. Once ready, use Musashi's Megaton Punch and bosses go down really easy.

For now I focused on combat, next session I'll try to see how the story segments play out.

[chopemon]

Demo is up on the Japanese eshop for anyone interested.

[importaku]

Just finished the first boss in the demo man this game is fun as hell, flashy and really enjoyable fighting mechanics. My japanese is not the best but level 5 have always got my back with furigana which is helping a lot i can just about get a grasp on the plot, well the demo has done it's job it's gone right up the purchase ranking will be picking it up after xmas & new year are out of the way and japan returns back to normal with postage stuff.

[briareos_kerensky]

If you want to know more about the plot, the fansubs for the anime are easily available. Story's the same, there are very minor differences where and when certain scenes happen, but dialogues are exactly the same between anime and game.

[briareos_kerensky]

Game completed.
Overall I think it's an average action game, nothing too special, but at least it plays decently and there's a solid system behind it.

Customisation is the biggest part of the system, and it can go a bit overboard at times. By the end of the game you get three rogues (giant robots) to use, and managing everything can be a lenghty and tedious affair. Four body parts with different rarity ratings, stats, and special abilities you can enhace with chips (themselves with rarity ratings and different abilities); weapon types again with rarity rating, damage type, and slots for chips; each rogue has its own motherboard with swappable components you craft from a common tech tree with parts dropped during action missions; you can recycle parts to roll for better parts; rogues can be customised with decals, paint chipping, glossiness, and other cosmetics (but no colour for some strange reason); the cockpit, which you can see during special attacks and the pause menu, can be customised too, and you can even choose your system voice.
And pilots have their own skills you can upgrade. And you can even swap pilots to other rogues.
As parts come in large numbers at every mission, what I did was complete a story mission, play the two extra missions that open afterward, and then go through the preocess of improving the rogues. With three of them going through everything can take the better part of an hour, including deleting all unused parts.
The interface is good enough, and if you really don't care about all this in-depth customisation, you can forego pilot skills, chips, and motherboards, focusing only on parts and weapons. Costumetics are acquired through secondary quests in adventure mode, and those can be skipped entirely.
If get into the system, however, there is a lot for you to do, and clearing the game unlocks three special missions, a further customisation slot for your rogues for their ultimate attack, and higher level standard missions.
There is multiplayer, but the scene is basically dead on the PS4.

I'd wish there was more variety in the action scenes. Enemies are recoloured throughout the game, and there's a small set of maps that look very similar to each other, and it's not until the final missions you get decent boss fights. These fights are Megaton Musashi at its best, were you need to carefully use all your normal and special abilities, and I'd liked more of them; some bosses during the middle part of the game can be annoyingly long to fight, and some of the most climactic fights are irrating and disappointing at the same time.

Megaton Musashi is a story-driven game, so you get story sequences during your action missions. The mission might start and let you hack and slash for a minute or so, only to fade into a loading screen for a lenghty cutscene. Control is then given back with even more audio messages playing as you continue to destroy enemies.
The same happens during boss fights, which is doubly irritating: you have your rhythm down, you are doing some decent damage, and then a cutscene triggers. You are given a new special weapon, cool, and after a few sequence the boss is downed by a cutscene, no matter how much damage you did.
I find this infuriating, you are given the task of defeating a boss, but you can just spend your time running around the battlefield until the game wants to continue. The last chapters are particularly guilty of this, and really dampened by already tepid recpetion of the repetitive action sequences. All this action-to-cutscene transition might work in an anime or a slower paced game like puzzle or turn-based strategy, but it's completely out of place in an action game.

I might sound particularly pessimistic about the core of the game, but when you are left to your own devices in non-story missions, the game flows decently, and it's mindless hack'n'slash fun with a variety of weapons. Just don't expect any particularly stylish or technical game, that's all.

Also...the game doesn't end, it blatantly sets up events for the sequel. The second season for the anime series has already been confirmed for October 2022, so I think the game will receive a sequel despite the low sales and still no word about any localisation.