Fuga Melodies of Metal 2 is a direct comply with as much as CyberConnect2’s gripping struggle drama set in a world run by anthropomorphic canines and cats. Being a full sequel, it brings a whole lot of what labored within the unique however provides a number of further options to up the ante on an already profitable technique RPG. The brand new additions work to ease the problem spikes that had been felt within the unique whereas additionally including new taste and mechanics to your journey.
Our sport begins the place the primary left off, one 12 months after the defeat of the enormous harmful tank Tarascus by our heroes, a ragtag group of younger youngsters within the tank Taranis. They’re known as again by the native authorities to help in determining the inside workings of the Taranis, however whereas investigating, half the group are trapped inside because it begins a path of destruction throughout the countryside piloted by a mysterious determine. The remaining children don’t have any alternative however to hop into the villainous Tarascus and provides chase to avoid wasting their associates. The sport actually jumpstarts you into the story shortly, however fortunately there’s a full recap of the primary sport in-built for these needing a refresher.
At its core, Fuga Melodies of Metal 2 is a tactical RPG. There are a whole lot of items surrounding it however the base of it’s the fight. There are three principal stations within the Tarascus tank. Every of those stations might be stuffed by two of the kids within the group. This works for synergistic functions however extra on that later. There are additionally three sorts of color-coded weaponry: cannons (crimson), machine weapons (blue), and grenade launchers (yellow). The colour coding helps to distinguish when an enemy has a weak point to a particular weapon. Enemy weak point is necessary for injury, but in addition for timeline functions. Throughout fight, a turn-order timeline is offered on the prime of the display. By hitting an enemy weak point, you push them again additional within the timeline, creating alternatives to assault first and extra usually. Particular assaults have various properties to take away armor enemies could have, or to decelerate their flip order on the timeline. Since enemies fluctuate of their weaknesses and generally are available in a number of waves, you may have the potential to swap in character positions on the fly.
Fight is initiated in a pathing battlefield system. You’ll have a freeway with designated occasions like fight encounters, well being refills or intermissions. This can be largely linear with occasional branching paths for elevated loot at the price of more durable fight encounters. Some new options are the potential of airlifts to carry you again to particular factors on the trail or take an alternate route for elevated loot or story, and air strikes to do injury to fight encounters earlier than you enter them. One other pivotal a part of fight is the soul canon. This can be a one-shot kill for any enemy group or boss encounter, however utilizing it sacrifices one of many youngsters within the tank at random, consuming their soul as ammunition. This may be detrimental to the story, as it should take away that a part of the group completely and go away the remainder of the group reeling from the load of that call. It’s a captivating mechanic with such highly effective implications. I felt prefer it may’ve been extra impactful had I been pressured to make use of it, however it does come into play within the story correct. To offset this weighty transfer is a brand new function known as the Managarm, an identical one-time use transfer that solely knocks one among your members unconscious as an alternative of outright killing them. This looks like a welcome various however, even then I nonetheless felt uncomfortable utilizing both capability and harming my group in that means.
One key level through the freeway of fight is intermissions. These are fundamental social and upkeep durations on the tank. You might be given a sure variety of motion factors, and are in a position to management any one of many 12 youngsters on the tank. From right here you possibly can prepare dinner meals for buffs, improve elements of the tank, fish for loot, discover a side-scrolling mini dungeon crawler or work together with different youngsters. Speaking to your fellow tank mates will create social bonding affinities that, over time, will produce a cute visible novel type reduce scene, and perks that match between these two characters. That is the synergy side of assigning two members of your group collectively in tank positions. It’s not about what sort of weapon they’ve, however how robust their bonds are, which equates to hero talents or injury will increase. The relationships of the characters are integral to the way you interact with the sport’s fight mechanics. The problem is that with a solid of 12 teammates–plus aspect characters–I usually discovered myself shedding monitor of everybody and by no means getting a very good sense of their personalities. This can be a fault for not getting too deep into the primary sport to fall in love with the youngsters, however newcomers could have related points connecting as I did.
The story itself is a very onerous have a look at struggle and the results it could possibly have on its individuals, on this case youngsters. Every encounter results in trauma and a lack of innocence, regardless of its cartoonish artwork type. The sport presents an actual contradictory tone with canine and cat youngsters creating bonds of friendship whereas going through the brutality of struggle. Regardless of its whiplash tone discrepancy, Melodies of Metal 2 largely works as a complete. Character relationships work in concord with the fight. Your success relies on how your group works collectively. Character interactions from the primary sport are introduced over in such a means that it could possibly hinder the expertise total. That is compounded by the truth that there are such a lot of techniques in play outdoors of those described that merely really feel tacked on. There’s a 2D aspect scrolling dungeon crawler aspect exercise that feels weirdly misplaced, in addition to a morality system primarily based on binary “good” or “unhealthy” selections throughout conversations. These selections by no means resulted in a lot change to the story, so their inclusion was questionable.
Fuga Melodies of Metal 2 is a very strong technique RPG. It makes use of complicated techniques of character interactions that really feel completely significant to story and fight development. What retains it out of the higher tier of comparable video games is its reliance on having performed the primary sport, a big solid of characters that are inclined to mix collectively, and a few additional mechanics that largely really feel misplaced. Fuga is making an attempt to do quite a bit, when actually it simply must give attention to what works. Regardless of its bloat, the sport boasts a brief 20 or so hours to finish and in a world of 100-hour video games, and there’s one thing to be stated a few quick however candy expertise. When the sport goes, it feels nice to play and has a compelling story, if not overwhelming to get began. No matter its darkish and gritty struggle torn world, Fuga Melodies of Metal 2 gives just a little little bit of hope within the tactical RPG area.