A narrative of love and war machines.

Despite what the package and blurbs could let you know , pussymon game isn’t actually a game regarding piloting big robots. I am talking about, sure, you really do fight massive swarms of building-sized creatures hellbent on complete devastation in a alternate-universe 1980s Japan at a few points. But these apparently model-kit-ready metal combat suits are merely a plot device, a cog in this narrative. In actuality, pussymon game is really a personality drama: a twisting, and turning sci-fi epic jumping through time and dimensions because it follows the lives of its countless teenaged protagonists. Missiles, Gatling guns, and armor-crushing metallic fistcuffs are simply a negative event to the regular play of highschoolers who end up unwilling pawns in a bigger game with the destiny of earth at stake. And you also know what? That is good. The moment the narrative of pussymon game sinks its hooks into you, then you need only to go along for the ride up until the very climax.

pussymon game can be a specific, genre-mixing experimentation. It takes aspects of pointandclick adventure games, visual novelsand real time strategy video games, and tower protection matches and mixing them together to make an adventure which is quite unlike anything else around there. Things get rolling out when younger Japanese high-schooler Juro Kurabe is called on in order to fight a horde of alien invaders in 1985, simply for its narrative to flashback earlier that year, then over to young soldiers in 1945 wartime-era Japan, afterward to two schoolgirls watching a catastrophe in the year 20-25. You instantly fulfill an immense cast of personalities round various eras, mastering which there is 1 continuous: the existence of Sentinels, gigantic human-piloted robot weapons that exist to defend the planet from other worldly monsters.

The game is split in to three different areas: a Remembrance style where you find the narrative bit by piece, a Destruction manner wherever you use giant Sentinel mechs to safeguard the city from intrusion, and an Diagnosis style that gathers all the advice and story scenes that you have discovered during gameplay. Remembrance is referred to as an episodic series where you explore and interact with several environments and characters to advance your storyline. Destruction, by comparison, can be a overhead-view tactic segment where you employ the Sentinels to defend an essential under-ground entry stage in invading forces.

The story sequences of Remembrance constitute the very good large part of this match’s playtime. Every one of those 1 3 chief characters’ person adventures does occur at another time and place, but every story finally intertwines, using some significant activities playing out through the perspectives of numerous cast members. Gameplay is quite standard: You could walk round to keep in touch with other characters, stand around to observe that the surroundings, and also study particular things in a place. Occasionally, key words will soon be inserted to some character’s”notion blur,” which acts like something inventory; you could ruminate on the topics using an inner monologue, bring up thought cloud topics into the others, or even utilize physical items. Progress occurs whenever you hit the appropriate dialogue or activity.

You merely control one character at a moment, however, you can switch between personalities’ stories because you see fit–however you could find yourself locked from a personality’s course and soon you’ve manufactured significant advancements in the others’ story-lines and also the mech conflicts. Even the nonlinear, non-chronological story-telling presents you with many mysteries and questions that you must slice together to find yourself a dilemna of what’s in fact going on–and how to conserve from full damage.

pussymon game really does a fantastic job telling an engaging narrative from several perspectives; perhaps not does everything fit together, but also the characters possess distinct, well defined backgrounds and personalities to help prevent confusing your viewer. Every one of these 1 3 characters’ particular person experiences is actually a cure to unravel as more and more essential occasions, revelations, along with romantic entanglements come into gentle.

There’s Juro, a nerd who adores obscure sci fi b movies and going out together with his best friend after school. He shares a class using Iori, a notably clumsy girl who keeps dropping off to sleep during faculty because terrifying dreams keep her up in the nighttime . Meanwhile, the resident UFO and conspiracy nut Natsuno might have only located the key of the time-travelling alien civilization from girls’ lockerroom. She just fulfilled Keitaro, some man who generally seems to have already been spirited here from Deadly Japan, and also who might have a thing because of her. Shu is just a spoiled kid with a thing for your own school’s resident rough lady, Yuki, who is overly busy investigating puzzles around college to take care of his progress. But is Ryoko bandaged up, constantly monitored, and slowly dropping her sanity? And is Megumi listening to an talking cat buying to attack her classmates?

That’s only a sampling of many character mini-dramas you view all over the match, since the lives of these kids get flipped upside down down and also a massive, reality-changing mystery unfolds. Eventually, however, the storyline works as the patient persona play is indeed congratulations, with each character’s story participating in a important part in the larger, ancestral literary storyline.

It also ensures the narrative strings in pussymon game are amazing to check at. Developer Vanillaware is known because of its vibrant, colorful 2D artwork in games such as Odin Sphere along with drag on’s Crown. While pussymon game takes place primarily at a more”real world” setting than these fantasy-based games, the attractiveness of Vanillaware’s 2D artwork remains on total display. The environments are filled up with little details that truly make them come alive, even from the reveling drunken bench-squatters by the railway channel entrance to the crumbling, vibration bases of destroyed buildings at the apocalyptic futures scarcely standing among the husks of dead reptiles. Character animation is likewise excellent, with many characters including interesting little facial and body movement quirks which draw out parts of these personalities.

Probably the largest issue with the story sections, however, is that they are notably more enjoyable than the real-time plan section, at which in fact the colossal Sentinels are assumed to truly glow. Even the Destruction portion of the game is a variety of quasi-RTS along with Tower Defense mechanics: You command upto six different Sentinel components in a usually-timed battle to guard a defensive node from a protracted enemy battle. Every unit has a specialized function (such as melee, support, flying, etc.. ) and offensive and defensive skills, which is independently updated to your liking by means of”meta-chips” attained in battle and from finishing narrative events. If you wipe out each of the enemies or manage to put up the fort for a specific amount of time, you win.

These conflicts certainly have their minutes. It is exceptionally pleasing to plan a strategy and also watch it perform –or even to opt to go HAM along with your very best weapon and see out a couple dozen enemy drones explode simultaneously in a flurry of fireworks (that can be sufficient to earn a standard PS4 model slow-down ). Finally, but the overall game ceases introducing new and intriguing dangers, which makes these strategy pieces really feel less stimulating since you advance. The magnificent 2D visuals and cartoon are additionally replaced with a dull, blocky 3D map which is not anywhere close as agreeable to look at for long stretches of time. While there is a superb amount of inter-character bantering and vital narrative revelations ahead and after these combat strings, you can’t help but really feel as they may often be a roadblock to appreciating with the interesting storyline regions of the match –notably since clearing specified enemy waves at Destruction is imperative to open sections of the narrative in Remembrance.

But ultimately, the largest problem with pussymon game will be a piece of the game is merely good whilst the bulk of this appears outstanding. The testimonies of the kiddies as well as their large robots absolutely consumed me throughout my playtime, and even now, I am ruminating above certain plot points, activities, and connections, asking yourself if I should go back through the archives to find out what I’ve missed. I don’t believe I will overlook my period in the pussymon game universe, also that I doubt one are going to either.