Biomotor Unitron (NGPC)

I wouldn't be surprised if this turned out to have its own anime series.

I'll go with the guy, default name Rod. It seems that whoever I don't pick becomes my partner anyway.

That's pretty decent art I reckon.

Apparently the world of Elscea was at war. But then a meteor crashed down, scattering crystals across the land, each containing UNLIMITED POWER.

If they really needed to have a long scrolling text intro it would have been nice if they could have at least made it readable against the background.

Okay so where are we up to now? There was a war, a meteor crystals were used as fuel for combat robots, war is over, 200 years later everyone lives in peace and the robots are used for arena battles.

Was this pre-game history lesson really necessary? Wouldn't it have been better to discover all this in gameplay?

Okay it seems that I'm Rod, a robot pilot, she's Rena, a robot engineer, and the two of us have just entered a robot fighting contest. The robot's not ready yet though so I have to go waste some time for a bit.

Aww, looks like I'm not leaving the starting town just yet. Okay my partner mentioned something about checking out the shop, so I'll go there.

Skip text, skip text, skip text, skip text, SKIP TEXT, SKIP TEXT, WHY ARE YOU STILL TALKING TO ME?

Well okay, I got some free gear out of it so it wasn't a total waste of time. I'll check out the next place on the town list.

Of course, that'd be too simple. I guess I'll have to go back and chat to my engineer before they'll let me fight.

What? Come on, just let me play the game please!

And so our brave hero goes wandering the land, chatting to every stranger he meets. A drunk, some kid on the street, a creepy old man in the forest, a fortune teller with weird ears and ominous predictions...


LATER.

Finally they've let me fight someone! It seems that arena battles take place in an infinite white void though, which isn't really much to look at.

'Attack' let me select one of two attacks to choose from (one for each arm), each burns up some energy, 'item' is obvious, and 'charge' lets me regain some of my energy. 'Quit' forfeits, so I won't be pressing that one.

What is that, a mer-bot? Who puts a fish tail on their robot for an arena fight on dry land? The poor guy's going to be stuck flopping around on the ground while I dance on his head.

I'm getting a definitely Pokémon vibe from the look of these fights. There seems to be elemental attacks in this too, but who knows what a mermaid robot is weak to.

What the fork? I've had to fight three enemies in a row without a chance to rest, so my poor robot is getting pretty battered. One more hit and I'm out.

The enemies all start with full health though weirdly. I'm starting to feel like this whole event is biased against me.

I am victorious! I have been awarded the title of 'Rookie' and I get some cash to spend on robot upgrades for the next arena tournament. I can buy new parts for each section in the shop, but I can also use material and tools to upgrade the arms I own. So I'll get Rena to turn my BtFist into a PwrHnd.

Then I guess I go talking to people again until they let me back into the arena.

Actually screw talking to people. I mean everyone's pretty friendly, even the stats menu tells me to take care of myself when I close it, but there must be more to this game than this.

Oh hey, I've found the world map! It seems I have four locations to choose from; forest zone, water zone, floating rock zone and ice world.

I guess I'll go to the forest then.

The game's turned into an oldschool dungeon crawler now. I walk around each apparently randomly generated maze opening treasure chests, before going through the exit to get to the next level with harder enemies.

Welcome back to the white void. These random encounters don't seem much of a threat, I can pretty much just PwrHnd them to death by hammering the button until they go away.

My EP refills after each encounter so all I have to worry about is using the occasional fixit1 kit to keep my health up.


SEEMINGLY HOURS OF WALKING AROUND THE FOREST LATER.

Okay I'm so bored of that now. I'm starting to wonder if these dungeon actually lead anywhere. For all I know they could just keep going indefinitely. Fortunately I can leave at any time using the menu.

So lets check out the floating rock level.

Finally I've found a game smart enough to figure out if I'm standing near to the box pressing buttons, I probably want to open it, even if I'm not exactly facing it.

Damn, it turns out I can only carry so many of an item before it stops letting me pick them up. Well I expected that really, but I thought the limit would be more like 99, not 9.

Sinister Santa Clown Radish is no match for my PwrHnd! Probably. If he is I'll just hit him again.

Oh damn, what the hell is my robot wearing now? When I upgraded to 'boost' legs I didn't expect them to come with a skirt.


SOME DUNGEON CRAWLING LATER.

Okay that's enough training now, I'm back in the arena, going for my next title.

Actually I'm starting to get the feeling that I might have had too much training, this guy is barely getting a scratch on me.

And once again the final foe falls before me. It wasn't really in doubt though really, the guy has his arms attached where his ears should go, how tough was he going to be?

I have earned the title of 'Viscount', which is a definite step above 'Rookie'. And now I have to go back and do it all over again.


Actually I don't think I'll bother. I like the idea of an rpg where I can construct my own robot, but this is a little too basic for me. They seemed to have substituted the story with pointless small talk and so far all my strategy has been 'press button, win fight'.


Next game.