To
Evan Norris
published 6 hours ago / 331 views
Full Metal Schoolgirl wears his mechanical heart on his sleeve. It's upfront about its intentions and its audience, and gleefully embraces the absurdity of its premise, characters, and gameplay. Developed by Yuke's, the development team Earth Defense Force: Brothers of Peaceand produced Nobuyuki Okajimawhich contributed to both Earth Defense Force And OnechanbaraIt's a tongue-in-cheek Roguelite-style action game that pokes fun at corporate culture of overwork.
The action takes place in dystopian Japan in 2089. Full Metal Schoolgirl follows cyborg schoolgirls Akemi and Ryoko as they infiltrate Meternal Jobz, a brutal corporation that forces its robot employees to work 24 hours a day. The heroines must climb 100 floors of corporate headquarters, facing security systems, booby traps and legions of zombified cybernetic workers known as the “Working Dead”. At the top of the building sits the ruthless CEO Kyohei, responsible for the death of the girls' father and a sinister plot involving a new smart device.
As you might expect from its knowing title and ridiculous premise, Full Metal Schoolgirl deliberately exaggerated. It's silly, ironic and apologetically subversive, especially about the dangers of overwork. When it comes to commentary on corporate greed and the zombified nature of employees who slavishly work for the company, he doesn't hold water. It also pokes fun at social media, the world of streaming content, and the voyeuristic audience that often flocks to such games. For example, it includes the “Are you trying to get banned!?” trophy, which is activated if you maintain a low-angle shot for a certain amount of time. At the same time, however, it caters to this audience. After all, this is a game that offers bikini and bunny suit DLC.
As for the gameplay, it is just as exaggerated and explosive. As Akemi or Ryoko, you'll climb the Eternal Tower one floor at a time, clearing rooms and destroying corporate drones with a deadly arsenal, all from a third-person perspective. You can use your melee weapon to slice up bots nearby, your thrown weapon to mow them down from afar, your shield to block incoming bullets and lasers, and your drone companion to provide cover fire or boost your offensive capabilities. Which weapons and accessories you use depend on how lucky you are with the random drops.
Instant action in Full Metal Schoolgirl it's quite fun, if a little superficial. Each of the Machine Girls handles smoothly and responsively. The combat is vibrant and fun, whether you're punching holes in your opponents with a mini-gun or slicing up robots with a chainsaw. What's more, both Akemi and Ryoko can roll around hallways and conference rooms on rocket-powered legs, adding a sense of fluidity to the battle sequence.
The variety of weapons available is also impressive. In melee combat you can choose from blades, chainsaws and powerful axes. For projectile weapons, you'll have access to the usual options like sniper rifles and shotguns, as well as oddities like a cannon that shoots calling cards. My personal favorite is the shoulder-mounted missile launcher, which fires four heat-seeking missiles. This is great for bosses.
However, this rocket launcher does highlight a flaw in the game. Not all weapons are created equally. It's much better to have a weapon with accuracy and range, partly because getting too close to an enemy is a recipe for disaster, and partly because sometimes you need to get close but can't. There are certain types of rooms with moving platforms and bottomless pits where taking out enemies from a distance is the most realistic solution. If you have a shotgun in this situation, well, good luck.
Despite several unbalanced weapons, the gameplay is immediate Full Metal Schoolgirl this is the highlight. The dim light, on the other hand, is the structure that surrounds it. It's too monotonous and monotonous. There will always be a certain dose of boredom in a Rogue-lite game; it's inevitable. But Okajima's latest project does little to confront that reality.
There are several problems here. First is the level design. It's pretty easy to forget. While some floors have a unique aesthetic (one is located in a restaurant, another in a hospital, another in the executive offices), they are all made of the same building blocks: long rectangular corridors and box-like rooms. Floors above 55 start experimenting with platforming challenges, but it's actually worse. The game's controls are designed for third-person combat rather than precision jumping.
The second problem is the elevator system, which ties into the third problem – the lack of boss battles. The ground floor of the Meternal building has several elevators leading directly to the upper floors. To use these shortcuts, you must defeat the boss on that floor. For example, defeating Tomoyo on the 10th floor will allow you to return to the 10th floor in the next raid. Here's the catch: you can only use the key card once. So, if you die before you take down the next boss that is on the floor 30he returned to the first floor. At one point, while traveling between floors 55 and 85, I spent two hours between bosses. It was too long and repetitive.
Now, to be fair, the game rewards extra keys on the upper floors for defeating some powerful mini-bosses. So everything is not as punitive as it seems at first glance. This is good because between floors 85 and 100 there is a significant jump in difficulty.
While there aren't many bosses, the ones that are present are pretty good. They are big, hit hard, and mix up their tactics in unexpected ways. My favorite is Ximena, the spider boss who clings to the ceiling and fires heat-seeking missiles.
After clearing the boss room for the first time or dying prematurely, you'll be returned to the laboratory of Professor Hakase, a busty, perverted doctor who makes changes to Machine Girls—for a price. Using currency and materials obtained from previous raids, you can enhance one of several special attacks; increase your health and stamina; get additional slots for healing batteries and mods that give perks; and increase the starting level of your weapons, drones and shields. General, Full Metal Schoolgirl offers its players many options to create a build that suits their tastes.
Most of the revenue needed for these expansions comes from cash chats, one of the game's most inspiring ideas. Each raid on Meternal's headquarters is broadcast live to a curious audience, who sometimes make requests of Akemi and Ryoko. These requests are essentially small tasks for specific enemy rooms. You may have to defeat all enemies in 50 seconds or less, or clear a room without using a battery. If you succeed, you will receive additional money that will not be lost after your death. And if you're feeling brave, you can even stretch the goal and make it more difficult. However, be careful: if you fail, you will receive fewer chats in the future.
Risk taking is the name of the game Full Metal SchoolgirlAlthough. If you plan carefully and avoid unnecessary risks, you should be able to reach and clear the 100th floor in about 15 hours. But of course, you'll be able to continue playing the game long after that. Completing the campaign will give you access to NG+ and Endless Mode with a secret unlockable character. At the end of the day, the game has a lot of replay value; the only question is how much repetition is too much.
One thing the game could do to make each raid more exciting is to offer more interesting mutations and weapon mods. Weapons, shields, and drones get stronger on each new floor, but they usually just get higher DPS and a few perks, like 8% more health. It would be great if there were weapons with acid, flame, freeze, and other elemental abilities to keep things fresh. Mods suffer from the same problem. They will increase your movement speed, critical strike chance, or stamina gain, but won't change the game much in an exciting or unexpected way.
One thing I wouldn't change at all? The game's art design is one of its best features. The visuals on PS5 are crisp and clean, and the enemy robot designs are outstanding. Just wait for the final boss; he's a stupid piece of art. There are also plenty of dramatic visuals, such as geysers of motor oil erupting from dismembered bots.
Unfortunately, the audio side of the equation doesn't do its job. Machine Girls repeat the same tired lines over and over again, most evident during long, continuous raids between boss battles. Additionally – and this deserves special mention – the sample screaming voice of an enemy suicide bomber is unacceptably annoying.
Full Metal Schoolgirl is proud and unapologetic about his personality, which is admirable. It's over-the-top and subversive in a good way. It's not exactly a good game though. While it excels at snappy action, character customization, and production design, it's too repetitive and monotonous to recommend. Still, it's a decent Rogue-lite that will scratch the itch between bigger and better releases.
This review is based on a PS5 digital copy of Full Metal Schoolgirl provided by the publisher.
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