Quick Look: Fuga: Melodies of Steel

BERMAN

doBERMAN.

Don't worry I missed it first too.

Surprise QL!

Kinda Star Renegades-esque battles, huh? Seems neat!

Oh weird, this is totally a spiritual sequel/successor to Tail Concerto.

The game is related to Tail Concerto, Solatorobo, Little Tail Story etc.

DON'T SLEEP ON THIS GAME! It already has a guaranteed spot in my top 5 of the year.

I was also surprised how little attention this got

This looks great!

Same, loved it. Sad that it came and went without much fanfare, guessing a big part of that was this being self-published by CyberConnect2 (their first game they have done so for) and not having a marketing budget. Glad Jan is showing it off though!!!

The only two dub choices are Japanese and French, I actually recommend switching to the latter, it fits with the vibe of the game pretty well (especially given some of the text is already in French). It's mainly the narrator that switches over, but it's a nice touch. Apparently the voice actress is the same one who does the French dub of Zelda in BOTW and Ellie in Last of Us, so that's fun.

@arjann said:

I was thinking BER-nese, but yours is better.

Oh man, this reminds me of Sting's games. Very low budget, but heavy on complex gameplay mechanics with an Anime style. I'm mixed on the use of anthropomorphism, but it makes sense for the context because CC2 is definitely not going to portray human kids fighting in a war.

@silentman0: I’ve been fooled with that sentinels game before.. nuh-uh.

Thankfully, Steam thought I liked games with fluffy people in them,
so it pushed this game on me right before release, and I loved it despite some of the tropes.

There's fatphobia and sexism a-plenty, especially from a certain character,
and this is where the Soul Cannon mechanic becomes extra handy.
Not only will it let you get rid of annoying characters, but the Soul Cannon
also basically lets you use those annoying kids to one-hit kill a boss. Brilliant!

That said, there's plenty of charming characters to 'link up with', and some of the
evolving stories between your chosen kids are cute and heart-warming.
Some of course are said and heart-destroying, but I feel there's a good
balance considering the topic.

This seems like a neat premise buried in tedium.

Let the children be bullets!

Been lots of solo QLs lately. Glad to see the multiman Looks aren't completely dead!

Game looks neat.

In the end, what brought non-solo QLs back could only be... CATS!

i was totally behind Jan on 13 Sentinels, I dunno if i can get behind this game. doesnt look appealing at all

Good luck to CyberConnect 2

Shoutouts to the missed German Shepherd joke.

France? I think they meant Brance.

Looks like a few fun mechanics buried under a ton of visual novel cruft. Might be a good one for phones though when that (surely inevitable?) port happens.

Very nice to see proper quick-looks back!

THERE IS NOTHING MORE YOU CAN DO...

There seems to be a whole-ass subgenre dedicated to putting cloyingly cute children into grimdark survival scenarios.

There's something here that speaks to me. Especially the Advance Wars-style combat presentation and the forging of a strong team over time. But at the same time it reminds me of japanese PS2/PS3 gamedesign where you get bombarded with a ton of text prompts and there are a million little systems that are slightly meaningful to engage with for each character, but feels like a nuisance to deal with. You do it anyways because 'what if it's vital at some point?!'. Especially CyberConnect2 and Koei-Tecmo are pretty stuck in their ways with sticking to that style of gamedesign. I don't think the positive feelings weigh heavy enough for me to get excited for this. 13 Sentinels seems like the more appealing choice for 'one of these' kind of games.

"Choose a child to replace" is one hell of a sentence to put in your UI though!

From this game's tutorial:

Now there are two children with machine guns and one with a grenade launcher.

This game looks interesting and makes me wonder what style of wig my cats would look best in.