A narrative of love and war machines.

Despite what the carton and also blurbs might tell you, meetandfuckgame isn’t truly a match about piloting big robots. I am talking about, sure, you can fight massive swarms of building-sized monsters hellbent on complete devastation in a alternate-universe 1980s Japan at a few points. However, these apparently model-kit-ready metal combat matches are only a plot device, a cog in the story. Actually, meetandfuckgame is just a character drama: a twisting, and turning sci-fi epic jumping through time and dimensions because it follows the lifestyles of its numerous teen protagonists. Missiles, Gatling guns, and armor-crushing metallic fistcuffs are simply just a negative event for the regular play of high-schoolers who find themselves unwilling pawns in a bigger game together with the fate of the world in stake. And you know everything? That’s fantastic. The moment the narrative of meetandfuckgame sinks its hooks into you, you want nothing more than to move together for the ride upward until the climax.

meetandfuckgame is a very unique, genre-mixing experiment. It takes components of point and click adventure games, visible novelsand real time strategy games, and tower protection gamesand mixing them with each other to make an adventure which is quite unlike everything else out there. Things get rolling out when youthful Japanese high-schooler Juro Kurabe is called upon in order to fight a horde of dinosaurs in 1985, only for the narrative to flashback earlier this season, then over to younger troopers in 1945 wartime-era Japan, then to two schoolgirls watching a catastrophe from the year 2025. You instantly fulfill a huge cast of characters round different eras, understanding there is one continuous: the existence of Sentinels, gigantic human-piloted robot firearms that exist to protect the entire world from other-worldly creatures.

The game has been divided in to three areas: a Remembrance style where you uncover the narrative bit by piece, a Destruction mode in which you use giant Sentinel mechs to safeguard the town from invasion, and an Analysis style which gathers each one of the advice and narrative scenes you have detected through gameplay. Remembrance is referred to within a episodic series wherever you explore and socialize with various characters and environments to progress your storyline. Destruction, in contrast, can be an overhead-view approach segment in which you employ the Sentinels to shield a critical Under Ground entry stage in invading forces.

The story strings of Remembrance constitute the good majority of this game’s playtime. Every one of those 1 3 key characters’ specific adventures occurs at an alternative time and place, however every narrative eventually intertwines, using some crucial occasions playing through the perspectives of numerous cast members. Gameplay is fairly standard: You are able to walk around to keep in touch with additional personalities, stand around to observe that the surroundings, and also examine particular objects in an area. Periodically, keywords will soon be added to some character’s”idea blur,” which behaves like an item stock; you can ruminate on the topics via an internal monologue, bring up thought cloud issues to the others, or even utilize physical products. Progress comes about when you reach the suitable dialogue or action.

You merely control one character at a time, however, you may swap between characters’ tales because you see fit–although you could end up locked from a character’s path and soon you’ve created significant advancements in the others’ storylines and also the mech conflicts. Even the nonlinear, non-chronological storytelling presents you with lots of mysteries and questions which you must piece together to find a bigger picture of what’s actually going on–and also howto conserve from absolute wreck.

meetandfuckgame really does a fantastic job telling an engaging narrative from several viewpoints; perhaps not does everything match, however, the personalities possess different, well defined backgrounds and characters to help avoid confusing the crowd. Every one of those 1 3 characters’ specific adventures is actually a treat to unravel as more and more essential functions, revelations, along with amorous entanglements come to gentle.

There’s Juro, a nerd who loves obscure scifi B-movies and going out together with his very best friend after school. He shares a class with Iori, a notably awkward woman who keeps falling asleep throughout faculty because terrifying dreams maintain up her at night. Meanwhile, resident UFO and conspiracy nut Natsuno may possibly have only found the trick of a time-travelling mysterious culture from girls’ lockerroom. She only met Keitaro, some man who generally seems to have now been lively here from wartime Japan, and also that also might have a thing because of her. Shu can be just a spoiled kid having a thing for the faculty’s resident tough girl, Yuki, who is overly busy investigating puzzles around faculty to watch over his progress. But is Ryoko bandaged up, constantly monitored, and progressively losing her sanity? And why is Megumi hearing an chatting cat purchasing her to attack her classmates?

That’s merely a sampling of many personality mini-dramas you notice throughout the match, since the lives of those children get flipped upside down down and also a gigantic, reality-changing puzzle unfolds. Eventually, however, the storyline works because the patient persona drama is really well done, together with each personality’s tale enjoying a vital part in the larger, ancestral sci-fi storyline.

It also ensures that the narrative sequences in meetandfuckgame are amazing to take a look at. Developer Vanillaware is popularly famous because of its brilliant, vibrant 2D art in games such as Odin Sphere and drag on’s Crown. Even though meetandfuckgame happens place chiefly in an increasingly”real world” setting than these fantasy-based games, the beauty of Vanillaware’s 2-d art is still on total exhibit. The environment will be packed with small details that actually make them appear alive, from the reveling drunken bench-squatters by the railway station entrance towards the crumbling, shaking foundations of destroyed buildings at the futures scarcely standing on the list of husks of dead reptiles. Character animation is also great, with many characters including fun little facial and body movements quirks which bring out elements of their own personalities.

Maybe the biggest problem with all the narrative segments, nevertheless, is they are notably more pleasing compared to real-life strategy portion, at which the gigantic Sentinels are assumed to genuinely shine. Even the Destruction part of the game is actually a variety of quasi-RTS and also Tower Defense mechanics: You control up to six individual Sentinel units in a usually-timed struggle to guard a defensive node from a protracted enemy battle. Each and every unit includes a technical purpose (for instance, melee, flying, support, etc.) and offensive and defensive skills, which is independently updated to a liking as a result of”meta-chips” acquired battle and out of completing story events. In the event that you wipe out each one the enemies or manage to contain the fort to get a specific amount of time, you win.

These conflicts have their minutes. It really is exceptionally satisfying to plan out a strategy and see it play out–or to opt to go HAM along with your very best weapon and also see out a couple dozen enemy drones burst at the same time in a flurry of fireworks (that can be enough to earn a standard PS 4 version decelerate ). Eventually, however, the game stops introducing new and interesting dangers, making these plan bits sense less stimulating as you progress. The gorgeous 2D visuals and cartoon will be additionally replaced with a bland, blocky 3D map that isn’t anywhere near as agreeable to check in for very long stretches of time. While there exists a excellent amount of inter-character bantering and vital story revelations ahead and after those combat sequences, you can’t help but feel as though they can many times be considered a road block to appreciating with the interesting story portions of the match –especially since hammering specified enemy waves in Destruction is essential to start regions of the narrative in Remembrance.

But the biggest issue with meetandfuckgame is a chunk of this game is only great whilst the majority of this is outstanding. The stories of these kids and their big robots definitely consumed me inside my playtime, and even now, I’m ruminating around certain plot things, functions, and connections, questioning if I should go back through the archives to find out what I’ve missed. Idon’t think I will forget my own time in the meetandfuckgame universe, and that I doubt one will, either.