Shin Masou Kishin (真・魔装機神 PANZER WARFARE), launched 11/25/1999, developed and launched by Banpresto
Masou Kishin was initially developed for the Tremendous Robotic Wars franchise, beginning again in 1992 with SRW 2. That sport launched Masaki within the Cybuster and Shuu within the Granzon, and the instruction handbook had the embryo of the setting — Masaki’s Cybuster was created within the underground kingdom Langran from a mixture of magic and expertise, and Shuu’s Granzon was created utilizing expertise from the alien race of “Visitor.” This setting continued to be developed by means of the succeeding video games, with EX going down in Langran, Visitor themselves showing in 4/F, and at last a standalone sport in 1996.
Apparently this sport was meant to be the sequel to the 1996 Masou Kishin sport. However the relationship between Winkysoft (who had developed many of the SRW video games) and Banpresto broke aside for some cause, and so this sport was made as a substitute. It fully adjustments the setting and characters, preserving solely the names and designs of the 4 important mechs. Winkysoft launched their very own Masou Kishin-ish sport in 2000 referred to as Rayblade, whereas Banpresto used Masaki and crew in SRW Alpha and Alpha Gaiden. After that the franchise was silent till 2010, when Winkysoft once more teamed up with Banpresto to do a remake of the 1996 Masou Kishin sport. They then launched three extra Masou Kishin video games in three years, ending the unique storyline.
Panzer Warfare strikes the setting to a brand new alternate world. A minimum of within the a part of the sport I performed, there isn’t a longer any connection to Earth. The Masouki (lesser mechs) and Masou Kishin (the primary 4 sturdy mechs) are created out of expertise derived from the “Arm of God” that all of the sudden appeared on the earth. I didn’t end the sport so I don’t know what the final word reveal is for the place this Arm of God got here from.
Surprisingly whenever you activate the sport, you get the OP and an advert for the TV anime that Banpresto made as properly, however that has nothing to do with this sport (it’s one more alternate setting for the Masou Kishin).
Anyway, the evaluation. The graphics are serviceable; you’ll be able to see the in-battle animation above (which fortuitously you’ll be able to flip off).
The sequences have respectable wanting footage, and there are a good variety of surroundings footage as properly for instance the scenes.
The maps are general OK. Typically it’s tough to inform precisely which hex the enemies are on however it’s to not too unhealthy.
The music was unmemorable; the sound is underwhelming. There may be solely a tiny quantity of voiced dialogue, much like what the SRW video games have been doing on the time.
The story relied on acquainted components however appeared good. The primary character, Keigo, is a Masouki pilot in coaching, and his coaching is interrupted by each monsters attacking, and the assassination of the king of the neighboring kingdom. This begins a warfare between the 2 kingdoms though it’s being managed from behind the scenes by somebody with a extra sinister motive.
The system depends on a hex map. The general system is broadly much like the SRW video games with just a few key variations. The primary one is that switching your dealing with takes motion factors, and which assaults you should utilize rely upon the dealing with. You can even fly, which provides you extra motion and likewise enables you to use your melee assaults in opposition to flying enemies. The draw back is you can solely transfer ahead in a few 30 diploma angle.
This method makes sure assaults way more helpful than others. Specifically, the assaults that can’t be used publish motion, and likewise can solely be used to front-facing enemies, implies that the enemies can simply transfer behind you repeatedly, taking away that assault.
Relatively than power, assaults rely upon Prana. The extra highly effective an assault is, the extra prana it makes use of. Having a low or excessive prana additionally impacts the harm of normal assaults. Spending a flip with out attacking will restore some prana relying in your stats.
Once you degree up, you’ll be able to put factors into numerous stats. I put quite a lot of factors into the prana stat that raises your SP to forged seishin (and offers you higher prana restoration). I additionally did Luck which helps the activation of your sword reduce/block expertise, after which dodge/evade. I appeared to be doing respectable harm so I didn’t put many factors into assault….this was a giant mistake and resulted in me getting caught about 2/3 of the best way by means of the sport.
One other side of the system is that the enemies can forged seishin as properly. This typically means you can’t depart any items alive on the EP or they’ll simply get healed (typically to full HP).
There are not any objects or gear.
The map design is OK. A lot of the maps are simply enemies that come in direction of you and it’s important to beat them, with none explicit complication. A few of the maps happen on an alternate world (the place the monsters are coming from) however that doesn’t make a giant distinction.
The steadiness just isn’t nice. Initially, your masouki are pretty weak, particularly the facet characters. However then about stage 10 or 11 you get the Masou Kishin that are a lot stronger. Regardless of what some websites stated, I didn’t discover that it was laughably straightforward at this level — it actually wasn’t onerous, however you do must take care of the therapeutic enemies.
However, the sport is a stage-by-stage circulate with no alternate or repeatable phases, nor can you utilize the sport over trick that’s frequent in SRW to get extra XP. So this implies the designers ought to be cautious to not make phases that may be unbeatable should you didn’t develop your forces in the fitting approach…and so they weren’t cautious.
This stage offers you a really restricted time to kill these 4 enemies earlier than the bomb goes off. You solely have Cybuster (plus an NPC, however she doesn’t actually assist). All 4 enemies have heal seishin, and there may be an extra healer on the prime of the map that may Friendship everybody to full well being. Each walkthrough and video I watched stated the identical factor — you simply use a sizzling blood Cyflash to kill all of them. Which most likely works should you have been a traditional particular person and put extra factors into the assault stats than I did. However on condition that I didn’t try this, I see no well beyond the stage — if I do the new blood cyflash, they’re all again at full HP the subsequent spherical, and the time is so restricted that I can’t take them out individually or exhaust their seishin factors. Even when I take out the friendship person on the prime, the person items nonetheless have their very own Belief therapeutic seishin.
Do I deserve some blame for being bizarre with my character constructing? I assume so however I believe it’s extra the designers’ fault for making this sort of stage.
The interface is ok for the period. There are not any extras so far as I do know.
Total this was a mid-tier sport even earlier than I acquired caught. The system has some fascinating concepts however they typically create extra frustration than enjoyable.
