Critique Def UG A: Melodies Oh FS TEE

When I was a young teenager, about 14 years old, I received a ps1 a very happy Christmas morning. At the time, the PS1 consoles were delivered with an integrated demonstration disk of several games. The one I had came with classics like Spyro, Medievil and Metal Gear Solid, but there was also a "Japanese only" version not translated called Tail Concerto. The demo was a JRPG of action, with a visual style very similar to Mega Man Legends. The protagonist was a police dog (which I thought I was a fox) who piloted a robot that pulled bubbles and wreaked havoc with his arms. The level was open, and like all the text was in Japanese, I had fun trying to find what to do. It reminded me of playing cryptic adventure games of my early childhood.

Flash Forward 15 years, and I found myself in a huge comic-con, and one of the stands had a physical copy of Tail Concerto for PS1. A quick search on iPhone revealed that the game had actually a very limited North American version. I had to have it, and despite the fact that it was $ 100, I bought it without hesitation! Tail Concerto is now considered a hidden jewel for PS1. No other console has been published, and complete copies now cost more than $ 600. There was in fact a spiritual sequence in Tail Concerto called Solatorobo: Red The Hunter for the Nintendo DS. Although he had a completely autonomous story, he took place in the same Steampunk world, populated by anthropomorphic dogs and cats, which Tail Concerto. Solatorobo was, once again, a JRPG of action, but this time with different mechanisms involving picking up and throwing opponents. It is also considered a hidden jewel for the DS, has not been worn on any other system and sells easily for over $ 400 online. There was a third game that took place in the same world as Tail Concerto and Solatorobo called Little Tail Story. But it was an exclusive mobile game in Japan, and no one worries.

This brings us to Fuga: Melodies of Steel, who is the brand new fourth entrance to this series of JRPG that takes place in the same world steampunk dog and cat. I do not know what happened first, the name of the series or the fourth game. But with the exit of Fuga: Melodies of Steel, the game quadrilogy is now called Little Tail Bronx (for an unknown reason). Unlike its predecessors, Fuga: Melodies of Steel is published in digital form for all platforms under the sun, and is now readily available!

The story of Fuga: Melodies of Steel is, again, an autonomous spiritual sequence. No prior knowledge of Tail Concerto or Solatorobo is necessary. Each of the three games takes place on a different floating continent. Fuga: Melodies of Steel takes place in Gasco, which is invaded by the army of Berman. 12 children escape from the small village Mona and penetrate in an old massive tank called Taranis. Using its power, children are making a way through Gasco, looking for their families. Although the plot is an excellent source of motivation to play through Fuga: Melodies of Steel, the metaphor of the German occupation of France is quite strong, which, combined with a little too much anime tropes, creates Moments of breathtaking melodrama.

This time, the gameplay is not based on the action, but rather in turn. Although children form the player's group, they are always within the boundaries of the Taranis massif. Different children have different skills and affinities that need to be exploited. The fight takes a prevention very inspired by Grandia enemy attacks. Each child and enemy has one of the following three colors: the red has a high attack / low accuracy, blue has a low attack / high accuracy and yellow has an average attack / medium precision. An assorted color will delay an enemy's attack, so a child with a yellow attack will repel the round of a yellow enemy. A child with a high precision skill attack will be much more likely to hit a flying opponent. Children fight 6 at a time, pairs in attack and support positions. They must constantly involve support for attack, and each battle requires some degree of strategy. Even the most insignificant battle could crush the lazy, while being swept away by prepared.

What is the unique in the progression of Fuga is that it is extremely linear. There are set points along the map of each level for healing, the renewal of skill points and the fight. Each level ends with a Boss battle (usually quite difficult). Without careful planning, the player will have to replay levels, with a renewed strategy, based on an earlier failure. Although it turns out a lot, it creates a JRPG experience totally devoid of grinding.

Between the fighting, the interior of Taranis acts as the central city of the game. There are tons to do, with a limited number of points of action allocated to total time. Everything from the cat to fishing, takes different amounts of AP, but also gives different amounts of experience and bonus. The characters interact with each other and create links during scenes of events, which allows them to associate more effectively in combat.

The general presentation of Fuga: Melodies of Steel is beautiful. The visuals are anchored in the fur world established by Tail Concerto and Solatorobo, but are stylized as the 2D art taking life, in the vein of something published by Vanillaware. The music is just as exceptional and reminded me of the soundtracks I loved in the JRPG PS1 era of SquareSoft. Although Fuga: Melodies of Steel expressed the dialogue, the only options are Japanese and French. These options are logical, strangely enough, because French is the dominant language of the world of play and is probably the desired choice.

Fuga: Melodies of Steel is a hard game to see again. This is probably not what everyone is looking for. Not only is it different from the gameplay point of view of other Little Tail Bronx games, but its linearity will also turn out many RPG fans. What is it, however, is very good. CyberConnect2 has certainly reached its vision with this strange adventure. Although Fuga's audience can be extremely specialized, those who play it, without expectations, will be delighted.

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