English:............6/10
User Interface:.....3/10
User Experience:....7/10
Art:................7/10
Dialogue:...........4/10
Story:..............8/10
Opinion:............5/10................
Avg:..............5.71/10 [2.85/5]
Currently, I'm unsure if I'm going to post this review right away, (v0.1.3)(I didn't, I saved it for later, now 0.4.18 so I apologize for how disjointed this may come across), or wait a few releases. It really depends on how good/bad this is. From what I've read in the reviews, it seems like a bunch of guys that hate women and really want to be 80s action hero types. What little I've read is MC is insufferable. I'm not looking forward to it. A LARGE part of me was hoping it'd be like Pacific Rim but sexy. What we got was sub-par wannabe 80's writing and sexism. Yes, I love old cheesy action. But I'd rather it be a hero with minorly quippy one-liners and romancing the girl. Instead of "I'm Chad Gun, murder gives me a boner to fuck sluts." I haven't started the game yet, so I hope it's even slightly better than I fear. I will say, though, even though I'm sure the English isn't great, they include their native language! Imagine that! They learned how to translate in engine. So, applause for the effort, Dev. Even if it's still default Renpy. Although if this just ends up another attack on "woke culture" I'm done. Nothing is more annoying than both sides of the pointless argument. So far, it's just kinda annoying. MC, no matter what, is a stereotypical idiot. Even if you choose reasonable options, he has 2 lines of being a decent human being, then everything else he says is ignorant garbage. The LIs are pretty tropey too. Like I said though, I hope it levels out as this is the first kinda original story I've seen in a long while. Demolition Man(Except MC acts more like Snipes' character) mixed with Gundam, or I guess Muv Luv in regards to the women.
You play as MC Lt. Knight(I got so close with my parody name lol) He had a mysterious disease that was killing him (later said to be lung cancer in a passing line during an argument) and was frozen in sleep to heal him. Because somehow cancer would be cured that way. Right. Then you see the passage of time, aliens visit 100 years later, then about another 100 the Noxa arrive to destroy the world. One day, his pod crashes, they do the terminator scene, MC opens his mouth, and you'll either laugh or want him to shut up. I'm in the second party. A giant robot fought a giant monster, he 'saves' the pilot and ends up piloting it himself. The twist is he's 100% compatible with the robot. Not wasting any time making him the strongest, not even building up to it. And I don't know if it's a joke or an attempt to slight the 'wokeism' but upon learning that women are in a seat of power MC actively and aggressively defies any order he's given, solely because they're women. It's not funny, and frankly if you think this way, please get help. In the doctor's evaluation he heven says "It feels like centuries since I've been touched" He went to sleep, and woke up like it was the next day. It's lines like these that make it insufferable to play these things. He gets the sex, depending on choices. Elara gets mad the whole time because her trope is the frigid commander woman that thinks sex is icky and MC is an asshat. That last part is 150% true, to be fair. I think he's one of the worst written MC's I've seen in a while. And I say that because he's actually written to be something. Most other MCs are empty nothings so there's more effort here than there, unfortunately. What's worse is, like I said, no matter what choices you make, MC still acts like you choose the "Women are sub human" options. You know? The choices no one with a functioning brain would choose? So no matter what, you feel like you, the player, have no agency in this, even though you're controlling the MC.
Before the encounter with the Doc, MC talks to Lydia, the pilot he saved. I, to current end of content, do not understand her character. She's the next best pilot they have, but acts like a deer in headlights at all times. Any time she's called on or talked to her head shoots up and looks like she's about to cry for no discernable reason. MC, if you wake her up, talks to her for no good reason, too. She's unconscious and he wakes her up to... Tell her he saved her? To say he doesn't know what's going on? This interaction is literally useless and makes no sense. You learn no new information, MC doesn't even try to hear if she feels better, and he solidifies how stupid he is. Why do this? I'd go so far to say she still doesn't even have a character through current content. That leaving her in a coma would have been better for the story. It gives MC a mech, gives time to actually build up her character, gives MC something to worry about/feel regret not being able to save her before the coma, and avoids all the awkward interactions later on. The ONLY thing that happens between them is she gives him cigars and he bounces around like a six year old on christmas, because he's a slobbering moron. Eventually they vote for MC to stay, the vote comes down to Elara, who votes for him to stay because, beyond her "frigid bitch" trope the writer REALLY wants her character to be someone who truly wants to save the Earth and will deal with this troglodyte in order to do so. If anything beyond that reaching were done after this point, I'd like her more. But this vote is the only time that is even remotely hinted at. I also like her because she actively uses the word 'troglodyte' to describe this idiot. Then you get half a sex scene with Mei. The actual brain dead asian sex doll. In any other game she'd be the easy sex scenes, but she's in a coma for most of the rest of the game. Ending with MC living with Irina, and eventually screwing her wife. Who mistakes a male caricature with all the muscle sliders to max, for her female wife. So she's blind or stupid, cool.
Drana presents the satirized 'girlboss' character. And, if she were in a hollywood movie today, she'd be the protagonist that can do no wrong. She's literally the female version of MC, and them liking each other is closer to narcissism than romance. She warms up to him because he punches her in the face. I get she's supposed to be a klingon in a vulcan's body. But she doesn't evolve or emote beyond what I've already said. It's a shame, she's visually interesting, so her personality can't also be, otherwise none of the other characters would matter. Follow this up with the cafeteria visit. MC has literal vomit in a bowl and is told food is now replicated. You're not told if it tastes good or bad, you have to make a choice on whether it is or not. I understand that Irina is the "hello player, this is how our world works" tutorial robot, but giving him puke soup is weird. This is also a recap of everything you already know? I get that MC is one chromosome away from being a slack jawed neanderthal, but I'm not. I don't need to be told what's going on again. A time skip here would be wonderful. But no, MC was an american war hero, written by an Italian? Just make him Italian? Writing a story about an American that will only ever be presented to an American in near-broken English is almost a joke. All to hard cut to a time skip of MC in military school. Saying "It's like an academy" the only section of the entire story to have ANYTHING to do with the name of the game. Good try, bad execution. This is also a section to I think score brownie points with either Mei or everyone else. All to end on the heart to heart with Lydia about her fear of letting people down? Does she not get that if she's not good enough when it matters, she'll be dead? She won't have to care about all that. She's just afraid of her shadow and that's it, end of character points.
Then MC... Can no longer find the kitchem/cafeteria and instead, activates the base alarm? How disabled is this moron? To which he's rightfully reprimanded. And Irina, the person in charge of him, let him do something stupid, so she is too. Not only is she reprimanded, but she's told the same thing MC does earlier that she's smart but stupid. So MC can say that, but no one else? The next day, in training, they are shocked how well he fights in the mech, as if this hasn't been happening for weeks. You see how time skips aren't good for this? They've theoretically been doing this for three weeks now, why are they surprised? I also don't think having Lydia being 95% compatible compared to MC's 99% is quantifiable in any meaningful capacity. I think a larger gap would be more believable in this instance. Elara and Irina also narrate, seemingly very loudly, how much better than Lydia MC is in a wide, square metal room. Voices and echoes no longer carry in the future, good to know. There's also the fact we have no way to know how much change there is between 95 and 95.5% as if it makes a difference. Then you're given YET ANOTHER unceremonious hard cut to something else that's happening somewhere else. MC finds Irina, to get a vaccination never mentioned before this point, and MC... Recaps that Irina is naive and oblivious. We REALLY haven't picked up on her ONE character trait, please, can we have one or eight more scenes to do this? We're stupid, writer, please tell us more. It also is a scene that has the obligatory "I'm really into cars from your time because the MC needs relavence of some sort to the smartest person in the world. Even though, in the future, they'd more than likely have access to a Hayne's car manual." If the tropes were handled better, and MC wasn't MC, I'd be really into this. Even moreso if it was what I originally hoped the story would be, but that's something else entirely.
One minor non consensual sex scene later, also only the second sex scene in the game, you finally talk to Mei again. Except, ONCE AGAIN, this is just a recap on her character. Then MC spouts nonsense that she's hiding behind a mask and she says he's right? YOU, THE PLAYER, have seen Mei TWICE. She was horny and arrogant the first time, and just arrogant the second. At what point did MC, the slobbering moron, observe and dissect her character? The multiple time skips to avoid character development? Must be, because, I say again, we have not seen any of that. Mei is also looking at the ceiling this whole conversation because posing in DAZ must be hard. Look at MC or the camera not the lighting. They also try to spin this as MC being a man who doesn't mind being dominated. But the entire story is MC posturing as some cringey "alpha male" and all of the correct options being him bending over backward for women that can't stand him. I honestly can't understand what this story is trying to be. This is also a scene trying to be MC emotionally connecting to Mei before she sacrifices herself in a fight. But there was no connection. She was cocky and abrasive to the end, and it's what led to her getting hurt. Hurt, not dead, this is a porn game not a story, remember? You also continually make choices for what MC thinks to himself, this is odd because it still doesn't affect how he talks to people. He always stays true to the stereotypical action movie jackass.
They try to play that everyone is sad and forlorn that Mei is injured. You get the heart to heart with Drana. It's almost good, but feels forced and undercooked. You finally get an option to put a hand on her leg to make some sort of physical intimacy happen between them. But it's so unnaturally done both their eye pop out of their skull and they crane their necks to look at MC's hand on her leg. The illusion that the posing is anything but subpar died right there. And MC has the option to kiss her there? The least appropriate time to do that with someone that actively hates your entire race. Wow. Cant wait for that to be spun into her liking it. Enter: Another shit redhead to check off the redhead fetish everyone is spouting lately. I know that is 100% the case because MC has to comment on it. There are 6 underdeveloped characters in this story already, lets add another because simps are bitching about hair color. Add to the fact that the other women have eased off the femdom attitude, so she will come in as full bitch just to be a bitch. All just to put MC in a test tube? I guess. The world is literally under attack from giant aliens that want to destroy the planet. Suddenly, Elara's high school nemesis that got promoted above her, wants to deconstruct her team out of nowhere because....? What? The drama of Mei's condition wasn't enough? We need a new character to add to the stakes? No one, at all, seems to care that the earth has a deadline. MC is tentatively acknowledging it, sure, but no one is treating it with anything more than drills or minor incoveniences. So they have this council of commanders step in to evaluate Elara and Sari's behavior. Leading to Sari being demoted to a cook. Okay?
Honestly, there's no focus in this. This review would be infinitely long if I keep going because every thought, every action, every line has something actually stupid about it. Now, suddenly, MC was intentionally unfrozen to be a part of the war. How would anyone know how compatible he is with the machines? Don't you have to do it to know? He Gary-Stu's his way through every situation. There's no reason for any of these women to like him in the least. He's literally becoming Rei Palpatine. Elara's character is completely destroyed. And Sex picks up, probably because the redhead simps complained about it. If the story was truly god-awful and it was just a sex fest, I wouldn't even have bothered. But with the slow start, world building, and attempt at a story, I don't get where this is going. MC fluctuates between insufferable and autistic. The LIs all have one personality trait, so much so that when they actually tried to add another one, it feels like the characters get worse. I'm a sucker for stories with decent world building, and this has that. But NONE of these characters make me want to stick around. This also does the weird thing of drawing focus to a character eating. We don't need to hear "Munch" or "Nom" to know a character's eating. It's implied by them sitting in a lunchroom with food. I know part of that is me hating listening to people eat, but wasting a line on that is dumb to me. Don't get me started on the car engine exploding.
Frankly, the english isn't all there. So many times you get weird lines and it's ovious this isn't written by a native speaker. The UI/UX is default renpy with a font, a useless relationship screen, and the dialogue pushed all the way to the left. Not a lot of effort. The Art is fine. The stills are mostly okay, if not too exaggerated. You'll be talking to someone and randomly the camera angle will change to their feet for no reason, or it will have some close-up dutch angle out of nowhere. Not to mention the amont of times you see people's bodies clip through their clothes. And the Animations are all grainy as hell as well as slow motion because people still don't know how to pace animation speed. You can actively tell which pixels are going to move, it's very weird. The Dialogue is crap. After the prologue and introducing the characters initially, zero new information happens, post the first doctor visit. They all lean into their tropes and none of them are compelling. The only character that seems to change is MC, and only because no one with an IQ above their age would ever like him. He's slowly gliding to be an actual character, but he just feels inconsistent. It's almost as if so much effort is being made to change MC, that none of the characters people come here for, the comely mecha pilots, are getting the attention they deserve. Every single time a woman compliments a man, you get the option to chime in with "Like me?" No, you're not a beautiful man, you're a 3D model with muscle sliders to max, that clip into yourself all the time, that's an insufferable jackass and I wish you weren't in this story. It's a shame, really because the story is something different. It's not the most amazing thing ever. But it's a decent idea that isn't the same thing you've read over and over again. So, once again, I have to say I REALLY WANT to like this more than I do. Giant monsters and robots, time travel, aliens, a lot of fun stuff. It's weighed down by shit dialogue and dumb characters. The animations aren't good. And the posing is stiff at best. If you hate women or for some reason find this hilarious, this is all for you. But beyond that, this is a very mixed bag, and in my opinion, needs a lot of work, if not a complete rework of the characters for me to recommend it.
