I’m unsure why Yuke’s—the builders of Full Steel Schoolgirl—felt the necessity to set the sport in 2089. A robust mega-corporation forces its workers to work unreasonable hours so its executives can purchase much more energy in an already corrupt world? You assume that’s 65 years off, do you, Yuke’s?
Possibly, as a result of the staff at Meternal Jobz are cyborgs. They usually apparently care sufficient about their positions to guard the corporate from a teenage “machine lady” hell bent on revenge after the demise of her father. I’m unsure if the “working useless” are programmed for this loyalty or if they simply actually don’t need to lose their dress-down Fridays and workplace merchandising machines.
Full Steel Schoolgirl begins with you choosing your…full metallic schoolgirl. Ryoko Arahabaki is the one with the useless dad. Akemi Minamiazabu is her buddy, and her dad has solely gone lacking. The 2 resolve to infiltrate the Meternal Jobz company tower to trigger chaos and get some solutions, however you possibly can solely decide one lady; the opposite disappears initially.
Armed with a gun and a sword, you break into the primary flooring of the 100-story constructing and begin your rampage. The working useless put up little resistance early on, permitting you to shoot and slash your method up the constructing. Breaking from custom, the gun is definitely the extra helpful weapon in Full Steel Schoolgirl, as the sport usually means that you can filter out the opposition earlier than you attain them.
You even have a drone that hovers close to you and can be utilized to fireplace upon the enemy. It has a cooldown interval, although, so that you’ll need to reserve it for trickier moments.
Chests alongside the way in which assist you to change to extra highly effective or radically completely different weapons. They’re not that essential within the preliminary run, nonetheless. What issues right here is that you may’t survive. A laser turret takes you out, and also you die…sort of. Relatively than ending up in a dumpster beneath the constructing, your cyborg physique is someway whisked away to the lab of your creator: Professor Hakase. She was at one time an engineer at Meternal Jobz, and has turned herself right into a cyborg. She fixes you up, and takes the supplies you’ve acquired in alternate for power-ups, together with a protect that may block the assaults of laser turrets.
That, then, is your gameplay loop. Every time you enter the constructing, the flooring change. The accessible weapons change. You progress as far up as you possibly can go, you die, you stage up, and you start once more.
In fact, this being a roguelike, climbing flooring is as troublesome as climbing the company ladder. Once you die, a lot of the supplies you’ve acquired are taken away. You’ll be able to finally purchase power-ups that mitigate this (purchase extra supplies as you progress, lose fewer whenever you’re defeated), however the bulk of your sources come from on-line donations. Your progress is being streamed, and your followers will wire you cash should you preserve them entertained. That, you get to maintain.
That is particularly essential within the sport’s problem rooms, the place your viewers will enhance their donations should you carry out duties reminiscent of clearing out the enemies inside a set time restrict or with out recharging your battery (life). For those who’re up for it, you possibly can supply to extend their challenges for even higher rewards, however you threat getting nothing should you can’t pull them off.
Irrespective of the way you select to progress, it’s essential to take action with fashion. And imagine me, Full Steel Schoolgirl has loads of fashion. Most of it comes from the enemies—broad, robotic caricatures of your commonplace company workers. They costume, behave, and converse as you’d count on the working useless to decorate, behave, and converse, and that satire is usually very, very humorous. That is a kind of uncommon circumstances the place I’ll suggest the English voice audio so that you don’t miss the jokes (though the Japanese is fairly humorous based mostly on supply alone). The visible gags are nice, too, just like the cyborg couple making out within the “privateness” of the stairwell between ranges.
I didn’t see that it’s immediately addressed, however I’m positive inner-office romances are in opposition to the Meternal Jobz company coverage.
The machine ladies present loads of aptitude, too. Their trendy outfits (with loads of DLC choices) stand in distinction to the cyborgs they’re eliminating, and so they get their share of slick strikes to tug off as they make their method upwards.
Sadly, although, not even our machine ladies can escape the fatigue of company life. 100 flooring is loads, and the constructing isn’t arrange in a method that rewards your successes. Once you’re lastly highly effective and expert sufficient to take out a boss, you’ll get an elevator key to immediately entry the ground simply above the boss you defeated. That’s nice, besides it could solely be used as soon as. If (by which I imply “when”) you die forward of or in opposition to the subsequent boss, it’s important to begin from scratch.
You’re higher geared up to beat the boss every time you beat it, positive, however victory isn’t assured. They require not solely to be taught their assault patterns and uncover their weaknesses, but in addition to be geared up with the best weapon. That may usually come from the chests you discover in your method up, so whether or not you get what you want is a crapshoot. Fortunately, the flexibility to begin with higher weapons is a purchasable improve, and you may choose from an array of weapons on the bottom flooring.
Not the best concept for constructing safety.
Nonetheless, all of the upgrades on the planet can’t prevent from doing the identical factor time and again and over. The fight mechanics by no means actually progress, the surroundings doesn’t change a lot, and the frequent enemies grow to be more and more annoying. Platforming obstacles are additionally launched so as to add to your consternation. This all finally beats down the sport’s upbeat presentation and goofy allure. If that’s a part of the satire on company life, it perhaps hits a little bit too near house.
That stated, I’m nonetheless going to suggest Full Steel Schoolgirl to motion avid gamers. Like lots of the roguelikes I’ve come to take pleasure in, it’s enjoyable to choose up and play for a bit simply to see how far you may get. You by no means know whenever you’re going to amass the best weapon upgrades or get fortunate in opposition to a difficult boss to search out your self greater than you’ve been earlier than. That may make the accessible fight rewarding. It possible gained’t occur sufficient to maintain you going for extended intervals, however perhaps that’s for the very best. Don’t you will have your individual job to get to?
