Bookrage's review of "Mecha Ace: Heroes of the Vetrian War"
Hello all,
It has been a little bit since I've had a review to you but I've got a nice one here.
Biasses: I like sci-fi but am not big into many animes which this game heavily evokes a "Gundam Wing" vibe. That said, of the Gundam series I've seen, "Gundam Wing" was the only one I sort of liked.
Genre: This game promises exciting Mecha battles and also politics as you navigate the war and your relationships with friends and foes alike. This is exactly what it delivers, and it delivers it well.
Writing: this is one of the best-written Choice of Games Titles I have yet played and it reminds me of "Choice of Kung Fu" (another title I really loved) in an important way. Though the mecha battles were exciting, and they were good even if that is all the game offered, they were the least interesting part of the story for me, just as the Wuxia action in "Choice of Kung Fu" while good, was the least interesting part of that story. The mecha battles were great, but the interpersonal reactions and politics among your side, and sometimes the other side, are where this title really hooked me.
I've been complaining in some of my recent reviews that a lot of the characters have felt wooden and unremarkable. There are few stories, gamebook or otherwise, where the NPC's have felt so alive and well-designed. Asadi is a hawkish scrapper, Weaver is a war-weary soul who just wants the bloodshed to end, and Watinabi is the wide-eyed new recruit who is very naive, and then you've got the tough-as-nails captain with their grim determination and "The Blue Mask" who very much invokes Sechs from "Gundam Wing."
All the characters were thoroughly alive.
As for the battles, the game sort of holds your hand, and sort of doesn't. A lot of times, It weighs the options for you when you are considering an action, explaining the possible benefits and detriments of courses of action or explaining what sort of skills you might need. I don't resent this, because even with this hand-holding, I made a number of collossal blunders on my first playthrough, as although the game helps you decide individual actions, you often need to keep the big picture in mind on your own as the battles unfold, something I failed to do in many cases.
The suspense and pathos this game evokes were good enough I had anxiety stomach aches at some points in the story because the tension was brought forward so well.
Mechanics: this is the only place in the gamebook that could use some improvements. Piloting and perception are easy to understand, but sometimes, even with the game's hand-holding in certain aspects of combat, being outright explained, I found it hard to understand when my Will and my leadership (both dump stats for me) were being used. Exactly what the stats for a meha are and why the mentioned weapons matter is also unclear. The rocker stats that are obviously personality-based largely determine your connection to other characters in the game, and they were pretty cut and dried, though in the game, these were not explained when actions came up, mostly during interlude chapters, where these might matter.
Romance: I played with an all-female cast and also used the achievements to learn who my love interests might be. I'll tell you that what I experienced with the one I liked didn't reacha conclusion as she died mid-way through the story (more on that in the "Railroading") section.) All the ladies had their charms and each one felt different and with what I did experience with my love interest attempt was really sweet and did not overdo or underplay the feelings the characters would've had for one another. I was quite bummed when she died. A lot of the romancing goes on in the interlude sections of the story.
Railroading: Heck No! Three words sum up the railroading situation in this story: "Actions have consequences." If you screw up in this game, you or your allies will suffer. If you say something you shouldn't, bad things can happen in a future battle. If you don't protect your friends, they can die and they don't get saved by the plot device fairies, and if you are clever, you will be rewarded for your talent and skill. To give you an idea of how consequential my actions were in the first playthrough: of all the named NPCs on either side of the war, only one survived, and she didn't like me very much because I was a dove rather than a hawk. I made several poor decisions, and even some costly big decisions that were strategically right that got a lot of people killed for the cost of victory. Your decisions really matter in this game and when you screw up, the narritive isn't going to save your allies, or you, though I did make it to the end of the main story.
achievements: Not a huge number, but definitely a good set as most of them, from what I can tell having played through the game once, are real achievements that take careful play to get. On top of that, there are nearly a dozen hidden achievements. I only got like 4 of the 37 total achievements, but I'm excited to go back and try to get more.
closing remarks: "Choice of Kung Fu" set the bar pretty high for what a Choice of Games title could be. "Mecha Ace" Is right up there and through this game, I have come to really appreciate Gundame Wing and some of the other Gundam series a lot more. This game is well-written, has living characters, is so good that the mecha battles are the least interesting part of it, and it is a game where what you do really matters, moreso than any other Choice of Games titles I've played.
Though just as an aside, Giant mecha robot war stories came out in America first in the 40s and 50s.
I'll be playing one of my old titles again at least once before I go onto another title to review for you all so it will be a bit.