Final November we reported on the announcement of Metal Century Groove – a brand new RPG the place the battles all revolve round rhythm recreation dances between big robots. Evidently, we have been eagerly awaiting an opportunity to see extra.
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Earlier this week, we lastly received the possibility to present it a attempt. First issues first – the battle system, as a result of I am positive I wasn’t the one one questioning how issues would work merging a rhythm recreation and an RPG battle system. Seems, it is determined by which mech you deliver to a battle. Throughout our preview, we had the possibility to take a look at two separate mechs, every with their very own gimmicks that may moderately drastically inform how the sport’s battles are dealt with.
The primary mech we used had a closely cooldowns-focused construction. You will have an power beneath the dancing mechs in the course of the display screen, and regular strikes require power to execute. Each time a be aware seems on the display screen, that is when you’ll be able to enter an motion – and at a fundamental degree, for this mech the secret is managing your power reserves by rotating strikes that replenish your power, and those who expend it to achieve Acclaim.
Acclaim is the one fixed in dance battles. Metal Century Groove is an RPG, however you are by no means truly attacking your opponent together with your big mechs – you are strutting your stuff to the beat, making an attempt to outpace your dance accomplice. In consequence, neither dancer has an HP bar; they’ve an “Acclaim” bar that fills with profitable dance strikes. The aim of each battle is to get the bar in your facet of the display screen stuffed earlier than your opponent, and never essentially to decimate your opponent (although, some mechs do have assaults that may injury an opponents Acclaim bar).
There are just a few wrinkles to all of it, too. Whereas the 2 predominant actions are at all times obtainable, the primary mech in query additionally has just a few further mechanics to concentrate on. One is an motion with a hefty cooldown that additionally grants a bunch of Acclaim directly; when you can wait out the cooldown, between segments of the music the underside nook of the display screen will replenish an inventory of your opponents actions on every be aware for the upcoming dance. Should you use one other, shorter cooldown on a be aware when your opponent is resting, you’ll be able to immediately recharge the opposite cooldown, permitting you to effectively construct up Acclaim.
The second dancer we had the possibility to make use of performs fully in another way. As an alternative of a set of devoted actions, each phase of a music you achieve a special set of actions which you can swap between. This dancer would not make the most of power, however moderately requires extra lively involvement from the participant to assume on the fly and regulate to what actions you have been given; its cooldowns will let you quit one in every of your actions to buff the opposite, so if you happen to assume quick you’ll be able to significantly increase your actions for a given part.
As you degree up a dancer (XP is changed with the followers you achieve from posting your dances on an in-game social media), you achieve new strikes, new passive talents and by finishing milestone battles you will unlock mod slots to equip particular perks to your dancer. Some passive talents embrace further mechanics added to the music itself. Perhaps you will get a string of notes, that if you happen to enter all of them you will achieve a buff for various notes, amongst others.
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Outdoors of battles, that is all wrapped round a Pokemon-inspired RPG romp. We did not get an opportunity to see an excessive amount of about how issues will play out with the sport’s story, however what bits of dialog we received to learn had been promising. All the completely different choices for social media posts after battles are charming, even together with our characters devoted hater within the rival character. Visually, the sport appears to be like fairly good – and absent of the official Valve seal, we will say it runs completely on Steam Deck, as that was the setup the preview was primarily based round. As issues stand, Metal Century Groove is completely on our radar for when it launches later this 12 months – and it needs to be on yours, too.