Final November we reported on the announcement of Metal Century Groove – a brand new RPG the place the battles all revolve round rhythm sport dances between big robots. For sure, we have been eagerly awaiting an opportunity to see extra.
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Earlier this week, we lastly acquired the possibility to offer 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 sport and an RPG battle system. Seems, it will depend on which mech you carry to a struggle. Throughout our preview, we had the possibility to take a look at two separate mechs, every with their very own gimmicks that may reasonably 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 midst of the display, and regular strikes require power to execute. Each time a word seems on the display, that is when you’ll be able to enter an motion – and at a fundamental stage, for this mech the secret is managing your power reserves by rotating strikes that replenish your power, and people who expend it to realize Acclaim.
Acclaim is the one fixed in dance battles. Metal Century Groove is an RPG, however you are by no means really attacking your opponent together with your big mechs – you are strutting your stuff to the beat, attempting to outpace your dance companion. Consequently, neither dancer has an HP bar; they’ve an “Acclaim” bar that fills with profitable dance strikes. The purpose of each battle is to get the bar in your facet of the display crammed earlier than your opponent, and never essentially to decimate your opponent (although, some mechs do have assaults that can harm an opponents Acclaim bar).
There are just a few wrinkles to all of it, too. Whereas the 2 predominant actions are at all times out there, the primary mech in query additionally has just a few further mechanics to pay attention to. One is an motion with a hefty cooldown that additionally grants a bunch of Acclaim without delay; whilst you can wait out the cooldown, between segments of the track the underside nook of the display will refill a listing of your opponents actions on every word for the upcoming dance. In the event you use one other, shorter cooldown on a word 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 completely in a different way. As a substitute of a set of devoted actions, each section of a track you achieve a distinct set of actions you can change between. This dancer would not make the most of power, however reasonably requires extra lively involvement from the participant to suppose on the fly and regulate to what actions you’ve got been given; its cooldowns permit you to surrender considered one of your actions to buff the opposite, so in case you suppose quick you’ll be able to tremendously enhance your actions for a given part.
As you stage 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 may unlock mod slots to equip particular perks to your dancer. Some passive talents embody further mechanics added to the track itself. Possibly you may get a string of notes, that in case you enter all of them you may achieve a buff for numerous 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 acquired to learn have 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 seems fairly good – and absent of the official Valve seal, we are able to 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 yr – and it must be on yours, too.
