4.5/5 ★ – Tye_Boy's review of Fuga: Melodies of Steel.

A strategy RPG set under the harrowing events of the second World War, Fuga: Melodies of Steel is a game that blew me away and deeply engaged me, with its harrowing, mystery-filled narrative and cast of loveable characters. Those, mixed with wonderful visuals, an effective soundtrack, and straightforward yet intuitive gameplay made this 20+ hour game never feel like a slog to go through. The game, which is set during events that form the second World War, in a world of anthropomorphic dogs and cats, follows a group of individuals, who in the midst of fleeing their invaded village at the hands of the Berman Empire, discover an ancient tank with immense power: The Taranis. Guided by a mysterious voice coming from a radio, they embark on the Taranis, setting out to save their loved ones, who have been taken by the empire. Did I mention these are children who are controlling the Taranis? The oldest of the group is only twelve years old, and watching them come to grips and struggle in this situation, having to see them afflicted with ailments such as fear, injury, and depression, as they find themselves fighting for those they love, and everyone in the land of Gasco. Seeing this play out was kind of harrowing, to say the least. Especially when fights take place that automatically set everyone with depression, in correspondance to the given situation. On top of that, each child has an incredibly likeable charm to them, alongside their very character. I found myself enjoying them, and their interactions with one another. Through increasing affinity and link events among one another, you get to watch them bond and learn more about each other; their pasts and aspirations, all while increasing stats in the pairings of said affinities, which help out in battle. As if things couldn’t get more distressing, in terms of the game and for this group of kids; if circumstances become dire in a given battle, there is a last resort contained within The Taranis: The Soul Cannon. It obliterates everything in its path, but at the cost of... well... a soul. There is a way to go through the entire game without sacrificing any child; you don’t need to use the Soul Cannon to beat the game. I tried really hard not to - even taking a friend’s advice to but the digital deluxe edition to obtain an item that can power the soul - but it never showed up in my playthrough. I still got a mostly good ending, but wow... did I feel really bitter about the two kids I could not save. The game does offer a New Game Plus, but I don’t have it in me to play another 20+ hours of it to get the true ending. Each chapter, spanning a dozen of them, with each one taking a couple of hours to complete, follow a similar structure. In-between bits of sprinkled story bits, The Taranis moves along a set path in a 2D plane, containing battles with enemy tanks and machines, health and SP packs, and gear, which can be used to upgrade the tank. Frequently, you find yourself at temporary forks in the road, which each house varying challenges, with different kinds of enemies and better or average loot waiting; all between safe, normal, and dangerous routes. This basically acts as the difficulty here. At a few points in each chapter are intermissions. During them, you have the opportunity to explore inside the Taranis in a 2.5D plane, able to switch to any child. You are also able to upgrade weapons, health, and SP, as well as farm, make food to add buffs to everyone, sleep to increase xp and wipe away any injury or revive any knocked out children, increase affinity among them, and additional tasks. You can only do so much in each intermission, and it even overwhelmed me at one point with how much I could do. I mean this in a good way. The strategy RPG gameplay is nothing revolutionary. You set the children, who have one of three varying weapon types, in specific spots, while pairing them with someone else in a secondary position, for increasing affinity and utilizing those boosted effects. Enemies will have weaknesses corresponding to one of the three types of weapons, if not multiple. Alongside this, some have armour, which require certain attacks to destroy. It may be fairly straightforward, but these fights are a blast to play through. I even found my heart pounding during a couple of especially tricky boss fights. That’s one sign of a highly-engaging game to me. It boasts both a stunning look and stellar art direction, as you progress through the varied environments of the Free Lands of Gasco. While not super varied with its music, it nevertheless provides a lot of power and emotion between boss fights, difficult story moments, and otherwise. The digital deluxe edition gave me digital versions of an art book and soundtrack, and after going through them once I beat the game, it only further amplified how incredible those aspects are. Voice acting is solid, with options for Japanese and French languages, if I recall correctly. Of course, there are english subtitles, which I used. Apparently, as that same friend told me, who recommended the game to me in the first place, the game essentially takes place in a version of France, making the latter voice option more fitting. I did not know this, and by the time I found out about this, I was far into the game, and accustomed to the Japanese voice acting. One slight issue I have with the game is the translation. I fully understand that this game originated from Japan, but I noticed a small amount of typos and grammar mistakes in the text. More of a nitpick than anything else, but it still felt fair to point that out. Overall, I found Fuga: Melodies of Steel to be utterly fantastic. I won’t be forgetting it for a long time to come.