Review: More People Should Play Megaton Musashi W: Wired

It’s been a very long time since we’ve seen Stage-5 in full power! It out of the blue citing its Stage-5 Imaginative and prescient occasions in 2023 and 2024 had been welcome information, even when lots of the video games ended up delayed. Megaton Musashi W: Wired is likely one of the ones that did roll out as anticipated and now that I’ve performed it, I’m frankly a bit shocked extra folks aren’t speaking about it. Whilst you can see the remaining Megaton Musashi X free-to-play parts, equivalent to currencies and login rewards, it’s utterly compelling.

Part of this is because of an incredibly sturdy story with incredible localization. Yamato Ichidaji is an orphan who, as the sport begins, is getting in a battle with one other delinquent named Ryugo Nijikata and his crew. When the police roll up, he’s jailed. Fellow classmate Teru Asami bails him out and promptly has Yamato and Ryugo become involved in a battle the place they should battle his robots collectively. It’s then they study the surprising reality in regards to the nature of their world.

Aliens invaded. 99% of the world’s inhabitants are gone, the planet’s wrecked, and most people of their city had their reminiscences wiped when moved to this final bastion of humanity. Akagicho is definitely in Shelter Ixia, and Teru is a part of a gaggle known as Oblivion Bay that sends Rogue mech pilots out to safeguard and try and survive in opposition to the invading Draktors. Yamato’s reminiscence being restored explains what actually occurred to his sister and oldsters, and a sudden Draktor assault means he heads out with Teru and Ryugo on their first battle.

Whereas there are some pacing points with the story in Megaton Musashi W: Wired, particularly as it will possibly really feel like Stage-5 is holding our palms just a little too tightly at some elements when sending us round throughout some elements, it’s genuinely fascinating! Whereas there are particular Draktor enemies, the character of sure characters their and their targets present that it’s a fancy scenario and a few of these of us aren’t “evil.” The forged of Rogue pilots find yourself being fairly attention-grabbing as nicely. I received invested in most of their tales, and those I didn’t join with as a lot normally ended up that method as a result of they didn’t get sufficient consideration throughout the course of the journey. Additionally, even NPCs are enjoyable, and I’d discuss to residents for taste textual content as a result of their names and asides had been genuinely intelligent.

The final development right here entails going by way of a part of the story, heading out on missions tied to the marketing campaign, so you may hold progressing. If you happen to begin to hit partitions as a consequence of issue, you are taking facet quests to earn extra elements to your Rogue mech. This implies getting completely different elements — which do change how your unit appears to be like — or particular weapons. Fights are motion beat’em ups in opposition to Draktor foes throughout a ruined Earth’s maps, with particular talents that may be triggered and expertise with cooldowns. Repeating fights is inspired, as you will get supplies to construct up the ability tree or extra elements to enhance your mech. I didn’t all the time really feel like this was obligatory, despite the fact that exploiting enemies’ weaknesses is nice and wanted, as a result of the overall issue of the marketing campaign quests isn’t too excessive. Nevertheless, those that achieve satisfaction from seeing a full set of apparatus in play or amassing (like me) may discover themselves pushed to maintain going. 

Throughout the course of the primary recreation, the one actual problem I confronted concerned multiplayer. There are aggressive and co-op quests in Megaton Musashi W: Wired. I used to be lucky sufficient to have a crew to check cooperative matches out. Nevertheless, the participant pool is small and among the duties will be actually tough when you don’t discover others. I solely received to play one aggressive battle, and it didn’t actually stand as much as the solo expertise due to the difficulty it took to play. 

Whereas there are among the former free-to-play parts rearing their heads in Megaton Musashi W: Wired, they exist in a method that doesn’t really feel prefer it invades the general expertise. If you happen to play each day, you get login rewards. There’s a battle move, however because it concerned issues you may earn at no cost by enjoying or cosmetics, it didn’t really feel prefer it took away from it. I nearly marvel if among the story parts that felt a bit like I used to be railroaded into issues and the pacing at factors had been additionally penalties of these forms of limitations too. 

What I did respect is that even with its historical past, Megaton Musashi W: Wired appears to be like nice. The animated segments are incredible. The battles involving Rogues within the area are clear and dealt with nicely. The 2D segments that discover the city typically look good as nicely. The one quibble I’ve is that among the 2D character animations actually make it appear evident that they’ve mounted “joints,” which detract a bit from the expertise. 

Megaton Musashi W: Wired is way more pleasing than I anticipated, and I’m genuinely stunned extra folks aren’t enthusiastic about it. The story is attention-grabbing and actually goes some locations. The execution is a bit sound, although it performs it simple at occasions with the issue. The remaining remnants from its free-to-play roots aren’t too pervasive or invasive. Plus the gameplay loop of going by way of the story, operating and rerunning missions for elements, and taking up fights so you may study and see extra is fulfilling. It makes me eager for the way forward for Stage-5 video games.

Megaton Musashi W: Wired is accessible for the Nintendo Change, PlayStation 4, and PC through Steam. The anime is on Crunchyroll.