A relaxing non-linear adventure!
The story takes place during the Industrial revolution, a period where cars become more abundant and common in cities, and the development of the Trot mobile. Trot mobiles serve as a way of transportation, civil engineering, agriculture, and sport. As trot mobiles become more popular, people see trot mobiles as an advancement to a better life.
The story starts with our heroine, Vanilla, unconscious on the beach. As he awakens, seagulls scatter through the sky, and a young girl name Connie rushes over to make sure your alright. Your can be nice about it and tell her your alright, or you can tell her how annoying she is. After a brief chatter and learning that Vanilla has no memory of his past, Connie will tell you that she’s getting late for the bus and quickly gathers herb for her sick mother. As you approach the exit, you notice a blue machine firing a missile in your direction, blocking off the exit. Not only is Connie late, now your both trapped alone of the beach. You soon find a rusty trot mobile lying in the ocean. After a brief tutorial on operating the Trot mobile, you’ll blast through the blocked exit and begin your journey.
From the first few minutes, you’ll immediately notice what Steambot Chronicles has to offer. You can finally direct the hero. You can be nice and compliment others, greet people with an introduction or a handshake, and be the mature hero type. Or if you would rather, be the biggest jerk in town, telling others how much they annoy you, be conceited about your looks, and ignore formal greetings . Not only are options abundant, people will react to you accordingly and you’ll make your name known throughout town. And that’s the immediate charm of Steambot Chronicles, you direct Vanilla’s personality and effect other’s judgment of you.
Through your adventure, you’ll be able to play songs with various instruments like the harmonica, violin, bass guitar, piano, etc. Each instrument plays in a DDR style format. You’ll press buttons accordingly as shown on screen. If you play well, your music ranking will go up. Playing music in city streets or in areas where people frequently pass by can earn you tips. Its a great feeling when people stop by to see your performance and start cheering for you. You won’t get any tip if your playing somewhere with no audience. Keep in mind that you can only play music at parking cones, which are abundant through towns and serve as a save point, a spot where music could be played, and a checkpoint for Trot mobiles. As you progress the story, you’ll be recruited by the Globetrotters and participate in concerts with the crew. After every concert performance, you get a new song added to your list. it’s a great way to milk money and impress the ladies.
The core of the game play revolves around the usage of the Trot mobile. Trot mobiles are built to perform various task. The basic actions include an attack from both left arms and right arms. A dash command allowing you to dodge enemy attacks, or avoid danger. A jump command because robots should be able to jump, and the lift/throw command to grab objects/enemies and launch them to clear your path.
You’ll frequently run out of fuel, so make sure to hit the garage for some maintenance. You can repair broken trot mobile parts and refuel your gas tank. You can also buy new frames and sell old ones. Each garage has something new to offer, make sure to check each one. While at the garage, you can customize your trot mobile to your liking. You can give your mobile a small parasol on top to look cute. You can also equip various weapons like the Buzz saw, Sword, Sniper rifle, etc. You can even repaint your trot mobile to any color you like, and design your own plate. Although you can mix and match 7 different parts(frames) of your trot mobile, you do have a weight limit. Heavier mobiles have more HP and less fuel, while lighter mobiles have the exact opposite. Exceeding the weight limit will leave you with neither. Each frame serves its own purpose. The body serves as the core for other frames to be attached. The legs will affect your movement, speed, and fuel efficiency. Depending on the terrain your in, you mobile can travel at normal speed or slow to a crawl, so adjust accordingly. The Arms are designed to attach weapons, which are primarily used for battle. The grills are for your headlights, the back allows you to transport cargo, people, food, water, etc, and the Windshield protects you from various environment factors such as rain, sand, etc.
Outside of customization, you’ll run into people who wish for your services. You’ll perform various task like turning your trot mobile into a bus, transport carpets and steel, excavate fossils for a museum, and fend off invaders. Unlike shenmue, You’ll get rewarded modestly for your work. If you feel that your trot mobile is tough enough for battle, you can enter a arena to fight 1-1 duels. You’ll meet a very feminine guy who’ll give you the license to battle in the arena. Battles are played out in stadiums populated with people. As you win battles, you’ll earn medals to buy things you won’t normally find in shops. Battle Arenas are also a great way to gain fame as a powerful trot mobile rider.
As you set foot into the city, you’ll notice cars zooming through the city streets, people meandering through the sidewalk, and all sorts of places to visit. As time goes by, the time changes from morning to evening, to night. Certain people will come out at only certain times of the day, they have to sleep too. Some will say different things if you talk to them again at a later time. Inns are great way to advance time though they aren’t recommended to restore energy.
Vanilla, like many of us, will get hungry over time. When he gets hungry, his stomach will start to growl and he’ll hold his stomach and run at a sluggish pace. He can visit the local bakery to stock up on some donuts, buy milk and cheese from the local farm, or munch on fruits and vegetables from the local grocery. Some hotels like the Lobster Inn will offer you food at a low price. You can also hit a fancy restaurant to instantly fill up, at a low price. Clothing can be purchased at fashion shops. Each town stocks up on different sets of clothes. You can buy a cowboy hat, shorts for the beach, shoes, and even a tux. You can also buy a gift for Connie to increase your relationship with her. Aside from the clothing, you can also hit the barber shop and get a new haircut, like an afro, or a slick back business man hair-do. After your done with fashion, people will even make comment on your new look. These little things make the game that much more charming.
Navigation around town has also been constructed to make cities that much more realistic. Locomotives will travel between stations, street cars and buses will hit specific check points in the city, and you can even ride a bike around town. You can also use your trot mobile, but you can’t manually control them. A menu will list some available locations where your trot mobile goes into auto-pilot mode. Controlling the Trot mobile will take time, because it requires the usage of both analog sticks. It feels a bit clunky at first but you get the feeling that its mechanical. If you fancy your own bedroom, you can rent one to reside in. While in your bedroom, you can decorate the walls, arrange the floor and furniture, and practice your music. If you hang a poster of Connie, have her come over and she’ll even comment on it. You can even invite a girl over for a date and impress her with your music, or have a special moment with each other. With a 2nd controller, you can even play some of the mini-games together with a friend. They’ll be available at the main menu which will require you to unlock. You can battle your friend with your customized trot mobile against theirs in a 1-1split-screen bout. Its not as exciting and fun a the Pool game which can also be played with a friend. Game play mechanics of the Pool Game are solid and realistic. You can select various characters to control, who are unlocked in the main story mode. Though the only game you can play is 9-ball, you’ll spend hours mastering your skills to compete with hustlers at local bars.
The graphics works well in steambot, but they do suffer from slow-downs. Characters models are cell-shaded to give a sand-box style look, and their movements blend well with the environments. The cities and trot mobiles are decent, but they could’ve been more polished. You’ll know a grocery shop by looking at the assorted red and green pixels that looks suppose to make you think of cabbages and tomatoes. Overall the environments and characters are good. The issue lies with graphics being inconsistent. You’ll notice the first enemy will run up a hill and his legs will strangely go through the ground. Some enemies will attack you from afar, and as you approach them, they’ll turn around and vanish. And the major problem is the slow-downs, which seems to occur more frequently in morning periods and during huge boss battles. The slowdowns hurts the game play when you engage in boss battles. For example, when I fell off a cliff and tried to platform my way back up, I had to dodge missiles, attack the boss, and at the same time deal with the graphical slow-down, which resulted in my defeat. it’s a problem but I managed to beat the boss after a few tries. Thankfully those huge boss-battle moments are very little and most of the slow-downs will occur while your venturing in town.
The sound department is solid. Fans of anime will immediately notice the familiar voice-actors like Connie, Fennel, and Dandelion. The voice actors do expectedly well in delivering their lines and you get a sense of emotional attachment with them. Their personalities are charming, you really have a sense of real passion emitting from these characters. The background music is mostly subtle, and the cities have a relaxing theme composing of piano, flute, guitar, and drums. The music played in concerts were somewhat questionable. There are 5 vocal tracks with some more bonus ones. Some of the songs were really good, while others had some hiccups in the translation like “You stole them from my back… you ripped them off…the scars will be right there...and I’ll never be able to fly to you” but they’ll eventually grow on you like the charming characters will. It felt strange that the lead vocalist Connie is not voiced by Connie, but its better to be safe than grating.
A problem that I had were the tough, mechanical controls of the trot machine. Perhaps controlling them with both analog sticks made it more realistic, but it also made boss battles that much more difficult. When an enemy is dashing around you in circles while launching missiles from his pod, the problem struck me when I was trying to evade the attack and manage the horrible camera angles at the same time, which were both controlled by both analog sticks. The throw feature could’ve also been implemented better. You’ll mash out a throw attempt, only to land right on top of them and get grabbed again. It was a loop that was getting no where. The camera could’ve been much better. The camera tends to put you out of the action by zooming in above the player or behind a tree.
Another issue was traveling through the terrains itself. The game is heavy on back-tracking, and you will frequently cross large terrains back and forth to advance the story. Unfortunately, the trot mobile travels at a sluggish pace. It can take anywhere from 10-15 minutes just to reach your next destination. The trains don’t operate at night, which is a real drag after running half an hour just to run back to find an inn to stay at. They also take you to one specific station as well, which is only useful for specific story sequences.
Aside from the technical flaws, Steambot Chronicles is a very unique game. This can possibly be the best sand-box style game play out there. From customizing your own trot mobile, to performing in a concert, the countless events are a pleasure to partake. The ultimate focus is getting the player involved, and feel as if they really did make a difference, which is the satisfaction one gets playing Steambot Chronicles.