In Progress Cyber Knight 2 lp

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I did not want to start this lp yet, but I realized that I had to do something and bring some to the Codex, before it collapses into a cesspool of shit and Skryim threads. So there you go:




EDIT: Sorry, this game is incredibly obscure and I couldn’t find a better pic, but miss Bee solved that. Thanks, miss!!

You must be wondering which game is this one. Well, I can tell that’s a jprg of a very strange kind, because it’s strictly sci-fi and avoids many of jprg’s downfalls:

- No emofaggot characters
- No children as protagonists (the youngest main character is 21, the oldest is FUCKING 29, impressive for a Japanese game)
- The main character is not a glorified camera (nor is a consoletard)
- No “chosen one” bullshit plot
- No magic nor psychic powers (except one character that’s a minor telepath, but it’s only a minor plot point)
- Somewhat realistic combat (as in, no healing and characters can die in combat and will stay dead, to compensate enemies don’t have 190519069 millions of health points).
- Characters don’t level up to 99, forcing you to rotate the party when needed.
- Lastly but not least, NO GRINDING

Sadly, it doesn’t feature emotionally engaging romances nor a budget of 600+ millions (which 90% of it would be spent on marketing and advertising, meaning it was not a Really Profitable Game), so it doesn’t count as a western rpg (plus it doesn’t have that “choices and consequences” thing, but that’s okay, everyone has forgotten about these, why care about such outdated concepts like gameplay and writing when you can have games with a true cinematic experience??). Even so, it’s a quite enjoyable game, although it has it's own share of flaws: It’s very short, the graphics and music are shit (for a snes game), and as I said, VERY obscure (although there’s a webpage dedicated to it, I recommend you to check it if only for downloading the music: http://www.fantasyanime.com/legacy/cyberknight.htm), if it wasn’t for the good guys of AeonGenesis, who thanklessly translated the game, this lp would not exist, so many for them. Too bad that these days they must be busy with tranny porn or something because they haven’t updated any project yet (not even Metal Max 3)

Oh yeah, those readers that are observant probably noticed that this game is a sequel. Well, it doesn’t matter much, the background story can be briefly summarized as:


In the year 2352, the mercenary starship Swordfish found itself under attack by group of space pirates. Faced with no option other than certain doom, the commander, Blade Bryant, ordered the use of the ship's Jump Drive, even though there was not enough time to calculate destination coordinates. The result was a phenomenon known as a "Jump Miss", and the crew ended up in the center of the universe, far away from known space.

There they encountered a lifeform known as a Berserker, a self-aware biomechanical war machine. These Berserkers were on the verge of wiping out all life in that area of space, and were it not for Blade and his crew, they would have soon spread throughout the entire universe, destroying everything they found. Blade and his crew were able to research the wreckage of destroyed Berserker robots, through which they developed new weapons and improved the power of their Battle Modules - robotic power armor used to enhance the natural abilities of humans for construction and combat. They were eventually able to destroy the Berserker Queen, and eliminate the threat of the Berserkers once and for all.


They were also able to encounter an intelligence known as Mentana in the center of a black hole, at whose request they fought the Berserker Queen, and who was finally able send them back to Earth through a stargate. A hyper-intelligent being, Mentana had many hundreds of years to evolve its intelligence, and had become roughly equivalent to a god in the process.


Upon its return to known space, however, the Swordfish was not greeted warmly. The Earth Federation immediately seized it and the technology it was carrying. The main crew was imprisoned, and the professor committed to the research and development of their Modules was detained and forced to continue. The "OverTech", far in advance of anything the galaxy had seen before, was being used to develop new weapons under the dictatorial regime on Earth.


As Blade and his crew escape from the Federation's detainment facility, they hear of a new weapon being developed by Earth's scientists, which combines the OverTech and the data on the Berserkers into something completely new and very, very dangerous...


TL; DR version: The protagonists get lost in space, kill some bad dudes, acquire new and shiny loot, they meet God, kill the final boss, then they go back to Earth. Unfortunately, it seems that America’s more conservative parties won the latest elections, so unsurprisingly, before anyone could notice what was happening, a military dictatorship was already formed and replaced the government. The heroes are captured, their gear broken down to pieces and somehow they're downgraded back to level 1. But their spirit is not broken, they must escape and join the Resistance.

And that’s all about it, next week I’ll post the first update (if possible). For now, have the attract video and the intro video.

Yes, I named the main character Picard. Why? Because I can, that’s why

Contents:

Update 1: Learning the basics

Update 2: An amazing rescue

Update 3: Mars attack

Update 4: Suffer not the terrorist to live


Update 5: Lethal weapon

Update 6: Thirdworldia

Sounds very cool.

Looks like Macross from that pic.

Thanks, let me snatch it and replace the one I posted...

In before the 1st update...

YEAH LETS PLAY CYBERKNIGHT 2!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
Seriously, what's with the exclamation marks?
Good luck tho.

What about the first game ? It has also been translated, is it not any good ?

I've been meaning to play both of them at some point.

Update 1: Learning the basics


I warn you, this update has lots of exposition and text.
Those that suffer from ADD should go back and do something more productive, like clogging the Codex with yet another Skryim topic or something equally shitty. In any case, let’s start!




“Today has been a weird day. Worse was that time someone hired me as a voice actor for an extremely inane videogame, where I was supposed to be an important character yet I’m immediately killed a few minutes after the game starts.”




” My mission was to bring all of you here. Once you disembark, please go enter the house on the right. Someone awaits you there. By the way, the atmosphere is breathable. There’s no need to wear the modules. Please make your way out of the airlock.”




Now that the cutscenes are over, it’s time to do something… Like running away and start a new career as a space pirate


” Until you meet with our leader, we will not leave.”

Bloody railroading. Oh well, at least there’s no quest compass. For this update, I’ll frequently quote paragraphs from the mini-manual the game’s ROM included, beginning with this one:

“Welcome to your new home, the starship Galvordirge! It is outfitted with the latest simulated personality artificial intelligence construct, AIDA, which, although inferior in some respects to the MICA computer developed by Professor Dinett and installed onboard the Swordfish, should serve you nicely. The Galvodirge is equipped with all of the standard amenities you have come to know and love, including a new state-of-the-art bridge, a medical unit complete with clone facilities, a lounge with the latest in video entertainment, a laboratory for research, a hangar in which to store your Battle Modules, and a brand new combat simulator, perfect for training. It also, of course, has an airlock, should you ever desire to leave the ship without your Battle Modules.”


MICA was a minor character from Cyber Knight 1, (s)he occasionally gave you some hints while you were in combat, and sometimes said strange messages that made no sense, implying MICA was slowly going mad (or worse), but no-one seemed to mind. Anyways, let’s explore the ship:


Music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGvxo4zw ... re=related

May the Emperor bless you, dear SNESosT, for uploading every song from this game and the previous one




There are lots of things to do here. First, the Medical (Facilities)/Sickbay.





“The medical facilities aboard the Galvodirge are able to treat virtually any wound you may receive while fighting either on foot or in Modules. While a "cure" for death has not been discovered yet, your DNA data is always kept on record and is periodically updated so that in the eventuality that you are killed, a new clone may be regenerated. Select "Treat" from the menu to have the doctor cure any ills you may be experiencing. The medical facility is also where you may take a break if you need to stop playing the game for whatever reason. Select "Clone Clode" from the menu to record your current data into the Galvodirge's memory banks. You may then re-clone your progress from the main menu at the title screen.”

TL DR: You can heal your wounds here, save your game (redundant with the emulator’s save states) and “resurrect” fallen characters. Even though the game implies that cloning technology is accepted, theoretically allowing you to live forever, no-one but the main characters seem to have a cloning facility, plus your characters don’t suffer from memory loss nor any kind of mental trauma after being regenerated. I guess it is due gameplay reasons, it wouldn’t be fun if the big bad could simply clone himself over and over every time we killed him (like Star War’s shitty Emperor). Now that we’re here, let’s ask the doctor for a “medical examination” .



No sex scene?? Oh well, then I’ll save the game.



Now, let’s move to the Lounge:




“The Lounge is where your crew will relax when they're not on duty. You may view any of their data at any time here by selecting the "Character" option from the on-screen menu. You may also organize an away team here. As the commander, you are obligated to sortie with every away team, however you may select two other crew members as combatants with you; the remaining three, should you sortie in-Module, will act as support units in battle. Each character has a very specific set of skills. All skills are important, but thankfully as the commander you're-good at everything. You're not the best, though, so be sure to take with you whoever you feel would most appropriately benefit the team in the field.”


TL; DR: Here you can organize and make your party. Depending of the mission, you may want to exchange one character from the current active party to the support one (for example, if you expect heavy combat, taking the characters with the highest rank in the Combat skill would be a good idea). Let’s check each character:














It seems I was mistaken, unlike other jprgs sequels, this game recognizes that the characters are not greenhorns, so they automatically start at level 10 with greater than average skills, nice.


LP means Life points, depending of the character’s class, he/she will be easier or harder to kill (very important when you’re fighting on foot/out of your Modules, more about that later). Combat means how good the character is at fighting, using the Modules and such. Mecha means how good the character is at repairing your Modules’ damage (only the main character and the Mechanic can do so, obviously the Mechanic is much better). Medical is the same but related to your characters’ LP (again, the Doctor is the best if you need to patch up someone). Characters that don’t have any proficiency on Medical or Mecha will not be able to use these skills, so if your main character and your Medic/Mechanic dies while you’re stuck in the middle of enemy territory/inside a hostile dungeon, you’re screwed.

Science is a special skill: “A character with Science proficiency is required for the recognition of Neoparts among the enemy wreckage; the higher the Science proficiency, the more likely your characters will notice Neoparts at the end of a battle.” This skill is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, without it you may not be able to update your gear and thus you’re doomed to fail.




Understandably, the characters that are not Soldiers nor the Main Character (namely, the Scientist, the Medic and the Mechanic, especially the Scientist) are terrible at combat, but their special skills make up for it. For the purpose of this lp, I’ll always have the Scientist and the Mechanic on my active party, so the game is slightly more challenging (until the game tells me otherwise/I’m bored). Before I forget to mention it, Shine is supposed to be a “he”, it’s one of those bishonen/tranny things that the japanese love for some reason.




Done, now let’s investigate the Airlock:



“You may exit the Galvodirge via the Airlock whenever you're on a world with a breathable, non toxic atmosphere. Do note that you will be on-foot, and will not have the benefit of the diversity in weapons, Options, and Fields that your Modules can equip. It is sometimes necessary to explore on-foot, however, as there are some spaces that Modules won't be able to fit into, and the citizens of some worlds may be put off by people walking around in bulky battle armor. The Airlock comes standard with an arsenal of small munitions with which you may outfit yourself and your away team. No Fields are provided, as they are too bulky to be carried by a single human for any real length of time, and standard-issue Grenades are the only Options you'll have. It is a limited selection, but it should be sufficient.”

TL; DR: Unlike other games’ npcs, here, in an amazing display of common sense, people don’t like it when a bunch of heavily armed dudes came up to them in the streets, then start asking inane questions such as if someone has seen a mysterious guy clad in black and wielding an oversized katana (to say a random example from a shitty jrpg, luckily there aren’t katanas here, or at least used by your characters). If the planet has a breathable atmosphere, most likely you’ll have to travel on foot, especially if you want to talk to the locals. Now let’s see what we can do in the Outfit menu:




All weapons use special ammo made of Elerium 113 Unobtanium InfinitiumTM, so you don’t have to worry about reloading. The only exception to this rule are the Options, special, very powerful, but of limited use weapons, like these:




Every weapon uses a different “element”: Impact, Laser, Beam, Heat and Special. Also, each weapon has different characteristics, such as being able to hit only a single target or multiple targets at the same time, if it’s a ranged or a melee weapon, etc. Having a varied arsenal is a basic strategy to survive in this game, you seriously don’t want to meet a foe that has an innate resistance to a certain element (as in, shrugging off most if not ALL of the damage), then realize you don’t have any weapon that can hurt him (better not talk about the enemies with multiple resistances…). The Arms submenu is used to properly gear up our characters:



Before doing anything, I’ll post an image of each weapon and its stats:








We don’t have much of variety for our weapons yet, but I tend to have at least one SMG per party member, I like multi-target weapons because these can hit several enemies at once, trivializing the random encounters. Two small things to notice here: One, only Soldiers and the Commander can use Assault Rifles, the Doctor, the Scientist and the Mechanic are not popamole enough have girly, flabby arms lack the necessary training to use advanced weapons. Two, melee weapons are sort of a “special” category, as in that in some cases the enemy may be immune to a certain element but not to a melee weapon of the same element (meaning, a random thug may have a bulletproof vest that makes him highly resistant to Impact-type weapons, but that will not help him if we stab him to death with a Combat Knife, even if it’s an Impact weapon too), but I’m not completely sure, I learned most of the game’s mechanics by trial and error.

Lastly but not least, the current setup for each character will be:


Picard: Assault Rifle, SMG and Combat Knife. 2 Grenades as the Options.
Shine: Needle Gun, SMG and Combat Knife. 2 Grenades as the options.
Vynd: Same as Shine.


Now, it’s time to check the Lab:





Don’t mind AIDA, she accidentally revealed that Dinett will work for us after we rescue him, she doesn’t understand the concept of the 4th wall yet. The point is that the Lab is truly the most important installation of the ship. You see, in both Cyber Knight games, you don’t “buy” or “find” new weapons and related stuff, you instead research Neoparts, the broken remains that you can scavenge from defeated enemies, in order to investigate their secrets, unlocking new weapons, new gear and some upgrades for the Modules (in fact, it’s the ONLY WAY to upgrade the PAs’ stats (barring a special “super-upgrade” that some Modules can get later), because having your Modules leveling up and become stronger as you kill enemies would be silly). Without Neoparts, you can’t research new stuff. Without research, you’re fucked, full stop.

Thankfully, even that might sound like you must grind every random battle until you find Neoparts, as long as you have someone with a high Science Skill (such as the Scientist), the chance of dropping Neoparts will be quite high, so it’s not really necessary to grind (moreover, because there’s no loot to be found in dungeons, you can stop and fight some random encounters for a while until to get all of the possible Neoparts, then explore the dungeon at your leisure).

That’s enough for the Lab, until we start killing stuff there’s nothing more to be done here, so let’s enter the Hangar:




“The Hangar is where you will perform routine Module maintenance. It is equipped with a team of the best engineers we could gather to ensure that your Modules will always be in tip-top shape. Should they receive any damage in the field, simply select Repair from the menu to refit them with any spare parts. You may also outfit your modules with a series of weapons, Options, and Fields in the Hangar. Do be aware that due to their designs, some Modules will not be able to carry certain weapons and Options. Keep this in mind when outfitting your units. To alter your Modules' loadout, select "Outfit" from the on-screen menu. Module assignments can be changed around in the Hangar as well. Once you select "Module" from the menu, you will be asked whether you want to change the assignments for your combat party or your support party. Certain Modules are better in certain situations, so be sure to evaluate your needs properly when making assignments. The Hangar is also where you'll sortie from should you need to go out in your Modules. You may do so on any planet, so long as you've landed.”


TL; DR version: Here’s where the fun really starts: tinkering with the mechs Modules’ equipment. It may not be as complex as Front Mission, but it’s still fun and has its uses and quirks (some Modules cannot use certain weapons, for example, attempting to equip your Scout Module with a Heavy Plasma Cannon is an exercise of futility; also, some weapons use only one hand so you can equip two weapons if the two are one-handed, in the non-grim future of Cyber Knight, everyone is ambidextrous). The Outfit menu is mostly the same as when you setup your characters at the airlock.


But before doing so, let’s see a list of all the Modules we have:





We’ll start with the Combat Modules, I’ll provide a small description of each one, plus a random image that is vaguely relevant to the Module (I wanted to post some cool artwork but unable to find any).




By the way, before I begin the list, there’s a small problem with the Modules: Whoever designed these wonders had a terrible imagination for naming things, so he/she used a random name generator and took names that made little sense, if any. Here’s the list:


Rex





This was the most well balanced Module in the previous game and comes back better than ever. Sadly, it’s overshadowed by a superior machine new to this game. Nevertheless, it’s still a solid choice for the main character.


Let me tell you a brief explanation of the stats: Most of them are self-explanatory, E.P. means Energy Points, Dfnd is for Defense, Evad for Evasion, Move means how many spaces it can move in combat and Melee how good the machine is in close combat. Pocket Size refers to how many weapons can carry (same thing for Option Max and Field Max), this one can carry up to 4 weapons, 4 options and 4 fields. These don’t have to be different weapons, you theoretically can have the same weapon (and Option/Field) repeated many times.


Also, one important thing relevant to the combat: When a Module is damaged, the damage is divided in Life Points (how hurt the pilot after receiving the attack) and in Energy Points (how much damage the machine sustained). If the pilot’s LP reaches zero, (s)he’s dead, removed from combat until you reanimate him/her at the ship. If the Module’s EP is completely depleted, the Module is too broken to continue fighting.
However, unlike Samus Aran’s allegedly ultra-advanced Power Suit, when the power armor is destroyed, the pilot doesn’t immediately drop dead, you can repair it after the combat ends (assuming someone skilled enough to do the repairs is still alive to do so). Next!



Titan





Good defense, lots of EP and able to wield the heaviest weapons, the only downside to this monster is that is as agile as a crippled anemic turtle, reflecting its low Movement and Evasion. It’s also terrible at Melee, avoid Close combat at any cost.


Winner






Another well-balanced PA, it has access to the powerful Heat weaponry (from regular flamethrowers to microwave beams). I did not use it much for my playtrough, but I may give it a try for this lp.


Saurus






Another heavy-duty Module, this one suffers from the same lack of agility as the Titan, making it more aggravating because this power armor is meant to emphasize close combat (plus it only has access to two weapon types). Fortunately, it doesn’t need more, Special weapons are truly one-of-a-kind, utterly devastating devices, such as a freaking BLACK HOLE GENERATOR

A perfect machine for those that don’t care about speed and only want to crush their enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. Later on, it’ll improve its speed, becoming even more fearsome.

Cyber






Gentlemen, here’s the one responsible for dethroning Rex as the “best Module of the game”, the all-mighty Cyber! Granted, this newcomer may not seem much, being very squishy, with armor thin as tissue paper (that LOW defense score…), horrible Melee, only two weapon types and a very limited inventory... But that’s okay, it doesn’t need any of that, look at that awesome Evasion: 99! That thing is the fastest Module ever! Later on, with the proper upgrades, it will be able to become an untouchable cybernetic warrior that will one-shot pretty much anything. Hell, not even the final boss is enough to stop this killing machine!

In exchange, this Module does not receive the Super-UpgradeTM that the other ones can obtain, but who cares, it has the Touch!!


That’s all for the Combat Modules, now it’s time to explain the Support Modules’ purpose. Do you remember when in RPGs your party was formed by several characters, but for gameplay limitations only a small number of them could actually fight? Remember how stupid and annoying it was when your current party was wiped enough and you suffered a Game Over, even though the other party members should be able to heal/replace them, but the game pretended they did not exist?? No more! These Modules allow your characters not in the active party to give you cover fire before the battle starts, softening the enemies or even completely decimating them! What’s more, Support Mechs are the only ones able to hit flying enemies, because unlike ALL other rpgs, these baddies have a brain and they’ll use their superior mobility to shoot a volley of fire at your party, then retreat before you can counter-attack. Truly a wondrous feature that was mostly forgotten, a shame that no more games had it. Here’s a list of the Support Modules:



Sheriff







Formerly, it was an absolute piece of shit, worthless and doomed to be dumped and forgotten. Now, it has been redesigned as an actually useful mech that can use many weapons, including Anti-Air weapons. For that sole reason it becomes a tolerable machine that I’ll use.

Himmel







Himmel, a good anti-air Module. Not much else to say.


Titan






Titan’s support version, not bad, but why use it when you have available a much better option? See below:



Vizier






A cool Module, ridiculously powerful, it will exterminate everything that’s not a flying enemy (if it hits).

Cyber






Cyber’s support version. Sadly, it sucks. Skip it.

That’s all, now we could start messing with the Modules' stuff, but let’s take a break and do a random combat encounter; after all, that’s what all rpgs are about now: combat and romances, no? So we go to the ship’s Training section:





“The Training room is equipped with the latest in virtual reality simulation equipment. Nearly indistinguishable from the real thing, AIDA can accurately reproduce the data from any enemies you've encountered so far on any planet here. You can use this to better strategize and plan for future combat situations. Should you be unsure of how combat operations work, also, you may elect to have the onboard coach educate you in the ways of Module combat. It's great for the beginner, or even the professional who just wants a few primers before heading off to battle!”


TL, DR: Here you may fight against any enemy you previously fought (including bosses), to test new weapons and tactics. Of course, you can’t salvage any Neoparts (it’s a simulation, duh) and if your party is wiped out it’s not game over. Plus, considering that the game actively discourages grinding by giving you very little xp, it’s not worth of abusing it (in fact, you’re given more xp when you complete a quest/dungeon than fighting enemies non-stop).





Basic Training is the (optional) tutorial, fuck that. Let’s go to Combat Training:


Coach: “Let’s begin the program for combat training. This is where AIDA displays the environment data she’s collected. Well, it’s a realistic simulation. Don’t get sloppy just because this is training! The members will be Picard, Shine and Vynd”.




You can choose to fight with Modules or on foot (even against heavily armored foes if you have a death-wish).










Hmm, I haven’t fought in any random encounter yet, but Mars and a list of enemies show up. I guess it includes the encounters we had back in the beginning, when the party escaped. Whatever, I choose to fight against Rex and his cronies.






Let’s roll!! At the start of every combat, AIDA will perform a quick scan and a analyze every new enemy you’ve meet, giving you it’s name. She also informs you of which special conditions are currently affecting your party due the atmosphere and terrain, if any. She also may give you a hint or two. Right now we’ll fight enemy power armors similar to ours, but as soon as EA (Earth’s Armies) begins tinkering with the Overtech, you’ll start encountering enough biomechanical abominations and other bizarre creatures to give a Strogg a hard-on (assuming that was physically possible).





Every time you start a new turn, you may select Engage, to start fighting, or Escape, to do so (which can fail). If the combat is not important (namely, any non-boss battle), you may activate auto-combat function (the AI is pretty competent by the way). Also, the Support Modules’ attack may or may not trigger at the start of the combat, right now they don’t because they don’t work indoors for some reason (lack of space, perhaps?). Whenever you choose Engage, your character (chosen from left to right) will be able to move a number of squares determined by your Movement score. After one round of fighting, the Scan option appears, you can use it to check which weapons you used the previous round and how much damage these did, useful for bosses.




Once you decided to move the Module (or not), this menu pops up. Attack will make the character use the currently equipped weapon (if it’s single target it’ll ask you to select a target, if it’s multi-target the entire opposing party will be attacked), Defend will make the character harder to hit (obviously in exchange of doing anything else on this turn), Option allows you to choose which special weapon to use and how many ammo you have left for each one, as shown there:





Outfit is for changing the currently equipped weapon (it can be done as many times as you want and without using up your turn) and/or if you want to change/use a Field. Fields (from “Force-fields”) are defensive items that are extremely useful for tough combats, they can give you several bonuses such as increased protection against a certain weapon type, decrease missiles’ accuracy, etc. Once you use one, it works until the end of battle (unless you activate another Field).




Personally, I prefer two-handed weapons because these do more damage, if I want to attack in close combat, I can always change the weapon with no cost. For this round, everyone attacks at the closest enemy with their current weapon (I forgot to screenshot, sorry).

Who attack first depends of their Module, the Character’s Combat skill and so on (at least for your characters, no idea how it works for the enemies). However, EVERYONE (both your party and the adversaries) move at the same time. A character must be at least two spaces away from another to use a ranged weapon, otherwise both are locked into close-combat mode and no longer can use their ranged weapons (it’s hard to aim and fire a massive cannon when there’s a monster in front of you trying to rip off your head, also, unlike other games with melee attacks, you may attack diagonally, as long as you’re 1 space away from the enemy it’s kosher). Therefore, positioning is extremely important, if you want a character to attack in CC but the foe moves away, that character will waste his/her turn doing nothing, you must estimate your enemies’ movement because of that.



Rex fires his laser rifle at one of the Titan mooks. The combat are fast-paced, too much to capture in screenshots, I’ll have to upload videos of random fights and/or bosses. In any case, the attack hits true and hurts the target.



Next is our Titan, it uses his Hand Vulcan to shoot all of the bad guys at once.



Winner fires his Fireblaster at the enemy Rex.




Now the enemy's counterattack, starting with the rival Rex attacking with his Machinegun. Luckily, the damage done is minimal.



The adversary Titans decide to not to attack and instead try to move away from my characters, but Picard and Vynd intercept them.





The Commander uses his Rayblade against the hostile Titan, successfully killing it. Also, whenever a character dies, it explodes. ALWAYS (unless the target is just a regular human not using a power armor of some sort, then it simply disappears), even if you were stabbing it to death with a knife, this game is so extreme that it predicted Dragon Derp 2’s blood explosions.

Usually, I always use a Shield when I decide to fight in close combat because it increases Evasion and reduces incoming damage, you can equip two melee weapons to do extra damage but it’s risky.



My Titan uses his Hand-Vulcan once more, severely damaging the enemy troops. You can check how damaged the enemy unit is by looking at its name’s color, it goes from green (unharmed or light damage), yellow (medium damage), orange (heavy damage) and red (critical damage).




The opposing Rex tries to avenge its virtual comrades, but fails to do any particular harm.



Winner murders yet another enemy (by the way, whenever a character dies, its remains stay visible on the battlefield, a nice detail).



The last Titan mook desperately tries to punch our Rex, but fails.



Time to mop up the survivors. I order Picard to attack the enemy Rex with the Rayblade, Vynd to use the Napalm Grenade Launcher Option against the last Titan foe, and Shine to attack with the Machinegun, just to be sure.




I couldn’t capture it correctly but the napalm is enough to destroy the target.



Finally, the enemy Rex is scrapped, ending the battle.



The battle is over barely after one minute of fighting (I could’ve done it in seconds but I wanted to test different weapons, battles in Cyber Knight are fast and deadly, as they should be). We got a total of…



1 xp for everyone. As I said, don’t bother grinding, party setup is more important than level. Whenever you finish a battle with the simulator, you’re given a combat score according to the results.









Then the Coach randomly gives you a hint.




Okay, time to outfit our power armors before I forget:




As before, first I’ll post the stats for every weapon, then the Options and the Fields for each Module.

















Rex’s Options:









Notice that some Options are Heat weapons, that’s why I did not use much Winner much back in my first playtrough.




And these are the available Fields. Let’s see if we can improve Titan’s gear:



Being one of the few Modules able to wield heavy weapons, it has access to some exclusive weapons:






Titan’s Options:




Fields are the same for every Module, so I’ll skip them. Next:








That will do. For now, our active party’s Modules will have:

Rex: Machinegun, Plasma Rifle, Rayblade and Shield (no point on having a laser rifle when the Rayblade is better). Options: Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Napalm Grenade Launcher, Medium Missile Pod. Fields: Wave Jammer x4.

Titan: Hand Vulcan, Plasma Rifle, Laser Rifle, Impact Cannon and Shield (Titan sucks at CC so no melee weapons). Options: Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Large and Medium Missile Pods, Acid Shooter and Napalm-G Launcher. Fields: Wave Jammer x4.

Winner: Machinegun, Fireblaster, Shield and Buster Knuckle. Options: Grenade Launcher, S Missile Pod, Flash and Stun Grenades. Fields: Wave Jammer x4.

Later on I may or may not change the powers armors, once we start acquiring Special weapons I’ll change Winner for Saurus to show the true meaning of power. Rex will be eventually replaced by Cyber for maximal powergaming. I will not change the Support Modules’ weapons because I’ve forgotten to do it we don’t need them yet.

I bored you enough with the explanations, so let’s do whatever we were supposed to do.

Music: Cazelin- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rzjt4KE ... re=related

The movement is not much different from other jrpgs, you can run with B (unnecessary with the Emulator’s built-in turbo) and you can talk to other npcs by touching them, no need to press any button.



Music: Cazelin Beach- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXHAws79 ... re=related

Not what I expected for a secret base. Whatever, let’s talk with everyone:




Unfortunately, Picard forgot how to swim, we’ll have to come back later with the Modules if we want to talk to that woman.



”Sorry, didn’t mean to peek”


Music: Cazelin Base- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxd9YTRk ... re=related




That’s much better. You may notice there are only a few guards, the rebels seem to be woefully understaffed, maybe they spent everything they had to build our ship (not that I’m complaining).





”Not my real name, of course…”

”(Intelligence) Are you the one who helped us before? Thank you.“

Shine: “But if I may ask, who are you? With a base this huge, I’d guess you must be part of some secret organization on Kazelin.”

”Well, no, but we have no direct correlation with the Illuminati government. We prefer to think of ourselves as “independent” rather than “secret”. We have but one function, and that is to prevent the outbreak of war. And to do so, we need your help. Even now, General Forrest has won over the Earth Federation, and they’re making preparations for war. Intelligence reports indicate that the OverTech you brought back from the galactic core is being used to enhance the Federation’s weapons.”

”(Perception) And you need us to look for it?”


”Correct. You know the OverTech better than anyone else, so no one else is as suited to the job. What do you say? Will you do it?”

”Certainly. Particularly since we owe you a bit of a debt.”

Shine: “Not to mention, we have no love for the Federation either!”




”Excellent! We’ve prepared a new ship for you, so feel free to use the Galvodirge as much as you like. (Wisdom) Be sure to listen to what my men have to say. It may turn out to be useful.”

There you go, that’s our party’s motivation to fight the Empire Earth’s Army, because they were attacked first and they know the Overtech better than anyone else, there isn’t any “Chosen One” bullshit because “Fate says so”/the writers are lazy. As Adam said, you can talk to the rest of the rebels for some useful hints.




Sawarin: ”I’ve been thinking… about going back to Liberty. Liberty, Kazelin’s capital city, is in the northern hemisphere. Did you know that you can land in more than one spot on some worlds? It’d be good if you can remember.”



Key: “By pressing Start while on the map screen, you’ll enter Camp Mode. Note that you cannot camp in battle of aboard the Galvodirge. You can use this mode to make repairs and heal your party. While walking, you can press the L or R buttons for a display of your current location. Pretty handy, huh?”

About that:




Camp Mode is pretty much the “pause” menu like every other rpg ever. Character shows up your current party members’ stats, Treat will use a Cure Kit to heal one character (same for Repair when using the Modules), Carrier shows which Neoparts and Plot Items you have, and Setup are the game’s options. Notice we have limited resources, these 10 Repair and Cure Kits are the sole source of healing, so you better be careful with your supplies (however, you can always come back to the ship to resupply).



Remember that you need someone with a certain skill to use the Medic and the Repair Kits, if the one with it is dead you better come back to the Galvodirge to regenerate him/her.





Auto-mode, unlike other games, is somewhat useful; I’ll give it a try later if you want.







The information center is where you should go if you’re stuck and need clues, it’s where you receive new “quests” so we’ll visit it very often.









“Please come again.”


Well, we have many things to do, the game is linear but in theory we can do any quest in the order we want. Right now though, rescuing Professor Dinett is a must, without him we cannot research Neoparts, so off we go.



But before, let’s try to enter the Rebel Base with the modules just for laughs.





How rude, just because we’re armed with enough weapons to destroy a small nation doesn’t mean we’re looking for trouble. Back to the ship:



“You will find the computer systems on the Galvodirge's bridge to be far in advance of those onboard the Swordfish. Your star chart, viewable from the "Long Jump" option in your heads-up display, displays a map of the galaxy. Of particular interest to you is that, should a star system be inhabited, the capital planet will be displayed in green underneath your Destination star. To warp to a new star system, open the Long Jump option in your menu, move the green cursor to a new star system, and press the A button. Your current location is highlighted in flashing white, and again, if your destination has inhabited worlds in it, the capital planet will be displayed in green. To warp to another planet in the star system you're currently located in, select the "Short Jump" option, then simply select a planet from the list. Any planets that are inhabited and can be landed on, once initially scanned, will be listed as such in the right-hand column. Any unscanned planets will not have any information next to them in this window. A planet will be automatically scanned when you first visit it, but you may re-scan the world you're orbiting at any time by re-selecting it from the Short Jump menu. Occasionally, new information about the political situation on inhabited worlds can be gleaned from such rescanning.”


TL; DR: The Galaxy Map is the game’s world map. Before leaving, let’s go to Kazelins’ capital:

Music: Cazelin- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rzjt4KE ... re=related
Capital of Cazelin- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg0_wPb2 ... re=related





If we tried to enter the town with the Modules, the guards would tell us to GTFO.





Also, for some reason you CANNOT enter and pillage the houses.









That’s tempting fate a bit too much, lady.




That was unexpectedly non-productive, maybe if we try to explore the planet more thoroughly…



Oh, I forgot, invisible walls

I guess I was expecting a bit too much to be able to fully explore each planet, at least the game is not a blatant giant corridor with junk everywhere to keep you from exploring. Let’s go back to the Galvodirge and rescue the Professor already.



Back to the Bridge, whenever you choose Short Jump, you can travel to the different planets of each star system. Sadly, only a few star systems have something interesting, everything else are gas giants, asteroids and other planets where you can’t land.








As mentioned, only Kazelin can be explored. As we progress in the game, certain planets will “open up”.





Here’s another example of my previous statement, the nearby star system has absolutely nothing of interest. So we’ll make a Long Jump to Highland.



We arrived.

Once more, only one planet can be visited.




We land.




Time to rescue the Professor… But not today, the update ends here. See you next week!

Because I accidentally put too many exclamation marks that way it's more EXTREME!! Don't worry, I changed the title just in case.

Thanks for your attention, dear readers.

Well... It's not a bad game, but it's rougher. The interface is clunky, the random encounter rate is extremely high, the graphics and music are terrible... At least it's more open-ended. Give it a try, if it's too much for you skip it and play CK2 instead.

I use Snes9x 1.53's built-in screenshot program, then I manually resize them with Irfanview because the images are too small. Unfortunately, I don't know yet how to increase the base resolution x2 when doing a batch conversion with multiple pictures (so that I can resize several pictures at the same time), I can do it one at time but that would take too long, I'm still testing this program, if you can tell me how to do it, please do so.

Probably a coincidence, although the game was done in the 90s, when things like "copyrights" did not apply to videogames, so everyone copied from each other... Oh wait, nowadays they're still doing the same thing

Looking good. I actually tried this game a few years ago. I don't think I got beyond the first hour or so, though. Lead Picard to victory!

Looking good, except thingies CB mentioned - use smaller and less pixelated images.

It looks like Mass Effect was heavily inspired by this game...

we need another update!!!!

I agree with everything Bee says.

Thanks, it worked like a charm Update later on this week, hopefully.

looks interesting, will follow this.