Tech Romancer

"Robotic battle with different settled storylines for each character, and mini-games and modes with unlimited replay value."

Tech Romancer, a game which involves robot-fighting style using all sorts of cool and incredible powers to defeat enemies along the way, with a special type of battle system. Originally, this game was in Japanese, by a long name of Super Battle Steel Story Kikaioh. Maybe some of you wouldn’t like another taste of Capcom’s latest and new installment to this game but Tech Romancer proved to be one of the successors this time. Added in, there are many hidden secrets to unlock, together with many things to you that will keep you addicted and entertained for a whole month.

Graphics – 9
In terms of graphics, they’re very impressive with detailed models of robots and others. Colours are used wisely in and out in the game, whether it’s during battle time or in the menu. As the whole battle system will be in 3D, the background can rotate in full 3D motion with their own detailed and colourful things on the way. At certain areas, there will be houses and buildings that you can destroy to get an item which can be used to deliver an attack to the enemy.

Perhaps what could be said is the totally cool hand-drawn unanimated pictures when you play in the Story mode. They look totally funny, and it is almost like watching a high-tech comic out of your television screen. Of course, there are many hidden animated sequences that could be viewed, and all of them are personally hand-drawn, together with the introduction movie. Why hand-drawn? There are no reasons really. They seem to look much better when done that way, and add in some computer colours to make it look much better. And for your information, some of the animated sequences look more like a Japanese cartoon straight from the television channel.

Music – 9
Most of the music are surprisingly good, as Capcom and its Japanese music programmers and sequences have done to this game. The music suits well in every single scene in the game, especially during the story progress as they can be comical and humourous. The in-game battle music is quite nice to hear; tough and quick sounding instruments are used to make the battle sort of more exciting.

Sound effects can be described as seemingly real, ranging from robotic movements to laser beams that can destroy enemies in one hit. All in all, you will never be disappointed to know that these clever people have added a lot of sound effects to this game, as every movement that you made, and every single action will produce a minimal and satisfying battle sound to change it into a real, robotic clashing battle. That’s not all, in the menu itself, you can hear some kind of computerized sound that can be heard repeatedly if you move from option to option.

Voices can be a bit disappointing, as they are all in Japanese, considering this game is a release of a Japanese game. But there’s a subtitle in English though, which covers every single menu and a cool English translation of the dialogues. The voices can be considered a lot, considering that there are more than ten robots in the game and with their pilots, together with ‘sub-actors’ and actresses in every single robot’s storyline. There is also an English narrator, which helps and explains more about the game, and speaks in the battle itself.

Gameplay – 9
In this game, the battle system are clearly in 3D, which shows that these robotic battles are going to be exciting. You can grab several items in the game, which are disguised in a tiny pyramid-shaped box and several other shapes. Collecting this and pressing a few combination buttons will let you use the attack instantly. You can also easily assign a certain button to certain moves that needs you to press few buttons at one time.

While fighting in the game, you will notice there is a Damage Bar on the side of your character’s screen. If you receive an attack from an enemy, this bar will fill in little by little, so you must take every single opportunity from raising it to 100%. If you had noticed, you can protect from your enemy’s attack but if the attack is too strong, the percentage of your armor will decrease from time to time, until you heard the English narrator speak in a loud tone, “Armor destroyed!”. You can still protect after this, but you are unable to resist the damage that has been thrown to you, thus your damage bar will be filled in a little.

After destroying your enemy on the first round, damage your enemy until his or her Damage bar is filled until half of it. The words Final Attack and the ever-repeating sound will tell you that it’s time to use the Final Attack to your enemy. You actually need to press A, B, X and Y buttons together but you can easily assign a button to use it. You must be near your enemy and make sure your enemy didn’t block, in order to make the Final Attack successful; it all depends on the character that you have chosen. Using this successfully will allow you to see how your character damage the opponent until his Damage bar rise up to full. No matter whatever enemy you’re fighting against, if you can connect the move, you will successfully bash up your enemy to exploding pieces.

So, finishing my long explanation on the battle system, I’ll move on to the various modes in the game. Though little, they actually provides what actually proves to be the longest replay value ever. The Story mode, as the name states it all, you will view each of the character’s own unique story, some funny and cheerful while some a bit sad and hateful. Depending on the character you had chosen, you will have to bash up and destroy enemies based on the story itself. But usually, you will have to meet the final villain in the game, which will be exceedingly hard.

The Hero Challenge mode actually is more of a Ranking mode, but you can earn money as the currency G in the game. You will have to fight 12 robots in the game, each increased in difficulty as you fight. There are no limits in continues, whether in Story or Hero Challenge mode, so if you actually lose a battle, you can still continue in the game. Naturally, you will have to fight the last boss which as usual and as I have said, very hard. You’ll need or your good skills in order to beat him, or change the difficulty level in the Options menu a bit.

Tatsumi Techno Dome is a mode that will let you view the secrets in the game, if you had successfully unlocked some of them. You can also download mini-games (these mini-games will let you earn more G in the game, which is simply cool!). These nifty things that cost you 128 blocks is actually worth it as you will play all of them non-stop, providing simply unlimited replay value and fun. Pressing the right directional button will let you access the place where you can buy secrets or menus, depending on how much money you have. Some of them are downright expensive, but it also based on how much time you had spent on the mini-games or Hero Challenge mode.

Controls – 8
This is what actually can be a major headache if you don’t know the right controls. You can easily assign buttons to perform different tasks, so it actually makes the whole fighting system easier. Not to mention that choosing the right buttons will transform the whole fighting game into an easier and more un-complex environment. If you are having problems to defeat enemies, try changing the controls. It probably helps.

Replay Value – 9
This game provides unlimited replay value, actually. With the few exciting mini-games for you to tinker with, the tons of new modes for you to see, there are simply many things for you to do and you can’t get bored with this game! As I can’t really mention the secrets in the game, I must say they really provide fun and totally addictive modes that keeps you coming back for more. Even after you can unlock all of them, you still need to finish up a few things in order to get those nifty sequences and extra hidden things! To be honest, this game is one of Capcom’s best ever created to transform it into a game with tons of replay value, if not unlimited.

Overall – 9
Can probably be described as the best unlimited replay value fighting game ever created. With tons of things to collect and see, you will never be bored with this game. Fighting battle system is already unique, and Capcom’s ingenious ideas to add a lot of things to this game is actually one of the best fighting game up-to-date. There’s a holding record of over 200 hours of replay value, so play this game over with your friends in Versus mode, and you can see how you and your friend could enjoy this game.

Technical
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+ Nice, cool graphics that makes this game looks really great!
+ Unique battle system that will keep you playing this game for hours!
+ Last of all, the unlimited replay value system, with its mini-games and modes to keep you entertained!

Mechanical
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- It’s better to have English voices over Japanese ones, but it can be just me.
- Playing this game everyday non-stop will make you think that this game will be boring.
- Controls can be slightly harder for those who are beginners.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/06/01, Updated 01/06/01