by Jin Lovelace, HSM team writer and filmmaker

Flat-out honest here: I’m not a great fan of PlayStation Home’s premium games.

It’s hard to truly try to get a greater experience out of the games developed within this construct, and most fall flat — on flaky gameplay, lack of intuitive control schemes, and overall replay value that leaves me in a snorefest. For instance, I’ve never had a craving to play Street Fighter X Tekken after I obtained all of the awards from there. I know where they were going with the system direction in the game — much to my chagrin, one that I respect — to base such thinking strategy and create a sound area to all that knows the basic mechanics of a fighting game. However, it just didn’t work for me.

But then you have Granzella: one of the most exciting developers to ever appear on Home to create these games that pushes Home specs to the limits. The F2P aspects behind Operation: Edo grew on me. Granted, it’s not a great game, but if you wish to pass some time with your friends or to enjoy a decent action game and take down some Ogres and demon spirits, heck, why not just pick up a sword and slash away?

A few months back I had stumbled upon Granzella’s website, only to see their announcement for the new Kikai Machine Empire Home event for the Japan servers. After viewing their mini-comic they had, and watching the sweet video, I was hyped. I mean, you’re talking to one who lauds games like DC Universe Online and Phantasy Star Universe, so it was obvious for me to anticipate this game.

Now that it’s here in the North American servers, and completing the full game is possible, the question that you may be asking is if it’s worth your time and money to try out yet another Home game.

Well, if you enjoyed their past F2P events, then perhaps this would be great for you. The game plays similar to Edo, only with a few modifications, such as equipment perks that can enhance your experience throughout. It’s really Phantasy Star Universe with Granzella’s charm thrown in to remind you that this is a Home game.

And I think that’s where the excitement I had for this quickly winds down when attempts to immerse myself into the game’s system direction and the mechanics take place.

The hype for me was the introduction of the three class types available in this event: Beam Samurai (in short-term, you pick up a sword and swing), Honeycomb hacker (you jam machines, and no, no cereal is involved in that), and the Battle Healer (you heal allies in the expense of being a punching bag to enemies). Each of the three have their strengths and weaknesses: Beam Samurai excel in attack in exchange of defense, Hackers are finesse in stats, and Healers, well…heal. All have special traits which makes progressing through the game’s five missions a bit smoother than normal. These weapon packs are available at the nearest Granzella Vendor in the Dazzling Neon Downtown space for $1.99 respectively.

Now this part here may throw you off a bit, because this is one of my reasons why I said the hype died for me: the imbalance that this game presents really turned me the heck off.

From my personal experience, there should be no excuse for me to play as a Healer of any game to be met with 19 game Over screens because I couldn’t deal the proper damage to get through the first part of the game, or simply because I was doing what I was supposed to do: healing! A Battle Healer, from what I understood, lets you heal yourself and allies as long as you have the meter for it (the bar that’s below your screen) as it shares the same with using an energy shield, which negates almost any attack in the game. While this is supposed to be the best defensive class available, it also has the worst attack stats as well. Granted, it’s ideal to play this game with friends so you can benefit them with your buffs, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

As a Battle Healer, good luck attempting to get through the game with those sweet attack stats because not even enough strategic survival methods could ever suffice any warranty on purchasing this pack at all. It’s written in the laws of Healers that you won’t deal/dish out sufficient damage like any normal brawler would, due to focus on keeping your allies healthy. In most cases, a long-range weapon is better suited to keep your distance from the enemy and do what you have to do as your role. Why I am punching my adversaries just to gain meter, while awaiting for the Kikai machines to surround me and pummel me like a cheetah pouncing on a rabbit, is beyond my imagination.

So much, this brings up my next issue: if I can heal allies, why is it that my enemies aren’t taking damage from the allied attacks? I would watch my friend take out the enemies on my screen, only for them to stay alive and come after me — and to give me a sweet trip to the Game Over screen. That is the one thing that confuses me a lot because if I’m healing my partners, then I would suspect this would be a multiplayer game. But seeing as how I can only face the opponents that are on my screen and not help out my friend in need, it gave me the impression that it’s a single-player experience. I don’t understand this, and it’s beyond the point for me to care anymore.

Given that, it’s best to just spend $1.99 on the Beam Samurai Class pack and just swing on the enemies instead. The experience is the transitioning of your missions being carried out a bit smoother, which then you’ll be able to get into the game’s strengths: actual solid storytelling. While it’s nothing total epic or something that’ll win any awards for best script or character depth, it’s there to roll things along without being too stagnant, especially in a futuristic setting where an alien machine empire is invading the planet you’re inhabiting and you’re called to help save it. It has its humorous moments, however, especially towards the final fight with the Boss. I won’t spoil that, but of course you already knew that.

Another good reason to play this game is due to the rewards this game gives you, and there are rewards aplenty — some that are quality and definitely worth investing your time into collecting. The Support Partner, which is a cute pet companion that’ll aid you in battle depending on which type and role you choose, has a strong affinity to the player role type and give you an incredible stat-boost, should you match your gear properly. To be honest, however, I’m a Battle Healer with a beam Samurai loadout running around with a level-seven Rabbit that heals me; it doesn’t matter, is what I’m saying.

My overall experience with the Kikai Machine Empire, from start to finish, was pretty solid. I would, however, like for the Battle Healer class to be tweaked to give either a long-range weapon option or output enough damage to where you can get through the enemy forces efficiently. The counts of how many times I was taken down from an air-strike while in my healing animation adds fuel to the annoyance factor.

Even so, Granzella will still get their money’s worth from this game. After all, this is one of the more anticipated events to ever come to the North American Home servers and I’m at my final stages of collecting the last couple of item rewards. The replay value is on par with the bevy of accolades given and the leveling system is decent enough to get you by. I can say that Granzella has created another charming experience in terms of game play and a decent plot.

I’m just still getting over the jet lag from the free trips to the Game Over screen that the Empire was so gracious to give to me. Maybe I’ll even get some free peanuts one of these days.

Share

3 Responses to “Granzella’s Kikai Machine Empire: the Empire That Strikes HARD!”

1. McJorneil says:

   July 30, 2013 at 6:22 am

   Totally agree that the Battle Healer needs a boost in attack. One more thing I would change is the amount of health restored at each level. Right now it seems like they have it set up this way:

   Level 1 -- Restores 3%
   Level 2 -- Restores 5%
   Level 3 -- Restores 15%

   I would change it to

   Level 1 -- 15%
   Level 2 -- 30%
   Level 3 -- 45%

   I actually managed to solo my way through the entire game as a Battle Healer, but it was no easy feat. The final battle with the Kikai Emperor is painfully difficult, but after numerous failed attempts (and waiting on him to prepare for battle) I think I’ve gotten good enough to where I can beat him and his minions on my own without fail.

   Reply
   • Jin Lovelace says:

     July 30, 2013 at 1:16 pm

     But how was the trips over to the Game Over screen? Did they skimp you on the Peanuts also? xO

     Reply