Hearts of steel

If ever there was an example of the old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, Fuga: Melodies of Steel stands tall as a shining example. While on the outside, this game from CyberConnect2 looks to be a largely fun romp in a world populated by anthropomorphic cats and dogs, presented in beautiful watercolor like graphics is quickly revealed to be a dark, and serious war story told through the eyes of children. Having their picturesque life shattered when the invading fascist Berman Empire invades their small village, Malt and Hannah, the oldest of the kids, gather up their friend Kyle, and are led to a tank via a woman’s voice from a radio. What follows is a tale of strength, friendship, loss, and hardship that will pull on your heartstrings and have you agonizing over your decisions long after the credits roll.

Fuga waste little time in getting right in to the thick of things. Players are treated to a little slice of the idyllic life that our little would-be heroes lead in the small village, Petit Mona. A peaceful and tranquil place indeed, some of the still shots of the Parisian inspired village was truly breathtaking. The watercolor painting- like graphics are utilized not only in the cutscene still’s but also in the actual gameplay. As one is shown the kids playing and doing various things around the village they truly can almost smell the fresh air. Alas, the Berman Empire soon invade and destroy all that beauty; stylized to resemble one of histories most historic fascist states, the guards are displayed as Doberman dogs. The attention to detail on their uniforms is so high, not only do they have medals and tassels but even little armor cups for their ears that stand straight up…I don’t say this often but it was really cute.

MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $39.99

Again, though its wartime and cuteness doesn’t last long, the troops round up all of the adults and make them prisoners. Our group of heroes, however, are led to a large battle tank by a mysterious female voice on the radio. Once inside, the voice leads the player as well as the children through starting up the tank and directing to save the parents. What follows is a tutorial to get players in the swing of things, as well as what will be the biggest twist about this tank. But before we get into the that, lets talk about the battle system and movement a little bit.

Fuga: Melodies of Steel is a turn-based RPG with some tactic like elements thrown in. The gameplay takes place on a 2D plane but the characters and objects are all 3D which has a very unique look and effect. As players progress and move through each of the 12 chapters they will have a set path littered with way points. Each of those points indicate combat, or pickups/loot which is used to upgrade the tank and its weapons as well as heal and restore SP (the stand in for the more traditional Mana). Even though we only move left to right there will be breaks in the road where we will need to choose a path. Usually, one will be a tad easier and offer decent rewards while the other will have more combat encounters or even elite encounters but will give top tier rewards. At the start and end of each path is usually an intermission; it’s here that players will hard save the game as well as other things. One of the unique things about Fuga is while I could save the game by quitting to the main menu, the save was temporary and would be deleted when it was loaded next. This is a good way of making sure people don’t save before certain points and try and cheat the system.

The battle tank; named the Taranis comes equipped with 3 different weapons, a machine gun, grenade launcher and a heavy cannon. These weapons are all colored coded and basically equate to a light, medium and heavy attack. Each of the children will be assigned a gun automatically but they can each be paired up together which will allow them to utilize link moves as well as other special attacks. The enemies players face will all have color coded weaknesses, from there its just a matter of attacking with the matching color which in addition to doing more damage to an enemy players will also delay their attack on the time line. This is of course a great tactic to control the battlefield, being able to smartly mix those delays as well as normal attacks is going to be the key to victory. But of course, some times players can become overwhelmed and the enemy will beat them down its at these moments when the Taranis will activate its super weapon: The Soul Cannon.

The Soul Cannon is the big twist that I mentioned earlier, it is quite literally a game changer. With its incredible destructive power, players are able to obliterate an enemy in one shot, the gigantic catch is it will cost the life of one of the kids. You read that correct, during this tutorial I was asked to sacrifice one of the kids to power the cannon and safe the rest of them from certain doom. I was taken aback when I got to this part, I had just met these kids; how on earth could I choose which one to send to their death? Luckily, I found out that I could rewind time to an intermission point where I had a save from before this fight. But the implications are there nonetheless, luckily, I didn’t have to lose any of my crew but I learned that this weapon was available to me in dire circumstances. And I will say that it is absolutely heartbreaking when I had to use it. Not only because I was losing someone I probably had come to love, but because I knew I failed them. If only I had buffed my armor, or not been greedy going for the top loot maybe then I wouldn’t need to use the Soul Cannon to win the fight. It is a truly awful feeling, I honestly have lost people in games lots of times but I don’t know if it was the fact that these are kids and I’m a father or what but I felt these losses. But again, as long as players plan correctly and really think their moves through they can avoid losing someone in this fashion.

It’s really a shame to have to lose any of them too, because the character development in Fuga is top tier. Each of the children exude so much individual personality for instance there is Socks the nerd. Socks is all about tinkering with machines and things, of course has thick glasses and is just the cutest but of course he has a problem talking to girls. If you have Socks interact with Kyle he explains all this to him and Kyle being the resident “cool” kid proceeds to give him girl advice. It’s all very relatable, as we all have been that young and talked about these things with friends. One of the things that players get to do during the intermissions is walk around the new home in the Taranis and explore. Here, players can do things like do some scrap fishing out the back (which will get the materials needed for upgrading the Taranis), farm and tend the livestock that will be their food source and players can interact with all the kids. The game allowed me to take control of any of the unlocked characters that are in the Taranis and do any of the activities or speak to any other child. I was limited by action points, each action cost a certain amount of points. For instance, talking with another child usually cost 1 point, where as farming will cost 2; it’s also important to note that I had one set of AP instead of a set for each child. This is probably the most important part of the strategic planning, because its here where players will influence not only the tank’s weapons but also characters’ skills.

As players control and speak with the various kids they will build a relation ship with them. As this progresses, they will eventually unlock a link attack between those two characters. Which is important because as I said in combat when players assign a kid/gun to a slot, they can link another child with them. This can buff or debuff the character in the gunner seat. Maybe it will increase the attack but lower the speed, or perhaps allow players to apply a status effect like burning, or smoke to an enemy. The bulk of the special moves are going to come from leveling up during battles, intermissions and relationship management between the children. And as I said it’s the real high point of the game for me, learning all about these kids and seeing them grow from these scared children to this determined force for good.

If it isn’t obvious yet, I loved every moment of Fuga: Melodies of Steel. The game itself just oozes so much personality and its just beautiful to see it in motion. This game will get to you in the best of ways, it was more than just playing the game you will really want to help these kids achieve their goals. The writing is perfect, and the range of emotions that this game is able to extract from a person is staggering. I did my best not to spoil things because this game is another one that is best experienced for yourself. Offering multiple endings and paths based on your decisions and who lives and dies; Fuga: Melodies of Steel takes the best parts of the story telling from Mass Effect 2 with the simple vehicle combat from Advance Wars and smashes it together with a wonderful RPG system, melodic music and beautiful graphics to a roaring success. Its not often that you find such a dark and adult story wrapped up in such a whimsical and beautiful package, this one could be a contender for RPG of the year.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.