An Otaku World review of

Tech Romancer

Capcom

Reviewed by Jennifer Diane Reitz, June 15 2000

Platform Reviewed	Dreamcast
Genre	Anime Mech Fighting Game
Number of Players	One or Two
Multiplayer Value	Yes
Length	Indefinite
Difficulty	Adjustable
Skills Required	Joypad Skill
Interface Devices	Joypad
Interface Design	Excellent
Programming	Excellent
Game Design and Playability	Easy to play, hard to master anime mech fighting game that is accessible to beginning gamers, yet possesses depth for advanced gamers.
Type Of Fun	Story Mode offers 8+ different, multi-branching multi-ending tales of courage and valor whilst giant killer anime robots beat the snot out of each other and everything in sight. Versus Mode offers the opportunity to let a friend join and then beat the snot out of each other's giant killer anime robots. Basically, a whole lot of 'cans of kickass' being opened.
Replay Value	Great!
Overall Value	Exceptional!
Quality	Exceptional! A truly great anime gamer experience, especially for the giant mech fan.
The Best	Every giant robot in the game is a very obvious and deliberate homage to a favorite anime series. Evangelion, Gundam, Dangaieo, Gowkaiser, Dunbine, Gigantor, and more...they are all in here. Cities to crush underfoot, great branching stories with multiple endings, secret things to unlock, VMU games, character biographies, mech diagrams, fantastic attacks, and incredible graphics.
The Worst	Some gamers, raised on extremely difficult fighting games, will fail to appreciate the easy controls and subtle strategies. Slow thinkers will write the game off as simple.
How much I would pay for this	60 bucks. Fear not, though, it is much less.

Description:

An anime mech 'Street Fighter' with an incredible amount of bonus material tossed in.

Story:

Eight different ones, in fact, but one common final boss. A mysterious evil space fortress is approaching earth, and all hell has broken loose. In an effort to deal with the chaos, the earth's entire supply of giant killer anime mech robots has been unleashed. Why not- if you got em, use em!

Junpei, a high school student (of course) pilots the G. Kaiser (originally 'Kikaioh' in the Japanese release) a giant robot built of a mysterious mostly indestructible new metal, constructed by his dead (?) father. Alone, he rushes to save a city, and a world!

Nakoto and Haruma are drafted by the government to command the giant, Gundam-like 'Dixen', a mech capable of both space and earth combat. When the battle takes the team to the moon, things get desperate!

In the Evangelion-like 'Pulsion' angst fills both Kei and Kai as they attempt to fight a demon-god from the sky for their mysterious secret organization, all for the fate of the earth!

Pollin, a magical girl from the Dimention Crusader, hexes together the Super Junk Robot Dimensional Battler Bolon from odds and ends laying about. Animated into whimsical life, the Super Junk Bolon and it's magical pilot Pollin strive to save the world, for love and beauty!

The Air Force has finally perfected the Macross/Valkrie-like 'Refaga' transforming Aero-Mech to pump alien invaders full of holes. The oversexed ace pilot Simon is the only man who can fly the incredible robot to glory!

Against her industrialist father's wishes, the energetic and spunky, yet deeply compassionate Reika, takes control of the Love and Justice Fighter 'Diana 17' to battle corrupt corporate bosses!

Psychic children Daichi and Sora fly their twin fighter jets only to combine them into the unstoppable 'Twinzam V'! Made of a secret ore, Twinzam Z is the tool the orphans must use as they seek world justice for children everywhere!

Huge and lumbering, the 'Mechwarrior/Front Mission' styled 'Wise Duck' army mech serves it's five-man crew well in the corporate government wars. However, a rookie on board has second thoughts about the inhumanity of the current mission, and the crew of the Walking Gun Wise Duck must determine whether they are good soldiers...or better human beings!

Review:

Tech Romancer has been roundly savaged by many slow-thinking reviewers in magazines and online, which is sad, because it clearly shows me just how dim people can be.

However, the anime otaku is a different breed, and can appreciate something that is both easy to play and amazing to see, and what is more, the anime fan can generally read well. This last point is important regarding any fighting game that actually bothers to have a story, and Tech Romancer does, and then some. Multiple stories, in point of fact, with branching paths and multiple endings.

Basically, Tech Romancer is like setting down and playing all of your favorite Giant Robot anime. Whatever your taste, from the whimsical to the grimly serious, Tech Romancer has a killer robot for you. Add to this an amazing number of mini games, galleries, extras, background material, unlockable goodies, and a whole Gundam-load of fun, and there is one fine game to be had here.

Serious otaku will especially appreciate that all of the original Japanese voice acting is intact, with subtitles, as well as all of the original material. In fact, only the name of the game (and one robot) has been changed.

So listen up, ignore the idiots, and track down a copy of this wonderful recent release for the Dreamcast. This is just about the best 'Street Fighter' style mech fighting game one could imagine.

Very Recommended.

Jennifer Diane Reitz is a Game Designer and Computer Artist, one of the co-founders of Otaku World, and, in an earlier time, a co-founder of Happy Puppy Games OnRamp (where she was also wrote many game reviews). She is the creator of numerous games and software products, including Boppin', Kokoro Wish, and many others. She has worked for such companies as Activision, Sculptured Software, Epyx, SRI, and Electronic Arts, and founded Accursed Toys. She has been active in the computer gaming industry since its earliest days. She considers games to be works of artistic merit and achievement, and views computer entertainment as the most important media of our era.