Thread by @CaseyExplosion

Hey folks, I have added Fuga: Melodies of Steel to my Steam curator page.

This seems to be slipping under a lot of people's radar, which is a pity, because it is without a doubt one of the best I've played all year. I highly recommend checking it out.

store.steampowered.com/app/1357860/Fu…

If you've not heard of this game, it's an extremely anime game where you play as a bunch of kids in a furry alternate France who commandeer a mysterious Howl's Moving Castle-esque tank to fight the invading Berman army. Yeah, it's a fantasy WWII setting like Valkyria Chronicles.

It's hard to compare the came to anything else, but the closest thing I'd compare it to is actually a linear Darkest Dungeon, where your Howl's Trundling Fortress moves left to right coming across different enemies or bonuses along the way with some branching paths.

The combat is all fairly simple, kinda standard turn-based stuff, the kids use different weapons which are colour coded red, yellow, blue, and using corresponding attacks to break an enemy's guard will delay them and send them further back in the timeline. Simple, but engaging.

Then, during the intermission you can upgrade Howl's Trundling Fortress (It's actually called The Taranis, but...) increase the damage of the individual guns, or HP or SP, all fairly standard and simple. But that simplicity is why I'm finding it so god damn engaging.

Then it just keeps layering on the mechanics and little tasks that you can do between battles, like fish for scrap to upgrade your tank, plant crops, cook meals that will give you bonuses in combat. You can even do these little dungeons! It's all introduced at a steady pace.

Now, to address the elephant in the room...

One of the core conceits of the game, or at least one that features heavily in the marketing, is the Taranis' ultimate weapon; The Soul Cannon, which is *ahem*

POWERED BY A FORSAKEN CHILD!!!

So, if Howl's Trundling Fortress' HP gets low enough, it'll open up the option to use the Soul Cannon, and you can make the gut-wrenching choice as to which of the war orphans you wanna stuff in the soul crusher.

Mei, get a helmet, we're firing you at the enemy.

Now, I know quite a few folks found this put them off the game, but aside from the tutorial you don't seem to need to use it at all. I think it's a bit of a red herring to add some drama, which it is extremely effective at, but doesn't actually play a huge part in the game.

On the whole? It's thoroughly fantastic game that introduces simple mechanics that build on each other and make for incredibly compelling gameplay. It's out on everything right now, so I would highly recommend you don't skip this. It's really, really wonderful.

Fuga, a game about kids and their giant tank, you should play it. 👍

Anyway, go follow my Steam curator page.

I'd tell folks to share it, but uh...

store.steampowered.com/curator/283401…

Oh, and yes, this is from the same folks who made Tail Concerto and Solatorobo