RaiOhGar: Asuka and the King of Steel is an RPG about a hopeless fight against Trizon, a planetary super power bent of conquering the world.
At-a-glance
(Adult) Content?
Yes, (FxM) content.
Censorship?
To be determined.
Hours of Game-play?
Four or more hours.
Modding Support?
No.
Patch Available?
Download from official site.
Gameplay
A relatively standard RPG. You go from point “A” to point “B”, killing anyone who stands in your way. However, there are some key differences with this title (which seperate it from similar RPGs).
Quests (or “missions”) are completed in “stages”, rather than a traditional, open-world enviroment. Between stages, your HP (or “hit points”) and EN (or “energy”) are restocked. It’s best to avoid enemies whenever possible. You do not gain experience, and enemies seldom drop useful items. Your resources are limited, encouraging you to complete the mission at hand as effiencently as possible. I was not fond of this mechanic — an RPG without the “grind” is a slippery slide to boredom.
This game is begging for rampant save scumming.
The game takes place on small collection of islands. The island is divided into occupied regions, which can be attacked. You can attack once a day, and each region represents a mission. Some are harder than the next (rated on a scale of one to ten). Between missions, you collect “core metal”, a resource used for upgrading your weapons and armor.
I must say, though I recognize the interface through-and-through, I am impressed by the way RPGMaker was used.
Story
Earth was once a peaceful planet — that is, until these a-holes called “Trizon” came along. Trizon is on a conquest for world domination. Now that the world has abandoned their high-tech firearms, Trizon is nigh unstoppable. Lucky for the world, Asuka and Varuda are around to stop Trizon’s crazy antics. With OhRaiGar, an immense mecha-suit at their disposal, they are humanity’s last hope against Trizon’s onslaught.
Visuals
The titlescreen looks promising (for an RPGMaker screen). The artwork is spot-on, and the interface stylistically sci-fi. From “Options”, you can set audio and movement preferences. There are no display settings — but you can fullscreen the application with the “F4” key. Unfortunately, the application is not in the correct aspect ratio to fill a modern screen. The sprites were an immediate disappointment — stereotypical, repetitive RPGMaker sprites, combined with out-of-place, pixelated mechas. The character sprites clearly don’t belong.
Somebody needs a competant sprite artist.
That aside, the character CGs look good, and so do the enemies (during battle). But overall, I was profoundly let down by the artwork. There are too many plain environments and inconsistencies between the animations and characters.
Verdict
Wait for a real good sale, and wait for an adult patch. I found this title to be very mediocre. While it does bring some cool ideas to the table, between the art and gameplay, I think you’ll have a better time investing into other Kagura RPGs.
