Custom Robo is, to put it concisely, a mech arena combat game whose fighting system is explained away in the lore to be little more than a toy that everyone plays, like how wars are settled between Yu-Gi-Oh cards in the anime. The entire game is ridiculously plot heavy and follows the same beats (and characters) of consumer-y buy-our-products style of shounen.
You are "Hero", the unassuming boy who apparently doesn't know a single thing about how the world works at all - convenient, because other characters will explain these things to you in dialogue for the rest of the game. Your dad's dying wish is for you to be a custom robo pilot, so you join a local bounty hunter group that is desperate for help. Throughout the game, you help solve petty squabbles that the cops are too busy to solve, slowly uncovering a mystery involving corruption in the police, rival bounty hunter gangs with shady intentions, a secret organization known as the Z syndicate, and even a whole other world... that you have zero reason to ever doubt exists. Along the way you will read literally thousands of lines of dialogue from such lovable characters as Harry the Poondog Womanizer, Marcia the Girl Who Is Traumatized and Suddenly Can't Fight, and Linda the Genius Scientist With Absolutely Nothing to Hide. It's generic and underwritten to the point of wrapping back around and actually being somewhat charming. However, they try to pull some annoying shit, such as literally half a dozen tournament arcs, only one of which having any plot relevance at all (and it's the first one). Additionally, the final third of the game was so batshit insane that I was laughing out loud at how silly the story gets. It's worth experiencing for yourself, if you can manage it - it's like the Penny Arcade guys got a hold of the Evangelion script.
The actual combat mechanics are... fine. You shoot at the other robots and and they die before you do; the automatic lock on and cover based mechanics making the game similar to Dissidia Final Fantasy in a way. You collect parts that allow for further customization, changing your mobility, defense, gun, bombs, and "pods" which are basically homing missiles. However, the parts you receive are completely scripted, and the storyline is directly linear, to the point where every encounter is forced, throttling your potential customization. An overwhelming majority of the parts are received in the post-story content, which is just a series of even more tournament arcs. You have to seriously love the combat systems to consider tracking down these parts, and that severely limits what the average player can get out of the base experience of the story. Why there wasn't a SINGLE optional collectible in the story mode, I'll never understand. The complete lack of optional incentives makes the game feel as on-rails as an action game possibly could be.
I can't exactly say that my time was wasted with Custom Robo, because it's clear on some base level that the developers really cared about the game - the sheer number of lines of dialogue confirm this for me. The combat is pretty simplistic but you're given just enough new toys to not get bored with your playstyle, and there's a certain level of strategy you'll have to toy with as your usual setup occasionally will meet certain mechs they find hard to take down. The story, despite all of its bullshit, at least tried to do something high-concept and long-form, even if they ended up padding it out and going way over on the dialogue. I could see a younger person, like sub-13 years old, really digging this game because of its occasionally darker tone and free reign to play as you like on the fighting end of things. As an adult, I can't help but feel like this game needed way more time in the oven.
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what an absolute clusterfuck of a game. I kind of recommend it just to see how weird it eventually gets
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...2020-10-01 17:40:31.999898+00
Super underrated. Crazy good with friends,. Contrary to the_lockpick, thankful that you don't have to play story mode more than once for 'optional' unlockables you might have missed and genuinely enjoyed the humor and oddities of the plot.
that's a fair point. and yeah, the writing is actually charming once you get past the initial cultural whiplash of it all. it feels like an early 00s web comic
One of the few games that hooked me in because of it's intro video as a kid. Playing it now, it's still pretty cool, although robo and weapon balance could be better imo
Playing it now, it's still pretty cool, although robo and weapon balance could be better imo