Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament for PSP Reviews by Gamers

Steambot Chronicles deserves a lot of props for, if nothing else, deciding to do mech combat and cheery exploration in a way that PS2 owners hadn't really seen before. For me, the game's charm and customization couldn't overcome some rather clunky controls, but the steampunk-powered, Victorian-themed world held plenty of possibility. That there's even a chance to tap into that world on the PSP means there's reason enough for those that weren't hamstrung by the PS2 version's controls to get excited -- particularly because the game's controls, while still decently complex, aren't quite as clunky as the console counterpart.



Unfortunately, this isn't quite the same world teeming with places to explore and people to chat up. Yes, you're usually quite free to run around exploring the town of Orion City at your leisure, and once the initial training and expository bits are out of the way, you can leave the town at any time and just to do Trot hunting. The steam-powered mechs that dot the extra-Orion locales will always appear in the same place, so exploration means one can memorize things before striking out on a mission, but it's hardly necessary as the game will repeatedly send you out to collect things or speak to people anyway.



This brings me to Battle Tournament's biggest flaw: it's repetitive as hell. You play an amnesiac guy/gal who arrives in Orion off a boat with little in the way of memories about the past cropping up (not that they're needed, exactly; the game's storyline is mostly concentrated around the residents and events happening in Orion City). Like the PS2 games, your character is sort of defined through having you answer periodic pings as to what they'd say mid-conversation. For the most part, it doesn't really matter what you say, but making vaguely lascivious advances toward your gal pal/mechanic when you're a girl is actually rather amusing -- if only to see the responses at times.



If the story isn't terribly important, then the focus must surely be on delivering solid gameplay, no? To a degree, that's absolutely true, and despite being far less complex in environments, characters, missions and customization, the initial impression I got from things was that it was all rather well put together. Ten or so hours later, I still think what's in place here is decent, but a near-endless amount of repetition and overly-complex processes needed to satisfy missions have combined to dull my earlier excitement about building up a clunky little robot and pitting it against others in Orion's main coliseum.



That arena combat has some decently varied locales featuring some nice elevation, tons of objects that can be picked up and thrown, and a modest amount of strategy that can be used to combat the ranged, jumping and melee abilities of the other fighters in four progressively difficult classes. Unfortunately, those duels have to be earned (and you still have to pay each time you fight someone) by way of doing assorted tasks for the residents. These missions earn you cash, good for buying new parts or upgrading existing ones with basic things like more hit points, damage or range (each piece of the Trotmobiles has a set number of times they can be upgraded, though) and fame, which is sort of the gauge for who can enter a particular class.





The fame thing is more or less pointless; you're bound to the upgrade cycle just by virtue of the arena opponents (and indeed the enemies out in the wild later on) being tougher, so you'll earn fame normally. It's pretty useless metric as far as I could tell, and by the time I'd sailed into the Rank C battles, I'd long since crested any fame requirements. For those keeping track, yes, Rank C is the second tier in the game.



Those missions, though, range from mildly amusing to repetitive to an utter waste of time, but all of them require the same convoluted process: go to the Employment Agency, speak to the honey-voiced receptionist, ask to see missions, pick one, go talk to someone in town (though sometimes this step happens outside of town), head outside to slog through the same enemies that spawn in the same spots in every smallish area, pick up the item (or talk to the person), return to town, and then report first to the person that gave you the mission, then head back to the Employment Agency to actually get paid. Did I mention there's at least two instances of having to go to a preset spot and climbing in-out of the Trotmobile per mission?



When riding in a Trot, it's a little easier -- at least when scooting around town. Holding X will let them sprint infinitely (though outside the city, it's just a dash, the boost level of which must be monitored), so you can at least scuttle about fairly quickly. On foot, though, you both move more slowly than in a Trot and lack a way to run. As there are missions where you have to run from one end of town to the other, it all just kind of feels mindless and boring. And there's a ton of it as you work to earn money to upgrade your existing Trot or add more bits.



After a while, it all just kind of starts to smear together. I'm a sucker for any game with elements where you can see and appreciable difference in skills, so the Monster Hunter-like Trot upgrades do indeed make you feel a little more powerful (particularly during coliseum battles), but the legwork needed to see it all play out was just so... draining. It's a shame, too, because the game isn't without its own particular bits of charm.



Much of that charm comes from the game's aesthetics. Both the characters and buildings sport a kind of bent version of Victorian style and architecture, which goes very nicely with the whole steampunk atmosphere. There's a fairly lengthy day/dusk/night cycle, and when the sun sets, the windows of buildings will glow brightly, Pola Motors (Venus' shop) has yellow light pouring out and the coliseum is ringed with searchlights punching up into the sky. It's all static, of course, but coming back into the city from outside and seeing the glow of light is kind of... comforting -- especially if you're running on fumes are nearly out of HP.



Though there's a bit of close-up fade-in of people, other Trots and vehicles, the whole of the city (such as it is), is shown with no real pop-in. Unfortunately, that comes at the cost of some slowdown and framerate dips when looking toward the coliseum from some of the side streets.





Similarly, the audio does a decent job, but isn't built to amaze. The music is plucky and quaint (and actually changes with the time of day), and the voice acting is solid, but it's delivered with a bunch of mostly-still torsos, and not all lines are actually voiced. Not bad, mind you, but not exactly headphone-required listening either.

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