- Equip and customize your equipment
- Strategize your best moves in tactical combat
- Cool characters and stellar voice acting
I hate how superficial I can be sometimes when it comes to visuals, but honestly, the first thing I noticed about Mecharashi was that the main character looks like Dante from Devil May Cry, so I wanted to give it a try (I’m so sorry).
However, a few hours into this tactical fighting game and I’m completely convinced – thank God I judged a book by its proverbial cover.
Mecharashi is basically just piloting your nippy mech to destroy other people’s nippy mechs, and I really like that. The grid-based battlefield, the clunky mech movements, the overly specific pieces of equipment – I’m all for it, mainly because it reminds me of the good elderly days of Front Mission (when Square Enix was still Square).
It also reminds me of the mech battles in Xenogears (although that’s a completely different genre), but I guess that’s the power of nostalgia, right? It makes you attach to something, even if it kind of defies logic – I just know that Mecharashi gives me that feeling and I’m very willing to go for it.
Of course, there’s also some fun narrative here – you’ll find yourself in the middle of a war between different factions, so you’ll have to upgrade your gear and develop the most effective turn-based combat moves to keep your mech intact. The cutscenes are animated in 3D, with fully voiced lines (and excellent voice acting, I might add) that add to the immersion.
The mechs themselves aren’t the only wonderfully designed elements here, because as mentioned, the characters themselves look really, really nippy. Of course, you can customize the aesthetics of your mech, but it’s the battle performance that really drew me in here.
For example, you can employ your sniper to target a specific part of an enemy mech, whether it disables its right arm so it can’t shoot at you or damages its leg to impede its movement.
And when you finally reduce your enemies to pieces, there is nothing more satisfying. Add to that an MC who looks like Dante and… let’s just say I know what I’ll be playing all weekend.
Mecharashi is free to download on iOS and Android. If you’re curious, you can invest in in-app purchases!
