Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3 Review
With Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3’s release, the finale of what has been a wonderful pet project (pun intended) for CyberConnect2 is finally here. Throwing a group of cartoon children into the horrors of a war loosely based upon World War II was a bold choice, but it has spawned a trilogy of hopeful stories of survival against insurmountable odds. Here, with the final title, the developers round off this tale set in the Little Tail Bronx universe.
Kicking off with what are honestly the most harrowing scenes of the series, Fuga 3 settles into its core narrative, after some obligatory time travel shenanigans. Malt, the leader of the children, is abducted by the Berman Empire, who are gearing up for another invasion of Gasco. The remaining children are drawn to the Taranis, a gigantic tank that we last saw falling through the sea of clouds in Fuga 2. Once aboard, they set out through Gasco to rescue Malt, stop the Berman Empire and topple the villainous Kaiser.
Returning from Fuga 2 is the ability from the start to view summaries of the entire story so far, so you don’t even need to play the previous titles to follow the narrative of this title. I would still recommend playing the others, as it gives a better understanding of how the core mechanics of these games work. It also impresses upon the player the relationship between the characters and makes the harsher elements of the story hit all the harder. But I ain’t your keeper, so do what you want.
The gameplay here is largely the same as the previous titles, with all the turn-based strategy and life-sim elements you’ve come to expect. Once again, you’ll be blowing holes in tanks of steadily increasing size and power, capitalising on their weaknesses to delay their turns. If you find yourself right up against it, the Soul Cannon still allows you to use the soul and life of one of the children to win any battle, which is especially grim when, in the downtime between battles, you’re performing tasks on the Taranis to aid you in future battles from farming, to cooking, to simply chatting with the kids.
Performing these tasks during the Intermission segments provides bonuses like improving the relationships between the children, which unlocks powerful new attacks, and eating specifically grants your entire team buffs for the upcoming battles. Returning from previous games is the Notebook that lists the specific activities the children want to do, which grants substantial EXP boosts and raises their spirits for future battles.
With this being the epic conclusion of the trilogy, the battles have been buffed to an incredible sheen. On top of all the mechanics of previous games, CyberConnect2 has worked to provide interplay between – and additions to – the existing gameplay of the series. The best addition that develops on the existing mechanics is that Leader Skills can now be performed by all of the children instead of just Malt. Although these can’t be chosen as actions, they activate in response to what is happening in the battle, so their timing is often absolutely perfect.
The first of the new mechanics of Fuga 3 is the Combo Chance, which allows you to chain hits against enemy weaknesses to multiply the damage of your next hit. It caps at 200%, but believe me that a double damage cannon blast will absolutely get the job done. This instils a more dynamic use of switching the children around at far more regular intervals than the previous games and it also resulted in me using children in battle that I rarely used in the first two games, like Wappa or Chick.
The second new mechanic builds on the wealth of characters from the series outside of the core cast to provide Assist Attacks. Based on your decisions in the game at key narrative points, you can unlock the ability to bring in specific characters to support you with a variety of features from wiping out enemy armour to increasing the defence of the Taranis. Then, during the gameplay, you can land on Transmission Events, where these support players request conversations with specific characters on the Taranis to increase the potency of their Assist Attacks.
These are great additions, but the third new mechanic that doesn’t land quite as well for me. Hitting weaknesses builds a gauge ending in a cute little pixel heart. The moment you hit that heart, a very powerful attack will activate automatically, which is where my problem with it lies. You have no easy way to manipulate this, so this attack is often wasted. It’s not a dealbreaker, of course, but when all the other mechanics blend in so well, it’s disappointing to have one that doesn’t fit into an effective strategy.
Visually, Fuga 3 is much the same as the previous games, employing the same beautiful watercolour artstyle and showing developments of the characters through small changes to their visual design. There are subtle changes, such as the attack effects looking far more flashy than previous titles, but otherwise this is the same Fuga. This isn’t a bad thing, as they nailed the visuals (and the sound for that matter) from the first game in my opinion, so more of the same is an excellent thing.
