Chief among them were Relayer‘s core cast of Starchildren. To borrow a cinematic term, Relayer‘s mecha don’t get enough “screen time.” They don’t end up feeling like the extensions of the characters within them the way they do in iconic series like Gundam. Instead, I found myself much more interested in the people inside the robotic suits. Sure, one Stellar Gear mecha called the Original One basically drives much of the early-game plot, but I was hard-pressed to remember what it even looked like. And yet, this came to mind as I played Relayer, a new mecha strategy RPG from Kadokawa Games and the God Wars team, I realized I couldn’t even remember which mecha the characters actually piloted without looking them up in the in-game codex.ĭespite being involved at the core of Relayer‘s dense plot and setting, the mecha feel oddly inessential to the narrative. Claiming mecha stories are “all about the robots” is a great way to show you haven’t seen many. After all, every good one, from Aquarion to Zegapain, is centered on its cast. “Unlike other mecha series, this one focuses on the characters.” Say something like that about any given mecha story, and you’re bound to annoy fans of the genre.
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