Robot Alchemic Drive


Robot Alchemic Drive, known in Japan as is a PlayStation 2 video game developed by Sandlot and published by Enix. It was released in Japan and North America.
In the game the player controls a giant robot called a Meganite, humanity's last line of defense against an extraterrestrial race called the Volgara. The player is not in the cockpit of the robot; rather, he or she is on foot, carrying a remote control. As such, Robot Alchemic Drive features many of the same gameplay elements as other Sandlot games.

Story

As the seventeen-year-old sole inheritor to the Tsukioka family and their bankrupt weapons company, the game introduces the player to a world where all manned space exploration projects have been put on hold indefinitely due to a material called "Space Nectar" that poisons and kills any organic life in space. Earth is safe because of its atmosphere, but it seems that humanity is doomed to an isolated existence.
When machines known as Volgara begin destroying the Earth, the player must pilot the only weapon on Earth capable of standing against the invaders. Along the way, lives will be changed, history will be made, and the origins of the Volgara will be revealed.

Gameplay

The protagonists that the player may choose between are two males and one female ; however, the NPCs usually only refer to the character as "Chairman" and choice of player character does not affect gameplay. There are 3 different robots to choose from: Vertical Fortress Vavel, Airborne Dominator Laguiole and Gllang the Castlekeep.
Vavel has 2 modes, Volcanic and Genesis mode.
Laguiole can turn into a plane, and his mode similar to Vavel's is the Demon Sword Desecrator mode, which releases two short, laser like, daggers from the robot's wrists.
Gllang can turn into a vehicle/tank being. His special mode is the Warhammer Sanctifier. On his arms, two big blocks of metal alloy are released and become mallets. These special modes only become available after Level 40: Valhalla Dawning. These modes will only last 180 seconds, or 3 minutes.
It is possible throughout the game to affect the life of a particular character. For example: Nanao's storyline may be affected by the destruction of certain buildings while on missions.
Enemies, for a short number of episodes, are the same. The only difference is the change in color and weapons. They become smarter and more aware of what the main character is doing as the player progresses through the story. You also unlock all of the Volgara in two player versus mode when you beat the game with 2 out of the 3 main protagonists.
The game is a homage to the Super Robot anime series of the 70's and 80's. Although much older than most of the game's homages, a remote-controlled robot was first seen in the program Tetsujin 28. Yui's pink and yellow outfit is expressly said in the manual to be a tribute to the heroines of those shows, and Vavel's Lava Stream attack is based on Mazinger Z's Breast Fire attack, even including the biceps-flexing pose usually performed when the weapon was used.

Characters

The Hero/Heroine: The player-controlled character, a seventeen-year-old junior at the public Senjo High School and the sole heir of the prestigious Tsukioka clan that has gone bankrupt. Tsukioka Industries, a weapons manufacturer, collapsed while funding the construction of the Meganites, which the hero must control to save his/her hometown. There are three characters selectable: Naoto, Yui, and Ryo. Their stories, however, are all very similar.
Nanao Misaki
Dr. Hourai
Dr. Herman Wiltz
Keiko Konan
Saki Kyono
Ellen Bulnose
Masaru Misaki
Tomoe Kawasaki
Mika Banhara
Souya
Captain Shin'ichiro Kurosugi and Private Takeshi Yamano
Kyoji Otawara

Development

Robot Alchemic Drive was developed by Sandlot, a company created by former employees of Human Entertainment. The characters of the game were designed by Toshihiro Kawamoto, the character designer of the Cowboy Bebop anime series. Development of Robot Alchemic Drive took approximately 16 to 18 months to complete. Much of the game's use of incredibly large robots was inspired by anime. The game was aimed at both casual and hardcore gamers, as well as fans of action games and robot games. The hardest part of development was to handle the sense of scale involved with the robots.

Reception

The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of two eights and two sevens for a total of 30 out of 40.
By its second week of sale in Japan, Robot Alchemic Drive had sold 17,888 copies.