Steambot Chronicles




"Get ready for............. Steambot Chronicles!!!"

That's how a lively voice from one of the many characters greets you at the start screen. Yes it might seem corny at first and it might make you think "why am i playing this again?"

Well i'll tell you why! Just because it's another one of the lost master pieces released by Atlus, that's why!
A nice full bodied RPG in every sence of the word.... or words... whatever!!!

This game takes place in an alternate reality, like most games do... but it as it's fair share of realism, nope no monsters for you to fight here. There is also no leveling up, so no worries about having to run around in circles to fight random oponnents. The time period could be set in the early 18th century, cars had just been invented and oil discovered to be a power source. This can be verified by the style of clothing of the characters, buildings, vehicles and the items.

But the invention that came to mark this era was the Trotmobile, a robot that can be compaired to a car with arms and legs. Where the driver and the another passenger travel on top, this invention was suposed to be a revolution in the vehicle industry and was meant to offer help in manual labour, which can be seen throughout the whole game, but some people use them for less peaceful purposes, that's right humanity has done it again, they picked up a potentcaly dangerous creation and gave it the use we all hoped for....battle. During the game you'll be able to buy new parts for your trotmobile, be it weapons for the arms,from cannons to swords, legs to move better through the various terrains or back attachements to transport several kinds of cargo. Not to mention fuel and repair your damages, believe me you will be doing that a LOT, since without fuel the trotmobil wont move... or it will very very very slowly.



The game offers you a tuturial right at the start menu, i would advise everyone to take it since driving the trotmobile can be quite triky and takes some time to get used to. Besides even though it might not look like it at first it is a rather important part of the story.
Two boys try to stole away inside a ship but they get caught by the crew. The female captain instead of throwing them over-board decides to welcome them into the crew as long as they can pull their own weight. So she gives them a crash course in how to man a trotmobile.
Well... the damn thing looks like a man right? So you would just control it like you control your character when on foot, right? Wrong! You actually have to use both analot sticks, one for each leg, cuz if you only press foward on the right one, the machine will turn left and vice versa, so to move in a straight line yu gotta press both sticks forward. Pressing front and back silmultaniously will make it turn around in the same spot.
Now for attacks, you have to arms, R1 to swing the right arm and L1 to swing the left arm, or shoot missiles or use whatever you have equipped.
You can also perform jumps and dashes, these actions of course eat up most fue and will fill the heat gauge. Yes a heat gauge just like the name implies tells you the temperature of the machine, so if it fills up you wont be able to move.

After the explanation and the practive she will challenge you for a 1-on-1 battle, yeah about time! This is one of the hardest fights in the game, first time i played the game took me about ten tries to beat her. Ths one is mostly hard cuz you are new to the controls. Oh and btw, she has a cannon while you oly have two scrap arms... betch..... My advice? Pick stuff from the ground and throw at her as you aproach her then once you're up close and persnal, grab her and body slam her. Move back before she gets back up and repeat.

Once that's done you'll set sail. End of the tuturial and for your troubles you get...... a license plate! A lame looking one at that. But no worries you can make one yourself from scratch at any mechanic.

Once the real game starts you find yourself stranded in a beach a girl you never saw before wakes you up. Afar you can see the ship you were in the tuturial broken in pieces. To make things worse you have amnesia....
OH NO! Not another amnesia plot!!! Damn! Kidding this one actually works prety well as it allows you to shape your character's behavior from zero.
Since you don't know your own name she tells you it is Vanilla because that's the name carved in a harmonica you were carrying. Okay this is the worst name for a character ever, of everyone i talked with about this game the opinion was always the same, the name sucks! But it will eventually grow on you...

You try to get off the beach on foot, but it seems someone has ther plans as the exit gets blocked by a rock colapsing due to a blue trotmobile hidding in a cliff, luckily there's an old abandoned trotmobile standing outsde an old beach house equally abandoned, but for some reason it still has a pair of gloves for you to wear and a photo that makes the girl sad.


Vanilla alway the gentleman....


So now you have the strenght of the trotmobilein your hands you can lift that pesky boulder out of your way!
From this point forward you will travel with this girl and she tells you about her band. A band? Cool! Hey i have an harmonica!!! Can i play it? Sure! It seems i forgot about everything in my life except how to play a friekin harmonica!!!!

*ahem*

And on to the musical portion of the game. Throughout your adventures you will come across several instruments, you start with the harmonica and then you go on to find or buy new instruments from the trumpet to guitar and drums.
Each instrument has it's own minigame to be played, and every instrument has it's own practice song and then a list on songs you learn from your band. All minigames consist on timing and pressing the right buttn at the right time. Others like the acordian will add in the motion of the analog sticks.
The instruments can be played anytime and they're actually quite useful, since once you park your ride you can do street performances to earn money.


Play it good and they'll cheer and throw money, play bad and they'll walk past you.

Just like the trotmobile can't run without fuel the same can be said about the main character if you don't eat, you go hungry, if you starve, you colapse. But don't eat just any junk because rotten food will cause you to go sick and have to pay a visit at the hospital. That can be bothersome since there is only one in the whole game and the game world is pretty large, it even has a desert!

This game has lots of things that make the game experience so enjoyable. Be it the clothes you buy or find through the course of the game and that change the way you look once you put them on and get different reactions out of the people you talk with. Or the different ways to make money, to play in the streets at bars or chuches. To gather minerals, wood, sharks....yes sharks.... To transport water, and other goods. To perform taxi jobs carrying people at your back and drop them off at the stop. To hustle the pool tables and rip those wise guys at the bars. To perform excavations in search for fossils and then assemble them at the museum. To gamble with the stock market. Work for the news paper. Or to just go to the Arena and rise through the ranks as you beat the holy high hell out of the competition!

All these things give this game a good lenght even after you're done with the story, which has several endings, from the hero, to the villain.

The music is good and even though the songs you play with your band are a bit sucky in terms of lyrics nd rythim you can still have a good time playing them.

The graphics are also nice, a bit cartoony but not out of proportions, with nice cell shadding, altough they slow down in some areas.


I give this game a 9/10.

Yeah most of my scores will be like this, cuz i'm impartial so i only review games i like! XD


Credits: Images from gamespot.com and review by Xugoh.