For all intents and purposes, it plays out like a Super Robot Anime aimed at Japanese Teenagers for the sake of selling toys and merchandise, and if that doesn't ignite the fire in your soul, nothing will. What else are you going to play to fuel your inner weeb, Super Robot Wars 30 for the billionth time? Armored Core VI? Near-endless indie games that never leave early access or are terminally mid? In a sub-genre practically starved for content in the West, it is borderline criminal that Level-5 isn't cleaning up with marketing!
Here are the first 25 minutes of gameplay, and it should show off how the non-combat gameplay and story segments play out:
There's a lot of story in this game, a lot of characters that go about their lives and commence war crimes against aliens (and each other), so much so that I'm surprised it isn't a selling point, because unlike other games or anime about mecha, this one is about the char- [MY LAWYERS HAVE INFORMED ME NOT TO FINISH THIS SENTENCE]
As for the combat, besides the trailers and promotional material, what should you expect?
Slaughter enemies and bosses for drops, either equipment or mats, in the vein of Diablo or Monster Hunter - co-op up to three players, PVP is also 3v3, cross-platform support enabled. The loot has color-tier rarity, vocal recognition from your navigator for Epic and Legendary tier drops, and you can churn unwanted drops into mats for motherboard development. I just fought a "treasure chest on legs" enemy that dropped multiple Legendaries on defeat, and the dopamine was real - I'm looking forward to what other "rare events" the stages could possibly have.
Motherboard development is a multi-tiered system, in which you pour resources into an expansive "tech tree" to put together chips that you tetris-slot into your mech's motherboard. This is where all of the loot comes into play - recycle unwanted loot to gain the resources needed to develop your motherboard, so even if you fail to get the drops you want in a run, you're still progressing in some fashion. Not only that, but each piece of mech equipment can be modded for additional effects, for hundreds of hours worth of autistic min-maxing mech builds ensuring complete synergy (or lack thereof) from each system.
The combat itself is an improved version of LBX, if anyone remembers that 3DS franchise from Level-5, even if they only ever brought over a single game. If you want to go even further, it's like if Nintendo didn't give up on Custom Robo entirely, and it spawned a multi-media franchise that collabs with other Super Robot Anime. I've been re-running the low level side missions for drops, and just because I enjoy the combat that much, it really hits every note I've been missing from Custom Robo decades ago.
You know what this game reminds me of? PSO2, before it turned into NGS, from the high-speed combat to the drops to the overall feel of the gameplay. If a future update brings a social hub that players can chill while matchmaking for various activities, or AFK Emote in lobby, that might just be the final nail in the coffin for PSO2 NGS - if Level-5's marketing weren't incompetent.
Now, onto the elephant in the room - the absolutely disgusting Day One DLC. I am trying to remain as neutral as possible when talking about this so I don't glow too hard. On one hand, it should not be acceptable for a game to have over $100 of Day One DLC, on top of a deluxe edition/upgrade that permanently unlocks the "premium" version of the game's monthly reward track (one time purchase that applies to each subsequent month or 45 day period, 30 levels per track, I got about 8 levels in my first "serious" day of play). What you get in this reward track are tickets to improve Legendary+ drop chances for a single mission, tokens/tickets that can be used to purchase from the in game shops, all of which you could otherwise earn by running missions and completing tasks. The same goes for the daily log-in bonuses, so you would get all of these things regardless by just playing the game. No FOMO, play at your own pace, unless you're a hardcore PVP player, in which case get some help. The DLC itself are purely customization based - decals, paint jobs, outfits for NPCs, skins for your hoverboard, emotes, Navi Voice Packs, that you would be unable to get by farming drops ("exclusive" to the DLC).
Since Level-5 want to support this game over the long-term with additional content, storylines, mecha, bosses, gameplay - and this is the second revision after Megaton Musashi X - this is probably the best way they could go about cosmetic DLC, while keeping the vast majority of customization options and Super Robo collabs earnable in-game. The only DLC that I consider "worth" buying, apart from the Korone Navi voice pack, is the Deluxe edition/upgrade - and that's only if you see yourself playing this game over the long-term. Otherwise, only get the DLC if you want to support the game, since Level-5 isn't going to market it themselves. Monster Hunter could get away with it because it's Monster Hunter, and it was a MASSIVE mistake on Level-5's part for a "new" (in the west) IP such as Megaton Musashi to have it all at the start instead of spreading them out over the year.
