Full Metal Schoolgirl is the latest game to be released by D3PUBLISHER and developer YUKE'S, both of which are known for the chaotic EARTH DEFENSE FORCE series. Unlike EDF, however, Full Metal Schoolgirl applies their shooting mechanics and style of humor to that of a roguelite, and sees our mechanical heroines climbing a massive 100-floor tower, rather than blasting giant alien bugs.
But what is Full Metal Schoolgirl really? And who is the game's core audience? Because, to be bluntly honest, not everyone is going to like what this title has to offer, and it is not going to change anyone's mind when it comes to it being a roguelite.
While it does feature a manual save option to prevent progress loss, it still sticks to the standard "die and go back to level 1" format, with some bonus limited-use elevator passes to help cover some distance. Even so, dying and restarting from a lower level is a part of the core gameplay loop, and after clearing the story, the post-game fully doubles down on this mechanic.
Still, this doesn't accurately explain what Full Metal Schoolgirl is truly like. This is a game that can become extremely addictive once it clicks, and there is a lot to love here overall. It isn't perfect by any means, and it could've offered more, but there is for sure some fun to be had here.
The Story:
Full Metal Schoolgirl's story is just as crazy as the name sounds. The game is set in a future where cyborg employees are forced to work 24 hours a day by an evil corporation. After the death of her father, a cyborg decides to take things into her own hands and come after the CEO responsible. Teaming up with her best friend Akemi, Ryoko charges into Meternal Jobz with the support of ex-employee Professor Hakase to enact her revenge and free the employees from the CEO's grasp. Early on, things go awry, however, as one of the girls is captured, and the remaining one is taken out of commission by a hail of gunfire. Upon waking, however, the remaining girl realizes she has been repaired and upgraded by Hakase and is once again ready to jump into the fray. It is a long climb to the top of the 100-floor tower, but she is determined to reach the top and rescue her missing friend.
Although the game's story remains the same no matter what you do, Full Metal Schoolgirl does allow players to choose which character they want to play as. Outside of minor dialogue differences, this is still the story of taking down the CEO and rescuing the other girl. That being said, this is not a story heavy game, and the main focus itself is simply on the chaos that ensures while you make your way to the top. Dialogue and mini cutscenes do provide additional context for who the characters are, but ultimately it doesn't change much.
And that is perfectly okay!
The Gameplay:
Being a roguelite, Full Metal Schoolgirl's gameplay mainly focuses on a constant cycle of progression and the almost inevitable loss of everything. The game features a 100-floor tower to climb, and each floor is filled with hallways and multiple rooms of enemies to clear out. Eventually, you make your way to a door that leads to the next floor, where you repeat the process and then encounter boss fights at key checkpoints. Beating the boss will allow you to progress to the next set of floors, which often has new enemy types to take down, and dying takes you back to the beginning. This is all standard for the genre, but the game does apply its own twists.
Although the game forces you to decide which character you want to play as in the beginning, both girls are in fact basically the same. They have different starting guns, melee weapons, and support attack pods, but the game allows you to choose which loadout you want to start with. Every run begins in the lobby of the building, with the starting weapon of each category waiting for you, and a handful of constantly respawning enemies to test things out on. Of course, these are just starting weapons, however, and will be quickly replaced the moment you start your run.
What does make each run unique, however, is the fact that your playthrough is being "live-streamed" over the internet (in-game, not real life), and fans will come to watch you based on how well you perform. During the runs themselves, the fans will make special requests and offer to pay you if you succeed. You can increase the reward by offering to add additional challenges on top of said request. For example, if the fans want to see you beat a mob of enemies without running out of energy, you can up the ante by saying you'll do it within 30 seconds. This gives you a much bigger payout, but failing to do so means you'll miss out on the smaller payment option as well.
After clearing rooms, treasure chests spawn in, and a random item is dropped from them when opened. This item could be a mod chip, which provides special passive abilities to your character, a new melee weapon, a new ranged weapon, a healing item, or even a new shield. Shields allow you to block attacks at the expense of energy, but they also provide general defense bonuses and health upgrades as well. Additionally, even weapons can have bonus passive stats or abilities equipped to them, with the bonuses being better with "higher level" equipment or equipment of higher rarities. It is thanks to this rarity system that players often have to consider what gear to keep and what to trade out, as sometimes a level 60 sword that provides 25% more health can be more worth it than a level 70 sword that deals 200 more damage. There is a trade-off in there, and choosing the wrong option can lead to your failure.
As for the weapons themselves, there is a wide variety to pick from, but the random factor means you do not truly get to choose. You also have to consider what playstyle will work best for your current situation, as picking the "strongest" weapon isn't always ideal. Just because the grenade launcher is stronger than a gatling gun, it doesn't do much for you when you are mainly shooting enemies out of the air. Not only is the range limited, but the explosions will deal damage to you as well, making it easy to kill yourself if you are not looking. Also, considering rooms are packed full of objects to tear through and destroy (tables, chairs, desks, appliances, etc.), it doesn't take much for a single chair to come sliding in front of you just as you launch your grenade. It hits the chair, it explodes, and now you're dead and sent back to the bottom—speaking from experience on floor 84.
Melee weapons, on the other hand, are a mixture of speed and multiple-hit attacks. Slower weapons are stronger, faster ones are weaker, and both can work to your advantage in most situations. Weapons require energy to use, so the strikes cannot be spammed, but they are well worth the energy spent. Some enemies also have a shield, preventing them from being shot at, so melee weapons are ultimately required to progress in some cases as well.
Shields come in different sizes, with the trade-off sometimes being at the cost of stats. Larger shields completely cover you from all angles, while smaller ones often give you extra health or other helpful bonuses. Typically, these additional stats are more helpful than additional coverage, but it also depends on what type of enemies are featured more in your current area—especially if it is a lot of mounted guns that drain your health in a matter of seconds.
The final main part of gameplay comes from none other than the special moves. These are abilities that can be swapped between at key locations on specific floors and can be used by expending a separate type of energy that builds up as you kill enemies normally. These attacks can help you turn the tide of battle and allow you to clear out rooms much quicker. In addition to these attacks, other special abilities become unlocked later on in the game, but these are ones that can only be activated when meeting specific conditions—such as knocking an enemy out and then taking over their mind to do your bidding. These abilities do not play a major role in progression, but they can be fun to use and help out in specific situations.
Once everything is said and done, and a trail of robotic bodies is left in your wake, every section ends with a boss fight that has its own unique mechanics. Once the boss is defeated, you are rewarded with a single-use elevator ticket and sent back outside the tower. You bank the cash rewards you've gained and material items you've picked up from killing enemies, and you lose all of your gear.
It is thanks to the shortcut elevator ticket that you can return to where you left off, but it is single-use. Returning to where you left off and dying means you're going back to either the bottom or to the next closest floor you may have elevator tickets for. Returning to boss rooms means you'll have to fight them again as well, so it does feel like you are starting over. On the flip side, you can in fact save your game prior to starting a run and using an elevator ticket. So, if you fail, you could always reload and try again. This comes at the cost of losing your newly gained material and cash, but sometimes the trade-off is worth it. I personally didn't realize reloading a save was an option until I was already in the final section of the game—I had become so used to other games autosaving that I just assumed the same could be said here. One failure in particular took me two hours to return to where I had left off, and it could've been avoided. Considering I cleared the game in just under ten, that is a huge chunk of time I could've saved.
But even with death comes progress, as players do retain their money and some of the materials they gained. This can then in turn be used on customization, which makes up the second major part of the entire game.
Customization and Upgrades:
After each run is completed, be that by death or beating the boss, players are able to contact the professor and have her install upgrades. This is met by a scene that could bother some players, but it is ultimately the type of Japanese humor one would expect from such a game. To put it simply, our protagonist is strapped to a table, the professor walks up to her creepily as she prepares to customize her body, and our heroine struggles in fear. She obviously goes back time and time and time (and time) again, but I can honestly see this bothering some. It isn't meant to be taken seriously, but I felt I should at least warn players ahead of time.
With that being said, the upgrade options are vast, and there are multiple upgrade levels to achieve.
The main upgrade page allows players to customize their starting health, energy, punishment points (used for the special attacks), and increase how many health items you can hold at once and how many ability mods that can be equipped. There are also upgrades for increased dodge invincibility time, damage invincibility time, and an "extra life" system where you'll be revived after dying. The latter is obviously a very expensive upgrade compared to everything else, but it can certainly be worth it.
In addition to these upgrades, there are also modifiers that increase the level of gear found during a playthrough, and special attacks can be made stronger as well. New general abilities are also unlocked through the upgrade process, but as these are also story-locked, you typically always have the resources available by the time the game wants you to obtain them.
Outside of this, only so much can be done to give you a leg up during each run, as equipment is in fact not retained in any way. The cool mod that automatically healed you to max every time you entered a new floor? That was a one-time thing, and it could be dozens of hours before it drops again. The weapon you picked up that had a strong defensive bonus? That too may never be seen again. This all plays into the game's randomness, making each run unique, but it is a bit of a shame when you find something you really like, yet you cannot find it again. You can, on the other hand, "purchase" items during each run, but these too are randomized.
Should you play it?
Full Metal Schoolgirl is an interesting roguelite that blends fast-paced melee combat with non-stop shooting action. The game has 100 floors for players to climb, with an unlimited mode to tackle once the story is completed. There are plenty of upgrade options and fun tools and abilities to play with along the way, and there are multiple difficulty options for those who want to push themselves or make things a bit easier. That being said, this isn't a game for everyone, and there are a handful of rough edges.
There is no denying that its general gameplay can get a little stale after a while. Rather than powering through from start to finish, I personally took breaks between sets of floors. While the game does a generally good job of mixing up the enemy variety to help prevent this, and swapping out your equipment can also help, it doesn't change the fact that you will be doing the same thing from start to finish. Enter a new floor, shoot everything you see, slash away at enemies that get close, and use specials to clear rooms even faster. Throw in some sometimes awkward platforming moments and traps, then repeat. While the game does a great job making the characters feel powerful, and combat can become exhilarating, most players will still reach a point where they need a moment to step away. Especially if one wrong move costs you everything right before a checkpoint.
That being said, I enjoyed my time with Full Metal Schoolgirl. Its simple, repetitive gameplay loop managed to hook me from beginning to end, and the pure chaos brought on by raiding an office building filled with robots was entertaining, to say the least. There were moments where I had to take a break and step away, but after a quick recharge I was back at it and ready for more. It might not be the greatest or most ambitious roguelite on the market, but there is still fun to be had here.
VERDICT: Recommended
Reviewed on PlayStation 5
Review Copy was Provided
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