I thought I never would see this happening in real life but here it is: Full Metal Panic is getting a video game, specifically a strategy RPG of sorts. Like hot damn, one of my dreams is becoming true right in front of my eyes as I'm typing this.
Now to understand why I'm happy about this, you have to know that I am a big fan of the Full Metal Panic franchise since I watched the first few episodes on Hulu (at a time before they decided it was a "great" idea to be paid subscription only recently and outsource the free part to Yahoo TV for some idiotic, Lickboot-ite reason). I mean I'm quite impressed with a show that combines military sensibilities with cliché anime high school highjinks and that alone is gold in my book, though I'm not much of a mecha person (I prefer the types like the Level Armors from Metal Slug) but I digress. And it seems like FMP is making a comeback 12 years after that disappointing mediocrity that was Second Raid, like seriously that show disappointed in many ways despite its return to the military related intrigue and stuff after the lighthearted high jinks of Fumoffu (though that season alone is enjoyable in its right); though I am aware of the manga adaptations and the light novels continuing after Second Raid but I never read them as of now. In addition, not only are we FMP fans getting a video game adaptation of which I longed for some five years now, but also a new season for the TV anime series, called Invisible Victory; like it better have the voice actors from the previous season reprise their roles or I ain't gonna be happy.
Anyway, I'll do a little analysis of the teaser being shown on the article in question and I'll post my predictions just afterwards. So we get some exposition lines as we see some tire tracks in the snow, surprisingly voiced in English with Japanese subtitles (it's as if Bandai-Namco knew that the FMP series has fans in the English speaking West), then we cut to some snapshots from the show with the two main protagonists, and then we see the gameplay and it looks alright. I mean this is a beta of sorts and hopefully not the final product; it'd be stupid of Bamco to so but moving on. So what we see so far is something that allows you to freely roam around the battlefield as long as its in some circular limit and that it looks like a turned based RPG of sorts and I'm fine with that given that I excel at turn based stuff than real time ones. That and you have the ability to use firearm and melee weapons since that's how it is in the show, though I wonder if the game allows you to master the Landadrive thing that Sosuke struggled with in Second Raid? That'd be something. That and the armslaves (the robots the characters use to fight with) are chibi looking for some reason. And from what I know, the game is being made by the same folks behind the Super Robot Wars series of which funnily enough featured FMP in it and I have never played the SRW franchise in particular. Already the game is promising yet it looks like it needs polish before we see a full trailer in the future.
Given that the show had featured some good share of stuff happening in the high school the protagonists go to (especially in Fumoffu), my good guess is that at least a third of the game is spent doing stuff in high school, just like how it is in the Persona games, and that it can have an effect on the missions Sosuke undertakes outside of high school. Though come to think of it, that Fumoffu suit, the one where it looks like some yellow bearish creature with a green bowler hat, should be a usuable armslave just for s--ts and giggles; it'd make some great let's play material and Pew Die Pie better utilize it if he's gonna play the game in the future (and p--- off the haters from places like the Wall Street Journal for the mudslinging they did early this year) but I'm getting ahead of myself. Another good possibility is the addition of new characters specifically for the game in question and hopefully more interesting than most of the ones from Second Raid, though it'd be pretty odd for the antagonists from both the first and third seasons to show up as some sort of bonus boss fights or somethin'. With all of that said, I'm looking forward to what this FMP video game that I have long clamored for, though admittedly in my own head, will bring us when more details arrive in the future.
My only big concern is the platform of choice right now, the PS4, of which I said time and time again, I'll never invest in unless Sony throws in disc based backwards compatibility with PS1 and 2 games but sadly they're too stupid and greedy to do so, rather making us wrongly rebuy them on PSN and this Gaikai garbage but that's another story for another time. And of course, no Vita, because again Sony is too stupid to care for that underrated and awesome device and unwisely gave up on it in the West (sometimes making me wondering why I bothered getting it in the first place last year) but again I digress. Hopefully there might be a chance for a PC release, albeit on Steam but that's okay, better there for me than not given that I have a Steam account (though I prefer to buy them digitally now since I'm not bothering getting physical PC disks since they require Steam stuff and I do not wish to contribute to perpetuating this stupidity but that's another story for another time). Oh yeah and it might have DLC (or rather will possibly have) because EVERY game's GOTTA have it for some reason...can't they just not and leave it up to the developers to give their games some or not yet it should be MANDATORY for ALL games to have a complete edition with ALL the DLC by now (otherwise the developers should stop making games, nuff said); but hopefully the best case scenario is that they're like add on post launch content and not like horse armor and s--t.
But anyway, the fact that we FMP fans are getting a video game and a fourth season is a sign that good times are ahead for the franchise in question and that's a good sign in my book; that and it was something I just woke up too before making this post so better wake up to good news than bad I guess.
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