Another Century's Episode: R
Another Century's Episode: R[lower-alpha 2] is a third-person shooter video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Namco Bandai Games. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 in Japan on August 19, 2010.[2]
| Another Century's Episode: R | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | |
| Publisher(s) | Namco Bandai Games[lower-alpha 1] |
| Director(s) | Tomohiro Shibuya |
| Series | Another Century's Episode |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 3 |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | Third-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Gameplay
A new dynamic shooting mode called "Chase Mode" has been added to the game. This mode is similar to arcade shooters wherein the player's machine moves on rails and leaves the targeting weapons for the player to control. Each chase mode section precedes a boss battle; the examples released so far include the battle against the Behemoth from Full Metal Panic! and the battle against Nora Polyansky from Macross Zero. A new ability called "Burst Attack" appears in this installment. Burst attack is available to all units, and is a special charge attack that changes depending on what machine is being used.
This is the first title in the A.C.E. series that allows to swap pilots between machines (excluding the Shin Getter team in Another Century's Episode 3: The Final), though only for Universal Century mecha (those from Zeta Gundam, Crossbone Gundam and Genesis of Aquarion), in which pilot changing is a major plot point and constantly used.[3]
Plot
Rather than integrating different series into one or two unified universes like previous titles of the series, A.C.E.: R presents each featured series as independent timelines, with the series' main characters proceeding with their own stories before the events of the game.
The main events of the game itself revolve around an original timeline again completely independent of all other featured series. In this timeline, humanity has expanded beyond the Solar system, with planet Area becoming one of those resulting colonies. But somewhere along the line the Seasons, androids originally built to help the colonists settling on Area, rebelled against their human companions. Leading a robotic army collectively known as the Icon, the Seasons successfully wiped out the humans on planet Area, but there is one last trick up the colonists' sleeves: they made a data copy out of one of the Seasons androids and entrusted it, named Autumn-4, with genetic seeds of themselves as well as a trans-atmospheric battleship Ark Alpha. The intention was for Autumn-4 to take the gene seeds as far away from the Seasons' grip as possible so that the now-deceased colonists can be reborn on a safe world. Soon after commencement of Autumn-4's mission, however, Ark Alpha was intercepted by a fleet of Icon warships led by Winter-1, head of the Seasons. Overwhelmed by the numerically-superior enemies and in desperation, Autumn-4 activated a device within Ark Alpha called V-Drive, which has the ability to create a blackhole-like portal to parallel universes: it worked, with Brunhilde emerging from the portal and repulsing the Icon fleet, but also unintentionally caused characters from other timelines to be transported to planet Area as well. To make the matter worse, the energy discharged by Brunhilde in the process affected Autumn-4's memory circuits and corrupted her record of the event, leaving her unable to explain to all the people who now find themselves stranded in a foreign universe as to what has transpired.
Nevertheless, feeling responsible for their plight, Autumn-4 decides to find out what happened and how to return them to their home worlds while enlisting their help in finding a way through the robotic army of the Seasons, who would shoot first and never ask questions much later.
Music
With a few exceptions, the background music is instrumental, though the game includes a BGM editor that allows for replacing music during gameplay and cutscenes with music from the PlayStation 3's hard drive. Acid Black Cherry will provide the themes for A.C.E.: R. The opening theme is named "Re:Birth". There are two separate releases planned for this single. The first includes the title song "Re:Birth" and was released on August 18. The second release is planned for October, and includes a game edit version of "Re:Birth" as well as three additional songs that Acid Black Cherry created for Another Century's Episode R.[4]
Reception
Another Century's Episode: R was a commercial success. During its first week on the market, it sold 187,661 copies—higher than previous installments in the series.[7] By September, it was the fourth highest-selling video game in Japan, behind Monster Hunter Diary, Ace Combat X2: Joint Assault, and Wii Party.[8] R sold 245,301 copies by the end of 2010, making it the best-selling Another Century's Episode game and ranking it among the year's 50 top-selling games in Japan. As of 2012, the game has sold a total of 260,078 copies.[9]
Four reviewers from Famitsu enjoyed the game's sense of speed and exhilaration. One complimented the higher production value for making it feel like an anime, while another believed the missions lacked enough variety and became monotonous after a while. Three of the reviewers agreed that R featured a nice roster of mechas that were unique in their appearance and weapon selection.[5] Mecha Damashii writer Ollie Bardner felt otherwise, believing it was inferior to the previous three installments. He was particularly critical of Banpresto's decision to alter and omitt several of the series' ideas, which he described as being "some such mind numbingly stupid corporate agenda". Barder further criticized the controls for feeling inferior to other similar games, its usage of grinding, and its poorly-animated and unskippable cutscenes. He concluded by saying: "Overall then the game is a functional mess and whilst playable it’s not really enjoyable as the overt restrictions make it very frustrating – simply because you never truly feel in control of the mecha you’ve selected."[6]
In a 2012 retrospective on the series, Arshad Abdul-Aal of Hardcore Gaming 101 shared many of Bardner's complaints. He felt that R's biggest problem was letting Banpresto be more "hands-on" with its production, as it led to what he considered to be poor design choices. Abdul-Aal called the game "a neutred dog", and a sequel that omitted many of the mechanics and concepts he believed made the earlier Another Century's Episode titles so fun to play.[10]
Notes
References
- Sudare, Naohiko (July 29, 2010). "「Another Century's Episode:R」のイメージソング「Re：birth」を手がけた，Acid Black Cherryのyasuさんのインタビューを掲載". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas. Archived from the original on July 10, 2018. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
- "人気ロボットアクションゲームが堂々復活!!『Another Century's Episode：R（アナザーセンチュリーズエピソード アール）』". April 8, 2010. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
- "「Another Century's Episode:R」，スピード感溢れる「チェイスモード」などのゲームシステムが明らかに。初回特典のZガンダム3号機にも要注目". 4gamer.net. Archived from the original on 2010-07-16. Retrieved 2010-07-12.
- "Acid Black Cherry". Archived from the original on 2008-02-02.
- "Another Century's Episode:R （アナザーセンチュリーズエピソード アール）のレビュー・評価・感想". Famitsu (in Japanese). Kadokawa Corporation. August 2010. Archived from the original on July 27, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
- Barder, Ollie (August 26, 2010). "Reviews: Another Century's Episode R (5/10)". Mecha Damashii. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
- "Game Search (based on Famitsu data)". Game Data Library. March 1, 2020. Archived from the original on April 24, 2019. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
- Gantayat, Anoop (September 3, 2010). "Monster Hunter Causes PSP Sales Surge in Japan". IGN. Archived from the original on November 26, 2018. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
- ファミ通ゲーム白書2012 補完データ編（分冊版） [Famitsu Game White Paper 2012 Supplementary Data Edition (Separate Volume Version)] (in Japanese). Enterbrain. May 24, 2012. ISBN 978-4047280229.
- Abdul-Aal, Arshad (November 27, 2012). "Another Century's Episode R". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on December 30, 2019. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
