Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2

Genre: Turn-Based RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This review has been directly sponsored by a kind donation from Jamie and His Cats. Thanks again for your generous contribution!)

(Note: This game is included in Fuga: Melodies of Steel 1 & 2 – Double Pack, along with Fuga: Melodies of Steel.)

Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 is a Turn-Based RPG released in 2023 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox one, and Nintendo Switch. Like its predecessor, this game is set in what appears to be an alternate-universe take on World War II in a world people by anthropomorphic “furry”-style animals, picking up a year after the plot of the first game. The invading Berman army has been repelled, the kids’ kidnapped parents rescued, and the land is at peace.

However, when the children from the first game are summoned by their nation’s leadership to assist with the inspection of the mysterious Taranis tank from the first game, they find themselves facing a new problem when the tank suddenly powers up and takes off, trapping half the kids inside as it rampages through the countryside. Frantic to stop the tank and rescue their friends, the remaining children pursue the Taranis using the only means they have available, the Tarascus tank the enemies used against them in the prior game.

It’s a fun twist to the story that makes this feel like more than just a retread of the first game, which in many ways it is – Fuga 2 looks and plays much like the first game, seems to be reusing assets, and has similar themes of dealing with the trauma of war, death, and sacrifice. Players who are new to Fuga 2 do get a rough overview of the events of the first game, but I should note that this is vague, and I would strongly encourage players to start at the beginning to get the most out of this series.

The soul cannon from the first game returns, offering players a twisted solution to combat where you can blast away enemies and secure victory by spending the life of one of the children, but here there’s an addition of a new mechanic, the managarm, which is sorta’ a 0.5 version of the soul cannon – it’s nowhere near as powerful as the soul cannon, but it will only incapacitate one of the children until the next “intermission” cutscene, rather than permanently killing them. This gives players a way to make a sacrificial move to get out of a tough spot without permanently altering the story.

Beyond this, you still have the compartmental relationship system, where you can build up your characters’ relationships to see occasional cutscenes focusing on the unique dynamics between the different character pairings as well as boost synergy between characters. And you once again need to balance the limited points you have between battles to focus on different activities to manage your relationships, upgrades, and other activities.

And once again, you have combat where players take a party of six into battle, with three active fighters and three support units, with each character associated with one of three types of weapons – powerful but slow and less accurate red cannons to take on tougher enemies, fast but weak blue machine guns to take on fast flying enemies and pierce the defenses of shielded enemies, and yellow grenade launchers that are balanced, average weapons.

As you progress through battle, you’ll swap characters in and out as the battle dictates as you encounter enemies with different strengths and weaknesses, or need to make use of a particular character’s unique abilities. These character swaps can only happen every three actions though, so players need to think ahead to anticipate what they’ll need for the next few turns. And all of these actions take place on a timeline that shows your upcoming moves and enemies’ moves.

There are a few new mechanics here beyond the managarm, too. There’ are new ‘s a new “meetup” system to give players small choices between battles as you come into contact with various people on your journey. There’s also a new airship services system where you can spend currency to automatically defeat upcoming enemies, get healing, buy supplies, or move to a different spot on the current map. Ah, and this brings me to one of the biggest improvements over the first game – Fuga 2 ditches the frustrating and inconvenient barter system of the first game for a more traditional currency-based economy, so you’re not constantly trying to figure out how to compare what you’re trading and what you’re trading for.

And once again, this game’s presentation uses cel-shaded 3D elements and 2D elements with some gorgeous character designs and a memorable Metal Slug-esque design for the game’s tanks, joined by some decent voice acting (in Japanese and French) and backed by an excellent soundtrack that blends orchestral and choral themes to really sell the serious and tense tone of the game’s story. As I noted before, I’m pretty sure this game reuses some assets from the first game, but there’s plenty of new content here as well.

I do still feel like Fuga 2 can make information a bit hard to come by at times, such as when you’re in an intermission and considering which relationships to build up, but can’t just press a button to see characters’ current placement, weapon, and relationship levels. Given the high importance this game places on strategy, the lack of convenient access to information can be really frustrating.

However, while some frustrations remain from the first game, and the core gameplay and presentation remains similar, Fuga 2 is definitely an improvement. The managarm gives players a non-permanent alternative to the soul cannon, the change to currency makes buying and selling work much more smoothly this time, and other little changes make this game overall more player-friendly, even if the tone and story can still be quite bleak. I still think that players are better off playing through the first game before starting up this one. But once they do, I think they’ll be pleased with the subtle improvements here that make this an overall better experience.

tl;dr – Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 follows in the footsteps of the first game, being a Turn-Based RPG where players control a group of children piloting a super-powerful tank, this time trying to stop the first game’s out-of-control tank and rescue their friends. This is very much “more of the same” of what we saw in the first game, but with multiple subtle improvements that make this an overall better experience. I do think you’ll want to play the first game before trying this, but if you did play the original I think you’ll find this to be an improved sequel.

Grade: B+

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