Zone of the Enders is sometimes really awesome. It's a shameless love letter to cheesy mecha anime (it even features a similarly exhausting narrative) and its most exciting fights are insane. When DEEP into a boss battle (especially the final one), it felt like I was receiving the slightest, PTSD-infused glimpse of FromSoftware's upcoming Armored Core. It's really, omega cool.
I actually really enjoy every boss fight, but there aren't many moments like that. The rest of the game has you flying over a city, going down to fight a few of the same machine-types and occasionally rescue civilians. This part of the game is okay, although it does get a little tiring battling the same stuff over and over. Even though the game is only five hours, I kind of expected a game of this length to do more with its limited playtime. I wanted more bosses, more unique areas, more enemy types. There's a decent bit of backtracking here, which is a little strange for a game so small.
As far as the combat goes, it's a lot of fun albeit a little shallow. There are a few unique moves and attacks to use, but you have most of them from the very start and you're generally gonna find yourself using the same things over and over. There are lots of special limited ammo weapons you can pull out, but MOST of them are too weak to matter. Only until late game, when you get the giant spear you can toss from a mile away, the laser, the water bomb that follows people, and the giant bouncing ball that will shoot up onto an enemy does it feel like stuff gets exciting. I swear to god the Sniper does absolutely nothing. What is the purpose of it outside of that one story moment???
Also speaking of anime awesomeness, I love that enemies will clash their giant mecha blades with you when you melee attack at the same time as them. It looks so friggin' cool. ALSO, that soundtrack? Holy moly. I legit bopped my head uncontrollably during certain bossfights lmao (and during some fights in general). It's also neat that there's an idle soundtrack while running around and a specific modified version of that song when a battle begins. It gives the environment some life.
Calling this story "bad" feels wrong, as it doesn't even feel like there's anything here ? There are parts of it I enjoyed, particularly the growing kindness of Jehuty's A.I. and its relationship with the boy. But beyond that, this script is empty as hell. I wouldn't mind the story being "empty" if cutscenes weren't such a major part of it. The narrative goal here is that you need to deliver the mech you found to a group of rebels. That's it. It's really simple, but for some reason, there's SO much dialogue and it accomplishes nothing. Like I said, the only thing that actually happens is we see Jehuty's A.I. bond with the protagonist. That's really it, and then the game kinda just ends. We defeat one of the enemies without understanding their goals whatsoever and getting 0 knowledge on the intricacies of this world and its politics. The game feels like it covers the first cour of a 52-episode anime. It's really strange!
Zone of the Enders also has a neat visual style. Flying over a dark city torn asunder by an invasion embedded within a space station with this giant, bright glowing tower in the middle is an immensely memorable setpiece. I love that the player circles this big part of the space station and pushes their way through it, it's a real potent visual. When I played ZoE as a kid, the world was so interesting to me. Looking back on it was like some ethereal magic, and although I wish ZoE held up better than it did, it still holds up pretty well. Fun game! I recommend it :)
I actually really enjoy every boss fight, but there aren't many moments like that. The rest of the game has you flying over a city, going down to fight a few of the same machine-types and occasionally rescue civilians. This part of the game is okay, although it does get a little tiring battling the same stuff over and over. Even though the game is only five hours, I kind of expected a game of this length to do more with its limited playtime. I wanted more bosses, more unique areas, more enemy types. There's a decent bit of backtracking here, which is a little strange for a game so small.
As far as the combat goes, it's a lot of fun albeit a little shallow. There are a few unique moves and attacks to use, but you have most of them from the very start and you're generally gonna find yourself using the same things over and over. There are lots of special limited ammo weapons you can pull out, but MOST of them are too weak to matter. Only until late game, when you get the giant spear you can toss from a mile away, the laser, the water bomb that follows people, and the giant bouncing ball that will shoot up onto an enemy does it feel like stuff gets exciting. I swear to god the Sniper does absolutely nothing. What is the purpose of it outside of that one story moment???
Also speaking of anime awesomeness, I love that enemies will clash their giant mecha blades with you when you melee attack at the same time as them. It looks so friggin' cool. ALSO, that soundtrack? Holy moly. I legit bopped my head uncontrollably during certain bossfights lmao (and during some fights in general). It's also neat that there's an idle soundtrack while running around and a specific modified version of that song when a battle begins. It gives the environment some life.
Calling this story "bad" feels wrong, as it doesn't even feel like there's anything here ? There are parts of it I enjoyed, particularly the growing kindness of Jehuty's A.I. and its relationship with the boy. But beyond that, this script is empty as hell. I wouldn't mind the story being "empty" if cutscenes weren't such a major part of it. The narrative goal here is that you need to deliver the mech you found to a group of rebels. That's it. It's really simple, but for some reason, there's SO much dialogue and it accomplishes nothing. Like I said, the only thing that actually happens is we see Jehuty's A.I. bond with the protagonist. That's really it, and then the game kinda just ends. We defeat one of the enemies without understanding their goals whatsoever and getting 0 knowledge on the intricacies of this world and its politics. The game feels like it covers the first cour of a 52-episode anime. It's really strange!
Zone of the Enders also has a neat visual style. Flying over a dark city torn asunder by an invasion embedded within a space station with this giant, bright glowing tower in the middle is an immensely memorable setpiece. I love that the player circles this big part of the space station and pushes their way through it, it's a real potent visual. When I played ZoE as a kid, the world was so interesting to me. Looking back on it was like some ethereal magic, and although I wish ZoE held up better than it did, it still holds up pretty well. Fun game! I recommend it :)