Robotech: Battlecry
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| Robotech: Battlecry | |
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| Developer(s) | Vicious Cycle Software |
| Publisher(s) | TDK Mediactive |
| Release date(s) | September 23, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
| Platform(s) | PS2, GameCube, Xbox |
| Media | CD (1) |
Robotech: Battlecry is a video game set in the Robotech universe, the first video game successfully released for the franchise. With a story focused on new characters created for the game and with guest appearances of main characters Rick Hunter, Roy Fokker, Lisa Hayes and the mention of Lynn Minmei, it somewhat follows the Robotech continuum.
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[edit] Overview
The game follows the exploits of ace pilot Jack Archer. After serving as a mercenary in the Global Civil War, flying both with and against Roy Fokker impressed him enough to recommend Jack for the RDF. The early stages of the game cover Jack's final training and his fighting during the Battle of Macross Island, Jack not being close enough to the SDF-1 when it space folds to Pluto and being left behind on Earth, rejoining his friends upon their inital return home. The majority of the game is set in the Post-Rain of Death era and involves Jack and his Wolf Squadron defending various human outposts against Malcontent Zentreadi forces led by the Zentraedi warlord Zeraal.
[edit] Battlecry: Collector's Edition
To both celebrate the game's release and aimed towards the older Robotech collector market, Battlecry was released with both the normal game only version as well as a more expensive Collectors Edition.
The Collectors Edition came in a silver box with the game and includes a packet of 3" X 5" cards of character concept art from the game drawn by Tommy Yune, a lenticular card depicting a Veritech fighter in action, a Battlecry t-shirt vacuum packed into a disc-shaped tin with card RDF logo on top, the game's soundtrack on CD and a specially numbered Jack Archer dogtag.
[edit] The YF/VF-1R Veritech Fighter
Originally an animation mistake in the Robotech TV series episode 32 "Broken Heart" that added two extra VF-1J head lasers to a normal VF-1A head, looking for "new" official designs and with Harmony Gold approval and assistance, Vicious Cycle introduced the VF-1R Veritech, a retrofitted or upgraded Veritech Fighter introduced after the end of the First Robotech War.
With a VF-1A influenced but redesign head, the middle head laser became an auto-cannon, retaining the two side lasers. The default YF/VR-1R color scheme is a full body maroon with a white stripe, roughly similar to the Max & Miriya VF-1J paint schemes.
[edit] Robotech: Battlecry Superposables
Released as a tie-in to the Battlecry game, Toynami produced a second line of Superposable figures of the VF-1 Battloids. Learning from the first run, Toynami retooled the molds to include ball-jointed hips and legs intended to pose the figure standing instead of bent. The most significant difference was the inclusion of the Super Armor or FAST Pack boosters and replacing the Rick piloted VF-1J with the Jack Archer piloted VF-1R, allowing a direct link to the game as well as matching continuity with Rick piloting the VF-1S when the Super Armor was introduced.
[edit] Masterpiece Collection YF-1R
Released after the main Macross Saga MPC were available, an Masterpiece Collection version of the YF-1R was unexpected and came from left field. As all VF-1 toys are effectively head swaps, the YF-1R was a way to get use out of an existing mold and support the video game. Because it was a later design, the YF-1R includes support for the Super armor lacking in the earliest volumes. The MPC YF-1R was limited to a numbered production run of 5,000, compared to the 15,000 per volume of the other Macross Saga VF-1 volumes. As with all MPC sold at Robotech.com, an exclusive pilot animation cell of Jack Archer was offered if this was brought through the Robotech.com Store.
Despite the lower production numbers and the supposed "exclusivity" of it, the YF-1R sold very poorly.
[edit] Criticism
As with many licenses with a rabid fanbase, fans had a number of complaints even with a game as successful as Battlecry:
- Character selection. Much like the complaints around the Enter the Matrix game, Battlecry's story centers around new characters to allow new and unique endings, when many fans would have preferred to have played as Rick Hunter and other Macross Saga era pilots.
- Cel shading. Seen as part of Battlecry's distinctive charm, many fans would have preferred a normal rendered graphic style. Bordering on overuse even when Battlecry was released, the next Robotech game, Robotech: Invasion opted to avoid cel shading.
- Protect the Convoy. An overbundance of "protect the convoy" missions that are frequently reduced to pure luck due to the less than stellar game AI. The "Cat Scan" mission is especially notable.
- Lack of innovative controls. The guardian and battloid modes were especially prone to lack of unique controls. The auto-lock for the guardian meant players never had to maneuver the arms in any way, just pull the trigger, and furthermore guardian was reduced to only serving the one function of carrying things with the off hand. The game never explains why the player cannot carry things in battloid mode. Also, the jets are not controllable as in the series, such as rocket boosts, leaving the guardian clumsy and almost useless in a fight. The battloid's controls simply included a sniper mode to reduce the easiness of auto-locking.
- Scale. Particularly in the Force of Arms level, Battlecry had an under whelming number of combatants in any one dogfight. The fast and frantic dogfights that made Robotech famous were reduced to searching and destroying the last remaining fighter after quickly dispatching a low number of others.
- Boss Battles. As opposed to writing better AI, the main female Zentraedi ace simply has an exuberant amount of health and armor compared to the player's minimal. Thus instead of a narrow dogfight, the boss battles turn into hosing the opponent down until she flees.
- Unlimited Missiles. Missiles simply take time to 'recharge', as if made of energy and produced in the veritech. In the series, all veritechs have a finite amount of missiles either on both wings or in missile packs on assorted parts of the fighter (usually the FAST pack on the top of the fighter), or both. Considering also the missiles locked on by simply cycling targets instead of locking each target, the player could easily sit back and launch missiles until the enemy was destroyed.
- Multiplayer. The multiplayer maps had very finite battlefield limits, and if the player(s) tried to go past them, they would be forced to transform into a battloid and fall to the ground slowly, making them easy targets and disorienting them. This occurred even in the space levels. There was also no co-op mode offered, in a game based off a series that featured teamwork in the form of squadrons on a massive level. To many players this multiplayer felt 'tacked on.'
