"Relaxing"
From the outset, Irem Software reveals an unconventional approach. A relaxing video game? It must be admitted that the notion of danger in Steambot Chronicles is all relative. It is even an easy game. The fights take place only aboard steam locomotion robots named "Trottemobile". These machines, now popular all over the world, happen to be, within this steampunk uchronia (ie an alternative era to steam), the very evolution of automobiles. The barbaric term “steampunk” does not really reflect the peaceful state of mind of this very charming world, moreover, close to our XNUMXth century but with a reduced development of electricity and computing. Cities are lively and pleasant, all around nature is flourishing, and agriculture plays an important role, which Trottemobile technology has facilitated. Small revolution, these vehicles on legs allow real human flexibility (the Trottemobile can grab a tree like a man a stick) as well as a significant margin of technical modifications in the many garages. This tuning had the perverse effect of diverting the Trottemobile from its initial objectives, as a tool of intimidation and aggression for criminals. As Trottemobile driver, your enemies are therefore the various troops of brigands scattered on the roads. But even in this case, no one dies. At the end of a fight, the vehicle explodes but the driver is expelled from it instead of transforming himself into a human torch to be consumed in a hysteria of abominable suffering. No burnt flesh here. Steambot Chronicles adorns itself with a pacifist flag without falling into absolute silliness.
Still, the game is really easy, but you will still have to pass a real test, the Trottemobile driver's license, which was not designed to make your life easier. The gameplay of the mech is based on the synchronization of the two analog sticks, each representing the motor skills of one leg. If you only push the one on the left, for example, your Trottemobile will simply turn on itself like an autistic cat chasing the end of its own tail. Due to the rigidity of the vehicle, the simple fact of going straight ahead is an annoyance at first, especially if you haven't gone through similar events that use the DualShock sticks to good effect, such as Armored Core ou Katamari Damacy. To energize driving as it should, the Trottemobile can split with a jump as well as a temporary boost, and a targeting system essential for conducting playable battles. In the end, the convoluted scheme of driving a Trottemobile has the merit of having its own identity, but can also be seen as an exercise that complicates life unnecessarily, in a fundamental compartment with which it is rarely wise to s scatter, that of playability. So relaxing Steambot Chronicles ? Certainly, but once his vehicle has been tamed.
"Not linear"
The heart of Steambot Chronicles beats to the peaceful and mastered rhythm of a whole host of activities, which are all latent secondary quests, to be completed little by little. These tasks often take the form of small jobs, which are not necessarily cumulative simultaneously. Thus, the organization of the devastated museum will ask you to bring back as many fossils as you can repatriate. To do this, your Trottemobile will need to equip a suitable back piece, which will not allow you to take a hitchhiker since the taxi function requires a completely different support. And as a reminder, the organization of your Trottemobile only takes place in garages. In town, you will also find various ways to earn money, by mastering the basics of the stock market, by winning Trottemobile battles in the essential arena, or even by challenging the aces of billiards in a very good reproduction of this bar game. But in Steambot Chronicles, there is a fundamentally human activity that follows you throughout the adventure: music. Found unconscious on a beach after the sinking of a ship by the pretty Coriander, the young Vanilla has a sense of rhythm and will rise to prominence within the music group of which Coriander is the singer. Apart from the stage performances, you will have the opportunity to practice your art everywhere in the street like a mountebank, so that your performance can prove to be lucrative in a public place. Owner of a harmonica, Vanilla will be able to obtain various instruments later, belonging to any category (trumpet, drums, piano, violin). Making it a point of honor to spread a peaceful message for all audiences, Steambot Chronicles develops a series of soft melodies, between pop and slow. Some are rather pretty, and in any case no worse than what is done in the current international variety. The interest of the musical mini-game lies in its adaptation to each instrument. The tempo will therefore have to be controlled according to different configurations of keys to follow in rhythm.
Of course, Steambot Chronicles features a storyline as a backdrop, but uncovering its intimate details relies on your spirit of curiosity. Vanilla's amnesia is a pretext for reconquering her own personality, which is actually a virgin by default, and will thus be built at the same time as the reputation that results from her actions. Many choices are offered during the game, in the form of decisions to be made (heroic or timorous?) but also in the way of acting (respectful or distant?). In other words, all of what constitutes your deontology (ethical and professional), and other details such as your eating and clothing habits, etc. The choice of the heart too, with the possibility of concentrating its seduction techniques on one or more gazelles. In short, he is the player who forges Vanilla's current personality through his actions, so the young man's past flows from the way you live in Steambot Chronicles. Irem Software's game therefore applies a formula of free will that fits well with its jack-of-all-trades side, without giving a completely new dimension in terms of the development of a virtual personality and the degree of interaction of this personality. here with his entourage. We simply maintain a reputation, materialized by various nicknames. In my part, given my mania for kissing (the hand) of all the ladies I was introduced to, dressed in my dapper white tuxedo, Vanilla was quickly nicknamed "Le Casanova Snobinard". But you can just as well shave your head at the barber's and then change into swimming shorts, wearing a pair of farmers' boots and decked out in a chef's hat. By the way, it is good to specify that the management of time and hunger is taken into account, even if it is not in real time. Overall, there are fewer locations than in a regular RPG or adventure game, but the few towns are buzzing with activity, the exploration areas often made up of large, artistically stunning vast natural spaces. In fact, despite its hackneyed achievement, Steambot Chronicles is a very nice little trip aboard Trottemobile. Its watchword is not so much gigantism as density. The game is not afraid of any excess when it comes to fleshing out its background, in particular by a photo album which lists all the NPCs (non-player characters), and these are excessively numerous. Steambot Chronicles bears witness to the remarkable groundwork of a studio that truly wanted to give body and soul to its active, peaceful and relatively free world. One would almost understand the impossibility of moving freely around town aboard Trottemobile. The player is forced to let himself be guided from one point to another while being obliged to respect the vagaries of traffic and signs, in other words without having the possibility of committing the slightest traffic offence! Like what, even if it is underlying, the game from Irem Software spreads a real placid ambition and a message of absolute peace, but once again dodging the trap of syrupy silliness. If he tries to be as less linear as possible, Steambot Chronicles is therefore also subject to the laws of propriety. Followers of urban killings, it's not here that it happens.
"Adventure"
The essential exercise of a discourse on Steambot Chronicles is to define the very nature of its genre. Several possibilities are admissible, as it touches on a multitude of tracks. If in many respects it evokes the Action-RPG, it obviously remains closer to a simple adventure game due to the absence of any pattern of rise in power, essential to the role-playing game. And if the non-player characters are omnipresent, the rare chests do not deliver a few life potions or other protective armor, it is rather costumes to personalize. Irem Software tackles heaps of gameplay openings that form, wrapping around the main thread, the DNA of Steambot Chronicles. The player is cordially invited to taste all these experiences, sometimes in a compulsory way, then free to him to deepen the most pleasant tracks and to interact to the maximum with the charming world of Steambot Chronicles. Without lingering peacefully on the extras, Irem Software's game could be summed up in a meager simulacrum of exploration mixed with an action that is ultimately quite feeble. As reserved for gourmets, this production unpacks a rich and complete menu for curious players and patients with keen taste buds. And also, eager for exotic and new flavors. Because Irem Software signs here a new tour de force of non-conformism, since its surprising Zettai Zetsumei Toshi (SOS : The Final Escape). It is for this audacity that we forgive him for being two years late on its Japanese release. And then, let's be honest, who had heard of this modest game whose original title is Poncotsu Roman Daikatsugeki Bumpy Trot ? So far from complaining about a “shameful delay” we must on the contrary congratulate ourselves on the decision of 505 Gamestreet which continues to shower the old continent with titles which are brilliantly off the beaten track. We will quickly move on to the chapter on technical obsolescence. The delay in relation to the birth of the game does not excuse anything, Steambot Chronicles would have been deemed technically behind even in mid-2005. Those indignant at the slightest frame rate error, or the meticulous aliasing researchers with a magnifying glass are therefore asked to refrain, otherwise they will have a hard time getting carried away. In essence, however, Steambot Chronicles does not really suffer from its technical backwardness, its decorations being elaborated with a true natural charm, the one which makes that the feeling takes precedence over the theory, and that there are indeed reasons to admire the decorations of a game at the technique objectively outdated.
