UFO Robot Grendizer - The Feast of Wolves

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review: Yeah, unless you look at the screenshots too closely.
• Time Played: ~10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It feels about right.
• Soundtrack: There are some classic tunes when the action is going on, something I'm sure is nostalgic for fans, but either way reminiscent of old timey action super robots, but nothing mind blowing. Interestingly there is no music when nothing is happening, so you get to hear a lot of Grendizer's feet stomping. 
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased actually, despite it's jank.
• Why I played: A handful of mech games came out last year, in fact another that featured Grendizer - Megaton Musashi. I often tell people I'm more of a "mech video game" person than mech anime person. Here you have the best of both worlds.
• Did I cry: No.
• Recommend to others: I think anyone I would truly recommend it to has already played it. It's also too broken and too budget for me to really want to go out on a limb here. But if I ever hear someone mention liking Grendizer, likely the first thing I will then ask them is, "Did you play The Feast of Wolves game?"

Grendizer surprised me a good bit. Not that I expected it to be bad, which in some senses, it really was, but I didn't expect to enjoy it quite so much. I thought the combat would be a bit more basic, and I didn't expect as much variety as they provided me with outside the standard gameplay.

After playing a good chunk of Gundam Breakers 4 and Megaton Musashi this past year, I expected something more along the lines of them. A pretty basic combat system where I just spam things as much as possible, in a linear path or single combat arena. Nope, instead Grendizer offers a pretty unique enemy "shield" that forces you to alternate your attacks in a less spammy way. It also offer some, maybe simple, but challenges none the less, that require you to run around, act quick, use ranged attacks, etc. If that wasn't enough, between stages you're likely to get a shoot 'em up or even on-rails shooter sequence. I think in at least one instance, both back to back. They're not so involved or long that they detract from the main game, but not so simple they feel pointless. It's a good balance when compared to the rest of what the game has to offer.

The downside when comparing to Grendizer to the other two games is the lack of customization, but it makes sense, as Grendizer is a specific robot with a specific set of abilities after all. You get some linear upgrades that you can max out by the end of the game, but that's it. Still there is enough variety that it's entertaining for the duration of the game, and some of the moves are showcased is dramatic, and satisfying ways.

What else I liked was the fact that this game gives you several(sort of - some look a little samey, but they are infact...) unique locations to run around in. Each of these environments are like a small open world, where you find some challenges, complete some missions, and collect some collectables. These are great and another reason Grendizer stood out by comparison of the other two aforementioned games. If these could have been combined somehow, it would be the perfect game. Only thing I wish you could do while running around as Grendizer is summon up the UFO(Spacer), to fly around the area quickly, to scan for the collectible you're still missing, or just more quickly traverse a large area, and implementing a little of that on-rails shooting would have been fun in a free open area, I feel like they could have easily implemented that if not for the fact the game was janky as hell.

That's really the only bad thing I have to say about the game itself, it's clearly a budget title, and maybe I should have gotten it on Playstation to alleviate some of the issues, I can only assume there would be less pop-in and texture issues on it. I played on Switch, which I can only assume did the game a disservice performance wise. Not that a game like this SHOULD need a powerhouse, it's probably just... very poorly optimized. There are also glitches and other jankiness to be seen throughout the game, so I'm sure playing on a more powerful device wouldn't have fixed everything, but made it a bit smoother at least.

The story, writing, presentation otherwise are nothing to write home about. The game is fun. I'm not a Grendizer fan though, and I'm sure just having it exist is a big thing for anyone who is. I have a friend whose favorite mecha of all is in fact Grendizer. I have little invested into the series, and this is probably the most I've learned about Grendizer, playing this game. In fact, I think it's kinda crazy how they relegate Koji Kabuto, the first anime mech pilot to a bumbling side-kick and damsel-in-distress, and Duke literally treats Koji like an idiot child. Koji is maybe, one year younger, and actually from this planet, also maybe the more experienced mech pilot? It's rude as hell.