Zodi Plays: Custom Robo (Redesign Your Robo, We Know What We're Doing)

[LaZodiac]

Hello, and welcome the next LP by yours truly. Today we’re starting up Custom Robo for the Gamecube, the fourth game in the series and first to ever actually come over state-side. Taking place in a world with strange, psychic powered tiny robot toys with live weapons that you control with you brain, it’s no surprise that the game was obscurely popular and then basically not touched at all beyond a DS remake of a GBA game. But it’s an interesting premise and a rather strong set up for any number of stories, so I kinda hope the series gets revived some day, instead of it languishing in Smash Bros Minor Property Hell.

Let’s talk about the LP a bit. This is an action RPG (though it’s not very numbery as far as RPGs go) and as far as I can tell there is NO WAY to actually do manual hard saves, at least not yet. So the videos might be a tad longer than my usual 25 or 15. Like always they’ll be uploaded Monday and Friday, and new to this LP is that I’ll be posting all the Glossary terms (or at least the ones that are interesting) in each video to the thread alongside the video. Somehow this is the first game I’ve done where something like that feels necessary.

Of course as always no spoilers, but especially in this case since a big draw OF the game is that it has a surprisingly in depth story. So if you happen o be one of the twelve people who played this game (I joke, knowing that I bet almost all of you have played it given my luck) don’t spoil it for the rest. Anyway, let’s get this train moving.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [1] Psychic Robot Duels

Video Length: 45:42

Like I said, videos might be a touch long.

The game opens pretty interestingly I think. We get a dream of our father leaving us, giving us his fancy work watch as a going away present and making it Very Clear the watch is important in some capacity. Then we get woken up by our far too noisy landlady and set out on our adventure to fulfill our father’s last will and testament; go, my son, and become a robot jockey. As far as final requests go that’s not THAT weird… though it does implicitly require us to become a cop or a bounty hunter and neither job feels particularly comfortable to just kinda push onto your teenage son.

Unfortunately, our hero here is a bit of a doof and has spent the last maybe five or six years sitting in his apartment slowly bleeding his parent’s trust fund away because we don’t have a robo- kind of a necessity to become a Robo Commander. It also um… has made it so that we don’t know literlaly anything about the world, even though literally our neighbor’s children have robot fights every day. Our bud here is uh… a little dull around the edges if you catch my meaning. The game is way better for it though, and I’ll be doing my best to pick all the dumbass options in dialogue.

However, thanks to the wonderful timing of crime, we at least get to go to the scene of a job with Harry (who genuinely is not as bad as I’m acting here, that’s just a consequence of it being awhile since I played this). And of course since this is pretty anime a game, we end up involved in the scuffle using the secret prototype we came here to protect in the first place, and we get our first taste of the game’s combat! It’s pretty good honestly, though due to the fact that the pods and bomb are both on the Gamecube’s shoulder buttons mean they sometimes don’t feel as responsive as they SHOULD, and due to the momentum involved in your robo it feels a little clunky to move around since they need to build up speed first. All that said though, the gameplay feels pretty solid after all these years. Zipping around the battlefield, setting up your shots and trying to trap your opponents with a mixture of gunplay and bombs. It’s pretty cool.

We beat up all the criminals, and get rewarded with getting to keep our fancy new robot friend. So, job acquired! As well as a name, one which I think you’ll all find… pretty good. And that’s where we’ll call it for today. I hope you all enjoyed, take care!

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Gonna put a little spoiler gutter down here for all the Glossary terms we’ve gotten in each episode. Let’s take a look at our dictionary.

Also here’s just a link to each image in case say, imgur decides not to show pictures today: https://imgur.com/gallery/I1wy32s

Summary

Custom Robo! The thing this game is about. 30 Centimeters is… a height. I’m bad at height someone please tell me through an image how big that is.

Dive! This is how you put your psychic energy into the robot. Note the description says doing it for a long time leads to uh… damages. I’m sure that won’t show up.

Eye-Scan Registration, which is just neat. Nice world building that this is why you can’t really just steal someone’s cube. I do wonder what it means by “ritual” though, given all you have to do is push a button…

Like I said above I don’t know how big distances are so could someone show me a diagram of how big the Hollosseum’s are? In game they look super tiny but that feels wrong. Also; casually just mentioning some people are psychic enough to have their robo fights in precious memories. That feels so weird but cool!

I’m noting this one specifically because it is LIES. You do not get the parts your opponent has, you get random parts!

Do you think robo parts have DRM?

And our employer, the Steel Hearts. I like this idea of a noble bounty hunter, I think. Especially since, as shown, the cops are useless.

[Fefnir]

Here we have a robo cube, smooth and inoffensive. This will be the basis for Ray 01.

This game is extremely early-to-mid 2000’s anime, which is a style that can go terribly wrong if not used well. But the NPC dialogue is really charming, and god I love the goofy portraits they gave the main character.

[LaZodiac]

They’re so good. They range from photorealistic cartoon human, to ridiculous fake-anime made in like France or something, to actually pretty good anime art design, to stuff like the Smug face for Gyro that has just that wonderful stylistic suck to it.

[Warmal]

This is still by far my favourite game on the Gamecube. I rented it it back when that was a thing and the disc was so badly damaged that I couldn’t even get past the opening cinematic and just needed it so bad that my dad went to the game store across the city to get it for me.
The robo fights and customization still hold up so well to this day, and the story and characters as we’ve seen so far just ooze the time it came out in and I love it. Also Harry is basically just our Okuyasu.

[LaZodiac]

“Harry is our Okuyasu” is a magical term that has helped to remind me once again that Harry is not actually as bad as I fear. He is wonderful and our good friend.

Anyway hey, Robo time!

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [2] Brain Gym

Video Length: 30:14

In this (relatively shorter but still long) video, we return to Steel Hearts, get hired, go to bed, and then wake up for our next job; training! What’s funny to me is that our training is literally just going to a local gym, and something about that just strikes me really well. Like imagining going to your local community center and Dog the Bounty Hunter is there, and he’s just doing reps or whatever. It feels weird in a cool way that I like.

Anyway, training wise we fight Harry and a buncha AI computers, which give us a bit more detailed tutorial on techniques you can use to maximize your combat potential. It’s all pretty interesting stuff, and much of it is self explanatory. We also start getting our parts data, winning random parts from Harry and the AI- though I’m not sure HOW random, since I recall getting Criminal last time I played this too. I’m pretty sure the parts we get are determined via a chart and who we actually fight is irrelavant. But hey, we have parts now, so I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent to talk about how these things actually work!

Mechanics Wank

So, parts! As the game so helpfully tells us a little more than needed, a Robo consists of a body, a gun, a bomb, a pod, and a pair of legs. The body is the most important part since it determines the basics of how you fight. In order we have Down, which is either how many shots you need to take before getting one of your three Down marks strucken or is some sort of Down defense that counters a weapon’s Down stat, Defense which is just a basic rating of how much damage you take from attacks, Speed which determines how fast you can go, Sky which determines how mobile you are in the way, and Attack which is for your Charge/Melee attack.

Each Body is unique, even within the same class. Harry’s robo and Ray 01 are the same type, but differ in stats, just like Buggy and Criminal. I’ll be going over them as we get bodies for them. First off, the Shining Fighter! Harry’s robo and Ray 01 are both Shining Fighters, and if I recall there are actually more Shining Fighteres than any other type. Shining Fighters tend to have just a simple rush forward for their charge (Ray 01 has you go invisible), and can dash two times in the air. They’re your basic all arounder and you’ll never go wrong using one.

Trick Flyers are, as the name suggests, a technical robo to use that excels in air combat. They can usually dash up to three times, and if I recall some of them even transform while in the air! Their melee strike is usually a silly spin move that leaves them popped up in the air a bit, pretty useful. They’re more focused on dodging attacks than taking them, so be careful if you play one. I also personally think they are the coolest looking of the robos.

Next up part wise, we have guns! Their stats are as follows; Attack, which determines how much damage each shot does. Speed, which I believe is how fast the bullets go. Homing which is how well the bullets “stick”, you can see this as we play that there is some degree of the robo “aiming” at the opponent, some shots are more capable of hitting than others. Rapid, which I’m pretty sure is how quickly you can fire the gun. I’m either right or Speed and Rapid are switched. Down is how many shots it takes to inflict one point of “down” to an enemy… to a degree. Given how some bots are more vulnerable to getting knocked down than others (as we see) it may not be that simple. Guns also have Range but because they ran out of space on the UI they put it in the description instead, which determines how far the bullets can actually travel. Finally, some guns fire differently in the air than on the ground, which is pretty cool.

Bombs are much like their right-hand counterparts, a secondary weapon to assist in making sure those shots hit their mark. Stat wise they are near identical to the Gun, with Attack, Speed, and Down all being shared. Size is how big the explosion of a bomb is, and Time is I believe how long it takes to reload the bomb for another use. As we can see with the Standard S we get, bombs are rather hard to hit people with! You can hold the button to move an aiming reticle around, but given the speed of this game that is almost unviable. I feel like bombs ae probably way more useful against human opponents since they are easier to fake out than a perfect AI machine.

Pods are a tricky weapon to use, since the pods are almost always deployed the way your control stick is currently pushed, making it pretty finicky to aim them properly in any real sense. In skilled hands they are pretty strong though. Stat wise, we have Attack which is how much damage they do obviously, Speed which is how fast the pod itself moves, Homing which is how good the pod is at homing in on an opponent, Size which is the size of its explosion, and Time which I believe is how long the pod persists on the field before exploding. There are a variety of types of pods and all of them have uses, and much like the other two weapons they sometimes change properties depending on where you fire them. Unlike Guns and Bombs, the pod description does not tell you this! Cool! Instead it tells you in what general direction a pod’s explosion will send someone, which seems utterly useless information for the most part.

Finally, we got our little leggies. Legs do not provide ANY statistically support, which is weird. They do however influence your movement, so it’s more correct to consider them accessories than main equipment. Right now we only hve the standard leg, which the game explicitly tells us to replace as soon as possible. We may not actually get any good legs TO replace it with though, but we’ll see.

And that’s it for today! I hope you all enjoyed, I’ll see you all next time for an actual injection of plot, probably! Take care everybody.

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Glossary time! Only one new term today, but it is a fun one.

Glossary EP 2

Training gym! Like I said above there is just something really funny about the bounty hunters hanging out at the local community center working out, even if in this case it is brain exercise. What’s funnier is the idea that the Steel Hearts can’t afford individual memberships and have to use a group pass. Something about that is just wonderful.

[LaZodiac]

I don’t know about you guys but I think I’d like another Custom Robo video.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [3] D Class

Video Length: 28:38

In this episode, we head off to Hub Park, with its strange lego trees and roman arches, and solve a minor disturbance involving a very ditzy lady and her multiple boyfriends. After clearing that up and basking in the success of our victory, Marcia appears!.. and informs us that we should maybe see about getting Gyro licensed to actually DO any of this. The last thing you want as a bounty hunter is to realize you’ve actually been doing ILLEGAL violence.

And we go do this, occassionaly fiddling around with NPCs to get some more lore about the world, like how there are random chainmail/fishnet wearing weirdos who sleep openly in the park, and how Linda is technically spying us at all times, and how someone programmed the AI to feel depression on purpose! Hey maybe the… the robo revolution is a good thing?

We also have some fights, but in a strange sort of way I think the mechanical gameplay part of the game is the least interesting at the moment due to how… utterly weird all the dialogue can be. That said, it’d be remiss of me not to at least bring up that we get a few good parts, and we also continue the subtle trend of me not actually being capable of remembering anything about this game from a mechanical standpoint. Aside from Gemini Bombs I don’t think I’ve ever correctly pegged if something is good or not. Which is kind of magical, in a way.

But yeah, that’s it for today. No Glossary since I forgot to uh… check that, before recording the next video so we’ll be looking at them Monday. Hope you all enjoyed, I’ll see you guys next time. Take care!

[LaZodiac]

On this sunny morning, I think it is time for more Custom Robo.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [4] Harry Causes A Domestic Disturbance

Video Length: 34:45

Exactly what it says on the tin. We go in to work, only to be told immediately we’ve gotta go all the way back home. Turns out our neighbors, Walt and Carmen, are having a bit of a lover’s quarrel, and it is causing severe distress to their kids! Gyro and Harry (who is, predictably given how last episode ended, depressed) to save the day! And credit where it is due to Harry, alongside the fact that Lucy’s compliment genuinely cheers him up, he actually takes his job seriously even though he’s in a shitty mood. That’s respectable, I think, when you’re working in a free form, self employed esque job like bounty hunter. It helps that, when all is said and done, Walt and Carmen are also just genuinely good people (with hilarious facial expressions) who got messed up because S O M E O N E left Trish’s number out on the yard.

Marcia arrives during the fighting, and shows us how empathic she is, helping cool down things far more than us goobers really could, and ensuring that everything is okay… and then we see just how pure and innocent and TRUSTING she is, when we receive a call from Earnest and Harry tells her jokey things to say and she does so exactly. A funny bit, though a part of me feels like Marcia knows exactly what is going on and is reveling in playing the part of the shirking violet. “He yelled at me for no reason : (” indeed. Anyway, the call is about dealing with Marv, the legendary criminal, so off we go to Bogey’s to capture him!

Unfortunately, Evil of Dark Blue beat us too it. Evil is a fantastic character with a wonderful design, who is an absolute sleezeball in every single way. Even the sound effect for his voice fits exactly how you’d expect him to talk, it rules! He also gets the first (and I think only) voice clip of the game, that nasty little laugh. Evil is great, even if he does kinda screw us over due to our rivalry. Ernest isn’t too happy, but given that it’s kind of literally his fault, we manage to get away with it. The next morning we are told to rush over to a Chinese restaurant, and I’m sure nothing bad will happen there.

And that’s it for today. I know I got a Metal Grappler in the video but until I actually use it I won’t be discussing how it feels and how it works mechanically since… I mean I haven’t used it yet, I don’t actually know beyond memories of Bad. But then almost all of my memories regarding parts have been wrong so who can say! I hope you enjoyed, I’ll see you all next time. Take care.

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Last time we didn’t have a glossary because I forgot to record the glossary. Today, we have a glossary, because I didn’t forget. Simple cause and effect.

Custom Robo Glossary Ep 3 and 4

I feel like it’s a bit unfair to say Bogey is suspicious. But then his welcome sign is spelled WeLcoMe so, maybe… also if anything was censored in this game during localization it’s probably this. I don’t think it was coffee or tea in the original… I can’t even begin to imagine what a shaddy, dodgy looking cafe would look like.

This description makes it sound like Dark Blue are definitely just rich losers dressing up in cyberpunk clothing and punching criminals in the face for fun. Literally choosing the least important bounty hunters and saying “my rival now” certainly is rude, too. Goodness…

There is something genuinely hilarious about the fact that, canonically, the AI involved his the license exams are just rude. If you encounter a bad and rude question it is because the machine is literally trying to fuck you as a joke. This is just really funny.

I have nothing directly to say about Hub Park at the moment, just noting how it’s cute that even in the (very light) cyberpunk future that is Custom Robo we still have things like this.

The safety switch is a concept I wish we had gotten explained earlier, because the scene where it IS brought up makes it clear we had it off the whole time. How many people have we accidentally mind broken… I’m guessing none since we’re still just regular commanders and as such aren’t skilled enough to cause damage, but we definitely gave them headaches at the very least!

This right here is genuinely one of the most ominous fucking things you can read. WHO IS MARV AND WHAT DID HE DO???

[LaZodiac]

Oh hey, let’s do a Custom Robo!

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [5] Trouble At Daimon

Video Length: 19:29

Bit of a short video today, because some stuff happens in this episode that I wanted to keep separated from the rest of what I recorded, and because the game really just didn’t give me a great point to stop due to there being no manual saves. The unfortunate truth of this game; as cool as it is that I own a physical copy I probably should have used an emulator for ease of use!

That aside, let’s talk about the episode. We head off to Daimon (surprising Lucy with the fact that we got up this early) and… well, we encounter one of the realities of being a bounty hunter. Sometimes you break up a domestic dispute or lovers quarral. Sometimes you walk in on a dead body. And this time, we’ve encountered the latter. Thankfully, though for a given definition of the term, the police arrive and start to take over… but do request Marcia use her ESPer powers to find out what killed the guy, at least.

Because as it turns out, Marcia is way more psychic than everyone else in this universe, and is capable of hacking into Robo Cubes with her brain. They call it a half-dive, but essentially she can read the remnants of thoughts you had from your cube. Can’t control your robo if it registered to you, but CAN take a peak inside your brain. And this goes for if you’ve died too, she can see your last moments. This was super unsettling to have just suddenly shoved into your face as a kid, and is part of why this game left such a strong impression. Marcia does so, and tells us of a… strange automated robo that seemed alive. That is what killed him, and that… is quite hard to believe from an in universe standpoint.

With that mess handled, we return to base and get our next mission for today; Bogey’s got someone ruining his gambling tournament because they keep on sweeping everyone and winning, effectively running Bogey out of business by always betting on himself and getting the pot every time. We go to handle it, but Evil is there first coincidentally and challenges Gyro and Harry to a fight to see who deserves to take on this guy. We beat him, though it’s rather rough, and head into the back room for some illegal robo fights! But that’ll be for next time…

Mechanics wank time; we got the Metal Grappler last time, and I show off its moves today. It is slow and beefy, with a big spinning melee attack that is actually fairly effective. Typically they only have one big dash (and as I show off here, putting Long Thrust legs on just makes it longer!) so they’re not very mobile in the air, but they make up for it by being able to tank a fair amount of damage. In game I kinda lost track of myself due to not being used to this robo and the leg thruster combo I had on, so I ended up getting torn to shreds and STILL survived. In something like a Little Raider or Tricky Flyer I might not have actually won there, so thanks you barrel chested robo friend.

And that’s it for today. Like I said, shorter video. Next time however… next time will be fairly lengthy. Hope you all enjoyed, and take care!

[LaZodiac]

In some places this episode is called Nice to Zed You and makes no sense as a pun.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [6] Nice To Zee You

Video Length: 35:24

In this episode, we check out Bogey’s illegal gambling fight club. Then participate in it, all to beat the man antagonizing this fine establishment, who we learn to be a man called Shiner. And so begins the first of what will likely be many tournament style plot events. The audience is a bunch of shady drunks and scoundrels (plus two anime characters), our opponents are an assortment of randos from the world plus also Harry. There is not much to talk about beyond the fact that we get a fair amount of parts, and some of them are pretty good! We also get our first taste of how this game is actually pretty tricky, since none of these fights are really gimme matches.

Mechanics wise, we get a hold of Javeline, a Strike Vanisher model! Strike Vanisher’s are, as Harry helpfully pointed out, the Luigi to Shining Fighter’s Mario. They’re about as average across the board as a Shining Fighter, but their in air capabilities are actually slightly better due to their dash being effectively a teleport. To contrast, their charge attacks tend to be not great, super short range and not as strong, but quick to come out (which has its benefits, as I do show).

After confronting Shiner, we notice that pinned to the garish lapel of his is a big fancy Z, so Harry surmizes he’s from the Z Syndicate, a super secretive underground gang of criminals. Of course, as we try to aprehend him on he evidence of “is wearing the letter Z” the lights go out, and he’s able to escape. Marcia comes in as the lights fix themselves, but after getting run into by that Legato Bluesummers looking asshole, she freaks out and runs off. With little else to do with our day, we shrug it off, explore the city a bit, then return home for some shut eye.

And that’s it for today! Hope you all enjoyed, I’ll see you all next time. Take care!

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Glossary time! Lets do some word learns!

Glossary Ep 5 and 6

Half Diving, lke I said last episode, is honestly unsettling to me. From both ends; the idea of getting your brain read without you even realizing, and from Marcia’s perspective of what it must be like to see the death of another person from their own eyes… to literally feel them die.

I could really go for some Chinese food right now… but alas, plague times.

So obviously these guys don’t get access to the parts machine, but what if they did? What if all that experience doing manual labour allowed the autonomous robo to be granted a gatling gun? Remember these things are BIG, despite being small, that would be enough to kill a person probably. Just a thing that crossed my mind. Also I’m not 100% sure we never see a standard autonomous robo in this game.

There’s something amusing about the fact that the only reason why Bogey’s fight club is illegal is the gambling part. Sure sure, go ahead and risk your life on potentially dangerous psychic robot duels, but don’t you dare make some money off it!

A mysterious organization indeed… wish the Glossary made mention of the very important point that “no one even knows what the Z stands for” because that’s just really funny to me.

[Warmal]

I finally had time to get caught up and am loving these videos. I’m really glad to see all the extra dialogue and the descriptions for all the parts.
I will also say that the watch mentioned is totally the thing on our wrist. It just looks weird since it’s sci fi and Isn’t just a watch. We have to raise it to exit the dome city and I’m pretty sure the animation shows him raising his wrist. I’m sure it tells time, we just can’t see it.

[LaZodiac]

Glad you’re enjoying it, and yeah going through the dialogue and showing off the parts is going to be a big part of the LP so I’m glad it’s appealing!

Concerning the watch… in the ART of the character, it ABSOLUTELY looks like a watch. Hilarious, it looks like a modern day fit-bit actually. That’s a fascinating bit of future prediction there. It’s just that in the model, it looks way to blocky and solid to me.

[Warmal]

It is very blocky. I can see it as a watch but if I wasn’t told it was a watch I’d probably think it’s just some giant future bracelet.

[LaZodiac]

Okay, let’s get going. We have some Bounty Hunting to do… theoretically anyway.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [7] Tournament of Champions

Video Length: 24:20

In this episode, we step in to work only to be told we’re getting a (presumably unpaid) day off… and also we have to spend our day off participating in a battle tournament! And also Ernest would be very happy if we say, happened to mention in our victory speech that we’re from Steel Hearts and that we’re the best. You know, for branding reasons. Just a suggestion. A suggestion we are expected to fulfill. Ernest is a good boss, but sometimes he is… a bit tasking.

That being said we definitely do need a break, walking in on a dead body is always kinda messed up. So lets enjoy ourselves with some robo-sports! The game also takes time out of its busy schedule to explain what all the stats mean on the customization page, something I genuinely did not remember the game did! Luckily I was correct on most all of them, though I believe I was wrong about what time meant for bombs and pods.

Our first two opponents consist of two familiar faces; Will, the son of our nextdoor neighbor, and Don, owner of the Daimon Chinese Restaurant. Will uses a Funky Big Head, and Don a Little Raider, so of these two the child has a higher chance of winning just by sheer statistically superiority… though given Don uses the cool Drill Gun he at least understands what makes a powerful weapon. Poor little Will is stuck with a three way; a decent gun for sure, but when you’re fighting a Strike Vanisher like the Javelin, with Long Thrust legs, and a flamer… well, you’re gonna have a bad time.

Which is to say my combination experiment was a success. Goodness, it turns out if you can teleport across almost the entire stage very easily, invincible the whole time, you’re going to be in good shape! Anyway, that’s it for today (minus all the funny dialogue I didn’t bring up). I hope you all enjoyed, I’ll see you next time for the conclusion of this first of what will be… a number of tournament arcs throughout the game. Take care!

Also, fun fact; for the entire recording session, which works out to be around four videos, there was not ONE Glossary Entry! What happen!?

[LaZodiac]

Hows about some Custom Robo?

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [8] Beauty vs Beauty

Video Length: 18:41

The back half of the tournament, in which we take our newfound friend the Ariel Beauty for a spin, jumping on top of Evil’s head and then dueling against Marcia’s own robo. They’re both quite a deal harder than the fighters before them, but given the… gameplay style change that using a Beauty enforces, that’s to be expected.

The Aerial Beauty is, as Harry said, kind of on the same level as Shining Fighters. They are faster, but weaker in every other way, but still decent enough to not be called weak in any of those categories. If Shining Fighters are Mario and Strike Vanisher’s are Luigi, Aerial Beauty’s are Peach. The thing that really sets Beauties apart from the other robos is that instead of a dash, they have a multi-jump system and… look, I’m sorry, but this is just genuinely inferior to dash. Multi-Jump has its uses but if I ever have to choose, I’m choosing dash 100% of the time. It just fits the flow of gameplay better in my opinion. That said, I can definitely see it working out if you’re going for a more bomb focused build. It’s quite easy to bombard enemies when you’re so above them, after all.

After the tournament, we get up on stage to receive our accolades and… well, you’ll see. After that wonderful, wonderful moment we sit down, preparing to go home so we can sleep off all the stress and strain caused by our forced day off. Damnit Ernest. But that’ll have to wait until next time; I hope you all enjoyed, I’ll see you all then!

[Warmal]

Now that we have unlocked a decent amount of Robo bodies we are starting to see just how much variation there is in style of play for this game. It’s really incredible how many parts there are and honestly the customization for this is great for multiplayer.

I’ve always hoped we would get another title in this series just for the online battle aspect alone.

[LaZodiac]

Funny you should say that! There is a game that is… very blatently inspired by Custom Robo mechanically, that is coming out Soonish, which I will link right here.

It has some uh… not great art design decisions, but it looks interesting.

[Warmal]

Oh wow. The director actually worked on Custom Robo. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this. The art definitely isn’t as great as Custom Robo, but hopefully the gameplay is really fun.

[LaZodiac]

Video release slightly delayed because I am a sleepy bitch.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [9] Nerd Bench

Video Length: 25:27

With our mandatory vacation battle tournament finished, it’s time to wander around aimlessly and talk to people! This episode is honestly a fair amount of talking, but a signifigent portion of it is VERY good from a comedy standpoint, and honestly from a world building standpoint as well. It’s fascinating to see the NPCs develop as you play, and to be able to… for lack of a better term, recognize these faceless NPCs because of the dialogue they’re giving. The bench couple, the two Z Syndicate rumour mongers, Protagonist and his Father. I think it is really cool, and that a TON of effort has gone into the localization of this game, and it shows.

It shows even more when, after a good night’s rest, we get called in for our next job; head over to the lab to help guard it. Wherein we find a plethora of clickable objects, some of which give rarer extra responses that I don’t realize I hadn’t seen when clicking! It’s a shocking amount of text! But yeah, the IMPORTANT stuff is this; we, and Evil of all people, are going to be guarding this place from whoever might want to break in… and after a quick sweep of the lab it is abundantly clear that the person in question is QUITE adept at breaking in… to the point that it might be an inside job.

But exploring that possibility will be for next time. Hope you all enjoyed, I’ll see you then!

[LaZodiac]

Video’s a little late due to me lounging and sleeping in just a little bit.

Zodi Play: Robo [10] The Zee Syndicate

Video Length: 36:22

In this exciting episode, we neglect our actual duties to snoop around the offices trying to find out the truth on who really did this… only for this to immediately backfire spectacularly, allowing the enemy to break in and start rummaging through the place! But it’s a double blind, because once we rush to investigate they proceed to break into the rest of the lab! How devious and or suspicious of certain people in our group!

However, as luck would have it, we end up finding some of the enemy; the Z Syndicate, dressed in if I may be honest very cool outfits. We fight them, but the implicit nature of Custom Robo fighting means they kinda get away anyway, but presumably we stop them from stealing what they wanted to steal. After some futzing around trying to find more of them, we end up facing down what appears to be their leader! A woman is a rather gaudy (but still kinda good) outfit, using an ILLEGAL ROBO, and an illegal gun as well! Illegal parts are uh… as you can see in the fight, pretty damn substantial.

Thankfully, after a little hiccup, we do manage to defeat her. She pull the classic “I’ll let you go” villain thing, but in a stunning swerve of writing everyone else is like “naw you beat her don’t listen that nonsense” which I quite like. And with the rays of the morning sun glistening out across the now rather ransacked lab… it is time to go home and sleep for an entire day. After talking to random people, as is the norm. Hope you all enjoyed, I’ll see you all next time for… a fun time.

[Warmal]

Personally I’m not too worried about the Zuuurbleburble Syndicate. The one person may have caused some problems but I think our group can take that out. That said. I am continuinly blown away by the amount of lines for everything there are. I never read most of this text and I am so angry at younger me.