This is about the point where the Little Raiders started being actually kind of good for me when I played it. Mostly because of the Shotgun and Needler. Being able to run up and knock most enemies out in one or two hits make the “can’t take any hits” thing a bit less of a problem. Still can’t take a hit, but at least now there’s sort of a way to work around that.
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Super late video due to work and stuff woo!
Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [21] World Is Mine -Oboro Mix-
Video Length: 29:02
In this episode, we resume the storming of the Zed Syndicate! Roy meets up with us to help beat some ninja butt, and proves himself to be the worst AI companion in the game what with his constantly dying because his main weapon is a single shot magnum. Thankfully we have a shotgun and no regard for our safety, so we’re good. After blasting our way through ninjas and scientists, we meet up with Marcia and ditch Roy to fight 1v3 in the enemy favour… to go have the exact opposite fight against Oboro, as Seig reveals the dark truth; he’s actually a good guy! Surprising no one, Oboro folds like a house of cards, attempts to use Rahu to fight us and somehow fails worse, and everyone meets up for some more exposition, which we’ll get to next time.
Hope you all enjoyed! I’ll see you all next time, take care.
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Hey how about some Custom Robo? I’m sure that’ll be nice and nothing dramatic will happen.
Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [22] Silly Robo Fighting Game
Video Length: 31:19
In this episode, Sergei tells us the truth. The secret truth, the truth above the truth we just learned for becoming a S-Class Commander. A more secret truth than that truth- partly because some of the truth we did receive didn’t make it clear what we were or were not supposed to take from it, so there is some clarification our buddy has to do as well as filling us in on more of the details. After that, we head off for the Amusement Park that Rahu has hidden itself within…
So, that’s a short description for a long video, but that’s because Sergei has a lot of interesting things to say and he spends a very long time saying all of them. So with that in mind I’m just gonna delve right in to those words below.
Much wank about story and writing
The first thing he shows us is a recording of the Z Syndicate Leader, who very explicitly and immediately is made clear to be our dad. Turns out he was part of the government research team dedicated to stopping Rahu, but as the years went on the knowledge tore away at him more and more, until he eventually decided there had to be another way to stop this thing than leaving everyone as sheep trapped into a gilded cage. Thus he founded the Z Syndicate, an organization dedicated to studying and exploring the outside world so that they could find a way to deal with Rahu for good. The only real solution they ended up with was using the memory erasure device we used to defeat Rahu the first time, which he hid on Gyro as a watch. Unfortunately, our dad got sick and died before he could do anything, and upon his death Oboro and Eliza set about their schism, because they were corrupted by the allure of power.
Now this is a LOT to take in, obviously. Adding to this; Rahu is some sort of invisible natural creature dedicated to the eradication of humanity and the constant improvement of itself, like some sort of psychic death spirit, and the only reason we’re able to even SEE it is that for some reason it ended up diving into a custom robo and ended up stuck there, becoming a mixture of machine and meat, likely torturing it with the uncomfortable feeling of having physical form, driving whatever being this WAS even more crazy than it already IS. It was only due to punching it in the brain with the memory erasure device and then curb stomping it while it had zero knowledge that the humans of the past were able to defeat it… and even then, it was more like they fed it bodies until it ran out of things to learn and fell asleep.
It’s pretty clear that whatever plan our dad has… is a stopgap if anything. Rahu is an existence beyond our own reckoning and it only has a body due to being stuck in one, I don’t think we can kill it in a way that matters so even if we do use the erasure watch on it and end up being able to beat it down into submission, it still might wake up again someday. It’s a pretty bad plan, and to his credit Dad says as much in his message… and also more or less says he was a terrible father and he’s sorry for placing this burden on us. What I find interesting is taht he doesn’t even make attempts to apologize OR justify is behavior, and Gyro seems to not even really care THAT much either. He’s come to terms with the fact that the only adult he really had in his life was Lucy, which is a fun contrast to Marcia learning that uh… sometimes being selfish and bad is a form of love as well. Oof.
Speaking of Marcia lets think a little about what Sergei has to say. He always kind of intended to vanish into the outside because he felt like Marcia relied on him too much, and he hoped that’d help her grow as a person. To his credit he does say this idea is shitty, and Marcia agrees even though it did eventually work. But ultimately, he didn’t actually leave for Marcia, because he met our Dad. And our Dad talked to him about some stuff and, after pretty clearly hitting it off with him, says that if he ever notices an inconsistency in the world, come and see him again. This is a pretty loaded thing to say given Sergei’s ALREADY learned about the outside. What could be left to see that is “wrong”?
Then it hits him; his sister. For her entire life she’s been forced to go through studies and tests at the lab to find out what her deal is as an empath- seemingly for no real reason or result. Their parents are dead and yet she’s important, she’s special. She can’t really make friends because her powers make it too hard to function around others, and her brother is the only person who she can even stand to be around. If their world is so perfect- the perfect orderly dome that the government wants it to be, where everyone has basically what they need and can survive and stuff- then why is his sister going through such trauma? In the words of Sergei himself… the world is meant to be equal. But Marcia’s powers stole equality from her. This is an unavoidable inconsistency with the world- someone is suffering due to a circumstance of their birth.
There is… a lot, to think about on that. It speaks to this idea that Custom Robo’s world, the inner dome of humanity, is way more screwed up than it seems. Hell, Sergei goes on to explain that every single one of the people who first went into the dome, beyond the heads of state, were mind wiped so that they thought this was reality. The dome was made from Custom Robo tech, so it’s like the world is one big holosseum in a sense. All just to serve a particular function. The function in this case being to present a perfect world were everyone can be content. But perfection can be an enemy to an idle mind, and so we get stuff like goofy criminals doing crimes because it’s not like they’ll get in much trouble, as long as they don’t hurt anyone. It’s fine, let them act out. We get bounty hunters who make a big show of how cool and impressive they choose to be, and that’s fine. We get incompetent cops who serve as a sort of glue; look at how useless they are, if only someone who is special and cool like you could stop the criminals. Let the docile masses have their play while the real commanders do the work to save humanity.
It’s extremely messed up and I kinda love it, and wish the game could have been a bit longer so we could see more of this, to really hammer it home that this is a world where things are “perfect”, perfect enough that realizing his sister has a natural advantage over others- an advantage the government makes very clear they will go to any lengths to learn about, up to and including ruining her life- is enough to make Sergei flip the script and go join a clandestine, quasi-terrorist organization. And now he’s told us all of this, and the game gives us maybe like three seconds to reflect on it before we march off to the destroyed remnants of an amusement park, bombards us with goofy ninja fights, and STILL has us n cutscene mode even as we finish out the video. Metal Gear Solid eat your heart out.
So yeah. That was our video today. Custom Robo is a silly robo fighting game. Hope you all enjoyed, I’ll see you all next time for… silly… robo fighting game at its silliest, actually. Take care.
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I’m so glad we’re here now. This is really the point that pushed this game over the edge to being my favourite gamecube game. The story just goes so much deeper than you would ever think it does. Every detail so finely crafted and puts you in the same mindset as the main trio. You never question the city, how robotic it is, why everyone has robos. None of it. It’s just fact cause that’s the game. Then it blasts you with all this lore that makes you actually think in a meaningful way about our own world. I love it.
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Like I said in video, I COMPLETELY forgot it asked questions like this, and it’s… making me understand a lot about myself with regards to my own writing, that I had this game during some of the formative years of my life.
I’ll be extremely myself and say that I had pretty much the opposite reaction to Sergei’s speech. It just sucked away my enthusiasm. It’s very similar to the scene in Final Fantasy VIII where Irvine tells the party that they have magic future amnesia [FF8 is 20+ years old and all the twists are bad just click the blur]. It changes nothing, except for some reason I’m now much less invested than I was 20 minutes earlier.
- Why was Rahu a ghost that one day possessed a toy for no reason and then couldn’t un-possess it for no reason? Like, why would you choose to write that? And then why would you choose not to change it?
- Why did the government decide to mind-wipe everyone? What did that accomplish?
- Why is the world in the domed city described as perfectly controlled when it’s primarily characterized by the police having little control over the city?
- What does Marcia being researched by the government have to do with anything else Sergei said?
- Why did the government research Marcia, other than that inhumanely investigating people with superpowers is a thing governments do?
- For that matter, why did they stop?
- “Spoiling someone isn’t love… Sometimes, you need to be strict in order to be compassionate.” Yes thank you I’ve seen an anime before I’m aware there are only two genders, Positive Affirmations ASMR and Divorced Dad.
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For what it’s worth, while I think some of what is brought up here is compelling and worth thinking about… it is also very very silly and is just layers upon layers of twists. I’ll try to make a note of all of what you said, though.
- I have no idea. Maybe whoever wrote the game just experienced Shadowrun and thought it would be cool? It honestly feels very much like this could happen here; some nature spirit ends up accidently locked inside a “totem” made from a children’s toy and just goes berserk.
- Controlled the fear of the general populace. If humanity is reduced to like… maybe a single state or province of people, you want to make sure you keep all that info on lock to prevent unrest.
- I actually kinda feel like this is part of the control. Cops are shitty and bad so it’s typically up to you to defend yourself, but the criminals aren’t really all that bad either and bounty hunters are lame. It’s like a themepark version of reality.
- Marcia’s special powers could be a permanent solution to the Rahu problem. They could also be a sign that we’ve inadvertently caused humanity to start developing in a… perhaps bad way. Marcia’s ability to dive into other people’s cubes could grow or change to dive into other things, or PEOPLE… and then it’ll be like a humanized Rahu, potentially. Brain crime is dangerous and exciting. I have to imagine they stopped because they didn’t find anything of use.
- Yeah that part I didn’t like that much. It’s INTERESTING, in so far as it is at the very least presented as wrong what Sergei did even if it was right, if that makes sense?
Late video due to a variety of things oh no!
Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [23] The Zee Syndicate
Video Length: 24:32
In this episode, yours truly remembers the contents of this cutscene wrong! Hoorah! We also beat up a shit ton of Elize’s goons, and that’s basically it. Honestly that’s not all that bad considering the sheer intensity of Things Happening recently in this game.
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I actually really love the bathroom scene. We get some nice comedic downtime between what is honestly some pretty heavy cutscenes and plot. And while Harry is the butt of the joke a lot, the fact that we know he takes out 4 of Eliza’s goons on his own if you don’t go is pretty awesome.
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To be honest I like it too. I like it way more now having corrected my understanding that it was this or an important Marcia scene. Guess that’s what happens when the last time you played a video game was a decade ago…
That was even funnier than I’d remembered. And I’d forgotten about the Fabulous Fighting Four.
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Oh. A new Custom Robo. That’s coming.
Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [24] Shoryuken
Video Length: 30:14
In this episo- EAT MY DRAGON PUNCH.
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“I got a little power-hungry, but that’s to be expected,” Zodi said as she claimed Rahu for herself.
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Oh hey it’s time for Custom Robo once more! Sorry about the missed update!
Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [25] Rahu III
Video Length: 29:34
In this video, we confront the horrible truth; the Zee Syndicate leader has a twin, and now we have to do a double-battle against two illegal crime robos with Harry as our only back up. Sweet. After dealing with that we descend one floor lower… to Rahu III’s nest.
I’ll be honest here; the end of the game EXTREMELY snuck up on me. I don’t remember ANY of this happening so soon, so quickly. But now it’s hear, and it is time to fight the meat robo in it’s ultimate muscle form! And it is… not a great boss fight. I understand that a 3v1 is hard to make exciting, Oboro made it clear such a thing is rather anti climactic. But making the enemy immune to status effects, have an instant rebirth period, and just not be flinched AT ALL by ANY damage at all is… kind of nonsense. It doesn’t help that the sheer size of the arena, done so to ensure Rahu II doesn’t overwhelm YOU, makes it that some parts just aren’t viable at all! Of course, given that bombs and pods require the enemy to be playing by the same rules as you to actually be good, the only part that really matters is your Gun. So yeah, not the best boss fight in the world.
But, we do manage to beat it. And um… Rahu dies after we beat it? It is unclear and a rather anti climactic actually, so oops! I guess we can be safe to say that Rahu is destroyed for good, but… I don’t buy it. Regardless, Sergei drops us one last dad message, wherein he talks about how the government was ill prepared for this and how it stole curiosity from people (which is actually a pretty solid line, truth be told). We give over the memory erasure device to Sergei so he and Linda can work the best way to use it, and then we all go home as the credits roll… and over the credits, we are introduced to First Person Mode, a method of playing the game that as a kid I fell in love with because it’s just so… like look at it. It’s rad as hell. Maybe it’s just me but I love it!
And so ends Custom Robo…'s first campaign. We’ve still got the Grand Battle ahead, though what actually happens there I don’t recall because it’s been forever and apparently everything I THOUGHT happened in the regular campaign happens here instead so… look forward to that, I suppose! I hope you all enjoyed, see you all next time.
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Yeah, Rahu III is just…ooph. I don’t remember how I beat it, I just did eventually. In the same vein, I quit partway into the Grand Battle. It’s grueling.
I wish after you beat Rahu, it said, “You may have defeated me, but as long as there is darkness in the human heart…I shall return!” right before exploding.
And then Gyro would probably say “Wait it can talk?”
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And so begins… the Grand Battle!
Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [26] The Grand Battle Begins
Video Length: 30:10
In this video, presumably three months after we saved the world, it is time to once more throw ourselves into the holloseum! As is eventually explained to us, humanity as a whole has decided that today is World Remembrance Day, the government lying to everyone that Rahu and Z were both defeated today and that Rahu is gone for good, and now that that’s happened everyone is required to participate in a Custom Robo tournament across the entire dome-world in celebration of the things that let us beat Rahu! It’s also a secret government ploy to find the strongest fighters in the world, like Gyro, who might have come from nothing, and making it mandatory for everyone accomplished this quite nicely.
Because Rahu might come back, and in order to steel ourselves against it… the government and the police have now decided that a yearly mandatory battle tournament will be necessary in steeling Humanity for that eventuality. Which… is the government and police still lying to the populace, and is arguably just as bad if not worse than keeping the secret of Rahu and the Outside. So… hooray…?
Anyway, with that out of the way we begin the first, and easiest, tournament. A simple 1v1 style in our neighbor’s house! Pretty simple, though we also get to see Walt’s… impeccable fashion with regards to his toupee, so it’s all worth it in the end. Also the reason why he was able to get the toupee is that Custom Robos are made extra cheap now to encourage everyone to get into them, which means that the government set the prices for the robos at a higher market to try and ensure you got quality over quantity but then they realized due to Gyro that having a quantity means you can find those hidden gems of quality easier and oh my god the more I think about this the more fucked up it is!
EDIT: I am aware of the Link Noises and am working on fixing it. Have to go into the physical office for work today so may not get it done this morning.
EDIT 2: I no longer turn into Link during the video.
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Time for a video in which my dedication to using all the parts I get, immediately, comes back to bite me hard.
Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [27] Steel Hearts and Dull Minds
Video Length: 22:42
In this episode, we tackle the Steel Hearts Cup, which introduces one of the main rules of the Grand Battle; in almost all of these you will be lose access to the parts you win with for the duration of the tournament! A method of ensuring you do make use of all the other parts, learn their strategies, and otherwise feel the depths of the strategy this game holds.
Unfortunately said strategy is not as deep as the creators think, because some of these guns are just outright bad. The Blade gun, while cool, is not really viable in any sense, and the Trap gun… well, is what it says, unfortunately. The score we get in this cup is genuinely do bad that I might in my off time try and beat it to at least get bronze. I don’t need to since my intent is to use a premade save file to show off the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Clear tournaments so we can make sure to see every bit of content this game has to offer. But hey, sometimes my pride gets the best of me, we’ll see!
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed! Join us next time for the Daimen sponsored Noodle Bowl! Take care everyone~
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Video delayed due to power outage, sorry for the wait!
Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [28] Ramen for Breakfast
Video Length: 25:39
Nothing really special here, beyond the fact that now I’m hungry for noodles… and also we get punted across the full length of the arena with a single blow and that’s pretty rad honestly.
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I’ve been watching this, and having played the N64 one the entire game feels strange. The N64 one was kids playing with robot toys - there’s no mention of it being a job or there being robo-wielding mercenaries or anything like that, just kids playing with robot toys.
For the franchise to go from that to “yeah there are people committing war crimes with custom robos and frying people’s brains like it’s Cyberpunk 2020” is kind of jarring. I feel like at one point Nintendo wanted to make an actual toy line out of it but decided that they needed to make it cooler and edgier before they could do that.
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You’d think, but I don’t… actually recall there ever being model kits for Custom Robo. Which is strange because it was at least a little popular in Japan given it got a fair amount of games over there.
I guess Gunpla and other such things just… overtook it. Also yeah the way the game explains the plot, it is entirely valid to look at Custom Robo gamecube as a horrifying dark cyberpunk future for that N64 game.