Border-Break-FUU!!!
I uncovered Border Break purely by accident, while wandering the arcades looking for something to play. It bills itself as a 10x10 network battle game, meaning it pits two teams of 10 players against each other. It's like a lot of team and class based shooters on the PC like Team Fortress 2. I never really could get into those types of games, although I played my fair share of Doom 2 and Quake. So what's the key difference with Border Break?
Seriously, making them giant robots totally changes the feel of the game. As a robot, you can dash in different directions using your boosters, and also be in the air for limited periods of time. Players pick from one of four classes - Assault is, as the name implies, your general attack unit. It's the most common one, and it's what you'll start off with. It's the only one with a close ranged weapon, a sword it can whip out Kenshin-style. Heavy is your big guns guy - it has a gatling gun that can mow down troops, and a missle launcher. It can also plant iself on the ground and after a certain period of time launch an airstrike to anywhere on the map. The sniper is pretty self explanatory - besides picking off targets at long range, it can deploy a miniature turret and shield to temporarily protect itself. The last one is support, which I guess can heal your teammates, but I never tried that one out. You can change your class everytime your respawn, so it encourages you to adapt to the situation. There's only one gameplay type so far, which involves destroying the reactor core of your enemy's base. I was only able to try out two maps - one in a desert/mountain area, and the other in an abandoned city. The desert one is for smaller battles of 5 x 5, while the city is for 10 x 10.
Gameplay is pretty fluid, and a large part of that is due to the control scheme. It's the first arcade game I've seen that uses a joystick + mouse combo. Yes, a MOUSE - it's attached by a strong cord, and has three buttons. The joystick has a nub on the top for flicking in different directions, and three additional buttons - the trigger, one for dashing on the ground, and the other for boosting into the air. Everything else is handled by the touchscreen, so if you wanted to designate a target to your teammates, you touch it on the screen, or touch icons to issue simple verbal commands.
The setup works REALLY well in the context of piloting a giant robot - you use the joystick to turn your robot's entire body and strafing, while the mouse is used for aiming. All the arcade units are networked together, so when you begin it will put you into a randomly selected match. If a match doesn't have enough people, it will sub in with CPU AI until someone joins in, so it's not uncommon to be thrown into the middle of a match.
The last feature is the Card system. It's not required, but you can purchase a card to use for the game. When you insert your card into the game, it lets you create a profile to save your stats. As you play online matches, you'll accumulate points towards your ranking. After getting a certain number of points, you'll automatically level up - you begin the game as D5, then level up to D4, D3, etc. As you level up in ranking, you'll be able to customize your pilot's appearance, like changing their hairstyle, adding accessories, etc. At the end of every match you'll also get to pick from 1 - 6 boxes, which will give you materials. Materials are used for upgrading your weapons, equipment, and appearance. Even if your team loses, as long as you perform well you'll get points and boxes, so there's a steady progression.
Each arcade has about four units, and there was always a wait time for it. You would write your name on the list and they then give you a number card. While you're waiting, you can see the other players via separate monitors (no need to peer over their shoulder!). The game works on GP currency - the more coins you put in the more GP you get. When you're in a match, GP is consumed at about 1 per second. Matches typically last 5 - 6 minutes, and as a courtesy the arcade people won't let you put in more than 5 coins for 1300 GP. You also use up GP when you're customizing, so all in all the experience is designed so that it can go through players fairly quickly. I was pretty hooked on the game the entire week I stayed in Japan - I made sure to play it at least once a day, and by the time I left I went from D6 to D3 in the rankings. Gameplay's solid, graphics look great, and the character designs are easy on the eyes too.
If one of the points of travelling is to experience things you couldn't have elsewhere, this was definitely one of them. It's a crying shame that something like this could never be in the US - besides the whole arcade scene being dead, only Japan has the broadband to be able to network different arcades together without suffering from lag. I'm not sure if I would play it on the consoles either - the joystick REALLY REALLY gives me the feeling that I'm piloting a robot, while the mouse gives me the accuracy I need to aim and shoot.
The game was released back in Februrary, and seems to be fairly popular - every time I went, there was always a minimum of five people ahead of me in line. There isn't a lot of merchandise for it - I picked up a shirt at TGS and won a pair of headphones at a UFO catcher machine. For now, I'll have to be content with watching their Youtube channel until I can get back to Japan.
Click to viewSeriously, making them giant robots totally changes the feel of the game. As a robot, you can dash in different directions using your boosters, and also be in the air for limited periods of time. Players pick from one of four classes - Assault is, as the name implies, your general attack unit. It's the most common one, and it's what you'll start off with. It's the only one with a close ranged weapon, a sword it can whip out Kenshin-style. Heavy is your big guns guy - it has a gatling gun that can mow down troops, and a missle launcher. It can also plant iself on the ground and after a certain period of time launch an airstrike to anywhere on the map. The sniper is pretty self explanatory - besides picking off targets at long range, it can deploy a miniature turret and shield to temporarily protect itself. The last one is support, which I guess can heal your teammates, but I never tried that one out. You can change your class everytime your respawn, so it encourages you to adapt to the situation. There's only one gameplay type so far, which involves destroying the reactor core of your enemy's base. I was only able to try out two maps - one in a desert/mountain area, and the other in an abandoned city. The desert one is for smaller battles of 5 x 5, while the city is for 10 x 10.
Gameplay is pretty fluid, and a large part of that is due to the control scheme. It's the first arcade game I've seen that uses a joystick + mouse combo. Yes, a MOUSE - it's attached by a strong cord, and has three buttons. The joystick has a nub on the top for flicking in different directions, and three additional buttons - the trigger, one for dashing on the ground, and the other for boosting into the air. Everything else is handled by the touchscreen, so if you wanted to designate a target to your teammates, you touch it on the screen, or touch icons to issue simple verbal commands.
The setup works REALLY well in the context of piloting a giant robot - you use the joystick to turn your robot's entire body and strafing, while the mouse is used for aiming. All the arcade units are networked together, so when you begin it will put you into a randomly selected match. If a match doesn't have enough people, it will sub in with CPU AI until someone joins in, so it's not uncommon to be thrown into the middle of a match.
The last feature is the Card system. It's not required, but you can purchase a card to use for the game. When you insert your card into the game, it lets you create a profile to save your stats. As you play online matches, you'll accumulate points towards your ranking. After getting a certain number of points, you'll automatically level up - you begin the game as D5, then level up to D4, D3, etc. As you level up in ranking, you'll be able to customize your pilot's appearance, like changing their hairstyle, adding accessories, etc. At the end of every match you'll also get to pick from 1 - 6 boxes, which will give you materials. Materials are used for upgrading your weapons, equipment, and appearance. Even if your team loses, as long as you perform well you'll get points and boxes, so there's a steady progression.
Each arcade has about four units, and there was always a wait time for it. You would write your name on the list and they then give you a number card. While you're waiting, you can see the other players via separate monitors (no need to peer over their shoulder!). The game works on GP currency - the more coins you put in the more GP you get. When you're in a match, GP is consumed at about 1 per second. Matches typically last 5 - 6 minutes, and as a courtesy the arcade people won't let you put in more than 5 coins for 1300 GP. You also use up GP when you're customizing, so all in all the experience is designed so that it can go through players fairly quickly. I was pretty hooked on the game the entire week I stayed in Japan - I made sure to play it at least once a day, and by the time I left I went from D6 to D3 in the rankings. Gameplay's solid, graphics look great, and the character designs are easy on the eyes too.
If one of the points of travelling is to experience things you couldn't have elsewhere, this was definitely one of them. It's a crying shame that something like this could never be in the US - besides the whole arcade scene being dead, only Japan has the broadband to be able to network different arcades together without suffering from lag. I'm not sure if I would play it on the consoles either - the joystick REALLY REALLY gives me the feeling that I'm piloting a robot, while the mouse gives me the accuracy I need to aim and shoot.
The game was released back in Februrary, and seems to be fairly popular - every time I went, there was always a minimum of five people ahead of me in line. There isn't a lot of merchandise for it - I picked up a shirt at TGS and won a pair of headphones at a UFO catcher machine. For now, I'll have to be content with watching their Youtube channel until I can get back to Japan.
