Robot Alchemic Drive (2002)

Developer: Sandlot
Publisher: Enix Corporation
Platforms: PlayStation 2
Genres: Simulator, Strategy

The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

you lumber through a crumbling city wrestling with awkward controls to direct a giant robot from a vulnerable human's-eye view, making every battle feel tense, slow, and improvisational.

clunkyexperimentalstrategiccampy sci-fitensedeliberate pacingcity-scale destructionretro

About

Robot Alchemic Driver is a Big Robot/Monster fight in a modern city with a twist. There is a story and training mode and a 2 player vs. mode. In a nut shell, alien's attack the last city on earth. The big robot comes up, and here is where the twist come in, you have to control the robot from the perspective of the "hero" (three to choose from) and you can switch between the robot/hero mode. This forces you to make sure you have a strategic position to move the hero around in the city to see the battle without getting too close. As the game goes on you have the option to update/customize the mech(s) to improve them. You can end up destroying whole building/terrain as you battle the alien monster.

Screenshots

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This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.