Open Forum: I sold my body in Daemon X Machina, and for what?

So. Daemon X Machina. Anime mech game. One with the option to cybernetically alter your character’s body with assorted implants. Some modifications provide bonuses to your mech, some provide bonuses or new abilities to your mech pilot. The former are a lot more useful throughout the game – it’s a cool idea that you can eject from your mech, but practically speaking there’s rarely a situation in which that is useful. Most of the game’s primary objectives involve taking on large enemies with larger health pools and you’re almost always better off in your mech, armed to the teeth with machine guns, laser swords, and rocket launchers.

Of course, this being a game of a certain stripe, the final confrontation might require a little bit extra. The last mission differs in structure from the rest of the game, as it rolls three missions into one continuous battle. There’s the linear opening fight against some smaller baddies and robotic mechs, the kind of battle that you play a dozen times in the game. Then there’s the one-on-one fight against the big bad, which is made slightly more challenging by the lack of healing items in the arena. Then there’s the final final form once the big bad fuses with the big bad cosmic whatever.

True to form, that last fight comes with a spike in difficulty. Not in challenge, necessarily, since the AI isn’t any better. It’s more that the enemy has loads of health and huge attacks that deal tons of damage. Considering I did most of the game’s missions in a single shot, by the time I was a few tries in, I thought I’d switch things up. No healing items in the arena? Well, near the end of the cybernetic upgrade chain I noticed that you can get your pilot the ability to heal your mech on the battlefield. All I’d have to do is click past the repeated menus that say that you’ll have some major changes to your physical form.

Look what they did to my beautiful, beefy, pink-haired boy:

And you know what? It was pointless! The big bad doesn’t give you enough time to hop out of your mech and heal it. It just sends another wave of missiles or a laser cannon a mile wide in your direction. Your ability to heal can’t keep up the pace of your mech getting constantly hammered, and there’s nowhere good to hide in the arena. Plus, once you’re grounded, you’re stationary while you try and do repairs. So the boss can just hover above you and unload. No good.

So I did what I did for a lot of the game – found dead zones that were inconvenient for the AI to hit and went to town with a beam sword. Sure, I still wound up having to finish the fight on foot after my mech eventually took enough damage, but it worked. Not the most exciting strategy, but enough to get the credits to roll.

**Talk Amongst Yourselves!**

• What’s your favorite mech game?
• When was the last time you got an upgrade in a game, only to realize it was pointless?
• How’s Tuesday treating you?