ANT (Free RPG) Introduction and Review

This is an article introducing 'ANT', an RPG created with RPG Maker 2000.
As introduced on this blog,Qualia - The Blind and Mute Diva -』『QualiaNext - Illuminating the Path -This is a work by the same creator, Sugiyan, as "[Title of previous work]".
Its appeal lies in its cyberpunk atmosphere, which follows in the footsteps of previous works.

The main story took about 12 hours to complete.

Game Overview (No Spoilers)

The protagonist is Azmira, a heavily mutant girl created by a company called "Seibai Giken" (Crawling Technology Research Institute).
She looks like a cute girl who speaks in the Hakata dialect, but when she transforms into battle mode, she unleashes monstrous combat power.
In order to climb the corporate ladder and fulfill their own aspirations, they perform various tasks assigned by the company.
As the story progresses, the protagonist finds themselves thrown into the midst of events related to their own origins.

Battles primarily occur through a symbol encounter system.
Once a character's action gauge is full, you can select a command and perform an action.
Since the range of normal attacks and skills varies, you can fight more easily by moving around and changing direction to get into an advantageous position.

Movement is limited to one-dimensional directions; you can only move forward or backward.
The relative positions of the characters on the battle screen are irrelevant.
A set of movement and a change of direction counts as one action, but it only consumes half of the action gauge, so your next turn comes around sooner compared to other actions.

The most important point regarding positioning is that attacking an enemy from behind will result in a critical hit.
While you can win by simply facing each other and punching, you can fight more efficiently by being mindful of your positioning.
I think this is a combat system that accurately reflects numerical and positional advantages.
If you can surround them, it will be easier to attack from behind.

The protagonist, Azmira, doesn't grow stronger just by gaining experience points.
You become stronger by allocating experience points.
Whether you choose to teach them skills or increase their stats, players are free to decide how they want to develop their characters.
The system allows for a variety of fighting styles, so it's fun to try out different approaches.

The story is divided into episodes, such as episode one, episode two, and so on, with each episode being a separate, cohesive unit.
As the game progresses, the level of seriousness gradually increases, leading to a major incident.

In this work, the unique characters greatly enliven the story.
The main character, Azmira, makes an impact with her Hakata dialect, but there are also many other characters, such as Jordan, a suspicious but lovable journalist, and Bee Bee, a righteous but arrogant-sounding stranger.
The interactions between the quirky characters are entertaining in themselves and will surely draw players into the game.

Review (no spoilers)

I was able to successfully complete the game to the very end.

The difficulty level of the battles is on the easier side (excluding the post-game bosses).
This doesn't mean it's easy, but rather that with proper preparation, you can overcome the obstacles without much difficulty.
The preparation itself isn't that difficult, and if you buy plenty of recovery items, you can brute-force your way through to a certain extent.
There's no need to specifically grind for money and experience points through combat; you should be able to accumulate money without any problems just by fighting normally.
Even on my first playthrough, I never experienced a total party wipe.
However, even when fighting weak enemies, you can't just keep mashing buttons to defeat them, so battles might take a little longer than usual.

The party members will change as the story progresses.
While there are opportunities to freely assemble your team towards the end of the game, the members are generally fixed as the story progresses.
Since there are various combat members, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of each member and use them with their roles in mind.

The graphics have a retro feel, showcasing the charm of RPG Maker's pixel art style.
Many of the map tiles appear to have been created specifically for this game, creating a nostalgic yet cyberpunk atmosphere.
The occasional inclusion of powerful, striking illustrations is really cool.

And above all, the background music is fantastic.
As with previous works, Numataro is in charge of the music.
There are plenty of background music tracks for both normal gameplay and battles, and they undoubtedly enhance each scene.
As mentioned in the included readme file, we recommend setting up your environment using "VirtualMIDISynth" and "SGM-V2.01" instead of the default MIDI settings.

Post-completion impressions (spoiler alert)

Incidentally, after clearing the main story, if you go to see the training ground supervisor, you can challenge an even more hidden dungeon and a secret boss.
Those who are confident in their skills should give it a try.

From here downContains spoilersSo, I'd like to talk about some memorable scenes, along with screenshots.

There were some slightly unsettling lines early on, which made me think the story would involve the protagonist fighting against his own company, but that wasn't the case at all.
In the end, I was relieved to find that all the employees at Seikai Giken were really nice people.

The game's download site described it as a "comical B-movie biopunk mid-length RPG where a corporate slave insect conquers the city," but I didn't really feel much of a corporate slave element to it.
Azmira works hard to climb the corporate ladder, but perhaps due to her personality, she doesn't have the tragic, overworked feel of a typical corporate slave.
I feel that the other outlaws are actually more bound by various constraints than Azmira, who works for a company.

BB is one of my favorite characters.
His exaggerated and arrogant way of speaking is quite distinctive, but what's really appealing is that he has surprisingly flexible thinking.
He's an intriguing character, described by Boss Zameji as "a madman, but he had the charisma of a cult leader."

While tough and capable on the front lines in battle, its low agility and slow action are its weaknesses.
This character is difficult to use because there are many skills you want to use after using Focus, but you don't want to waste your turn order.

(In version 1.03 and later, the ability to concentrate is no longer required thanks to a permanent skill, improving usability.)

Jordan is sarcastic towards Mason and his friends for always bringing up old stories at every opportunity.
I liked this sarcastic remark so much that I took a screenshot.
I like these kinds of lines from Jordan, so it's fun to watch him interact with the other characters.

In combat, it had both long-range single-target and area-of-effect attacks, making it quite easy to use.
The gunplay where you spin your gun at the start of combat is really cool.
I imagine they practiced it simply because it looked cool.

From his appearance, I suspected that BB was connected to the cult, and then it turned out to be you after all.
Even though we were deep in enemy territory, it was a moment when I could feel the air suddenly relax.

This is Jordan's inner monologue regarding Shengbai Technology Research Institute, which is in a superior position in every respect.
Because we have the advantage, they don't need to use any tactics and will come at us directly.
I like how he seems to be well aware of the weaknesses of his glib tongue, which is also his weapon.

This scene revealed the origins of Azumira's Hakata dialect for the first time.
At this stage, I never imagined they were mother and daughter.
My understanding was that Ciel had been taking care of Azmira since she was little.

This is a picture of Scarecrow being called out for making the same sour grapes excuses as Sorbetta, who is the complete opposite of him.
There are very few scenes in the story where he is surprised, so it left a strong impression on me.

This is a screenshot of the moment I encountered an enemy the instant I entered a small room.
I think it's interesting how the situation of suddenly encountering someone at close range is represented by the relative positions in the battle.

This is BB's retort to Glenzo for ignoring the negative information about his daughter.
In this film, Bee Bee is the one being teased a lot, and it feels very rare to see him tease others.
BB himself seems to consciously shut out inconvenient information, but Glenzo seems to be doing it unconsciously, which makes him even more insidious.

This scene was a relief because it revealed that Eddie, who was an enigmatic figure like Akira from "AKIRA," wasn't an enemy.
At the end, when he instantly teleported to where Azmira was riding the elevator alone, I actually thought he might betray her, but thankfully that didn't happen.

Jordan, who played a leading role and acted as a kind of narrator, gracefully hands over his unit to the main character, Azmira, in the end.
It was like watching Rickerman and Slea from 'Quallia'.
(The way of addressing her is also the same: "young lady.")