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Upon completion of our happy-go-lucky replicant platoon simulation, I was a bit nonplussed since my initial impression. That is not to say that this was necessarily a bad thing since my initial impression of the game was high, but it is to say that the game didn’t develop too much further beyond its genesis.
–Spoiler Warning–
The general plot of the game is a bit hard to piece together, if only because of how sporadic it plays out matched with large gaps of time passing in an instant, with nothing more than “2 years later” or something similar to indicate the passage of time. Shoutaro continues to fight for the empire, but eventually gets fed up with his country when they use a floating Human Tank Bomb the size of a city block to indiscriminately eradicate thousands of Human Tanks fighting on both sides. He chooses to rebel against the Empire, fighting against it as a maverick. In the middle of this plot is an ongoing plot involving Shoutaro and a fiesty Kingdom general named Kurara. Kurara suffers defeat at Shoutaro’s so many times that she no longer is concerned about winning the war, but is just concerned with defeating Shoutaro. After another defeat, Kurara loses her precious Rara Human Tank (a tank similar in status to Shoutaro’s Heshiko). This resulted when Rara, who was considered to only be a “pet” Human Tank up to this point begged Kurara to let her fight. In spite of being a skilled sniper, Rara is captured by Shoutaro and is repaired by his little sister Chiyoko. Chiyoko removes Rara’s control chip, allowing Rara free action apart from the Kingdom’s commands. Eventually Shoutaro returns Rara to Kurara and gains both their trust. At the end of it all, Shoutaro finally becomes emperor of the Empire, overthrowing the corrupt leaders he hated serving. Heading back to his home, he finds Kurara waiting for him, whereupon she challenges him to another sortie and the credits roll.
The game’s replayability seems pretty decent. You get to start the campaign over again with all of your previous upgrades and equipment, including the upgraded Red Muffler Heshiko and Red Muffler Rara. During my first playthrough, there were a handful of campaign missions where even though I lost the mission the plot continued, I’m sure that I’d stand a better chance at winning them in a second round. Additionally, there were some pretty ridiculous bonus and free missions that I immediately got ROFL-stomped in that likewise would be more winnable after accumulated more upgrades from a second run at the game.
War of the Human Tanks is not a perfect game. The plot is a bit disjointed, the pacing can be a bit start-and-go and it’s sometimes difficult for the player to understand if they should expect to win a sortie or not. In spite of that, this was Fruit Bat’s first title in the War of the Human Tanks series, and I’d definitely be willing to try one of their sequels to see if they’ve expanded upon their already decent formula. If you like grid-based strategical war games, I’d recommend you give the series a shot. If I do pick up one of the newer titles, maybe I can at least hope to get some backstory on that damn cat. And what’s scary is that he wasn’t even the worst of them.
