Review - Medabots RPG - Metabee & Rokusho (GBA)

There's a game from my early teen that I always wanted to cover: Medabots RPG.

Medabots was a short-lived series created amid the "Pokemon craze" of the late-90s, with many of its games on Nintendo's Gameboy exclusive to Japan under the name "Medarot".  Unlike the more Pokémon knockoff, Digimon; Medabots put to death the "creature" aspect of the series, toward collecting "medaparts" and "Tinpet" to build robotic fighters and become a "medafighter": [...]                                                             "a human who controls a Medabot through a Medawatch, engaging in Robattles."

The Japanese animation series was released in America in 2001 with its first American release: "Medabots RPG", remake of "Medarot 2". The anime was commissioned to Bee Train Production, with a run with 52 episodes and roughly covers the events and characters of the second game. 

Developer Natsume was relatively well known for rather successful niché games such as "Pocky and Rocky", "Wild Guns", "Ninja Warriors" as well as their excellent flagship, the "Harvest Moon" series. It's no wonder that the Japanese company would try their luck at the "Pokemon" hype train, the series was quite successful in Japan, earning multiple iterations - in the west, not so much, dying after only 3 years with the flop of its Gamecube game "Medabots Infinity". Nowadays, the series is owned by Imagineer, now at over a dozen games released on multiple systems, mainly by Delta Arts; since the closure of Delta Arts in 2016, the series has since been dormant.

 

 

Medabots RPG

The game starts off with an amazing intro sequence,
featuring a digitized sample of the anime's opening theme.

Prognosis

This game has an expected Natsume charm and quality to it. While Natsume was never as big a hitter as other Japanese developing studios, it always seemed to have a certain quality threshold. Many of their games are now considered 'cult classics,' even though they may not be as mainstream as Konami or Capcom titles.  
"Medabots RPG" features some of the most polished graphics, gameplay, and soundtrack we had yet to see on the Gameboy Advance, only a year past its release. You can instantly see the Pokémon influence from its graphics to its musical score. "Medabots RPG" is definitely worthy of its Game Freak heritage, from a technical standpoint.. 

Medabots RPG's "Home Theme" - is tonally reminiscent of Pokemon's "Pallet Town".

The game emulates "Pokemon" up to its overworld style,
The universe feels like your average shōnen toy brand, centered around 

the "Medabots" craze and featuring many friendly NPCs to interact with.

Story

The game starts with you controlling a young boy named Ikki Tenryou, who is obsessed with Medabots, lives in a Medabots house with a Medabot little window and a Medabot corvette, and everything is Medabots for him and himself and everybody around, cause he ain't got... a Medabot. Until one day, his mother asks him to buy dinner at the convenience store; the little man disobeys his parent and buys a Medabot instead, oh well! Now a medafighter, Ikki meets up with childhood friend and school reporter, Erika. They are later coerced into a fight with The Screws, a gang of school bullies. Ikki then robattles his very shonen rivals: Sloan, Spyke, and their leader, Samantha. The real trouble arises when the "Rubberobo Gang" starts targeting Ikki Tenryou for his rare Medal, "Metabee" (alternatively, "Rokusho"). Ikki takes it on his shoulder to defeat Dr. Meta-Evil.

The game features gorgeous battle animations

Battle

Most of the Robattles are unfortunately random encounters; they can take a long while, especially when you get lost like I initially did on my way through Mt. Odoro. In Robattles, the player can control from one to three Medabots, each needing a "Medal", "Tinpet" and a full set of "Medaparts". "Medabots" do not have a single health bar - rather each part have their own health pool. 

Damaging a problematic part can mean the difference between losing and winning a fight, with the Leader's Medabot's head being an instant victory for the Medafighter dealing the finishing blow.
After each Robattle, the loser must give one "Medapart" to his opponent, at random, to the winner. Medals have many preferences when it comes to Medaparts and their abilities, which makes customizing each Medabots tricky. The game often starts on the menu screen and proceeds during Robattling; preparing for a battle is more than half the fight. Medabots has over 600 Medaparts to collect, some exclusive to each version.

Much like Pokemon, each 4 "Medaparts" have a limited AP to use each battle.

 

Many tools are at your disposal to claim victory, including a whopping eight kinds of attack types, each with its own sub-abilities and uses, you may want to build your Medabots as a tank, a healer, support, a sniper, or a combination of all of the above. Each Medaparts at your disposal have one of each attack type: Aim, Shoot, Strike, Berserk, Heal, Defend, Support and Interruption. Each 8 attack types have over 5 sub-abilities, totaling over 40 unique abilities.

"Chain Reaction" can be triggered after destroying a Medaparts,
damaging more of the Medabot in its adjacent parts.

Sypnosis

Fans of "Mega Man Battle Network" will enjoy this entry for its wholesome slice-of-life elements featuring robots, while Pokémon fans might feel at home with the "Medaparts" collecting and "Robattling" in this overlooked Gameboy Advance classic. We felt attached to the characters of Medabots RPG the same way we cried at the end of "Mega Man Battle Network 6"; once the 23-hour long journey was over, it felt like we were saying farewell to close friends. While the lack of an after-game was a letdown, the game is long enough and has quite a few side quests and secrets to keep you occupied, the main one being a lengthy romance side quest. Overall, I would recommend this game to fans of toy shōnen. It's definitely up there, not quite as good as Pokémon, Battle Network, Digimon, or Yu-Gi-Oh! — yet so much better than Bakugan, Beyblades, or Yo-Kai Watch. Good going, Natsume/Imagineer!

Much of the story was filled with heartwarming moments...

- End of Review -

 

  Story: 72%

  Gameplay: 58%

  Graphics: 100%

  Sound: 100%

  Replayability: 53%

Total: 76.3%