MechQuest – Lacking the “Mech”?

We all know how MechQuest came to be: Artix always wanted a game based on giant, armed-to-the-teeth mecha. What we see today as MQ fufills that.

At least, only to the bare minimum.

Back in the beginning (read: gamma phase), all we had was the ol’ Newbatron v1. These were the good days. Our choice of weaponry? Gatling Guns, Flamethrowers, N00B Missles, Autoguns, etc. They were all SHAPED like mecha weapons, COLORED like mecha weapons, heck, they even MOVED like mecha weapons. They were high-tech, looked like stereotype mecha (weapons), and had a “space-explorer/vigilante” feel to them. You could slap any weapon you wanted on the Newbatron, and it still looked GREAT. This was also true for a good portion of the old days; Katana, Volt Thorn, BattleHammer, and the Star Gladius all looked just as good as the Newbatron. All perfect.

And then the Pizza missions came out. YES! Our first mission! We just…sign up…for a pizza place…

Do you see the problem in that? We’re warriors of space in gigantic, incredibly dangerous mecha, and we work at a pizza place for some spare credits. Ok, we’re students, and yes, college students DO get jobs; this is understandable. And it was pretty funny, to be honest. The one thing that was weird is that our so-called student workers were paid little. Must’ve gone to tuition. I guess this IS understandable, being a new game, and lacking the humor that the other games had.

This is also the place where the dreaded roll was first introduced into this game (which was “patched” later on); however, that is a different topic altogether.

The rewards for this pizza job were awesome, at the time. There had never been actual quest rewards before. We had a missile launcher, a giant pizza saw…a bigger pizza saw…and a mecha head with a chef’s hat. Again, this is still pretty normal for a new game; still introducing humor (it WAS the first release or so). However, this is when total color-choice was released. This made it awkward to stick some of those weapons on certain mecha. Meh.

Then, the mecha. It. Was. Insane. It had more HP, more EP, more Regen, and more sheer strength than any other mecha in the game. The catch? It cost a heck of a lot of credits. And what’s with a mecha being sponsored by a pizza shop much more powerful than an official, military-issue mecha? We may never know.

And it had a very different coloring, compared to the “originals”. It had shades of yellow, orange, green, red, and some greys. The worst part is that it had no option to recolor. Clearly, this was a themed mecha; this was fine, for the most part, because it WAS just a gimmick quest (albeit costing you many hours of farming). This mecha still could not match with the other weapons available; the mecha aspect was lost a bit, as you can’t really be a mecha with a giant pizza saw and a funny colored chassis. It just wasn’t standard. Yes, breaking standards is what AE “does,” but couldn’t they have at LEAST added re-coloring in? Yes, it’s a hassle, but is a hassle worth the deduction of the mecha-aspect in this game?

This is continuously seen throughout the game. Next came the Police series; not as expensive, but still very themed. Hospital? Same thing. A giant mecha with a scapel? Pass. These were in the EARLY days of the game, back when everything was plausibly fixable without wasting a ton of time. Let’s move on.

The house mecha. Oho. Better run from these. I’ll start with Wolfblade, as I am one of them (no, not a preference; it just happened to be what I clicked):

Their mecha is NOT “looks-compatible” with any equipment in the game, save for the weapons in the actual house shop. To make it worse? Its main weapon was a giant slab of metal. Yes, we’ve seen melee mecha before, but a giant slab of metal shaped like a hammer? Do mecha do that? Meh.

Next up is Runehawk: First, before I get anywhere, they are, again, not compatible with other equipment in terms of style. Their actual mecha-aspect is even worse; the Mechronomicon. A book that contains magical secrets, able to launch ice-balls at the enemy. Giant. Mecha. And magic? Yes, magic is okay in fantasy games, but shouldn’t it be more subtle? Isn’t this a little too explicit? Their Energy Orbs are just as bad; remember, they don’t send electromagnetic pulses and whatnot. They actually use mana to damage the enemy. Is the physical use of mana in a mecha game to this extent truly justify its mecha game qualification? Hmm.

Finally, Mystraven: Again, looks. Then, they use energy bows. Bows. Is it even plausible to build giant bows that shoot energy, when just having a cannon is easier? They obviously had the tech for it; where did the bows come from? Granted, they DID have the most realistic of all the weapons from the houses. That, however, doesn’t make up for the fact that the mecha did not look “rogue-y” at all, and wouldn’t be able to stealth around a city at all.

Perhaps these themes should have been dropped. Maybe mages, rogues, warriors (as in, the type of warrior the Wolfblade is), and the like were too much for this Fantasy/SciFi Web Game. Have they ever been used in Fantasy/SciFi games/anime before? Maybe. Were they used as main themes? Probably not.

The first planet, Westion, was FULL of non-mecha themes. First of all, the war-reward, the oh-so-overpowered-back-in-the-day Equinox, was a fricken horse. Doesn’t that scream “I’m totally a gimmick” to you? Second, there were SNAKE mecha. Yes, it’s sort of understandable; why not have a mecha that shoots acid? Well, the reason is because it’s a giant snake in a sci-fi game with mecha. Who have guns and cannons and bombs. Sure, the natives at Westion would have “alien” mecha, but should that be used as an excuse? If these mecha are so alien, wouldn’t they also be incompatible with the weapons found on Lore? Very confusing, indeed.

At this point in the game, there has been a huge blow to the game’s Mecha feel. No longer is it about exploring space, finding new mecha, beating up the bad guys; it’s about being a student in most definitely NOT mecha style mecha. Yes, the QUEST part of MechQuest is there; you fight the Shadowscythe, the bad guys, just like any good RPG. But should this game be called MechQuest? Why not “Midievil – Space crossover Fantasy”? It seems like the game is much more of the latter.

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No, this isn’t a “FIX EVERYTHING” post. It’s a post about a problem that existed (and still exists; in fact, even more of a problem). There is a solution (or at least, a prevention of further harm) to this.

From now on, keep your head on straight. Remember the Mech in MechQuest. Quest is fine, but aren’t we here for the Mech, too? Don’t go insane with themed planets and whatnot; try keeping it a bit more realistic.

A lot of this post can be countered by “Well, AE is normally very foolish (no, not like that)”. Well, maybe TOO foolish? Foolish enough to wreck the core of one of their games? This problem can’t be answered by precedence alone. (Again, I stress that the word foolish is used as in “different,” or “wacky”)

MechQuest is a great game, no mistake. But it wouldn’t hurt to see a little change, would it? Aesthetics may not be everything, but it certainly adds flavor.