Game:

Patapon (2007)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 50:31

882 views

33

"Cyber Daisenryaku" (or its full title, "Cyber Daisenryaku: Shutsugeki! Harukatai") is one of the odd outliers in the long-running "Daisenryaku" or "Great Strategy" series and has very little to do with the series in the conventional sense, but was intended to lure in new players through a radically different narrative (portrayed in a visual novel fashion), modern (or in this case, slightly futuristic) approach and original (non-historical) characters displayed in an eye-catching anime fashion. Released in 1999 by SystemSoft with development assistance from Alfa System, the game is most notable for its involvement with Eitaro Nishijima (programmer and president of "EitaroSoft"), Miku Sonoda (best known as the character designer for the "Shikigami no Shiro" series and "Sisters Royale") and the acclaimed Shoji Masuda (who was a scenario supervisor and is known for "Linda Cube", "Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines", "Patapon", "Metal Max", and more) which likely factored into its overall release price of 6,800 yen. When you get right down to it though, CD is a simple, fairly low-budget release.

The game takes place in the year 2010, a time not drastically different from our present day. Each country was in a race to create emerging technologies but Japan beat everyone to the punch with the completion of the comprehensive data network, P.I.N.A. (Providential Intelligence Network Agent) and now all information is managed within. Naturally, while some people benefitted from this arrangement, it ultimately brought about the rampant rise of cyber crimes and network criminals. Geniuses and prodigies from all over the world quickly began to hack P.I.N.A. and lawlessness spiraled out of the control of the local police departments, who were at the mercy of vigilantes and the newly-established "Network Sliders", black/white hat hackers who investigate malicious criminals and combat them with a complimentary hacking program known as "Digiforce".

The main character, Tokio Miku (Mirai, by default), is a transfer student to one such Slider Academy, known as Hachioji Cyber School, where he is challenged on his first day by a mysterious hacker utilizing the "Daisenryaku" program, but easily wins in spite of not being recognized as a Slider yet and shows off his potential to his fellow classmates while gaining possession of the "Daisenryaku" program. One student, Haruka Kasuga (a popular and attractive girl who is also an A-Rank Slider and class representative) scouts him to join her team and Tokio gets wrapped up in the hacker underworld as part of the "Haruka Corps". While the stage is set for a grand adventure, know that the dialogue and events are largely predictable and while the player is presented with several choices, almost none of them have any impact on the outcome of the game and barely even the dialogue (with some exceptions outlined later).

CD is an extremely simplified version of Daisenryaku; most battles in the game are quite short and are overshadowed by the main story (which was adapted into a novel with almost nothing lost as a result), most of the statistics have been removed, the game has gone from hex-based to tile-based, there are only six main units that gradually grow stronger as they engage in battles (and eventually level up), there are a few items (support programs) that you acquire that can be used sparingly to help turn the tides, and the goal is to wipe out the enemy forces or take down their base. There are several spots on the map (circuit chargers) that give a small field advantage as well as repair a decent amount of damage each turn that are the key to victory on most stages, and different unit types have different pros and cons (Such as F-4s can attack Apache Helicopters without retaliation, etc.) which are crucial to know to obtain victory. There is also a turn limit, though this doesn't pose an issue on most stages (though the lower the amount of turns, the higher your "Slider Level"). There are about a couple dozen scenarios.

While the game attempts to be a compelling fusion of VN and Tactics, the game is sorely lacking in assets, be it characters, number of special events, diversity of units / maps / missions or quality of life features. You can only save between missions, you can "retry" any previous stages but have to sit through all the dialogue each time (you can hold R2 to speed it up but can't skip it), grinding of any kind is slow, and the story isn't especially interesting to compensate. The one neat feature is the sub-story "Supporting Play" system at certain intervals -- the player can press L1 or R1 to diverge and witness different events, but they loop back to the main story regardless. The artwork and music is good with nice 3D models during battles. There is no spoken dialogue.

The game was released in a "SuperLite" variant for 1500 yen which is much more acceptable, but I would've had a hard time paying full price for this. This is a video of the game in action. Enjoy.