Guild 02 ReviewMarch 5, 2014 by

The Guild games, for those of you who don't know, are a series of small downloadable titles developed for the 3DS eShop and published by Level-5.  They typically involve some big names in game design, like Suda 51 or Keiji Inafune.  So far, there have been two batches of Guild games.  The first contained Liberation Maiden, Crimson Shroud, and Aero Porter.  The second group, and the subjects of today's critique were Attack of the Friday Monsters!, Starship Damrey, and Bugs vs. Tanks.  Rather than review each of these games separately, as I did with the Guild 01 games, I'm lumping the Guild 02 games into one review.  Well, most of them anyway.  It seems with these Guild games, there's at least one that excites about as much as a lump of gray mush.  First, it was Aero Porter and now it's Bugs vs. Tanks.  And I can't fathom why I'm so ambivalent towards Bugs vs. Tanks.  It has a weird concept, has tanks, involves shooting down bugs (one of my favorite pastimes as you may recall!), and is designed by Keiji Inafune, the brilliant mind behind MegaMan.

Why am I not more excited over this?

Why am I not more excited over this?


But, whatever, I couldn't be bothered to pick it up when it was on sale, so that's that.  On with the review!


Our first game, Attack of the Friday Monsters!, covers a subject very near and dear to me: giant monsters.  On a surface level, anyway.  Looking deeper, it's more about the innocence of childhood.  It tells the tale of Sohta, the new kid in a town that experiences inexplicable attacks from TV kaiju every Friday.

There's not much in the way of gameplay in this particular Guild title.  Mostly, all you'll be doing is running around the town, talking to various folk to advance the story, and collecting the odd monster card.  The monster cards are the one aspect that moves the mechanics beyond a walking simulator as you can use them in a card game against the local children.  It's a very simple game, being nothing more than glorified Rock, Paper, Scissors.  And the reward for winning the game?  You get to "cast a spell" on the loser, making them fall down.  Truly, a reward worthy of a conqueror.

Attack of the Friday Monsters! may not offer much in the way of challenge, depth, or complexity as far as mechanics are concerned.  Instead, it sells itself mainly as an experience, and, as an experience, it succeeds rather well.  I felt oddly nostalgic while playing this game, in spite of its foreign setting.  It brought me back to a time in my life when I was fixated on collecting Pokémon cards, trading them, and battling with my friends.  This feeling is further augmented by how soothing this game is.  There's not a lot of fast-paced, bombastic music to get the blood pumping.  Most of the sounds you'll hear are just atmospheric background noise: people talking, birds chirping, or the sound of a distant train.  It really feels like a calm afternoon spent playing around and goofing off.  Good times.  The little nods to classic kaiju movies are a nice touch as well.  When you obtain a card, you get a brief synopsis of the monster's story and even a sound clip of its roar.

Attack of the Friday Monsters

If you were ever fascinated by kaiju movies, Attack of the Friday Monsters! will be a pleasant stroll down memory lane.  It may not have much to offer as a game, but who's to say a game can't stand as an experience alone?


And then there's Starship Damrey.  Out of all the Guild games, I'd say this is probably the most conventional.  It's touted as a survival horror game set in a derelict spaceship.

But for a game with a horror theme, Starship Damrey is not very scary.  At all.  There's no threat throughout the game.  This is mostly due to the fact that the story is told through the eyes (or camera?) of a robot being remotely controlled by the player character from the relative safety of a cryogenic sleeping pod.  So the player is never in immediate danger.  It also doesn't help that the robot is practically invincible.  Even when the player encounters a dangerous obstacle, the robot never takes any damage.

That robot can whack you with his electro-stick all he wants and it will barely faze you.



This leaves the atmosphere lacking in the sense of dread a horror game needs to be successful.  There are no enemies to pursue the player, no threat of impending doom, making the game feel more like leisurely stroll through a series of dull, gray corridors with only the odd corpse or flitting ghost to deliver even the remotest semblance of fear.  Oh, it has a few jump scares, to be fair, but, in the words of Shakespeare: "Jump scares do not a survival horror game make".

There's not even any survival elements to worry about.  There's no health bar that will spell "Game Over" should it be depleted.  As obvious as it might seem, what with the player controlling a robot the whole time, there's not even a depleting battery to deal with, a la Chibi Robo.

So, without "survival" or "horror", all this survival horror experience has to offer is an "experience".  Not an entirely bad experience, mind you.  To be honest, I was quite surprised and intrigued by the ending twist, a plot deception worthy of a Twilight Zone episode.  But the rest of the game still feels bland and unremarkable.  Like a lump mashed potatoes all on their own, it made me wish there was more to it; some "horror gravy" or "survival garlic" to give it some much needed flavor, if you will.  As it stands, though, Starship Damrey is competently made, but lacking spark.  There's substance, but no flash.

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