Hisou Kihei X-SERD for PCE

Image: MobyGames

Hisou Kihei X-SERD

Go ahead, Mech my day

Genre: strategy - turn-based tactics

Publisher: Masaya

Year: 1990

System: PCE

Gameplay Score: 3

Gameplay Notes:

Plays like an early turn-based strategy game. A good one. Fast menuing, options to turn animations on or off, and clear movement and attack scopes. However, many QoL improvements are absent, such as seeing an enemy's range of movement or attack. So it's not up there with Famicom Wars, Fire Emblem, or Shining Force, but it plays decently well. My only complaint is that your attacks sometimes miss completely. I don't understand why this is such a common mechanic in these early SRPG games.

Level Design Score: 3

Level Design Notes:

I wish I could rate this higher, but I didn't love the maps. The first map was stupid easy but the second one was crazy hard and annoying because there were about 40 enemy units. The difficulty didn't scale like I hoped. However, maps have clear victory conditions and individual tiles offer effects which are intuitive and spelled out for you as you highlight them. So props for trying.

Theme Score: 4

Theme Notes:

Mechs! Lots of text. Feels like a poor man's Gundam storyline, with some colorful characters sprinkled throughout.

Art Style Score: 2

Art Style Notes:

This is the game's weakest link. The overworld graphics are, in a word, atrocious. Sprites are small, poorly drawn, and hard to differentiate from one another. Most of the background tiles are busy with colors and details that contribute to the overall soup-like appearance. The battle animations, on the other hand, feature some great mech designs and anime stylings.

Audio Score: 4

Audio Notes:

I really enjoyed the music. It's simple, but conveys the bombastic nature of futuristic mech warfare.

Overall Score: 61

Review ID: 8063