No matter how far off into the future we get, it seems that loan sharks will still exist to “lend” money and fleace anyone who owe them, regardless if they borrowed money or inherited the debt. This is the sistuation that publisher Arc System Works and developer APlus puts us in with Damascus Gear Operation Osaka for the Nintendo Switch. Can we blast our way out of debt with our trusty GEAR or will be sleeping with the cybernetic fishes? Let’s find out.
GEAR up
Interesting story- Damascus Gear Operation Osaka takes place in the year 2144 about a hundred years after World War IV where a man by the name Takeru (you) inherit a GEAR from your parents and an android assistant named Tachibana. You head on over to the hanger to meet with Tachibana and to get more info about your inheritance. She informs you that not only did you inherit her and the GEAR, but it seems that before your parents died, they built up a massive amount of debt to the tune of 100 million Eyn that must be paid in full within 30 days. It’s up to you and Tachibana to line up jobs exploring the dungeons and lining up fights in the Arena. However there also seems to be a mysterious force behind all of this guiding you along. Most dungeon crawlers that I’ve played have you either go into the dungeons for riches and glory, to save the city/town/ or you were thrown into the dungeons and now you have to make an escape. This is the first time where the character explores the dungeons so that whoever he owes money to doesn’t break his legs or has him sleeping with the fishes, if you catch my drift.
Dungeon crawler with mechs- One of my favorite sub-genres of RPGs are dungeon crawlers. Now most of the dungeon crawlers that I’ve played have been of the fantasy type, so things can kind of get pretty boring after the tenth or so fantasy dungeon crawler. Damascus Gear Operation Osaka is a dungeon crawler but mixes in two of my favorite things:dungeon crawlers and mechs. Yes this dungeon crawler has mechs in it. You use mechs to explore the dungeons, fight rouge mechs and even have arena battles with other mech pilots.
Arena battles- Exploring the dungeons of Osaka isn’t the only thing you’ll be doing. One of the main forms of entertainment in Cosmopolis is arena fights between GEAR pilots. In the arena you fight other pilots for honor, glory and most importantly, money. The fights are pretty fun and can be either fast paced or slugfest slow as each opposing GEAR pilots have different resistances that make them immune to certain attacks. This is where customizing the GEAR to counter these resistances come into play. And speaking of customization…
Mech customization- One of the best parts about games that have mechs is that you’re able to customize them however you want. In Damascus Gear Operation Osaka you start off with a mech, known as GEARs in the game, that you inherited from your parents. At first your GEAR is equipped with cheap parts. But as you win arena battles, delve deeper into the dungeons, find loot and buy parts from the store you have the ability to customize your GEAR. You also have the ability to save different GEAR loadouts for different situations. For example, I have one loadout that is heavily armored and heavy weapons that I use to go into the dungeons and I have few other loadouts that I use for Arena battles that are counter measures to the other GEAR pilots. This makes customizing GEARs more strategic, which you don’t usually see that in most dungeon crawlers.
In debt
Not the prettiest game- I know that the Switch isn’t the most graphically powerful system of the Big Three, but some developers manage to be able to work with the Switch’s specs and create some good looking games. Damascus Gear Operation Osaka however isn’t the prettiest looking game. It kind of looks like a late gen PS2/early PS3 game.
Repetitive in general- I understand that most dungeon crawlers can get repetitive at times, but they tend to get around that by having various monsters to fight against and changing up the look the floor layout of the dungeon and how it looks. The dungeons in Damascus Gear Operation Osaka for the most part all look the same, despite having the layouts procedurally generated. Not to mention the enemy GEARs that you encounter in the dungeons. The same enemy model is used five different times in different colors to represent GEAR types.
No co-op/multiplayer- While I tend to gravitate to single-player dungeon crawlers, I do enjoy the odd co-op/multiplayer dungeon crawler. Having co-op/multiplayer for Damascus Gear Operation Osaka would have been great, especially given the fact that the game is on the Switch, the system was made for co-op/multiplayer in mind after all. Sadly there is no co-op or multiplayer mode, which is a missed opportunity.
Damascus Gear Operation Osaka is a pretty fun twist to dungeon crawlers. Having customizable mechs exploring post-World War IV Osaka dungeons is a nice chance of pace to the more fantasy based dungeon crawlers I’ve played. Arena battles breaks up the repetitiveness of delving into the dungeons however this to does get repetitive after a while. It’s also a shame that there is no co-op modes, has it would have been a great addition. Despite all of this and looking like a late gen PS2/early gen PS3 game Damascus Gear Operation Osaka barely pays off its debt. You won’t even go into debt if you do decide to pick it up thanks to its budget price of $19.99. If you’re looking for something different in the dungeon crawler sub-genre, then give the game a shot.
