Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion

Titanic Scion is a pretty solid action rpg with mecha trappings for its loadout building. It's a huge improvement over the first game in terms of story telling, gameplay, and world structure, although some aspects of the open world can feel a little sparse or tacked on. The combat feels good, although it can vary a lot from weapon to weapon, and the game does a good job of giving you reasons to change up your loadouts and try new things with its varied boss fights and encounters. Furthermore, there's a ton of content to do and explore, but because pretty much everything drops some kind of equipment, you never quite have to grind something out to progress unless you want to try and get some specific new toys to play with. And the game is very transparent about where and how to get drops too, with loot tables available in menus. The writing has been upgraded from 'bad saturday morning cartoon' to 'ok niche weekday late night anime'; I actually remembered some of the characters' names and faces, and the protagonist actually kinda sounds and acts like a competent, confident combatant, who is directly involved with the story this time around. Weirdly, there are still the sort of "shonen protagonist" NPCs, but the MC tends to show them up in some ways that are fun, with almost the attitude of a professional showing some amateurs how its done. Overall, I was very happy with Titanic Scion, and while I wouldn't get it full price ($70 usd is kinda crazy for this level of production values, especially given I accurately pegged it as a "this'll be in a humble choice soon" at launch), it's a great 'B' game for fans of mecha games and action rpgs.