METAL MAX Xeno Reborn

The "reborn" version of this game cuts almost all character interactions, cut-scenes, story, art, etc from the game, not replaced just removed. The dlc's don't actually function so they are literally throwing your money away. It's really sad to see what they did with a unique JRPG like this when it finally came to PC.

On top of being a heavily censored, content cut version of the game from which it was reborn, it also has a ton of bugs, some of them game breaking (inability to salvage scrap and buried treasure, combat ending, but enemies still being 'alive' and locking you in combat mode) and the DLC currently does not work. I really like this series, so it's a shame to see such a terrible introduction to it on Steam :(

Before we begin: A Note. The reason I officially rated this as 'Not Recommended' is because personally, I read negative reviews more than positive. Negative reviews give me a better idea of the cons of the game. Officially, I would rate this as 'Depending', and you'll see why as you read. I have to break this review down into two categories, for both my own sanity, and for fairness to the game. The first section will be looking at Xeno Reborn in a vacuum, judging the game on how it is when you only look at it. The second will be when compared to the very game it was spawned from, Metal Max Xeno. I do this because I am torn after playing Xeno, and I feel this is the only way to be fair. Metal Max Xeno Reborn; in Isolation: When studied by itself and without the added advantage of knowledge of previous entries in the series and without comparing it to previous titles, Metal Max Xeno Reborn is a solid game. The combat is a unique take on the turn-based combat of traditional RPGs allowing both freedom to build as you wish, as well as the ability to clean-sweep your foes if you're built properly. The ability to take the first shot, to get the drop on your enemies trivializes a lot of the combat in the game, but the combat that it doesn't outright trivialize (SoNs and Wanted Targets, for example) instead give you a much-needed edge in combat. The only real complain I have with the controls is how squirrely some of the tanks can be. Cresting a dune can cause you to spin out and re-orient yourself, which is only a real problem if you're attempting to flee combat. Early game is a bit tricky... you feel far too squishy than you think you should and the enemies feel far too durable. Hell, up until the third area of the game, avoidance is your best strategy. The plot is a bit... oh-ho ho ho... we'll get to you. But looking at it in isolation, Reborn's plot is a bit rushed, threadbare and it skips over far too many details for my liking... honestly, the plot is Reborn's weakest link. And now... the section I dread. Metal Max Xeno Reborn vs. Metal Max Xeno: I bought a playstation and a copy of the game, because I loved Reborn. I did. I had heard that if you liked Reborn, you'll love the original. I'm going to say this right now: If you like Metal Max Xeno Reborn and haven't played the original Xeno... don't. Do not play Metal Max Xeno if you enjoy Reborn... you will regret the decision. Why? Is it because the original one is so terrible? The... opposite, actually. Metal Max Xeno is leagues and bounds superior to Reborn, and as I play through the original, I feel my love for Reborn fading. There are no cutscenes in Reborn. No opening cutscenes, no ending cutscenes, no interim cutsenes. The entire beginning of the game, Talis' entire drive for doing what he does is IGNORED in Reborn. They drop you in, say 'have fun!' and let you struggle. Yes, tank modification is dumbed down in Reborn. Dumbed down, not 'simplified', but dumbed down. Aspects of the plot are wholly changed to speed things along. Honestly? Reborn feels like an Abridged version... and not a particularly good one, either. I'm eight hours into Xeno, and I haven't even seen Catastropus yet... and yet in Reborn, he's there from minute one. Enemies have personality in the original, the characters in Iron Base and your party are so much more vibrant... Why? Why did they feel the need to butcher the game? Censorship. It boils down to censorship. The topic of procreation is brought up a bit in the original, and all of that is gone in Reborn. Why? These people legitimately feel like they're the last people on earth! They're going to want to save their damn species, for once in my life, I found a game where the inclusion of sexual innuendo and sex talk MAKES SENSE. Do I recommend? If you've never played the original, yes. If you never plan on playing the original, GOD yes. Reborn is ... okay... for what it is. If you just wanna shoot machines in a tank like I did when I bought it, go the hell ahead and get it, you will love it! If you're a returning veteran and have played Metal Max Xeno... stay far away from it as you can. Please. You won't enjoy it... and that hurts to say. EDIT: I want to say that there is a lot Reborn did right. The change of traditional turn-based RPG combat to the psuedo real-time turn based did a lot for the series. Made combat easier when you know what you're doing and you're prepared, but more punishing if you're unprepared. The movement controls are far cleaner and more 'immersive' than in the original. But having said that, there's a lot it did wrong. ♥♥♥♥ the Big Atrium.

The description of Reborn can be summed up pretty succinctly in that it amounts to an extremely streamlined version of the console incarnation that it was wrenched out of. There is such a thing as trimming fat, but Reborn flays the meat right off the bones of the game, reducing content, complexity, challenge and even quality of life features on every front and simplifying the game to such an extent that I was able to "clear" it in just 9 hours with little to no significant thought or effort on my own part. My understanding is that this was done in, what I have to say, was a very misguided attempt to bring the game closer to its more "free form" cousins in the main series of numbered titles, but it simply does not have the world design to actually support this format whatsoever as it has virtually no points of interest or real exploratory potential, even severely cutting down on the number of indoor/on-foot environments present compared to the original game. Quite frankly, the only thing Reborn has going for it is bringing back series staple Pochi and making Po-M available as a playable character with the additional caveat of its general running performance due to some hiccups in the original version of Xeno on consoles, which suffered from inconsistent framerates even on the PS4. However, this is a caveat precisely because if you have a PS4 Pro or a PS5, these issues vanish. At this point, Metal Max Xeno can probably be had digitally on the Playstation Store for half the cost or less of Reborn (and given the package on offer here, 50 dollars as the price of admission is lunacy) and it is definitively a better game with a higher standard of quality, despite its rough reception among critics. I never encountered a bug or a translation error (or outright missing translation) my entire time playing it while I came across more than a dozen oddities/bugs (including the final boss suffering from repeated brain death allowing an effortless slaughter) and quite a lot of translation issues in Reborn. In short, Metal Max Xeno Reborn simply hasn't got a leg to stand on and its treads are all busted. Apply yourselves, guys. You can do far better than this and you have before.

Metal Max games used to be about tanks, tanks with different identities, tanks I get to pick and choose. Now, this one, WHERE ARE MY TANKS? The whole games, there is one tank: 5 holes, 5 chips and 1 engine, that's it. I can choose some different pictures to slap on that empty shell. No, this is NOT Metal Max, at least not the one I grow up with. Shame. What a shame

Pretty sweet little treat of an RPG with a unique apocalyptic setting. There's a mix of regular combat and vehicular combat involving various vehicles like tanks and buggies with all kinds of upgrades for the vehicles available. It's super neat customizing each one and you can build some pretty over powered setups. You also get a doggo with a gun or cannon strapped to it's back so that's a big win for me. While you roam the wastelands you'll encounter all kinds of cool looking creatures and some neat looking bosses. Not a ton of story content but honestly the setting alone makes up for that to me. You'll find some survivors while you explore and learn a bit about what happened as you go but otherwise your mission is pretty clear from the start. Take out the big bad machines bent on human extinction.

With the sheer number of games under my belt, I can't say this often. But I don't understand this game. Like... I can play it fine, I'm having fun, but its nonsense. Let me just dive into details... I swear my rambles will make sense. For those that don't know, METAL MAX is a series of open-world RPGs where you build tanks to explore the world but also can fight on foot. This game continues that legacy... sortof. This is the most linear open-world game I've ever played. I don't mean this like you travel from A to B to C... but that the world is one long corridor with lots of events you can do in any order. So, you have this feeling of freedom in how/when you accomplish things but "exploration" generally consists of looking for hidden breakable walls that may require weapons from a future zone. As far as I've found, there's no other towns. No living worlds. It's all about walking towards the next zone and just picking up all the items on the way. Maybe I'm missing something though, because I was 4+ hours in and level 30 before I found my first ally. This gets really noticeable with the series classic "Wanted Monster" mechanic. Imagine a unique super strong monster that's wandering in a zone worth a large cash bonus. They advise you to run away or avoid combat and fight it later. But every single one I've encountered has been smack dab in the middle of the only path forward! Yeah... you can get by but it feels bad. Basically, it feels like the intended way to play is to rush past monsters to hit fast travel points and then teleport back to base to recover. But I'm sorry, that's stupid. Give me ways to sneak around. Give me stealth items to abuse. Give the strong monsters a patrol pattern that you an avoid. ANYTHING to make it interesting. But I can follow this design logic enough to say its dumb. I can't understand what they were thinking on combat. Combat is an ATB style system with real time movement and aiming. The thing is... the movement doesn't matter. There's no positional bonuses, you can't use cover, you can't dodge. You can't even really aim because it acts more as a "real time Selection cursor" than choosing where to fire. What gets really confusing though is that you control all 3 characters at once. When a character's turn comes up, you're put in control of that unit to select an action and it stays in control of them. This means you're teleporting around the battlefield every 2-3 seconds meaning you CAN'T use the real-time movement. Here's the problem... if I want to run away? It keeps switching me back to the character nearer to a enemy! Good luck spreading out your units so that you don't all get hit by an AOE. This constant control switching means it's extremely difficult. I've had the game glitch (Or maybe there's a trigger I can't find) and movement was disabled in the fight. Combat felt so much better like as a standard JRPG. The rest of the design choices made sense in this context. But I shouldn't have to hope for a glitch to make the game feel good. (At this point, I just hands off the controller and avoid moving.) As for story, METAL MAX has never been a big story game for me, but feels particularly lacking. It sounds like the base game took a pervy humor approach, and the remake cut that content without putting anything else in its place. Now I'm seven hours in and remember little more than an opening story and a few "I met a person" scenes. I almost feel that it would have been better to cut ALL the story. Introducing characters and doing nothing with them just stands out. But despite all my ranting about it being insane, poorly thought out, disappointing, etc. I am having some fun. Progression is extremely fast and that means that I've never felt like I wasn't making progress. Levels come at an extremely quick rate, and you can sell a lot of the high value gear you want to buy some OP weapons. Once your using some ridiculously powerful weapons you can drive through the linear areas fighting things and it feels better than running past. There's a level of satisfaction that comes with building up your tank and coming up with ways to use skill chips to enhance it. I do suspect that I'm going to put in the time to finish this one, but it's still a hard one to actually recommend. *Edit: I accidently beat the last boss in 3 attacks so post game thoughts. Everything above is still valid including the "I'm having fun" The game does great at keeping on foot and tank combat unique and interesting. Your tank grows through equipment while your levels only impact on-foot. On-foot combat uses learned skills to get temporary advantages while tanks are hardcore weapon brawls. I was genuinely glad later in the game when I started encountering more dungeons, even if most were underwhelming in design. After each dungeon, I was glad to get in my tanks. I liked this feeling. One other thing worth noting there is a line spoken "That thing will kill us. We should avoid it if you don't want to die." It turns out there is a skill tree and mechanic hidden behind dying there. For a game built around running past strong enemies... they really should have said "Attack this thing. It'll go well, we promise" so I knew to unlock said mechanic and probably plot. I'm a bit grouchy over that.

Hello Friends, Today i will review the game METAL MAX XENO REBORN. This is a remake of a game that was released on the PlayStation 4. It also is the only Metal Max game on steam from the series. There are many games in this series. Unfortunately, they are not on steam. This game features a hero with a metal arm that goes around in tanks to defeat giant biological weapons. After finding a base of operation, characters will join the main hero to fight giant robotic biological creatures. The settings is in a post apocalyptic world taken over by machines. There are findable weapons and tanks around the world the hero can find, including other characters that can join the fight against the machines. One of the few jrpg's that feature modern guns and tanks. Some of the weapons and guns are sci fi though, so all of them are not realistic. Alot of people do not like this version because the original version had more storyline and interaction between the characters and the main hero. Because of this, many other steam users have given this a negative review due to the differences in versions. I personally treated this as a different game than the original one i played on ps4. Everything in this game is moddable except the weapons characters equip while walking around. Any part on the tanks are moddable, if you have the correct parts to mod it. This includes any cannon's, engines, machine guns, and Special Cannon's. This can help make the tanks much more powerful, but the player must keep on eye on the weight and not go over the limit of weight for the tank. There are also dungeons where you have your characters walk around and hunt monsters and items. These can be super long or super short. There are also debris blocking parts of the dungeon where the characters need a certain level of strength to destroy them. This makes multiple playthrough of the games if a person wants to fully explore a dungeon. Anyways, here is my PROS and CONS list: PROS: - One of the METAL MAX series games. - A post apocalyptic JRPG that features tanks and modern day weapons. - The ability to mod the tanks, from paint jobs to equipment strength. - Different characters to find and rescue around the destroyed ruins of Dystokio. - Dungeons to explore on foot can be found through the game. - Giant enemy robots and WANTED enemies that are quite hard. - A controller is required. This game does not allow you to play with keyboard and mouse. I used a Zen Pro Switch controller. - Works on windows 11 operating system. CONS: - Some of the changes from the ps4 version made some fans of the original game very mad about the changes. I personally treated this is a new game, instead of a remake. - There are translation errors on certain enemies that are still in Chinese, even if you have language set to English. - The storyline in the original version of the game is more flushed out, while this one cut parts of it. They traded it off by adding a new character. Do I recommend this game? Considering this is the only current METAL MAX game on steam, i do recommend it, at least to try it. It is unlike other jrpgs as it features alot of modern weaponry and has tanks in it that are customizable and moddable. These facts make it a unusual rpg compared to other jrpgs found on steam. Many players who played the original version should not play this remake version as it will feel like they cut alot of the original game out. I personally hope in the future more metal max games appear on steam. If your on the fence about this game, buy it when it is on sale.

[h3][b]ー『自由度とゲーム崩壊は紙一重』ー[/b][/h3] このゲームの最大の売りは「自由さ」である。 リアルタイムバトルRPGなのだが、仲間を増やすのもスルーするのも自由、探索金策戦闘するしないも自由、下手したらメインクエスト、つまりストーリーすら碌に進めなくてもクリアできるんじゃないかと思えるくらい自由である。ストーリーの最終目的がラスボスであるカタストロプスを倒す事が目的なので、ゲームクリアした時点でメインクエストをクリア、つまり進めたとは言えるのかもしれない。しかし過程はすっ飛ばせると思うので実質的には進めてないとも言える。 探索で拾えるものがやたら強いのでショップを使わない探索縛りプレイだったり、金策もめちゃくちゃ出来るのでショップ縛りプレイなんてのも出来るのではないかと思えるほど抜け道というかゲームデザインが作り込まれているようにもみえるが正直良く分からない。 戦闘に関してもかなり自由で、ほぼ無傷で戦闘を進める事も可能だと思う。たとえ相手が強敵であってもである。 ここまで来るともはや自由なのか調整ミスなのかぶっ壊れなのか良く分からない。 ストーリーはピンチだからラスボスぶっ殺す！と言う程度の内容の薄さだし、このゲームは戦車に乗れて改造が出来るのだが、どの車体でも同じ改造が出来てしまうので見た目以外で個性がほぼない。グラフィックは前作の使い回しでマップやシナリオやお尋ね者は前作より減っているらしい。マルチエンディングなのだが、通常のエンディングがなんとテキストのみ。2020年発売のフルプライスで、しかも前作のリメイク作品で発売を２度も延期していてこれである。 人によっては自由と言う名の作りかけだろ！とキレちらかされてもおかしくない出来に見えますが、なんとコレ面白いです。 メタルマックスシリーズではお馴染みの「人とクルマと犬のＲＰＧ」の面白さはちゃんと受け継がれています。人でないといけない所はあるし、クルマは超火力だし、犬は可愛い。従来より面白くなっているかと言われると口ごもってしまいますが、やはり３Ｄで遊べるメタルマックスは魅力的です。拠点に戻ればタダで完全回復、やられてもペナルティなし、ファストトラベルし放題と非常に遊びやすい。ＷＡＮＴＥＤモンスター、いわゆるお尋ね者との戦いは毎回ではないですが定番のあのＢＧＭが流れるのでやはりテンション上がるし、すぐに大抵の雑魚が即死するインフレどころじゃない極端なゲームデザイン？もそういうものと受け入れる事が出来れば、当然ゲーム全体のテンポはめちゃくちゃ良くなるしｵﾚﾂｴｰも出来るので中々爽快で気持ちいい。インフレさせないで通常のRPGのような遊び方ももちろんできます。 「自由度が高い」と取るか「ゲームがぶっ壊れてる」と取るかはあなた次第。セール価格の最安値はかなりお得なので、とても高得点を付けられるゲームじゃないけど魅力的な、このまさに「賛否両論」に相応しい、良い意味で「イカれた」メタルマックスを多くの方に遊んでもらってメタルマックスの魅力が少しでも伝われば筆者としては嬉しいです。 [h3][b]【レビュー評価　6/10】[/b][/h3] [table] [tr] [th]ストーリー[/th] [th]3[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]戦闘[/td] [td]5[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]お尋ね者との戦い[/td] [td]8[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]自由さ[/td] [td]10[/td] [/tr] [/table] [h3][b]【レビュー動画（ずんだもん＆中部つるぎ）】[/b][/h3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W0gkJW-mAE

As a fellow Metal Max simp, let me say first that each and every newer Metal Max game I play has found some way to leave me disappointed. Metal Max 1/Returns is the OG experience for Metal Max, you can't beat the feel of inventory management and terror of on-foot combat always being much riskier than in the safety of a tank. Metal Max 2 is also good, you can tell it was invented by the same genius mind that came up with the first game. Metal Saga just falls through completely on the fun factor by encouraging you to do one simple thing: buy a new engine in the next area so all challenge in the previous area is completely obsoleted, use previous area to fully level up, rinse, repeat. Metal Max 3 tries to go back to the roots but it's too eclectic and shell crafting is a major pain in the ass. This game, Xeno Reborn? It's hilariously broken to the point of if you have any knowledge of good strategies from previous games applying them here will see you absolutely murdering the last boss halfway through the game just by meeting him. Why is it broken? Two reasons. The first is that Machine Gun Rush is exploitable. If you have a Chaingun that shoots 12 times equipped in the first slot, all of the other guns shoot 12 times regardless of their actual attack pattern, so load up those extra Buster Flutes to watch the magic at work. The second is that Cannon Tube is completely OP. It's an aux gun so it's infinite use, it does in the realm of 1000 damage or more, and it always crits (er sorry, if I'm using this game's language it always makes affinity shots) which means it just about completely ignores defense. Cannon Tube wrecks anything at a 100 meter radius by itself, which includes aerial units. Combining these two facts means you do upwards of 8000 unblockable damage per turn just by using the Cannon Tube, and it only gets more broken when upgraded. Catastropus effectively got shat upon by a Metro Bus. So much for humanity's extinction. (Okay, so Cannon Rush helped too, but that's not as OP. Not without quite a bit more setup.) That said, there is way more to do in the game besides kill Catastropus for a fat bounty. Killing Catastropus unlocks a new difficulty every time he is killed on the newest available difficulty. Losing to Catastropus unlocks special monsters that upgrade the main character's special skill tree, which is never actually mentioned until you do but set up to be helpful to people who don't have enough common sense to know how to rush the last boss. Newer difficulties unlock new items to find, acquire, equip. There's a lot of world to explore and gather stuff in and conquer just by riding around in your tanks blasting away. And riding around in your tanks blasting away is, above all else, just plain fun. Maybe a bit cheap considering you can deal with a lot of issues just by Cannon Tubing things from afar, but if you're not careful other nearby enemies will join in, causing just the right amount of chaos for your party that later Metal Max games are known for. I think they absolutely nailed that part of the fun down. And on foot combat is spectacularly more balanced and interesting, and there are a number of on foot dungeons to try your hand at. Not scary like in previous games, but you are not overpowered and the right enemy can and will hand your ass back to you. The only really annoying thing this otherwise casual game has to offer is that items are used one at a time, and invoking them from inside of a tank can cause lengthy animations to play considering the character has to get out of the tank, use the item, then get back in. Recommend you disembark (alight?) before you use items repeatedly, which is still kind of annoying because you need to navigate the same menu every time to get back to the item you want to use. On top of that the localization is literal in most parts, lazy in others. There are rats in a parking garage whose description is a Japanese text dump. You get the impression from seeing some of these things that the budget ran out during late late development. Overall, I definitely believe it was worth my money. I'm just reviewing it now because I technically beat the game, but I totally expect to go back and find all of its little secrets. The achievements are mostly simply gained just by playing the game, aside from one or two hardcore accomplishments. If you like tanks, tank RPGs, and just plain fun, give this a try. It is a good look for the series, it just sorely needs a little more love and a counter for how much time you spend customizing your tanks at home base.