Alice Gear Aegis CS Concerto of Simulatrix Review: A Fresh Take On A Familiar Formula

Do you remember Zone of the Enders? Virtual ON? Kudos to you if those names ring a bell, but sadly, the number of high-speed, robot-on-robot battle arena games has become relatively sparse over the years. The premise was simple: Kit your mech out, familiarize yourself with the controls, and beat the nuts and bolts out of the enemy in futuristic arenas using rockets, snipers, swords, and much more. Alice Gear Aegis CS Concerto of Simulatrix takes that similar concept and asks, “What if mecha battle arena, but cute anime girls instead?” A fair idea, indeed, and I dare say, I think there’s something to this.

Actress Frontier

You can’t lose with confidence like that. You just can’t.

While somewhat off to the side, there’s a reason why cute anime girls are beating the tar out of each other with mecha weapons. Basically, the Earth has been invaded by some aliens called Vice, and now humanity’s taken the hell off on spaceships made from fragments of the Moon. After enough time, they found something called Emission Energy that certain compatible females could harness and use to become Actresses, agile soldiers using high-spec military equipment to fend off any further alien attacks. Well, you can’t have so much power going into untrained hands, right? Enter the CS System, a virtual battleground where these Actresses can safely duke it out to practice using these new tools to stay trained and prepared for future battles. With the potential  of these duels becoming a sport down the road, many companies start cashing in on Actresses as real-life mercenaries and contenders for an upcoming tournament in the CS System. One of the more prolific companies, Narukozaka Manufacturing, has tasked a very talented person to now be their commander, that person being the player, who must these Actresses to get them tourney-ready.

Actresses come in many flavors, but admittedly sometimes it can feel like getting a box of chocolates. No, not in that you don’t know what you’re going to get, more in that the more you eat, the more they can start winding up tasting the same, barring a few exceptions. It’s not entirely unsalvageable, but you can only have so many shy introverts and soft-spoken everygirls before they start blending together a bit. Is this a result of translation issues? Maybe, but seeing that all of this is English subtitled, I couldn’t say for sure without knowing Japanese off the top of my head. Nevertheless, there’s definitely groundwork laid for some interesting characters, and I’d even go as far as to say there’s some absolutely creative stuff done for some of them, from their personalities to how their gear builds off of it. For example, take Fumiko, a local bookworm with a future career as a librarian, who has a neat little feature on her leg gear where the armor platelets look like opened books. Or Reiya’s urban ninja style going as far as having her over-the-shoulder rocket pod look like a sheathed sword. My absolute favorite, though, was Yayoi, a wannabe rapper whose (almost) every line rhymes on a dime, constantly emoting with her hands and arms or throwing in “yo!” virtually every other word, all while having her special leg gear looking like subwoofers and a lance that uses loudspeaker tech. I don’t care if some of the characters don’t hit true because it feels like for every one step back, Alice Gear Aegis takes three steps forward somewhere else.

Better Robos

Like a vast, predatory bird…

Speaking of designs, I’m sure many are wondering just what kind of mecha styling Alice Gear has since there are many different styles, as any mecha fan can tell you. From chunky to bulbous, scarce to colossal, there’s no shortage of different kinds of armor styles to see here. While many different media I’ve experienced take their own spin on cute girls in heavy mech makeovers, Alice Gear’s aesthetic evokes the Goddesses from Hyperdimension Neptunia, Angela from Expelled from Paradise (especially with the whole needle-legs thing), the cast of Sky Girls, and just about everyone from Symphogear.  Many of them keep some kind of armor theming as well, like Yumi (pictured above), whose armor brings to mind a jet fighter or Fumiko (seen in the next picture), who sports angular missile pods that resemble the kind of missile racks you’d see from Armored Core. I’ll say this much, at least, I more than encourage any crossovers with either the shows/games I listed above or other cute girl combat games/anime/etc. out there.

Unfortunately, despite presenting a plethora of wicked-looking gear, there was a lack of customization in the aesthetic sense. Unique equipment cannot be painted over at all, which is a shame, as there’s a decent paint tool for standard weapons and gear. You can’t even change the colors on costumes, meaning until you hit rank 5 with your selected Actress, you’ll either be working with a buyable outfit or the generic plugsuit that stays red and black, often clashing with your desired color scheme. It just seems a bit pointless to show that you can allow for customizations but opt to leave the parts people are most likely going to want to customize out to dry. One of the major reasons I kept going back to the story mode was to keep getting money to spend fleshing out all the cool stuff for my Actresses. While it’s a shame there isn’t more flexibility, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t already hooked on getting what’s here regardless.

Robotics and Notes

Fumiko is ready to show you what happens when you don’t return your books to the library on time.

Here’s where we get to the meat of the game, looking deep into the mecha combat that makes Alice Gear Aegis CS tick. The combat will lay itself out pretty quickly, which can be a lot to take in until you head into the field for yourself. Put simply, you have a fast-refilling boost meter that you use for movement and dodging, your health bar, SP bars for special moves, support moves, and for emergency reloads, and the usual walls showing you where the field stops and starts (keep in mind, you won’t always be on terra firma, you may go to space for some fights). From there, you have your HP, a ranged weapon that can be charged up with certain models (which can run out of ammo but restocks shortly after going low), a shield, and a melee weapon. You’ll also have a skill tethered to your leg gear and one to your torso gear, of which the torso gear can be charged. Finally, there’s  also an SP meter that you can use for special attacks like the character’s signature attack or support from other team members if you’re doing a 3v3 match. As I said earlier, this can seem like a lot at once, but once you dip into the combat, it starts becoming rather fluent. You can easily leave off some of the more complicated abilities even and still pull through battles just fine, which is exactly what I did to get myself more acquainted with the combat.

For all the speed and high-intensity action, it all feels digestible and can start even getting complex if you let it. I’d argue Alice Gear Aegis‘s biggest strength lies in getting familiar with this almost rock-paper-scissors style of fighting, where you’re always keeping an eye out for good counters to specific scenarios, outfitting yourself for what you’ll be up against, and planning ahead. If snipers start pinning you down, use the environment or shields to block shots and close in, or pester them with full-auto rifles to keep them from lining up a shot. If you’re up against something heavy-duty like bazookas, shield often, keep your distance if possible, and return fire with long-range weapons, homing projectiles, or anything that auto-aims to maintain pressure while never leaving yourself too open. You can get hit-stunned severely if you let someone get the drop on you, to the point that I’d say it might need to be toned down a bit in the future. Thankfully, there’s a recovery mechanic where your character will be in a lying-down position in midair until you try to move. The fact that all this goes down usually within less than 2 minutes of a match makes what seems like a rather sharp learning curve easier on the mind to digest and makes it all the easier to practice and practice quickly. I will admit that once you get down the combat, it can start feeling repetitive and samey even with the healthy amount of weapons and customizations. Still, I’d argue Alice Gear Aegis isn’t really going for lasting power, more as a fun mecha game you’ll hop in and out of from time to time, just like other fighting games. Some will get their fix after a few missions. Others will go for hours; Alice Gear Aegis plays well for both sides of the spectrum.

Thankfully, there’s no shortage of content in both combat and story, with a healthy selection of different modes you can choose. There’s a Training mode, solo battle, and network battle modes, with battle types being Battle Royale, 3v3, and 1v1 (the only one that doesn’t have an online version), and there is a single-player story mode. While still a bit subdued overall, there’s a decent chunk of story mode stuff to go through, though there are a few things to keep in mind. First of all, this is where you go to get most of your currency for buying better equipment, costumes, accessories, etc. Second, since the max limit of characters per battle is three, all Actresses get set into a group of three, with the other two characters being two of the other playable ones, and this happens without exception. For example, Yumi, Yayoi, and Touka are together as a team, as are Mari, Sarina, and Reiya. The thing is, while all character stories can sometimes have the same overarching plot, the dialogue will change quite a bit, so you aren’t playing the exact same story three times apiece. If you take, say, Mari’s team, all of the team’s stories, while having different ultimate end-goals, will all have an overarching plot of doing some corporate espionage because this whole CS System thing sure seems rather fishy. In a way, these also are your worldbuilding guides, as some things don’t mean a whole lot in the story until you play another character’s story, so if something doesn’t make sense, keep going. You might wind up having it explained. It’s far from a lore-filled masterpiece, but for what’s there, hey, I can’t complain, and I doubt many will either, especially since there’s a skip button. Lastly, the stories are presented in a hexagonal tileset where you’ll either have a battle or an item you can pick up for free (accessories and costumes), with three major team battles that’ll also be hosting the cutscenes.

Mecha Arena Battles Are Back In The Fight

Alice Gear Aegis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix is welcome return to a genre long thought dead. And though this is still merely the first stepping stone, it’s going in the right direction, it just needs some room to grow and cultivate. The gameplay loop is quick but ever so fierce and memorable in design, and while not every one of the game’s playable Actresses is a star, there are more than enough for just about everyone to be able to sink their teeth into. So if you can forgive the game’s steep learning curve and are looking for the closest thing to Virtual ON to release in recent years, then look no further. Alice Gear Aegis CS will scratch that itch.

Final Verdict: 4/5

Available on: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (Reviewed); Publisher: PQube; Developer: Pyramid; Number of players: 1-6; Released: March 16th, 2023; MSRP: TBA

Full Disclosure: A copy of Alice Gear Aegis CS Concerto of Simulatrix was provided by the publisher.