as an enthusiast for boomer shooters I'm still struck by what a stunning, transfixing goddamn MESS Shogo is. like the game isn't Good, don't get me wrong, the mixture of early weeb with 90s shooter design sensibilities do NOT mesh well in the slightest, and the attempts at 'humor' have aged like a fine cheese, but while I fault its execution severely I can't quite fault its ambitions. and it was the game that gave us the engine that gave us No One Lives Forever, which owns bones.
but Shogo's internal identity crisis and clearly rushed design really just doom it from the start. it knows just enough about anime to embarrass itself trying to replicate it and the fact that the main character has to simultaneously be a likeable but awkward Amuro Ray-esque mecha protagonist AND have the Generic Badass Credentials of every other 90s shooter hero mostly just makes him come off as sleazy and off-putting
the deeper problems though are mostly down to the gameplay. obnoxious hitscan enemies, gotcha traps around every corner, the fact that sometimes enemies are just god damned psychic, and the clunky sameness of both on-foot and in-mech combat... the bite is too much for the chew and it's clearly trying to fit more ideas than it can actually hold.
@hystericempress I had a friend in high school who kept trying to convince me that it was the best game ever, and I never really saw anything particularly incredible about it. Except I think the theme song kinda slapped?
@Soreth Yeah, like, props to the devs for commissioning an actual Japanese theme song, that was a really fun touch.