Maiden Bomb Invaders Review
Maiden Bomb Invaders is the eleventh entry in the Towelket series, released on February 14, 2015. It is also known as Towelket One More Time 0. Despite this name, this game is often lumped in with the other Towelket spin-offs.
The story begins with Ricecake, a member of Maiden Bomb, writing in her diary about her frustration with the other members of the group. Later that day, they decide to head to Planet Casino, where Ricecake meets a mysterious man with a fish hat on his head. He claims to recognize her, but an incident at the casino interrupts their meeting.
Now I actually like this premise quite a bit. Instead of focusing on the usual characters, this game puts us in the perspective of some of the recurring villains in the series. Namely Maiden Bomb (TK5 & Nekoashi Otome) and the Fish Hats (TK3 & TK4). It's kind of an interesting twist on the classic formula, and I was pretty excited to see how it would play out.
The first hour of Maiden Bomb Invaders is quite enjoyable. The writing is what I'd expect from a normal Towelket game. The interactions between the members of Maiden Bomb are funny and feel much more realized than in previous games they've appeared in. In Towelket 5, their existence felt more like another joke. In Nekoashi Otome, they're much more functional villains, but we don't really get to explore how they interact with each other. So it was really nice to get a version of their group that's a little more fleshed out personality-wise. Then we have the Fish Hats, or at least two of them. This is the second time we've seen them in a non-antagonistic role, and they're pretty fun as well. Especially Hemiola, as he never really stood out from the rest of the group. He gets a pretty big role in this game, and it's surprisingly enjoyable.
But unfortunately that is where my praise for this game ends. Despite having a pretty strong introduction, for some reason this game does a complete 180 and instead of developing the plot it just spent an hour setting up...it instead becomes a weird retelling of Towelket 5? There are a few changes. For example, Moochasu and Conchelle, who were not present in that game, are here now, and they kind of have their own thing going on. The roles of Agochu and Pucchi are reversed. But after that, this game suddenly becomes an almost line-for-line copy of Towelket 5's story.
Maiden Bomb Invaders is really an enigma to me. It's the first Towelket game that has ever left me completely baffled by the decisions it makes. And not in a good way, believe me. There are games like Towelket 6 where there's a clear lack of effort and thought put into the story that makes the final product not very good. But then there are games like this one. Where it doesn't feel particularly lazy, but more like there were five different writers in charge of making the story, but they weren't allowed to see what the other person had written.
It's really hard to believe that this game was somehow made after the likes of Nekoashi Otome and Laughing Warawau, which are some of Kanao's best work and proof of their improvement as a writer. Almost everything about it after the introduction feels reminiscent of the worst aspects of the Classic series. And maybe that was the intention? But it doesn't come across as nostalgic or charming, it just feels like the author took a few steps back after everything they learned from developing the last couple of games.
Before the final boss of this game, there is a shop where you can buy items, and most of them restore MP. But there is not a single move in this game that requires MP. There are no skills. Was that something that was planned but never implemented? You would think that creating some skills for the character to use in combat would be something added pretty early on. Or at least at the same time as adding items to restore said skills.
Maiden Bomb Invaders is not a very good game. And that's a real shame, because its premise and first hour have a lot going for them, but it's a cool setup with hardly any payoff. The game is just completely uninterested in telling its story, and while an hour spent on completely unrelated matters may seem minimal when the introduction is so strong, it's worth mentioning that this game is just under three hours long.
I honestly can't recommend it. The most I can say is maybe just watch a playthrough of the first hour on Youtube or something if you're particularly curious about Maiden Bomb and the Fish Hats. Then maybe skip ahead an hour to see how it all works out if you're particularly interested in those characters. But after that, there's not much to this game. I really wish I could say that this concept would eventually be revisited and revised to be much better in a future game, but it doesn't... it really doesn't...
I rate this game 1/5 Towels
