Seemingly out of nowhere, without much further context or other of sources of information to go on, Square Enix launched a website announcing and advertising a new game IP called Figure Heads. The website features a mind-blowing trailer on its YouTube channel revealing the game to be a frenetic, exciting, and astounding online mecha shooter for Windows PC.
First impressions – this game seems to be a mix of classic mecha arcade games like Cyber Trooper Virtual On or Border Break mixed with classic anime tropes in the spirit of Full Metal Panic, Bubblegum Crisis, and of course the Gundam series. The physical appearances of the mecha themselves bear a surprising similarity to the police drones featured in Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie. The trailer’s music (and possibly the game’s official soundtrack) could be pulled straight from an anime or a Hatsune Miku concert. One couldn’t ask for a better confluence of influences. It is as if you’re stepping into the world of an over-to-top and gritty mecha anime.
Specific visuals such as nuclear explosions across the surface of the world from far above in space and multiple pans to a ravaged & decrepit landscape infer that the game is set within a post-nuclear apocalyptic setting. It seems that your in-game avatar (appearing as an archetypal anime-style Japanese school girl) in appearance & attire, and your entire mecha kit can be completely customized.
Cuts to in-game footage reveal it to be a third-person view squad-based shooter with an wide array of weapons to be wielded by your mecha including miniguns, assault rifles, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, as well as close quarters combat with melee weapons. The trailer boasts that there is five-on-five capabilities. The images also suggest a variety of game modes – one of which appears to be a mission-oriented game mode where your has to destroy a key structure.
It ends cryptically with the sentence “BOTgame has started.”
If this trailer is leaving you hungry and desperate for more information and insight, the official website states that the next update will be released on Wednesday – 6/10/2015. What are your thoughts on the trailer for Figure Heads? Is this something you are excited for?
