Part 2: The Second Bot

Gato is our first robot. I hear you get 15 silver points if you beat him up.



We're gonna have him focus on Energy and Guard, but not going to completely neglect Power and Speed. However, he's gonna be a bit slow when it comes to taking actions. He'll keep his red body paint.





Nagisa gives us a Transceiver. This allows us to save mostly anywhere we want, a feature jRPGs would not bother to have for years and years.



Sure. Anyway, to make our next robot, we'll need 3,000GP, so we won't be making another one for a bit.



As you can see, whatever Energy levels your robot starts out with, that's their HP. You'll also notice several equips. These are standard. Different sets of weapons have different levels, and then different sub-levels with those. We'll get into that when we can actually make things. Also, we can adjust Gato's stats at any time, as well as program special skills, but he doesn't have any right now.



In the shop, the shopkeeper invites us to take some scraps from the back. We still can't do anything with them.



The shopkeep has some generic items. Cures restore Energy, Cleans fix the Rust ailment, Repairs bring a robot back to health, Smokes are escape items, etc. We'll buy a few, but not break our bank with it.



Robotrek Tunes – Map of the World

This is our world map. As you can kind of see, the game is so linear that when we have to go places, a path forms for us directing us where we need to go. We're unable to visit anywhere else yet.





Akihabara: You Hackers are all alike! What an evil bunch!!

Soldier: That's what you say, but evil is good (hah!). Evil is the job. For our future we need great inventors with your kind of power!

Akihabara: I appreciate your interest, but I can't use my inventions for evil. I'll show you my latest invention, want to know what it is?



Akihabara: It's not just a trumpet, you just use it like this.



It makes the Soldier's head come off somehow. He then runs into the wall, disoriented as hell.



-you can make the Robot stronger. What? Him? He's been around lately. A Hacker soldier. He's spying. Inventions have a meaning if they're useful. Using them for evil is out of the question. You can have this, it's a Surprise Horn. It's really loud, but useful.





Akihabara: You have seen the Inventor's Friend books, haven't you? You should read them. Some of them may be hard for you to understand but someday you'll be able to. And, listen to other people and check out everything. That's the first step.



Akihabara: Scraps can make a lot of things; this combination doesn't require GP, so experiment. If you combine new and used weapons, the new weapon will have more power.



In our father's place, we find the first Inventor's Book. It teaches us how to make low-level Boots.



Before leaving, Akihabara tells us to visit our ancestor's graves, but... well, this guy appears again.

Robotrek Tunes – Theme of the Hackers



Soldier: The Hacker boss said to take you as a hostage if the doctor didn't cooperate. Grunt!!



Robotrek Tunes – Battle Theme

Welcome to Robotrek battles.



The timer is simply there in case you happen to beat a battle early – if you do, you get bonus experience. The timer is higher or lower depending on how many enemies are present on the field. Having a good Charge rate makes it easier to end a battle in the time limit. Pressing the X button brings up a menu of things to do, I decide to fire off a bomb at our enemy. At the end, we get a little bar that shows Gato's energy – it depletes more or less depending on your Charge stat as well as the action you choose. Bombs take a lot of Energy to use.

We can move Gato around his limited battlefield range either up rows or side-to-side (forward/backward). If Gato ends the turn with his back turned, he'll receive more damage, so don't do that. Think the Mega Man Battle Network games, and that's basically this game's battle system.



While it charges, we can't do anything to our enemy, but our enemy can continue to attack us.



Our battle spoils give us some Megs. We're not even close to level 2, though.





Dexter tells the stone all that's happened.



Afterward, we return to Rococo.

Please help. But be careful, it's very dangerous by the river. Well, let's go.







Now that the kids have decided to wander off into danger, the Forest is open for us. We'll be spending some time here grinding levels.

Robotrek Tunes – Dangerous Places



The Forest is the first dungeon, nothing difficult here.



Enemies show up on the dungeon map, which is very helpful. No random battles here. Because of this fact, you can get back attacks on an enemy if you sneak up on them.



Now, enemies typically only drop Megs. To get other items, such as gold or weaponry, you need to attack a capsule on the field (to actually open one, you need to use a sword). Sometimes, though, these capsules will upgrade your equipment levels. Other times, though, they just hurt you.

Enemies might do the same thing, though, so that can help you. Capsules can also give you Meg bonuses, too, which makes level grinding a bit easier. Capsules also disappear/explode when the timer runs out. Since some capsules may be on the other side of the field, you're often left having to ignore them sometimes to kill the enemy more quickly.



Mushrooms like to attack by throwing seeds at you. Because why not?



Every now and then, an enemy will drop a capsule of its own.



The forest also has Mines, robots whose eyes go back and forth in a very bizarre, cat-clock-like fashion.



Every now and again, Dexter appears in battle to chant words of inspiration at his robot friend.



The Forest is all of one map, but no... before continuing on we are going to grind like crazy.



That's one level...



At each new level, we gain the use of a Portable Invention Machine. We can't build robots with it, but we can make items with it. Every level that Dexter gains, he gets more Program Points to use, which we can use to boost our Robot's stats using the Portable or the regular R&D.



As I was saying earlier, each weapon has levels, but then they also sub-levels for each main level. Sometimes you'll make a weapon of a higher grade but it will not be as good as the weapon you have earlier, BUT, it has greater and easier potential.



Thank you bonus data! Level grinding is tedious enough.



It's really much easier at level 2 with slightly increased stats.



We were able to get an equipment level up for all of our weapons in one battle, but a capsule level up only raises a weapon's sub-level.



After some grinding, we get to level 5. That's good for now. Gato's also basically a tank at this point.



Literally.



We return to Rococo and read some books.





This is why we got to level 5. Shields are important and awesome. I can't find Inventor's Book Level 3 for some reason (teaches Shot 1), but if you read a book of a higher level, you also learn the knowledge from any book you missed prior. Really, we just needed to read level 5 but I wanted to show what we can make now.



Let's talk about combining items, now that we have a couple. Here we have some spare Sword 1 Level 1s. Combining like items of like ranks yields a weapon that is the sum of their sub-levels, so we'd get a Sword 1 Level 2. We have a Sword 1 Level 5 already due to grinding, but we could make a level 7 should we combine it with these two. Each weapon group has 4 main levels, and their sub-levels can go no higher than level 9.

Combining like weapons with different ranks will end up with a weapon that is the sum of the higher rank weapons' level and 1/2 of the lower-ranked weapons' level. So if I combine a Sword 2 Level 4 with a Sword 1 Level 6, I'll get a Sword 2 Level 7.

However, there is an exception: Bombs cannot be combined with Bombs to make stronger Bombs.

Enix gave us a synth list for weapons with every copy of the game, thankfully.



Most importantly, we acquired 3,000GP through our grinding.



Give me a name, a color, and a fighting style.

Remember that the 2nd robot we create has a special trait of being an up-close fighter.