Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo

Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo is the upgraded commercial version of the freeware doujin game Mecha Ritz developed by HEY. Like its original freeware version, Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo has a heavy emphasis on rank and encourages the player to raise it as high as they can possibly handle it, while also providing the player with tons of resources to ensure they survive the ever increasing difficulty. As a result, this creates a highly dynamic game where each playthrough differs from the last.

Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo also introduces new stages, music, story, mechanics and more.

The game can be purchased on Steam or DRM-free on the official site

Gameplay Overview

Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo is a simple two button game (with some additional function buttons) with 12 playable mechas (4 are available from the start, 2 new mechas are unlockable and 6 extra variants are also unlockable).

New to Steel Rondo are branching stages, where after each stage's cutscene (as long as the time requirement is met and the player has already cleared the game), the player is presented with two choices. The top choice will lead the player to stages from the original Mecha Ritz while the bottom choice will bring the player to new and harder stages (with more scoring potential).

From now on, top choice stages will be referred to as A variant and bottom choice stages as B variant.

Controls

Z (Tap): Fires the mecha's standard shot.
Z (Hold): Fires the mecha's focused shot.
X: Activates the mecha's bomb.
C: Skips cutscenes/Switches weapon type when playing CBP training
Z+X+C (Hold): Self-destructs your mecha and instantly game over (Can be used to restart the game).
V: Pauses the game (NOTE: You cannot self-destruct while the game is paused).
Esc: Exits the game.

HUD

Left: Current amount of lives. Increases by shooting 1up items. Decreases when hit without a shield. Maxes out at 10 lives.
Bomb: Current amount of bombs in stock. Increases by shooting bomb or double items. You can use a bomb by pressing X. Maxes out at 10 bombs.
Shields: Current amount of shields in stock. Increases by shooting shield or double items. A shield will protect your mecha from losing a life when hit. Upon respawning after losing a life, the amount replenished will match the amount of Heat. Maxes out at 5 shields.
Heat: Determines your mecha's shot power and the amount of shields you will respawn with. Maxes out at 5.
Time: Amount of time left to reach Veloce and stage branches. Increases after killing bosses and at the end of every stage. Decreases gradually over the course of the game. Locks player into A variant stages and fake TLB if it reaches 0.
Rank: Current game difficulty. Represented by a number from 0 to 500. The higher the number, the higher the diffculty. See the Rank section for more info.

Unlockables

Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo has a numerous amount of unlockables.

Stage branches must be unlocked by beating the game's TLB, Veloce. Veloce can only be reached if the player can reach the final stage without having the time drop to 0. If the time ever drops to 0, the game will lock the player into A variant stages and the last stage will have a fake TLB which kills off the player's mecha upon death, giving the player a bad ending.

When unlocked, the stage branches will allow players to pick stage variants in whatever order they prefer as long as they still have time left in the timer. B variant Veloce can still be accessed even if the player decided to go all A variants until then.

Other unlockables include the different mecha types, higher starting ranks as well as bullet/explosion colors. These unlock over time from doing multiple runs of the game.

Mechas

TBA

Items

There are three types of items that can be dropped by an item carrier. The type of item a carrier will drop is indicated by the color of the ship as well as how close the player is to the carrier when destroyed (doesn't apply to white carriers). You can collect an item by shooting at it until it becomes "broken". If you do not collect the item fast enough, it will start switching between whichever items are within that type.

White carriers will always drop a 1up regardless of distance.
Green carriers will drop bonus items.
Purple carriers will drop resource items.

Bonus items

8000/5000/2500 pts. items: Gives you extra points and increases rank.

Resource items

Bomb: Grants the player an additional bomb
Shield: Grants the player an additional shield
Double: Gives the player both a bomb and a shield. Only dropped if the player is very close to the carrier upon destruction.

Rank

Rank plays a huge role within this game. You can always check what rank you are currently at by checking it in the HUD. Upon starting the game up, you can select your starting rank from 0 to 500. Rank affects bullet speed, bullet density as well enemy types. Rank affects the game significantly with every hundred it increases by. Starting from rank 150, all enemies will start shooting out suicide bullets upon death. Rank increases gradually and by performing certain actions and decreases every time the player gets hit or loses a life.

Scoring

There are multiple aspects to scoring in Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo, with the most the prominent one being speed killing. When an enemy is destroyed, a bit of text will appear which determines the multiplier applied on the enemy's point value. The possible values from highest to lowest are: Grande (Flashing), Grande, Tall and Short. In order to get the highest multiplier, you must destroy the enemy before the timer (usually located at the bottom right of the enemy) expires.

Also throughout the stages, are green item carriers. Upon destroying one, it will drop a Bonus item, which will give 8000, 5000 or 2000 points depending on how close you are when destroying the carrier.

Emptying a boss' healthbar before the timer runs out will give you a time bonus of 10,000 points (100,000 points for the TLB).

Located on different parts of each boss, are circles that increases in size the closer you are to them. They will flash white upon damaging them and destroying them will give you a destruction bonus which varies from 1000-5000 points each.

At the end of each stage, you will be rewarded with an end stage bonus which gives you more points depending on your resources. The formula used is:

Left = (current amount of lives + 1) * 50
Bomb = current amount of bombs x 10
Shield = current amount of shields x 20
Basis Point = Left + Bomb + Shield
Multiplier = current Rank value + current Time left
Clear Bonus = Basis Point x Multiplier

The B variant TLB's final attack has orbiting circles that cancel bullets around when shot and also give a ton of points when activated. This pattern can be milked by remaining on either the left or right side of the screen and shooting the circles while avoiding the boss. The circles give a ton of points and can be milked for ~ 5 million points if done right.

Strategy

TBA

Story

(Taken from the Steam Store description for the game)

Set in a mechanized world, the story begins with a world-renowned young scientist named Veloce. One day she invented "Mecha" and eradicated humankind with her creation, recreating a metallic world filled with Mechas. Pilot humanity's last hope, a Mecha imbued with human will, through the onslaught of enemy waves. Yet as the tides of battles turn and the world reveals itself, perhaps there's more than what meets the eye.

Trivia

Due to an error made in the latest patch, the boss info screens are always in Chinese no matter what language you choose.

Gallery

References & Contributors

This template page was assembled by CHA-STG and Plasmo
Primary info contributed by NElectron256

Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo

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