I wanted to like this game, I really did.
Diverse cast? Check.
Creepy futurepunk dystopia? Check.
Bizarre bio-mech robots? Check
Killing Nazis? Check.
What's not to like? Well...
Firstly, the writing. It's just.... Bad. I hate to say it, but... When I read the other comments raving about how real the dialogue sounded, I expected writing that would read like real people talking out their situation in a natural way... And what I got was writing that read like people messaging each other in a facebook group chat about their situation. (I know what 'sdfkfsdjfsk' means in context, but it's a little jarring to see it in what is supposed to be an out-loud conversation, you know?)
Conflict repeatedly flares up out of nowhere, characters argue, neither one of them learns anything or develops at all, and then they move past it in 2 minutes. Breaking up a stranger's heated argument by dabbing? What? Nothing about these characters or the way they interact feels real.
And then there's the enemies, known only as "The Fash", who are written much less like the kind of fascist who would corner you on the street and fight you, and much more like the kind of fascist who would call you a cuck on /r/TheDonald. ("Intellectual superiority" LMAO)
But, story isn't everything you know! I can push past a subpar story as long as the core game is fun to play! Well....
It's close! It's almost fun! It's like.... fun-adjacent. The idea of a 2-D top down super-smash-bros-style brawler is one that has potential, I could see something like this being a fun arena multiplayer game. But with little to no variation in the enemies, and only one unique move per character, plus a basic punch, the game itself gets stale after the first few fights. And without that carrot-on-a-stick of fun gameplay, after the second or third 'sdfksdjsfkdjs' I lost the will to continue.
Which is a shame, because there are a lot of stylistic elements here that I like a lot. The monochrome, hand-drawn character art, combined with the ASCII-on-gradient environments makes a very unique and striking style, and I greatly appreciate that the battle theme morphs instruments based on who you're playing. Super cool idea. It's just a shame that everything built upon the stylistic elements is.... lacking.