Joining the ranks of wtf is this name, comes today’s review subject, a game developed by MICA Team, most well known as the people behind the Girl’s Frontline series.
This game is a remake of an old game they made, Code Name: Bakery Girl, way back when MICA Team was a tiny doujin circle and all they could do was small indie games and Touhou Doujinshi.
Until they struck Gacha gold with Girl’s Frontline, and the rest is history.
This remake did quite a lot of changes (besides graphical and gameplay improvements), with expanded story, more characters, and making it fit better with Girl’s Frontline.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to play Girl’s Frontline to get the story, although a few of the T-Dolls do make cameos.
Of course they brought back best
A remastered version of the original game left as is with only improvements on the presentation and some minor QoL changes is also included, but you have to unlock it by doing some in-game collectible hunting, and beating Chapter 4.
Alright, lets get on with it.
Alright, lets get on with it.
Story & Setting
In 2030, a massive catastrophe took place, epicenter China, in which the disturbance of a relic of unknown origin, led to the spread of a deadly cloud around the world.
That cloud, quickly spread, and lasted a century, making 36% of the world completely uninhabitable, killing billions, those were the lucky ones.
You see, that cloud contained a completely new form of radiation, which can not only destroy living beings, it mutates them.
The land changed, and the survivors, turned into ELIDs, mutated, mindless zombies with skin which can shrug off tank shells.
Things weren’t looking good.
With resources dwindling, World War 3 came, in order to control those precious few resources.
The people who matter, peaced out to Antarctica, hiding on a safe haven beneath the ice, while whatever left of the world was ravaged by war.
Many years later, the fall of the old world, brought two new factions, The URNC and The Antarctic Union, both wanting to understand the relics, and, of course, weaponize them against each other.
One key figure in that endeavor, a girl (Bakery) who can activate the relics, has become a target for both factions, wanting a safe haven from a psychopathic scientist from The URNC hot on her heels, she seeks help from the Antarcticans.
The best agents are sent to get her out, it was supposed to be a routine mission behind enemy lines, everything was planned out, no expense spared, but…
Plans never survive their first encounter with the enemy, disaster occurred, the enemy knew all along, everyone is dead.
Now, alone with the target, the last survivor of the taskforce must complete the mission, the success of Operation Bakery, and the future of the world depends on it.
It won’t be easy.
That cloud, quickly spread, and lasted a century, making 36% of the world completely uninhabitable, killing billions, those were the lucky ones.
You see, that cloud contained a completely new form of radiation, which can not only destroy living beings, it mutates them.
The land changed, and the survivors, turned into ELIDs, mutated, mindless zombies with skin which can shrug off tank shells.
Things weren’t looking good.
With resources dwindling, World War 3 came, in order to control those precious few resources.
The people who matter, peaced out to Antarctica, hiding on a safe haven beneath the ice, while whatever left of the world was ravaged by war.
Many years later, the fall of the old world, brought two new factions, The URNC and The Antarctic Union, both wanting to understand the relics, and, of course, weaponize them against each other.
One key figure in that endeavor, a girl (Bakery) who can activate the relics, has become a target for both factions, wanting a safe haven from a psychopathic scientist from The URNC hot on her heels, she seeks help from the Antarcticans.
The best agents are sent to get her out, it was supposed to be a routine mission behind enemy lines, everything was planned out, no expense spared, but…
Plans never survive their first encounter with the enemy, disaster occurred, the enemy knew all along, everyone is dead.
Now, alone with the target, the last survivor of the taskforce must complete the mission, the success of Operation Bakery, and the future of the world depends on it.
It won’t be easy.
Presentation
To tell the story, the game uses a Visual Novel style, nothing too out there, although little details like idle animations, breathing and blinking, add a lot for the immersion.
The other artstyle, is Chibis, looking like polished versions of the Chibis from the first Girl’s Frontline. All of the gameplay will be with the Chibis, and the in-engine cutscenes will be with them as well, usually, for cutscenes involving action, there are also some moments of very seamless transitions between Chibis and VN.
The Chibis have a lot of charm, with many idle animations while you are thinking about what to do in your turn, not only for the playable units, but for enemies as well. There are also a lot of unique context specific animations.
Although the elite variants of enemies, are mostly the same, but with more red and black in their palette.
Thankfully, they are so well designed, its quite easy to tell at a glance what you are dealing with.
You also get to enjoy some Chibi animations in the pre-mission screens, sometimes getting some little conversations between the main pair.
The other artstyle, is Chibis, looking like polished versions of the Chibis from the first Girl’s Frontline. All of the gameplay will be with the Chibis, and the in-engine cutscenes will be with them as well, usually, for cutscenes involving action, there are also some moments of very seamless transitions between Chibis and VN.
The Chibis have a lot of charm, with many idle animations while you are thinking about what to do in your turn, not only for the playable units, but for enemies as well. There are also a lot of unique context specific animations.
Although the elite variants of enemies, are mostly the same, but with more red and black in their palette.
Thankfully, they are so well designed, its quite easy to tell at a glance what you are dealing with.
You also get to enjoy some Chibi animations in the pre-mission screens, sometimes getting some little conversations between the main pair.
Same goes for your equipment, and items, including their icons.
Another neat little detail, is that when you load your game into the pre-mission screen, you get a “previously on” summary which quickly reminds you of the lead up to the mission.
Something quite impressive about the game, is how it manages to give so much information, while keeping the UI so neat, clean, and unobtrusive, at no point does the UI get in the way, and it still manages to give exactly what you need.
Even with the toggles to show overlays, like danger zones, attack range, skill/item range, and enemy line of sight, it manages to stay easily readable, and understandable.
Most of the locales will be on snow areas, but that doesn’t stop the game from making them interesting, sure some maps are reused due to story reasons, but each map does retain its own identity.
Another neat little detail, is that when you load your game into the pre-mission screen, you get a “previously on” summary which quickly reminds you of the lead up to the mission.
Something quite impressive about the game, is how it manages to give so much information, while keeping the UI so neat, clean, and unobtrusive, at no point does the UI get in the way, and it still manages to give exactly what you need.
Even with the toggles to show overlays, like danger zones, attack range, skill/item range, and enemy line of sight, it manages to stay easily readable, and understandable.
Most of the locales will be on snow areas, but that doesn’t stop the game from making them interesting, sure some maps are reused due to story reasons, but each map does retain its own identity.
There are even weather effects for missions in which it becomes a mechanic.
The music is really good, specially in some of the later Chapters.
Voice Acting wise, there is quite the star cast, of course, only Japanese Voice Over. Some of them have already worked with MICA Team voicing characters for Girl’s Frontline.
The music is really good, specially in some of the later Chapters.
Voice Acting wise, there is quite the star cast, of course, only Japanese Voice Over. Some of them have already worked with MICA Team voicing characters for Girl’s Frontline.
Mechanics
At its core, its a SRPG.
Characters have action points (AP), and they use them to do actions, moving around costs AP according to the type of terrain crossed, items cost AP to use, and weapons types have different AP costs to attack. There is no limitation on how you decide to use them.
You can also switch between weapons with no cost, and with no penalty.
AP is not retained between turns, except with certain passives.
Skill Points (SP) are earned through various means, mostly killing enemies, to use abilities which can save a hopeless situation, or do fun things, like killing a 35k hp boss in 1 turn, with enough preparation and synergies.
Your maximum amount of AP and SP increases as you progress through the game.
Characters have action points (AP), and they use them to do actions, moving around costs AP according to the type of terrain crossed, items cost AP to use, and weapons types have different AP costs to attack. There is no limitation on how you decide to use them.
You can also switch between weapons with no cost, and with no penalty.
AP is not retained between turns, except with certain passives.
Skill Points (SP) are earned through various means, mostly killing enemies, to use abilities which can save a hopeless situation, or do fun things, like killing a 35k hp boss in 1 turn, with enough preparation and synergies.
Your maximum amount of AP and SP increases as you progress through the game.
If you are curious, that was my tech tree for the final mission.
Most importantly are the items, using them costs AP, but they will always provide something of value, and, in this game, you are expected to use them, within reason.
You see, items have a certain limitation, you either craft them or find them on the field.
Crafting them costs parts, parts is the currency of the game, which you earn by completing missions, but it can also be found in the missions themselves (not always a thing), the more useful the item is, the more parts is going to cost.
There are 2 types of items, consumables and equipment.
Consumables are obvious, but there is an extra caveat, once you use them, they are gone (unless you load a save), even if a trap doesn’t trigger, it will still count as used.
Equipment, is various things, like decoys, scanners, turrets, or barricades, even if they are destroyed, they will always return to you at the end of the mission, if you don’t wanna use too many parts, you rely on equipment.
Consumables, are upgraded with research points, which you earn by completing missions, giving them more damage, and sometimes, giving them different effects. Another important thing, is that items derived from other items inherit some upgrades, for example, upgrading basic grenades passively upgrades the damage of incendiaries, or, upgrading medicine passively upgrades the base amount of healing for healing items. A cool detail, is that the icon of the item changes when its fully upgraded.
Equipment upgrades with special resources you find in the maps, or earned as mission rewards.
There is one more thing with crafting, there are 2 types, item production and item synthesis.
Item production can only be done in the pre-mission screen, and it produces the strongest items, and the base items.
Item synthesis, can be done both during the pre-mission screen, and in the mission (with 1 AP cost for each item crafted), but, you can only craft derived items, and equipment. So, don’t go using up all your grenades, cause you need them for incendiaries.
More complex missions, will give you an opportunity to replenish and change equipment in the middle.
You unlock more items as you progress through the story.
Sometimes you will find cheat items, that’s the game helping you out a little.
Bear in mind, you can only take a certain amount of items into a mission, the capacity upgrades as you progress, and the game is kind enough to recommend you what items you might need in the next mission.
As for your characters, when they level up, they earn genetic points, which you use to upgrade their abilities or buy new ones, the ultimate upgrades itself automatically as you use genetic points on other skills.
Another way to upgrade characters, is to find weapon attachments, which give stats to their weapons, and later in the game, give special passives.
You can also level up their weapons with upgrade kits found on levels, or sometimes given as mission rewards.
Enemies who have a box next to their health bar, usually carry attachments, parts, or nice equipment.
All characters get different weapons, which expand their combat options.
You can grind, to a certain extent, you can only grind in training missions which are little challenges, they are unlocked as you progress through the game, and each chapter has a set maximum level.
You see, items have a certain limitation, you either craft them or find them on the field.
Crafting them costs parts, parts is the currency of the game, which you earn by completing missions, but it can also be found in the missions themselves (not always a thing), the more useful the item is, the more parts is going to cost.
There are 2 types of items, consumables and equipment.
Consumables are obvious, but there is an extra caveat, once you use them, they are gone (unless you load a save), even if a trap doesn’t trigger, it will still count as used.
Equipment, is various things, like decoys, scanners, turrets, or barricades, even if they are destroyed, they will always return to you at the end of the mission, if you don’t wanna use too many parts, you rely on equipment.
Consumables, are upgraded with research points, which you earn by completing missions, giving them more damage, and sometimes, giving them different effects. Another important thing, is that items derived from other items inherit some upgrades, for example, upgrading basic grenades passively upgrades the damage of incendiaries, or, upgrading medicine passively upgrades the base amount of healing for healing items. A cool detail, is that the icon of the item changes when its fully upgraded.
Equipment upgrades with special resources you find in the maps, or earned as mission rewards.
There is one more thing with crafting, there are 2 types, item production and item synthesis.
Item production can only be done in the pre-mission screen, and it produces the strongest items, and the base items.
Item synthesis, can be done both during the pre-mission screen, and in the mission (with 1 AP cost for each item crafted), but, you can only craft derived items, and equipment. So, don’t go using up all your grenades, cause you need them for incendiaries.
More complex missions, will give you an opportunity to replenish and change equipment in the middle.
You unlock more items as you progress through the story.
Sometimes you will find cheat items, that’s the game helping you out a little.
Bear in mind, you can only take a certain amount of items into a mission, the capacity upgrades as you progress, and the game is kind enough to recommend you what items you might need in the next mission.
As for your characters, when they level up, they earn genetic points, which you use to upgrade their abilities or buy new ones, the ultimate upgrades itself automatically as you use genetic points on other skills.
Another way to upgrade characters, is to find weapon attachments, which give stats to their weapons, and later in the game, give special passives.
You can also level up their weapons with upgrade kits found on levels, or sometimes given as mission rewards.
Enemies who have a box next to their health bar, usually carry attachments, parts, or nice equipment.
All characters get different weapons, which expand their combat options.
You can grind, to a certain extent, you can only grind in training missions which are little challenges, they are unlocked as you progress through the game, and each chapter has a set maximum level.
Missions will always have extra challenges, completing those, give you a better ranking, a better ranking means more parts and exp at the end of the level.
But, not all missions are combat missions.
Sometimes you will have to do stealth, sometimes a combination of combat and stealth, and finally, some missions are pure puzzles.
Stealth has its own mechanics, with enemies having different detection ranges, but, bear in mind that low visibility applies both ways, you can ambush enemies, but they can ambush you as well, you can lay traps, they can as well, so, be sure to always keep your scanners, they not only increase your line of sight, they can detect traps, and cloaked enemies. Some terrain allow you to remain hidden, even when in enemy line of sight.
Line of sight can change in the middle of missions, combat missions can become ambush opportunities, stealth can become combat.
Some missions are purely stealth, but you can go in guns blazing if you want (with a few exceptions in which stealth is mandatory, other times, just encouraged).
Thankfully, there is a way to speed up enemy turns, is fast enough to quickly go back to your turn, but slow enough for you to still be aware as to what the enemy did.
There is a lot more I could talk about, but, I am gonna leave that for you to find.
But, not all missions are combat missions.
Sometimes you will have to do stealth, sometimes a combination of combat and stealth, and finally, some missions are pure puzzles.
Stealth has its own mechanics, with enemies having different detection ranges, but, bear in mind that low visibility applies both ways, you can ambush enemies, but they can ambush you as well, you can lay traps, they can as well, so, be sure to always keep your scanners, they not only increase your line of sight, they can detect traps, and cloaked enemies. Some terrain allow you to remain hidden, even when in enemy line of sight.
Line of sight can change in the middle of missions, combat missions can become ambush opportunities, stealth can become combat.
Some missions are purely stealth, but you can go in guns blazing if you want (with a few exceptions in which stealth is mandatory, other times, just encouraged).
Thankfully, there is a way to speed up enemy turns, is fast enough to quickly go back to your turn, but slow enough for you to still be aware as to what the enemy did.
There is a lot more I could talk about, but, I am gonna leave that for you to find.
Final Thoughts
This game is hard. It has been quite some time since I felt that a game has truly pushed me to lock in, even thought I did manage to S-rank all the missions on Normal/Standard, some of those are quite hellish.
Yes, you have the battle information screen, but it won’t tell you about complications, all levels have complications, you won’t know about enemy reinforcements until you see them, you won’t know about mission changes until you have to do them, you won’t know about changes in patrols until it happens.
Both in story and gameplay, the game will remind you that the characters are behind enemy lines, outnumbered, and outgunned, and you gotta work with what you have.
But, it truly is a show of magnificent design, yes its difficult, but, its not unfair.
Yes, you have the battle information screen, but it won’t tell you about complications, all levels have complications, you won’t know about enemy reinforcements until you see them, you won’t know about mission changes until you have to do them, you won’t know about changes in patrols until it happens.
Both in story and gameplay, the game will remind you that the characters are behind enemy lines, outnumbered, and outgunned, and you gotta work with what you have.
But, it truly is a show of magnificent design, yes its difficult, but, its not unfair.
There is always an answer for whatever the enemies have, high evasion? Explosions, high armor? Melt that thing off, levels sometimes offer gimmicks to either help you or hinder you, etc. etc.
The game has quite a lot of filters, like, a certain battle in Chapter 2, the later half of Chapter 3, or having the patience for Chapter 4.
Or the biggest hurdle, in order to unlock Chapter 5, you must collect ALL the secret documents, which are scattered through the levels, thankfully the game has a replay feature, and there are a few small mercies regarding the collectibles.
The game has quite a lot of filters, like, a certain battle in Chapter 2, the later half of Chapter 3, or having the patience for Chapter 4.
Or the biggest hurdle, in order to unlock Chapter 5, you must collect ALL the secret documents, which are scattered through the levels, thankfully the game has a replay feature, and there are a few small mercies regarding the collectibles.
The thing about S-ranking missions, is that it teaches you the hidden mechanics, not by telling you directly, but by forcing you to adapt.
Its quite satisfactory to see how your scrappy team becomes quite the force to be reckoned with, how at the start you get demoralized by the amount of enemies, then at the end you just know exactly what to do.
Its quite beautiful to see how something seemingly stupid ends up working, or how the desperate strategy turns the battle around, or how perfect preparation leads to completely obliterate a boss in 1 turn.
The game also has something I appreciate a lot, characters talk like real people, no exposition of basic stuff they should already know because they live in that world, instead, the game offers something else, wanna know about the lore and world building? Go and read the in-game keyword encyclopedia, or read the files, do your homework if you are interested in the world.
Its quite satisfactory to see how your scrappy team becomes quite the force to be reckoned with, how at the start you get demoralized by the amount of enemies, then at the end you just know exactly what to do.
Its quite beautiful to see how something seemingly stupid ends up working, or how the desperate strategy turns the battle around, or how perfect preparation leads to completely obliterate a boss in 1 turn.
The game also has something I appreciate a lot, characters talk like real people, no exposition of basic stuff they should already know because they live in that world, instead, the game offers something else, wanna know about the lore and world building? Go and read the in-game keyword encyclopedia, or read the files, do your homework if you are interested in the world.
If you can endure the hard as nails difficulty, you will be rewarded with an absolutely delightful story about fighting against Fate and struggling for the best outcome, it has to be one of the best of its kind I have read in quite some time, and I will not say anything else about it.
If you aren’t hooked by the end of Chapter 1, then it ain’t for you.
This game is truly one of the bests SRPGs ever made, its kind of a shame that MICA Team doesn’t wanna bring the darker elements for Girl’s Frontline 2.
If you aren’t hooked by the end of Chapter 1, then it ain’t for you.
This game is truly one of the bests SRPGs ever made, its kind of a shame that MICA Team doesn’t wanna bring the darker elements for Girl’s Frontline 2.
Pros
- + Magnificent story.
- + The best UI in existence.
- + Deep and Rewarding Gameplay.
- + Charming graphics and attention to detail.
Cons
- - Very difficult.
- - Cutscenes can be long winded.
- - Many typos in the text.
10
Gameplay
It truly is an achievement on what a SRPG should be, this truly has become my gold standard, massive amount of options and opportunities, rewards risk taking and adaptability.
8
Graphics
Very charming Chibis, with a lot of attention to detail an unique animations, as well as some very good anime portraits and CGs, only loosing points for the recolors.
9
Story
I refuse to spoil anything, its some of the best I have ever read, I won't say anything more, its a must read, not a 10 due to the many typos.
9
Sound
Some of those boss themes have made it as part of my playlists, very good, and immersive, always improving upon the levels, and setting the vibes for the level.
4
Replayability
Chapter 4 is hell, Chapter 4 is hell, Chapter 4 is hell... If you are a masochist... I guess you could do it again.
9
out of 10
Overall
The gold standard of what a modern SRPG should be, a truly challenging and rewarding experience, with a magnificent story to keep you ready and willing to suffer through the brutal levels, a game that respects its player and expects them to master its systems to win, a true must play. Its absolute beauty of a UI must be studied.
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