Vixen 357 Brings 1992 Mega Drive Robot SRPG to Steam
A 1992 Masaya SRPG that never left the Mega Drive in the West now sits on Steam with save states and cheats, which puts its permadeath design in front of an audience that did not grow up with the original cartridge.
Reporting from 1 source: Game Spark.
Ratalaika Games and Shinyuden have released Vixen 357 on Steam. The port carries over the Mega Drive original Masaya put out in 1992: 16 grid maps, turn-based combat, free pairing of pilots with units, and permadeath, where destroyed pilots and units do not come back. The Steam version adds a gallery of original illustrations and posters, plus rewind, speed-up, save anywhere, screen filters, and cheats. It is 20 percent off until November 7.
The story opens in AD 2396, when the special unit Slash, operating the high-mobility humanoid weapon VECTOR built by the new nation Merizmaharp, is attacked by an unknown enemy mid-training. The player is pilot Takuya Murasawa.
Weapons change with the unit, and pilots and machines are paired freely, so the lineup a player builds going into a map carries weight afterward. Destroyed units stay destroyed.
The port is handled by Ratalaika Games and Shinyuden. The original is a sequel-like work set in the same world as the 1990 Masaya release Hishou Kishi Kaiser.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.