Zone of the Enders is an evolution of a long line of shooter design, and when Dingo is ambushed by a teenage Leo piloting the Vic Viper from Konami’s classic Gradius, it’s obvious that The 2nd Runner is fully aware of its lineage. ZoE gives you these radically different fighting styles by automatically changing the square button’s attack depending on your proximity to enemies. Where ranged gunplay means anticipating where a target will be by the time your shot travels across the map, up close melee combat is about reading an opponent’s small tells so you can beat them to the punch. Videogame combat exists on a spectrum from melee to ranged, and both styles come with their own pros and cons. Since Jehuty is a war machine, it’s important to see how the changes in its system changes how it engages its enemy. This gives the player more options while keeping the control scheme simple.Ī button’s action needs to be appropriate for the machine’s larger purpose, and for a game like ZoE2 to operate efficiently, it’s different functions must complement each other- they need to contribute towards the same goal in different ways. Similarly, every computer program has its own internal systems of action/reaction that create gameplay, often defining and redefining what the machine does moment to moment.Ī common way for videogame systems to vary up their gameplay is by changing what a controller button does from one situation to the next, either because the game is reading what is happening in game or because the player is pressing a button that modifies others. The lightning-fast duel dynamically transitions from long distance shooter to up close hack-and-slash and back in a way unseen in videogames.Įvery machine is built for a purpose like turning a wheel or moving a piston, but it is the result of a sequence of connected components such as gears or wires that trigger another action. No sooner is ADA awakened than Dingo is zipping around the screen unleashing laser barrages, destroying the surrounding environment, and clashing with pilot Ken Marinaris searching for the lost orbital frame.

For two minutes, you awkwardly trundle across the snow in your primitive mining mech until you stumble on an abandoned cargo container with Jehuty stashed inside. After leaving military service, Dingo moved to a mining operation on Jupiter’s moon, Callisto. ZoE2’s slow, deliberate opening provides fantastic contrast for the game’s high-octane action. Shuyo Murata’s The 2nd Runner picks up after that with former BAHRAM soldier Dingo Egret fused into Jehuty’s chassis, its automated systems literally sustaining his dying body. that acted as a maternal figure for the boy in her electronic womb. Through battle, Leo matured through his relationship with ADA, the ship’s A.I. Konami’s original 2001 ZoE was familiar to those following the post Evangelion mecha scene, placing reluctant child Leo Stenbuck at Jehuty’s controls to save his space colony Antilia.

Zone of the Enders’ orbital frames are equipped with artificial intelligence that can assist their ‘runner’ pilots with complex maneuvering, and through its gameplay, The 2nd Runner explores how automation closes the gap in the Man-machine interface.

Through cars, computers, and any other machine that takes inputs and spits outputs, humans and machines were synthesizing, and the mecha genre, with its pilotable-mobile tanks, has found interesting ways to express the relationships. The battle above Vascillia is an epic mission that requires man and machine to harmonize into one being, and represents the important relationship that has built between the two.Īdvancing technology expanded the way humans interact with machines. In Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, you systematically breach this fleet by unleashing locked-on lasers and homing missiles, and melt the ships’ cores with point blank fire from your high-output Vulcan Cannon. The five destroyers in BAHRAM’s air armada equipped with particle cannons and support turrets are perfect for wiping out any who oppose the political faction, and only a high-performance super machine that combines an artificial intelligence with human ingenuity can overcome it.

Zone of the enders ken