I am so happy that you covered this game because seeing everything else you've done and your player vibes I knew for a fact that Steambot Chronicles was right up your alley.
Steambot was the first game I ever played that made me felt somber. When I helped the carpet mill industrlized and saw how it affected every worker. Some found better jobs but one poor girl ended up a sex worker and blamed me. The same thing happened with Saffron. She had her trust broken by her boyfriend who stole all her money and she never moves on. Newer games pull this but Steambot did it first.
@@FlavouredPopcorn I ain't calling a dog a cat, nor would I call a monkey a gorilla. What's so wrong for calling a prostitute a prostitute if that's what they are? She's not gonna sleep with you so stop it with the white knighting.
About an hour in & IDK if you mention it later, but you can actually get the backstory on Mallow, Chicory, and Dandelion on the good route, by going through the Newspaper side quest. Edit: okay, you covered it BTW, related pro-tip to anyone who decides to pick this game up: the newspaper, movie theatre, and railroad side quests all drive up the related company’s stock price, so you can make bank if you hold off on advancing them until you can buy into the market in happy garland.
@@KBash Broski KBash gushing out about the toned down and down to earth realistic narrative where your PC is just another person in the world. You should check out and make a video about German RPG series Gothic (1-3) cause it is basically narrativly the same as SBC.
It makes me happy to see you cover a game that just means something to you, personally. Just something you love and want to share with others. No financial / algorithm target, just you going in-depth on something that forever impacted you. Good job, man.
I don't think I've ever been sold on a game so vehemently by sheer words, let alone wild ass charisma. Your enthusiasm and straight up love for this game is so palpable and infectious, it's hard not to admire the amount of passion that went into a project like this vid. Legit teared up multiple times throughout the latter half and idk, that's something not everyone's able to incite in other folks. Genuinely amazing work.
I loved this game as a kid. I woke up at 6 am and played till 3 pm. I died of a headache. I sold it with a pile of old games. All my dbz tenkaichis. For 100 dollars:( Dont ever sell ur crap trying to be responsible and save money for the future. That is crap. I still regret that.
Steambot Chronicles is my ideal immersive video game and has become kind of an unfortunate benchmark for immersion in video games since I played it when I was 14. When you play a game where every game mechanic is designed with immersion into the setting or story in mind, it's hard to play any "immersive" games without thinking about Steambot and how damn good it is.
Definitely, its one of those games where when you play the 'lesser version' of the games, it just doesnt hit. sadly unconsciously making an armour that makes you unable to enjoy the lesser games
This game blew my mind as a kid. In terms of content, many games today don’t even come close. So sad that the sequel was canceled indefinitely. Hope we can see a series revival someday
This game emotionally wrecked me. The non-closure with Connie, the sort of left-hangingness in the post game. The lack of resolution, with Basil being a drunk, and everything just left in stillness after all that drama. I wanted that completion, but the game doesn't give it to you. This is the one game I played as a kid that leaves an indescribable imprint on me. No sex, nothing, just conversations with Connie, which don't really lead anywhere post-game. No marriage. Lol. I don't know if I will ever find something like this again. I don't know if any other game will have such an emotional impact. You have no idea how much I think of this game from time to time. As a kid, with memories so far away, feels like a dream. All I'm left with is the aftermath of emotions. And, the game being not super well known, you can't have that community connection and closure. Just stray Reddit posts saying they want a sequel and miss it, that they feel the same way. It feels like something that happened somewhere in space once, and disappeared, without any closure. Did it even happen?
Speaking of promotional artwork, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter and Radiata Stories have absolutely incredible Japanese box arts. The American box arts are just the in-game models idling.
Before i even start the video, i have to thank you for covering a real piece of my childhood. EDIT, finally been able to finish and man, you did this game an honor and really made me smile at seeing such a good game be shown the love it deserves. The world is less for lacking a sequel, but you did great at spreading the game again.
This is one of the best KBash deep dives I’ve seen. I feel like many of us have that one game that really speaks to us, and holy moly, KBash did an amazing job showing us his! I’m really happy to see these videos keep being made.
You truly did this game justice. Itś a game you can truly call an "hidden gem" in the most candid and truthful way. Also thanks for that rant on "bad control", I swear gamers sometimes
@@Linkophere I'm guessing emulation is the only real viable way of playing it right? I ask because I don't remember if he mentioned if it's on PC or not in the video.
@@sukamadik5983 im watching it rn and he says in the beginning that emulating it is really the only way, no other release and a physical copy he looked up on ebay was $320 CAD
You can reliably sink the nine ball on the break in this game. It's precisely how I beat all the pool folk. This game rocks and having a steam mech with a beach umbrella attachment is where it is at.
Not sure I am ever going to play this game (controlls and gameplay dont seems like my thing) but its great seeing how wild this game was lol. Back when gaming companies were not affraid of taking risks and coming up with original ideas.
Hearing you explain the mechanics makes me wonder geniunely how I in my childhood managed to figure anything out. I don't remember if I was good at it, but I do remember not sucking.
Thank you for taking the time to talk about this game. Playing this got me through my senior year of high school when I was dangerously close to becoming a stay-at-home shut-in and made me want to go out into the world and meet people like Vanilla did. 12 years later I think I've done a pretty good job of it. It's a little cringe, sure, but this game really saved me. I was absolutely crushed when the sequel got cancelled
Honestly, the Bloody Mantis falling apart in the evil ending makes a lot of sense, The main character is just a ruthless teenager with skill with a trotmobile who would know nothing about how to run an organization that size, most of the Bloody Mantis would have been loyal to his predecessors rather than him so they'd leave immediately, and after succeeding in their endgame of bombing Happy Garland there was no direction for the organization to go. It was all doomed to fall apart no matter what.
I don't know how you do it, but I was absolutely entranced for 2 hours straight. Thanks for the awesome video! There's always something special about hearing someone talk about something that's so important and meaningful to them. Your writing/videomaking is so good too! Like, it's gotta be crazy hard to make these long videos and have them maintain a solid structure with a throughpoint, be so consistently engaging and funny, and come across so personably. Just awesome stuff all around! Except now I really wanna find a copy of this game lol
This game's cover art looked vaguely familiar, and it took me a while to remember that when I discovered Disaster Report I once looked into Irem's catalogue and came across it. While I haven't finished DR4Plus yet, that game struck a haunting chord with me multiple times. So many things just, happen, without the game focusing or even lingering on it. One scene that sticks with me is when you end up at a port in the crashing rain of a tsunami, and a man helps you out from underneath some rubble. Another earthquake hits, and a part of the port breaks away, with the man still on it as the waves crush it to pieces. You're still in full control of your character during this, and can turn the camera or even walk away if you want. When it happened though, I froze up and couldn't do anything. Your partner says something to the extent of "Oh no, that man..." but that's all the attention the game draws to it. And you're just meant to hold that and move on. To hear that Kazuma Kujo is the one behind both the Disaster Report series and Steambot Chronicles speaks to how well SC must be written. And against my better judgement it seems like I'll be opening my wallet wide to play it sometime. Thanks for the video KBash.
THIS IS MY FAVOURITE GAME. When you mentioned it in your power stones video, or maybe it was your megaman legends video I was waiting for this video. I got this game on my vacation visiting relatives. I played through the game like 4 or 5 times. I never played through the evil. Wish I could have been at the game show for Steambot Chronicles where the singer was on a trotmobile. I wish my ps2 didn't break down so I could keep playing it. It was sad that this never got a sequel but got a trailer. I do hope one day something like this comes out again but probably never will.
Also I didn't know steambot chronicles had ladies of the night, but I do remember the pink film, which was pink, Was confused until I found much later on another playthrough what it meant.
It's really crazy that every few videos of yours I think "this is the best one KBash has ever done." You've really hit your stride in the past 2 years and your passion, care, and confidence with which you examine games shines through. it's been awesome to be along for this ride, and as soon as I can afford it more readily i'm hopping right on that Patreon.
This game has a lot of nostalgia for me. Around 2009, I was very sick and bedridden for like 2 weeks. One of the games I played too completion, was Steambot Chronicles. I remember the Game Informer ad for this game. Something to the effect of "You can do anything, even join the band". I had very little experience with open world games, so the concept intrigued me. I remember spending a lot of time just doing minigames. I ended up playing it a few times, because in my first game I accidentally pissed some of the characters off because I forgot to do something, and I was so confused as to what happened. This game was also my first experience with the concept of your choices actually mattering. A lot of games tacked on multiple endings that didn't really change gameplay, but this game changed gameplay based on your decisions. This is now commonplace in 2023, but it wasn't so common at the time. The ps2 is the most stacked console ever. I'm old enough to have started with the atari, because it was the newest system, and yet almost all my favorite games were on the ps2.
The mechs and graphics remind me of the Misadventures of Tron Bonne. Really enjoyed the choice of Chrystal Chronicles music throughout. I feel like it really matched the tone.
I'm so glad you enjoyed this Kbash, I don't know if I was one of the people you saw when I asked you to play this. If I was one of the people? I'm glad! I like you can barely find people talking about it, and you gave such an honest, caring statement on it- I mean you always do but this struck a cord with me. Maybe cause I play this and fell in love or because you gave a great similar review to Xenosage and I've been caught in a era of reinventing myself, playing old games when developers cared! I'm not saying that absolutely no one cares but it was a great time back in the day, when games were allowed to be deep, talk about love, death, and the deepness of character ever and this review made me, FEEL, truely feel. Thank you, that's all I can say.
Truly the biggest tragedy in the games industry on an artistic level is how games that don't sell well are completely ignored by the big publishers. They are more than happy remaking, rebooting, and re-releasing the things that they know are already popular or have a good chance to reach a broader audience. But none of them are interested even slightly in giving these hidden gems a second look. Games that try to be meaningful and inspirational, that attempt to use the artform to its maximum potential, that are created by passionate and visionary artists, and that truly deserve to be experienced by everybody, are doomed to be distant memories in only a handful of people's childhoods. And the only crime they committed was not making enough money. I'm not saying that the big publishers are lacking in artistic expression or genuine passion for the craft, but I am saying that games are often seen as products first, and works of art second, if even at all. This is why the indie scene is so crucial for the continuation of the medium. They love making art for art's sake, and making a profit would just be a bonus. But more than that, consumers need to expand their tastes or at least their curiosity. They need to start looking at games as experiences to be had rather than hours of fun they received for a payment. Excellent video Kbash, I wish this was a game I played in my youth. I will have to get into PS2 emulation at some point.
I came here to defy the title - this is one of my top 5 games of all time and probably always will be, I replayed it to completion dozens of times as a kid. That being said, it's SO criminally underrated I can't even put it into words, and it sucks that the sequel never came out.
On the Dark Ending: . . . . Depicting a huge bomb being dropped from the sky onto a city is a huge no-no for Japan. That there would even be a character in the game named "Oppenheimer" is extremely striking.
Oddly enough this is one of the few games im aware of outside of the mainstream back on PS2 for one simple reason. It supported the PS2 HDD which i owned. So I was looking for more games that used it.
Holy crap. This game meant so much to me i loved it. Its such a tragedy the second one was destroyed in a tsunami. Hurts my chest just remembering it again.
Damn KBash, you convinced me to finally give this game a fair shot. I saw this one a lot in stores growing up, but never picked it up myself, though it piqued my curiousity. I did manage to watch a friend play for a bit once. I've always been intrigued by it and judging from this review only about 30 minutes in so far, I desperately want to play it. I can tell it could become one of my favorite games ever. Also, I'd love to see you cover Custom Robo. One of my favorite games on the gamecube.
How the hell I never found your channel when I basically watch every long video game review I can find. Subbed and plan to chip away at your older videos in time. Well made video and given this is recommended to me and the video itself is new you might find a new wave of subs in the coming days. They be well deserved.
He has some really great videos, idk if you know this already or not but to have an easier time looking for long videos like this I recommend typing in "Retrospective" in the search bar, bonus points for typing in a niche game or so, I love long form videos like this, helps me find games I've never played or heard of before.
I LOVE Steambot Chronicles, I wish it got a current gen sequel, I miss playing it. Could you imagine a current gen sequel with proper character customization and D&D levels of interactions!
I'm adding onto this with no break in timing- Port your games to newer systerms Game Devs, stop making them abandonware and making people pay and arm and a leg to find a copy of an old game that some scalper will charge for 1000+ ! *Game preservation should be mandatory!*
I use to own this game and can confirm everything here mentioned is definitely accurate to the game. I really did enjoy this one but for some reason I still ended up selling it to a local gamestop. Past regrets hit hard, but this game had two of my favorite genres clash together to look and play fantastic.
I don’t know if it’s intentional, but I feel like your use of music from Nier at several points in this video is kinda fitting, hearing about these sidequests. Their bleakness, critical views, and honest looks at humanity feel right at home in Nier Replicant, a game I completely adore. I feel like I owe it to myself to find time and a way to play Steambot Chronicles someday.
I first discovered Steambot Chronicles back in 2015. I was still in high school and one of my favorite lowkey Lets players had started a playthrough of this game I had never heard of once despite spending hours looking for lowkey games on the internet. Honestly I was fascinated in a way I rarely was with games at the time, and even though I wasn’t playing it myself just being able to experience it secondhand had me hooked in the world of Steambot chronicles. A couple years later I managed to get a used ps2 for pretty cheap and immediately Steambot came back to me and it was the first game I purchased for it on eBay. Being able to sit back and finally go through this magical rural world filled with its ups and downs felt just as beautiful as my first watch through years prior. Steambot chronicles is a game that for almost a decade now made me feel happy in a way I can’t say any other game ever has. It is not my favorite game, but it is something I would put in its own category entirely. Despite the melancholy this video brings me with a Reminder of the overall fate of this series and its sequel I do wanna say thank you. This is a love letter to a clunky and pretty weird game that makes me feel emotional in the best way possible, and I can say for certain this is definitely the best video on it from all the love you put into this. So thank you a ton for this beautiful piece!
"You'll never play"??? Bro, I own a copy of SteamBot Chronicles. It's one of my childhood games and easily a 10/10 game for me. You don't need to convince me to buy another copy because if I wasn't perpetually broke I would.
Freekin loved this game as a kid. My friend got it for me back in middle school and I had a ton of great memories with it. Probably around late high school idiot me gets it in his head that it’d be a good idea to go to GameStop and trade in some games I don’t play anymore/haven’t played in a long time, and this was one of em. Once I realized what a dumb idea that was, I started looking for it everywhere - dawned on me pretty quick how unlikely it was that I’d ever see it again. Then - just last week - I’m in a new retro game shop and I think to ask if they have it. Lo, and behold, they’ve got a copy that’s been on the shelf for two years - no one has wanted to buy it because it’s missing the manual (and I’ve saved every instruction manual of every game I’ve ever owned - so I still had the manual for this one at home.) It was a pretty penny, but man am I glad I’ve got this game back in my collection. Looking forward to my kids being able to play it one day.
Well said... i grew up with this game, when the tsunami hits i was confronted with the fact that a sequel might never come. So many of my favourite franchise is gone, steambot, suikoden.... sigh... they dont make games like that no more
I played SBC in the summer during highschool. I understood some of the concepts but I definitely didn't piece together some the side quests in my mind I was just completing the mission I didn't know my actions would have huge repocutions 😂
Oh if you want more games that deserved better you should play *phantasy star universe series, its sequel ambition of the illuminus. (You might wanna play the pc version- you can only play episode 3 that way, but it's worth it.) Portable and portable 2 Amazing games with great lessons especially episode 3
The constant use of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 music just adds so much to me towards that nostalgic feeling you keep bringing up. Guess I know what I'm doing next weekend...
Five minutes into this and I'm already sold, I see so many things in this game just from a brief overview that remind me of other games I love. I can even see parts of it that I'm sure inspired other great games over the years. Between that and your enthusiasm for it, I'm absolutely going to be playing this as soon as possible
The new gamers don't bother to learn a new way of playing a game so for them it 'sucks' or is a 'bad game' when all one has to do is to give it time, acclimate to the system, it isn't hard to do but this gives one a feeling of a very impatient person, a person entitled to a certain method to which, if not fulfilled, is quick to admonish a game that is well-meaning in it's intent to educate and entertain....
Did not expect a game called Steambot Chronicles to have strong messages of anti-industrialism, since so much steampunk/early modern-styled media ignores even the more basic anti-capitalismn or anti-class hierarchy elements. Based
So they took maxes “side character“ from dark cloud to bud made it into a game I swear my English isn’t this bad I’m driving and using voice to text and it sucks
Hey thanks for putting this video essay on this game i used to play on the ps2 when i was young, Some clarifications though, the big battle in the quest to remove the monopoly run's ok on the actual PS2 hardware.
OMG i found this video, when i was child i like to wasting my time to play this game, i love when the main character playing music and modifing his vehicle.. 😂
Saw a lets play of this a while back from a guy who genuinely loved this game like you. I thought the game looked cool, but looked overwhelming at the time. Seeing this video reminded me why someone would get so invested in this game in the first place.
I played steambot back in the ps2 era, or at least before the ps3 reached my 3rd world country. Found it between a pile of other copied discs of random games at a struggling game store in the corner of a small street, and being the mecha/jrpg lover that I am, I instantly picked it up for the measly price of what's is now valued at less than a quarter of dollar. And goddammit did I absolutely fall on love with the game, I just couldn't stop playing it to the point where I fought my siblings and my cousin (who was living with us at the time) who just wanted to get their turn to play. I was bullied and called names constantly when ever I booted the game up after school or at very late nights after my parents went to sleep and keeping everyone up in the room with the light of the TV. And I will never regret, or be sad for any second of all of that because the game really touched my soul despite my complete oblivion to its messages at the age of 13-14. Steambot chronicles is the definition of a hidden gem, and I will forever be thankful that I experienced it fully and it being a part of my childhood. This shit is fucking nostalgic alright.
I have a PS2 copy of this game that I got a few years back.. I had a demo disc that had a timed demo as I kid but my parents never got me games regularly so I never got to playvit till I was an adult.
I did play this weird game, but not until I saw this video. I turned this video the first time, because it seemed interesting and wanted to play through it. And I did. In fact, I played it for like 6 hours straight the first time, just got hooked. And now having done a playthrough, wanted to cone back and finished your review, and saw thanks for turning me on to this awesome fun game. And to recommend the Disaster Report series if you're looking for more games kinda similar, in a "lots of choices and multiple endings" kind of games.
I guess it's a good thing this game didn't make very much money or get a ton of notoriety. Wouldn't want to get too involved in obtaining all that nasty capitalism.
Man...in the beginning of the video, I was just happy to see a youtuber I enjoy covering the game. By the 3/4 mark, it solidified itself as the best and most definitive review of the game out there. And by the end, right around Kujo saying he can't imagine a sequel ever happening, I was fighting back my tears. What a beautiful, cruel world we live in, right?
This game had me in a chokehold as a kid. This game felt like it had a life of it's own with how I've played it so many times and still discover new things. The attention to detail in this game is crazy, from how the MC's idle animation varies from how you made his personality out to be to how the people react to you depending on how you treat them and how you can act so unhinged and the game goes on and seem to adjust around you. This game is an experience like no other.
Don't know if you know japanese but have you tried Pachipara 12-14/Pachipro Fuunroku 4-6? Pachinko-adventure games based on Steambot Chronicles engine, though they have no gameplay per se they're quite enjoyable in the adventure and comedy aspects. In 5 there's a sidequest where you help people build a trotmobile which you can then drive like a car(there's also the ship from R-Type lol)
