UFO ROBOT GRENDIZER – The Feast of the Wolves Review

I don’t think anyone could hold it against you if you admitted to never having heard of the 70s anime UFO Robot Grendizer (or Force Five: Grandizer as it was known in America). Although it became very popular in countries such as France and Italy, it never became a cultural phenomenon like other series of this era — such as Mobile Suit Gundam — but still has somewhat of a cult following to this day. Rather surprisingly, outside of a few cameo appearances in the Super Robot Wars series, UFO ROBOT GRENDIZER – The Feast of the Wolves is the first videogame based on the franchise, despite it being almost 50 years old!

With developer Endroad and publisher Microids in charge of the debut videogame adaptation, will this semi-open-world, combat-oriented action adventure manage to encapsulate that nostalgic 70s charm, whilst also providing an entertaining gameplay loop? Let’s find out!

Without any preamble or introductions, The Feast of the Wolves immediately kicks off with the planet of Fleed under attack by the ruthless Vega Empire, who plan to strip the planet of all its resources. With little hope to repel the invasion, our hero — Duke Fleed — awakens the mighty Grendizer, a colossal machine that can turn the tide of the attack. That’s a lot going on within the first 30 seconds of starting the game!

There’s no time for world-building or character development, as the rest of the game moves at this breakneck pace, with more context as to why the Vega are attacking and other, rather important, plot points provided by characters speaking to Duke Fleed during gameplay. I don’t know what a Vegatron Farm is, but that’s what the Vega Empire wants to turn planet Fleed into, which I guess is about as much context as I need to smash some bad guys? The opening portion of the game concludes with Duke Fleed making a hasty retreat from the planet before the game flashes forward two years to Earth, where the Duke has found respite from the Vega Empire, at least for now…

Honestly, despite not knowing what was going on half the time (why is Duke Fleed now called Daisuke, and why does he suddenly have a new dad that’s from Earth?) it was just the right amount of cheesy anime nostalgia that I couldn’t help crack a smile every now and then.

Although The Feast of the Wolves isn’t the sharpest-looking title out there, it does a great job of bringing the anime to life in full 3D. The robot and ship designs of the 70s are lovingly recreated, and the environments, whilst being fairly generic, are colourful and rather vast. It’s got that “retro-future” aesthetic that I personally adore, with giant space stations that are nothing more than floating cylinders, or robots that are almost cute, despite them trying to kill you.

The music played during exploration and combat is exactly what I’d expect from a game based on an older anime. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that some tunes are from the show itself. Voice acting, on the other hand, falls rather flat. Although most characters sound unenthusiastic and almost bored, Duke Fleed/Daisuke is on another level. Either this guy has zero emotional capacity, or he just doesn’t care about his homeworld being attacked and his family murdered. I went and watched a few episodes of the show, and despite only watching the subtitled original (Japanese voices are unfortunately absent in the game) the difference in range is astounding, and I wish the developer had stuck to Japanese dialogue.

There are, unfortunately, some technical issues, with screen tearing and frequent environmental pop-ins occurring constantly. The camera during combat can go a bit haywire as well, leaving you frantically scrambling to reset it before an enemy gets a cheap hit in. Other small niggles, such as buildings and other objects you’d expect to be able to destroy — considering you’re a skyscraper-sized robot — have no collision boxes surrounding them, meaning you’ll just phase through them like the world’s largest robo-ghost.

The Feast of the Wolves gameplay is pretty basic and, just like the rest of what the game encompasses, feels like a throwback. I’m not talking Space Invaders or other '70s videogames, but this title would fit right in during the PlayStation 2 era of gaming. I should stress, though, that this isn’t a bad thing; not every game needs to have combat with more depth than Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and it’s quite a fun time to just disengaged your brain and mindlessly punch some giant mechs into oblivion.

It’s not a completely basic combat system, though, and you’ll often need to use different attacks in a specific pattern in order to break down enemy defences and deplete their health bars. With a fair few attacks in Grendizer’s arsenal and certain enemies being weak to particular attacks, it doesn’t grow stale too quickly, especially when you add in the other aspects of the game.

These other aspects make The Feast of the Wolves more than just a simple beat ‘em up, as outside of combat scenarios, you’re free to roam the semi-open world and discover collectibles and items that will make Grendizer stronger. Each area has its own separate map, so it isn’t a true open world in that regard, and although there isn’t an abundance of things to see and do, sometimes just roaming around this bright sci-fi world hunting for upgrades does the job. 

Then there are the shoot ‘em up sections, in which you’ll either control Grendizer (who jumps inside a UFO and uses it as a sort of floating tortoise shell, which is cool, I think?) in on-rails dogfights. These are basic sections that at the very least mix the gameplay up slightly, although it feels very minimalistic, with only a few simple attacks and very little challenge. The other vehicle you’ll control is the TFO (Terrestrial Flying Object) in a vertically scrolling shooter. Again, there isn’t much to say here other than another relatively fun, if simple, mode to break up the ground action.

If you’re after a simplistic game that’s been lovingly crafted with its source material in mind, then you could do a lot worse than UFO ROBOT GRENDIZER – The Feast of the Wolves. Fans of the franchise will certainly get a kick out of being able to control Grendizer in its debut title and will surely be able to understand the threadbare plot that attempts to mimic the anime. Those who haven’t seen the show or read the manga may still find a fun throwback title that harkens back to the PlayStation 2 days, just with a nicer coat of paint. Good luck trying to make sense of the story though, although with how it's presented, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of you end up zoning out during the cutscenes and occasional dialogue.