Shooting giant monsters has never been more fun!
E.X. Troopers is a Third-Person Shooter released by CAPCOM in November 2012 for Nintendo 3DS and Playstation 3. It is a spinoff of Lost Planet intended to bring an entirely different stylistic approach to the franchise.Players take the role of Hot-Blooded NEVEC Academy recruit Bren Turner as he arrives on EDN III which is partway through terraforming as shown in the main series proper. There, he will fight side by side with a Cast of Snowflakes, do battle in Vital Suit robots and generally try to have a spot of fun.
The game is renowned for two things: a marked departure from the games it was spun off of, both in terms of style and gameplay, and for being a crazy case of No Export for You by being the best Third-Person Shooter on the 3DS, utilizing the underused Circle Pad Pro attachment and not being released outside of Japan mainly due to "the amount of effort required to translate the cutscenes equal to remaking them from scratch
".
Both the PS3 and 3DS versions of the game received unofficial fan translations on November 22, 2022, just in time for the game's 10th anniversary.
The game provides examples of:
- Ace Custom: Julie's VS, Honeybunny, may be pink and with hearts stenciled on, but it is also exceptionally destructive.
- Ace Pilot: Consequently, Julie herself has quite a reputation as a pilot to be feared.
- Acrofatic: Despite varying body types, all human allies and enemies are equally mobile in combat, rendering Gota and Bell as this.
- Aerith and Bob: Julie, Chris, Max, Gota, Yamato, Luan and Bell all sound like sensible human names. Bren, Surge and Blatt? Not so much.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Improving relationships with squadmates lets you Double Unlock new outfits for them.
- Animesque: A bizarre Japanese example, with the main games looking distinctly Western and this Spin-Off deliberately going for a Cel Shaded anime-like appearance.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Yes, the Fire Gatling looks cooler than the Ice Gatling and does more base damage. It also can't hit the broad side of a barn at point blank range.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Max, the workout fanatic. His events mostly have Bren spotting him while he does a thousand situps or something equally outrageous.
- Boring, but Practical: Your starting SMG is sufficient to complete the entire game without much difficulty. Pair it with the shotgun and you're pretty much set against practically every threat - but will it look cool?
- Boss Subtitles: Used to introduce every boss, naturally, but also every story-relevant character (so Surge and Yuna don't get these, for example).
- Catchphrase: Everyone has one, but the one you'll hear the most is Bren's "Ichibanboshi!", "first and brightest star".
- Another frequent one is Diana, with her "Boy!" or "Boys!" (and "Girl!" too, of course). She calls Walter "Old Boy" several times.
- Cel Shading: Using both techniques - models are rendered with procedurally-painted outlines that change as a character's position changes in relation to the camera - but also many characters' textures already have cross-hatching shading and other artistic flourishes baked into their textures.
- Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: Diana sheds her teacher outfit in favour of a combat suit in this manner when NEVEC Academy troops storm Advance Base.
- Cold Sniper: Chris. He gets better.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Each base has its own colour theme, both in the environments and the uniforms of the students and instructors: blue for Advance Base, green for Frontier Base and red for Tech Base. Thus, Bren's orange really stands out.
- All human enemies are colour-coded by their elemental attacks.
- Cross Promotion: You can enter numerical codes at WIZ terminals for extra outfits and guns you cannot get through normal gameplay. Originally, these were distributed via websites and magazines, but these days you're okay with just a trip to GameFAQs.
- Defrosting Ice Queen:
- Surge first appears to be a prim and strict person. It's a facade, she's somewhat dorky on the inside.
- Chris warms up to Bren bit-by-bit as he sees him in action more.
- Double Unlock: To get a new gun, you have to progress through the story or complete a sidequest to get the schematics first, THEN you can buy it at the store. To get a new outfit for someone, you have to improve your relationship with them, THEN you can buy it in the store.
- Energy Weapon: Diana's weapon of choice is an energy whip.
- The Faceless: Every named Snow Pirate, as none of them ever remove their hoods. Regan also spends most of his screentime without taking his helmet off.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: The elements in the Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors triangle of the game.
- Formerly Fat: Bell can get thin by the end of the game.
- Framing Device: Luan narrates the major important story points as well as the chapter transition cutscenes.
- Gatling Good: Snow Pirates deploy multiple versions of a Mighty Glacier gunner enemy with a minigun in his hands. On your side, Max uses one, and Bren can get his hands on two of these - the Awesome, but Impractical Fire Gatling and its somewhat weaker but way more accurate sibling, the Ice Gatling.
- Generation Xerox: Bren is pretty much a Palette Swap of his dad.
- Genki Girl: Julie and Tsubaki represent two kinds of these, with Julie as the VS enthusiast and Tsubaki as the battle one.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Once you secure her affections, you can opt for Surge to take her glasses off, but beware - she swaps in a Luminescent Blush!
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Regan is not introduced in battle, so his badassitude is demonstrated by the large scar on his face.
- Gratuitous English: All over the place, although Diana's "Boys!" (and variations thereof) is the most noticeable.
- Many mission titles are in transliterated English (e.g. "Back To Basics" in Chapter 4). Additionally, each chapter has a dual title - an English exclamation and a Japanese subtitle.
- Gratuitous French: Chris sometimes indulges in Poirot Speak.
- Gun Nut: Yamato, to the point where he gets his guns confiscated by Walter for shooting indoors.
- Hero of Another Story: What Walter does after his dramatic scene when he departs in his VS for Advance Base at the end of Chapter 3 and before his return is... What, exactly?
- Hot-Blooded: Bren is a Kamina-scale case, infecting those around him with it.
- Humongous Mecha: Bren pilots the Gingira mecha when he needs more firepower.
- Instant Fan Club: Bren develops one after winning the VS tournament.
- Blatt has his own cheerleaders. That follow him around the base to cheer and dance around him. They do not take his attention to Teekee very well.
- Lag Cancel: Normally, Bren staggers for a bit when exiting a rocket dash. However, time the primary fire button right, and he will do a stun shot (complete with a Super Move Portrait Attack animation) that lets him do other things sooner.
- Living Macguffin: Teekee, due to her ability to communicate with Akrid. Make no mistake though, she's not a friend to them.
- Luminescent Blush: Rendered as a floaty layered effect in front of the blusher's face, giving the luminescence volume on the 3DS. Julie is a frequent offender whenever she gushes over Gingira.
- If you switch Surge to her The Glasses Gotta Go form, she gets a permanent one.
- Machine Empathy: Despite appearing well-adjusted, Julie has more fun with, and understands Vital Suits much better than humans. The contrast is sometimes Played for Laughs.
- To top it off, she's the only one who calls Gingira "Gingira-chan".
- Mondegreen Gag: Bren mishears, and then stubbornly pronounces "Sublimatum" as "Supreme Atom".
- My Country, Right or Wrong: For a host of reasons including Bren's affiliation, his Rival Chris does not participate in the student rebellion in Chapter 4.
- The Nicknamer: Bren. Thus, Luan is "Sempai-kun" ("Teach"), Teekee is "Kirakira-chan" ("Sparkles"), Diana is "Bikabika-san" ("Thunderstrike") and so on.
- Julie counters by only calling Bren "Ichibanboshi-kun", after his Catchphrase.
- No Cutscene Inventory Inertia: Since half the cutscenes are pre-rendered, they and most of the in-engine ones always show Bren in his default orange jacket and using his starting SMG.
- Organ Drops: Defeated enemies may drop pieces of stuff that you can either sell or use for weapon upgrades. These range from pieces of Akrid gunk to nuggets of metal to literal cogs from robotic enemies.
- Pink Means Feminine: The idea behind the paint job of Honeybunny, Julie's Ace Custom VS.
- Power-Up Food: Anything Bren eats or drinks at the cafe will improve his stats for the next mission - but only one bonus can be active at a time!
- Real Men Wear Pink: Bren's hair is bubblegum pink. Aside from Max, he's the manliest named student at the Academy.
- Relationship Values: Every squadmate's opinion of Bren is shown as a smiley face. Moving from :| to :) lets you choose outfits for them and allows a Double Unlock of their gym clothes or civvies (depending on which is their "default" outfit, the other is available from the get-go). Going to "heart eyes" lets you Double Unlock a swimming suit outfit.
- Shop Fodder: Though you can sell any of the Organ Drops, the only one intended to ONLY be sold is gold, and that you'll usually find in Random Drops around the bases.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: At least Yamato is convinced they are.
- Super Move Portrait Attack: Saved up enough T-ENG? Bren can do an EX-T attack, complete with a loud shouting of its name and a cut-in of his face doing the shouting. He also does it when you Lag Cancel.
- Super Prototype: The experimental AI-enabled VS Walter and Bren use to survive the prologue, which then bonds to Bren and is christened "Gingira" by him.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: All attacks have an element. Your primary weapons are "untyped", and have no bonuses applied, but your secondary weapons can have one of the Fire, Ice, Lightning elements. Ice beats fire, fire beats electricity, electricity beats ice. Foes and allies alike are resistant or outright immune to their own element, while Bren starts out with zero resistances which can be upgraded.
- Unexpected Shmup Level: The final Gingira level of Chapter 3 is literally Space Harrier with some extra Bullet Hell thrown in.
- Verbal Tic: Practically half of what Bren says is onomatopoeia.
- A good third of Kreis's dialogue is "Kekkou, kekkou", "Splendid, splendid". Variation in tone, however, manages to make it range from endearing to outright menacing.
