In the year 2118, humanity is driven to the brink of extinction by a race of alien invaders known as "Draktors", who have undertaken extreme terraformation of the Earth that sees a massive hole drilled through the planet, in which a new core took its place. With the human population reduced by 99.9%, the remaining survivors live in shelters with traumatic memories of the Draktors' invasion and the destruction of their planet repressed, save for a select few chosen by the united world government who continue to oppose the Draktors.
Enter Yamato Ichidaiji, a rather unhinged delinquent who struggles with harrowing memories of his entire family dying during the Draktor initial invasion. He is selected to be one of the pilots of the newly-developed "Megaton-Class" combat mechs known as Rogues, and is put in charge of controlling the Rogue "Musashi". Joining him in the fight to save Earth is level-headed Narcissist Teru Asami, pilot of "Sparkman"; Hot-Blooded fight-happy Ryugo Hijikata, pilot of "Gaudia"; peaceful and cat-loving Reiji Amemiya, pilot of "Arthur"; and feisty Tomboy Jun Kirishima, pilot of "Maximus".
Together, they are humanity's last hope for survival, a daunting task further complicated by Yamato's fateful meeting with Arshem Laia, a Draktor princess who strives for a peaceful co-existence between the two races...
Megaton Musashi is a multimedia franchise from Level-5, with the game was originally released on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, and Playstation 5 in Japan on November 11, 2021. A Free-to-Play sequel, Megaton Musashi Xnote , would be released on the same consoles in December 2022. An Updated Re-release, Megaton Musashi W: Wirednote , is slated for international release in April 25, 2023, along with a Steam release.
An accompanying anime series produced by OLM Incorporated which aired from October 2021 to November 2023, with a "Special Edition" re-airing of the anime's first cour being released on July 8, 2022 containing reanimated scenes and new story snippets cut from the initial release in line with the then-upcoming Megaton Musashi X. In 2024, in the lead-up to the release of Megaton Musashi W: Wired in the West, Crunchyroll announces the airing of the anime's first cour starting April 25, 2024
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You can watch the anime here (though the second cour is only available in Japan via VPN) or via Crunchyroll here.
Now has a character page under construction.
MISSION START!
- Action Girl: Jun, Momoka, Shizuka and Arshem, the latter took a while until she got her moment. Mirai joins in later on.
- After the End: The game takes place 3 years after the Draktors invaded and ravaged Earth.
- Apocalypse How:
- The story starts with a Class 3A. The Draktors have eliminated 99.9% of humanity and are modifying the Earth to suit their needs. The only reason this hasn't turned into a Class 6 is that they're searching for "The Boon of Evolution", which would allow them to live on Earth without the need for certain medications and they need humans to find it.
- The El Zeid themselves did a Class X on Xidol, the Draktor's home planet, in the backstory.
- A Mecha By Any Other Name: The mechas of the series are known as "Rogues", complete with its specific classes and types. Funny enough, it also abbreviated from "Robotic Offensive Gigantic Unit".
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: The game will flip around and have you control various other characters at certain points, usually when the narrative allows Yamato a breather. This became more evident later on as players (and the story in general) switch perspectives between Yamato and Arshem.
- Crossover: The games have crossover appearances from Mazinger Z and Getter Robo, with later updates for X and Wired also slated to include UFO Robo Grendizer, Combattler V, and Voltes V. Megaton Musashi X also features Inugami Korone and Jibanyan as an extra Mission Control voice.
- Darker and Edgier: More so than the other two franchises, even by Level-5 standards. Apart from the increased on-screen violence, the Draktors reducing humanity to a staggering 1% meant that the heroes were in danger of either being injured or killed on a daily basis, three of which have a near brush with death, and that's without including the ever-increasing body-count on both sides. And then there's the implied scene between Teru and Sayaka Minami in a bed, who harbors his child...
- Digging to China: A much more extreme version of the trope, as the Draktors have burrowed a hole through the Earth bigger than Australia. The only reason the planet hasn't been destroyed completely is due to said aliens replacing its core with an artificial one.
- Disney Death:
- Jun ended up on a received one from Grieffas' forces during an attack on Shelter Ixia trying to retrieve Arshem. While she survives the encounter thanks to Reiji, it isn't without some... complications.
- Yamato himself offers to take over Kojiro's place inside the overloading Yoshitsune in an effort to stop the Ame no Murakumo battleship, seemingly killing him, much to everyone's horror. Shockingly, Yamato miraculously survives through a timely intervention from the El Zeids.
- During the climatic Final Battle against Adam, Teru crashes the Musashi into Musashi Wired, freeing Mirai from the El Zeid's grasp seemingly at the cost of his life. Fortunately, he survived.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After so many lives were lost on both sides of the war at the hands of the El Zeids, Arshem's dream of uniting Earth and Xidol has finally came true, with the latter in the process of being rebuild back to its former glory with humanity's help.
- Fantastic Racism: A major aspect of the game's story:
- Most Draktors see no issue with humankind extinction, seeing the Terrans as vile brutes. This mindset was imposed by the Queen so that the Xidol survivors wouldn't be wrecked with guilt over slaughtering another inteligent species just to preserve themselves.
- Unsurprisingly, when Draktors that want peace appear, many humans are unwilling to hear them out, since coming to negotiate after slaughtering 99,9% of mankind comes off as a very poor joke. Yamato of all people has to call this out.
- Draktors themselves have a caste system - with normal-born noble Litols, and tank-bred Sheldol that serve as soldiers. The latter ones are treated as nothing more than Cannon Fodder, and are implanted with bombs to ensure their loyalty.
- The El Zeid are racist towards EVERYONE that are not El Zeid, humanity included.
- Government Conspiracy: The government of Shelter Ixia has suppressed the memories of all but a select few citizens to let them live without fear of the Earth's destruction. Said government was also aware of the Draktors and even the El Zeid way before they even made themselves known.
- Great Offscreen War: The ancient war between the El Zeid and Kamoux, which resulted in the former escaping to space, with the few that remained on Earth becoming humanity, and the latter being destroyed sans a few survivors who went on to resettle on Xidol.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Yamato and Reiji's usage of their Psycho-Rise powers is implied to be of alien origins, specifically one from the El Zeids.
- Played straight with Teru's daughter, Mirai Asami, who was conceived to have possessed both human and Xidol DNA.
- Human Aliens: The Draktors falls on this category. It was revealed later on that humanity as a whole was descended from one...
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: It's revealed early on that the entire populace of Shelter Ixia is under this so they can live normal lives without the worry of the aliens outside. It's not perfect, though, as Yamato's trauma-induced psychosis is what causes him to have a memory relapse that even Oblivion Bay's advanced memory manipulation tech couldn't keep up, as well as numerous instances of other characters hacking its systems to make them undetectable by its system.
- Theme Naming: Most of the Rogues Yamato and company pilots are named after famous historical figures and other thematic namesakes.
- Musashi: Miyamoto Musashi
- Arthur: King Arthur.
- Sparkman: Thomas Edison.
- Maximus: The pontifex maximus, chief high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome.
- Gaudia: The Spartan soldiers of ancient Greece.
- Fire Loader: Hotrods.
- Yoshitsune: Minamoto no Yoshitsune, the commander of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian and early Kamakura periods.
- This Is a Drill:
- The Drill Arm is a Knuckle-type melee weapon Rogues can equip.
- ''Hurricane Drill Magnum", a Kabuki Function that uses "Mass Expansion" tech to create an enormous jet-propelled drill that the player then slams into the ground and their foes.
- The Wall Around the World: Draktors erected a force field that divided Earth for their terraforming needs. It becomes a problem for Ixia's crew since it's their main obstacle to reaching Sanctuary.
- Wave-Motion Gun: There are several variations present, each one more crazy than the last.
- The most basic is the Diffusion Blaster, a Chest Blaster Super Special Move that can wipe an entire enemy force in one shot.
- The Absolute Zero Frost is a Kabuki Function-formed Freeze Ray that freezes everything in its path. Literally - every enemy, up including bosses, will be hit with a Freeze status on top of the damage from the blast itself.
- Shelter Ixia is also equipped with such a gun which becomes indispensable once Ixia becomes airborne.
- The Space Battleship Ame-no-Murakamo is equipped with a Dimensional Extinction Cannon that basically fires BLACK HOLES. As such, no one on the hero's side wants to actually fire it, since that would likely result in Earth going completely kaput, but to use it as a "bigger stick" in peace negotiations with Draktors. Even then, you would need bio-data from leaders of every shelter to even activate it. Which is why Dixenberg annihilated every shelter sans Ixia - to get those accesses and be the weapon's sole master.
- We ARE Struggling Together: A massive problem between the pilots its that, still being kids mentally, they are still prone to squabbles between each other. This is especially true with Yamato, Kojiro and Teru as well as Jun and Momoka.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 10, the first Marathon Mission really ramps up the story: Shelter Ixia is able to lift off and head off into their next destination safely, but not without significant losses. The Mayor of Akagicho is revealed to be the traitor undermining Oblivion Bay and, in the scuffle, Sayaka is mortally wounded, revealing her status as a Draktor. Sarzent is killed protecting Arshem from Grieffas and Arshem herself is unwittingly left behind during the scuffle between Yamato and Grieffas, much to Yamato's distress. Jun is temporarily killed after refusing to leave her Rogue and tank the hit meant for Reiji and it's revealed that humanity and Draktors are virtually identical on a genetic level. That, and Sayaka was pregnant with Teru's child and that the baby is still alive.
