The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PS1, 1999)
Graphics-9 Sound-7.5 Control-7 Challenge-7.5/5.5*/9** Story-6.5
Level Design-7/6.5# Frustration-7/6*/9.5** Fun-7/6.5*/6.5# Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7
*Gustaff levels when fully upgraded
**Attack and speed training on the highest levels
#Mission 3
+
Play as the two pirate leaders from MML1
Tactical and Action Adventure/ARPG elements (gain two new tools which let you explore further into two areas by letting you break through certain walls, can send servbots to scout ahead between missions (up to 3 and later on 4 - Brains is important here as well as for item appraisal and in puzzle missions), can develop new items and weapons+upgrades for the Gustaff robot (defense, energy, e-tanks; these are attached automatically) at your base - costs money but is instantly finished, can talk to each of the 40 servbots at the base for tips and general comments, each servbot has 3 stats which can be upgraded and each one has different max stats as well as a special skill (Pokémon-like; if a bot doesn't have one from the get go its special skill is unlocked by raising stats or giving it a certain item), you're accompanied by six CPU allies (servbots) of your choosing during missions and can manually order them to check buildings and caves for goodies or to distract/attack an enemy for a bit (the latter tends to temporarily knock them out, hold R2 to aim and then shoot out a beacon that they'll follow) - they can't be killed, short briefings before missions)
Pretty nice cutscenes (great camera work and pretty good animation, skippable (can also speed up dialogue on a per paragraph/sentence basis during most cutscenes (cancels the VA for that line) - dialogue here is sometimes on a short timer however so you then have to read fast)),
Can pick up and throw boulders as well as smaller enemy vehicles (including police cars)
Great art direction overall (some cel shading or a proto-version of it on character faces?, animated dialogue portraits and sometimes full models), some large and detailed models
Can appraise and sell items in the Storage room of your base
Can change the color of the Gustaff robot/mech in the Meeting room
Can replay mission 4 (ruins treasure hunt, enemies respawn in-between visits but not while in it) - can retreat from anywhere in a mission area but you won't keep the items collected (have to manually retreat to the ship in mission 4 except for the run in which you beat its boss)
Can sort servbots by stats/number/location (however you have to redo the action after going out of the list menu and back)
Same auto-fire as in MML (shoots in short bursts which can be upgraded to be longer)
Some good block puzzles (TD view docks missions, tile-based movement but can also jump on top of boxes, limited moves per round (3 per mission) in these)
Three different robots (Gustaff - mech, Finkel - flying search robot for digging (FP view, can't shoot (only perform a basic melee attack which also opens barrels) but can draw attention to itself with a sound), Gustaff Tank for carrying cargo (can't attack)) - can't choose which to use for any mission
Some good bosses (final boss unless fully upgraded (two phases, move around on top of it in the first one), have to lure the first one in the digging missions into traps and for the second you have to take out the leader of a squad of smaller robots to take out the otherwise invincible squad)
The Gustaff robot's ranged weapons' effectiveness is upgradeable and tied to which servbot is chosen as "sniper" for a mission here (attack=attack power, speed=rate of fire, brains=tracking ability for the search cannon/# of shots fired per burst for the gatling cannon/max range for the bazooka, can't upgrade # of shots and range for all three weapons; can pick a sniper as your favorite bot to increase its stats)
Pretty good variety overall (rob town buildings while fighting off the police, explore for treasure, escort bots as they kidnap farm animals and then protect the truck in the farm mission, block puzzle levels - second variant lets you order a bot with a forklift around, a few mini-games; the variation between missions is better than between levels within missions though)
Some destructible buildings and other objects during robbery missions
Most NPC dialogue updates now and then throughout the game and there's generally something new happening between every third mission or so
Nameable servbots
Some decent voice acting (mostly average and occasionally so-so)
Good map system for the puzzle missions
Optional vibration
Some hidden items (fewer than in MML though)
Skippable staff roll and ending
+/-
Partially non-linear mission-based structure (choose between 4 at a time on a map screen after the intro level (6 after gathering 1 million zenny/gold) - each mission is actually a pack of 3 different levels besides mission 4 which instead can be repeated over and over but stays the same, your home base is a hub menu rather than an in-game area here - you'll unlock 5 more rooms for it over the course of the game based on amount of missions cleared and if you have 1 million gold or not, can go to the final level/rescue mission without having beaten all of the missions (I had two mission levels left to do when I unlocked it))
The mini-games to increase servbots' attack stat and speed stat are decent at first but getting the highest level (4) for a bot is very hard - luckily you can also use the Cube items which can be found by scouting (in mission 4/Nakkai Ruins you can also find 1 Attack Cube and 3 Brain Cubes) and for speed training you can actually pause in-between orders to give yourself a breather
Still can't move while locking onto an enemy (can't do it if you picked auto-aiming before beginning either; TR1-2/OoT/Soul Reaver) - lock-on works well except vs fast flying enemies where it would've needed to aim ahead of the target
Save at your base between missions (five slots (shows number of missions cleared and time spent)
Early missions are very short overall
Can't choose which vehicle to use for a mission
Sloth stat for bots (represents how lazy they are and increases for bots who don't go on a mission for too long - a lvl 4 sloth stat means the bot won't go on any more missons, to return the stat from 4 to 1 you'll have to torture the bot which is done via a short trapping mini-game - the margin for error is pretty small here but you can retry over and over, can reduce the stat with Energy Cubes)
HP restoration points in the mission 3 ruins
The first HP restorative item isn't worth the money
Cutesy/light-hearted tone
Somewhat slow transitions between rooms in the base (5-7 seconds)
Mega man isn't in the game besides as a cameo on a TV screen in mission 1 (game takes place before MML1)
Can only send 3 bots to a digging mission/mission 3
Mini-maps only for the ruins missions (shows the layout of an area (don't have to fill it in here)+doors and your location but not chests or cracked walls and you can't tell if you've been down a path or not in missions 3-4, very zoomed in besides in the block puzzle missions, can't put markers on the map; no mini-map during robbery missions or farm missions but their level design is straightforward with several invisible walls) - can find full maps online
Some servbot special skills are useless for progression but add some personality and minor bonus content to the game (some don't have a special skill)
No melee kick attack and no sub weapons/special weapons for the Gustaff robot here - you only have three main ones to choose from here but they can at least be upgraded via the sniper bot, no charge shot and no wall jump (MM/MMX)
Unlockable casino mini-game (pick a fav bot and then rest in Tron's room) - luck-based
The attack stat on your sniper bot makes a huge difference (a lvl 1 attack bazooka is weaker than the first weapon with the default sniper when starting the game)
The servbots look like lego figures
Can only train 8 bots' attack and speed stats at first - unlock the rest after Teisel's room is built/beating one of mission 5-6
Frequently respawning enemies during some levels and boss fights
Can stand on some interactive objects to avoid melee attacks
Can't play as Bon Bonne or Teisel after they're rescued
Seems you can't shoot faster manually by taking a step forward between shots here (MML1)
Some alternate ruins and/or robbery locations or a hard mode would've been good (some could be harder but still available fairly early thus offering a risk/reward mechanic in more places besides mission 4)
No towns here but there's a decent amount of NPCs to interact with in mission 3 and of course the servbots in your base
You never get to control the airship/home base directly (could've been interesting for the finale)
No in-game epilogue here
Enemies don't drop HP (money for e-tanks is only a minor issue early on though and you can carry several of each type)
The game outright explains how to beat some bosses instead of giving you clues while not explaining some others at all
-
Slower movement for the Gustaff robot and you can't upgrade it (there are 4 different healing potions/e-tanks so one of them could've been a speed booster) - there's also no strafe jump dodge move nor any jet skates here
The attack and speed training mini-games on their highest levels (level 4; part luck-based, weird hit detection on the bombs at times - can be grabbing one as a previous one rolls into the same lane or be throwing one as you get the bazooka and it still explodes in your face, if you move left and then right too quickly the robot trips for a couple of seconds - wtf!, the music used for both is also annoying as hell, in the speed one you get temporarily stunned just from pressing one button of a two button combo before the other one and you can lose even if you got the last order right like a 10th of a second before the timer runs out)
Various control/interface issues (dialogue during missions halts gameplay here (a step back from the dynamic radio communication in MML), can't give items to bots via the list in rooms outside of the scouting screen nor sort the list when viewing it here, still can't look around/aim while moving (besides circle strafing) nor move backwards while shooting - this+slow movement+some cramped areas leads to some unavoidable hits?, can't cancel going for a mission once you've selected it and entered the briefing menu, can't order your bots to go to a target while you're shooting and the game is a bit picky about aiming when picking up keys or opening chests (the system would've worked better in some situations if you could just assign the group or each bot a certain behavior to follow at all times and use manual orders as an override to that similar to gambits in FF12 - alternatively an asymmetric co-op mode could've worked), minor delay after landing from a jump with the Gustaff mech or ordering the bots to do something, still can't switch targets while locking on (the game quickly auto-switches after one is destroyed though, can stop locking on and move closer to what you want to aim at - can't do this if auto-aiming was picked before starting a game), no dual analog stick support (left only - movement), rotating the camera also turns your avatar - a bit slow as well but during Gustaff missions you can use the lock-on to turn quickly and both the Gustaff and Finkel robots can use back+circle to turn quickly as well, only partial control config (turn with l1/r1 and strafe on the d-pad or vice versa, can change it in emulation though), some menu dialogue at the home base can't be sped up - pressing the button skips the line instead, have to go to the storage screen in the home base to get descriptions on items - can't get them on the development screen, bots don't automatically go and pick money dropped by enemies unless you're very close to the gems and they have a high Brains stat (drops disappear after just a few seconds and they're rather small as well with tight hit detection) - no vacuum arm special weapon unlike in MML so lvl 4 brains should've had more of an effect or they could just not disappear so quickly, stats are represented by bars rather than numbers in the menus but referred to with a number when one of its stats changes, can't simply pick "repeat previous setup" for scouting)
Some trial & error (the ancient pistol location - you're never expected to look upwards to find anything in the rest of the dungeon and you'll miss it entering the room due to the limited draw distance, mission 4 boss - need to send bots into its main body when the monkeys aren't jumping and can't lock onto the hovering mines it shoots out, your police rival takes very little damage from the gatling gun during the the second robbery mission (have to grab and throw objects), brains is increased by how much a servbot steals/plunders during a mission and not how long it is or going on a mission in itself (besides mission 2 (block puzzle) where they can also gain it) - 5 steals=level up, when scouting it's apparently better to go as far from the center as possible (the edge tiles, except for when going for Cubes which are generally found at the Casino?) and it's also time dependent for the cubes - 5 min+ spent during a mission=Attack/7-10 min+=Energy/15 min+=Speed)
Some backtracking (out of the mission 4 ruins)
Some tedious parts (the digging missions for the most part: frequent dialogue with overexplaining of mechanics and exploration puzzles - there's also ~2 seconds of delay after each text box here, long trial & error quiz in the middle of the second one, one way door traps, boring regular fights (needed more strategy in how to use the bots or movement variety for the Finkel)
Have to answer a yes/no prompt every time you use a key to open a chest
Digging with the drill (levels 2+ of this mission) is kinda slow
Most traps are easy to deal with since the bots can't die and there's some dead space; training the bots takes too long - should've either automated lower level training once you've shown that you can beat those or paired up the bots in teams here so that you could train 5-10 at once)
No separate sfx/music/voice control for audio
Can't switch your weapon during a mission (the lack of sub weapons and not being able to switch bots makes this a bit too rigid)
Some plot/scripting oddities (weird how you can raid Loath's farms when he's holding Tesiel hostage, giving an energy cube to #5 when he says he's feeling lazy doesn't have an effect on his dialogue)
No tangible reward for finding the elixir of youth in mission 3 (which is just root beer/sake - funny but also disappointing) - just a short scene where the uncle's spirit finds peace
Can't swim in action levels+pits have invisible walls around them+almost no other platforming challenges - makes level design less interesting here
Simple and short final level (a couple of enemies here won't even react if shot from far enough away)
Too many servbots and there's no need to level up more than a third or so
Can get pinned down as the Finkel robot (first boss)
Repeats some bosses (farm levels 2-3)
No unlockable difficulty options here
Notes:
-Sony Pocketstation compatible in the JP ver. only (which also has a hidden 41st bot unlocked via a save file from a magazine): http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/misadventures-of-tron-bonne-the/
-Servbots #5, #7, #11, #16, #21, #24, #26, and #29 don't have special skills
Level Design-7/6.5# Frustration-7/6*/9.5** Fun-7/6.5*/6.5# Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7
*Gustaff levels when fully upgraded
**Attack and speed training on the highest levels
#Mission 3
+
Play as the two pirate leaders from MML1
Tactical and Action Adventure/ARPG elements (gain two new tools which let you explore further into two areas by letting you break through certain walls, can send servbots to scout ahead between missions (up to 3 and later on 4 - Brains is important here as well as for item appraisal and in puzzle missions), can develop new items and weapons+upgrades for the Gustaff robot (defense, energy, e-tanks; these are attached automatically) at your base - costs money but is instantly finished, can talk to each of the 40 servbots at the base for tips and general comments, each servbot has 3 stats which can be upgraded and each one has different max stats as well as a special skill (Pokémon-like; if a bot doesn't have one from the get go its special skill is unlocked by raising stats or giving it a certain item), you're accompanied by six CPU allies (servbots) of your choosing during missions and can manually order them to check buildings and caves for goodies or to distract/attack an enemy for a bit (the latter tends to temporarily knock them out, hold R2 to aim and then shoot out a beacon that they'll follow) - they can't be killed, short briefings before missions)
Pretty nice cutscenes (great camera work and pretty good animation, skippable (can also speed up dialogue on a per paragraph/sentence basis during most cutscenes (cancels the VA for that line) - dialogue here is sometimes on a short timer however so you then have to read fast)),
Can pick up and throw boulders as well as smaller enemy vehicles (including police cars)
Great art direction overall (some cel shading or a proto-version of it on character faces?, animated dialogue portraits and sometimes full models), some large and detailed models
Can appraise and sell items in the Storage room of your base
Can change the color of the Gustaff robot/mech in the Meeting room
Can replay mission 4 (ruins treasure hunt, enemies respawn in-between visits but not while in it) - can retreat from anywhere in a mission area but you won't keep the items collected (have to manually retreat to the ship in mission 4 except for the run in which you beat its boss)
Can sort servbots by stats/number/location (however you have to redo the action after going out of the list menu and back)
Same auto-fire as in MML (shoots in short bursts which can be upgraded to be longer)
Some good block puzzles (TD view docks missions, tile-based movement but can also jump on top of boxes, limited moves per round (3 per mission) in these)
Three different robots (Gustaff - mech, Finkel - flying search robot for digging (FP view, can't shoot (only perform a basic melee attack which also opens barrels) but can draw attention to itself with a sound), Gustaff Tank for carrying cargo (can't attack)) - can't choose which to use for any mission
Some good bosses (final boss unless fully upgraded (two phases, move around on top of it in the first one), have to lure the first one in the digging missions into traps and for the second you have to take out the leader of a squad of smaller robots to take out the otherwise invincible squad)
The Gustaff robot's ranged weapons' effectiveness is upgradeable and tied to which servbot is chosen as "sniper" for a mission here (attack=attack power, speed=rate of fire, brains=tracking ability for the search cannon/# of shots fired per burst for the gatling cannon/max range for the bazooka, can't upgrade # of shots and range for all three weapons; can pick a sniper as your favorite bot to increase its stats)
Pretty good variety overall (rob town buildings while fighting off the police, explore for treasure, escort bots as they kidnap farm animals and then protect the truck in the farm mission, block puzzle levels - second variant lets you order a bot with a forklift around, a few mini-games; the variation between missions is better than between levels within missions though)
Some destructible buildings and other objects during robbery missions
Most NPC dialogue updates now and then throughout the game and there's generally something new happening between every third mission or so
Nameable servbots
Some decent voice acting (mostly average and occasionally so-so)
Good map system for the puzzle missions
Optional vibration
Some hidden items (fewer than in MML though)
Skippable staff roll and ending
+/-
Partially non-linear mission-based structure (choose between 4 at a time on a map screen after the intro level (6 after gathering 1 million zenny/gold) - each mission is actually a pack of 3 different levels besides mission 4 which instead can be repeated over and over but stays the same, your home base is a hub menu rather than an in-game area here - you'll unlock 5 more rooms for it over the course of the game based on amount of missions cleared and if you have 1 million gold or not, can go to the final level/rescue mission without having beaten all of the missions (I had two mission levels left to do when I unlocked it))
The mini-games to increase servbots' attack stat and speed stat are decent at first but getting the highest level (4) for a bot is very hard - luckily you can also use the Cube items which can be found by scouting (in mission 4/Nakkai Ruins you can also find 1 Attack Cube and 3 Brain Cubes) and for speed training you can actually pause in-between orders to give yourself a breather
Still can't move while locking onto an enemy (can't do it if you picked auto-aiming before beginning either; TR1-2/OoT/Soul Reaver) - lock-on works well except vs fast flying enemies where it would've needed to aim ahead of the target
Save at your base between missions (five slots (shows number of missions cleared and time spent)
Early missions are very short overall
Can't choose which vehicle to use for a mission
Sloth stat for bots (represents how lazy they are and increases for bots who don't go on a mission for too long - a lvl 4 sloth stat means the bot won't go on any more missons, to return the stat from 4 to 1 you'll have to torture the bot which is done via a short trapping mini-game - the margin for error is pretty small here but you can retry over and over, can reduce the stat with Energy Cubes)
HP restoration points in the mission 3 ruins
The first HP restorative item isn't worth the money
Cutesy/light-hearted tone
Somewhat slow transitions between rooms in the base (5-7 seconds)
Mega man isn't in the game besides as a cameo on a TV screen in mission 1 (game takes place before MML1)
Can only send 3 bots to a digging mission/mission 3
Mini-maps only for the ruins missions (shows the layout of an area (don't have to fill it in here)+doors and your location but not chests or cracked walls and you can't tell if you've been down a path or not in missions 3-4, very zoomed in besides in the block puzzle missions, can't put markers on the map; no mini-map during robbery missions or farm missions but their level design is straightforward with several invisible walls) - can find full maps online
Some servbot special skills are useless for progression but add some personality and minor bonus content to the game (some don't have a special skill)
No melee kick attack and no sub weapons/special weapons for the Gustaff robot here - you only have three main ones to choose from here but they can at least be upgraded via the sniper bot, no charge shot and no wall jump (MM/MMX)
Unlockable casino mini-game (pick a fav bot and then rest in Tron's room) - luck-based
The attack stat on your sniper bot makes a huge difference (a lvl 1 attack bazooka is weaker than the first weapon with the default sniper when starting the game)
The servbots look like lego figures
Can only train 8 bots' attack and speed stats at first - unlock the rest after Teisel's room is built/beating one of mission 5-6
Frequently respawning enemies during some levels and boss fights
Can stand on some interactive objects to avoid melee attacks
Can't play as Bon Bonne or Teisel after they're rescued
Seems you can't shoot faster manually by taking a step forward between shots here (MML1)
Some alternate ruins and/or robbery locations or a hard mode would've been good (some could be harder but still available fairly early thus offering a risk/reward mechanic in more places besides mission 4)
No towns here but there's a decent amount of NPCs to interact with in mission 3 and of course the servbots in your base
You never get to control the airship/home base directly (could've been interesting for the finale)
No in-game epilogue here
Enemies don't drop HP (money for e-tanks is only a minor issue early on though and you can carry several of each type)
The game outright explains how to beat some bosses instead of giving you clues while not explaining some others at all
-
Slower movement for the Gustaff robot and you can't upgrade it (there are 4 different healing potions/e-tanks so one of them could've been a speed booster) - there's also no strafe jump dodge move nor any jet skates here
The attack and speed training mini-games on their highest levels (level 4; part luck-based, weird hit detection on the bombs at times - can be grabbing one as a previous one rolls into the same lane or be throwing one as you get the bazooka and it still explodes in your face, if you move left and then right too quickly the robot trips for a couple of seconds - wtf!, the music used for both is also annoying as hell, in the speed one you get temporarily stunned just from pressing one button of a two button combo before the other one and you can lose even if you got the last order right like a 10th of a second before the timer runs out)
Various control/interface issues (dialogue during missions halts gameplay here (a step back from the dynamic radio communication in MML), can't give items to bots via the list in rooms outside of the scouting screen nor sort the list when viewing it here, still can't look around/aim while moving (besides circle strafing) nor move backwards while shooting - this+slow movement+some cramped areas leads to some unavoidable hits?, can't cancel going for a mission once you've selected it and entered the briefing menu, can't order your bots to go to a target while you're shooting and the game is a bit picky about aiming when picking up keys or opening chests (the system would've worked better in some situations if you could just assign the group or each bot a certain behavior to follow at all times and use manual orders as an override to that similar to gambits in FF12 - alternatively an asymmetric co-op mode could've worked), minor delay after landing from a jump with the Gustaff mech or ordering the bots to do something, still can't switch targets while locking on (the game quickly auto-switches after one is destroyed though, can stop locking on and move closer to what you want to aim at - can't do this if auto-aiming was picked before starting a game), no dual analog stick support (left only - movement), rotating the camera also turns your avatar - a bit slow as well but during Gustaff missions you can use the lock-on to turn quickly and both the Gustaff and Finkel robots can use back+circle to turn quickly as well, only partial control config (turn with l1/r1 and strafe on the d-pad or vice versa, can change it in emulation though), some menu dialogue at the home base can't be sped up - pressing the button skips the line instead, have to go to the storage screen in the home base to get descriptions on items - can't get them on the development screen, bots don't automatically go and pick money dropped by enemies unless you're very close to the gems and they have a high Brains stat (drops disappear after just a few seconds and they're rather small as well with tight hit detection) - no vacuum arm special weapon unlike in MML so lvl 4 brains should've had more of an effect or they could just not disappear so quickly, stats are represented by bars rather than numbers in the menus but referred to with a number when one of its stats changes, can't simply pick "repeat previous setup" for scouting)
Some trial & error (the ancient pistol location - you're never expected to look upwards to find anything in the rest of the dungeon and you'll miss it entering the room due to the limited draw distance, mission 4 boss - need to send bots into its main body when the monkeys aren't jumping and can't lock onto the hovering mines it shoots out, your police rival takes very little damage from the gatling gun during the the second robbery mission (have to grab and throw objects), brains is increased by how much a servbot steals/plunders during a mission and not how long it is or going on a mission in itself (besides mission 2 (block puzzle) where they can also gain it) - 5 steals=level up, when scouting it's apparently better to go as far from the center as possible (the edge tiles, except for when going for Cubes which are generally found at the Casino?) and it's also time dependent for the cubes - 5 min+ spent during a mission=Attack/7-10 min+=Energy/15 min+=Speed)
Some backtracking (out of the mission 4 ruins)
Some tedious parts (the digging missions for the most part: frequent dialogue with overexplaining of mechanics and exploration puzzles - there's also ~2 seconds of delay after each text box here, long trial & error quiz in the middle of the second one, one way door traps, boring regular fights (needed more strategy in how to use the bots or movement variety for the Finkel)
Have to answer a yes/no prompt every time you use a key to open a chest
Digging with the drill (levels 2+ of this mission) is kinda slow
Most traps are easy to deal with since the bots can't die and there's some dead space; training the bots takes too long - should've either automated lower level training once you've shown that you can beat those or paired up the bots in teams here so that you could train 5-10 at once)
No separate sfx/music/voice control for audio
Can't switch your weapon during a mission (the lack of sub weapons and not being able to switch bots makes this a bit too rigid)
Some plot/scripting oddities (weird how you can raid Loath's farms when he's holding Tesiel hostage, giving an energy cube to #5 when he says he's feeling lazy doesn't have an effect on his dialogue)
No tangible reward for finding the elixir of youth in mission 3 (which is just root beer/sake - funny but also disappointing) - just a short scene where the uncle's spirit finds peace
Can't swim in action levels+pits have invisible walls around them+almost no other platforming challenges - makes level design less interesting here
Simple and short final level (a couple of enemies here won't even react if shot from far enough away)
Too many servbots and there's no need to level up more than a third or so
Can get pinned down as the Finkel robot (first boss)
Repeats some bosses (farm levels 2-3)
No unlockable difficulty options here
Notes:
-Sony Pocketstation compatible in the JP ver. only (which also has a hidden 41st bot unlocked via a save file from a magazine): http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/misadventures-of-tron-bonne-the/
-Servbots #5, #7, #11, #16, #21, #24, #26, and #29 don't have special skills