If I could sum up Steambot Chronicles in one snappy sentence, I would say it’s like the Studio Ghibli film that never was. Just about every offbeat element in this game, from the eco-friendly steampunk themes to the travelling band of musicians, could be lifted from every one of Hayao Miyzaki’s movies. Usually, I tend to find games emulating films a bit of a moot point because of their immaturity to do so, but here the emulation feels so cohesive and yet so familiar that you almost think you’re playing a tie-in of an existing movie.



Steambot Chronicles AKA Bumpy Trot is bizarre concept from the off; you traverse the country in a walking robot-car-thing while earning a living with a travelling band. In between, you battle not-so evil pirates, help out the locals, stop a catastrophe befalling a city and find love with your singer/guitarist companion. It sounds sickeningly cute but if you scratch the saccharine surface, there’s something undeniably dark underneath. Much like Gregory Horror Show, there’s a schizophrenic feel to the game, which makes it more difficult to pin down the intended audience.

The story starts with Vanilla Beans and his friend earning their place on a ship called The Juniper Berry. Early on into their journey, they’re shipwrecked by an unknown trotmobile off the nearby shore. Everybody has abandoned ship and an amnesiac Vanilla is found by Coriander, a local aspiring musician. Using an old scrapheap of a trotmobile to get home to Nefroburg, Vanilla and Connie meet up with her band mates, Basil and Marjoram. The group encounter some local thugs called The Killer Elephants but manage to dispatch them ease. On the night of The Garland Globetrotters’ show in the Town Square, The Killer Elephants return for payback, but are once again defeated by Vanilla and The Globetrotters. Since he’s both gifted as a musician and a trotmobile driver, the band decide that Vanilla can join them as they travel across the country, playing gigs and meeting up with old friends. After this, it’s up to the player how the story evolves as Vanilla searches for his ship’s captain and the band become wrapped up in a sinister conspiracy involving the fate of Garland City.

As I mentioned before, the whole thing sounds like one of Studio Ghibli’s fantasy movies, say Porco Rosso or Laputa: Castle In The Sky. At the centre of the story, there’s a conventional travelling band, but at the same time their transportation isn’t conventional at all; much like Kiki and her broomstick in Kiki’s Delivery Service.

For all the weirdness of mecha-fortresses and trotmobiles, their presence is grounded in a 1920’s European world. People still use existing instruments (though the electric guitar hasn’t been invented yet), even use public transportation like cars and buses (flight hasn’t been achieved) and there’s things like the stock market, cinemas, mills, farming etc. It’s interesting to see how the advancement of one outlandish technology has stunted the growth of others. All in all, it’s a well realised world despite the fantasy elements.



The main draw is the trotmobile; a highly customisable, bi-pedal vehicle that can be used to fight and travel. A majority of the game is essentially you traversing from A to B and fighting random (re-spawning) antagonists along the way. How you fight is entirely up to you. You can customise the speed, the strength, the weapon range, etc. of your trotmobile; all reminiscent of Front Mission’s load outs. You can even change the colour and create your own license plate. Getting the balance right is a top priority too, since early on it’s really easy to die.

It doesn’t help that the control system isn’t something you can learn instantly. The analogue stick movements control both the upper and lower body and it’s easy to just flounder around for the first hour trying to walk up some cliff side. Somehow it all eventually clicks and you’ll learn your strengths and weaknesses. I eventually ended up with a rifle on one arm and an extendable smashing arm on another, with a medium chassis and legs to enable a quick getaway (complete with a Domo-kun licence plate and a tasteless green paint job). You don’t have to follow my template to the letter either; the customisation is tailored mostly to your needs and sometimes certain jobs. For example, a flatbed chassis and heavy legs for carrying lumber and rocks.



Of course, to pay for all this equipment you’ll need a job. You can find work anywhere; from taxiing fares and battle tournaments to working in a quarry and hustling pool. You can even make money from the aforementioned stock market. But Vanilla also comes armed with a secret workshy fop of a weapon...the harmonica. Yes, you can be every pedestrian’s worst nightmare and busk on the street. Eventually, you’ll get more money to pay for new instruments, which you can use in your band or on the street corners. Each song is performed as a rhythm game, with each instrument played in a specific way to their real life counterparts. As an obvious example, the guitar and bass are strummed using brushes of the analogue sticks. The better you are at getting the notes, the bigger tips you’ll get.

The whole musical aspect is the one that stands out the most in Steambot Chronicles. You don’t have to do it, but you’ll find yourself wanting to play a gig (which is just two chosen songs anyway) most of the time because it’s actually quite fun and the songs are memorable ballads. You do eventually feel some connection with your band through playing shows, which is necessary concept since the plot hinges on their actions towards the end. I tell you, I wish I had been in bands that were as fun as The Garland Globetrotters, maybe then I wouldn’t be some guy who turned up to acoustic benefit gigs with an electric guitar and an amp turned up to 11.



The love story (if you decide on it) between Vanilla and Connie is a decent immersive element and a well written crutch for the skeletal framework. It’s not saccharine by any means; Connie and Vanilla are old enough to know how relationships work (another part of the game’s visual deceptiveness). None of that ‘Oh, it’s love at first sight and everything is great’ nonsense. It’s clear that they ‘do it’ very early on (especially since the translators made a Hot Coffee in-joke about it) and the story let’s you decide the rest.

As you’ve probably noticed, I mention customisation a lot. It permeates throughout the game, right down to the trivial options. Vanilla himself is a character with a blank slate. Don’t like the anime hair? Get an afro at the barbers. Don’t like his clothes? Collect some new outfits. You can act like the nicest guy in the world or you can be a complete git; it doesn’t matter since it’s tailored to your style (much like Irem’s underrated classics - SOS: The Final Escape and Raw Danger). Eventually, Vanilla remembers who he is at one point and I can’t spoil it for you. No really I can’t, because you decide on who he was before the story started.

Do you want him to be a poor kid who was just looking for more in life?

Go ahead.

Want him to be the spoilt rich son of the local baker?

Sure, why not.

While this kind of customisation takes the impact away from what you were objectively seeking, it’s also brave enough to give you that kind of freedom at a moment when you can’t decide on it. Usually, you’re given a vague back story to give some sense of your avatar/protagonist and yet your in-game actions can become completely removed from the template. Of course, there’s a skeletal framework concerning how Steambot Chronicles ultimately plays out, but the amount of free reign here should really be commended.

That kind of freedom is what I love about this game. Even though, action-wise, it’s restrictive to large scale linear areas, the personal level is an open playground. You can take everything at your own pace and there’s so much extra content to explore. The side quests are well written even when they’re basic fetch quests. They make you care for these characters if you go out of your way to talk to them. There’s a memorable side quest where a mill owner wants to install new technology and replace the workers. I felt completely fine with the plan since the increase in production would make my mill shares go up and I could buy an extendable boxing glove weapon. Of course, I didn’t really think the workers would be fired, just relocated to minor positions. In the end, they lost their jobs and each other (since they acted like a family) and I felt horrible for what I done. They all found work on separate farms, but I felt regret despite my actions only resulting in a technological advancement. I could have also said ‘No, keep the workers despite lower income’, but I wanted that stupid robot arm.

A lot of Steambot Chronicles sub-textual narrative is geared toward the discussion of trading traditionalism with modernisation and I found it interesting that none of the arguments involved were unevenly written; which is amazing considering how many characters talk or hint about this theme.


(Not the best fight scene you'll ever see since the guy gets trapped under the boss for ages! But it's really hard to find good footage on You Tube...)

That moment of regret also serves to remind me of Steambot Chronicles’ dark side. As the story progresses, things take turns for the worse and the happy-go-lucky attitude is replaced by a melancholy tone. It’s very much like Hayao Miyazaki’s style in the way the threat of war or hidden personal tragedies seep through the narrative. An inevitable progression as the world advances quickly, so to speak. The (heroic story) penultimate battle is pure Miyazaki too; you finally take flight in a trotmobile with wings and attack a giant zeppelin bomber. It’s amazing stuff from a game that keeps twisting your expectations while emulating visuals that are cinematically familiar.

Though after that climatic thrill, the tone is decidedly downbeat. Like the minor actions of the sub plots, there are definitive consequences beyond your control. Giving you free reign (or at least enough to believe it towards the end) with those actions also makes the consequences more personal. In the end, I opened up a free play scenario, but I only used it to find Corriander and visit the graves of certain characters. It felt right to end it there and not continue any longer. There aren’t many games that give you a chance to experience the aftermath after the rightfully triumphant ending.

Steambot Chronicles does have its flaws like any game. The re-spawning enemies can be a nuisance rather than a threatening obstacle, especially when you’re on an elongated fetch quest. The game world might be too small for someone expecting constantly streaming expanses. There’s a lot of backtracking and the some of the quests can get a bit obscure (like the famous painter one). Constant loading times can be a pain, along with the odd frame rate drop when the game tries to handle the larger bosses or draw distances. Also, the main quest is decidedly short if you plan to ignore most of the optional extras. But honestly, there’s so much right with this game that you can overlook the flaws and take in the atmospheric minor details. That might be a weak excuse but it’s honestly the truth.

It’s obvious by the way I’ve talked about this game that I’m a massive fan. Another vaguely obscure but original game that didn’t get the kind of push it needed. For once, 505 Games didn’t ruin things too much either when they bought up the European distribution rights, unlike Michigan and Raw Danger. Usually, games like this just disappear without a trace, but it seems like Atlus are keen to keep this franchise alive by publishing the stop gap material like Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament until Irem finally completes Steambot Chronicles 2. Hopefully, the sequel will sort out the original flaws and more people discover the expansive freedom given in such an underrated franchise. In which case:

We hope you enjoy...STEAMBOT CHRONICLES!

(bad in-joke)