By: Alexander Holmes

One of the outliers in the mecha-genre are the use of exo-suits in place of full sized robots.

Though some exo-suit IP exist outside the trend, such as the Fallout RPG series, the 1993 cartoon Exo Squad, 2019's anime Obsolete, BioWare's multiplayer shooter Anthem, or the soulslike action game series The Surge, there is no arguing that the prevalence of exo-suits developed out of the Moe-Boom. The 90s, early 2000s trend in anime of cute, wide-eyed women taking the place of the hyper-masculine and brutal art styles of the 1980s. Though originally an intentional choice to help characters express greater emotional range and invoke feelings of protectiveness in the audience, the pejoratively called Moe-Blob artstyle was so successful that it became ubiquitous among anime as a whole. And gradients of moe-influence can be seen in nearly every anime released today.

One development of the Moe-Boom was also the creation of cute shows, starring castes of primarily women characters, but marketed specifically toward men, and the men audience's attraction and affection towards these characters. aka, Wiafus.

Waifu culture is a genre category unto its own, but also one that we see find significant overlap with the mecha genre. So as to not lose out on the marketability of Waifus, exosuits are a staple of mecha IP that enable the persistent visibility of character designs: Strike Witches, Infinite Stratos, Hundred, the defunct mmo Scarlet Blade, Nier Automata, and an infinite spectrum of degrees between this and older mecha genres that would get this video demonetized by the prudes over at youtube HQ faster than an Ace Combat Fighter Jet can have dramatic character development over the radio.

Your average mecha fan isn't going to include exo-suits into the genre, for this reason and others, and even I'm not going to fight for it that hard, but our game today definitely is one of these.

Wing of Darkness is a 2021 dogfighting flight shooter wherein only a small set of unique women are the only ones with the power necessary to fight off the evil beings called Blankets. These specialized units are called Fraulein, piloting exosuits called the Held System. There is a particular throughline in the nomenclature and aesthetics taken from German culture and military. 

The early arch of the story is primarily about establishing Team Abendflugel, and the relationship between newcomer Klara Ernst and Erika Loerzer.

Much like Assault Gunner HD, there is a clear limitation in the development budget. To overcome this, nearly all cutscenes are still images of the 3D character models in scenes with aggressive lighting. And honestly, it does a lot for improving the overall feeling of quality with the game's narrative presentation compared to the bare minimum text-scrawls of Assault Gunner HD. Despite having functionally identical mission structures. I believe the different tone of Wing of Darkness also contributes to this. Rather than a plot-driven, action-first story nearly devoid of character, Wing of Darkness starts out as a mild, idyllic Slice of Life story. Military Operations are treated as a dark intrusion upon an otherwise peaceful lifestyle of writing letters, breaking bread, and throwing birthday parties.

Gameplay comes down to a fairly simple movement and resource kit. Combat involves using the right trigger for your main weapon, the right bumper for your shoulder-mounted auxiliary weapon (typically some form of homing missile), and a button to change your main weapon to your secondary weapon. A rechargeable shield protects the players health and allows them to continue fighting. While idling, players will move forward at an easy pace, but directional inputs or holding the left trigger will cause players to use the separate boost meter.

Boosting will allow you to avoid incoming attacks, and can be done in any direction along your personal X or Z axis. There are dedicated buttons for hovering up or down the Y axis, but this is very slow. You'll likely point yourself either up or down and dash forward while becoming accustomed to how your relative position doesn't really care about concepts like up or down anymore. The movement system will keep you right side up regardless, and is entirely seamless and intuitive. The pacing of these fights are, however, intense to say the least. 

Aiming at a unit will automatically cause you to lock onto a target. That lock on, however, just gives you access to a leading reticle for aiming your shots. The heads up display will give moment-to moment information to the player, such as “out of range” or “line of sight obstructed.” The player who refuses to read in the middle of a high-speed dogfight is going to have a much steeper learning curve than the one who does. 

In terms of pacing and feel, this is the polar opposite of the slow, clunky games I've played in this series that are trying to give the experience of playing as a sci-fi tank. To go as far as to think about how the boosting would give the Fraulein suits inertia, yet in a way that doesn't go completely out of control, must have required a lot of fine-tuning to make the game feel this responsive. 

As the story progressive, the idyllic and slow-paced cutscenes are left behind. Erika suffers a casualty, and the trauma of witnessing her friend nearly die takes a toll on Klara stability. The Held System places both a physical and mental strain on the body, and despite rapidly increasing mission competency, her mental stability is plummeting. But this is a world where even a paralyzed soldier is retained for clerical work, rather than being given an honorable discharge. So long as Klara can fight, they keep sending her out.

Deterioration of the body and mind. Loss of impulse control and prone to violent outbursts. Coming to understand that Feaulein units fighting on the side of Blankets aren't merely inhuman monsters. In its short runtime, Wing of Darkness ends up telling a story of the power of militaries to abuse financial insecurity and privileged information to place people in extreme danger without concern for common sense moral principles like honesty or informed consent. Though the characters do not experience a change in their value systems throughout the story, and the war doesn't end, it is telling that their personal happiness can only be achieved once they are too disabled to fight.

So tell me kiddo, now that you know about the Held System, you ready to get in the robot?