Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy

Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy
Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy (マクロス30 銀河を繋ぐ歌声, Makurosu 30: Ginga Wo Tsunagu Utagoe)
Production
Developer	Artdink
Publisher	BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
Release
Japanese	February 28, 2013 — ongoing
Platform	PlayStation 3

Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy (マクロス30 銀河を繋ぐ歌声, Makurosu 30: Ginga O Tsunagu Utagoe), also known as Voices Across The Galaxy, is an Action Role Playing Game for the PlayStation 3 and was developed by Artdink and published by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment. The game is part of the "Macross 30th Anniversary Project" of the Macross franchise, featuring characters and variable fighters from nearly every series in the official Macross Timeline. The game was released on February 28, 2013.

Synopsis

The game is set in A.D. 2060, fifty years after the Space War I conflict seen in the first Super Dimension Fortress Macross television series and one year after the Vajra War depicted in the Macross Frontier television series.

Above the planet Ouroboros in the far reaches of the galaxy, Strategic Military Services (S.M.S.) Sephira Branch pilot Leon Sakaki is suddenly attacked by an unknown enemy and shot down in his YF-25 Prophecy. There, he is rescued by the heroine Aisha Blanchette, the young Zentradi head of S.M.S.'s branch on Ouroboros.

Due to the intermittent space-fold faults known as "Ouroboros Aurora," Leon cannot immediately return home. He decides to join Aisha in investigating the planet's ruins, and while on an underground survey, the two discover a sleeping girl named Mina Forte. Unknown to them, their fates will be crossed with the ones throughout space and time.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Macross 30 inherits the same gameplay seen in previous Macross games. The game has two types of controls: the Type A modeled after the controls in such games as Macross Trial Frontier and Macross Last Frontier, and the Type B that allows the player to manually move the weapons lock-on cursor for pinpoint accuracy. The game's Easy setting (the lowest of the three difficulty levels) has an auto combat feature; when a novice toggles the feature on during the game, an AI will take over the controls and automatically fight the battle.

Being an action RPG, the main character allows to have interactivity with other characters and also make decisions.

Quest

• A scripted event accompanied by the progress of the story is called a "Quest". A "Main Quest" is a mission that follows the mainline plot which is preceded by a cut scene or certain dialogue scenes.
• The player, Leon Sakaki, maneuvers their Valkyrie and flies around various locations such as "Desert", "Archid Islands" and "Glaciers" on the planet Ouroboros, to search for points of interests, quests and battles. Returning to main ship after a battle ends the on-going quest. You can accumulate allies by accomplishing quests.
• Additionally, various items can be obtained by participating in a "Sub Quest" which is ordered by the "Hunter Guild" found in various town and the variable fighter air race known as "Vanquish Race".
• Players can select the difficulty level from normal, easy and hard, but if you select easy, you can use the "Auto Battle Mode" that will automatically fight by pressing the "select" button.
  • When an enemy plane appears, it shifts to battle mode seamlessly. If you defeat the enemy, you will get TP (used for Tuning Points / allow for modification of the player's VF) and EXP (experience points / characters will level up when accumulated). You may also be able to recover items such as aircraft parts and ammunition.

Setting

• The S.M.S. Hanger allows players to select a variable fighter, support characters, as well as tune the aircraft using the TP (Tuning Points). TP can also be purchased with G (in-game currency).

Shop

• You can purchase various items such as repair kits, ammunition boxes, and airframe variable fighter designs at shops in the city. Unnecessary items can be sold.

Aircraft Development

• The S.M.S. Ouroboros Branch's Aisha Blanchette can develop new aircraft for the player to pilot. The development new variable fighters require the collection of items such as design drawings, armor parts, frame parts and engine parts dropped by defeated bandits. The parts will have varying qualities ranging from "salvaged" to "junk" which will determine the necessary volume to meet the design requirement.

Gallery Mode

• This game contains a "Macross Encyclopedia" where players can access the game's movies, player stats, listen to the soundtrack, and a glossary. A special program "Macross · Super Space-Time Seminar", which is composed of the game's staff interviews, is also included for players to view.

Characters

Macross 30

Sephira Branch

• Leon Sakaki
• Mia Sakaki

Ouroboros Branch

• Aisha Blanchette

Diva

• Mina Forte

New United Nations Spacy

• Rod Baltmer
• Ushio Todo

Hunter Guild

• Mei Leeron

Uroburos Bandits

• Guinness Mordler

Macross Zero

• Shin Kudō
• Mao Nome
• Sara Nome
• D.D.Ivanov
• Nora Polyansky

Super Dimension Fortress Macross

• Hikaru Ichijyo
• Misa Hayase
• Lynn Minmay
• Quamzin Kravshera

Macross Plus

• Isamu Alva Dyson
• Guld Goa Bowman
• Myung Fang Lone
• Sharon Apple

Macross 7

• Basara Nekki
• Mylene Flare Jenius
• Maximilian Jenius
• Milia Fallyna Jenius
• Gamlin Kizaki

Macross Frontier

• Alto Saotome
• Sheryl Nome
• Ranka Lee
• Ozma Lee
• Mikhail Blanc
• Luca Angelloni
• Klan Klang
• Brera Sterne
• Jeffery Wilder

Original Mecha

• YF-25 Prophecy (Leon Machine)
  • Green color scheme.
• VF-11C Thunderbolt (Mina Machine)
  • Blue color scheme. It is tuned to be easy to handle even for beginners, such as Mina Forte.
• VF-19E Excalibur (Aisha Machine)
  • Pink color scheme. It's head includes one head laser machine gun.
• VF-27γ Lucifer (Leeron Machine)
  • White and Purple color scheme.
• YF-29 Durandal (Isamu Machine)
  • Cream like the original YF-19, with red and black line accents. The head is similar to the YF-19, but there is only one laser gun.
• YF-29 Durandal (Ozma Machine)
  • Black color scheme. There are four head laser guns.
• YF-29B Perceval (Rod Machine)
  • Home specification YF-29 Durandal. It has a black color scheme.
• VF-171EX Nightmare Plus EX (Guinness Machine)
  • Green color scheme.
• VF-1S Valkyrie (30th)
  • It's the original color scheme, included as the Galaxy Box's bonus Valkyrie. Also included in the design are Lynn Minmay and Mylene Flare Jenius.
• VF-25 (30th)
  • An unique coloring scheme included as the Super Galaxy box bonus. Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee are in the design.
• YF-29 (30th)
  • The original Durandal color scheme bonus inclusion. Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee are in the design.
• YF-30 Chronos
  • The game's one original new Valkyrie design.
• Northampton-class (Gefion)
  • Aisha Blanchette's home ship base that doubles as the building and employee dormitory of the S.M.S. Ouroboros Branch office. This original ship design is a medium-sized cargo ship developed by Rising Star Industrie in A.D. 2030. Aisha also discovers a small Protoculture factory, which contains OverTechnology and allows the maintenance of weapons and development of new technology.
• SDFN-8 General Vrlitwhai Kridanik
  • The eighth first-generation Macross-class ship that colonized the planet Ouroboros. As of A.D. 2060, it has settled in the archipelago area known as Vrlitwhai City, the capital of the planet Ouroboros.
• Fold Evil
  • The only "Evil" series that has not been enshrined by the Protodeviln that was sealed on the planet Ouroboros.

Gallery

The game's elaborate limited edition included several commemorative art books, line art posters and more.

The cast of the game, with Leon Sakaki, Mina Forte and Aisha Blanchette taking center stage. The YF-30 Chronos can be seen in the background.

The story creates scenarios where various characters throughout the series meet each other, thanks to the "Ouroboros Aurora" phenomenon. Here we see Sheryl Nome meeting her grandmother.

Sheryl legitimately shocked at seeing her young Mayan grandmother.

As Mina gains fame on Ouroboros, she becomes a legitimate pop star.

D.D.Ivanov, Nora Polyansky and Shin Kudō inside Havamarl Headquarters.

Leon taking the helm of the SDFN-8 flagship.

As the game commemorates the 30th anniversary of the series, many idols and divas return, such as Lynn Minmay, Mylene Flare Jenius, Myung Fang Lone and many others.

Basara Nekki enters the finale and helps push the heroes to victory.

Basara and his powerful Song Energy, whom the players can utilize during gameplay.

Much of the game's promotion centered around Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee, fresh from the massive success of their television series and films.

Sheryl and Ranka encouraging Mina Forte to be the new star.

The February 28, 2013 release banner of the game.

The novelization of the game's storyline, which is based on the original story outline of the series and contains unique elements not found in the game.

「マクロス30～銀河を繋ぐ歌声～」 本予告ＰＶアニメ篇

Macross 30 OP-1

The game's opening, featuring a song by Haruka Chisuga.

Macross 30 OP 4K

The 4K ready video of the opening.

Reception

The was well received by numerous publications, with Famitsu critic Fujiwara praising the game for its original scenario and gorgeous rendering of its returning all star Macross cast. Famitsu critic Yoshida said the game is a must-buy for longtime fans of the series, and the act of collecting Valkyrie parts strewn across the map is "relaxing", highlighting the game's "Easy" mode which contains an auto combat function for casual players. Famitsu critic Urara also praise the game's animation and story, but dinged the game for having some difficulty with the flight control mechanics.

Kotaku similarly praised the game's "flight action RPG" and sandbox elements, saying it gave players a lot of freedom to find their own fun despite some shortcomings in the game's main plot. The game however suffers from uneven difficulty and exploitable AI, where stronger enemy flagships and units can easily be sniped from afar. The game also has a relatively low maximum flight ceiling, which prevents players from flying high enough to get a wider view of the game's larger areas.

Mecha Damashii criticized the game's developer Artdink, who is primarily a PSP developer, thereby not fully taking advantage of the Playstation 3 hardware, thereby leading to lengthy load times between stages and areas. He also pointed out how the game had half as many playable units compared to Macross Triangle Frontier, and that not every character is playable unless the player completes the game once. Overall, he thinks the game is worth a pick-up for its attention to detail, but players should be wary of its technical and visual shortcomings.

Theme Song

• Opening theme "Planet Cradle"
  • Lyrics and Composition - kz (livetune) / Arrangement - kz, Yu Manabe / Song- Haruka Chisuga
• Ending theme "Wandering"
  • Lyrics, composition, arrangement - kz (livetune) / Song - Haruka Chisuga

Super Space-Time Seminar!!

"Macross 30 Business Trip Version / Macross Super Space-Time Seminar!!" is a business trip edition of the web animation " Macross Super Space-Time Seminar!!" that was first published on the game's official site. The entire series is currently being on Youtube, and is narrated by Professor Sheryl Nome ( voiced by Aya Endo).

• What is Macross 30?
• The 2nd Galaxy Macross History
• 3rd Galaxy Macross History
• 4th Galaxy Macross History
• Change of the 5th Valkyrie
• 6th This is Macross 30!
• Let's enjoy the 7th Macross 30!
• 8th Macross 30 finally released!

Related Products

Novel

• Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy Novelization
• Writted by Frontier writer Ukyō Kodachi, who was also in charge of the game scenario.
  • Characters and mechanical units that do not appear in the game make an appearance in this novel.
  • Released by ASCII Media Works on March 30, 2013. Based on the initial draft of the game scenario, many original elements unique to the novel can be seen here, as well as a slightly different structure to the story. Like other Macross-related media, both the game and the novel are considered to be based on historical facts that occurred in the "Macross universe".
  • Published by Dengeki Hobby Magazine.

• Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy Visual Complete Guide
  • A visual guide book published by Enterbrain. Not only includes game information and settings data but also has visuals of the playable variable fighters. Published on April 18, 2013.

CD

• Planet Cradle / Wonder Ring
  • Haruka Chisuga's debut single CD containing the opening and ending theme of the game.
  • Released on February 27, 2013 by FlyingDog (VTCL-35147).

External links

• Macross 30 Official Site
• Macross 30: Ginga o Tsunagu Utagoe - GameFAQs