You might recognize the name D3 Publisher, who was responsible for a slew of licensed games and a number of well-regarded visual novel titles outside of Japan. However, if you were big into importing titles, you know of the company through its Simple line of games for the original PlayStation and the PS2. They were low-budget titles that stood out due to the good gameplay and very ridiculous ideas. The bikini-clad vampire hunters of the Onechanbara series and the singing troops of Earth Defense Force come to mind as memorable bits of some cult classics from the publisher. Full Metal Schoolgirl is the latest title from the Bandai Namco subsidiary, and while it isn't perfect, it follows just enough of the publisher's established gameplay formula and narrative setups to potentially become another cult classic.

It's an alternate version of the year 2089. The country of Japan is now known as the United Federation of Japan, and it has become an industrial and economic powerhouse. The largest and most powerful of these corporations is Meternal Jobz, whose success is attributed to the conversion of its workers into cyborgs that can work nonstop in the name of profit. One night, Ryoko Arahabaki and Akemi Minamiazabu, also known as the Machine Girls, infiltrate the company to kill the CEO Kyohei Fukoku. The company killed their father, so they're seeking revenge; additionally, they're trying to stop the inhumane practice of changing humans into nonstop cyborgs.

The premise will be familiar if you've played Hi-Fi Rush or Going Under. Doing a parody of office culture never gets old, especially since office culture is nearly universal and hasn't improved. Although the game takes place in Japan, the things it makes fun of aren't necessarily culture-specific. The transformation of middle management into cyborgs with animal-like appendages, energy drinks meant to rob you of sleep, and seeing people push around a wheel to keep things running are just a few of the relatable jokes.

However, there are two jokes that can be divisive. The first has to do with the fact that you're livestreaming your assault. This means getting comments coming in at a constant clip on one side of the screen. Most of the comments are fine, despite the fact that they tend to repeat over time, but the chat window scrolls by so quickly that you can't see everything unless you're used to reading a Twitch chat window of popular streamers. The second joke involves upgrades; you find yourself strapped to an operating table with chains while one of Meternal Jobz's defected scientists (Professor Hakase) works on you. Considering the looks you get from the scientist and your character's reaction to this, it plays out as a parody of lecherous scenes in some anime. Whether you're fine with that is up to you, but it is worth noting, even if you don't see anything M-rated.

When it comes to the gameplay, what you'll see initially makes you think that Full Metal Schoolgirl is a hack-and-slash action game with shooting elements. You start off with a sword, but you can change it to something else, like an ax or chainsaw. You also start with a rifle, but that can also be swapped out with a grenade launcher, shotgun, or Gatling gun. You also have a drone that can shoot at enemies when commanded, but you'll only be able to change their abilities on the field, and you have to wait for a cooldown timer to expire before using it again.

While the game has a hack-and-slash nature, you can't button-mash your way through it. Taking a page from the likes of Dark Souls and its contemporaries, the game has a stamina bar every time you swing your sword or try to dodge, and you can completely deplete it if you aren't careful. The bar fills up at a decent speed, but fully depleting it means you have to wait for it to completely fill up before you can dodge or perform a melee attack again. There's a tonal mismatch between the need to manage stamina in a game that tries to channel a Dynasty Warriors spirit, especially since the rooms are filled with enemies that do their best to get hit while being very slow with their attacks. The game's shooting mechanics does its best to compensate, though. Your guns still need to be reloaded, but you have infinite ammo. The reload speed isn't very long, but shooting also doesn't drain your stamina meter. The system forces you to change your attacks between melee hits and shooting to ensure that you're always on the offensive. The whole thing works once you come to an understanding of how the game wants you to play.

The moment you experience your first death, you'll realize that the game is also a roguelike. Dying means that you lose all of your power-ups, but you can keep your cash and at least half of the ingredients you picked up to level up your stats and try for another run. While the first floor of the building always remains the same, the levels will always change their layouts from level two onward, but the boss appearances and stages will always remain static. Going into every room and defeating foes ensures that you'll always get new items to choose from. While going through 100 floors can be daunting, defeating bosses will always give you keys to bypass those boss rooms on the next run; the keys are one-time use items, though.

The combination of the combat system in a roguelike setting works quite well. Part of the reason is because the fights never feel too drawn out. The brawls in office rooms against loads of faceless cyborgs go at a good pace, and the same can be said for the more difficult boss fights. Most of your deaths are caused by not paying attention, and the constant rewards given for clearing out each room keeps the fighting feeling fresh. This is especially true when taking into account the bonus challenges, especially since you can choose whether to make them more difficult for a bigger payout. The presence of traps is never tricky, and it complements your character's basic platforming abilities rather well. It feels good to play, and the most impressive part of the game is the fact that it never feels like a slog to go through. That's a good hallmark for a long roguelike.

The roguelike nature immediately gives Full Metal Schoolgirl some replayability due to the randomized nature of each run and the inability to enter a seed, so you can play the same level configuration multiple times. With that said, there are two other things that the game does to ensure replayability. The first is the ability to play as the other Machine Girl. You're locked to your choice of protagonist when you start the game, and while the abilities of each Machine Girl are identical, the dialogue and interactions with Professor Hakase are different enough that those interested in the game's world would want to go through the adventure again just to hear them. The second is the presence of Endless mode once you beat the game the first time. The mode is exactly what it sounds like; you go through stage after stage until you're defeated, but it works fine if you already like the game's combat system.

The negatives concerning Full Metal Schoolgirl are few but worth mentioning. The game has no lock-on feature, which becomes an issue when you're facing bosses; you don't really need it when going against hordes of enemies. The forced failure states are annoying for your initial two runs, as the things you're taught (e.g., upgrades and the use of elevator keys) could've been taught at any other time. Having the reload function be assigned to the D-pad on a controller by default is also awkward, but at least this can be changed in the options. Otherwise, there's nothing that can ruin the overall game experience.

Graphically, the game is fairly good. The anime aesthetic looks nice, even if we've seen this pop up several times before. The more impressive part lies with the fact that the game can handle so many things happening on-screen without any hiccups. You can have cyborgs being smashed alongside collapsing desks and reams of paperwork, and the game remains locked at a steady frame rate. There's no texture pop-up, and objects at a distance don't appear out of nowhere, resulting in a game that has no discernable flaws in this department.

On the audio side, Full Metal Schoolgirl is also fine but less impressive. The sound effects are fine, and while the music also works well as an accompaniment for the action, the game only has a handful of songs for the whole adventure. No matter how good it sounds, you'll quickly learn to ignore the music due to the lack of song changes. As for the voices, the Japanese track is perfect, while the English track is mostly OK. However, due to the many quips from enemies that aren't translated, and the fact that the subtitles for most of the dialogue during missions is displayed on the upper left of the screen instead of the bottom center, you may want to use the English track if you didn't want to miss the humor.

If you plan on playing the game on the Steam Deck, the game works — with some caveats. The game hits 1280x720, so it's not quite the full screen resolution. The game saves settings across devices, so you will want to change them if you're bouncing between machines. With everything at their highest level, the game hits the high 40fps mark, but it can dip a little below 30fps if there's lots of on-screen activity. The good news is that the game doesn't feel sluggish when this happens, so you'll only notice if you have MangoHUD enabled while playing. Meanwhile, the game has a little over 90 minutes of playtime on a full charge on the LCD version of the device, so lowering settings might help a bit to extend the life for at least a few more minutes. For those on a Linux desktop, the game will work provided that you're using the latest version of Proton-GE or Proton Experimental — at the time of this writing.

Full Metal Schoolgirl is both ridiculous and addictive. The hack-and-slash and shooting gameplay isn't hindered by the inclusion of a stamina meter, and the constant slew of upgrades keeps the roguelike gameplay feeling fresh even after going through 100+ levels. The presentation has occasional hiccups, as does some parts of the gameplay, but there's nothing that actively takes away from a fun experience. Don't expect anything groundbreaking, but those looking for action in a cheesy setting won't be disappointed by Full Metal Schoolgirl.

Score: 7.5/10