Over at Anime News Network a story has broken that the final chapter in Ryosuke Takahashi’s VOTOMS series, entitled Gen-ei Hen (or Phantom Arc) will begin airing next spring. It’s worth clarifying the simply massive impact this saga has had on gaming. Despite its own list of tie-in games (of which we reviewed the most recent), titles like Heavy Gear and Front Mission simply wouldn’t exist without the base ruleset that was used for the armored troopers in VOTOMS. The fact that this will be the final instalment in the narrative also qualifies as being a bit of a big deal, as the last part of the timeline we saw was in Heretic Saint back in 1994 (the recent Pailsen Files was actually set before the events in the original TV series). With any luck Yuke’s will be called back to do a new game to tie-in with this.
Oh, lord–my heart skipped a few beats when I read the title. Votoms is exactly the kind of thing you don’t expect to see these days, and not only did we just recently get a 12 episode prequel, but now we’re getting a conclusion, too.
I’d be worried if Palisen Files wasn’t so completely awesome–in the current market of crazy mecha and cute girls, Palisen Files was about gritty machines and didn’t have a single female character for a fanbase to fixate upon.
The only way I could be more excited is if we heard from everyone’s favorite green-cloaked, mullet-headed giant robot killer Mellowlink again, but what little I know of what happens in Heretic Saint (still waiting for an English translation) means it probably can’t happen, plotwise.
VOTOMS just keeps on ticking. Truly, an abnormal survivor.