Vulcan is a 2003 mecha game developed by FASA Studio and published by Microsoft for the Nintendo X. It is the first original IP made by FASA Studio after spending most of their early career working on games set within the BattleTech universe. Gameplay-wise, the game takes two different forms in terms of combat; from a first-person perspective, there is more emphasis placed on shooting and using projectiles, thus taking inspiration from Halo. From a third-person perspective however, the gameplay more closely resembles Dynasty Warriors or Devil May Cry, utilizing melee weapons and allowing for the player to use hack and slash-like combat to swath through hordes of enemies.
The game has a science fantasy setting, being set on a fictional world named Karne, for which the game is titled after. Humans have been living in colonies located inside of mountains for thousands for years, after the surface of Karne was devastated by the Atom Wars, a conflict that resulted in weapons of mass destruction rendering the surface of Karne uninhabitable, and the only way to travel on the surface of Karne is to use Rooks, which are mechas designed for exploration and combat. There are four continents on this world, named Suveria, Solitan, Naturos, and Leganir, with the game taking place on and near the continent of Suveria. The story of the game revolves around Silas, a teenager living inside the mountains of Suveria. He pilots a Rook called the Vulcan, and is part of the Zeta Unit, which is part of the larger S.E.D.C. group (the Suverian Exploration and Defense Corps). The Zeta Unit specifically is the teenager division, where new recruits under the age of eighteen can sign up for service and begin careers in S.E.D.C. years earlier than others.
The story begins with Silas piloting the Vulcan in the ruins of an old city on the coast of Suveria, where the Zeta Unit is taking their final exam before becoming part of the Sigma Unit. However, they are attacked by a group of monsters called Nightcrawlers, winged spider-like creatures who had been thought to have gone extinct years before. The Vulcan is damaged as it flees the Nightcrawlers’ attack, and crash lands in the ocean. However, when Silas regains consciousness, he finds himself on an island named Perolis, which is populated by humans who seemingly aren’t affected by Karne’s toxic atmosphere. Silas tries to exit the Vulcan, but he still remains affected by the atmosphere of Karne. He meets and befriends the Parolian chief, Riyos, as well as his daughter, Akai, and learns that the island has also been attacked by the Nightcrawlers. While the Vulcan is too damaged to travel back to Suveria, it is strong enough to help assist the Perolians in fighting the Nightcrawlers, and Silas agrees to help defend Perolis with the Vulcan.
After defending Perolis from several Nightcrawler attacks, it is discovered that the Nightcrawlers have human bodies inside of them, positioned in a way that makes them look as if they’re piloting the Nightcrawlers. Silas also bonds with Akai during this time, despite the fact that he cannot leave the Vulcan. He opens up to her about his past and through it, it’s revealed that the Suverians are a genetically-bred species by way of cloning, as natural reproduction became unfeasible after the Atom Wars, so for generations, the Suverians have been grown inside laboratories from conception to birth. When a Suverian ship arrives at the island looking for him, Silas impulsively deactivates the Vulcan and prevents the Suverians from detecting it, choosing instead to stay on the island, feeling that he belongs there more. It’s revealed through the Suverians’ interactions with Riyos that Silas wasn’t the first Suverian to have ended up on the island, as Dr. Geimer, the head scientist of the Suverians and the overseer of the genetic breeding of the Suverians, had found the island years before. Silas is suspicious of this, but doesn’t reveal himself to the Suverians.
One night, Perolis is attacked by another wave of Nightcrawlers. However, these Nightcrawlers demonstrate human-level intellect and speech, and are far more strategic and cunning than the previous waves. They end up taking everyone prisoner and overpower the Vulcan, bringing them to the city in which the game started. It’s revealed then that the Nightcrawlers had been working with Dr. Geimer, and that the Perolians originally started out as an experiment by the Suverians to create naturally-breeding humans who were also immune to the atmosphere of Karne. However, they rebelled against the Suverians and disappeared centuries before, until Dr. Geimer found the island five years prior to the events of the story. Because of this, Dr. Geimer began using the cloning technology of the Suverians to resurrect the Nightcrawlers, whom he hoped to use to wipe out the Perolians and wipe out any chance of a threat that they posed; the newest wave of Nightcrawlers have human-level intelligence because they were bred from humans, possessing the same amount of intellect and allowing them to think and talk like humans.
The S.E.D.C. appears just as Geimer is about to destroy the Vulcan and kill Silas, and a battle breaks out between them and the Nightcrawlers. Silas fights alongside S.E.D.C. and instructs the Zeta Unit to safely transport the Perolians to the Suverian colony, while Dr. Geimer uses the chaos to try and escape. Silas follows Geimer, and eventually confronts him in a one-on-one fight, where Geimer injects himself with an experimental serum and transforms into a mutated human-Nightcrawler hybrid, and after a long battle with Silas, falls to him and the Vulcan. After this, Silas returns to the Suverian colony and reunites with Akai, who sees him in-person for the first time. The Suverian scientists develop a vaccine with the blood of the Perolians that provides the Suverians with immunity to the effects of Karne’s atmosphere, and Silas returns to Perolis with Akai and Riyos, taking the Vulcan with him and beginning a relationship with Akai. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to anyone else, a group of human scientists on a space station above the surface of Karne instruct the surviving Nightcrawlers to attack and conquer the other continents before returning to Suveria, and mention that now with Dr. Geimer dead, no other human knows about them anymore, revealing that they have been influencing events on Karne in secret for decades.
Vulcan is released on October 3rd, 2003. It receives favorable reviews, citing the combat, the gameplay and feel of controlling the mechas, the setting, and the plot twists as highlights of the game, while the game’s short length receives more mixed reviews. It sells a million units by the end of the year, and would go on to sell two million units in lifetime sales, establishing it as a strong new IP for Microsoft, and causing them to put more focus on FASA Studio as a result, not only immediately greenlighting a sequel to the game, but also raising Microsoft's interest in games within genres outside of first-person shooters like Halo and Battlefield, with them beginning to greenlight more projects outside of the niche that they established themselves in.
Xenogears - Episode II shown off by Sony and Namco at Tokyo Game Show; Sony announces reacquisition of Tenchu license
“While Microsoft’s Vulcan arrives on store shelves, Sony has not taken their challenge of a mecha game lying down, showcasing Xenogears - Episode II at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. Developed by Namco’s Monolith Soft, a studio composed of former Squaresoft employees, Episode II is set to be released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2, and is a distant prequel to the original PlayStation game from 1998. Additionally, Sony announced that they have reacquired the rights to the Tenchu series from Activision, which most people are likely pointing towards being because of Tecmo releasing Ninja Gaiden as an exclusive for the Nintendo X in 2004. While what we’ve seen of Ninja Gaiden looks stunning so far, we’d be very curious to see how Sony returns the punch with a new Tenchu game, and how much influence it’ll take from other action games, such as Devil May Cry.”