Robot Warlords is a one or two player, turn based, strategy game featuring battling robots in real Tokyo settings. The background story of Robot Warlords is one of political unrest and intrigue. The Japanese army is attempting a military takeover, groups of them have declared martial law and are riding around in robots called Bullets to enforce it. The government doesn't want to launch an all out counter attack because that would result in massive civilian casualties. Instead they turn to Professor Matsuzakai who developed the Bullet machines and a handful of people at the Odaiba Bullet repair site. With major Kazuma Saeki in charge Operation Velvet is launched, with only four operational experimental machines at their disposal they must stop the rebellion in seven days otherwise an all out attack will be launched against the rebel forces in Tokyo with corresponding catastrophic loss of life and massive damage. The game starts with a long conversation between the chief cabinet secretary, the head of the army and the Japanese Prime minister, which sets the scene and introduces all the characters. When this is over, the player starts on their first mission. Prior to a mission each of the Bullets can be customised, including naming and changing the colour of each machine, assigning weapons to each arm and shoulder, and upgrading body parts. The player also has a number of TP or Technique points which they can use to install battle manoeuvres such as the 'Preparation For Combat' technique which costs three TP and decreases the enemy weapon hit ratio by -20 and the player's hit ratio by -10. Only six techniques can be installed at a time.
The game consists of eleven missions spread over a seven day period and each mission is turn based. In each turn, the player selects whether they wish to move a Bullet in normal mode, just a few adjacent cells, or turbo mode in which they can travel further. While moving, they may optionally employ one of the deployed combat techniques. Once the player has set their Bullet's destination, they may choose whether or not to attack their opponents, in an attack multiple opponents can be selected.
When firing through obstacles such as cars the hit ratio is halved, if the line of fire passes through two cars it is halved again and nothing gets through three cars. There are also special cells known as obstruction squares which halve the hit rate of any firing line that passes through them.
When the player has completed the game in Story mode, the game changes to Life mode where the manual states, "A new stage is formed for every mission, so it is necessary to come up with differing strategies each time." In Life mode, the player receives prize money for completed missions which they can use to trade for parts and weapons, trading is only available in Life mode. There is also a two player 'Vs' mode in which two team battle it out, this requires two controllers and is also turn based.
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