Ronin 47

YOU become Commander Oishi, a mech pilot in future Japan, fighting against the gigantic sea monsters (“kaiju”) which terrorize humanity. It’s Robotech versus Godzzilla! Battletech versus Megashark! Robot Jox versus Starro!

How awesome is that? Very!

So, you’re part of a group of monster hunters. But, after your tutorial mission there is an attack on Ako Base – not one kaiju, but scores of them, a veritable army and of mixed species, something never seen before. At the same time, a computer virus destroys every other mech, hideously killing the pilots, and the co-director of the facility escapes with a next-generation prototype mech.

So as you escape the slaughter at Ako Base, you’re the last mech pilot, on a quest for revenge against the person who brought Ako Base down.

Review and Opinion

The writing is superb, as it always is with Jonathan Green. He draws a picture with words, and makes it feel immersive. And speaking of pictures, the illos by Neil Googe are absolutely wonderful! The one on page 159 in particular, the anime-style tank straight out of Ghost in the Shell, machine gun blazing… wonderful!

The game system is advanced, too.There is melee combat with a katana and a blaster, as well as mech combat. And the mech combat is divided into long-range (rain of missiles! blazing lazers! pew pew pew!) and then melee (form blazing sword!). It’s like playing out an episode of Voltron. It’s awesome.

There is a section where you hunt through the remains of Tokyo, navigating over a grid-map at your mech’s Speed, stomping over ruins and trying to find out who’s firing missiles at you. The hunt scene here is very cool, feels like hunting,and being hunted.

The overall difficulty, well, a bit much. Most of the monsters are able to wreck your mech even if you’re at full health, so if you survive a combat it will be with significant damage. I spent the first few weeks playing this a dozen times and could rarely survive a third fight and never a fourth one. Eventually, I just set my mech’s stat sliders to a total of 8 instead of 6, so I survive and find out what’s in the next chapter.

I really enjoyed this one a lot.

Tips and Hints

To get into the lab aboard Gojira, the pass code is 52. You don’t actually need to solve for all four values, just to know their sum.

On 420 the map of Tokyo, the enemy is in the northwest area, the area surrounding C-9. Any of those squares will get you to 215.

Errors

On 77 and 55, you’re told to finish your fight with the isonade (mega shark). The book doesn’t remind you of its stats, though – see page 120.

On 471 you ‘re told to finish the fight with a second enemy mech. It doesn’t mention, in case you had turned the page, that the first mech is on page 274.

Maps

Publication

Written by Jonathan Green

Illustrated by Neil Googe

2023

Other Players and Links

• ACE Gamebooks home page