Scantily-clad anime girls with tons of cutscenes that do battle with a deep combat system… where have I seen this before? Oh yeah, Hyperdimension Neptunia has been doing that for a decade. This time around, a new franchise enters the fray: Alice Gear Aegis. Originally released only for mobile devices in Japan in 2018, the mecha battle-action title is receiving a worldwide release five years later, reaching the Nintendo Switch as well as PlayStation 4 and 5. The prospect of a mobile game hitting modern consoles may seem outlandish, but delve through this review and you’ll find that the transition is more smooth than one might think.

Alice Gear Aegis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix helms a futuristic setting where Actresses do battle with their mecha limbs and firearms. You can take control of any one of two dozen Actresses and utilize a quick rifle, a careful sniper, or a risky bazooka, in addition to balanced melee weapons to suit your preferred playstyle. The pace of battles is blistering. A 1v1 battle will typically last around 30 seconds and 3v3 fights aren’t much longer.

I found the winning strategy to be whittling away at my enemy with my firearm as I slowly made my way to them, unleashing a melee combo, then backing off. The AI would attack the first millisecond my combo ended, and I would rinse and repeat to great success. The AI is competent enough to capitalize on missed attacks but is still formulaic enough to exploit your way to victory with the right movement and gear equipped. Combat is a blast overall and the later fights really tested me, making sure I used my entire moveset and switched Actresses at the right time.

Story Mode in Alice Gear Aegis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix is somewhat similar in structure to Star Fox 64. You pick and choose your path with a common ending you can reach in a multitude of ways. There’s a bevy of 1v1 and 3v3 fights to endure, as well as “present” tiles you can land on to acquire cosmetics for your Actress.

You’ll progress through Story Mode as each and every one of the selectable Actresses have their own story. The story unfolds as you go through a large tournament as you upgrade your Actress with your earned coin. In between some battles, you’ll get visual-novel-like cutscenes that are fully voice-acted and motion captured. Unfortunately, the dialogue is stale and I didn’t latch on to any characters or laugh at any jokes, so it’s a fairly-skippable affair.

If you can stomach the full-force fan service and are solely looking to engage yourself in a strong combat sim, Alice Gear Aegis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix is a great time. It’s certainly got its target demographic, yet it still has some crossover potential as I was pretty zoned-in during each fight as they increased in difficulty.

Online battles will break the tedium of the dozens of Story Modes as fighting real opponents poses quite a larger challenge. At a fair $29.99 price point and roughly 30 hours of playtime, if you want to clear every Actresses’ Story Mode, Alice Gear Aegis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix could very well be worth your time.

A review code for Alice Gear Aegis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix was provided courtesy of PQube.

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Alice Gear Aegis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix

29.99

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Thrilling Combat
• Plenty of Content
• Great Overall Difficulty

Cons

• Not a Whole Lot of Depth
• Boring Visual Novel Sections