In 1998, revolutionised gaming forever by slapping a health bar tattoo on the protagonist's boobs, forcing you to stare down at her cleavage in order to discern how close to death you were.
Videogames have been too cowardly to ascend to such heights since—limiting their powers to some visible hands or feet in first-person, if you're lucky—but no longer. Saroasis Studios is here with Fate Trigger, a waifu shooter brave enough to ask the question: 'What if your view was obscured by some massive honkers?'
The developer for its upcoming closed beta test earlier this month, and there's an awful lot to unpack here. There are anime women aplenty—bunnies, mechanics, bikers, plus some token husbandos thrown in—duking it out in what looks like a sprawling Fortnite-style map, complete with a storm circle closing in on them.
Unlike Fortnite's cosmetic skins, though, it looks like each character can do something a little different. The bunny waifu, for example, can summon a giant carrot to stand on top of before pulling out a bazooka to fire off at the enemy team below. The mechanic girl at the beginning of the trailer is able to zap through a portal too, while another seemingly shoots a literal nuke out of her hands.
It seems there are more modes beyond the battle royale as well. Small segments in the trailer show a more traditional points-based tactical shooter mode—that seems to track with the game's Steam page, which promises "a dynamic arena featuring multiple game modes," with each one "crafted to fuel your competitive fire."
That's not the thing that caught my attention, though. What did catch my [[link]] attention happens approximately one minute and 45 seconds into the trailer—and if I didn't tell you that, almost every single YouTube comment on the video certainly would've—when one of the characters scopes and jumps off a building, panning down the camera to reveal… well, a whole lotta boob.
Like I said earlier, we've been championing games letting you see your hands and feet for ages—I was absolutely dazzled by it as a 13-year-old picking up Mirror's Edge for the first time—and Trespasser was doing BoobCam all the way back in the '90s. Did it still jumpscare me? Yes, yes it did.
I have two questions. My first: In a tactical shooter, is it really wise to have cleavage clogging up one-third of your screen? My second: How much neck strain is this lady giving herself in order to see that much of her own chest? I know it's literally an anime waifu videogame—the antithesis of real life—but I'm in pain just thinking about the tech neck levels of posture deformation she's giving herself in that shot.
I can't lie though, its chaotic and mildly horny vibes have gotten me interested in checking it out. Mostly just to see if it plays as balls to the wall as it looks. If you're in the same boat, you can register your interest for Fate Trigger's closed beta test over on. It kicks off on July 24, with no end date [[link]] currently announced