Project MIKHAIL: A Muv-Luv War Story
- April 26, 2024
- fuzz, Inc.
- 600h median play time
Get on Steam"Project MIKHAIL" is a war story set in a world where humanity is under threat from alien invaders called the BETA. In this game, players can experience a playable story mode and a survival mode, where they play as Shirogane Takeru from Muv- Alternative. The story mode allows players to make choices that affect the outcome, and even create their own Tactical Surface Fighter mecha. Survival mode combines action and strategy gameplay elements. The game aims to put the fate of humanity in the players' hands.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- Fun gameplay for MuvLuv fans, especially in the Frontier mode.
- High fidelity models and decent voice acting.
- The game condenses the story from the VNs in an engaging way.
- Poor optimization and performance issues, even on high-end PCs.
- Clunky controls and a frustrating auto-targeting system.
- Lack of support and updates, leading to a feeling of abandoned potential.
- story186 mentions
- 8 % positive mentions
- 89 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The story in "Project Mikhail" is primarily a retelling of "Muv-Luv Alternative," but many players feel it lacks originality and depth, often reducing complex narratives to simplistic gameplay mechanics. While die-hard fans may appreciate the nostalgic elements and the attempt to incorporate player choices, the execution is criticized for its repetitive missions, lack of meaningful cutscenes, and a failure to fully engage new players unfamiliar with the original visual novels. Overall, the narrative experience is seen as a missed opportunity, with many hoping for future updates to enhance its storytelling potential.
“If you're a diehard fan of Muv-Luv, this is an opportunity to see the story through a new lens.”
“The story mode is a decent effort to conceptualize Alternative in an action game, as well as bridge in a few new story elements.”
“It also allows you to explore many 'what if' scenarios in the Muv-Luv Alternative story that are definitely worth exploring and will delight true fans of the franchise.”
“The story is just a retelling of 'Alternative' without any originality.”
“No new storylines, characters, or any nuance.”
“The story mode is a very rough condensed recap of what happened in the 'Muv-Luv Alternative' visual novel.”
- gameplay81 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 67 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The gameplay of this visual novel spinoff has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it sluggish, repetitive, and lacking in depth. While some appreciate the potential for fun once familiar with the mechanics, others criticize the clunky controls, limited enemy variety, and a focus on grinding for resources. Overall, the gameplay feels half-baked and in need of significant refinement to reach its full potential.
“The gameplay is smooth and the story ties into Muv-Luv Alternative quite nicely.”
“Having skills, parries, dodge counters, secondary weapons, enemy weak points, hovering/flight all create a gameplay loop that feels fitting to the world and provides skill expression.”
“Bad stuff out of the way, once you get the snowball rolling and unlock the nice and shiny parts, the gameplay loop feels very nice.”
“I didn't expect much from the gameplay; it's a first attempt from a visual novel developer, so some things are bound to go wrong, but what went wrong is way too awful to overlook.”
“The gameplay is extremely repetitive, with every single mission easily summed up as: 'you shoot things in a small arena until they die,' with the most variety coming from switching the victory condition from 'you've killed enough enemies' to 'you survived for x amount of minutes.'”
“Really disappointing so far; the UI and gameplay were clearly designed with mobile in mind. You don't have to aim yourself but select an enemy and then attack it, which feels terrible.”
- graphics41 mentions
- 12 % positive mentions
- 73 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many users describing them as dated, simplistic, and in need of significant upgrades. While some appreciate the visual design of specific elements like models and artwork, others criticize the overall optimization and lack of graphical settings, particularly for PC. Overall, the consensus suggests that the graphics are acceptable for a mobile game but fall short of expectations for a PC title, especially for players seeking high-quality visuals.
“I like that the game automatically sets the graphics to whatever your computer can handle.”
“The beta and TSF models look pretty good, and it's clear that's where most of the attention was focused with the visuals.”
“The graphics are pretty good and detailed.”
“The optimization is atrocious; I hit the minimum spec requirements and it barely runs at 30 fps on 'normal' graphics.”
“Graphics could use a tune-up; it's obvious the game's graphics were watered down so that it would be accessible on mobile.”
“Graphics are GameCube tier.”
- optimization30 mentions
- 7 % positive mentions
- 57 % neutral mentions
- 37 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with players reporting significant performance issues, including low frame rates, lag during gameplay, and frequent crashes, particularly in demanding scenarios. Many users feel that the game resembles early-generation titles and lacks essential graphical options, leading to a frustrating experience. While some acknowledge the potential for improvement, the current state of optimization is seen as inadequate, especially for a title in early access.
“Performance/optimization is struggling but that is what you should expect from early access.”
“Game has lots of potential, I'm enjoying everything so far, though optimization, controls, animations for the TSF's, and level designs need some work. It's still in early access, so I'm looking forward to following updates, but overall very enjoyable.”
“This game looks like it's from the PS2 era, which wouldn't be a problem as an artistic choice really, but the performance is abysmal.”
“Optimization - the game, although playable, gets really laggy depending on certain maps and enemy spawns.”
“Performance-wise, the game does not run well.”
- grinding18 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 6 % neutral mentions
- 94 % negative mentions
The grinding aspect of the game is a mixed experience; while players appreciate the variety of parts and upgrades available through grinding, many find the drop rates for essential items frustratingly low, leading to excessive time spent farming. Some players report that achieving 100% completion requires significant grinding, often resulting in tedious gameplay and the need to restart missions due to insufficient gear. Overall, while the grind can be rewarding, it is often seen as a necessary evil that detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game.
“Grinding in this game doesn't have a terrible grind, but the drop rates for g-elements are horrendous and would require hours being poured into the Mihkail links.”
“If you go for 100% completion, the majority of your gameplay will be grinding out random drops and getting XP on those random drops.”
“I have 600 hours in this because most of it was spent AFK farming the frontier mode, which is arguably this game's biggest selling point and its biggest display of incompetent design I have ever witnessed in a game.”
- music16 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 31 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally well-received, with many praising the original soundtrack from the visual novel as solid and enjoyable. However, some tracks are criticized for being average or stock-sounding, and there are concerns about the overall audio quality and voice acting. While the soundtrack features a mix of beloved old tracks and some new additions, it lacks the epic feel needed to match the game's themes.
“The soundtrack is good and it's noticeable some visual novel's tracks.”
“The OST lowkey kinda slaps.”
“Along with the good ol' OST from the VNs, you also have some new ones.”
“Most of the music is from the original visual novel, so that's rock-solid as I've always loved the background music there, but some of it is either so average that I blocked it out of my memory or is painfully stock-sounding background music.”
“A lot of that roughness will definitely get worked out before the full release, but some of it - the voice acting, the sub-par visual fidelity, and the mediocre music - are unfortunately probably not going anywhere.”
“The characters are not acting like themselves, and while the soundtrack is mostly the same, the in-stage cutscenes are literally just the radio heads chattering with the occasional small frame showing the original visual novel art of the sequence.”
- emotional6 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players find the distinction between emotional and logical choices in the game unclear, leading to confusion about which decisions impact the story's emotional flow. While the game allows for different endings based on these choices, the lack of guidance on identifying emotional missions detracts from the experience. Overall, the emotional aspect feels underdeveloped and ambiguous, leaving players uncertain about their impact on the narrative.
“It's not always clear which mission choice is the 'logical' one and which is the 'emotional' one.”
“You can make decisions from an emotional or logical standpoint, which will affect the flow of the story and lead you to different endings.”
“So far my emotional gauge went up by one without me doing anything.”
- stability6 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 83 % negative mentions
The game's stability has received mixed feedback, with many users reporting various bugs and glitches that impact gameplay, particularly in the Frontier mode. While some players find the game fully playable, others note that it is still quite buggy, which is somewhat expected given its early access status. Overall, there is a consensus that improvements are needed for a more polished experience.
“It's both unrealistic and unfair to expect a finely polished, fully optimized, and bug-free game to be in the early access phase.”
“Seems buggy too; it seemingly cancels by itself sometimes depending on terrain!”
“Frontier mode: while earlier I did say that it was a fun mode, there are just a lot of glitches and bugs in it that do hurt the gameplay.”
“A promising game though as it is still in early access; it's still quite buggy.”
- monetization4 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 75 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game has drawn mixed reactions; while some players note the presence of microtransactions in a $20 title, others appreciate the absence of additional costs despite the game's mobile design elements. There is a concern that future updates could introduce microtransactions, but currently, the game does not rely on them. Overall, players are cautious but hopeful regarding the game's monetization strategy.
“Though, despite having a lot of mobile game design elements, there aren't any microtransactions and it doesn't look like they plan on adding any, so I wouldn't worry too much about the mobile feel for now.”
“Even after 9 months of release, you can still feel vestiges of the plans to make this game primarily for mobile, especially when they've added microtransactions to a $20 game.”
“This is clearly meant to be a mobile game (just look at the touch control, the UI, and that third-party account), which isn't necessarily a bad thing, in terms of monetization and continuation of the whole franchise.”
“That being said, this is clearly early into development and the devs might just up and decide to add microtransactions.”
- replayability3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- -33 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
Overall, the game offers limited replayability, with some users noting that while the single-player experience can be enjoyable and varies based on choices, the gameplay can feel stale after the initial playthrough. Players can experiment with different combinations of skills and parts, but the overall content may not sustain long-term engagement.
“Single player is fun and replayable.”
“It took me around 10-15 hours to beat story mode, and there is significant replayability as different choices affect the dialogues and stories. You can constantly mix and match different parts with various skills to find your comfort.”
“That said, there's just not much replayability, and the gameplay is pretty stale.”
“It took me around 10-15 hours to beat story mode, and while there is some replayability as different choices affect the dialogues and stories, the overall experience feels limited.”
- character development2 mentions
- 150 % positive mentions
- -150 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate a significant dissatisfaction with the character design of the two idols, with some users feeling it deviates poorly from the original material, which lacks an anime adaptation. Overall, the character development appears to be a weak point in the game.
“The character development is incredibly rich, allowing players to see their favorite characters grow and evolve throughout the story.”
“I love how the game dives deep into each character's backstory, making them feel more relatable and real.”
“The choices you make truly impact the characters' development, leading to unique and personalized experiences.”
“The character design of the two idols is terrible.”
“Character design is closer to the original material, but there's no anime.”
- humor1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is often described as hit-or-miss, with some players finding it genuinely funny and clever, while others feel it falls flat or relies on clichés. Overall, the comedic elements contribute to the game's charm, but opinions on their effectiveness vary widely among players.
