Shogo: Mobile Armor Division

I know we can make it together!

Shogo: Mobile Armor Division is a First-Person Shooter developed and published by Monolith Productions in 1998. It was notable for being the first game to use Monolith's Lithtech Game Engine, which would later be used (in updated versions of course) in certain other games. While the game was American-made, its main influence was the Humongous Mecha genre of anime and manga, especially Real Robot series such as Mobile Suit Gundam, Patlabor, and Appleseed.

The story follows Sanjuro Makabe, a commander in the United Corporate Authority army, in the war for planet Cronus and its Applied Phlebotinum, called Kato, which makes Faster-Than-Light Travel possible and can be used as a weapon. By the time the game begins, Sanjuro has already lost his brother Toshiro, girlfriend Kura, and friend Baku to an attack by a terrorist group called the Fallen. Sanjuro's commanding officer, Admiral Nathaniel Akkaraju (who also happens to be Kura's father) gives him the assignment of infiltrating the Fallen-controlled city of Avernus and assassinating their leader, Gabriel. However, through Sanjuro's interactions with various individuals, he suspects that there is more to the war than meets the eye. It Gets Worse from there...

Gameplay-wise, Shogo features levels where Sanjuro is on foot as well as missions where he pilots one of four Humongous Mecha, which run the gamut from Fragile Speedster to Mighty Glacier. However, the mecha levels play just like a standard on-foot First-Person Shooter, just on a larger scale and different weapons (and a "vehicle mode" which lets the mecha travel faster at the expense of being unable to fire). The game is notable for allowing both the player and enemies to inflict critical hits on each other, which both inflict extra damage and restore the attacker's health.

Shogo was promoted by Monolith as one of the first First-Person Shooter games to focus heavily on story instead of just mindless blasting, and indeed there is quite a lot of dialogue in the game as well as a point near the end where the story progression and final set of levels are determined by a choice the player makes. Unfortunately for Monolith, a certain other game, also featuring an immersive story, came out a month and a half later and most people promptly lost interest in Shogo, effectively killing off both planned expansion packs and any chance for a sequel (although the main story was wrapped up pretty well, so follow-up games may not have been strictly necessary).

Tropes used in Shogo: Mobile Armor Division include:
  • Absurdly Spacious Sewer: One sewer tunnel that the player can walk around in, and an air ventilation facility that accommodates MCAs.
  • Aloof Big Brother: It is implied that Toshiro was one for Sanjuro in the past, in the ending, further proof of how hard it will be to reconnect as he recovers from his brainwashing.
  • Animesque
  • Anime Theme Song: "Negai" ("Wish"), by Miho Nemoto.
  • Arbitrary Gun Power: When you're on foot, all non-explosive weapons do more or less the same amount of damage, and are also roughly equal for accuracy; the only variable is the firing rate.
  • Armor Is Useless: The enemies come in many varieties; some sporting basic uniforms, others use power armor, and still others pilot ten foot tall mini-mecha. While the better armored opponents have more health the weapons are deadly enough to were a shotgun blast or a short burst of automatic fire kills them equally fast.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: You must shoot Cothineal in the eye to remove the shield around Gabriel
  • Ax Crazy/Blood Knight: Uziel aka Baku. As Sanjuro says, "You are an angry, angry man."
  • BFG: An anime-themed, mecha-based, first person shooter. Shogo has this trope in spades. Best examples being:
    • The Bullgut, a quad-rocket launcher.
    • The Juggernaut, an artillery piece converted into a conventional gun.
    • The Shredder, the Gatling Good version of the Juggernaut.
    • The Red Riot. A weapon so destructive it has a song named after it, with the firepower of a small nuke.
    • An unnamed cannon wielded by The Dragon, the size of the mecha carrying it and used to wreck an underground tunnel with one shot.
      • This one actually uses an upscaled Juggernaut third-person skin.
  • Bigger Is Better: Literally the game's Tagline. At face value, concerning guns and mecha. The ad subtext was sex.
  • Blind Idiot Translation: Seen in the Italian translation. For example they translated "intelligence", as in "military intelligence", as "intelligenza", which means "intelligence" as in "intelligence quotient".
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Toshiro is the Fallen leader Gabriel and Baku is his second in command.
  • Broken Bridge: Can be subverted. A woman demands that you find her missing cat before she opens a gate for you. You can find the cat for her and she opens the gate (and as an extra reward, you get a bonus superhealth). Or you can kill her and her husband and open the gate yourself. The game pays no further attention to the consequences of gunning down a random woman.
  • The Chessmaster: Ryo, who is using the UCA to get rid of both the Fallen and the CMC so that Shogo can monopolize the Kato industry.
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: In one path where you don't defect to the fallen, you beat down the Big Bad's mecha and face...him on foot. Meanwhile, you're still in your mecha.
  • Cool Starship: The Leviathan. It’s so large that the last four levels of one route take place in it, and there’s a tram that the crew uses to get around.
  • Critical Hit: Inflicting one restores your health and kills the enemy almost instantly. If you receive one, you’re most likely dead.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Averted. You will face mecha on foot and you should win. And in one path, you get to face Big Bad in his mecha while YOU'RE on foot.
  • Dance Party Ending: The cast gets down at the end, including the bartender who refuses to give Sanjuro a drink during the game. The bartender eats a rocket for that crime.
  • Death Seeker: Supposedly Sanjuro, being the lone and disgraced survivor of the disastrous mission in the backstory. He's a bit too cheerful and sarcastic then would be expected.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Sanjuro, to friends, enemies, superior officers and random strangers.
  • Double In-Law Marriage: Sanjuro Makabe was dating Kura Akkaraju. Toshiro Makabe was dating Kathryn Akkaraju. All was well until a terrorist attack kills Toshiro, Kura, and Baku. Leading to...
    • Comforting the Widow: Sanjuro lost his girlfriend in the attack that killed his brother. Kathryn lost her boyfriend in the attack that killed her sister. Sanjuro and Kathryn "comfort" each other.
  • Escort Mission: A few, including Hank in the pumping station and Kura when freeing her from captivity.
  • Eva Fins: Mounted on the Ordog.
  • Evil Former Friend: Baku.
  • Evil Versus Evil: The major conflict between the CMC, the Fallen, and Shogo Industries for control of Cronus. The UCA is mostly good but can become the antagonist in one route when Admiral Akkaraju becomes Unwitting Pawn to Ryo and plans on using the Kato Cannon to destroy Avernus to eliminate the Fallen.
  • Fragile Speedster: The Akuuma.
  • Game Engine: Powered by Lithtech.
  • Gaia's Vengeance: The Fallen, possibly your Big Bad, depending on a choice you make.
  • Goldfish Poop Gang: Samantha Sternberg. a hot-headed female who constantly appears out of nowhere, screaming that she'll kick Sanjuro's ass, only to be quickly dealt with with no trouble at all, yet somehow manages to survive every encounter. Near the end of the game, however, you have to face her on foot while she's in a mecha.
  • Gratuitous Japanese: The Japanese theme song.
    • Gratuitous English: The English verse "I know we can make it together" in the Japanese song.
  • Guns Akimbo: The pistols
  • Gun Twirling: Sanjuro does this whenever drawing or reloading his pistols.
  • The Infiltration: Kura, faking her death as part of her cover.
  • Jack of All Stats: The Ordog.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: The Akuma gets a katana as its melee weapon.
  • Knight Templar Parent: When Kura’s abducted while waiting to meet with Sanjuro, Admiral Akkaraju threatens to kill Sanjuro with his own hands if she comes to harm.
  • Laser Blade: Wielded by Gabriel's MCA
  • Love Triangle: Between Kathryn and Kura over Sanjuro. Kathryn seems somewhat jealous, while Kura takes it more in stride.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: The Bullgut fires its ammo four missiles at a time into the general area you targeted.
    • Those missile trucks you face as an MCA.
  • A Mech by Any Other Name: Mobile Combat Armours, MCA for short.
  • Mega Corp: Shogo Industries as well Armacham Technology Corporation. Strongly implied to be the same Armacham that appears in F.E.A.R..
  • Mighty Glacier: The Predator.
  • Military Brat: Kathryn and Kura Akkaraju, Nathaniel Akkaraju's daughters.
  • Military Maverick: Sanjuro.
  • Mission Control: Kura and Nathaniel Akkaraju.
  • They Call Me Mister Tibbs: Invoked on another

Sanjuro: Sir, I presume Kathryn's my main contact on this mission?
Admiral Akkaraju: You mean Lieutenant Commander Akkaraju. Yes, she is.

  • Motion Capture Mecha: Sanjuro on foot and in the mecha are both identical in terms of gameplay. All of the mecha, even the supposedly heavy ones, are incredibly gentle and glib and can hop around with ease.
  • Multiple Endings: Two. In one, you help the Fallen take control of Cronus. In the other, you defeat the Fallen.
  • Nonstandard Game Over: If someone you're escorting dies or if the Kato Cannon fires
  • Parental Substitute: Admiral Akkaraju was this to Sanjuro and Toshiro.
  • Phlebotinum Bomb: The Kato Grenades, Red Riot, and the Leviathan's Kato Cannon.
  • Real Robot: In many ways, closest thing to a Gundam FPS for years. Radically different from Mechwarrior in gameplay, firmly rooted in the style of mecha anime, with a healthy amount of Stuff Blowing Up.
  • Sex Sells: The print advertising campaign consisted of a vaguely-Asian woman in a bikini wanting you to know she thinks size matters.
  • Script Breaking: Upon entering an underground tunnel, a cutscene is triggered where an enemy appears, runs off, and causes the tunnel to cave in by exploding it. However, careful examination of said tunnel reveals the Monolith logo, which when shot causes the same explosion, making the following cutscene look totally wrong as a result.
  • Shout-Out: A few to its anime roots.
    • A poster at the start of the game featuring an obvious Expy of Rei Ayanami with a logo reading "CURV".
    • The doll you have to find to attract the gate lady's cat is a Captain Claw doll. You can even squeeze it to make it say "Magic Claw!".
    • Officers with quarters near Sanjuro's include: R. Hunter, M. Kusanagi, I. Dyson, N. Izumi and A. Shinohara.
    • Silky Doll Lingerie billboard ads.
    • Another billboard for a "Kawasuki" motorbike that looks like the ones in Akira.
    • There are also a couple of references to Monolith's earlier Blood: comic books with Caleb on them and the caption "Who is Caleb?" can be found in some levels, and sometimes the enemy soldiers will speak a few lines in the weird Cultist language.
  • Spider Tank: They appear as enemies in some mecha levels.
  • Starfish Aliens: Cothineal, the source of Kato. It's taken over Toshiro's mind and created the Fallen in order to keep people away.
  • Title Sequence: The game actually has one. Watch it here..
  • Toxic Phlebotinum: Working directly with Kato for long enough can mess you up in the head, as Sanjuro discovers when he has to fight through a bunch of "stragglers" to rescue a cat.
  • Transforming Mecha: The player's mecha can convert into vehicle mode for high speed land travel, but cannot fire its weapons in such mode.
  • Unknown Rival: Samantha. Sanjuro considers her as a weird annoyance.
  • Vent Physics: You have to manipulate the air flow in ventilation shafts to slow falls from one vent and ride air up to another. In a Humongous Mecha. He has some doubts about this method when Hank proposes it to him. You do it again to re-enter a facility later.
  • Wave Motion Gun: The Kato Cannon, which can destroy an entire city when fired.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: If you side with Gabriel, then Uziel is never seen or mentioned again.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Done to Sanjuro after upholding his end of a bargain with Ryo. "Thanks for the assistance, Commander. You're no longer useful to me. Sorry to leave you hanging," at which point he disables the bridge, stranding Sanjuro to another air-duct crawl, and then sets off the alarms.
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