UFO ROBOT GRENDIZER – The Feast of the Wolves

My first honest reaction to Grendizer was something close to disbelief, not because it's bad, but because it genuinely exists. A 1970s super-robot anime getting its very first standalone video game adaptation in 2023, courtesy of a small French studio (Endroad) and publisher Microids, is an unlikely origin story that shapes everything about what this game is and is not. Heading in with realistic expectations makes a real difference here. The core of the game is third-person brawler action: you pilot the colossal Grendizer across six semi-open zones, grassy plains, dusty canyons, a wrecked Tokyo, smashing the Vega Empire's Monstronef mechs using a genuinely fun toolkit. The Double Harken shoulder boomerangs split off Grendizer's armor and home back like a real weapon; the Anti-Gravity Storm lifts enemies skyward before slamming them; fists and a crescent-blade staff fill out the melee side. Enemies often carry protective states that require alternating attack types to break down, so it is not entirely brainless, though it never approaches the depth of a proper character-action game. Boss fights close out each chapter and tend to be the highlight, requiring actual pattern reading rather than just button mashing. An experience-point upgrade system lets you expand Grendizer's arsenal as you progress. Two distinct shooting modes break the ground action up at regular intervals: an on-rails space shooter that plays in the vein of Star Fox (piloting the Spazer with Grendizer docked inside), and a top-down vertical shmup in Koji Kabuto's TFO. Neither mode is particularly challenging and both skip a scoring system entirely, but they do a solid job of varying the pace across a campaign that clocks in around seven to eight hours. Presentation is where the passion is clearest. The visual style commits hard to the anime's bright, pastel-heavy aesthetic, character portraits in dialogue scenes have an almost hand-drawn texture to them, and the remastered musical themes carry a genuine 70s warmth, including a jazz track that feels authentically period-correct. Voice acting is deliberately theatrical and cheesy in exactly the way the original show was, fully dubbed in English, French, and German. If you grew up with Goldorak, or any of Go Nagai's giant-robot lineage, this presentation will land. If you did not, the story is still accessible enough; the game drops you into events quickly and the broadly told sci-fi plot is easy to follow. The PC version's technical state is the real concern. Frame rate drops occur when new enemies teleport into a scene, which happens constantly. Environmental pop-in is persistent, and Grendizer can clip into terrain during combat in ways that interrupt attacks. One reviewer noted frame rates hitting single digits during a specific rock-destruction mission. These are not cosmetic annoyances; they actively interrupt the game's best moments. Buildings and other large objects also lack proper collision boxes for Grendizer, which is a meaningful immersion-breaker for a game built on making you feel like a skyscraper-sized titan. Steam user reviews sit at 84 percent positive across several hundred reviews, suggesting that players who bought in, likely anime fans primed to forgive rough edges, left largely satisfied, but critics averaged closer to 61 across professional outlets, a gap that reflects the gap between affection for the IP and the quality of the surrounding product. The Feast of the Wolves is a game that does one thing exceptionally well: it makes you feel like you are actually inside the Grendizer anime. The screen shakes when the robot runs, size references are everywhere, and the attacks are faithful enough to make a longtime fan shout the move names along with Daisuke. If you are not that fan, the underpinnings are functional but dated in ways a discount price does not fully excuse. Grab it when the deal is right, go in at PS2-era mindset, and you will find a game that means what it says.

Alex · Scout Team

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