Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain Is About to Drop

It’s only been a short time since Earth Defense Force 5 released in western territories, which arrived as a digital download published by D3 Publisher in December 2018 just a hair more than a year after its Japanese release on December 2017. Yet, there’s already a new game coming.

The newest title is Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain, which contains several similarities to the numbered titles, though with differences to distinguish it. It’s due for release worldwide tomorrow, April 11th, meaning it’s coming a mere four months after EDF5’s release. This is partly happening because it’s been 16 months since EDF5 released in Japan, but also because D3 wants this game to appeal to western audiences and wants to release it in those territories quicker. The deliberate western appeal was apparent during its reveal at Tokyo Game Show 2017, where the voice acting was in English in the first trailer despite it not being confirmed for a western release at the time. But it was bound to be confirmed eventually.

Instead of being handled by Sandlot like the mainline titles, this one is developed by Yuke’s, who’s been working on the WWE games since the early 00s (back when they were still called “WWF”). It’s the first non-wrestling game they’ve handled in years, since the sadly pitiful video game adaptation of Pacific Rim the company was likely given a low budget for. Throughout the years, Yuke’s has made games that appeal to the western market for other publishers, which is why D3 chose them for this title.

Iron Rain is somewhat of a successor to Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, a western-developed take on the series. That title kept the same concept of soldiers fending off an invasion from giant alien insects, though with small tweaks like improved graphics and streamlined vehicle controls. Insect Armageddon developer Vicious Cycle Software closed in January 2016, and there are little-to-no western developers available to work on games for Japanese developers these days, so a Japanese company that makes games for western audiences was the next best thing.

Similar to Insect Armageddon, Iron Rain barely strays from EDF’s established concept of pitting human soldiers against giant invading insects known as “Aggressors,” though it’s not entirely similar to the other titles. One of the biggest new features is the option for players to customize their protagonist, Closer (yeah, that’s really the name they went with), a war hero who awakens from a seven-year coma. The soldiers themselves will use exoskeleton suits that can be customized with several weapons and defensive and evasive maneuvers, depending on which soldier class the player pursues. Thanks to how it’s being aimed towards the worldwide audience, the cast is more diverse compared to previous installments.

It also wouldn’t be an EDF game if it didn’t have plenty of multiplayer options, as D3 knows there’s a sizable number of fans who don’t like playing these games solo at all. The game will allow for online multiplayer co-op play that supports up to six players and local options for split-screen modes. New to this game is the Mercenary mode, an online versus mode that puts eight players on teams to obtain Energy Gems. The teams don’t fight each other, but instead work to beat the insect Aggressors in the quickest fashion to obtain the gems. This new mode doesn’t sound as enjoyable as playing through missions and merely toppling batches upon batches of large insects with a bunch of other players, but perhaps it will surprise everyone.

Iron Rain’s visuals are a step above the other installments, and the art style is more realistic to appeal to the western audiences. It looks about on par with several other mid-tier games made these days, and they likely made sure not to make it look too good. D3 wants to expand the EDF audience, but they don’t want to alienate those they already have.

The low-budget nature of the series is one of the most appealing factors, as it fits the cheesy nature of the series. The tone of each game is undoubtedly intentionally on par with Starship Troopers, a cheesy movie featured the similar concept of soldiers fighting alien insects. EDF5 even had a collaboration with CG Starship Troopers film Traitor of Mars. Fans also prefer the games to have crippling slowdown issues with the overall performance, which can easily happen when too many bugs attack players on the screen at once, which only further helps the games nail the charmingly cheap and budget feel.

The cheesy factor could not be more apparent with the voice acting, which is… well, just watch this eight-minute trailer, because I don’t have the words for this. I haven’t heard English voicework this bad since the good old days of the PlayStation 2 era. But that’s the point, as it’s another way to channel B-tier games from an era where they were still flourishing. Let’s just hope this PS2-style throwback is a lot better than another one that recently released.

Iron Rain is now available in Japan and several Asian territories, and will arrive in mere hours in western territories. Sadly, the physical release is exclusive to Japan and Asia, as it will arrive only on PlayStation Network in western territories. The Asian version reportedly will have English options, so feel free to import it if you want a physical copy. We’ll see if the game lives up to expectations from fans soon.