Publisher Bushiroad Games and developer Kaminari Games have delayed shoot ’em up game MACROSS Shooting Insight from its previously planned January 25, 2024 release date to March 14, 2024 in Japan. It will be available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam.
The companies cited further quality improvements as the reason for the delay.
Here is an overview of the game, via Bushiroad Games:
Story
Introducing an all-new MACROSS game, the latest entry in the landmark science-fiction franchise!
Embark upon a galaxy-spanning mission to rescue the missing songstresses!
Featured Series
- MACROSS Plus
- MACROSS Zero
- MACROSS 7
- MACROSS Frontier
- MACROSS Delta
Characters
- Pilots
- Isamu Dyson – Year: 2040. Isamu Dyson is a test pilot on the planet Eden, where a competition to decide the next generation of Variable Fighter is taking place. An exceptional pilot, he was a First Lieutenant in U.N. Spacy but has since been transferred several times due to reckless flying and multiple breaches of military regulations. Isamu was childhood friends with the rival team’s test pilot, Guld Goa Bowman, before the two of them had a falling out.
- Gamlin Kizaki – Year: 2045. Gamlin Kizaki is a decorated pilot with Diamond Force, a special forces unit of elite pilots that was formed to safeguard the Macross 7 Fleet. When the Varauta Army attacks, he dutifully lays his life one the line to protect the fleet and its inhabitants. Gamlin is often annoyed by Basara’s antics during combat and cannot comprehend why one would choose to sing and not fight.
- Shin Kudo – Year: 2008. Shin Kudo is an exceptional fighter pilot with a long list of downed enemies to his name. Having lost his family to the Unification War, he enlists in the U.N. Military determined to put a stop to the very same conflict that claimed their lives. After being shot down in battle, he washes ashore on Mayan Island where he first encounters Sara Nome and her sister Mao. Following this incident, seeing Shin’s potential, Roy Focker assigns him to a VF-0 Variable Fighter.
- Alto Saotome – Year: 2059. Alto Saotome is a high schooler enrolled in Mihoshi Academy’s pilot training course aboard the Macross Frontier Fleet. Although he was born into the prestigious Saotome Kabuki troupe, his true passion is flying. When the fleet is attacked by the Vajra, he enlists in the private military company, S.M.S (Strategic Military Services) and is later assigned to a VF-25. It is around this time that he first meets Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee, and a deep connection between the three begins to develop.
- Hayate Immelmann – Year: 2067. Hayate Immelmann is a Valkyrie pilot with the interstellar conglomerate Xaos’ Delta Flight. A galactic drifter, he wandered from place to place before being recognized for his innate talents and recruited by Delta Flight. Possessing keen senses and a natural sense of rhythm, Hayate often finds himself playfully at odds with Walküre’s Freyja Wion, but when missons take a turn for the worse, the two of them have each other’s backs.
- Divas
- Sharon Apple / Myung Fang Lone – Year: 2040. Sharon Apple is a virtual idol that’s taking the galaxy by storm. Able to use holographic technology to change her appearance, she is an artificial intelligence with a personality all of her own. Her producer, Myung Fang Lone, having given up on her own dream of becoming a singer, stands-in as Sharon’s persona as the AI’s emotional psyche remains incomplete.
- Sara Nome – Year: 2008. Sara Nome is a priestess on the remote Mayan Island in the South Seas. Known as the “Guiding Wind”, she is the custodian of the customs and ancient songs of her people. Within her voice lies a mysterious power. When the Unification War reaches the island’s shores, she watches as conflict unfolds over relics of the Protoculture and inadvertently awakens a “Bird Human” that will destroy the entire human race.
- Basara Nekki / Mylene Flare Jenius – Year: 2045. The Super Long-Range Emigration Fleet, Macross 7, is home to the four-member rock band Fire Bomber, including vocalist and guitarist Basara Nekki, and vocalist and basist Mylene Flare Jenius. Basara, having leapt into battle time and again, trying to put an end to conflict with his songs, finally has an effect on the mysterious enemy known as the Protodeviln and finds himself propelled to stardom. That same year, he continues to sing his way through the battlefield with Fire Bomber during the Varauta War as part of Sound Force.
- Sheryl Nome / Ranka Lee – Year: 2059. Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee are songstresses onboard the Macross Frontier Fleet. During the war over the Vajra homeworld, when its alien inhabitants were considered humanity’s enemy, it was the songstresses’ singing that made inter-species communication possible to help bring an end to hostilities with the Vajra.
- Walkure – Year: 2067. The Tactical Sound Unit Walküre is made up of five songstresses recruited by the interstellar conglomerate, Xaos. Their singing has the ability to suppress the symptoms of the Vár Syndrome, a condition which causes those affected by it to suddenly turn violent. Supported in the field by Delta Flight, a squadron of Variable Fighters, Walküre tours the galaxy, risking their lives as they sing in the midst of battle.
System
- Pilots, songstresses, and characters from throughout MACROSS‘ history take center stage in a completely original story.
- When multiple dimensional folds suddenly occur across space-time, pilots and songstresses alike find themselves inexplicably transported to the Battle 7! From there, six stories unfold with the fate of the galaxy at stake.
- Experience a multi-perspective shooting game featuring pilots and songstresses that have come together across time!
- Sortie with pilots from different time periods and play through stages made up of multiple scenes, each with distinct game types that utilize different modes of each pilot’s Valkyrie. Stages include multiple game styles, such as horizontally scrolling shooting, vertically scrolling shooting, and 360-degree scrolling shooting.
- MACROSS Shooting Insight includes fan-favorite songs from all featured MACROSS series! Use the power of songs to gain an edge in battle!
- Synchronize with songstresses while playing stages to activate a variety of buffs and debuffs, such as increased firepower, increased maneuverability, reduced enemy fire speed, etc.