History YMMV / MetalWalker

** The lack of dedicated fast travel options ''really'' get annoying near the endgame, where the player may be tempted to strike out and find the special Cores. Though there are various points on the map that help you get to other places in the Rusted Land quickly, and you can teleport to the eastern side of the island from the bases in every town, trying to reach the western half of the Rusted Land is a nightmare, as is navigating the central sections of the island. This comes down to the fact that even as you get stronger and battles in old areas become trivial, the sheer ''number'' of them, even with Metamorit capsules, grinds gameplay down to a halt when you aren't following the main plot beats. That's not even accounting for how difficult it can sometimes be to reach the exit from a fight. If you do every fight, you'll be deluged by text box after text box telling you what you get from winning each fight, and you have to sit through the explosions of the various Metal Walkers, and woe betide you if you run into a capsule that ''slowly'' damages other Metal Walkers... Though understandable from an early game perspective to use the environment and the enemies to illustrate how inhospitable the Rusted Land is, it just becomes a slog later on.

* SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer: Getting all the Scan Data. You can even scan the final boss.

** When traveling through the world and dungeons, Sky Core evolutions reign supreme for pretty much the inverse reason as the above trick with Aquazone and Marine evolutions. Namely, Sky models never suffer mobility debuffs in any terrain and in fact have the highest mobility in the game. Since Sky models normally can't be brought into aquatic maps on the player's end, they never have to deal with Marine units, their proclaimed weakness, ever posing a threat to them, since Sky units can just knock Marine units away whenever they get close on land. Since Sky evolutions have an advantage over Land units, this means that Sky units hard counter two-thirds of the encounters you can run into. Even against other Sky units, a healthy supply of Flood capsules more or less eliminates any threat of counterplay. The only limiting factor is that Sky Cores are the last cores you get; you get ''two'' Land Cores and the first Marine Core before you get any Sky Cores, and you don't get any more Sky Cores until endgame. ''Even then,'' M. Kite will carry you through the first half of the midgame until you can get M. Vedus because its stats are ridiculously overtuned for a one-Core evolution to account for when you get it, and once you get your final Sky Core, all bets are off for endgame - especially if you go out of your way to then get M. Galax, the ultimate Sky evolution.

** Once you have the rhythm down for it, Aquazone against boss fights. This capsules turns Marine Units into unstoppable icons of death, largely because bosses have no real counter to using Aquazone. Though nothing special for regular encounters, given how much room Aquazone capsules would take up in your inventory if you tried to use them anywhere, setting the environment to favor Marine units stonewalls a majority of the bosses given their preference for Land and Sky Metal Walkers. If they use Land Metal Walkers, the type advantage the walker has against your Marine model is meaningless because you can easily shove the enemy away such that their reduced movement underwater prevents them from ever hitting you. Against Sky models, your improved mobility and their type weakness leaves them more or less helpless against you.

* DemonicSpiders: B. Lance has an erratic bouncing pattern, a capsule that lets them go twice, a fairly high encounter rate, and they're powerful even if you're at a good level for other enemies in the area.

* ParanoiaFuel: The towns aren't safe from random encounters.
** Neither are the buildings.

** Before you unlock the Battle Arena, Capsules are randomly placed on the battlefield. They disappear after 2 turns. This includes your only source of healing items.

* ThatOneLevel: Bronze Rocks, as it's a MarathonLevel with powerful enemies and an even more powerful boss at the end that can only be accessed through one, long route.

** Neo City, the final level is much the same--and its enemies are even harder.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome:
** The overworld music is comparable to the ''VideoGame/BionicCommando'' main theme. Due to the high encounter rate, though, you won't hear much of it unless you stand around.
** The song used in Westside City and outside [[spoiler: Neo City]].
** The Bronze Rocks military march.

* NightmareFuel:
** The overworld as a whole. It's nearly deserted, for one. The people that are around are safe inside buildings, because the Metal Busters would attack if they went out.
** [[spoiler: The HEX System]].

* TearJerker: When you reach [[spoiler: Ever Green]], you start looking for the professor the enemy Metal Master told you about. [[spoiler: He's dead; you find his grave]]. Then a woman approaches, thinking you're a bad guy, and attacks. [[spoiler: She's his granddaughter. She was fighting for his memory]].

** Marina and Dolfi. [[spoiler: Their grandfather, the one who planted trees in Ever Green, is dead. And they fight for his memory]].

* CrowningMomentOfFunny:
** Talking to the NPC who welcomes you in your base camp from behind will make him turn around with a startled "Waa!"
** At Bronze Rocks, everyone thinks that Emil's been kidnapped, lampshading that they'll have to save her again. Then she shows up and asks what everyone's talking about. Cue the OhCrap.
** The concept of a portable base camp.
** The fact that people can say directional arrows.

* AccidentalInnuendo: One of the capsules you can buy is called "Get Blown".*
CrowningMomentOfFunny:

* CrowningMomentOfFunny:

** The sheer concept of a portable base camp.
** The fact that people can somehow say directional arrows.

* SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer: Getting all the Scan Data. Hilariously, you can even scan the final boss.

* AccidentalNightmareFuel:
** The overworld as a whole. It's nearly deserted, for one. The people that are around are safe inside buildings, because the Metal Busters would attack if they went out.
** [[spoiler: The HEX System]].

* AccidentalNightmareFuel: The overworld as a whole. It's nearly deserted, for one. The people that are around are safe inside buildings, because the Metal Busters would attack if they went out.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: Talking to the NPC who welcomes you in your base camp from behind will make him turn around with a startled "Waa!"

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The overworld music is comparable to the ''VideoGame/BionicCommando'' main theme. Due to the high encounter rate, though, you won't hear much of it unless you stand around.

* ScrappyMechanic: [[spoiler: Outside the final dungeon and in boss battles in that dungeon, the walls electrocute your Walker and cause damage]]. Fortunately, this also applies to enemies.

* ThatOneBoss: Oddly enough, Badoh. While he [[TheWorfEffect gets stomped by enemy Metal Masters]], when ''you'' face him you'll die if you're not prepared.

* TheWoobie: Emil; while she's rich, to say she and her parents don't get along is putting it lightly. When she was kidnapped they ''refused to pay her ransom''.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The overworld music is comparable to the BionicCommando main theme. Due to the high encounter rate, though, you won't hear much of it unless you stand around.

* NightmareFuel: The overworld as a whole. It's nearly deserted, for one. The people that are around are safe inside buildings, because the Metal Busters would attack if they went out.
** [[spoiler: The HEX System]].

* TearJerker: When you reach [[spoiler: Ever Green]], you start looking for the professor the enemy Metal Master told you about. [[spoiler: He's dead; you find his grave]]. Then a woman approaches, thinking you're a bad guy, and attacks. [[spoiler: She's his granddaughter. She was fighting for his memory]]...

** B. Dragon. He does a fair amount of damage even if you grinded...and his amount of HP is MASSIVE. Even if you do 77 damage with each hit, he will likely kill you before you kill him, especially if he or his minions get good capsules.

** Your character is too, with his father missing. Emil even says he's lonely like she is...
** Marina and Dolfi. [[spoiler: Their grandfather, the one who planted trees in Ever Green, is dead. And they fight for his memory]]...