Over the years robot games have established a robust history catering to gamers’ power fantasy of stomping around in a gigantic robot of doom filled to the brim with rockets and lasers. The explosive thrill of piloting big stumpy war machines into combat is a fantasy that never gets old. So if you’re a gearhead that’s looking for a mech shooter play-to-earn RPG with Voltron-style action, then good news! Phantom Galaxies got you covered.

Phantom Galaxies is an online, open world, shooter RPG with "Gundam"-ish graphics. This project is being built on Polygon by a veteran team with a wealth of game production experience – Blowfish Studios, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands. The brains behind Blowfish studios are highly respected in the industry because they are known for developing various traditional games for PC and PlayStation since 2010.

Phantom Galaxies has also built-up a huge following on various socials and managed to accumulate $19.3M in their Planet Private Sale where large well-known guilds participated. Therefore, with solid financial resources and significant network in the blockchain, a lack of funding is unlikely to be an issue. Currently, the project has released several alpha versions and the early access is in September 2022.

The player takes a pivotal role as a starfighter pilot in this space sim, 3rd person mech shooter RPG. The graphics remind me of the popular anime, Gundam and the lore takes me back to the hit movie, Pacific Rim. The basic idea is that humans are being threatened by a race of giant monsters. The player then will fight on the front lines to explore deep space to find valuable resources and uncover powerful weapons.

Player activities here include Missions, Quests, Operations and Raids. Players will engage in fast-paced 3rd person combat where they can gain new skills, weapon configurations and eventually, unlock different variants for their mech when they level up their Avatar NFT and Starfighter NFT. Then after a period of training, anyone can proceed to conquer the highly competitive “Frontier Space” or the battlefield to win the PvP and PvE reward pool.

Players can earn the minimum by simply holding planet NFTs. Earning in ‘Mercenaries’ means players rent out their starfighters for a fee. Which can also be used for scholarships.

Starfighter NFTs can also bring returns for those looking at the game from a long-term perspective. The Starfighter NFT has a resemblance to the classic Gundam design but with a mix of Transformers vibe since the majority of its color scheme has been updated to look more refined.

Meanwhile for tokenomics, Phantom Galaxies takes an innovative approach to their currency. Since they will use a single token model, they will not have pre-sales for their native tokens. Emission from planet NFTs + playing the game will earn you some tokens.

Despite being young in its lifecycle, Phantom Galaxies brings a lot to the table. The playability of the game has a lot to offer from missions to side quests. The game trailer gives me this overall feel that it’s going to be action packed. The stellar voice acting and cutscenes in the story mode is also worth mentioning since the totality of the art makes it aesthetically pleasing in the eye.

However, I feel that the mecha designs should be one of the hallmarks of Phantom Galaxies but currently, there is only one to see. As someone who grew up watching Gundam, Phantom Galaxies should step-up because I would love to see their mecha in different forms. Throwing a variety of heavy metal magnificence right out of the cockpit in the universe is surely a sight to see.

It’s also agreeable that the appeal of mech games has always been tied to its destructiveness. It’s a literal blast being able to smash through things rather than just skirt around it. So I hope that Phantom Galaxies will have environments that are fully destructible and can capture the sensation wonderfully without making players dizzy from playing because navigating and targeting can be tedious, spoiling the fun of the game.

There have been several mech games that suit a myriad of styles but the amount of innovation that Phantom Galaxies is creating in the P2E space shouldn’t be overlooked. Quality and quantity is apparent to this very promising project. It’s clear that this game may require a lot of time to complete challenges and level up but its graphics and gameplay is a testament that even though this is the kind of game that demands you to learn its ins and outs, it’s okay because it's also the kind of P2E you’re not going to want to put down.