What Cavalry Girls is
Cavalry Girls is a top-down shooter with RPG and strategy layers. You lead girl soldiers in mecha, called machine armour, against incoming enemies while protecting the city behind you. Combat runs in real time from a top-down view, and the store text describes it as simulating real shooting rather than abstract auto-battles. Fights are roguelike, with dozens of enemy soldier types to work through, and supplies are limited, so each run asks you to decide how much risk you want to take.
The setting is built around jade, a mineral that certain people could interact with and draw energy from. Craftsmen turned it into complex devices, bionic machines followed, and war came with them. That backdrop shows up in the equipment you assemble and in the enemies you face.
How a group plays it together
The Steam features list Remote Play Together, so one person who owns the game can host a session and others can join in over the internet. The store text also lists co-op among its tags. Beyond that, the game is described as singleplayer, so the shared experience is mostly watching someone else deploy their machine soldiers, pick modules, and hold the line, with the group offering opinions on loadouts and placement.
Coordination matters more than reflexes here. Teammates have different skills, and you choose which equipment and modules go into each mecha before a fight. Gathering intelligence on enemy characteristics and striking at their weaknesses is part of the deployment step, so a group can split the work of reading the field and arguing over priorities.
Systems worth knowing before you start
Equipment is the core of the build. There are 135 weapon types, 85 weapon attributes, and 184 weapon and armour accessories to combine, and each weapon behaves differently in terms of impact. Six damage types are in play: burning, cold, paralysis, damp, high temperature, and grease. Enemy spoils can be disassembled into usable parts, and a synthesis system lets you produce equipment from what you have, which matters when supplies are thin.
Five characters can be recruited, each with her own mecha girl, and you can decorate a dormitory and give gifts to them. The Ideology System tracks four stances — Rebellion, Selflessness, Radicalism, and Rationalism — and your decisions there can change how the storyline unfolds and which ending you reach. A horsepower mechanism and a self-targeting function are included to smooth out the shooting.