Well I bought this the 2nd day it was out, it didn't have inflated prices like Coded Arms so I was happy (Gah that 2 hour glory game). As a Gundam Die-hard fan, this is a MUST. I did not own a Saturn nor the PS ver. Of this game so it was new to me but after 9 restarts of the game I still carry on interest. I spent a total of probably 24hrs on the game already, playing before I sleep and today I stayed up till 8am playing the game. It's addictive, but it is in Japanese (not that I know much). I played as Earth Federation.
It wasn't until the 8th restart that I figured how to start the V Project. Now that I'm on my 9th play-through, I very skillfully stopped Char attacking Luna 2 and took over most of Africa now. Anyhow enough of my ranting now for the SOLID stuff.
Game Play
It is a 2 level turn base game. First you have the Strategy Phase where you can initiate commands of your troops, factory, research, and such. Before every turn starts, you will get briefing from other officers with dubbed voices. Whenever you move your troops into an enemy territory it will initiate Setup Phase which is the Unit Turn Base side of the game. A squadron can consist of 3 units which helps when you want to protect some units from attacks (Stacking). Most of the federation forces are specialized in air or land when you start so you actually have to carefully select units and what to send. You face Mobile Suits during the first turn which is really hard to beat unless you gang up on it. Maximum squadrons attacking is 6, practically 1 squadron from each side. The computer is pretty stupid anyhow, it doesn't let Zakus initiate attacks on air units when they are still green health bar.
All these phases are in pure Japanese but if you can understand some spoken Japanese, then the strategy phase should not be as big of a problem. The game does require either knowledge of Japanese or knowledge of these types of Japanese games (ie, Super Robot Wars).
Game System
Loading is not a problem, probably due to the fact that it is a PS port. Battles load quickly. Button config is the good old Japanese style, so american gamers may find it hard to adapt to. Game saves are only 80KB but I think there's a game main save that is 128KB.
Graphics
You cannot expect much from it but at least it looks decent. I would have prefered it to be more 3D, right now it's 2D that feels 3D. However, there are animated cutscenes for events and such. If you want to watch again, in options it lets you view them in wide screen or original ratio aspect.
Sound
Well, keeping in mind that it is old, the sound isn't very clear and it does feel a bit old (noise and such).
Overall
Great game for Gundam fans, but not for any new players to this genre if you don't know Japanese. The game is very time consuming so you have to be prepared or else it will just go to waste. It "can" take an hour per turn if needed and there are 100 turns for the first part of the game. I have probably gone for at least 100 turns already due to the restarts. This title is a great value for money, just like Tales of Eternia (another PS Port). Background knowledge of Gundam UC series is recommended, it will help alot. This is a good brain excerciser.
I cannot imagine playing this for even 20 hours so I probably won't get past the 30th turn of the first part... still if you like GUNDAM then yes, by all means...
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