Mobile Suit Saga: A New Dawn for the Sony PlayStation 2 is a worthy game of all Gundam fans and RPG fans alike. Try it.
The Lowdown:
Graphics - The graphics for this game is decent, not bad for a PS2 game. The graphics are actually a little bit improved from the recent Gundam game (Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam). The animations are pretty cool like the explosions look semi-realistic when the enemy suit blows up and gets destroyed. The mobile suits themselves look like Superior Defender Gundams (SD Gundams) but because the world and story is overall newer than the past Gundam storylines, that wasn't bad at all really to go with SD suits. The attacks themselves don't feel or look cheesey either like most anime RPG games. The places you visit are decent looking at best. The world itself looks like it has been half-fast done but the overall feel of the graphics match up pretty well and the resolution is good for what features the PlayStation 2 use. The graphics did deserve the 7.
Gameplay - The gameplay easily deserves the 9 I am giving it. First off, the RPG Battle System is good. It doesn't confuse anybody and the control interface is pretty easy to understand. The pilots Hit Points (HP) are based on how much HP the mobile suit has. The TP (Technique Points) are sorta like MP (Magic Points) but are used to like heal you and increase speed and stuff like that. The way you battle is like a standard turn-based roleplaying game. You take turns fighting. This game also gives you the ability to check out some enemy information during battle, like how many hit points and attack types and range of attacks they have. Some suits don't let you see their information though. This game also lets you see what type of attack or feature the enemy mobile suit will use next, right next to their name on the top right. One of the most fun things you can do in the game is customize your mobile suit. You can change your weapons from the grid system (where your weapons take up blocks, you see how many blocks they take up so you can shove some in there), you can change most of the outer body parts to something else, like you can change the Zaku I should from a Zaku I spiked shoulder to a Gouf spiked shoulder if you wanted to. You can change just about everything except the torso and the head. You are also able to change the color of each part or suit as whole. There are also Optional Parts you can shove on there like acid proof parts or extra hit point parts. The G System lets you create parts based from ECAPs items and Mobile Suit Data. The Mini G System lets you make parts, The Mega G System lets you create parts and suits, and The Super Mega G System...(find that out on your own folks, lol). I did forget the mention the terrible camera control. There basically is no camera control. When you go places its mostly one-sided and you will hate that, especially on the world map. The camera control is basically the only bad part about the gameplay. All of the features the gameplay include boost the game up big time. I already described the story up top, that is just the basic heads up, the story is pretty good. If I didn't tell you already, this game includes mobile weapons from The Universal Century, Future Century and After Colony.
Sound - the sound of course is incredible like always. Bandai always produces great sound and music for all its Anime based games. From the mobile suit walking noise to the battleground music, right on the money. All Bandai anime games produce sound and music from the television series and movies to make it truly a realistic game based off the specific anime franchise. In this game, Bandai also included original music and sound to match the new story. Even the new stuff is pretty good. Bandai never, ever lets down in the sound department.
Value - this game had a lot of potential heading into this thing. It fulfilled its potential at the right time. The great roleplaying gameplay with the incredible story and sound makes this an incredible treat and the best Gundam game I ever played. I have all the American Gundam games just to let you all know. This game will be rare in the future so pick up your copy while you can.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This Review is Copyright 2006 to Sean Metts. Please respect my opinion and I will respect yours. This is my first ever online review. Thanks for checking it out. Hail Zeon!