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Recommended
26.9 hrs last two weeks / 111.6 hrs on record (109.9 hrs at review time)
Posted: 9 Sep @ 2:21pm
Updated: 12 Sep @ 7:20pm

This is a game made for Gunpla fans. Please understand that before you buy.

In it, you play in a virtual Gunpla battler game where you do arcade like action missions, collect parts and build and customize your own Gunpla.

The game has two sides to it:

First off, the Gunpla building which is done quite well and provides near limitless combinations of parts and skills. Paint coloring, decals, weathering, and part sizing can all be done in the build mode of the game. You can really unleash your creativity with how deep this side of the game is.

The other half of the game is the gameplay. It's features arena based action gameplay of which you will fight a few waves of enemies and occasionally a "big boss". That's... kind of it. The gameplay is highly repetitive, grindy and the story and provided characters for it are not that interesting.

Pros:

+ Visual quality is adequate for the anime inspired aesthetic presented. It's about PS3/PS4 levels of visual fidelity.

+++ The Gunpla Building side of the game is done very, very well IMO. This will be the main selling point of this title and will probably be the reason anyone even considers purchasing this title. The sheer variety of kits offered, combined with the painting options, decaling, weathering, and extra add-on parts and the sky is the limit with what you can create here.

++ A variety of combat styles for gameplay exist so it's easy to tailor your gunpla to play however you feel fit to play

+ Upgrading your gunplas for the most is fairly easy once you unlock it

+ Seamless switching between controller and mouse and keyboard

+ Mouse and keyboard controls are adequate and usable, but the game is clearly for controller.

+ In game shop can provide an easy way to acquire parts that would otherwise be a pain to grind for (You will need to progress the main story though to make more kits available)

+ Photo mode is pretty basic, but Diorama mode is where the real Photo Mode is and provides much options for your Gunpla photo shots

+ Multiplayer modes exist but they are mainly of PvE content

Cons:

-- Single game save slot. Hope you don't plan on ever starting fresh as you might lose all that progress you worked hard for.

- The music is mostly forgettable and doesn't feature any licensed music from the Gundam shows

-- The overall story and characters provided is mostly a generic feeling team battle anime and only really gets slightly more interesting past chapter 5. Unfortunately that's too little, too late to save it from the negative. This is not the reason you will be buying this game.

- The main villain is unfortunately too clownish to take seriously despite having some noble intentions that are only revealed at the very end of the game.

- As great as the build mode is, it does have a few shortcomings; can't change beam effect or frame colors, mastered skills will change the parts on your gunpla to an ugly holographic part when used, and the placement of add-on parts will revert to default positions and size when used. Oh and let's not forget the ever annoying notification thingy when you're selecting high rarity part to synthesize.

- The ability titles in game are at times a bit of an indecipherable mess. I don't if this was a translation issue or something else was going on here but whoever did this needs to redo a LOT of this

-- Level design is far too simplistic. Just basic arena after arena with invisible walls as arena edges. Plus there are no space or 0G stages either and is a weird omission for a Gundam game.

- The controls take some getting used to. Jumps aren't done naturally for example, you have to boost up first from a standstill, then you can boost in the horizontal plane. If you've played any other 3rd person action game this is going to feel incredibly awkward.

- Difficultly increases tend to just increase enemy damage and give them massive HP padding. Their AI doesn't really change much. It's lazy difficulty.

--- Speaking of AI, this game has some of the worst AI behavior I've seen in a game. Your companions for story mode are woefully passive and incompetent most of the time while the enemy AI will often stand around doing nothing as if it's waiting it's turn or something.

- The target lock on system in the game can be janky, especially in the big boss fights

- Stun locking, for better for worse, exists

- The companion audio spam is pretty bad

- In the post game, you'll get access to MG parts which are nothing but up-sized regular parts despite their increased cost of acquisition

- Bounty mode and the boss level buffs that it gives player Gunplas. This a mode that probably should had been reserved for the late game considered it necessitates having a solid build to make the most of

At the end of this, this game is a double edged sword; it appeals very much to Gunpla fans and it's obviously geared towards that purpose. As a result though, it'll appeal to few others. Gunpla fans may certainly overlook the game's failings in it's gameplay in lieu of it's amazing build mode and for them, this may certainly be worth the asking price.

For everyone else, or those with only a passing interest in Gundam, I'd say wait for a sale or even pass if you're looking for a good action game.

I still give it a recommend though as there's fun to be had here, even if you just buy it for the building mode.

7/10 if you're a Gunpla/Gundam fan, for everyone else it's more like a 5/10
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