Game:

MS Saga: A New Dawn (2005)

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As you can see, I've been taking some time to slooowly play games in my backlog, and this is a game that kinda came out of left field: A (fairly conventional) "Mobile Suit Gundam" RPG... released in English no less! Released in 2005 in Japan and a few months later in 2006 by BEC (Bandai Entertainment Company, a joint venture between Human Entertainment and Bandai), "MS Saga: A New Dawn" (aka "Gundam True Odyssey: Ushinawareta G no Densetsu") is an uncommon or even borderline rare game that, once again, did not get a PAL release... the PS2 era saw A LOT of games not get a PAL release or NTSC-U release, although Europe did get many of the Simple Series games localized (most of them didn't see the light of day in the U.S.). As an original tale in the long-running MSG world, the game attempted to pull in new mecha fans as well as delight existing Gundam fans, but it mostly failed to do so... while the game isn't bad, marketing for the game was poor and the game was a commercial failure in Japan, with some sources citing it as one of the worst selling games based on the MSG franchise (and the lowest selling PS2 Gundam game). Hmmm...

In the distant future, an energy surge engulfs the world and destroys nearly everything. Remnants of humanity survive, but the incident changed the world forever and was referred to as the "Great Fall". The haves versus the have-nots gradually becomes an arms race behind the scenes and a young boy named Tristan and his best friend, Fritz, get wrapped up in the conflict. Tristan, an orphan, travels when he becomes of age and calamity immediately strikes as the place he called home is destroyed by giant mechanical beings known as "Mobile Suits". Seeking revenge and answers, Tristan sets out to find out why his home was attacked and he gets his chance when he infiltrates a large scale research facility known as a G-System (Glory System) and creates a RGM-79 GM. He is promptly attacked by an assailant that puts him on the path of his killers through a nefarious organization known as the "Dark Alliance" that is masterminded by a mysterious tyrant known as Vladi Zarth. His travels take him around the world and he meets many characters along the way.

MS Saga was originally intended to be a follow-up to "Turn A Gundam" , but Sunrise switched gears early in development when they thought about expanding the game to an international market, so they created an original story instead (though remnants remain and are seen through characters like Marie). The U.S. game has a few minor differences from the Japanese version. For one, it plays an instrumental version of "Take a Chance" by the J-Pop group, Savage Genius. It also has minor name changes for the characters and, for reasons unknown, has an added voice cast for characters during important scenes (The Japanese version just used text). The voices aren't great for the most part... but the scenes that are voiced aren't plentiful and most of them aren't very long either. The character designs were handled by Akira Yasuda, aka "Akiman", a former character design veteran at Capcom since the mid 80s (who also worked on anime such as "Turn A Gundam" and "Code Geass"). After contributing work to "Red Dead Revolver" and leaving Capcom in 2003, he went freelance and MS Saga was his first main freelance gig in the video game industry.

As far as the gameplay, MSS is surprisingly simple with turn-based battles, Techniques that are similar to magic, Boost Skills that require Energy and can be seen as EX Abilities (many are weapon-dependent) and weapons and armors with varying functions. The game has a main team and a rear guard which can switch with the frontline on the fly and also stockpile energy from the safety of the back row. The game starts off modestly enough but becomes rather difficult as soon as you stockpile 6+ characters about a dozen hours in or so and never lets up, gaining a reputation for being fairly brutal. The game's balance is further skewed due to low experience gains (there are a few "experience eggs" like Metal Zakus that are similar to Dragon Quest's "Metal" enemies) and cash gains (with money being far more useful than exp in a somewhat refreshing change of pace). The area it differs is in the tons of gear you can wear and Mobile Suits you build (with slots reminiscent to games like "Arc Rise Fantasia"), allowing you to customize the look and loadouts you have to a high degree. Each pilot can also swap their mobile suits and pilot stats affect MS performance, so finding the right suit, pilot and gear combinations is a large part of the game.

The music is good, but the graphics are unremarkable... if you told me MSS was a game that started development on the PS1 and was just a high-end PS1 to PS2 port, I'd believe it... it's not PS2 pretty and the movements were motion captured by Japanese high school girls, lol. Even so, it has enough charm in other areas to compensate and feels very old-school. This is a video in action. Enjoy.