Mecha Talk

i am looking for a really great gundam game.
pc would be nice but 360 ps2 and wii are also doable.
however translation is a must as i cannot read or speak Japanese
i really love the gundam series and have just recently built my first few gunpla and now i want to play some gundam games

thanks

Honestly, the criteria you give eliminates...pretty much everything. For one thing, Japan doesn't give a damn about the Xbox and the 360. For another, ever since the franchise tanked over in America, they stopped exporting games nearly as often, meaning your selection of English games is drastically limited. While there have been Gundam games released for PC and Wii, none of them were exported to America. For 360, you're stuck with the Dynasty Warriors Gundam series. PS2 had a few games back in the day like Federation vs Zeon, Zeonic Front, and MS Saga, but it all depends on what style of game you're looking for.

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I've never regretted anything in my life...except those 15 min I spent watching the beginning of Dragonball Evolution ~Johnny Yong Bosch

in that case are there some fan translations for some? or are they all permanently stuck in Japanese? it is sort of hard to navigate a menu when you have no idea what it is saying.
any suggestions?

PS2 actually had a few good Gundam games. Check out Journey to Jaburo and Encounters in Space. Both follow the One Year War pretty decently, Jaburo is the first half and Encounters is the second half. Gameplay wise, Journey to Jaburo is average at best, it's nothing spectacular but it's fun enough. Encounters in Space is where you'll have the most fun, it's a mix of rail shooting and free battle portions during the missions. I've heard Zeonic Front is pretty good too on PS2, but I never had a chance to try that out.

Since you mentioned PS2, try to track down Battle Assault 2 for the PS1 as well, it's a 2D fighting game and has suits from a wide range of series (mainly the ones that have released in the US though). Pretty fun fighting game.

As for current gen, you can't really go wrong with the Dynasty Warriors Gundam series. Straight up hack-n-slash gameplay (if you're into that), huge selection of suits, and nice graphics if you care about that. The third entry into this series is coming out this summer if you're willing to wait, which adds in suits from 00 and Unicorn, plus roster updates for the other series. If not, you can settle for Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2, which is plenty of fun in itself.

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[Relinquish your pain...unto me...]
[Neither will alone, nor strength alone]
~Sword of the Blue Skies~

There is a private server for UCGO (universal century gundam online) available for PC. Personally, I played for about a week and quit because I found it incredibly boring, but I generally find all MMORPGs inherently boring, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

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If you have a PS2 or first gen Ps3 and you like strategy Zeonic Front is a good game its like rainbow six on zaku Skin lol..Follows the one year through the eyes of a zeon special forces unit created by kycilia (should have been a anime) by the way..Federation Vs Zeon and Gundam Vs Zeta Gundam are great games too actually there similar games the only difference is Gundam vs Zeta Gundam has All mobile suits (No MSVs but the old skool uc suits from MSG all the way up to the Zeta Era) Fun Game to this day.. Encounters in space is great too like everyone said before me is a good game actually shows how space battles are at times are depicted in battle havent really seen any gundam games that show space battles like on the anime but this one is close to it.Journey To Jaburo is ok..

thanks all. most useful.
i also saw a game on youtube and was wondering if anyone could tell me what it is
it has practically any mobile suit ever.
first you were on a strategy map and when the suits clashed on the map it gave a nice animation sort of like the pokemon stadium games.
got zeonic front and its a blast need to get gundam versus zeta and also looking up jaburo and encounters

If you have a Dreamcast, you could play (assuming you find a copy) Rise From the Ashes. I always enjoyed that game, although I remember it mostly for being a little disappointed that it didn't have anything to do with Gundam Wing. Until I saw 08th MS Team that is!

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I think the game in that video was from the G Generation series, which are a bunch of turn-based strategy Gundam games in the same vein as Fire Emblem or Super Robot Wars.

Encounters and Space and Gundam vs Zeta Gundam are both great recommendations in terms of games available in the US. EiS has a great soundtrack and a pretty good unit selection (granted, most of them are variations of other units and whatnot). Gundam vs Zeta Gundam has a good lineup and the nice fast paced action characteristic of the third person arcade shooter genre.

While the story itself was just okay, MS Saga for the PS2 is a good, accessible game to play. It's a JRPG that lets you customize your team's Mobile Suits in terms of weapons, color, and even limbs. Quite a blast if you like to play around with parts.

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no it did not seem to be a SD game.... hmm i cant seem to find videos now that i have a place to ask. however i am now confident that it was a seed game with other suits thrown in as well, but primarily a seed game. any more ideas??

wait never mind! found it! it is Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: Generation of C.E.
anyone know of a translation? or is it at least somewhat understandable with out one??
anyone ever played it?

Generation of CE is Japan only, I'm afraid, and as a G Generation it has extensive untranslated Japanese text, meaning if you don't at the veryleast understand Katakana it'd be very hard to play. Gameplay-wise it plays like the PS2-era G Generations, which means it has an annoying mechanic where range affects accuracy. Story-wise it covers Seed, a good portion of Astray (partway through Destiny Astray), and up to episode 39 of Destiny (S-Freedom's debut), with a few things missing (Legend, Akatsuki, I-Justice, DOM Trooper). It's mostly known for having four different endings, none of which line up with the anime, and the long-standing legend that one of them was the original ending for the anime before rewrites and general chaos changed it to its current form.

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I've never regretted anything in my life...except those 15 min I spent watching the beginning of Dragonball Evolution ~Johnny Yong Bosch

hmm so no translation for generation. would it still be somewhat playable or would i be totally lost?

Wow, Generation of CE just sounds interesting and I'm pretty curious now. Is there a translated script anywhere online I can read? I'd love to check out those four endings and the "true" ending lol.

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[Relinquish your pain...unto me...]
[Neither will alone, nor strength alone]
~Sword of the Blue Skies~

No one said SDGO?

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Battle my brute
SD Gundam Online Taiwan IGN: Ydawg314
SD Gundam Online Korea IGN: Layzee

iKhaotic: To my knowledge there's no translated script or anything, but for the most part the game sticks with the canon plot up until Destiny 39 so it should be easy to decipher. And I don't think anyone's truly sure what the "real" ending is; it's just generally suspected to be the one where Durandal wins and Shinn rips the TSA a new one.

ydawg314: SDGO is kind of problematic, especially if we try to avoid foreign-language games. Of course, I wasn't a big fan of it myself, mainly because while all my friends were rolling stuff like Wing Zero, my best MS was a Xamel.

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I've never regretted anything in my life...except those 15 min I spent watching the beginning of Dragonball Evolution ~Johnny Yong Bosch

I kind of agree with you because that how i felt when i started the game but one thing players should know is that you don't get good ms by capping them... You get them by capping c ranks and spending g on plans

Also there plenty of english speaking clans out there

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Battle my brute
SD Gundam Online Taiwan IGN: Ydawg314
SD Gundam Online Korea IGN: Layzee

Lol I doubt a shounen anime would have the antagonist winning and the hero turned "villain" destroying the protagonists... But that does sound like an interesting alternate ending though

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[Relinquish your pain...unto me...]
[Neither will alone, nor strength alone]
~Sword of the Blue Skies~

To the best of my knowledge, Generation of CE sticks with Shinn and ZAFT the whole game, so regardless of the endless debate over who the "real" hero of Destiny is, Shinn losing equates to an ending-less Game Over and restart.

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I've never regretted anything in my life...except those 15 min I spent watching the beginning of Dragonball Evolution ~Johnny Yong Bosch

Generation of CE was hard as hell too, the enemies level up along side Shinn and whatever mech he uses, so playing Destiny stages in the game with a maxed leveled Shinn and a maxed Destiny means a lot of trouble, along side with a lot of quick saving and loading.

If you're feeling really hardcore, enjoy turn-based strategy games, moving units around on hexmaps, and don't mind feeling utterly lost at all the (untranslated) menus and options, then I'd recommend Gihren no Yabou - Axis no Kyoui V for the PS2 & the PSP (aka Gihren's Greed/Ambition - The Threat of Axis). It's the most recent iteration of a very detailed strategy game where you take charge of the entire Federation, Zeon, or a number of other Universal Century factions (including some highly unlikely What If ones). Covering a timespan from the One Year War to Hathaway's Flash, you get to conquer territories, research new mobile suits, build fleets & armies, get steamrollered by the AI...it's all great fun (and by 'fun' I mean the Dwarf Fortress kind of 'fun').

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