MS Saga: A New Dawn Preview

Whether you call them Mobile Suit Gundams or just "giant robots," the Gundam universe has proven a fertile one for animated series, detailed model collections, and, of course, video games. The newest offering for mecha-crazed fans comes in the form of MS Saga: A New Dawn, an upcoming role-playing game from Bandai Namco that promises to feature lots of characters, customization options, and gangs of robots beating up on one another. We took the game for a whirl to see just what Gundam-meets-RPG is all about.

The world of MS Saga is one of many technological advancements, the most significant being the development of the "G System," a creation that held the ability to greatly aid all of humankind. Unfortunately, even the most promising inventions can have glitches, and a glitch with the G System caused a planetwide energy surge that decimated pretty much all of civilization. Since widespread global annihilation is considered an undesirable side effect of even the most remarkable technology, the G System was put on lockdown while everyone tried to pick up the pieces of what was left. One such effort produced an orphanage where two young men named Tristan and Fritz were raised. But just as it seemed the story would turn down a heartwarming path, the orphanage, the children, and the kindly caretaker were blown up by the unprovoked attack of some passing mobile suits, lead by a mech in black. Tristan and Fritz decide to exact their revenge by finding their own mobile suits and blowing up the bad guys in return.

The mobile suits piloted by Tristan and Fritz were the GM and the Zaku, models with their own distinct appearance. It's probably worth noting that the Gundams we encountered in this game are superdeformed. Yes, all the wanton destruction issues forth from armies of dangerously cute robots. Even with their shortened proportions, they still manage to wield sufficiently impressive armaments to get the job done. As you fight battles against other mobile suits, you'll receive new rifles, melee weapons, and shields, which you can then equip on whichever mech you choose. What a given mech can handle is determined by the size of its equipment grid, where you can add weapons and such via a system akin to Tetris. Each weapon has its own grid footprint, and so long as you can make it fit in a given Gundam's equipment grid, you're all set. Depending on their size, your Gundams can equip multiple weapons and types of armor. We found several upgrades even in the early goings of the game, like the large but powerful Magella top cannon and the heat hawk, which is a giant axe. The game promises 60 optional parts and 200 other interchangeable pieces and weaponry, so it sounds like you'll be able to tweak your machines pretty often

As you roam the landscape in your mobile suits, you'll encounter enemies that run the gamut of mechanized foes, from enemy mobile suits to tanks. Each of these enemies has special abilities. While mobile suits are well rounded and can attack either at range or in close melee combat, something like a tank can only attack at range. That's important because melee strikes (more powerful than your ranged rifles) can grant your foes a counterattack, so while you might want to cautiously whittle a mobile suit down from range before punching it in the grill, you can go right ahead and mash tanks all you like without fear of reprisal in the form of a counter.

In addition to basic ranged and melee attacks and weaponry, you'll have a number of other options available to you during turn-based battle. You can chose to defend or charge, which lets you skip an attack turn in favor of charging your EN gauge. You start off fights with a small number of EN points and then accumulate them through normal turns, or in greater amounts with defending or charging. EN points are what you use to power your weapons--a weak punch might take one point, while firing a powerful rifle might take three. As you level up, you'll learn special boost attacks, which cost a larger number of EN points but do considerably more damage to one or more foes. Finally, characters themselves can learn techniques, which encompass a variety of other powers. For example, Fritz can repair your mobile suits in battle or he can toss a grenade at a foe for a powerful attack that ignores enemy armor.

The game has a simple 3D look to it, with some nice bucolic town environments and varied facilities, like mysterious spaceships, to explore. The Gundams themselves, being superdeformed, don't have crazy amounts of detail, but they do have good animation, and each model seems to have its own character. The human characters tend to favor crazy outfits--the fiery-haired Tristan inexplicably matches a purple overshirt and green jacket with a pale-blue grid on his shirt, and Fritz is short and very, very pink. Early on in the game they meet a girl with amnesia who's wearing an outfit that looks borrowed straight from Ulala of Space Channel 5 fame. Their voice work isn't quite as flamboyant as their dress, however, and what we heard of it doesn't sound too shabby. The music is a bit understated, but it matches the variety of scenes and battles nicely.

If you like Gundams, and the idea of taking adorable, superdeformed robots to battle in an RPG setting sounds like it would be right up your alley, MS Saga: A New Dawn is worth keeping your eye on. The PlayStation 2 release of this unique little number is currently slated for the end of February, so stay tuned to this gamespace for the latest developments in cute mecha warfare.