Gundam has a long and varied history in all forms of media, from its long-winded animated titles, video games and even the mountainous boxes of gundam plastic models that we may never get to put all together in one’s lifespan. It’s safe to say there’s quite a few things a video game can do with this much information and SD Gundam Battle Alliance channels that rich history and provides casual enjoyers and its hardcore fans something akin to nostalgia with its latest video game entry. Much like Dragonball Xenoverse, Battle Alliance borrows historical scenes from each of the animated series’ universe and brings them back as an altered version of history with your job to actually put it back together.
I only see myself as a casual enjoyer of anything Gundam. I’ve never really gotten to the point of watching more of the older animated titles nor did I tried every video game released that has the word Gundam plastered to its box. And only recently when I started dabbling on the scene of building my own gunpla which is both relaxing and time-consuming in its own way. So there’s still a lot of things I have to squeeze in my tiny little brain of mine to get a good grasp of what Gundam is all about and this makes the entire plot of the game a bit too “spoiler-y” for my taste. That isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy some of its iconic moments that I had knowledge on though. However the story does provide some details into each of its little engagement with history. So even if you don’t have any prior knowledge or any plans of watching the entire series, you never feel truly lost in its story.
The “breaks” in history and how you put them back together provides an interesting twist to its overall appeal
SD Gundam Battle Alliance isn’t the next Gundam Breaker game no matter how much I try to imagine it to be. Please!!! I really really really want a proper Gundam Breaker sequel! But enough about my obvious thirst for a Breaker sequel, Battle Alliance is a game that follows the more traditional action-RPG style of combat. You’ve got access to two buttons for your melee combos, launchers and anything melee related, you also have access to boost and dodge buttons. Meanwhile, each SD Gundam also has access to three types of sub weapons that has a limited number of uses that recharges overtime. And each of the mobile suits available in the game falls into one of three categories: All-rounder, Infighter and Sharpshooter which also provides the variety of how you want to build your team of three or how you’d want to face encounters to maximize their capabilities. And with this, you get to sortie into what the game likes to call “Break” missions which only really heightens my thirst for a Gundam Breaker title… is this a sign? I hope so! These “Break” missions are the “break” in the history of the Gundam Universe which alters bits and pieces of the mission like Kira Yamato and the Freedom Gundam being a no-show when he supposedly needs to be defending the Archangel or the fact that you’re supposed to be fighting a Gouf with you know who but end up going against a certain Gundam Barbatos at the first few hours of the game. And how you actually fix these breaks in history is also a bit quirky and fun as you’d have to go into other directories and find other breaks to put the missing mobile suits into their own timeline which will then unlock a “True” mission for each of the break missions available.
There’s a handful of available mobile suits available for use and unlocking new ones is straightforward enough. Each of the missions in the game drops blueprints for certain mobile suits and while going through the mission once can unlock the more basic ones, some of the more sought after and iconic models are spread out in different missions or require more than just one run through to get the all the required blueprint pieces together. Customization and upgrades for each of the mobile suits however is a huge downer for me. Much like the musou genre of video games, Battle Alliance provides a leveling system for each of your suits but can be bought through hard earned in-game cash. You get to upgrade each of the stats of one suit a few number of times but eventually you’ll see a shiny new Gundam blueprint you want to try on but don’t have the capital to put it up to speed with the story’s difficulty level. It slows down the pace of progression when you’ll be going back to previous missions just to get another suit the necessary power level to tackle the harder ones.
Who would’ve thought flashy animations, high octane combat, great detail and visuals make for a great package?
Battle Alliance provides the high octane and responsive combat system that not only looks cool but just looks very cool and to me that’s a huge difference. But regardless of my lack of a vast vocabulary to put it into words, the combat that is varied by its multitude of available mobile suits and archetypes speaks in volume thanks to its somewhat varied missions and boss fights of every scale and form. You never really feel like you’re playing a repetitive slog of button mashing madness if you take advantage of having a handful of certain suits at your arsenal although going with just “the one” to push through its story would do it which is a huge question mark as to why you’d be doing that in the first place.
Visually though… the Super Deformed (SD) way of doing things feel a bit off for me in terms of combat animation because it just doesn’t put as much weight into their actions with the lack of a longer lasting and obvious motion that having longer limbs would do. To be honest, I feel like I’m watching kids in a Taekwondo match with all their protective gear but those kids have boosters to zip around the map with and are shooting lasers and shit for no apparent reason. And that’s really the saving grace for them. The visual flair does wonders to put more weight into each move and the detail work done with the mobile suits and environment lightens up each mission along with the banging and nostalgic soundtrack.
In a nutshell, SD Gundam Battle Alliance provides a fun take to the overall appeal for anything Gundam. You can enjoy the story for what it is, get a certain feel for some of its iconic moments and just get to play around the world as you see fit in your Super Deformed pieces of laser shooting chunky metal. If you’re a huge Gundam fan, I can’t see why you wouldn’t want this but if you’re someone like me who’s only casually interested in the franchise, its gameplay and online coop features provide just enough fun and challenge should you not care much about getting spoiled.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 5
Developers: Artdink, Alvion
Publishers: BNE Entertainment, Namco Bandai Games America Inc.
Reviewed on PS5
Enjoy the review? want to read more of our reviews? then click right here to be whisked away to the realm of our opinions.
You must be logged in to post a comment.