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Reviews: Gundam Memories (3/10)

Posted on : 23-07-2011 | By : | In : Reviews

Hardware:

16

For the most part, the library of Gundam related games on the PSP is a remarkably solid one. With developers like Artdink and Capcom producing some truly excellent games. However, more recently Bandai Namco have become pretty complacent and gone back to their old ways of funding quick hack jobs to harvest some quick cash.

This is no new trait either, as the later years of the PS2’s life also saw a similar trend with woeful games like Gundam Climax UC springing to mind. What with lacklustre efforts such as Gundam Assault Survive, the writing has been on the wall for a while now. So it’s not with great surprise, though with some regret, that Gundam Memories has ventured toward the fecal end of the gaming quality spectrum.

This is not to say that Gundam Memories has no redeeming qualities, as it is arguably one of the most visually and technically impressive PSP game’s we’ve seen. Engine proficiency aside though the game itself is a catalogue of face palming awfulness.

The main bulk of the game plays out similarly to Gundam Climax UC. Simple missions where you circle strafe around cycled fixed lock-ons without much control of vertical movement. Combat is split between ranged and melee with a pretty anemic boosting setup that links the two. The latter is also an issue as the player cannot out flank enemies in many encounters, which is a pretty substantial issue if the game were solely focused on combat but this isn’t quite the case here.

Apart from the core “combat” the other main element to the game are a slew of quick-time events. Now, we’re not overly fond of these kind of features in games but they can and often do have their place. Normally as a means to rubber stamp a victory and then used moderately sparingly. In Gundam Memories none of that is the case. Instead these are used as major means of dealing damage in the middle of a fight once sufficiently charged. Annoyingly, the animation for when an enemy activates their own attacks is identical to yours so you’re often left wondering whether you initiated the attack by mistake. Countering these attacks can also be pretty arduous as well as rather inconsistent. On most enemies, a successful button press awards a counter to the enemy’s attack but on some encounters, normally with bosses in particular, these counters never occur and instead a protracted continuation of events results in something not too dissimilar to what would be a mechanical colonoscopy.

Following on from this is the inevitable upgrade system that’s prime purpose is to buy your way out of failure. Either through directly upgrading your mobile suit’s abilities (such as health, attack or defense) or through buying more powerful quick-time events. The acquisition of these upgrades turns the game game into a merciless grindfest. This is very much apparent that on failing a mission you still receive enough currency to purchase upgrades.

If all this sounds like the game is a walkover, then don’t get ahead of yourself. There are numerous and pretty brutal difficulty spikes throughout the game, often to do with the fact you haven’t reached a sufficient level of upgrades in order to progress.

Though this is not the worst aspect of the game. Despite the fact missions are hugely repetitive, the boss battles are pretty awful as they can initiate their own very powerful quick-time events on you. Almost always resulting in an instant death. The infuriating aspect to this is that you can’t really avoid them, as there is no real messaging to say that your enemy has the option available. So you’re inadvertently caught like a rabbit in the headlights of an oncoming car, except this car has the lights off and the bastard behind the wheel is wearing nightvision goggles.

Overall then, despite being technically quite impressive the game itself is really quite disappointing and for the most part desperately frustrating. Thankfully there are still plenty of great Gundam related games available on the PSP, so all is not lost at least.

Tamashii: 3/10

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Comments (16)

Assault Survive wasn’t that bad.while their intentions were good when it came to the new method of unlocking Mobile Suits and the inclusion of AUs, the vague requirements needed to unlock Mobile Suits combined with the lack of AU MSVs are the only things holding it back.that, and not truly deviating from the same course as the past four titles.I give it a 6 out of 10

That wasn’t the biggest flaw with the game though. The multiple areas per mission, of which within them were mission critical objectives, meant you had to be in various places at once. It lost the awesome visceral aspect to the combat by trading it in for a horribly clunky tactical approach that didn’t really fit.

This, on the other hand, is just fundamentally crap in terms of its core mechanics.

Most of the objectives could either be handled at your own leisure or were bonuses.I thought the new map system added some longevity to the missions and were a natural evolution to how map changes were handled in previous titles.

The objectives that were the issue weren’t the optional bonuses though. Having to defend allies across several maps was incredibly awkward. It broke the game, as transitioning between maps was pretty damn clumsy too.

As for the pacing, the whole point of the GB games was their snappy and portable friendly mission length. The maps just massively increased their duration, making the game more akin to a console game rather than something you’d play on the move.

While do concede the first point I do find issue with the second.Portability unfriendliness is something you can’t fault a game for,just because its a game you can take on the go doesn’t mean it has to be bite sized for easy consumption.Just look at Metal Gear Solid:Peace Walker or Final Fantasy Tactics.

Except in this case the GB games made a case for exactly that type of portable accessibility. So to eschew that without the means to do mid-mission saves was very stupid.

What’s really being said here is that there should be a PS3 release of a Gundam Battle game.

Because there’d better be, god dammit.

A mid mission save system was most likely not possible.

Probably the best Gundam battle series in PSP is the Gundam Battle Universe which had huge amount of the playable MS. Afterward the series only seems to be an attempt by Bamco to milk the franchise.

By the way did you have any review for Gundam battle universe?

I loved GBU, easily the best of Artdink’s GB games. Will review it one day for the site but my review backlog needs to be sorted out first!

You have no idea how happy I am to know that the game with the most MS is also the best.

And that’s exactly the game I can’t find.

@Greg: Most likely and that’s the point; they shouldn’t have even bothered in the first place with such an extended mission structure without the support to back it up on a handheld.

That still sounds like a personal gripe and not a objective flaw.You can’t put those kind of constraints on a developer.

It’s a flaw relative to the other games in the series though. Extending mission size over several areas without some form of concession to that is a big oversight. Mid-mission saves would be one solution but the game needed something to fix the issue.

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