#mobile suits gundam

[astrarobotica]

I've been playing a lot of MechWarrior 4/5: Mercenaries lately, and it really just makes me wish Bandai Namco would make like, an actually good, canonical Mobile Suit Gundam game.

It's really annoying that for the past decade or so, nearly all Gundam games have been PvP-focused mashup games that are basically just saying "Wouldn't it be cool if Amuro Ray could fight Domon Kasshu but also fight the guy from Gundam Seed at the same time?" Like yeah it would be cool! And honestly the Gundam Extreme Versus MaxiBoost Whatever the Fuck™ games look like the best games that have come out of the franchise recently. But then they were like "Okay what if we do that again, but rather than being a 2v2 arena fighter it's just fucking Overwatch? What if we make it so similar to Overwatch that we basically just copy the HUD almost exactly? What if we release this game TWO WEEKS before Overwatch 2 comes out?"

The thing that really bothers me about Gundam Evolution is it had a lot of potential to be a decent Just Another Hero Shooter if they had just put some thought into giving it an actual identity. The gameplay was actually pretty good, but they didn't do nearly enough to make it feel like a Gundam game. It was just Overwatch with a random assortment of mobile suits from 4-5 different universes. The fact that they went so far as to shut it down only a year after it came out is absurd. I'm not surprised that the game wasn't successful, but I'm confused at how they thought it would be, and then it was apparently so unsuccessful (meaning not enough people were buying the cosmetic shit for it to be profitable) that it wasn't even worth keeping the servers up and providing minimal support for people who did actually enjoy it.

Then there's Battle Operation 2, which feels more like what I think a Gundam game should be and is at least limited to UC content, but I just don't enjoy playing it. It's an overly-complicated free to play game that seems to reward players who play (or spend) a lot, which makes it difficult to get acclimated when you're just starting out. I haven't played it enough to feel like I can accuse it of being pay-to-win, but I've seen that argument made by other people, and it difficult not to feel that way a little bit considering how most of my matches have gone. And I'm sure a lot of that comes down to me just not playing the game enough to actually get good, but it just doesn't feel worth the frustration of trying to get there when the game seems average at best. I keep wanting to give it another chance, but I get frustrated every time I do. It certainly doesn't help that I've only been able to play on maybe three distinct maps, and specifically one of them away more than the other two.

Back to the point...

I've been playing MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries and MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries a lot over the past couple weeks. Neither of them are perfect games. They both have unique strengths and shortcomings. A lot of people would probably disagree with the things I like or dislike about them. But I think they're both a lot of fun, because they both make huge effort to make it feel like you're controlling a big bidepal machine loaded with weapons, and to make the combat engaging and satisfying.

The crazy thing about how much I enjoy these games is that I'm not even that interested in the greater BattleTech universe. I've played 20 hours or so of the turn-based video game from 2018 (although I need to go back to it because I don't really feel like I've experienced that much of it) but that's it. I know very little about the tabletop game. I've never read any of the books. I know the basic concepts in the lore and I know of the Houses and the Clans and all of that, but not much else. I know of some of the people but I don't know anyone's motives or ideals. I feel bad saying this, but I just don't care about the universe these games are set in. The plots of the games allude to much bigger events occurring in the background, but without context none of it means much to me. I don't think it's bad at all, but I think it's just not for me. It seems very dense and complicated, and I honestly think if I took the time to read some of it I would enjoy it. But I just don't have the desire to become engrossed within the world like I do with other fictional worlds. I think I'm just not that interested in the whole Feudalism, But in Space genre.

So it's just a bit of a shame that Mobile Suit Gundam games don't get that same level of treatment/production value. A game set in the UC timeline with a gameplay loop similar to MechWarrior: Mercenaries games would probably be my favorite game ever if it was actually any good. I just like good mech games. I loved Titanfall 2 even though I usually hate fast-paced multiplayer shooters. I really need to buy Armored Core 6 soon (speaking of, FromSoft made a Japan-only Gundam Unicorn game a while back, why not let them have another go?). There's so much potential to not only make good Gundam games that aren't PvP-focused, but also to make Gundam games that actually make sense canonically. Bandai Namco somehow felt confident enough to rip off Overwatch and thought that was a risk worth taking, but they don't want to make games that actually acknowledge there are stories and deep lore and a really good science fiction universe behind the big cool robots.

[demifiendrsa]

English Dub voice actress Rachael Lillis has passed away on August 10, 2024 at the age of 55 due to breast cancer.

Lillis is best known as the original English Dub voice actress of Misty, Jessie, and various pokémon such as Jigglypuff and Goldeen in the Pokémon anime. Her other well-known English dub roles include Utena Tenjō in Revolutionary Girl Utena, Martina in Slayers Next, Micott Bartsch in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Nagi Kirima in Boogiepop Phantom, Yuriko Star in The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Kanaka Ohno in Genshiken, and Ami Kurimoto in DNA².

[demilypyro]

Funniest scene ever btw. Haha whoopsie I slipped. On the blood of this man I killed. This man I squashed like a bug. Whoopsie doodle. How silly of me

[eggtempest]

ketchup

[kage-my-justu]

[gubdam]

HARO KILL ATTACK

[amalgamasreal]

[s3znl-gr3znl]

Armored Core: you're a cog in the death machine of capitalism and freedom lies in the hands of those strong enough jam the gears and break the apparatus. you should def use the Baby Flayer 9000 to achieve that goal btw

Gundam: war is fucked man, so much senselss death and killing all in the name of lofty ideals. anyway we'll be rolling out the orphan thresher as soon as next quarter

[knackeredforever]

char is the funniest motherfucker alive

hes doing this for the bit

[strangeweaver]

as per my roommates request i have crucified chars zaku in our apartment hallway

[layingeggs]

[cherrystar-art]

"Stay at my side forever." Suletta & Miorine - The Witch from Mercury

[alphamecha-mkii]

Sazabi Concept Art by Hiroyuki Hataike

[demilypyro]

It's been fascinating seeing the reaction to the poll. The Destiel fans seem to think their ship deserves to stay popular and relevant just because... it used to be popular and relevant, I guess? Reading these tags has such a flavor of entitlement, it's really something.

It's like they're not realizing that the standards for what qualifies as good representation, or even a good show, have shifted in the last 10 or so years. Not realizing that a lot of people who were here back then, like me, never cared for Supernatural, and don't agree it was important at all, and would not be interested in celebrating it. Not realizing that other fandoms have been happening around them, and that some, like in the case of Mobile Suit Gundam, have legacies that reach back to decades before Supernatural was even on the air.

Destiel is such a product of its time. It's a fanon ship that, as I recall, was strongly disliked by its show's staff, acknowledged only because the fans demanded it so much. The ending of Supernatural was widely mocked, and the show is now mostly remembered as that meme people learn the news through.

Sulemio meanwhile had the full, joyous support of its staff, and was canon since the first episode of Gundam Witch. The whole show's plot revolved around this pairing. The Gundam franchise hit record sales numbers during and after the show. Sulemio brought hundreds if not thousands of new people into the mecha audience, and got many of them interested in the hobby of building Gunpla. Suletta and Miorine being canonically married even stood out politically, because gay marriage is not legal in Japan.

Is this not progress? Is this not worth celebrating? Why cling to the old and busted when the new hotness is doing such great things?

"Be serious", they say. But I am serious. I've been serious the whole time.

Maybe it's not for me to understand.

[eggtempest]

passing on her gundam main protagonist knowledge

[owainigo]

red comet