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[PS3] MS Gundam Side Stories Missing Link

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    [PS3] MS Gundam Side Stories Missing Link

    This game is a collection of several other Gundam Side Stories (Cross Dimension, Blue Destiny, Rishe from the Ashes, Lost War Chronicles, Zeonic Front, Encounters in Space) plus Missing Link, a new game.
    All previous games have been brought in line with this new one, and this could be a huge problem...but everything in order.

    There's a story mode, divided between EFF and Zeon campaigns. Both start with Missing Link, all other games locked out. EFF and Zeon campaigns can be tackled independently, they tie in with each other, but from what I've played the Zeon campaign starts off at the beginning of the One Year War while the EFF roughly halfway.

    Missions so far had only one objective, "destroy everything until enemies (or time) run out". In a mission, you squad is composed by up to three MS, each with its own weapon loadout; unfortunately, MS and weapons available are designed by the mission, and the briefing screen only exists to list objectives and to let you see your equipment. The briefing itself is extremely basic, with a scrolling text giving a modicum of backstory and the aforementioned list of objectives.
    The MS in your squad are lives of sort, as when one has been destroyed, you take control of one of the remaining MS; the downed MS is out of action for 40 seconds, after which it reenters battle with a lower maximum health. The cycle continues until a MS no longer has health, and this time it's out for the remainder of the mission.
    It's also possible to jump at any moment to an other MS via the d-pad, but battles are chaotic and it takes a crucial two-three seconds to fully undestand where you are, what you are targeting, and to readjust to the different weapons.
    If you are in the squad leader's MS, you can also issue orders to you squad mates; orders available are support and attack, and it's only possible to swap between these two behaviours; issuing an order consumes one Action Point, and APs are gathered by killing enemies.
    So far, I've completely ignored orders, as the AI is bad. Both allies and enemies can get struck in the scenery (like MS not being able to jump out hip-high water trenches, or tanks driving straight into the sea...and surviving that), and in one mission I was used for target practice while my allies where standing idle trying to jump past a trench. In one other, an enemy (a boss, nonetheless) constantly charged in a straight line against my artillery MS, which was able to knock it down (and back) nullifying any effort to get near.
    To give the AI some credit, the terrain isn't exactly easy to navigate: I got struck while trying to access a bridge, every kind of building is impassable and indestructible (even pylons for electrical lines), natural walls that look too steep to climb can be climbed, and so on. Most mission areas are relatively flat, but this is not exactly an excuse for this kind of sloppy environment.

    Controls are responsive and easy: triangle, square, and circle are each tied to a weapon (infinite ammo, but with recharge times between shots and clips), x to jump, the d-pad to swap MS (left and right), issue orders (down) and activate the EXAM system(up), L1 for the shield and switch to a weapon's special attack, R1 for locking. Left analog stick for movement and right for camera control.
    The locking mechanic takes a bit to get used to. Pressing R1 will lock onto the enemy in your crosshair, which is always in the center of the screen, too bad that it's essentially invisible in all situations due to its size and colour. After an enemy has been destroyed, the lock automatically transitions to the next enemy, which is invariably the least menacing one behind you, so it's better to use R1 trying to lock what's in front of you...maybe you'll actually lock on what you want. This is particularly frustrating when trying to pick out a specific target among others (like the bridge of a warship among its turrets), and as weapons are linked to the face buttons, it's not possible to go full manual for aiming; lock-on also work as a rangefinder for you weapons, so you are essentially struck with it.

    Visuals are a mixed bag, to be generous. MSs look great, and for example Zaku II are modelled after Real Grades, with a lot of junction lines and details, but once you get something to cast a shadow on them, you'll notice how shadows are pixellated. Everything else look very bad, from supporting vehicles, to the terrain, to any building. If not for the high resolution, the visual would look straight out of a PS2. The interface is bland as well, and it's nowhere near the great work that From Software did for Unicorn.

    Speaking of Gundam Unicorn, Missing Link has a set of VR missions, where you chose one mission and the MS that form your squad. Unlike Unicorn, however, it's not possible to select pilot, MS, and main weapon, as everything is tied to the chosen MS.
    You can select MSs from those bought with points rewarded at the end of each mission, and so far, I've got so many points to buy out all available MSs and still got a ton to spare. I think you can also increase a MS' level with those points, but I'm still working my way through the interface.
    VR missions do not differ from campaign missions, though there are some escort duties among these.

    So far Missing Link failed to impress, and thinking that all other games have been brought to this standard, I wonder how Zeonic Front have been mauled. For those not knowing, Zeonic front is an unique take on Gundam games, it's still an action game, but it was the first where you had a full set of orders for your mates, combat was much more tactical, and the briefing (which included a planning phase) was as important as the mission itself.
    Let's see how everything turns out.

    #2
    Missing Link EFF campaign finished.
    The story involves some sort of black ops EFF unit

    with cutting edge equipment going rogue after discovering a buker full of Zeon gold. Doublecrossing, befriending of enemy troops, probably the development team saw Kelly's Heroes the day before starting to work on the game, only that Kelly's Heroes had a coherent narritive that didn't ship the protagonists around the globe with unlimited resources.


    Anyway, all missions are 5 minutes or less, and when cutscenes are triggered, they show a completely different setting than the mission, like: where have all enemies gone? Why do enemy MS pop up from the ground (!) right in front of me when the mission resumes? Why all MSs involved in a cutscene start their walking cycle at the exact same time? Why don't cutscenes at least have character portraits? Watching close-ups of almost immobile mechas gets boring very quickly. Why is the ending a cutscene I already saw with a semi-transparent document scrolling in the foreground...and the text on the document is the kind of gibberish you get when you strike keyboard keys at random?

    Really, the presentation in this game is more than lackluster, it's downright terrible. There might be several Side Stories games in this collection, but I would have preferred one game where developers gave an actual f*ck to what they were doing. Bandai, why not giving Gundam games back to From Software? Unicorn wasn't perfect but at least the people working on it actually cared about their product. Sorry for the language, but the first campaign left me extremely bitter.

    Completing the Missing Link EFF campaign unlocks Blue Destiny, and the whole Blue Destiny is composed by three Saturn games. Honestly, I don't have the strenght of sitting through the same streak of 20-or-so boring missions with just new Suits. I haven't started it yet, trying to find solace in the Missing Link Zeon campaign, hoping that at least Zaku IIs will give more satisfaction...first four missions against groups of tanks that go down with one hit. I know it's the kind of edge the Zeon forces had at the beginning of the war, but this makes for a massively uninteresting game scenario.

    Completing the first Missing Link campaign also opened the gallery, an other place where you can spend the points gathered by playing. At least Missing Link is kind enough and is generous with these points, and nothing requires grinding to unlock things in the gallery or in VR missions.
    Right now my mission in this game is to unlock Zeonic Front and see how badly mauled the game is.
    Last edited by briareos_kerensky; 02-06-2014, 20:23. Reason: added spoiler tag

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      #3
      How playable is this to a non-Japanese reader/speaker?

      I heard about this a while ago, and it'd probably be fun to play Blue Destiny.

      I've been toying with getting the Dreamcast game, "Rise from the Ashes", again, as that's pretty good (at least, it's quite unique, in terms of cockpit-view home Gundam games).

      Did you play that other PS3 Gundam game? The one that's NOT Extreme Vs or that dire PS3 launch title?

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        #4
        It's fully playable. The interface during missions is in English, and what I've gathered from the story is thanks to years of watching fansubs, not knowledge in Japanese (or does that count?).

        Blue Destiny and Rise From the Ashes are pretty good, and I would have loved to see them ported as they were (in-cockpit view); the story in BD has been changed to the one told in the manga (videogame and manga had different endings), but I don't know how much of the original game is there.

        Did you play that other PS3 Gundam game? The one that's NOT Extreme Vs or that dire PS3 launch title?
        Dinasty Warriors Gundam? Gundam Breaker? Crossfire/Target in Sight? Battlefield Record? Battle Operation? Unicorn?

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          #5
          Missing Link Zeon campagin completed, and I got some faith back into the game.
          The Zeon campaign spans the whole One Year War, you get more MS, you visit different locations (like an oil rig and space), you get to know more characters, but once you get in space, it gets even easier than the EFF campaign.

          The Zeon campaign also gets a nice closure for the Pale Rider MS, and (probably completing both Missing Link campaigns opens up a new campaign set before Char's Counterattack that apparently ties some ends kept loos in both campaigns. And you get to pilot a Geara Doga, which is never a bad thing.

          The first Zeon Side Story to be unlocked is Zeonic Front. Without a proper briefing/preparation phase, it's not the same game. Missions loosely follow the original game's structure, and got cut to remove some of the filler, like introduction/training missions. You also get portraits of pilots talking over the radio during missions, which is nice. Why those were never introduced in Missing Link, is completely beyond me. Anyway, the briefing still remains a drab list of things to do ("destroy all enemies"), so I guess that everything is this game has been flattened to the least common denominator and then lower a couple of notches to have a mindless series of missions.
          About this, the Missing Link campaign is a streak of missed opportunities: in the final Zeon missions you encounter the RX-78, but you just see it in a cutscene; a last-minute escape during the EFF campaign is just a cutscene; climatic battles with the Pale Rider (an EXAM MS developed from the Blue Destiny) are again cutscenes only; missions that could have been time limited are based on killing all mission-relevant targets. There are hints of greatness, but are completely ignored in favor of a simplistic structure that doesn't reward the player.

          And since you get a Gelgoog in the final Zeon missions, a Gelgoog became available in the VR missions, only that it's a space-only MS. Now, I can understand that you can have a Ball or a MS with wire weapons (like the Zeong or the new Bishop) in ground missions, but a bipedal MS? Did they forgot to provide the Gelgoog with a walking cycle?
          I got some hope back and I'll finish the third Missing Link campaign, and probably Zeonic Front and Blue Destiny, but Side Stories Missing Link remains a sub-par experience.

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