MS Gundam Battle Operation: Code Fairy

[briareos_kerensky]

It has been a while since the last single-player Gundam game, and considering Bandai Namco's recent output for anime tie-ins, I was a bit hesitant to get this.
But, surprise, BaNa actually spent some money on this project! Code Fairy can be seen as a single-player version of Battle Operation, utilising control scheme, graphical assets, and fighting mechanics; brand new to Code Fairy are everything related to the storyline.
Missions are presented as they were an anime episode, with opening and closing theme, and even a preview for the next chapter. There's a good number of animated cutscenes in addition to cutscenes done with the in-game engine, as well as an animated main menu where all friendly characters go around and do stuff with the scenery.
The interface is a bit scarce but functional, though there a bit too many menus leading to other menus: you start the game and you end up at the launcher, then you get to Code Fairy title menu, then to the game mode selection, and finally to the appropriate menu for the selected game mode.

Code Fairy is set during the One Year War, starting slightly before the battle at Odessa. You play as Alma Stirner, a newly appointed pilot to the Noisy Fairy unit, an experimental Zeon outfit composed only by women. The cast is small, with three pilots in total plus three support characters for Zeon and a couple from the Federation side.
Code Fairy does a great job in contextualising where you are in the Gundam storyline, and even uses clips from the first animated series to visualise some events, like Garma's death. The story connects to a lot of things in the Gundam universe, and it was a pleasant surprise to see that even MS Igloo gets mentioned.
The game is spread over three packages, each purchaseable on its own, and I think each has 5 missions; based on the first five missions, it's not the longest game ever, I think getting to this point took me about five hours including cutscenes, and a bunch of simulator missions to unlock stuff.
Unfortunately Mobile Suits are imposed on you for story missions, and despite your two teammates piloting Suits with a different specialisation, you have to play as Alma in her High Mobility Zaku II.

I've never played Battle Operation, but I think the combat mechanics are the same as that game, and I don't think they are the best for a single-player game.
The tempo is somewhat slow, there's no target lock, weapon reload is almost unbearably slow, and movement options can feel restrictive if you come from Gundam games like Side Stories or Unicorn.
For example the jump is very short, to jump higher you actually need to hold down the jump button and charge your thrusters; you can dodge-roll and dash, but overall this feels closer to MechWarrior than previous Gundam games, even older ones on Dreamcast or PS2.
Weapons have a cooldwon after swapping to prevent spamming, which is good in an player VS player game, but here enemy waves outnumber your team 2-to-1 or even more, and a lot of times you are just waiting for weapons to get ready or reload as you stumble around the battlefield. This limits the enemies as well, but they have the numerical advantage and they'll immediately switch to fire on you the moment you enter within their guard range, even when allies already fired upon them.
Everyone tends to get close and personal, and allies really like to get into your line of fire. There's no friendly damage but apparently you can get staggered by friendly explosions and physical attacks, and getting back on your feet takes quite a bit of time, during which you are vulnerable.

I am having fun with Code Fairy, but it's not quite as refined as I hoped.

[briareos_kerensky]

Time for an update.

I have reached the final mission, which the game lists as "Chapter EX" because they are afraid of the number 16. I'd understand if that chapter was an epilogue set a year after the story but it's a direct continuation meant to bring closure to the whole endeavour. Oh well. I haven't cleared it yet, because it represents a rather big difficulty spike among several other difficutly spikes both between missions and within missions themselves.

Everything story-related is top notch: drawn animations, cutscenes with the in-game engine, storytelling, the characters, how the plot entertwines with the original 0079 series and a lot of videogames, novels, and mangas set during it, it's all very good, though I do prefer grittier Gundam stories. There's a nice progression from happy-go-lucky to "this is war", though it never becomes as somber as some of my favourite series; let's say that it's above 08th MS Team in terms of silliness, and never quite reaches the tension heights of that series. It's still a pleasant story to watch, but the game itself could have used some more work.
For me the main problem is that Code Fairy uses Battle Operation's system as its base without modifying it: I can see a lot of the mechanics working well for a multiplayer 5-on-5 game, but they stride in a single player game where at times you, as the player, are the only target. All missions see you or your team (a total of three people) fending off waves of enemies, which usually start with a single 3-member team, but soon other 3-person teams join the fight and everything becomes a mess.

After switching to a new weapon there's a cooldown timer for using it, which severly limits your offensive options, as even loading the next round (not a full reload) can take seconds on both primary weapons (like a bazooka) or a secondary weapon (like a shotgun). You constantly end up overpowered by your opposition, and your weapons haven't been balanced to do more damage, so you end up pumping half a bazooka clip just to take down one enemy. Melee weapons have good damage, but they are tricky to aim (each MS has its own camera rotation speed, which can be excruciatingly slow on base Suits) and they still suffer from insanely long cooldown times. You can combo attacks but there's a massive damage scaling.

A lot of weapons and attacks will stagger or knock you down, after which you are immobile for a few seconds; getting back on your feet gives you a brief invincibility window, but when that happens to your enemies, their window seems longer and still active when they are already shooting you.
Allied attacks will stagger and knock you down as well, with the added bonus of not giving an invincibility window. And you will be knocked down by your allies, because a new system in Code Fairy is the NT Link: mark a target and the more staggering attacks you pile on it, the higher the damage will go. It's the only reliable way to deal a lot of damage in a short time...if your allies can actually contribute to it: there's always the chance they'll miss and more probably they'll just pummel you instead; there's no friendly fire but the enemy AI will take adavange of every second you are immobile. Maybe by constanstly firing explosive shells and charging into you, effectively wrestiling control over your MS for several tens of seconds.
In maps with narrow spaces the whole affair gets incredibly frustrating: your ranged weapons don't do much, you want to close for physical attacks (especially with Alma), but then you'll have to dodge both enemy and friendly fire.
One more system I'm not particularly happy in this single player version of Battle Operation is the rock-paper-scissor roles MS have: raid, general, support, which further reduces or improves damage dealt and received.
And of course there's grinding for parts to improve your MS and pilto levels. After you reach level 10 with everyone you can feel some improvements in all key stats, but the opposition more than matches this growth, and throughout the game you feel irritatingly underpowered.

Somehow, however, the system works, though clearing a difficult mission or beating a boss wasn't met with satisfaction, but more with "effin' finally I'm done with this nightmare" kind of relief.
Mission structure is plain as well: everything is about destroying the opposition, and while some add a target to defend or decoys to help you, the objective is always the same. Maps are repeated over and over, and while enemy waves offer a lot of visual variety for enemies, there isn't much to say about how they attack.
From chapter 6 onwards you thankfully take control of other squad members, which at least offer some sort of respite from the usual combat: you've got a sniper and an artillery unit in some missions, that do change how you approach things, but I would have preferred being able to choose the role I take...story rols might be sniper or long-range support but your squadmates follow the same AI principle as your enemies: close range as much as possible as try your best to hinder movement of other AI units and the player. When allies you have to defend are mobile, they will follow their predetermined path no matter what, even if they have to knock you down and walk over your MS.

Clearing a set of five chapters opens up side at least one extra chapter for all the secondary characters.
There are also a series of situation missions (like destroy 20 Zakus, defeat Char, reach the destination without being seen), cost battles that mimick Battle Operation but in single player, and the chance to replay training missions for mechanics specific to Code Fairy (like decoys and NT Link).

Overall, Code Fairy is a notch above New Gundam Breaker or Side Stories Missing Link, but still has some serious problems due to its reliance on a multiplayer system for a single player game.

[Asura]

Yeah; I wanted to get this, but I held off because I just don't feel that the combat in GBO2 (a game I love) would really be very entertaining in single-player.