PlayStation 2

MS Saga: A New Dawn

I loved the mobile suit customization options, but felt the game world itself was boring and underwhelming - you'll never think you're in a Square Enix game. Fan or not, you also won't think this is the typical shoddy Gundam game.

MS Saga is an interesting game, mostly for its customization elements and the few key areas in which the battle system really shines. This isn't one of those games that'd you'd pawn of for being an entirely wasted effort, but it doesn't really strive to lift itself above mediocrity. Though it may sound trite, Gundam fans should enjoy this and though it takes some time and effort to get the really cool units, they're generally worth it if you're dedicated. There's really a lot of things to fiddle with and multiple play-throughs may produce different results, but RPG fans looking for something a little less generic with a more engaging presentation overall would do well to seek out the new Shadow Hearts game instead.

MS Saga is a bare-bones role-playing game that benefits from the same brand of extensive customization that has helped make the Gundam series so successful. The gameplay is simplistic and derivative, and the presentation is uninspired, but those looking for a new type of Gundam game will find a sometimes enjoyable experience in MS Saga.

MS Saga isn't necessarily a bad game; it’s just that it feels like it's about 5-7 years past its prime. The plan for an RPG instead of yet another action Gundam game feels like a good idea, just like the ability to customize every one of your mobile suits is the standout feature of the game for fans of the long running franchise. The execution just feels radically off, perhaps because of how far away MS Saga went from the source material. The visual style of the game is simply unexplainable with the choice of squishing the mobile suits to "toddler size," the unbalanced combat system, and the bland character/plot development really feels like this would've been a good PlayStation One game, instead of a sub-par PS2 title.

"MS Saga: A New Dawn" é um RPG estilo japonês como muitos no mercado, sem qualquer inovação maior. E os defeitos também são os mesmos da maioria desses games, com batalhas desinteressantes - até maçantes - e um enredo pouco inspirado. Se você é um fã de RPG ou de "Gundam" talvez consiga se entreter com as 40 horas de aventura, mas, se esse não é seu caso, há opções muito melhores por aí.

More than most genres, RPGs are pretty codified. And Japanese RPGs, somehow, more so than American ones. It's just possible that MS Saga wasn't actually meant to be a retail game but was actually produced for game-design and marketing textbooks. Possibly, it was created by rogue elements within Bandai, who realized that a bland and passable Gundam game would still be degrees better then previous Gundam games. MS Saga lies just below the threshold of a good game, and the shine of its customization and gripping boss combat is dulled by lackluster, rote storytelling and lifeless presentation.

Upon seeing MS Saga's title, A New Dawn, I foolishly assumed that Bandai had turned a corner and finally created a game that wasn't shot out of a cookie cutter gun, but unfortunately, I was wrong. MS Saga, while a refreshing take on a series that's been tarnished by boring action games, is no better than its brethren, and in some cases it's worse.

In the far flung future, a mysterious energy pulse sweeps the world. Everything is destroyed... except the giant robots. Welcome back to the Gundam universe, though not much looks the same. For the first RPG based in the long-running and absurdly varied Gundam timeline, Bandai has wiped the slate clean and started fresh. Except for the giant robots, of course, and the most dreadful conventions of the RPG. The Gundam games have frequently been terrible and, sadly, MS Saga: A New Dawn is no exception.

To their credit, dedicated anime fans will follow a beloved series almost anywhere, and as Gundam enthusiasts will profess, giant robots never lose their wistful charm. The series has generated games already, of course, but none of them have been an RPG, so for better or worse, Bandai read a few RPG-making primers and churned out MS Saga. It's better than much of what the series has inspired thus far, yet that's not exactly a ringing endorsement. It's got a few things going for it, but in the world of Japanese role-playing titles, we've seen this all before. We've met these characters in better games, and they've already saved the world, and dressing them up in big, unwieldy mech suits can't disguise them.