Gundam Seed: Alliance Vs Zaft

[Keith]

Not sure how many are going to pick this up, but I just got mine an hour ago. I've only had a chance to play it a bit, but so far my first observations:

Good

-Not significantly, but it does appear to kick the graphic's up a notch from G vs Zeta

-Good assortment of MS, including unlockable Impulse, Sword Impluse, Blast Impluse, and from the looks of it, the other 3 stolen Gundam's from the beginning of Destiny (you fight against them at least). Also looks like Lunamaria's red Zaku may be there too (though maybe just as backup). As of yet though, I've only unlocked Shin & his various Impulse incarnations.

-Pace is definately faster.

-Sword Impulse has unlimited beam boomerangs, a killer melee, and limited beam burst attack (in addition to it's Vulcans). Definately the only way to play Impulse, as Force is just a slightly improved Strike.

-Some nice funky diagonal & sideways camera angels during battles help add a sense of intensity

-For those who hate Cagalie (sp?), slicing up her & the Strike Rouge with Sword Impulse as your team mate occupies Kira & Freedom (though I've never had a problem with her myself).

-Freedom, 'nuff said.

-Faster recovery time occasionally when you take a hit, hell, sometimes I've been knock'd back & then jump right back up to attack again.

-Fighting against Blitz and seeing it use the Mirage Colloid

-Ease of pilot selection, this time it's just scrolling through picture's, no having to translate names.

-And of course, the hope that Lunamaria will be a playable character :::crossing fingers:::

Bad

-This game is pretty stripped down, maybe I was just spoiled by G vs Z & it's insanely fun U.C. mode & unlockable extra's menu, but all you get her is arcade mode (though picking different characters seems to be the only way to vary up the stages), Vs mode, 7 options.

-No Campaign or U.C. style mode....what the hell were they thinking?

-No (as of yet) music selection mode. In fact the only songs in game seem to be Invoke, that vocal that play's during some of the episodes when someone dies, and Find the Way. I was really hoping they'd include Believe instead of Invoke, but alas it's nowhere to be found.

-The awaken mode & all its awesomeness is gone, and in it's place is the older style Newtype boost (or in this case "SEED mode." This time it's achieved by holding down L2 & R2. I really do miss being able to pop back up after being taken out, with a missing head or leg. Hopefully it'll return in a later incarnation.

-No apparent online mode, though I don't have a broadband connection, PS2 modem, and never played online in the Zeta games, it still seemed like a cool feature to have.

-Melee attacks don't quite feel right. In the U.C. games when you conected a beam saber attack you got the nice sound & feeling that you were slicing into something. Here you pretty much just get a cheesy clang when you connect a meleee.

-No huge MA battles (at least that I've seen). Would have been nice if they through in Destroy.

While I do enjoy the game, I don't feel they should have stripped it down so much from Gundam Vs Zeta's copious features. Though I'm sure we'll get a sup'd up Destiny version game within a year, and that it'll have many of those feature's re-instated, there's no reason why they couldn't hav e taken the time to add in a U.C. or Campaign style mode here.

Edited November 17, 2005 by Keith

[mikeszekely]

I was interested, but it sounds like I'd be better off waiting for a DX version.

[Keith]

Which will undoubtably have Destiny, Super Freedom, etc.

I spent some time this afternoon unlocking MS & Pilots though, all the Zaku varients seem to be there (Phantom is awesome), Lunamaria is indeed unlockable, as is the Destiny version of Athrun with Savior, Chaos, Abyss, (forgot what the other was) and their respective pilots, Rey, and there are still some slots for additional pilots.

The SEED meter is actually better than I thought it would be. Aside from doing the usual thing that the meter does, it turns a regular beam weapon into a rapid fire one, a heavy beam cannon into a Mega Launcher style one, and refils your ammo if you're out before you activate it. Also, all MS can boost like the transforming ones in the Zeta games, now simply done with a double tap of the X button. One strange thing I've noticed is the lack of free floating space stages. I know they weren't terribly popular, but now all space stages have ground components to them (Junius 7 has what's left of the colony, Debris field has what I assume is a meteor to walk on, and Genesis takes place in a Colony Laser style interior). I suppose that's one way to fix the problem of getting lost in the space levels, but I never minded them much.

And while the entire game is pretty much arcade & vs, the stages have the "feel" of the U.C. mode stages in G Vs Z. That is to say instead of the 3, 4 hit kills of the U.C. vs Arcade mode of the past, the SEED arcade mode's stronger MS will take 5'ish hits to take out the stronger MS (including yourself if you're in a stronger MS). I guess it's almost a fair trade off.

The major improvement to this game, aside from larger MS models, is definately the increased play speed. If they could blend the engine of this game with the MS & variety of the U.C. VS games.....

Edited November 18, 2005 by Keith

[ogami]

Keith, yes, you can use luna... after you beat the game 6 times

and you can use Stella after you beat the game 12 times...

[Keith]

Keith, yes, you can use luna... after you beat the game 6 times

and you can use Stella after you beat the game 12 times... 

345923[/snapback]

I don't think I'm too far from Stella then (just unlocked Chaos, so another couple play through's should get me there). Strangest thing I've noticed while playing is that my single highest score remains to be from my first play through, oddly enough using Kira & Freedom. Prooving yet again, nothing can touch Freedom!

Also, have you been able to bring up a Romanji character set for the generic pilot names? I find it odd that after 3 games they'd suddenly abandon that.

Edited November 18, 2005 by Keith

[ogami]

How can u beat Freedom + Strike Rogue + Metor... with Force Impulse ?!?

Answer: 10 x Continue...

[Keith]

Having put a lot more time into the game the past couple of days, I'm really enjoying the improvements that were made to the engine. Chargable beam weapons, somewhat controllable charged beam weapons (much easier when SEED is in effect), all MS being able to boost around like a transformable MS, and lots of interesting weapons variations, a lot of care was put into refining the battle engine. It's just too bad the other features were stripped away. I can easily see this engine being applied to Wing & X MS (which wouldn't have quite fit in with the previous games), as overly super powered MS are presented here in easily controllable forms, while including nearly all weapons.

I wouldn't at all mind a U.C. vs C.E. game with a combinatoin of new & old elements. as Nu & Zeta would definately shine with the newer speed of this game.

[mikeszekely]

Screw CE. I would have been happy with a UC vs. game, overhauled engine, that took UC mode from Operation British to the end of Char's Counterattack by following the pilots from the Federation/Titans, Zeon/Neo Zeon, and AEUG/Londo Bell. For added spice, include units, pilots, and scenarios not just from Gundam, the 08th MS Team, Z Gundam, Gundam ZZ, and Char's Counterattack, but also units from War in the Pocket, Stardust Memory, Blue Destiny, Advance of Titans, Sentinel, and other side stories and MSV between the early days of the One Year War right up through Amuro stopping Axis from hitting the Earth, with plenty of alternate histories too.

[Hikuro]

W-Wait theres ANOTHER Gundam game?! Please tell me this is much better than that Never Ending Tomorrow crap.

[Keith]

Never bothered with never ending tomorrow, but if you enjoy the Vs engine, then you'll enjoy this.

And while I'd love more U.C. as well, this engine could easily go all the way up through Victory (enabling some nice melee's with the V2's light wings, & chargable assault cannon would have been great). Maybe the next game...

[Keith]

Alliance Vs Zaft II Plus finally came out this week, and I got a copy a couple days ago. And as expected, nearly everything that was left out of part one has been fixed here.

-Plus mode is SEED Destiny's incarnation of U.C. mode, and while fun, still pales in comparison. U.C. mode was still much more fleshed out with the various character path's & alternate storyline paths. Plus tries to recreate this, but the whole core of it revolves around Shin, and his "realationships" with the various other characters. You can play "as" other characters (assuming you earn enough friend points), but Shin is still at the center of this mode. There are apparently 250 stages, and most of them are fun. Unfortunately, someone decided to throw in the decidedly "unfun" tactics of having to shoot nuclear missiles out of the air before they strike targets, stomping out little trucks under a time limit, and "life pod" chases under a time limit (i.e. touch various points before time runs out). Those stages aren't too prominent though.

-Gallery mode is back, and seems to be nicely rounded. I haven't played with it too much,j so I'm not sure if you can view the in game 3D models like GvsZ, but there are character shots, artwork, movie clips, and music select which are all unlockable.

-The best part of the game is still arcade mode though, and the Destiny suits definately add a lot of fun. Strike Noir is awesome with its flipping raround & shooting & twin pistol style guns. Strike Freedom manages pretty well to represent the insane armorment of the suit, though the Dragoons are a bit lacking compared to other dragoon suits, with the limited number of buttons on the PS2's pad, they did a bang up job. Most fun new addition, being able to lock on to two targets at once & fire in two different directions. The Akatsuki's beam reflection is also surprisingly fun, regardless of whether it makes sense or not, it's as close as we'll come to playing the Hyaku Shiki in this generation of games. The Murasame is also not suprisingly very Zeta like, though it struggles a bit against the more suped up SD era suits. Destiny is quite pretty with its beam wings, has awesome melee attacks, etc. The pink Meer zaku is also present, not terribly useful for fighting, but is entertaining none the less with its dancing & grenade bursts. Only MS I'm really dissapointed with is the Gouf Ignighted. If they'd left the controls as they were with the Gouf in the old Vs games it would have been great, but unfortunately they've dumbed down the head rod controls, one button for a weak grab attack, and one button for a stronger slash attack.

If you passed up on AvsZ due to its sparseness, definatey grab this one. The overall speed seems to have been kicked up a bit more, the varied typest of weaponry alone is worth it (including movable huge beam weapons), and the ability to set boost to infinate for crazy midair battles are the major advances that have been made over the U.C. vs games. I'd still love to see them throw this engine over a CCA or Victory era all inclusive game, or just an "all" gundam game in general. Maybe on the PS3....

[Hikuro]

Hm, sounds good too bad I don't have 1) a PS2 anymore 2) The ability to play import games period even without a ps2

Answer, maybe in my dreams.

[Legend of TSXer]

Hey thanks for the review. I will most likely get this game, after Christmas that is.