Gundam Versus is a video game for the PlayStation 4, the fifth generation in the Gundam VS series. It was released in Japan and Asian territories on July 6, 2017 with a North American and European release on September 29, 2017.

Gameplay Overview:


The game features improved graphics and more detailed background destruction and will retain its 2v2 format, although now 3v3 battles are now possible. The game still retains its team battle gameplay but will also include modes only possible on the PlayStation 4. Along with the standard Boost Step and Boost Dash techniques, a new "Boost Dive" mechanic allows for players to boost downward at will, making combat much more fluid and quick. The Assist mechanic from Gundam Vs Gundam Next has been reworked into Strikers, which allows players to select their own assist unit, with over 180 to unlock and choose, allowing for flexibility in combos. Like the Assists from that game, Striker usage is finite, though it can be replenished by activating Burst. Through the MS Development Tree, players can unlock additional titles, Emblems, Strikers, Navigators and alternate pilots by leveling up MS units and spending GP.

The Burst system has also reverted back to a more simplified form with Blazing Gear and Lightning Gear. Blazing Gear focuses on enhancing melee attributes while Lightning Gear improves lock-on range and ranged weaponry. In addition, these Burst modes not only enhance the user, but their partner as well, with Blaze replenishing ammo and Lightning replenishing Boost meter.

In addition to the Arcade mode (named Trial Battle), the game features an Ultimate Battle, which serves as the game's survival mode. The player and a chosen partner will then run a gauntlet of enemy waves, the fifth of every run being a boss battle. After the fight, the player will have the chance to upgrade their stats or replenish the resource gauge, using Battle Points accumulated from battle performance. At random, an Extra Wave will commence; these can range from a myriad of fights like a standard fight or the ability to play as DLC suits, or more rarely, an opportunity to play as a Mobile Armor boss. Losing or winning these will not affect the player upon resuming the run.

Playable Units: 

200 Cost Suits 


Guntank
Doan's Zaku II
Char's Zaku II
Dom
Rick Dias
Methuss
Nemo
Marasai
Hizack
Re-GZ
ReZEL
Vigna Ghina
GunEZ
Kapool
Silver SUMO
Tieren Taozi
GN-X
Gundam Ground Type
GM Custom
GM Cannon II



500 Cost Suits


Zeta Gundam
The O
Full Armor ZZ Gundam
Qubeley
Nu Gundam
Sazabi
Unicorn Gundam
Sinanju
V2 Gundam
Wing Gundam Zero
Gundam Epyon
∀ Gundam
Turn X
Gundam G-Self Perfect Pack
Crossbone Gundam X1 Full Cloth
Hi-Nu Gundam
Nightingale
Hot Scramble Gundam (DLC)


The Verdict: 



Gameplay


In terms of gameplay basics, I feel the same way I did about this game like I did when I wrote my early impressions from my experience with the open beta. I was relieved to see that the in-game tutorial covers a lot of basic and advanced techniques. I'm surprised that a lot of players that I have been skipping over this pivotal wealth of knowledge. Several key techniques are covered here, including the explanation on special canceling actions to firing normal and special weapons in quick succession and actually how to block/guard. Believe it or not, but there's actually a means to block in this game instead of merely just evading attacks.



As for mobile suit selection, I'm surprised that there's a lot of mobile suits missing in terms of fan favorites and a lack of a lot of various series missing in this game from being represented at all. Nothing from Mobile Fighter G Gundam is the biggest shock, with a lot of key Mobile Suits and Mobile Armors missing as either bosses or playable units from the series. Gundam 00 is missing Mr. Bushido as a pilot and his specialized GNX-Y901TW Susanowo from the last tail end of that series, not to mention Setsuna's revamped 00 Gundam and 00 Raiser. I would guess 00 Raiser and 00 Qan[T] would definitely end up being DLC down the road at some point. That's mind-blogging that those were omitted from this game at the retail release.

Players can also create a list of their five favorite mobile suits to shorten selection times on the menus, but I personally felt that you should be given at least 10-15 slots instead a mere 5 given the 96+ playable units in the game.

For those who are fans of New Mobile Report Gundam Wing, all of the TV series models of those mobile suits from that series are represented as playable units, but they are labeled incorrectly in the menus. The game identifies them as the "Custom" units from the Endless Waltz OVA, but these are obviously the TV Edit designs for all of those Gundams. You can tell this easily by looking at Heavyarms with his orange/yellow/red/white color scheme instead of the dark blue scheme from the OVA. I would like to assume that the Endless Waltz iterations would be available as DLC playable units at some point - Tallgeese III is surprisingly missing here, along with the Serpent units from that OVA movie as DLC strikers.

I could go on and on here on suits that are obviously missing from other series, such as those missing from SEED or the various other series that are represented in this game that either appear as strikers but not playable.

Soma Peries from Gundam 00 is my current in-game Navigator, but seriously... anything is better than Haro after you start grinding hours away at this game. 
Hey, Namco Bandai? Could we have some more variety on Battle Navigators? There has to be more variety in that department than the few that are available, especially considering how much GP you have to grind for to purchase them.

Also, would it kill Namco Bandai to dub this game in fucking English or at least add subtitles for the pilot dialogue? So fucking lazy that there's so little translation in this game - same amount found in the open beta prior to the console release. Even the customizable BGM music tracks in the Settings are in Japanese kanji.

It might be a minor issue for some, but for those looking to stream this game on PlayStation 4's broadcasting software, it's blocked on all regions due to licensing issues with the previously mentioned music that is available in this game from the multiple anime series' that make up the Gundam franchise. Anyone can tell you about the licensing hell and headaches that Sunrise has gone through over the years with the Gundam license, especially with trying to license that stuff for anywhere outside of Japan.

Free Battle


A common complaint about this match from the hardcore fighting game community was that there wasn't any sign of a traditional training mode available in this game in the open beta. Sadly, they are mistaken. You can set the CPU level to "Stop" and turn off the partners to play this mode at your leisure with infinite health on both player and CPU units to practice combos, movement, and all of the other various mechanics to your heart's content before taking your favorite Mobile Suit to the other various gameplay modes.

You're going to regard this mode as a godsend too because roughly every Mobile Suit in this game plays differently in terms of weapons and general play style. You don't believe me? Go try playing as Epyon the first time loading up this game and see how far you get with it without any training/practice.

Trial Battle





Just a sample of my personal records in this mode...

As mentioned above, this mode acts as the game's traditional offline Arcade Mode across various difficulty settings and AI loadouts and mobile suit configurations. Alternative routes can be unlocked by performing well with S to SSS ranks for even more playtime out of this mode. I found myself gravitating towards the challenge of the Routes 6-10 just for the difficulty of them alone. I would love to see anyone beat Route 9 on their first attempt. I dare say Route 9 is harder than anything that Route 10 throws at you to say that's the max difficulty out of all these paths in the game.

Savvy Gundam fans will easily point out the influences and references that some of these routes take in terms of missions and enemies scattered on these various stages, such as one with Millardo Peacecraft (Zechs Marquise) piloting Gundam Epyon, accompanied by Virgo Mobile Dolls - straight from the finale of Gundam Wing. Another pits players against the two Gundam prototypes from 0083: Stardust Memory, then another pretty much sets players off in just about every major battle from Gundam 00. Then of course, there's a lot of representation from the Universal Century timeline that we've seen in countless Gundam titles to date, but it's great to see that some of the newer series are represented well here to boot.


Ultimate Battle


My personal scores from Boss Survival with two separate units...

As mentioned above, Ultimate Battle serves as Gundam Versus' traditional survival battle mode that can be completed in single player play offline or online with a friend in co-op. Bonus survival waves can be toggled on or off for online or offline play, with the online option invites other players into your game to work together to take down a powerful boss, try out optional DLC playable units, play as a boss against other players, or even just a random free for all. The last option rarely comes up, same for the DLC option and the wave that allows a random player play as the boss. These are welcome diversions from the usual chaotic gameplay in Ultimate Battle and a welcome addition to this game.



My only gripe with this mode is that if one player has a horrible connection, it ruins the entire match for everyone. Sometimes the game catches it in time and boots everyone back to their previous progress in Ultimate Battle (sometimes this will boot everyone in co-op back to the main menu, but I only ran into this like twice out of the many times playing with friends in co-op), thus allowing them to continue where they left off. Other times, the game isn't so generous and you're forced to play your bonus wave with the match playing at a snail's pace. That isn't fun at all - no bueno.


Buy It or Don't Bother? 

If you love anything Gundam, then you're going to have a smashing good time here...

If you're a Gundam fan or just a fan of giant robot/mecha action, you will definitely find something to enjoy here. Just be forewarned that the learning curve is a little steep if you plan to tackle all of the single player content before "graduating" onto the online versus modes. Even if you're content with just the single player content, you would be forced to play through these same missions over and over to grind and accumulate the GP to buy out all of the Strikers, Emblems, Titles, and max out the experience points on all of your favorite Mobile Suits. It becomes rather tedious VERY quickly in that aspect. My humble suggestion is browse through the MS Development trees and see what characters you want to unlock for Strikers and play as those units long enough to get those ones that you want. 

That being said, there's a lot of things here to enjoy for old and new Gundam fans. There's little Easter eggs and small references in each of the individual units' movesets and actions that are throwbacks to their respective series that I found myself chuckling at and smiling at from noticing. On top of that, a lot of the iconic Gundam franchise's musical fanfare can be found in this game. I kinda wish that Bandai Namco/Sunrise included an official soundtrack with the purchase of this game as a lot of these iconic themes are pretty hard to track down online. There's some glaring omissions from the in-game playable roster (such as the cast from Mobile Fighter G Gundam despite the fact they were playable in Extreme Vs.) , but with 96+ playable units with more on the way as downloadable content, there's definitely something for everyone. 

Unless you're a really hardcore Gundam fan, I can't recommend paying full price for this if you're just in it for the single player content and the few co-op missions online. Wait until this drops in price after the holidays and pick it up for half-price than what it is going for retail. 
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