Thursday, November 28, 2019

SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays - Now Available on Steam

Over the past few years Bandai has slowly been bringing Gundam back to the west. Up until then most of the anime series have stayed in Japan with only subbed versions uploaded to gundam.info, and the games have remained Japanese exclusive with no plans for English release. What was once popular in the US thanks to Toonami and even the SyFy channel, was now fading away. But then things changed.


A little over five years ago, Gundam began it's revival outside of Japan. The entire is currently being released on Bluray with multiple new releases each year, a few of the series have made their way back to Toonami, and even most of the popular streaming services have began showing them (Hulu even has a "Gundam" section). The series in general has been picking up steam, but it's still been struggling in the game department. Some of the better releases have come out in Asia with English subs as an option, but games translated for the west have been very hit or miss. (We pretend New Breaker never happened). That changes today though... (Or should I say last night?)

SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays has officially released on Steam. While that may not mean much to a lot of people, it's the latest in a pretty popular Gundam sub series, and what many will consider one of the best Gundam games out there. Similar to the Super Robot Wars Series, the game is a turn based strategy RPG, where you create teams featuring characters and units across the Gundam series, and send them to battle against enemy units. (Think Fire Emblem, Disgaea, or Final Fantasy Tactics, but with giant robots.) While past games focused more on the UC (the main Gundam timeline), this one instead changes gears and focuses on the stand alone series Gundam SEED, Wing, 00, and Iron Blooded Orphans.

As for the story, it has you work your way through different key battles throughout these series' history. This means anyone who isn't familiar with the series already can jump in and play, but be aware that it will spoil the anime if you have plans of watching them. That being said, this game really is more for the long time fans, and definitely worth checking out. Assuming you like TRPGs that is.