Ever since G Generation Touch was announced late last year, I was pretty damn hyped that I could get a taste of SRPG goodness on my iPhone. So after a week of playing it, has it been everything I’d hoped for in a SRPG game?
Veterans of the Generation series will not find anything new here as the game mechanics are pretty much the same across most of the G Generation games. Newcomers though, may find the game extremely difficult and inaccessible. And unlike most SRPGs I’ve played, this isn’t a game where the campaign mode can simply be played through.
The premise of the game is that you play through the stories or ‘scenarios’ as they are called in the game of the UC Gundam series, but at most you are given the main character, their MS, and the mothership of that series. The rest of your army must be purchased with credits obtained by completing missions or by capturing enemy MS.
This isn’t the main problem, however due to the sheer number of enemy units and reinforcements in stages, you to be extremely prepared or face total defeat. This means you’ll have to replay the stages you have available over and over until you have enough money to buy enough MS to face the next mission.
A good example of this is the jump in difficulty between the first and second stages of the game. In the first stage you had to kill a total of 2 units with a Gundam. In the second stage you had to defeat 5 Zaku IIs, Char and another TWO reinforcement sets of 3 Zaku IIs and a Musai. At this point, I still only had Amuro and his Gundam, and White Base. The odds were so stacked, I was wondering to myself at one stage, “Surely I’ll get some friendly reinforcements…right?” Sadly no, as my poor Amuro had to destroy the entire enemy forces by his lonesome in his battered Core booster after the Gundam was blown up.
A while later, I found out about the capture system and managed to acquire myself some Zaku IIs to start off my collection. Essentially by destroying enemy capital ships, any MS launched by that ship will surrender, allowing your capital ship to capture them. Then I also discovered the combination system, where you can combine different units to produce a totally different one. This is the part of the game I find most fun.
Even with a sizable army, the game still proves to be frustratingly difficult most of the times. This boils down to the ridiculous number of enemy units and reinforcements on most maps, coupled with a random number generator that seems rigged at times. Even at 10% chance to get hit, I fear for my units. Unlike SRW games, the in game save is only good for one reload, and thus ‘rage resets’ are not possible.
Another gripe I should add is the late availability of land based carriers such as Gau, Gallop etc. There is no option to purchase these until you successfully perform the right combination of units, however it is not after you complete several difficult land missions until you encounter and capture the needed units.
I should also note that unlike other G Generation games where you can select which era to start in, in G Gen Touch, you must play the UC timeline in order. In addition to the scenario mode of the game, there is a ‘Quest’ mode which mirrors the stages of scenario mode, but are non-story based and the enemies consist of MS from different factions. While these missions are a good opportunity to obtain new units early, they are also much harder than their scenario counterparts.
There is also a special mission mode in which you can use to level up pilots and MS. Basically these missions take 24 hours of real time to complete which on completion credits some experience and upgrades to the pilots and MS. It’s a good feature for those who don’t want to grind to level up, but in my opinion, 24 hours is a bit too long to wait, since you can’t use those people you assign on a mission in another game mode.
The game itself is pretty much a straight port of SD Gundam G Generation Mobile, so the graphics in the game aren’t nearly as good as they could’ve have been. The MS in the battle screens can look pretty pixelated at times, but the game looks much better in motion than it does on screenshots. The animations are all quite samey though, with most shooting and melee attacks looking pretty similar to each other. With that being said, chances are you won’t be watching the animations most of the time as you’ll probably be grinding on missions you’ve already beaten to get more cash and MS.
Another dissapointing note is that there are no SFX or voices in battle animations. All you get are simple renditions of Gundam music from the respective franchises.
While Touch claims to be the first G Gen game with Unicorn as a playable MS, it seems that it isn’t available as of yet and will be a DLC later.
If you want a more accessible SRPG or type experience, I recommend playing War of Eustrath instead. While I enjoy G Gen Touch, I can’t really recommend it to anyone but the most hardcore SRPG Gundam fans.
For another review of G Gen touch see Ikusagami’s review.
Played on iPhone 4. Completed Original Gundam scenario mode. Look forward to a playthrough guide soon.