After the ratings failure of Gundam X in 1996, which was cancelled after 39 episodes, there was a long hiatus for the Gundam franchise. The next true Gundam series (Turn A Gundam is largely excluded from the main sequence of Gundam sagas) was Gundam SEED in 2002. This new saga, which sorta functions as a remake of the original UC saga, is by far one of the best, and breathed new life into a somewhat dormant franchise.
Gundam SEED chronicles the intertwining stories of Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala, two best friends who are separated by a great war sparked between the Earth Forces and ZAFT, an organization that resides in the colonies of outer space (called PLANTS) that consists of genetically altered and enhanced human beings called Coordinators. The Earth Forces have built a series of secret weapons called Gundams, which are being held in a colony owned by the neutral nation of ORB (please excuse the obnoxious anagrams), where Kira happens to live. A special team of ZAFT forces lead by Athrun invade the colony to steal the Gundams, but along the way he meets up with Kira, who captures one of the Gundams himself, and an all out, tragic, personal war between the two begins.
With this new saga, of course, came a slew of new video games based on it. One of which was the continuation of the Gundam fighting franchise, this time in portable form. SEED: Battle Assault borrows most of its elements from the previous battle assault games, but due to the constraints of its platform, it’s a much more stripped down incarnation of those engines, but it still gets the job done. Like Endless Duel, it features almost the entire cast of its respective show;
Characters
Strike – Kira Yamato
Kira is the main character of Gundam SEED and most of SEED Destiny. Much like his predecessor and prototype, Amuro Ray, he unwillingly gets wrapped up in combat, stumbles inside a Gundam, and is forced to use it again and again because of his innate abilities as a Coordinator (the SEED equivalent of a Newtype). Like most fighting game heroes, Kira is a pretty well-rounded character. His best attribute is his super, which leaves the enemy open for a juggle opportunity.
Aegis – Athrun Zala
Athrun was Kira’s best friend during childhood, but the war eventually caused them to be separated. After not having seen each other for many years, they’re reunited in battle, but find themselves on opposite sides. Throughout the series, Athrun and Kira fight each other several times in spite of their feelings for one another, providing a great source of drama. Aegis is fairly weak, but makes up for that with extremely long chain combos using its beam sabres.
Duel – Yzak Joule
Yzak serves under the Le Creuset team, which consists of himself, Athrun, Dearka and Nicol. Though a villain throughout most of the series, Yzak eventually sees the corruption of ZAFT and temporarily sides with the Three Ships Alliance, although, being the most stubborn, he’s the last one to come to his senses about the war. Duel is probably the best initially available Gundam in the game. It has great speed, excellent combos, above average damage and one of the best supers in the game.
Buster – Dearka Elsman
Part of the Le Creuset team, Dearka gets captured by the Earth Forces. For this reason and because he was never really into the war in the first place, he eventually sides with the Three Ships Alliance to end the war. The Buster is a mostly long-range fighter. It’s great at a distance, but once someone gets in close, it can’t defend itself well.
Blitz – Nicol Amalfi
The youngest member of the Le Creuset team, the ill-fated Nicol is the least suited for war. Although Yzak and Dearka pick on him incessantly, calling him a coward, they consider him a dear friend deep down and are very protective of him when he’s in trouble. The Blitz unfortunately matches its pilot in terms of fighting prowess; it’s mostly a hit-and-run type Gundam that doesn’t have any really hard-hitting attacks. Worst of all, his super is a stupid invisibility phase.
Raider – Clotho Buer
One of the three Earth Forces’ Enhanced Naturals, earthlings who are genetically engineered and constantly given drugs to increase their fighting capabilities, putting them on an equal standing with the innately superior Coordinators. Clotho spends his spare time playing space shooter video games like Gradius. Despite the fact that it can transform into a dragon-like mobile armor, Raider is probably the worst Gundam in SEED. A few of its special attacks rely on a ball and chain that leaves it wide open if its blocked or doesn’t hit its mark.
Calamity – Orga Sabnak
Another one of the three Enhanced Naturals. He’s the leader of the three, and most “calm”, although he flips out just as much as the other two when he’s on his performance enhancing drugs. Orga apparently likes to read poetry. Calamity is the Heavyarms of the SEED series, even more so than Dearka’s Buster. Much like the Buster, its effectiveness is limited at close range.
Forbidden – Shani Andras
Shani is the most insane of the three Enhanced Naturals. When he isn’t out slaughtering people, he listens to music and acts emo. The Forbidden is the strongest of the three Earth Forces Gundams, acting much like the Deathscythe in Gundam Wing. It’s one of the best mobile suits available at the start of the game, with the exception of the Duel and possibly the Aegis.
CGUE – Rau Le Creuset
Rau is the main villain of the SEED saga, though he doesn’t really start hitting his villainous marks until about the last 5 or 6 episodes. He suffers from a major Sephiroth complex; a clone driven insane by the fact that he’s a clone. In the tradition of the Gundam franchise, he wears a mask out of shame. The CGUE is the only mobile suit in the game that isn’t a Gundam, and ironically, it’s the most powerful and omnipotent suit in the game. This game doesn’t really have an end boss, but this is as close to it as you can get.
Astray – Lowe Guele
Lowe never actually appears in the SEED anime. However, he’s the star of Gundam SEED Astray; a Gundam SEED manga side story of sorts. The Astray is a Gundam developed by ORB, and as such it doesn’t quite have the constitution of the other Gundams. However, it’s extremely agile, by far the fastest mobile suit in the game.
Freedom – Kira Yamato
About halfway into SEED, Kira and Athrun get into a huge duel, and Athrun ends up bailing on his Aegis, which self destructs, destroying the Strike. After a short recovery period, Kira is given the Freedom by Athrun’s ex-fiance, Lacus Clyne. The Freedom is one of two extremely powerful Gundams developed by ZAFT that have nuclear reactor cores. It plays the same role as the Wing Zero in Gundam Wing.
Justice – Athrun Zala
After Athrun sacrifices the Aegis in an attempt to kill Kira, he returns to outer space to seek answers from his father. Disappointed by the current actions of ZAFT, Athrun takes the Justice, the nuclear counterpart to the Freedom, and descents back to Earth, this time, to help his friend Kira end the war. The Justice is much stronger than the Aegis, but at the loss of some of the Aegis’ great speed and combo ability.
After choosing your mobile suit, you can customize its attribute ratios by trading points between three stats: Health, Phase Shift and Thrusters. In terms of combat, Gundam SEED: Battle Assault plays pretty much like Endless Duel with several restrictions. The most major restriction comes in the form of the GBA’s cumbersome 2-button layout. The attack options have been limited to a short range attack and a long range attack, with the trigger buttons functioning as your Berserker Mode activation and thrust. Because only one button is used for physical attacks, the combo system works much more like that of a beat’em up, but it still works fairly well.
Each fighter has a Phase Shift gauge, which is essentially a super meter. It’s always full at the start of the round, and decreases when using energy based attacks and getting hit by physical attacks (thus reducing damage to your life meter). There is no way to restore the gauge once it empties. The only exception is the nuclear Gundams’ (Freedom, Justice & Providence) gauge recharges slowly. You can also activate your Berserker Mode, which increases your attributes and gives you access to your characters’ only super move. While in Berserker Mode, your Phase Shift constantly decreases. This works sorta like Beast Mode in the Bloody Roar games.
There are a bunch of different modes to choose from that will challenge you in SEED: Battle Assault. The obligatory story mode with some decent still cutscenes and dialog sequences, vs mode for those who can link up with another GBA, Time Attack, Survival, and several others.
For a GBA game, SEED: Battle Assault looks and sounds above average. It uses rendered sprites, which most people find ugly, but they work for the robotic Gundams, probably better than standard, hand-drawn sprites would. The backgrounds range from bland to highly detailed, some of them with multi-layered parallaxing backgrounds. The music, though strained by the GBA’s pathetic sound output, is still catchy and not the least bit annoying. All said, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Battle Assault amounts to a pretty darn good fighting game, if a little bit on the simple side, but you really can’t expect all that much complexity on a handheld.
