The game is your standard JRPG fare, with combat being completely turn based as your group of Gundam and enemies take turns launching various attacks at each other. If you’ve played any Final Fantasy game older than XI, you know what this is all about. The main draw of MS Saga: A New Dawn is the ability to mix and match different pilots with different mobile suits, while modifying and upgrading said suits outside of battle, including swapping parts (which changes not only their stats but their appearance.)
Graphics-wise the game looks decent. There’s nothing groundbreaking. In fact, the character models are a bit simplistic or rough around the edges. The mobile suits, on the other hand, are very detailed and look exceptionally well compared to the rest of the graphics (albeit presented in chibi style.) This is unsurprising, given that the Gundam license is the main attraction and that without it, MS Saga: A New Dawn would probably have a hard time standing out from the rest of the JRPG crowd.
All in all, if you’re not averse to the jRPG genre and have grown tired of the VS. Arena Gundam games, it wouldn’t hurt to give MS Saga: A New Dawn a try. It should give you a few weeks’ worth of playtime, more if you find the parts-swapping and upgrading mechanic addictive. I can’t find much fault in the game (outside of the inability to save on the overworld map), it’s unspectacular but you could do a lot worse as far as JRPGs are concerned.
