They made a Gundam JRPG... it's crazy Good

Today, we're checking out a Gundam game that maybe you've heard of... but probably never played.
MS Saga: A New Dawn
Released way back in 2005 for the PlayStation 2, the game was received pretty terribly, but, this Gundam JRPG might just be a hidden gem. Or maybe it won't.
Let's find out.

[@shindoushuichi0287]

Seriously. This game is so underrated. I played the crap out of it. Never could get through the post game tho. The Hell versions of the GW guys are nuts.

[@lonniecfireillbemayorsomeday]

I want to play this game but i'm not willing to pay two hundred dollars for it

[@watermelonpizza7824]

​@@lonniecfireillbemayorsomeday emulate it if you got a pc.

[@discountgm8002]

@@lonniecfireillbemayorsomeday look for a emulation of it. playing it on keyboard may be weird at first but the gameplay is still fun.

[@warrenlam1082]

@@lonniecfireillbemayorsomeday just emulate

[@lonniecfireillbemayorsomeday]

@@warrenlam1082 you got a good rom

[@Aiello_]

Another cool thing about this game is that Akira Yasuda did the character designs for it, he has an awesome artbook called "Gundam Design Work"

[@VAANET]

Gundam Dragon Quest I call it. An amazing RPG. Difficult at times but it would shine if released today

[@BladeSerph]

I certainly would pick it up on PSN or steam if I needed a time killer. I don’t believe I ever finished it many years ago but I definitely enjoyed it as a chill pick back then, when I believe I was still using a ps3 if I recall correctly.

[@OrmylLP]

Ive been playing and ive noticed the similarities too. Tristan even gets the Dungeon Escape and Town Warp skills of the DQ Protags.

[@DarthAlphaTheGreat]

More Final Fantasy than Dragon Quest.

[@andrewhegstrom2187]

The bad part of the boss fights (sort of good too for how hard they are) is that they follow a strict pattern that then repeats after 10 turns I think? But even if you do everything perfectly you can get screwed by random pilot injuries.

[@byssyba]

That is a bad RNG mechanic

[@jesterloh]

we need sequel of this game.

[@wrathfirex]

I need it on the PSN

[@ferraud5518]

The Gundam breaker Prototype I found this one quite challenging and grindy, even so i'm glad some MC MS can be obtain via story

[@kurtmager1626]

Definitely underrated. I wasn't aware that only 20000 units were bought in the US, but I was one of them, having preordered the game when I first heard about it.

[@skyh3r0es]

you lucky mf, if they rereleased it for the new gen(especially switch) and release a physical copy, i will buy it in a heartbeat

[@sslocke]

Damn i never knew that. I still have my copy. I got it used from Game Stop and it didnt come with the actual case.

[@Weiss_Hikari]

It was a hard game to hunt down. I looked at many a gamestop until I found it at one not in my home area

[@passingrando6457]

Huh, I managed to get a used copy shortly after the game released. Apparently someone wanted a mech action game or Wing or something and got pissed and insta-returned it upon getting an RPG that starts you with GMs and Zakus. That, along with my entire collection of games from the Commodore 64 to the PS3, got burned up when my house burned down. Had no idea it was so valuable until I tried to replace it years later.

[@wycoconutgaming]

Now I see where the Gundam Breaker series inspiration comes from... Thanks for making this video, will hunt it down and play it sometime.

[@GundamKType]

I also kind of thought this game was the inspiration for Gundam breaker.

[@Gatherway]

I adore this game. Steadily building up and customizing my party of different MS over the course of a classic JRPG story with Gundam elements was incredibly fun! I was lucky enough to snag myself a physical copy, back when GameStop was still stocking large amounts of used PS2 games, and have treasured it ever since.

[@LOH3NGR1N]

This game was my fav as a kid never realizing how rare the game is. Still play it to this day cause its always a fun challenge to get to the moon

[@adazium1909]

I loved this game. I am biased because I'm a huge gundam fan/gunpla builder but it really is underrated. The only thing I wish was a little better was that the Mobile Suits have power creep near the end and a lot of the earlier suits become obsolete and cannot compete with the later suits.

[@leonaluceid2388]

I finish this game so many time, but never get bored, I want more like this

[@tmsern4341]

Yea I'm a proud owner of this Gundam game, original case and all, it's a classic Gundam game, along with other sd Gundam games that was made and only released in japan, which i also bought a japanese PS2 so I could play the three or so i bought from amazon years ago before the prices spiked to insanity levels by now probably.

[@nicodalusong149]

I remember finding out about this game and eagerly waiting for it to get released. The game didn't disappoint at all. I finished the whole game. I really wish we got another game like this. I really like that shoulders were changeable. Not even Gundam Breaker lets us customize shoulders anymore.

[@alexanders2071]

Never heard of this one! Ill be on the lookout for my PS2 collection. The combat is extremely similar to Xenosaga, it seems. The customization looks awesome! And I kinda dig the SD Gunpla esque charactar models.

[@JohnnyBurnes]

2:10 Oh hey, Big Zam.

[@naberius616]

Still waiting for a remaster to this day, grew up on this one along side the other gundam games.

[@blitzburrito]

Played this when I was 16. Loved the customization of the mobile suits. Wasn't paying that much attention to the story considering I was more focused on building my own Frankenstein of a mobile suit.

[@Omniguar]

My second favorite game on the PS2. I'm so happy I picked this up used at EB Games back in 2007 and I've never looked back. This game is a great example, outside of sandbox games, for when games had a great chunk of extra content in it aside from the main quest and even a post game super dungeon. Lots of replayability. If you can get your hands on it, do it!

[@niamentzer7051]

This is one of the best turned base RPG! My big bro and I played it and always gave me great hype every time we got Gundam until Nu Gundam, the last Gundam.

[@residentrump3271]

Wow. I remember hearing about this game back in the day, but I never saw it for purchase. As a hardcore Gundam fan, I certainly would've played it. I wonder how hard it would be to get a copy for the PS2 now...🤔🤔🤔

[@Varizen87]

My amazing sister got me a copy for Christmas one year. I actually ended up liking it a lot. But I never finished it because it was right before I moved for Grad school and as I was living in a grad dorm I didn’t play any games not on handheld. That was all DS and PSP times for me. I always regretted never finishing some stuff on PS2 like this and Wild ARMS 3.

[@jesseponce696]

Omg this game was so awesome, I was not expecting much cuz it was SD gundams. But It turned out as something I will remember as one of my best gundam games I ever played. The story and characters where good and how to get new mechs was fun the grind was real but felt earned.

[@DarkAlex1978]

It's a great game. The two things that always kept me to complete it are the excessive amount of grinding (well, excessive for me at least) and one thing sadly common to almost every japanese rpg like this one: no journal. It makes impossible to resume the game after a very long pause, because you likely forgot what was your currently objective and without a journal to recap the situation, the game does not help you at all.

[@darknarutokit]

For real

[@loiedonn4192]

I beat this game 4 times already. Not only are you capped to lvl 50 at max, the secret base is crazy and the 2 final secret bosses are crazy. Also the enemy list is super hard to complete. Some can be completely missed out. Thats the reason I beat this game 4 times cause I keep on missing some haha but it was an amazing experience.

[@k.alzaabi1986]

Just imagine waniting to play this game on the go, i did that in 2016 when i bought a GPD win just to play this game on a psx2 emulator, and that's how much i love this game since i started playing it in 2006. I keep coming back to this game again and again, and i wish bandai would make a sequel to this game.

[@AkagiRedSun]

Never heard of this game, I’ll check it out for sure since I do love RPG games

[@surprisedchar2458]

Damn. Japan really went and made them double orphans because they know Tomino hates parental figures that much.

[@Kull1339]

You know, when you think about it, the SD Gundam makes sense because when you make something bigger it has to grow squared not 1:1. So the bigger feet and such could actually be more effective

[@Forgetthereality]

I hope the concept of MS Saga gets revisited someway somehow

[@Djw8991]

had this one on my backlog in my hunt for more mecha jrpgs I'm taking this as a sign that I should play this one next

[@goufr3540]

I remember when this game was and played it with a friend of mine. Its probably one of my favorite JRPGs that I wished either got a sequel or remake. What was unique was its customizing feature that Gundam then went hard with in the later Breaker series of games. Either way, it was good times.

[@DK-ue5ks]

I love this game because I’m a gundam fan and also a jrpg fan. So this game is up my alley. Wish there was more games like it in modern consoles.

[@agaanugrah.a522]

This game is so good wish they would do a sequel on this and tbh with this whole plot going to moon all that, I was expecting we would get turn x or a turn a on this game

[@Nuwa_San]

Ayo. This is jam back in the days. Played this a tons as a teenager on my PS2. They really should make this kind of game again. The customization is really fun.

[@DamplyDoo]

I was like 10 years old, i couldn't get through the first couple missions. now i want to

[@cheungkwokhei]

I played this a long time ago and i still playing now. Its very sad that it released decades ago with low sales volume, and i havent seen any gundam game with this style yet😢

[@renoultrenoulli2322]

2:30 Well well who ever thought this become a real thing in a Gundam anime

[@Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyy]

If you go into the mansion at the top of the first town you go to. Run up stairs and look at the book shelf. There you will find a book that says the history of mobile suits. It says that mobile suits were created during the universal century.

[@hobobeard]

I am still waiting to hear which features would have been "all but impossible" in that style.

[@FriendsAndGamingYT]

I defo need to keep an eye out for this. I've been looking to pick up more gundam games and a turn based gundam game sounds right up my ally! Also really dig the equipment placement being a mini tetris game to fit them all in!

[@tec5x5]

And main guy has ability call Fire All and if your really loaded with weapons is so funny to see the cinematics

[@victoriazero8869]

The SD gundam design actually matters a lot in universe, as the MS height being cut in half, it doesn't outstrip other vehicles too much. At 9 meters give or take, the MS doesn't look as gargantuan compared the rest of the world, while also highlighting the full-sized boss better than the anime does.

[@mtsthoughts2008]

Nice work as usual. It's a pretty underrated gem.

[@xianderthest8014]

When I came across this game a couple of years ago I almost looked it over due to the SD Gundam designs but I am so glad I didn't it is surprisingly good for what it is. Weirdly fun Final Fantasy like Gundam game.

[@Badbufon]

i saw this game referenced several times, but i never bother checking it out... but that customization tho, that seems interesting, maybe someday i will give it a try

[@vincesims8839]

I loved this game! Would love to see an attempt at a return, I think it suffered most from lack of marketing.

[@cristianoayala4266]

G Gundam suit's are in this game?!? How crazy I love it!

[@stevenchan3822]

I’m glad I have 17 brand new copies of this game.

[@rokmare]

As a fan of Jrpg during that era I didn’t even know this was a gundam game 😂

[@bluedestiny2710]

I played this game too. I like the game play and the mechanics... and I remember grinding the out of the first area so much that proceeding missions was a bit easy. I loved the combat system and the grid / equipment. What I dont like about the game is the story and the characters... for the most part, the story and characters were too predictable or undeveloped (i.e Vargas' allegiance I saw a mile and a half away, and that pilot of the Big Zam defecting to your side because one of the characters that died asked him to bring his MS to you). The lore of the game was a little underdeveloped too (i.e why are there "wild" mobile suits? Unless it was explained but I couldnt remember)... and a little bit more development on the Makina Sapiens and their characters would have been appreciated. I mean, the game was pretty long, so I wish the writers didnt skimp on the story. I wish they DID continue this series... but im guessing Bandai went for the G Generation and SRW series as their "RPG" games? Oh I still have my physical copy of this game. Not sure if it still works, but the DVD is still in one of my cabinets XD PS: I believe the Japanese release of the game is titled: Gundam True Odyssey if i am remembering it correctly

[@OuroborosChoked]

Funny that you should mention all the Gundam games on the PS2... of all of them, _this_ is the only one I've played... and I never finished it. I got close to late game, but it takes so much XP to level up and it gets _hard_ late game. The grind felt like self-harm, so I took a break and just never came back to it. I liked the fact that you could get the Heavyarms, though. So there's that.

[@sslocke]

I replayed this game after like 15 years few months ago. It was such a good game. I wish we'd get a sequel. There's so many more MS parts we can add. But i guess GB4 is pretty much the same concept without being an actual jrpg

[@VexTrooper]

YOU FOOL!!! I PLAYED IT!!! Also, it's totally a hidden Gem. I've been playing it on my Emulator and it's pretty fun, and this is coming from someone he normally dislikes Turn-based games.

[@SuperDarkSamurai1]

Good game. Need to get back to it, the Xamel boss fight was always kicking my butt and made me walk away from it when I was first playing it.

[@McLeod917]

My internet was out for close to a week so i botted up ms saga and put anouther 20h into it. It really is a fun rpg, id love to see a modern remix of it.

[@TheVermilion99]

Beating all secret bosses and collecting all gundams was very fun, it's a 9/10 game for me

[@tec5x5]

This game is fantastic one of my fave JRPGs on the PS2 and thats a stacked list

[@StayFrostyEnt84]

I still have this game. I got it when it originally came out and I still recommend it to people.

[@Rave_n_ight]

God this brings back good memories played the full game did most of the post end game too but I never did get the God Gundam mostly as my playstyle sucked at melee only combat

[@Denny-ix9sx]

O.M.G! The nostalgia. This has always been one of my all time favorite games for many years. I've begged for a continuation for this game for so long. But Bandai is not merciful or generous. And my longings go unfulfilled.

[@StikkyGaming]

You earned a sub, great vid 😮

[@awkwardGardener]

Honestly if this game were remade today, it could be something really special. Really the only things I'd change would be adding more mobile suits/parts, changing from the almost SD style to full scale mobile suits, redesigning the characters cause holy shit those character designs are kind of awful, and upgrading the customization to be closer to what we have with Gundam Breaker. Oh and adding full voice acting for cutscenes and maybe some battle lines would be great. Other than those things the story is fine and the gameplay is honestly really good and interesting. Of course this will never happen, but if this game ever got a remake or direct sequel it could be huge.

[@mortalvolt85]

I loved this game the blockbuster in my town got this about a month early I rented this the entire time pre-ordered the game and only gave it back after I got my owned copy in my hands

[@matthewbrookeart]

We only got zeon vs federation in the uk :( this looks great I’d have loved it back in the day

[@yerxiong123]

Glad I picked it up back then . One of my favorite.

[@greasemonk4576]

First glance makes me think of Gundam SD and it legit threw me off to find out it's NOT tied to SD.

[@SuperNova0079]

Its a great game. I loved playing it when I Was younger and still do now. Its such a shame that it didn't get a sequel. It also has decent end game content as well and some secret bosses.

[@sulohland]

Still play yhis game till this day

[@tehredmage]

Ah, i loved this game so much back in the day.

[@allanp8370]

I would like to also add these two gems on ps2 : Gundam : Lost War Chronicles Gundam Climax U.C.

[@zeozelos]

i still play it to this day and imo it is THE best gundam game ever made and if iit was released full price today it would easily be better that 90% of games released in the last decade

[@robertdrexel2043]

Oh, god yes! MS Saga is one PS2 game that I have back to numerous times over the years. It is a shame that I do not have a proper TV to play it right now. Grumble. Or I would go back to play once more. My only real complaint about the game is that while it does have some mobile suits, who have their own built-in weapons like vulcan guns, they do not include already built-in meele weapons like Beam Sabers to the mobile suit in question. The first mobile suit you get in the game, the GM, doesn't have its normally shoulder mount rack to carry a beam saber. Shrug.

[@Ozzymortal]

I skipped this game as a kid and now I’m kicking my self because I could have picked it up

[@LuigianoMariano]

This game should've been developed and released on a handheld console.

[@nightwolf235]

i remember playing this, still own the disc I think? god this was a fun game never got to finish it was at the end but not strong enough needed to grind more.

[@nekotesla3628]

Wait a minute...my big brother have this game. I never know its a gundam game.

[@deathbybiscuit]

Its been a long time since I've played this one but I remember the droprates being really bad for some of the suit parts. That and the overtuned random encounters made the game very grindy, at least from what I remember. Its still definitely a really good game and very overlooked.

[@Hirowolfgang]

I'll have to add that to my to play list

[@jamimuhammad3699]

Bro it’s time for me to get ps2 emulator to get this it needs to be rereleased this looks so good 😮. I liked Sd in general I really liked Sd gundam battle alliance and cross rays and g gensis. Yeah I can see now what they mean in the comments this was a gundam breaker prototype

[@alenezi989a3]

I really miss ps2 graphics, games back then just looked more "aesthetic". I don't know they just look more appealing, beautiful even.

[@Xenobears]

God, I played this forever ago (rented it from Blockbuster back when it released)… I should have bought it!

[@Thenewbagman]

This is overall a pretty amazing Gundam and jrpg game. Solid mechanics, changing enough from classic rpg formula to give you something to care for while playing.

[@marcosdheleno]

i would argue that the game has too many flaws. alot of bad design decisions that really made the game nowhere near as fun as it should've been. its still a very interesting game. but overall, i still feel like the game needed some more time in the oven. also a sequel.

[@skyh3r0es]

@@marcosdheleno i dont know if its the nostalgia talking or what, but i can not think of anything that i want to change from the game, i think it was great for 2005 standard, simple war story, decent enough world building and dungeon, great extra stuff like secret gundam, secret dungeon, and it surprisingly had an endgame content evntough it was so hard that i called bs, the rest was just some little flaw here and there like the lack of gundam to customize, the grind, the difficultyspike, but i think i have to be nitpicky to call them bad design

[@marcosdheleno]

@@skyh3r0es dont get me wrong, i really liked the game, but it has SO MANY problems. for one, its absurdly grindy to get new suits. and one of the resources is very limited while the other is a massive pain in the ass to farm. the game is also too in love with the idea of kitbashing, but doesnt really does much with it beyond "look, its a gundam but you can give it the zaku arm!"

[@skyh3r0es]

@@marcosdheleno hey its fair, all of your points are good, those are probably something that i would also love to see them change or tweak as to be playable in 2024, if they remastered the game(tough thats almost 100% will never happen) but come on, calling all of that a bad design when it was released in 2005 was a bit harsh was it not? didnt almost all of the jrpg released in early 2000 was grindy af? and about the custumization part, i think it was okay, beside visual and some status different iirc, it was just acting as a normal equipment like helmet, armor, gloves, and booths in other jrpgs for you to change once in a couple of town so you didnt take too much damage from the enemy, simple, and i do think it was enough to not complicating the game too much, tough if i would argue maybe implementing some special skill that can only be used by certain parts would be nice

[@buguawugaman]

thanks for reminding me i never got into this

[@KameradVonTurnip]

Wonder if MS Saga and Metal Saga were collaborating or something. Because this game looks a lot like Metal Saga which came out around the exact same time.

[@KilterNazkre09]

I remember having so much fun in this game but i also remember kinda softlocking myself because i could not get through a certain boss. Then again i was like 8 when i played this and is was stupid back then

[@exostorm]

Time to try and make some of these on GB4

[@Mrbryanimpact]

What set up are you playing this on? I still play this on my ps2 slim hooked up to a mclassic and converter to hdmi and my game does look as smooth as it does here.

[@Circ00mspice]

I wonder if the chibi art style was used because of tech limitations. This game would look cooler if the mobile suits used their actual proportions

[@ikmalice9302]

I still have a working copy of this gem

[@nikodem123asdf]

I was always curious about this game. I tend to be kinda weary of RPG's by Bandai since they often have some ... bizarre ideal (like most of the digimon games) but this ome looks more standard which I'd say is a good thing.

[@therest9281]

Would love to get a game like this again bandai it unique and actually can work for gundam franchise

[@AtrieTheWorldTroublesolver]

I wish it was more one year war themed instead of sci fi rpg but the gameplay is aight

[@Rylon321]

I remember playing this game years ago, story is meh but the best part was the customization. And how frustrated I was when I fought Grand Gundam for the first time.

[@Elricchasers]

I wonder if there will be a remaster for this game on switch or ps4/5

[@Wings012]

It got middling and even bad reviews at the time, but I very much enjoyed it. Even despite some silly localization changes, like removing the Japanese opening theme and whacky name changes. Despite the bad reviews, I really enjoyed myself. Admittedly I did drop the game once, but my 2nd time through I kinda got hooked and kept going. I remember even going through the bonus dungeons to get all the Wing MS and stuff and did some of the optional bosses. I think my late game strategy was just abusing the shit out of funnel casts, which just did absurd amounts of damage with Aeon. Since she just accumulates EN while casting spells, I decked her MS with as much firepower as possible - which seems pointless if I'm just spamming funnels but it was so I could just unload it all with the Gatling Body ability which just fires everything your MS had equipped. Sticking a Xamel cannon on a Guncannon was also funny.

[@crispymattastic]

Wish I had picked this up when I saw it years ago.

[@rikisalim6438]

Really wish we could get more of this kind of gundam rpg.

[@machineakuma]

one of the legendary jrpgs of the ps2

[@k1r4exe]

Man I love this game. I wish they are more gundam jrpg.

[@professorgrouch]

@Bandai please remake this and call it Gundam Build: RPG