SD Gundam G Generation Eternal review - “Giant mecha fun for fans and complete newbies”

For the uninitiated, SD Gundam is a series of games featuring chibi, or Super Deformed, versions of the mechs and characters from the eponymous property. They are grid-based strategy games, and, thanks to these factors, are perfect candidates for mobile, which is why I was absolutely delighted with the recent release of SD Gundam G Generation Eternal. 

I love the Gundam world. I have fond memories of staying up until one or two in the morning as a young lad because that's the only time in England that one channel aired anime. My first entry was Gundam Wing, but the Gundam SEED stories are where my heart lies. Whatever Gundam era you choose, though, the games are always good.

Drawing from the full power of the Gundam universe

Thankfully, though, Generation Eternal draws from multiple entries across the timeline, with classics like the original Gundam or Zeta, to more unexpected ones like The Witch From Mercury. That was an odd choice for launch, but I love that developers are just drawing from everywhere. They are even adding an event based on a limited print-only run.

Even better is the fact that Eternal is penning original content. The SEED Recollection story pack has just been added, bridging the gap between SEED and SEED Destiny. Obviously, the breadth of content will excite existing fans more, but Eternal is far from just fan service.

Story mode is a fun challenge and a lore crash course

The biggest draw of Eternal is no doubt the story mode. Here, the main events of each of the shows are condensed down to around 15 or 20 stages of tactical combat, sandwiched between slideshow retellings of the story. It is like Gundam Abridged, you will come away with a basic knowledge of the whole timeline. Or, just skip them if you want to get right to the fun.

There is one feature that I absolutely adore, and that is the squad selection. Each story stage has you choose two squads: a Series Squad and a Free Squad. As you might guess, the former must include characters from the show you are currently playing. Normally, this would be annoying, having to level up a whole new squad for each scenario you play. Thankfully, this is nullified in two ways: Eternal gives you a decent group of the chapter-specific characters when you start each set of missions, and the Free Squad.

Your Free Squad can be made up of any and all units you fancy, and you can bring them into every story mission. This means you can just beef up your favourite characters and watch them lay waste to villains across the ages. I love this because you don’t have to worry about having an amazing Series Squad for all stages, and I get to use Kira and the Freedom Gundam in every mission.

Create Gundam from hundreds of options

As you complete stages, you are rewarded with Gundam, and you capture specific ones during battle. These are generally pretty weak and have just one use: fodder for the Develop system. This is going to be your resource dump. Each series has dozens of Gundam you can build and upgrade to better and more powerful models.

It takes a lot of effort and items to reach the better Gundam, and yes, they won’t be as good as the ones you can get from the gacha banners, but I love that Bandai made this an option. Seeing so many models from each universe is fun, but this makes it so you don’t have to drop real money if you have patience. It might take a while, but you can simply build a strong team without spending a penny. Having said that, though, I do want to praise the gacha system as being incredibly generous. The UR pull rate seems incredibly high compared to other systems I have played.

Constant challenging and tactical decisions to make

It is hard to truly set yourself apart from every other turn-based strategy game just on the basis that it is a fairly strict system, but Eternal manages it. The combat is incredibly tactical in any way you slice it. For starters, each Gundam and pilot is split into one of three types: Attack, Defence, and Support. Beyond the obvious advantages of each, Eternal gives the roles special abilities to work around.

After vanquishing a foe, every unit gets a Chance Step to move again, but Attack types can get multiple of these each turn. Defensive types can jump in front of a nearby ally to shield them from an attack, and Support types can join in on an attack. Level them up, and you can increase the number of times you can do this per turn. These combos make choosing your team quite a considered affair to strike the right balance, and you need to plan everyone's moves down to the tile to ensure they are in the right place to pull off their abilities.

Where you are stepping during battle matters too, as terrain can affect each Gundam differently. This means you need to pay close attention to which unit you send into battle so you don’t find half your army left behind. All these are even before you see a fight, but my god, is it worth it?

When you confront your foe, each unit is equipped with multiple attacks. Physical short-range ones, longer beam rifles, and if you are lucky, certain Gundam have special, “I will explode everyone and look awesome,” attacks. The potency of each is influenced by the pilot, so having the perfect pair is vital. You do have to watch your energy, though, so you sadly can’t light up the sky every round.

Fantastically animated attacks and huge-scale warfare

The tactical choices don’t stop there either. When you are targeted, you have the option to either counterattack, block for reduced damage, or even try to dodge it entirely. The depth of tactical choices in every turn is massive, yet it never feels overwhelming. Instead, you look forward to making them, mostly because you know you are about to see something pretty fun to watch.

Each attack is accompanied by a cutscene of the pilot calling to their opponent, and your chibi war machine pulling off its flashy attacks. You can skip them, but they are all so cool, you won’t mind watching them again and again. Add this to the scale of every battle, and it is such an epic affair. You can deploy ten units, and you are often joined by guests. Considering that the enemy numbers are around double this, the spectacle itself is just amazing.