how difficult is this game?

[kuuga]

so im a big gundam fan and i like strategy games, im planning on buying this but i want to know if it will give me a decent challenge first

[Sayla Massochist]

It can be a little difficult but you are going to want to handicap yourself just a bit and play at maybe higher difficulties then normal.

I personally find that using just one warship group and just the default one group with whatever suits/pilots/crew I want to fill it with can reasonably get me through things with minor difficulties, but I also know at the point exactly how the AI will move the first few turns and can reasonably counter it. So you being new to the game might find even the normal difficulty a bit hard at first as you get use to it.

Long story short: It will be challenging at first, but when you get use to it make sure to handicap yourself somehow to keep it up and play on the hardest settings.

[Ralen]

That depends. If you are a veteran to the SD Gundam G Gen series, it will be a breeze on any difficulty due to knowing the mechanics. The only challenge will be having to level units early on in order to to complete special conditions and certain quests.

If you are new to the series, it might take some getting used to. Knowing specific mechanics to get you by, such as chance steps, link attacks, and maximizing tension can take you a long way.

Being that this wasn’t my first game in the series, I was able to get by on all difficulties, including Hell, with only one team to accomodate the guest units. I’d send the other three teams constantly on dispatch missions for capital and units. You might want to consider using two teams initially if you don’t have a grasp of the optimal strategy for completing missions.

[D-Lusional]

It is difficult to a degree with the default warship group and units since everything and everyone will be level 1. There'll definitely be some missions that need very careful planning like "Sanc Kingdom's Collapse" in Gundam WING where you have to defend an academy from Virgo dolls (that reduce 3500 ranged beam/physical damage) entering its grid. But as you level up more and get better units and characters you'll find that missions can done with no problem on any difficulty.

[lPaladinl]

Depends on your experience with SRPGs/TRPGs.

I find the game generally pretty easy but it has it's moments. Some specific levels are harder than others. Also depends on what mobile suits you bring, as some levels have enemies that resist certain types of damage. Not being equipped to deal damage types that they don't resist can make those levels pretty hard at times.

Eventually your pilots are high enough of a level that for more than half of the game on Normal you'll rarely ever get hit, and you can build pilots/suits to be strong enough to OHKO most grunts for most of the game. Eventually that can catch up to you, though, even on Normal.

And then of course there are 2 other difficulties to add more challenge and rewards. Plus I think there's an unlockable difficulty for beating the game?

There's also some story moments that can be difficult if you don't figure them out quickly. Duels between main characters can quickly lead to a game over if you don't pay attention and think them through. Some of them have you and the enemy pretty much evenly matched with the same recovery per turn, meaning slipping up can bring them back up to your same strength again.

However you can also grind whenever you want and just break the game over your knee with making any pilot/suit OP.

[✨Nutkun7993✨]

If you play like standard strategy turn-based game normally, you will probably struggle with quest/challenge condition due to the fact most of them required you take advantage of their unique mechanics such as chance step, morale(tension in japanese) and support assist.

But otherwise it's just for sake of fan service kind of difficult, it's obvious you want you own force to be godlike level of Setsuna/Kira and game has no intent to scale up enemy so much it's always match or ahead of your own force unlike usual turn based game, so once you build a godlike force, you stay like that to the end. The difficulty is designed for allowing player to play any given series and stage you want but some can be harder than other because plot reason. In order to get reward and the most out of it, you should play each stage by adding secret, challenge and quest condition into consider. As far as I'm knowing, all the conditions can be done by playing stage once each, require more than one playthrough simply mean you aren't playing the game at best yet.

[lPaladinl]

Originally posted by ✨Nutkun7993✨:

If you play like standard strategy turn-based game normally, you will probably struggle with quest/challenge condition due to the fact most of them required you take advantage of their unique mechanics such as chance step, morale(tension in japanese) and support assist.

But otherwise it's just for sake of fan service kind of difficult, it's obvious you want you own force to be godlike level of Setsuna/Kira and game has no intent to scale up enemy so much it's always match or ahead of your own force unlike usual turn based game, so once you build a godlike force, you stay like that to the end. The difficulty is designed for allowing player to play any given series and stage you want but some can be harder than other because plot reason. In order to get reward and the most out of it, you should play each stage by adding secret, challenge and quest condition into consider. As far as I'm knowing, all the conditions can be done by playing stage once each, require more than one playthrough simply mean you aren't playing the game at best yet.

I've done a vast majority of all of the secrets and quests on my first run of each level on Normal. I've barely had to replay any of them.

Usually when I do have to replay them though, it's because of a specific quest, and that's not a difficulty issue. It's just that the game doesn't tell you directly, without looking at the quests lists first, that you can get unlocks for very specific tasks.

Like they don't tell you that you need to defeat specific characters with specific protagonists, or to defeat them only after they trade blows 2-4 times.

Otherwise I find the "secrets" to mostly be a joke.

[✨Nutkun7993✨]

Originally posted by lPaladinl:

Originally posted by ✨Nutkun7993✨:

If you play like standard strategy turn-based game normally, you will probably struggle with quest/challenge condition due to the fact most of them required you take advantage of their unique mechanics such as chance step, morale(tension in japanese) and support assist.

But otherwise it's just for sake of fan service kind of difficult, it's obvious you want you own force to be godlike level of Setsuna/Kira and game has no intent to scale up enemy so much it's always match or ahead of your own force unlike usual turn based game, so once you build a godlike force, you stay like that to the end. The difficulty is designed for allowing player to play any given series and stage you want but some can be harder than other because plot reason. In order to get reward and the most out of it, you should play each stage by adding secret, challenge and quest condition into consider. As far as I'm knowing, all the conditions can be done by playing stage once each, require more than one playthrough simply mean you aren't playing the game at best yet.

I've done a vast majority of all of the secrets and quests on my first run of each level on Normal. I've barely had to replay any of them.

Usually when I do have to replay them though, it's because of a specific quest, and that's not a difficulty issue. It's just that the game doesn't tell you directly, without looking at the quests lists first, that you can get unlocks for very specific tasks.

Like they don't tell you that you need to defeat specific characters with specific protagonists, or to defeat them only after they trade blows 2-4 times.

Otherwise I find the "secrets" to mostly be a joke.

I never have issue of specific quest, pretty sure all of them tell you what exactly to do. You can check even while playing the stage and they even show you the list of quests that can be completed in that respective stage. Bring up System Command when you're on the map and press X to see " Stage Targeted Quest "

[Ralen]

Yep. Quests are very simple. I never had to replay a single mission, except for one. You can easily bring up the quest list while in a mission. The one I had to repeat was the last mission of A Wakening of the Trailblazer because I misunderstood how many turns Setsuna had to get to the green area. It had nothing to do with difficulty though.

The only mission I would even argue is “hard” is the final, bonus mission on Hell difficulty. That’s only because Superior Knight Dragon is virtually impossible to hit with a link attack, even with a unit and pilot maxed out. Even then, I completed that mission without issue. It just took a bit more effort defeating that particular unit.

[lPaladinl]

Originally posted by Heero Yuy:

Yep. Quests are very simple. I never had to replay a single mission, except for one. You can easily bring up the quest list while in a mission. The one I had to repeat was the last mission of A Wakening of the Trailblazer because I misunderstood how many turns Setsuna had to get to the green area. It had nothing to do with difficulty though.

The only mission I would even argue is “hard” is the final, bonus mission on Hell difficulty. That’s only because Superior Knight Dragon is virtually impossible to hit with a link attack, even with a unit and pilot maxed out. Even then, I completed that mission without issue. It just took a bit more effort defeating that particular unit.

What I was trying to say is that it's easy to miss the quest list. It's not brought up in your face like Secret Missions are, and the goals aren't as simple as the Secrets are to the point that you'll just stumble through completing most of them.

Unless you take the time to read up what the quests are, you'll likely have to replay the missions to do them later.

I also found it annoying to go through the quest list in the main menu to find what I've missed, simply because the list is so huge. Going through to see what I've missed is pretty tedious.

[Hellstorm901]

Hard at the start as you will do little damage and the enemy will do lots. Expect to lose an MS early one and have to replace it with something weak as any MS of yours shot down in battle is destroyed for good and needs bought again or built up from scratch

But the game gets easier

My advise is that the first thing you should do when you are able to is create a custom character and stick them in your best MS. Then throw as much money into increasing their melee or shooting skills (Whichever your MS is more dependent on) asap.

When you have an OP character you can use them to clear missions or ease pressure off your weaker characters

[lPaladinl]

You don't need to make a custom character unless you want to. The G-Generation pilots have better stat growth than CaC pilots do.

But if you're going to dump money into them, it doesn't matter in the long run.

Pilots will be where your biggest jump in strength comes from though, especially early on. Mobile Suits matter more in the long term to bring out the potential of good pilots.

[✨Nutkun7993✨]

I stuck with the g generation team early game and made usege of support command and step chance. If you are new to game I advice you should be learning how to maximize these features rather than rely on stats. Sure the game is easily overwhelmed by making one or two OP pilot but there's few mission stage sector being a bit rough and requires you to fully understand how to use support attack/step chance or else you would be like save scumming until you're lucky and enemies miss a shot on all ally transport.

And even today when I'm one mission away from finishing a game. G Generation team is still the stongest group.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1978656019

This game is a lot easier and a lot less grinding than the G Generation War I used to play thanks to dispatch mode, and new mechanics that truly emphasizing Pilot skill over the machine performance. So I just pick MS that I like and relocate them on g gen team and balance them out. The current MS in that team all used to be Phoenix Gundam line.

[Village Idiot]

The game is only difficult at the beginning, when all you have is a bunch of low tier/low-mid tier MS.

And even then, its dependant on which series you start out in.

Both Astray and 00F have the lowest difficulty curve, since both are prequel series, so you'll be fighting MS that are around the level of your starter MS.

It's much harder if you start at say, Seed Destiny, since as a sequel series, you'll be up against grunts that are stronger than even your strongest starter units, or IBO, where most of your units are useless against due to Nanolaminite.

Some series will also have massive difficulty spikes. For example, In 00, you'll face a big difficulty spike once you start facing against GN-X, or in Wing when Tarus/Virgos start appearing.

[The Hod]

Early on is difficult but once you get a ship like the Archangel or the movie version of the Celestial Being ship, it becomes easymode.

The hardest stage IMO is the final 00 mission due to the 2nd part fighting off GNX and automatons with crap MS.