The Gundam franchise is no stranger to video games. This one is the first part of a mini side-story trilogy set during the original Mobile Suit Gundam series (aka "The One Year War"). The story runs entirely parallel of the show, meaning you won't interact with any fan favorite characters like Char or take part in any major events. The games try something more unique than the typical Gundam fare, where you pilot your suit from the first-person perspective with controls that lean more arcade-y than simulation.

As of writing, I am the only person to master this entire trilogy, let alone any of the games. To say this is because these are extraordinarily difficult sets is an overstatement. I believe this is more because of the obscure nature of these games as well as the lack of information you can find. There are no written guides (at least as far as I can find) and of the three playthrough videos I found for these games, only one aimed for A ranks and provided no commentary on strategy, leaving me to figure out what to do and not do via trial and error. For this reason, this guide will spend some time on game mechanics and tips rather than straight up achievements, since my "findings" haven't been laid out straight.

All three games are short affairs and aren't terribly difficult to beat with even minimal knowledge, even on hard mode. The real challenge lies in getting A ranks. Unless you have a manual and are fluent in Japanese you won't know what you are being scored on. Even then, some things are still unclear until you figure it out via trial and error (or now, by reading this guide). If you know what you're doing, A ranks can range from fairly mundane to painstaking and, in a few instances, heavily dependent on your enemies and allies doing the right things.

As for this game in particular, the first in the trilogy is arguably the most difficult to master. Your mobile suit is significant weaker than what you get in the second and third games, you'll likely be getting the hang of the controls still, and you'll have to deal with arguably the hardest mission to A rank. All that said, this should still be very doable if you understand what you need to do (which you will because, hey, this guide).

I'd also like to give a major shoutout to Sines for developing this set. This side story is fairly popular in Japan but almost unheard of in the English Gundam community. While it shows it's age and some clunk, it's an enjoyable experience and I had a ton of fun digging through bits of info I could scavenge online to master these sets.

This game is about as linear as it can be, but I'll provide an outline for clarity's sake.

This is pretty straightforward. You can't save mid-story so you'll need to beat story mode in one go. Thankfully, this is pretty easy and only five missions in length. You also have unlimited continues and can play on easy if you're stressed about not having time to finish in one good. Story mode shouldn't take any longer than 2 hours to complete at most, much less on easy.

What difficulty to pick on this first run is up to you. Personally, unless you're rushing to beat the game or just want to unlock stage select as quickly as possible, I would play on hard. You must play on Hard to get A Ranks in virtual every mission across all three games, so playing on hard let's you potentially save time by getting an A rank in some stages the first time. It will also let you get used to the amount of damage enemies can deal and withstand, which varies heavily across difficulties.

Once you beat the game, stage select is unlocked and you can get any A ranks and Hard Mode clears remaining. Again, you need to be on hard mode to get A ranks, so you'll knock both of these out as you're working on them.

In settings, you want to turn the score tally on (it's off by default). Not only is this helpful for knowing your score for A ranks (duh), it also lets you know if your attacks are connecting from far away, if you've landed the final blow on a suit, and let you do the mental math on how much damage you've dealt to an enemy so far.

Meet your friend, a modified GM. For the less Gundam-oriented among us, the GM was the main grunt suit for the Federation in the early stages of Mobile Suit Gundam. They were generally considered better than their Zeon counterpart, the Zaku II, but nothing close to "ace" mobile suits on either side, like the Gundams, Rick Doms, and such. This will be your suit for every mission in this game, so get to know the loadout.

• Rifle: Your standard, meat-and-potatoes weapon. It shoots a single, decently-fast explosive shell with a modest delay between shots. You have unlimited ammo and the range is pretty long, so stay back and pepper enemy suits from afar when you're able to take things slow and steady. When enemies close on you, constantly strafe to their backside and keep firing. It takes about three hits within a fairly wide window to temporarily knock a mobile suit on it's back. -Beam Saber: Get very accustom to this guy. Your strongest weapon by far, you use this by tapping up twice to dash when locked on to an enemy suit. Technically the only distance limit is how far your thrusters can take you, but it's typically best to dash in when distance is already short. One slash with knock a mobile suit to the ground (more about knocking suits to the ground below). The biggest downfall is the range and how they hit, for lack of a better word. I've noticed if you charge an enemy head on, they often do a sort of "defensive" stance where they sword doesn't affect them and they lean into your with their own offense. I highly recommend you only dash in for sword slashes at the back of the enemy, or at the very least from the side.
• Vulcans: Small machine guns from the head of the suit. Fire by holding the shoot button. Fast but extremely weak. I had some success at times circling a single enemy in close quarters constantly like a wild animal while pelting them with locked on vulcans. They can also be helpful taking down tanks and helicopters. Ultimately, I think your rifle/saber is the better option in most scenarios, but there's one or two times they may be worth testing. One final note: vulcans cannot ever stun or kncok down a mobile suit.
• Grenades: Your only weapon with limited ammo. Grenades make your suit pause to chuck a grenade, which fairly slowly lobs in an arc before exploding in a decently wide radius. Generally, enemies are too mobile and dash-happy to stick around in the blast zone unless you can somehow predict or force enemies into one about to explode (or if you time your throw at a downed enemy). Feel free to experiment - they do pack a decent punch - but overall, there's only two spots they have real utility.

First, make sure you have radar on in the setting menus, as your mini-map is very useful for getting your bearing in a fight. But also don't forget to use the full map by hitting start in game. It's very helpful for knowing where a new wave of enemies has spawned, if anyone is trying to flank you, and just giving you good sense of the battlefield.

Whenever you don't have a pressing objective and can afford to be a little slow, stay at the absolutely maximum of your rifle range and constantly fire shots toward enemies while strafing. When they get up close, really use your boosts to keep strafing and keep peppering with rifles shots and sword slashes. Speaking of...

Your boosters are your friends. Sword slashes from dashing is great, as is strafing, but don't forget to use your jump thrust as an emergency move when in danger. It drains your thrusters but it can buy you a few moments of relief or dodge a hail of fire.

Double tapping any direction with make you dash in that direction. If you hold the second tap, you'll keep boosting - a useful move in a pinch but one that will put serious strain on your thrusters. If you keep tapping in a good rhythm, you can keep dashing with much less booster drain. It won't be as fast thanks to the slight pauses in boosting, but it's supremely effective when circle strafing a suit. It's also great if you need to back or front dash a little ways out of a fight before slamming the boosters to fully retreat and get your bearings.

Tapping jump without boosting can give you time to maneuver out of dangerous sorties. Constantly hopping without boosting is a very viable evasive response. Just remember to use short bursts - it takes forever for boosters to return if fully used up, and you'll be a sitting duck the whole time.

Lastly, don't forget to use your brakes. Stopping dead in your tracks can be great to avoid enemies charging at you, especially if you use the distance to blast a rifle shot in their face. It's also very useful for reorienting your lock-on.

Lock on is obviously very valuable. You're going to struggle to get any hits without it, and sword slashes virtually require it. However, breaking your lock on at key moments can be just as important. Your movement when locked on will be restricted to your target - imagine if you and your target are tied together by a string. Great to keep a bead on an enemy, terribly if you need to bug out because you found yourself in a bad position. Breaking the lock so you can sprint in one direction as fast as possible is key to preserving your health.

Mastering how invincibility frames work is key to the vast majority of combat in this game. As mentioned above, if you hit a suit enough times (typically 3 hits from your rifle, 1 from your sword) in a fairly wide window, the suits will enter a fall state - they dramatically fall down on their back, stay down for a second or two, before getting back up. They often act the same way when destroyed, but a suits "destroyed" animation will include multiple explosions all over the suit before the suit itself blows up. The most important thing about the fall state is the invincibility it grants. You can't harm or stun a suit until it's been upright and active for about a second or so. Some enemies will makes a very "mecha-like" mechanical grinding noise that roughly corresponds with the end of their invincibility.

So what's important about this? If you don't get into a rhythm dealing with knockdowns, fights will be infinitely more frustrating and time-consuming. Consider the tougher A ranks involve destroying enemies as quick and efficiently as possible, we want to minimize the knock down, drag-out fights as best we can.

The best strategy I've found is to hit suits with a few rifle rounds and/or a sword slash to knock them down once. Once they start falling, immediately rush them and position yourself behind them (so behind their head when they're prone). Using brake is very helpful for positioning here. Wait for them to get up and give them a second for the invincibility to wear off while sticking close (but not too close) to them. About a half second before the invincibility wears off, fire a rifle shot and tap dash like crazy to land another sword hit. If you do it right, you'll immediately hit them and knock them down again, letting you repeat this.

I call this little technique the dash-melee-brake, for very obvious reasons. Get the timing down and get lucky with the AI, and you can safely get a suit stuck in a helpless loop and dispose of them. This will rarely (if ever) execute perfectly - sometimes your timing will be off, sometimes they decide to dash away during their invincibility, sometimes other enemies will force you to deal with them, and sometimes the game will just decide your hits didn't land or knockdown like they should - but it's the most consistent way of putting damage in on most any fight in the series. It takes a while to get used to, but eventually you'll get the rhythm down and fights will "click" much more.

On Hard mode, your allies will put up a decent fight but ultimately will get worked over by enemy units. They still serve as useful distractions, often sucking in enemy units so you can ambush them from behind with your sword. Just be careful to not let them get the coup de grace on any suits! In some missions, missing a single finishing blow will likely ruin your A rank hopes.

At the end of each stage, you'll tally up points that will determine your mission rank, with A being the highest (and one needed for achievements). Your score will be displayed in three categories:

• Tactical Score: This appears to be what your base score displayed in the in-mission HUD but increased by some sort of other factors (seems to be based on your hit rate, but I can't tell to what degree and if any other factors affect it). The score in your HUD in-mission will be significantly lower than your actual tactical score.
• Hit Rate: This baffled me for a while until I took a moment to test and pay attention to it. Contrary to what you may think, this is not your accuracy (which is not tracked and has zero impact) but rather the percentage of damage you took in the mission. The lower the percentage, the better your score.
• Overall Score: This is what truly determines your final ranking. It appears to be your tactical score but again with additional factors added. I can't say for certain what these factors are, but at least some of them vary from mission to mission.

Points are earned (and sometimes lost) from the following, and the criteria often differs mission to mission. Your score is going to be shown in three parts

• Hitting/Destroying Enemies: The one thing that is always consistent. Each hit you land on an enemies provides a small amount of points, depending on the damage dealt. The point difference between weapons ultimately doesn't matter - you'll get the same amount of points for causing the same amount of damage regardless of weapon. What does matter is landing the finishing blow on a unit. This will get you a ton of points, especially for stronger mobile suits, and is typically where the lion's share of your points come from. Remember, you (not your allies) need to land the finishing blow to get the points!
• Destroying Enemy Buildings: Typically this nets you a small amount of points, but some missions have a lot of buildings (ex. Mission 1) and basically require you to stomp and shoot around. Sturdier buildings (such as the reactor-looking facilities) are worth more than the tiny, weak ones. -Losing Allied Buildings: This isn't always in play, but when it is...oof. Basically the reverse of the above. You'll often start missions with a nice chunk of points that will go down as buildings get destroyed. Smaller buildings will cost a negligible amount of points, while more important buildings (i.e. the reactors) will cost a huge chunk for each one you lose. Allied units do not count for this, only building. Every ally suit can bite the dust and your score will be unaffected. -Hit Rate: Again - the lower the percentage/more armor remaining at the end of a mission, the better your score. I'm not sure the exact mechanics, but it almost definitely varies from mission to mission. Sometimes it's of almost zero concern, other times it's the only other factor to be concerned about. Either way, it's good practice to keep your distance and strafe constantly to avoid damage. --Accuracy: This is not tracked and has zero bearing on your score. Spam your weapons early and often! --"Secret Stuff": There are a few secret conditions here and there that affect your score. I'll call them out in the mission section as relevant, just know they are vital for A ranks when they exist.

This game is about as linear as it can be, but I'll provide an outline for clarity's sake.

This walkthrough is primarily covering getting A ranks rather than just completing the missions. The hints below can used for any difficulty, but just beating the missions is pretty simple and there's no real need to dive into those achievements versus what to do fo A ranks.

Remember: You Must Play On Hard. Virtually all missions require it to A Rank. This also means that (for the most part), if you get an A rank, you'll have every achievement a level can provide.

Night Raid (5)
Clear Mission 1

Medea Salvager (5)
Clear Mission 1 in hard mode

Ace GM (5)
Clear Mission 1 with an A Rank

• A Rank Difficulty: Medium
• Special Conditions: Destroy a large amount of enemy tanks and buildings.

Gun Towers

These come in quite a few "flavors," ranging from tall machine guns, short square blocks, and highly damaging beam guns on perimeter walls. They'll only take a few rifle hits to knock out, and you can often flank them from an angle and/or distance they can't fire back from. If you have to be in their range of fire, strafe a ton while peppering shots on them. And be extremely cautious of the wall beam guns - they can often fire back and their weapons are some of the most damaging in the entire first game!

Tank

Very slow, tanks will crawl down streets until they see you, often stopping to fire their shells. While they can leave a mark if they hit, they're painful slow and only threatening if you get distracted fighting more prominent enemies. One rifle or a quick spray of vulcans will torch them.

Helicoptor

Very rare with a squirt gun of weapon. You'll want to hunt these down for points, but otherwise they pose little threat.

Supply Truck

Barely qualifies as an enemy, as it has zero attacks, and also extremely rare. Again, you'll need to destroy these for your A rank.

Zaku II (Machine Gun)

Get used to seeing this guy a lot. The Machine Gun loadout Zaku isn't too challenging. The Machine gun does very pitiful damage and you can easily dash out of the way to avoid virtually all damage. The bigger concern is their Heat Hawk - the axe that serves as their melee weapon. It can put the hurt on you in close range if they face you. Finally, they have grenades they use infrequently. Pay attention as to not get caught off guard, but it's not a terribly concerning attack.

Try to circle behind them when close and get some sword slashes in when you get an opening. Or if you're not pressed for time, stick far back and launch rifle shots at them.

Zaku II (Bazooka)

Same as above, but swapping the machine gun for a bazooka (heat hawk and grenades still remain). This dude can be challenging if he connects with his bazooka. Strafe and boost like crazy to get to his backside and use allies if available to draw his fire. You can also attack from afar, just be ready to strafe to dodge returning fire.

Your objective is simple - destroy every Zaku in the base. Once all Zakus are defeated, the mission ends. Before that happens, you need to turn the base into a crater for your A rank. Destroy every tank, truck, building, power plant, and gun emplacement you can. Circle the walls and even skirt a little to the boundary to pick off some more of the guns. Make sure you do several loops around the place before you finish off the last mobile suit. You have some allies - make sure they don't steal any mobile suit kills. Use the strategy outlined above to quick rip up the Zakus. I noticed my armor/hit rate wasn't "make or break" for an A Rank, but it shouldn't be too hard to stay fairly unscathed. You should end the mission with roughly 40k points for an A rank - or about 37k before you finish off the last Zaku. This is not a terribly difficult A rank, but it can be tedious.

Blue Terror (5)
Clear Mission 2

Abnormal Survivor (5)
Clear Mission 2 in Hard Mode and survive

Ace Duelist (10)
Clear Mission 2 with an A Rank

• A Rank Difficulty: Easy
• Special Conditions: Defeat the unknown Mobile Suit before your health drops too low.

Unknown Mobile Suit

His first and only (kinda...) appearance, "Blue" looks like a Blue GM, but is much more evasive, hits much harder thanks to his beam rifle, and he packs a fun cluster. of semi-homing rockets to throw out if you're being too evasive.

Let your allies try to take the opening barrage of Blue. They can't stand up to him too long, but they should give you enough time to flank Blue. Hit him with rifle shots and dash in when close enough to slash him with your sword and knock him down. Your rifle shots can sometimes make him flinch, but only if he's just finished doing some sort of action, like attacking with his sword, dashing around like crazy, etc. Think of it like super armor in a fighting game - even when he's not immune to damage, he might not be stunnable/interruptable if he's in the middle of certain moves.

Stay fairly close (roughly within dash range) and let him get up. If you're lucky, he'll stay nearby after his invincibility and let you shoot and slash him again for another knockdown. More likely, he'll fly away very quickly while still invincible. If so, chase after him but stay toward his flank to avoid his fire, using your rifle and boost to close the gap and get another sword knockdown again. He's not easy, but it's a manageable fight if you don't let him stay too far away.

The funny thing with this mission is it's impossible to lose. This is a straight up duel between you and your (cannon fodder) squadmates against "Blue," the mysterious prototype mobile suit. If your health drops low enough, a cutscene will occur of Blue retreating and the mission ends in victory. Getting an A rank however, is not. a guarantee. If you deal enough damage to Blue, a nearly identical cutscene will occur where Blue falls to one knee with some explosions before retreating. If you do this, you'll get a huge bonus to your score. I believe you also need to have a decent chunk of health remaining to get the A rank, but it feels fairly lax (north of 50-60% seems to be a good sweet spot). All said, this is probably. one of the easier A ranks to grab on this game.

Desert Struggle (5)
Clear Mission 3

Gallop Run (10)
Clear Mission 3 in Hard Mode

Ace Fox (10)
Clear Mission 3 with an A Rank

• A Rank Difficulty: Medium
• Special Conditions: Destroy all parts of the Gallop before finishing the mission.

Zaku II

Identical to Mission 1 except for a new paint job. You'll encounter both bazooka and machine gun types as well, just like Mission 1.

Tanks

Again, exactly the same as mission 1.

Gallop

The first and only time you'll encounter this dropship across all three games. It's located at the opposite end of your starting point and doesn't move, but it's guns can tear you apart. if you're not careful. You can easily avoid the Gallop and complete the mission, but you need to wreck it completely for an A rank. See below about maximizing points from the Gallop for score.

This is pretty similar to Mission 1 in the sense that you only need. to destroy the Zakus to win and there are a small number of tanks and buildings (mainly the little gas station-like spots) to squeeze some points out of. The biggest concern for an A rank (besides taking little damage) is the Gallop and completely wrecking it without it wrecking your armor.

To start out, you want to dash over to either the left or right Zaku squad that your teammates are marching toward. It's best to keep your distance with your rifle to avoid unnecessary damage, but remember to be quick enough you can get the final blow on all suits on both sides. Do not use any grenades at this point. You probably haven't been, as they aren't terribly effective, but this mission requires you to have them in a bit. Your teammates won't move from beyond the spot where they encounter the first Zaku wave (presuming your teammates survive said encounters), so you don't have to worry about them stealing any other suit kills after that.

Once the initial wave is down, go wide left or right, hugging or even straying slightly outside the mission boundaries (if you go too far outside the boundaries, you automatically fail the mission, but you can go a decent distance beyond before that happens). Ideally, you want to reach the Gallop from one side while some Zakus on the other side aren't converging on you. This will let you deal with the Gallop by itself. Sometimes the last Zaku will decide to stick to your tail before you finish off the Gallop. This is frustrating but you can definitely still take care of the Gallop.

When you approach the Gallop, you'll notice the huge gun up front. It's your biggest concern and the hardest part of bring down. There's a few way to go about this, but I would personally approach the gun from a slight frontal angle. Tap jump consistently and you should be able to dodge it's fire. In the meantime, start chucking your grenades. The grenades should be hitting basically every part of the Gallop, such as its hull armor. This is especially important because the Gallop's hitbox is weird, with parts only responding to grenades. After a few grenades, you should have disabled all Gallop defense but the main gun. Time your next jump to dodge its fire, but this time hold boost and dash to land right next to the gun almost from it's back. If you position yourself right, you'll be able to plink at the gun with your rifle but it won't be able to hit you! If there are any Zakus who decide they want to join in, you can still do this by constantly jumping up and down while moving a little. Take down the gun first before heading back to the Zakus.

Once the Gallop's defense are down, make sure you've hit every part for those sweet, sweet points. It should look like a literal burning husk. Take care of it fully and you shouldn't even need to need hunt all the tanks for an A rank. If you're at about 40-41k points and at least 75% armor remaining with one Zaku remaining, you should be golden.

Zeon's Counterattack (10)
Clear Mission 4

Castle Doctrine (10)
Clear Mission 4 in Hard Mode

Ace Defender (25)
Clear Mission 4 with an A Rank

• A Rank Difficulty: Very Hard
• Special Conditions: Save the power plants!

Zaku II

Identical to previous missions, although they're a lot less interested in fighting you this time...

Dom

These new suits pack a punch with their bazookas and are incredibly maneuverable. Their main plan of attack is to charge you, then start circle strafing nonstop as they pelt you with bazooka shots, making them a real pain to hit. Wait for them to stop and start firing a lengthly salvo at you, then sidestep and fire your rifle as you close the gap. Keep near their backside as best you can and counter their circling with strafing of your own until you can get a bead on them.

No sugarcoating this. This isn't just the hardest mission in this game to A rank, it's among the hardest to A rank across the whole trilogy.

You start the mission with a sizable chunk of points, but now you lose points for any building that's destroyed. You lose a little bit for each of the various smaller buildings that fall apart, and a ton for every power generator you lose. Your goal is to defend those generators. You have 10 of them separated into two uneven clusters (4 in one, 6 in the other) relatively close together. To win, you need to keep at least one intact. For an A rank, you'll need significantly more (at least 3, possibly closer to 5 or 6 depending on the damage you take). This might not seem that bad, but more enemy units know their objective and will beeline toward them with little regard for fighting you unless absolutely necessary. You will unfortunately be at their mercy, as it's very hard to prevent at least a few from being at the generators undistracted. Depending on how the AI feels, they can be less for 10, 20 or more seconds and only destroy one or zero generators, or launch a grenade and wipe out half in two seconds.

Dash as fast as you can down to the right and try to take out the first Zaku. Be extremely careful with your shots - enemies have a tendency to dodge, causing you to lose buildings and points. Sword slashes are very useful to minimize collateral. Ideally, you'll take out both, but it's ok if you only get one. These Zakus sometimes get "stuck" if you aren't there and the allied mobile suit is destroyed, meaning they'll patiently hold their ground rather than going for any building or the power plants. I can't remember if you need to finish them off to trigger the third and final wave or if they'll patiently wait for you to come back for them after the third and final wave is dealt with, but either way, they're non-threats if they get stuck.

Check your radar every few seconds. As soon as you see three red dots to the north, drop EVERYTHING and rush back toward them. As soon as they reach the walls, they will start grenading chunks of buildings and tear up the power plants. If they do enough damage, you won't get an A. You need to try and jam them up in the forest area outside the base as best and for as long as you can. Shoot your rifle without a target to try and hit them. This is arguably the second time grenades are very useful. If two or more Zakus are bunched up in the forest, a well-placed grenade can get both of them, putting some damage on them while letting you work on the third for a bit and ultimately keeping the fight in the forest for longer.

You should be able to hold off two, but the third will almost inevitably make its way to the power plants. Once it starts making a dash, abandon the other Zakus and rush back to draw fire away from power plants. Be prepared to jump right back to the other Zakus once they start making their way to their own power plants - this wave is constant juggling. Prioritize the left side power plant clusters, as it has more plants than the right.

Once those three Zakus are toast, you have one final wave of a single Dom vanguard followed by two Zakus. The good news is the Dom will try to focus on you rather than buildings, but by "focus" I mean "rapidly circle around you, causing mass destruction to buildings nearby." He'll inevitably take out some buildings, but try to keep collateral to a minimal as best you can. The Zakus are bigger threats, as they once again will focus on the power plants. The only good news is it's much more reasonable to jam up all three units in this wave in the north forest, where they can't cause any damage. A Zaku will likely slip away and require you to chase it down ASAP, but you should be able to get some decent damage on it. Once the Zakus are down and if you still have a reasonable amount of points/buildings intact, you've basically won your A rank. Lure the Dom back to the forest to finish off, and drop any first wave straggler as well if they are still around.

With one suit remaining, you'll want to have either roughly 28k (if that suit is a Zaku) or 25k (if it's the Dom) and your health close pristine. Or if you're able to save a few more power plants, you can trade off a little more lost health to still get the desired rank.

They Came from the Deep (10)
Clear Mission 5

Tri-Stars?! (10)
Clear Mission 5 in Hard Mode

Ace Pilot (25)
Clear Mission 5 with an A Rank

• A Rank Difficulty: Easy/Medium
• Special Conditions: Save the Power Plants (part 2)

Z'Gok

Meet these amphibious marines of the Zeon army. These guys are fairly quickly, but also tend to move in very clunky, stilted patterns (like a quick dash followed by stopping dead in their tracks). You can often use this to dance around and attack, waiting for them to come to a complete stop. You can also chain them into a loop fairly easily. Have them dash after you while you walk backwards, then just before they make contact, fire your rifle. They will immediately dash to the side, but they will be too close and take a direct shot. You can follow up with a sword slash, which they will often attempt to retaliate with another chase down...rinse and repeat. Their main attacks are fairly powerful dual machine guns and their claws at melee range, but both can be avoided with good positioning or a quick jump or two worst case scenario. The biggest danger is their missile salvo attack, which can shred your armor. Try not to let them ever get too far away (they don't tend to use the salvo in close range) and if they do, use your boosters to dash far away until it relents.

Dom

Very similar to Mission 4, albeit these ones are technically "custom" and thus slightly souped up. The biggest difference is there's three of them and they attempt to work as a team. Use your jumps to temporarily stymie their assault while you attempt to focus them down one at a time. They're more frustrating than challenging if you remain calm, and the frustration is minimized once they start to lose their numbers advantage.

Compared to Mission 4, this is a relative breather to end the first leg of this series. Once again you'll need to protect the power plants, but thankfully your opposition is much more concerned with fighting you than taking out generators.

The mission opens with a cutscene of three Z'goks emerging via the shore on the east. Jet over immediately and engage them. If you waste no time, you'll start the fight outside the base walls and basically ensure they'll never be in a position to cause any serious damage to buildings. Try not to retreat too far away if needed so the Z'Goks are constantly engaging you and not tearing up buildings. If your usual rifle tactics If possible, it can help to lure the Z'Gok's south down the coastline, especially if there's only one remaining. This will put you in a good position to deal with the second and final wave.

Once the last Z'Gok eats dirt, another cutscene plays. Fans of Gundam may be amused to see a squad of knockoff Black-Tri Stars ready to engage. If you ended the fight with the Z'Goks toward the bottom of the map, you should be able to intercept them in the bottom forest and avoid collateral damage again. These guys try to team up on you, but ultimately should prove to be more frustrating than challenging. Their teamwork can also be used against them by lobbing grenades when they get too bunched up. Otherwise, the usual rifle and sword strategy will be more than effective.

If you find yourself taking too much damage against either squad, you can change strategy using your vulcans. Hold down the fire button and stay locked on to keep firing, then just stay close and circle/jump around your chosen target. Eventually the vulcans will wear your targeted suit down and you can move on to the next one. This lets you focus on just evading attacks and staying mobile. The downside is it can take a longgggg time to take down each suit this way, which means more opportunities for you to slip up or the suits to gang up on you. Still, it's worth a shot if you're looking for a change of strategy.

As long as your health is mostly intact and you kept the enemy away from the inside of the base, you'll have the A rank no problem.

Congrats on mastering this set! If you made it through this game, I'm fairly confident you can take on the second and third games. This is arguably the toughest of the three to master. Check back soon when we take on Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story 2: Heir to Blue. If you have any questions or if you found any strategies that you'd like to share, feel free to do so in the game's page comments or forum topic and I'll add them if I see them.

Yeah, I'd say so. It's pretty short (the three combined make for a decent sized game) and the controls take some getting used to, and the difficulty ranges from nonexistent to hair-pulling frustration. But once you get in the groove, the combat feels fun and you can really get in a groove. It's at least a 7/10 game in my opinion.

Short Answer: Technically no Long Answer: The 2nd and 3rd games make some small but noticeable changes that make the first game feel extra clunky in comparison. In terms of more tangible things, the third game has a secret fight where the unlock conditions are a bit murky. One reported unlock condition is to have save data for all three games beaten. Others say you can also unlock it by A ranking all missions in the third game, and others say you just need to beat the third game with ranks irrelevant. I mastered all three games in order, so all I can say is beating all three games unlocked the final mission. If anyone can confirm/deny any of this, let me know.

Personally, I recommend playing the games in order if possible just to be sure, but only the third game may have something locked behind a previous save bonus.

No, and I imagine there won't ever be one. The menus are all in English, so the game is fully playable without any knowledge of Japanese. Even the intro cutscene has English subtitles. However, all the spoken dialogue is Japanese and there are no subtitles in any language. I couldn't find any script translations floating around, but there are summaries of the games' plots out there if interested.