With Gundam Rogue Orbit, Bandai Namco has clearly decided colossal robot fighting suits need a glow-up for a new generation, while also trying very hard to appeal to long-time Gundam fans. For the most part, it works. That’s perhaps due to not letting expectations stifle it: The story is new, the gameplay is fresh and dynamic, and even the suits are a little bit special.
After my hands-on preview of Gundam Rogue Orbit at Gamescom, I spoke with Yuya Tomiyama and Serizawa Yoshiyuku, both producers on the new game, about where they drew the line between respecting old fans and fearlessly flying into a brand-new Gundam universe. What struck me the most was the emphasis the pair put on how difficult this had been. There were no quick decisions made in this regard, and seemingly no decisions made by people who didn’t have a genuine love of Gundam and wanted to pay homage to life-long supporters.
“It was so, so challenging to get to this point,” says Tomiyama, “creating an action game and making it a Gundam game was the hardest part to be honest. We had to make it as realistic as possible and we had to create a good experience for the players. We wanted the players to feel [it was] real. But, by doing that, the risk was that it might not look like Gundam as you know it. So we really had to find a fine line that would satisfy both aspects, to make an attractive action game and a Gundam game as well.”
From my brief time with the game, I saw this meshing of two worlds clearly. It’s a classic action game, appealing even to those who wouldn’t know a Gundam if it shot them down from space, but it also stays true to the concept of the suits and their inherent creativity–both aesthetically and in battle. Each mission starts with a loadout, picking between suits and customizing, then deploying, fighting, and continuing the cycle. Between missions, or after failed battles, players learn from their experiences and redeploy as necessary. It’s a neat gameplay loop that means you can blast through level after level, or portion it out accordingly.
Combat was less neat and tidy–brutal brawls that flicked back and forth between ranged and melee, sky and land. It was scrappy, engaging, and simple to learn. Enemies’ bodies could be dismantled, as our Gundam’s artillery attacked vulnerable spots with an ever-flowing roster of normal and special moves. Every now and then you could build up enough energy to deploy a tactical move, zipping behind the enemy to stab them in the back, or reeling toward them at high speed for a close-quarters melee response.
The suit realism was something that caught my eye, even before I’d spoken with the team. Moving around doesn’t feel clunky, somehow, but does convey the gravity of piloting an enormous vessel packed with weaponry.
“We wanted the players to feel the scale of the 18-meter Gundam unit,” Tomiyama explains, and from the missions I played I’d say they hit the mark. As familiar as elements of the suits felt, though, there was something distinct. Something I couldn’t put my finger on until Yoshiyuki pointed it out: “We actually managed to create a mobile suit that can be used only within the game.”
“The anime Gundams are angled and flat. [These suits are] much more organic and streamlined. And we were able to put in so much detail, so much more than anime. [There are] a lot of things that you could do within the game that anime couldn’t achieve.”
Part of getting the player to understand the physical and narrative weight of the Gundam units also meant putting together a compelling story that even newcomers could connect with between bouts of brawling. Gundam Rogue Orbit is part of a multi-pronged project that also includes an animation and a model kit to come, and the story at the heart of it is one the team believe will introduce “the human aspect” of Gundam to a new generation.
“A good narrative can support all that combat,” says Yoshiyuki, “because it’s a drama, and it’s an original story that we [had] creative freedom with, too. We wanted to describe relationships between characters, and also struggles that characters experience themselves, and then the players would feel that they can actually own the story, like the character.”
“If we are successful in raising some sort of interest in any new audience, we’d be pleased. We really want to appeal to people who have no idea about Gundam, or have only just tried models. [We hope] they will try the game so that they can immerse themselves in the story line, and, like us, they can love Gundam a bit more.”
Gundam Rogue Orbit is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on March 5, 2027.
