Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Battle Destiny Remastered review for Nintendo Switch

System: Switch
Release date: May 21, 2025
Developer: Bandai Namco
Publisher: Bandai Namco

One third-party title released in 2012 exclusively for the PlayStation Vita in Japanese markets was Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Battle Destiny, a collaborative effort between Artdink and Bandai Namco based on the Gundam IP. A quick history lesson for the uninitiated – Mobile Suit Gundam, Kido Senshi Gundam in Japan, was a television anime series that aired between 1979 and 1980 on Japanese TV, followed by a string of re-edited anime films released theatrically in the early 1980s. The premise of the original series set in the future year 0079 was about a young man named Amuro Ray, who is a mechanic tasked with piloting the first giant robot fighting suit, dubbed RX-78-2 Gundam, for its creators, the Earth Federation against the principality that said federation is in war with, Zeon. Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed is the ninth TV anime series of the franchise, released in the early 2000s, followed closely by Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed Destiny in 2004 and a sequel film released in theatres as recently as 2024. The plot of SEED also focuses on split factions, this time within mankind itself, set in yet another future year, humanity has become two species: Naturals, your normal everyday human, and Coordinators, genetically enhanced human beings who have left earth and formed its own colonies due to fear of prosecution from Naturals. This in-fighting only escalates when a third faction, called Plants and their militia Zaft, get involved in the war.

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Battle Destiny Remastered, which is now on Nintendo Switch and in English for the first time, is a mission-structure based action mech-fighter in a vein similar to SEGA’s Virtual-On arcade games, where you enter battlegrounds defending the faction of your choosing as your avatar character you create, or one of the anime series characters you unlock through completing story missions. The game is divided up into several mission categories, but your primary method of unlocking Gundams to play as or different pilots to use is through Story Missions, which recount events from the anime and its sequel SEED Destiny, as well as original extra missions exclusive to the game. There are over 100 Gundams to unlock, and the characters are largely voiced by their original TV voice actors, which does help give it a genuine feeling of belonging within the subseries. You also have Free Missions, which allows you replay any mission without restrictions or being held to any one faction. When you create your avatar, you can choose to make them a Natural or a Coordinator, which makes them compatible to different Gundams depending on which you play as. You choose either to side with Earth or its wartime rival Zaft, and head into battle. The UI has been revised for this re-release, and for my money, it has only become more convoluted and unwieldy.

Despite its robust content, my overall experience with Gundam SEED Battle Destiny Remastered was underwhelming. I found the gameplay loop to be quite repetitive, the game’s interface to be difficult to navigate and the mission-based structure to be very irritating. On my latter complaint, this isn’t an issue I have exclusively with this title – it’s something that tends to plague a lot of games that were designed for handheld use when remastered or ported to consoles. Luigi’s Mansion 2 is another example, where it feels like the flow of the game is constantly being interrupted because the missions end at such a rapid rate. That is of course because these missions were designed with playing on the go in spurts, on the bus or on lunch breaks in mind, so it is not a gripe I hold just with Gundam. This issue is common among remastered handheld titles, where bite-sized design doesn’t always translate smoothly to console play.

My other two complaints are what seriously marred my time playing Gundam Seed Battle Destiny, particularly the base gameplay. You choose a pilot, select a Gundam suit, and often alongside your also player-created partner pilot, who I lovingly named Deadmeat in reference to the comedy film Hot Shots, head into battle. Missions vary between a few objectives, such as warding off a particular threat, defeating a specific opponent, or destroying a horde of enemy mechas. You are ranked on missions, by the way, in a manner similar to Devil May Cry. My best rank on a mission was SS, so I’m unsure if the elusive SSS rank exists within the game’s confines or not, but your rank seems to be based on speed in which the objective is accomplished, and how many times your Gundam has been redeployed. In missions, should your pilot lose all their health, their mech is redeployed and your rank takes a hit. How many redeploys, which operate identically to lives, you get is dependent on stats. I’ll get back to that in a second.

On the base Gundam you control, you have three methods of attack, your eye lasers are mapped to Y, your sword mapped to X and your sub-weapon gun mapped to A. These weapons change depending on the Gundam. Zaft’s base Gundam has a missile barrage mapped to Y, for example. The B button is used for leaping into the air, boosting forward or descending, based on the direction you are holding the control stick. I dislike that there’s a limiter on my ground movement, in that my Gundam slows down for a period and has to recharge after boosting forward. Compared to Virtual-On, which is more movement-heavy and explosive with combat, Gundam Seed is more tactical. You can issue commands to your partner pilot to melee attack, shoot from distance and more with the – button, which does give the game a different flavor I appreciate, and the different special abilities that Gundams and Pilots have do change up the flow a little bit. Most missions are under 10 minutes, and that sense of urgency is a positive of the mission based structure the game utilizes. Then, you are booted back to the UI. Here’s my problem with it:

The UI starts off well, a Story Missions option, a Free Missions screen and System & Data prompt, alongside some player stats on the right-hand side. Simple, clean and effective. Likewise, you choose Story missions, and every mission is lined up chronologically with rankings alongside it. Perfect! My grievance comes in the next lot, when you are prompted to edit your Player and Partner pilot’s stats. For both, you can Select Suit, Select Pilot and Suit/Pilot SP Attack. Here, you can choose Gundams to fight in and tune up, rearrange which pilots you are playing as, change their abilities, and which you’d like to go into battle with. Tuning Gundam stats was something I found to be an egregious chore. When you want to buff certain statistics, like HP or Thruster output, you have to sacrifice other stats to achieve such. I wouldn’t mind this too much if the game wasn’t rewarding me with TP and GP points for completing missions, which feel like they should be put towards whatever stats I choose, like in the Mario & Luigi games. I always feel like I’m getting weaker when I want to improve my Gundam, and it takes away from that feeling of power I feel like I should have piloting a giant robot with a gun and a sword. These stats are also Gundam-specific, to each of the over 100 unlockable suits, as well as their sub-weapons and melee weapons.

To speak about things I enjoyed about the game, I think the visuals look really decent for a remaster of a PS Vita game from within its launch year, the voice acting is really good, and the music and SFX design are all top notch. You do viscerally feel like you’re going into wartime combat, and that anime flair does add a unique element that does make you smile while you play. The game is also commendable for just how many options are available to the player: dozens of pilots and an abundance of giant robots that all get unlocked at a pretty rapid pace as you complete missions, and it is very satisfying to see your archest of mechas and comrades grow as you play. Considering this was locked as a Japan-exclusive to an unpopular handheld for so long, it’s nice to see it reach western territories and overseas fans of the Gundam Seed and Destiny franchise are bound to have fun playing as or teaming up with their favorite series characters. There is no English dub for this game (English text is supported), so fans of Max Mittelman’s take on Kira Yamato may be disappointed, but for a title like this, having an English release at all is fantastic.

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Battle Destiny Remastered is a fan-focused revival packed with content, but it’s weighed down by dated mission structure, clunky UI, and shallow combat. Hardcore Gundam Seed fans will likely enjoy piloting iconic suits with authentic voice work, but newcomers may find limited appeal. At $40, it’s worth waiting for a sale unless nostalgia is calling.

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Battle Destiny Remastered copy provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.