I can't really think of another game that's just put you on the losing side of a war and made your main objective simply getting through the conflict in one piece. Most of the missions in Volume 3 follow the Noisy Fairy Squadron as they cover the Zeon forces on a continent-spanning retreat from California Base to Cape Canaveral, a location fortified enough to hopefully wait out the rest of the war. These range from simple search and destroy missions to using Noisy Fairy's reputation in order to draw attention away from the retreating force. This culminates in the game's final chapter, which takes place mere minutes away from Zeon's surrender. Federation forces are converging on Cape Canaveral at more or less the same time as the fall of A Baoa Qu. Everyone knows it's just a matter of time until the war is over and Zeon surrenders, so your only objective is to survive. It’s a really cool final mission and really hammers in the idea that “just surviving is good enough” in a war as horrid as the OYW that was mentioned in an earlier chapter of the game. It’s also worth noting how Alma’s character arc of awakening to newtype abilities amidst the horrors of a war she doesn’t want to be a part of, only to decide to keep fighting in order to make sure that the people she cares about will still be alive once the war is over, kind of mirrors Amuro’s whole arc from the 0079 series. It’s not an exact match, but I think that the parallels were very intentional.

Also it was cool how the game’s secret boss is just the Blue Destiny Unit 1.

Reviewed on Jul 13, 2023


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