Probably the clunkiest of the PS2 Gundam entries, Journey to Jaburo leans into weightiness and sluggish controls to facilitate realism. Unfortunately, almost every enemy is a bullet sponge in order to produce a semblance of difficulty, which leads to ridiculous happenings: weak beam weapons, bad hitboxes, and generally poor game feel. Even so, adapting to the game's odd controls was somewhat fun and allowed me to reach a level of competency by the campaign's last mission.
There are good points. The visuals are more than up to snuff 20 years down the line, thanks to some graphical tricks. The haze in desert levels is awesome, foliage in forests is thick and adds a layer to the usual rhythm of combat, and the in-game cutscenes are just cool overall. Music from 0079 is present, and gives the whole game some authenticity - playing through the anime's story is one thing, but hearing its tracks while you're charging through enemy mechs makes it all a little more bearable.
Journey to Jaburo is not that fun, but it is a faithful adaptation of 0079. It's also a companion piece to the much better Encounters in Space, and suffers as a result. Worth playing? Probably not, unless you're a big fan of the Universal Century timeline.
There are good points. The visuals are more than up to snuff 20 years down the line, thanks to some graphical tricks. The haze in desert levels is awesome, foliage in forests is thick and adds a layer to the usual rhythm of combat, and the in-game cutscenes are just cool overall. Music from 0079 is present, and gives the whole game some authenticity - playing through the anime's story is one thing, but hearing its tracks while you're charging through enemy mechs makes it all a little more bearable.
Journey to Jaburo is not that fun, but it is a faithful adaptation of 0079. It's also a companion piece to the much better Encounters in Space, and suffers as a result. Worth playing? Probably not, unless you're a big fan of the Universal Century timeline.