Thoughts on Gundam Build Divers: the pilot

On board the hype train. A new build fighters series is out and we have a preview of what's to come with the 15 min pilot up in Gundam.info's Youtube channel. Sharing some quick thoughts and 1st impressions on the pilot and some wishes for things to hopefully come. Thoughts after the break

We don't have much to go on at this point. The pilot features a 10v10 scenario where enemies actually uses some tactics (which I like). It didn't devolve into a super move spam fest (cue Winning Road episode with the EZ8-SRs). Also it's a bit confusing if it's a mix of Gunpla and VR or just Gunpla like in OG Build Fighters or just VR. Either way it seems detached from the Build Fighters world.

On to thoughts and 1st Impressions:

• As mentioned, it seems to be VR based. The official art features characters in normal clothes and pilot uniforms. The pilot list also features a dog/rat pilot so it could be an avatar? It's a good way to realistically bring back plastic kits fighting into the real world instead of magic plavsky particles. I like it so far... maybe a preview of what's to come video game wise as well.

• It may not always be 10v10. I like the concept of strategic fights to overwhelm teams with overpowered pilots. My concern is that the jump cuts might disrupt the flow of a battle to feature 3 other fights ongoing. Then again they did mention that the ace pilot featured (the Age Magnum pilot) has won 1v1 tournaments so it could be a mix of both? I wonder how they're going to mix it up. They executed the 10v10 pretty good here.

• I'm soooo glad they brought back custom gunplas. In Try, there were too many scratch built suits. All of the protagonists' suits were not based on existing gunpla, which wass the point of build fighters (though the Denial was awesome). Here we have repaints with custom weapons or a base gunpla with new parts. and with the announced kits so far, that seems to be the trend.

• They're expanding the suit selection to Reconguista and Age. It'll be nice to have newer series featured. The 00 trend is still there though :( I'm kind of tired seeing 00 suits.

• The new suit designs on the other hand are a mix bag. I like the new Grimoire and the new Age-2 Magnum looks neat. The announced GM though looks a bit toyish especially with those fat sword/thrusters/guns things. And did I mention I'm tired of the 00 suits? There seems to be a Seravee with a pltomaios stuck on it's back. I hope we get more souped up Grunt suits.

• It's too short to judge the characters so far... while the passion is there, the new "Char" seems to be more bro-dude than Tatsuya was on Build Fighters. We also have the usual happy go lucky one and the strict female one. The dog pilot though... hope we get more of him. I'll buy all the kits he pilots.

• I wonder if the setting will just be pure tournament (like Try) or will have some evil organisation. I would prefer the former but please, none of that harem stuff please... And no power of friendship win either.

• It's obvious that there will be some plot armor involved in some fights. You can see here the Age-2 surviving a blast from thunderbolt's Big Gun. I hope it doesn't devolve into contrived plot mechanics (the Tryon fight and Crossbone fight comes to mind).

• the protagonist's suit: 00 Diver looks boring and uninspired. Maybe it's 00 fatigue... I bet it'll feature a new backpack midway through the series.

Overall, good 1st impressions. If they keep the strategic fights and have less obvious plot armor,  then it might match or even be better than Build Fighters. We're talking about VR based games instead of magic plavsky assimilation stuff so hopefully no magic ass-pull victories. We'll have something to look forward too again on weekends.Yey!