By Joseph Walter
Even games that have the potential to be great are often ruined by typical Bandai sloppiness. Gundam: Zeonic Front is one of those games.
The concept alone is enough to capture anyone's attention: "what if we took the tactical shooter gameplay and planning elements of Rainbow Six and replaced the elite task force with giant mobile suits? And you get to play as the bad guys?"
If those ideas were executed properly, this clever union of genres would be a blast but, alas, the final product is one that exemplifies the concept of "half-baked."
However, a shining gem amongst the otherwise mediocre-to-poor elements is the inexplicable glory of the "Mission Settings" music, which plays as you plan your team's strategy for each mission.
There's legitimately no reason for this song to be on this level. Hell, there are only a handful of songs in the entire Gundam franchise that actually manage to measure up to this!
It immediately draws you in with a solemn fanfare that is both valiant and desperate, which is soon bolstered by the sudden inclusion of an explosive choir and climactic orchestral blasts.
It then transitions into its main musical idea, which is comprised of a driving militaristic beat and heroic brass accents with choral and orchestral backing.
There's just something so passionate and emotionally charged about this piece. It never goes in the "evil villain" direction you might expect, and, instead, opts for a balance between heroic and sad that really pulls at your heart.
I especially love the part at 1:21, where the sweeping strings dramatically swoop in at full power, accentuating the emotional core of the piece, and then a noble burst of brass caps things off before transitioning the song back towards the main idea.
Overall, "Mission Settings" has a surprising amount of variety, compositional complexity and emotion depth before it finally loops, and I still find myself in awe of just how impressively good of a piece it truly is! (too bad the same can't be said about the game.)