Thank y'all for the recommendations, they're greatly appreciated. I'll try them all out! Chibi doesn't sound fun, but i won't know till I try.
Rise from the ashes, I think that's the one I played. By sim, i think "cockpit sim" might have been a better word for me to use. I don't mind the 3rd person perspective, but I think I appreciated the games which feel like you're actually playing in a gundam, and not just a generic action game with gundams. So realistic physics, and a bit of "strategy while you're going pewpew and ZWAAAANG".
to get back on track, I wonder how fun this game will be when compared to the more realistic ones.
Yeah no the cockpit sim type was exclusive to Rise from the Ashes, and likely wouldn't work often if at all again.
Lemme expand on earlier:
The big ones I suggest for that 'Gundam' feel are GBO2, where low-rank units are as clunky as you'd imagine, up to high-rank (not rarity) who can do some mind boggling stuff and is all UC Gundam, excluding the Freedom gundam crossover on PC. But the connections can be wonky and are peer-to-peer. It feels closest to how you'd remember RftA, legit.
If you don't mind Japanese only, there's also Gundam 0081 in a similar vein I'd say.
And Gundam Breaker 3 was generally considered peak Action Gundam design (I never played it sadly, I played New Gundam Breaker which uhh... ow. Bad changes, Worse Story). And from the Beta Test for Switch's Gundam Breaker 4, seems opinions are set that early game feels as good if maybe better than Gundam Breaker 3. Since there's little spoiler to speak of, you can look up RedWolfVion's videos on the Beta Network Test for GB4.
SD Gundam Battle Alliance definitely isn't bad though, I'd say it feels halfway between a Dynasty Warriors (for mooks) and Souls/Nioh-type (in terms of executing skilled blocks/dodges and managing boost and the 'ammo' on abilities that refresh over time) for Gameplay. It has minimal story bar going over Gundam history and 'addressing errors in canon', with a light plot thread that strings it all together. It's worth picking up.
If Strategy ala Fire Emblem's your thing, you can go G Gen Cross Rays, or, if you like other mecha franchises (IE: Code Geass, TTGL, Evangelion) you can invest into the oldest running Crossover Series of all, Super Robot Wars. There's no 'pilotting' suits, but every entry has some form of Gundam in it, with SRW 30 including Zeta, CCA, Narrative, Victory, and Iron Blooded Orphans (ala DLC for the latter, but it kinda ties into the plot anyhow). Most SRWs are NOT Fire Emblems hard, but they do have some amazing callbacks to their source materials.
Edit: including a video for Super Robot Wars 30 below, enjoy.
Edit 2: Reply asking for just about any mecha anime and I'll likely have an SRW video for it to DM you, just including this one
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