Mobile Suit Gundam Online: Battle Operation for the PS3

Earlier this morning I decided to look into a Gundam game I had read about a couple of years ago. That game, as the title of this post suggests, is Mobile Suit Gundam Online: Battle Operation. I was bummed to find that the game is restricted to Japan. Or that's what I thought, anyways. Further reading proved that it was quite possible to easily play the game from North America and that there was even a decent English-speaking community.

Flailthrough's videos were quite helpful when figuring out the game!

I'm not the biggest fan of Kotaku, but they did have a detailed guide (with pictures!) on how to set up your very own Japanese PSN account. No VPN is required, either, which is great. The gameplay of MSG:BO is essentially what I look for in a Mech game. First and foremost is what I call 'weight.' I absolutely hate it when a mech feels like there is no weight behind it. If I'm piloting a massive mechanical monstrosity, I want it to feel like it.And MSG:BO provides that feeling.

After that is "cockpit" view. This is where, at least as far as I can tell, MSG:BO falls short. It's a third-person shooter. There may be an option to play in a "first person cockpit" view, but I haven't been able to figure it out. If you read this and you know how, please tell. Anyways, MSG:BO doesn't meet expectations in this area, but this is about the only real disappointing thing in terms of game mechanics.

Next is customize-ability. You're able to customize various components of your mech and you can even paint it how you like. I've seen some videos of more advanced players that have some really odd looking mechs. There are also decals you can get, such as a "Sieg Zeon" sticker. I haven't messed with this part of the game yet, but the options are there.

One feature I always look forward to seeing in mech games is the ability actually get out of the mech and walk around as a person. This is the reason I loved MechWarrior: Living Legends (An extensive mod for Crysis Wars) so much. However, it's also a feature I rarely see. In MSG:BO, you CAN get out of your mobile suit and it is GLORIOUS! You can run around and make use of a jetpack. You will have several useful pieces of equipment at your disposal. Such as a rifle for taking out other pilots out of their suit, a bazooka for helping out against mobile suits and other armored units, flash grenades, and even a repair tool to repair your mobile suit. 

While you're out of your suit, you can also get in other vehicles. For example, there's a hover-bike type vehicle that comes with rocket launchers and a machine gun that is very maneuverable. I've also seen (and piloted) tanks. I'm not sure if there are more, as I've only played on a couple of maps. You can eject out of your mobile suit if it's taking heavy damage. The mobile suit is also on a different respawn timer than yourself. So you might eject out of your mobile suit, get stepped on immediately, and then respawn and find yourself without a suit for a little bit.

I know there are various game modes you can play, but so far I've only played a sort of Deathmatch-capture the point mix. Getting a fair fight can be difficult at the beginning as the basic suit you start out with is essentially trash. So your first few battles may not be very fun. Thankfully the "OH WOW!" factor should still be in play, so you can probably stick through it. It's last me about five games so far. And, as I watch videos and read guides, I'm learning more and more on how not to get completely destroyed by the pink laser-sword wielding Federation mobile suits.

I suppose I can say that I'm not a big fan of the games F2P Model. The biggest issue is the "Credit" system. Each match takes one credit. You can either buy credits for real money, sometimes get them from in-game means, or you can use the free credits. One free credit takes two hours to generate and you can have up to a maximum of three free credits at any one time. That means as a completely free-to-play play, you'll be able to play a maximum of three matches per six hour period. So, essentially, you'll play three matches, go to sleep, and then when you've come home from school/work/whatever, you'll play three more and that'll be it.

So far, though, the game seems like it may be worth investing in. It's kind of old (it originally came out in 2012), but the game play is very solid so far as I can tell. And between Dragonball Xenoverse, Mobile Suit Gundam Online, and SkyForge, I've gotten addicted to this sort of style of play. Speaking of Xenoverse, I may make a post about it soon. I haven't played much recently but I do have a character at about level 50. 

That's it for now. I'll more than likely make another post in a week or so that gives a better overview of the game. Also, the lack of pictures is because I currently do not have a way to take screenshots with my PS3. Other than my phone, anyways, and that wouldn't look that good.

Mobile Suit Gundam Online - Account Creation and Game Installation Guide

Hello. In the past I made a MSGO Guide video that got something like 30,000 views over two years. It still gets a decent amount of daily views and a handful of questions/comments (mostly about it being outdated and expressing interest in a new guide)  daily. I've recently made an updated video guide and today I will also be making a written guide.

This is for the Japanese version and requires a VPN. 

If you would prefer the video guide, scroll to the bottom of this post!

Account Creation
1) First, you will need to make an account. You will do that by click HERE.
-It should be in English, however it will sometimes appear in Japanese. If it DOES appear in Japanese, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and there will be a small bit of English text that says "International Portal" click that and you'll be taken to the English page.

2) Creating your account is extremely easy. The only important thing is that you Select Asia/Japan as your Country/Region of Residence, as shown in the image below.

Game Downloading and Installation
3) Now you will need to download the Installer. Do that by clicking HERE.


4) Installing is incredibly easy. It'll be in Japanese (or in a strange random string of symbols if you do not have Japanese language packs installed). Simply look for the option with 'N' in it and left-click it.

5) Once you have the BNO_Launcher downloaded and installed, open it in Administrator mode by right-clicking its shortcut and selecting "Run as Administrator." 

6) Ensure that the correct game is selected in the Launcher. This image will help you determine which one is correct:

7) Click the large Orange Button to begin the initial file downloading. This will be short and will only take a moment.

8) Once the initial files are done downloading, press the large Orange Button button once again. This should download and install the bulk game files.

9) Once the bulk files are downloaded and installed, you should be ready to play.

10) If the following Orange Button is displayed (check the symbols) then you are ready to play.

-If that image above is not what you see, you have more files to download. However, before downloading further files, FIRST close and re-open the Launcher. It is possible that you do in fact have the game up-to-date but the Launcher may be experiencing a common bug where it attempts to re-download the same thing over and over.


VPN Set-up and Playing
11) I use Mudfish VPN and so this guide will use it too. So far it has proven to be the easiest, most userfriendly VPN I have experience. However, this comes at a price. You will need to put in a minimum of $1 USD credit to use the Japanese VPN servers. This $1 should, if you use the VPN sparingly and only while playing MSGO and not while downloading files, last you for several weeks or even months.

12) Create an account for Mudfish VPN (linked above) and download the installer. Install the VPN - click Yes to everything and install the optional stuff as it is required for the VPN to work.

13) Once you have downloaded Mudfish VPN, set up your account, and implemented your $1 of Credit (which actually comes out to $1.08 USD), head to the Mudfish VPN Dashboard.

14) In the Dashboard, navigate (using the Left-side Menu) to Setup > Program.

15) Once in the Program Setup, click on the "Full VPN" tab and select a "JP Asia" server from the drop-down list. Click 'Save.'

Remember, you can right click on these images and select 'View Image' to see a larger version of the image!

16) Close the current Mudfish VPN Webpage and then, on your desktop, Right-Click the Mudfish shortcut and choose "Run as Administrator." This will cause a new Mudfish Webpage to open and will automatically configure and start the VPN. 

17) Visit WhatIsMyIP.com and ensure that you are connecting from a Japanese server.

-If it says you aren't connecting from Japan, you need to do the following

--Temporarily disable your Virus/Malware protection as they may be blocking the VPN from working. I use AVG and SpyBot Search & Destroy and I have no issues, but other programs may cause conflict and disabling them may help.

--Make sure that the virtual adapter ("TAP-Win32 Adapter V9") is NOT disabled (it needs to be enabled!) in your Device Manager (Search for it by going to the start button and typing "Device Manager" in the search bar).

--If neither of those works, you need to contact Mudfish support. It is possible to run Mudfish using one of the free VPN servers to make sure the program will work for you! Download and try the VPN for FREE before making any purchase!

18) If it tells you that you are connecting from Japan, open the Launcher and then click the large Orange Button. This will launch the game. You can Left-Click to skip the intro cinematics.

19) At the log-in screen, enter your Bandai account info. You will then be presented with a pop-up giving you two options. Click the LEFT option as shown below.

20) On this new page, re-enter your Bandai account information and hit ENTER. This will load you to a User Agreement page. Click the RIGHT option.

--If for some reason this does not work for you, go back through step 18-19 and select the LEFT option on the User Agreement.

21) After that, you will be taken to a new page with a pop-up window. Click OK and close the browser page as you are ready to play.

22) Re-enter your account information in the game and you will be taken to the character creation process which is very straight forward! Watch the video if you need help with that.

An Average Day in Reign of Kings

Yesterday was an interesting day in Reign of Kings.


Amethys and I rolled characters on the Quadra Khan's (A guild from Mortal Online that we are both familiar with) server. Things started off slow, we tried out a new tactic of farming the Plague Town former residents for steel items. I believe we got lucky a few times, but between a few deaths and the amount of time it took, we decided it would be more beneficial to go back to the ole' "Start a base and farm" method.

So, we headed out and traveled far, far away from the main resource hubs. It was a long journey of twenty or so minutes to find a good spot. Along the way, though, we came across our allies in Ghost Division (Prince's guild, a guy that both Amethys and I know from MO as well). When I say "came across" I mean we were superbly lucky to find out that the location we picked for our own base (Wyvern's Tip on the map I linked earlier) was the same exact location they had already built on. They weren't on at the time, so we explored around a bit more before deciding that we should set up a base nearby. We chose the "tip" of Wyvern's Tip and set up shop there with the reasoning that it would be extremely difficult to siege something on top of a steep mountain.

After we got the initial platform finished, both of us decided to log out for the time being.

Some hours later, I decided to come back online and found that Amethys had done a decent amount of work. And, along with the Ghost Division guys, had done some raiding. I didn't know it at the time, but that would set the tone for the rest of the evening (morning for them). After getting me back up to speed and doing a bit more raiding, we built up our mountain fortress a decent amount. It was truly something to behold. Mostly made of log, it still managed to look frightening and provided us with everything we needed. Unfortunately, I failed to get a decent screenshot.

Anyways, the highlight of the night was successfully sieging what was the most impressive building on the server. It was a massive two-tower castle made of cobblestone. Surely not the most secure or strongest of materials, but the building still looked impressive. And the rewards it held were sweet.

We began by using a Ballista we had built back at our fortress in our newly created Siege workshop. With it, we created a small hole.

Initially, the hole was much too small. However, we figured out that we could make use of the rope to "Rag doll" ourselves through the hole. This hole lead into their smelting room, which was filled with resource - iron, steel, wood, and charcoal.


It should be noted that there were originally three other Smelters in the room before we got there. We had to destroy two as Amethys and I, as a result of the rope trick, were stuck behind them. We were able to destroy them successfully, though. From there, we almost made a fatal mistake in which we ALL managed to wiggle ourselves into the hole and found we could not break out. Thankfully, someone had been intelligent enough to grab the ballista. So, we cleared out another Smelter to make room for the Ballista and proceeded to blow a new hole to the second (Above) floor with it.

And what we found in that second floor was beautiful. Sleeping people, at least five I think. Plus chests. We also found that we had access to their roof, where they kept two other chests and their beds. Needless to say, we slaughtered them all in their sleep and proceeded to loot everything. We finished up with this portion of the castle by destroying their beds to cut off any chance of immediate retaliation. We were lucky that these people were offline, and remained offline, for the whole raid.

And from the roof. You can see their execution grounds.


From there, we continued our siege as the architecture of the building suggested other rewards on a basement floor. We blew into the basement from the outside with the Ballista, and then forced our way into the central stairwell from the inside. We found two more chests but we failed to find what we considered the ultimate prize: Their crest. Finding their crest would have meant we could completely dismantle their entire castle and then make use of the materials (again, mostly cobblestone) ourselves. However, after about an hour of trying and a couple of accidental deaths (apparently roping someone and forcing them through a door is fatal. For the person being pulled and for anyone who happens to be in the path of their high-speed limbs).

All-in-all, though, we made out like bandits. We were in and out completely undisturbed. We cleaned them out completely and tore up the place spectacularly.

The only bad thing is, due to the alpha nature of the game, there are frequent updates. Usually, this would be great. However, as they are still adding new items and features into the game, that means frequent wipes. We woke up the next morning to find all our work gone. It was fun, though. Surely a memory we wont be forgetting.

Quit Age of Wushu (again) + My recent games

So, once again, I have quit Age of Wushu. This was actually a few weeks ago but I haven't made a post recently. The reason I quit was that, after the initial wave of returnees left the game, things got a bit dead. I got bored trying to catch up and I wasn't really doing anything except for logging on for Script Stealing and a few other activities that I didn't particularly enjoy. I still have a friend, ThommyHubbub, who is playing and streams the game. If you want to check him out (and I suggest you do) here's the link to his stream.


Since quitting Age of Wushu, I've been jumping around from game to game. I've only been playing MMOs for the purpose of review on OnRPG/MMOhuts. February was a very busy month where I did a decent amount of work. I did a Sevencore re-review, a handful of Early/First Looks for games like the Russian SkyForge (I've also finished a First Look for the North American SkyForge), Life is Feudal, Druids Duel, and Cronix. I also did a couple of interviews for Galactic Inheritors and Duelyst (both very interesting games). I also did a Preview for the most recent Nosgoth class, the Vanguard.

Reign of Kings

This month has been a bit less busy, but I still got a decent amount done. Heroes of Rune, Reign of Kings (Incredibly fun game), Windward (Amazing for those of us that enjoy Age of Sail games), an Early Look for The Repopulation, and an Early Look at Prismata. Like I said in the above paragraph, I did I'll be updating my other blog pages with links to everything I've done the past two months, so if you're interested you can check there.

In my free time I've been playing mostly Reign of Kings and Crusader Kings 2. Crusader Kings 2 has been fun to delve into. I've been apprehensive about playing it, as I played Europa Universalis last year and I ended up putting in over fourty hours into EU4 within three days which wasn't healthy. They're fantastic games, what can I say. But with CK2, I've been able to play with moderation and have only put in about thirty five hours over the past couple of weeks.

In Reign of Kings, I've only just hit over twenty hours in the game. It's only been out for a week now, so I think that's impressive. It's a really fun game and despite the history of the developers (they created StarForge, which a lot of people are upset about), it's been mostly a pleasing experience. The only real issue is the frequent wipes due to frequent updates, plus the performance still needs a lot of tweaking. Immediately after this post, I'll be posting one of my most recent adventures (not the most in-depth, unfortunately).

That's about been my gaming since my last post. I'll hopefully be updating this more frequently. Not that I expect many (or any) people to actually read, but it's nice to keep a log of what I done so I can come back and look at it from time to time. Very nostalgic, if nothing else. Thanks for reading (if you have).