@DisguisedDemonThat's... Not in Build Fighters

<Snipped quote by Rin>

That one specifically isn't, but a character in Try builds something very, very similar.

@Plank Sinatra Meh, you could make it work- if you have players that know how to make it balanced or trust not to become OP as hell.

Be it a rookie pilot who for some reason got their hands on a gundam- because of course they have, or maybe the gundam has a flaw or limitations or a locked up power system. Plenty you could do with it

<Snipped quote by vietmyke>

But this isn't really the point in most Gundam series. Even in the Universal Century, the Gundam was fielded in order to completely outclass Zeon - who up to that point had the Zaku, which was the most advanced machine on the battlefield. When a Gundam hits the stage, it doesn't have limitations or a locked power system. It's designed to be a generation ahead of everything else.

Giving them to skilled pilots as needed, as time goes on in the game, is much more in line with how the franchise actually works. All you're doing then is cutting out the one MC-type character who gets one within the first episode or two, since there shouldn't be one of those in a group roleplay from the outset anyway.

Potential Solution: We don't side with either Zeon or the Feds.

This is just a hypothetical, but what if we took a page from Gundam F91's book and center the story around some ragtag third party? In F91 it was essentially space pirates in the form of the Crossbone Vanguard. Suppose we're playing as something similar? People whose homes (be it a colony or a place on Earth) was hit by war between Zeon and the Feds and were forced into doing whatever it takes to survive in a harsh world/space that's being torn apart by a war. The idea is that we're essentially scavengers. We try to salvage shipwrecks and especially mobile suit parts. We do it to both make money and arm ourselves so that we aren't defenseless. Naturally, neither the Federation nor Zeon take too kindly to people like this potentially learning the secrets of some of their machines and so we'd probably be treated like outlaws or pirates.

In my hypothetical scenario, we have a plausible reason for why no one would start out with a Gundam (because their parts are just that hard to come by for us) but also gives us the potential to acquire one or two of them as time goes on, assuming we survive long enough to reach that point.

Edit: I also think at least one person ought to play as a masked antagonist of some kind. It just wouldn't be Gundam without a Char clone. Hell, I'll gladly volunteer for that part myself.