So I just discovered this game series yesterday as I was researching my impending Dreamcast collection. Holy fucking shit! I had no idea what I've been missing! Are you kidding me? Gundam, Evangelion and more all in one, sweet, strategy RPG? Count me in!

So I looked at the Dreamcast version and it looks killer. Then I see that they have one for PS2 as well. I watch the Youtube vids. Amazing. So I think I'm going to attempt to play one of these gems.

One problem: I know almost zero Japanese.

I see that gamefaqs has some translation guides but they mostly cover the story. My question is this. How playable are these games for the Japanese illiterate. I have no problem printing out the translation guide to get the gist of the story but what worries me is the rest of it. Those menus look rather intimidating.

Have any fellow gaijin attempted to tackle one of these games?