Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3

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When news came that Gundam Musou-or Dynasty Warriors: Gundam-would finally be getting a new entry after nearly three years, fans of the sub-franchise rejoiced. As Shin Sangoku Musou 5, otherwise known to the Western community as Dynasty Warriors 6, abandoned the old combat mechanics in favor of a Renbu system that felt gutted compared to prior incarnations, and Sengoku Musou (Samurai Warriors) became at least a temporary Wii-exclusive, Musou fans at least had GM to look forward to. Possessing an updated version of the tried-and-true charge attack system that had been the standard for the first five SSM games and the entirety of the Musou Orochi (Warriors Orochi) series, the obvious question remains. Three years since the previous installment was released; was DWG3 worth the wait?

The basic handling of your "characters"-the famous giant robots known as "Mobile Suits"-at first feels unchanged for the most part. Pressing square goes into a basic attack string, from which you can press triangle at specific points in order to initiate a charge attack, each of which is unique and usually serves different purposes depending on your situation. You can also "boost" around by holding onto the X button, which allows you to move quickly from one part of the map to another, depleting your Thruster gauge. From charge attacks, you can cancel using X and initiating a "boost dash", dealing extra damage to foes and from which you can intiate further attacks. The Circle button will initiate your SP attack (so long as your SP gauge is full), otherwise known as a "Musou" or "Super Move"; different ones can be initiated on the ground, in the air (you can take to the air with R1), or with a nearby ally who also has an available SP attack.

None of this is anything new to consistent fans of either the Musou metafranchise or the Dynasty Warriors: Gundam subfranchise, but this isn't to say that the game hasn't been introduced to fresh new elements. The morale gauge, new stage layouts, and overall map system, for instance, adds something of a tactical element to the series in an attempt to bring it closer to the source material.

In the great majority of missions, each side has a morale gauge that must be completely depleted, either by the defeat of aces or the taking of fields, before the decisive blow can be dealt. For your side, such a final blow usually means when YOU are defeated; whereas for the enemy, the "BOSS" of the stage will appear in the enemy's HQ, who you must defeat. Before either morale gauge is depleted, however, you and your enemies can keep respawning. Yes, that's right; in Gundam Musou, you are now allowed more than one chance to complete a mission, being able to get taken down multiple times in a stage so long as there is still something in your morale gauge. On the flipside, enemies can constantly respawn and drop in on you in any field they own, sometimes literally appearing right over you.

However, veterans will find that this installment not only gives you the ability to respawn, but also balances things out through other measures. Players, for instance, have a far lower level of defense than they are used to in DWG1 and DWG2. Many tough opponents can take you down in as few as three hits; mistake-prone players who do not change their tactics will be punished accordingly. However, the mechanics of your Armor gauge-your lifebar-have changed. While you can take damage, it's often possible to recover most of it automatically, as indicated by a lower-shaded portion of your lifebar after taking damage. Oftentimes it's possible to gain your entire lifebar BACK; you'll simply have to calm down and keep away for the moment to lick your wounds, as your lifebar will not replenish if you keep taking damage. Furthermore, the inclusion of the Emergency Dash mechanic allows you to escape from an enemy assault by pressing X during a hit-confirmed attack, allowing you to boost out of the way at the cost of Thruster gauge.

Stage layouts are also considerably different from previous games, becoming much more condensed. In DWG3, in addition to the basic "fields" that must be taken, there are also "Bases", types of fields which serve special purposes. Some Bases will let you automatically call in allies, while others will continuously fill up your (or your opponents') morale gauge. Taking certain Bases from the start can dramatically change the tempo of a battle, and you can keep track of you and your opponent's movements by a constantly updating map that shows where each person's movements will bring them next.

Partners have also been added, allowing you to summon an allied ace who, whilst invulnerable, will briefly appear in a nearby location and perform actions ranging from a devastating area-of-effect attack, to handing out health items, to replenishing the morale gauge. In effect, Koei has added more to your arsenal with Partners.

The parts of gameplay outside of battle have also been much improved. Much of the game runs on Gold, gained from completing missions. Gold can be used to pay for level training, skill and license purchases, or for developing the Plans/Blueprints of Mobile Suits collected also from mission completion. You can keep up to four developed and customizable Plans, in effect keeping four different setups of a single Mobile Suit. This is as opposed to older games, where you were stuck with a randomized, often frustrating system of customizing individual parts of a single Mobile Suit.

Customizing each Mobile Suit is now very interesting, with each developed Plan having special one-time-use slots that can be used up to increase the individual parameters of a Mobile Suit to your liking. As well, each Mobile Suit can be equipped with anywhere from 3 to 4 attachments which can do anything from allowing you to recover health with each hit to increasing damage on certain types of attacks. One such attachment is Sonic Boost, which improves your Emergency Dash and turns it into a guardbreak, allowing you to open up enemies and constantly string attacks aganist them. The list of such attachments starts out small at first, but can be increased by upping Tech Level through actions such as development and customization.

Newcomers to the game include many oft-requested Wing suits such as Deathscythe and Heavyarms. One of the most surprising inclusions from that series is the rather unique selection of Tallgeese incarnation; not the incredibly famous Tallgeese 1, nor even the final Tallgeese 3, but instead the Tallgeese 2 piloted by Treize Khushrenada... Both Tallgeese 2 and its pilot are included in the game, which may cause both raised eyebrows and raised cheers from allcomers. Along with them are new units from Stardust Memory, X, 00, Unicorn, Turn-A, original SEED, and original MSG.

Mobile Suits of a lower class-mostly the common grunts you will likely be killing by the hundreds as you play the game-are not only playable as they were in the second game, but they have also been given extended movesets and new Air SP attacks. While not all of them are particularly flashier, some feel entirely different than they were before. Examples of those receiving notable improvements are the Rick Dias, who has useful new chaining moves and area-of-effect attacks so as to make it feel almost like a higher class suit, and the Marasai, who now possesses a rapid-fire Air SP reminiscent of the Heavy Machine Gun from Metal Slug.

Veterans may remember the rather annoying relationship system, which was nonetheless critical to unlocking new Mobile Suits for use on an individual pilot or unlocking new missions to play. Thankfully, things have been made much easier as there is now a somewhat-global mission list, with missions changing mostly as it relates to the main Story mode whose missions are located at the very top of said list. Furthermore, while there is a relationship system, that and unlocking new Mobile Suits are now virtually separate; in order to unlock a Mobile Suit's license, the machine must simply be used five times with a pilot that starts out with that particular Mobile Suit. The relationship system is now almost purely a method for unlocking missions, and one that is no longer frustrating as it is now a global list for all characters. Additionally, character relationships can be upped simply by playing them, bringing them along as partners, and are no longer lowered by fighting against them, which will further reduce frustration.

The first game in the franchise was known for having a somewhat slower style of the signature rock soundtracks that were emblematic of Dynasty Warriors, while the second's soundtrack was either ponied off of the first or seemed mostly bland and perhaps even uninspired... Thus, it may come as a surprise to many that the soundtrack of the third game completely and utterly blows the previous installments out of the water.

While it certainly draws from the usual rock and electric guitar that Dynasty Warriors is known for, it also takes utilizes a wide range of instruments outside of that. One track, "Fresh Nature", starts with a great piano solo. Another, "Be Always a King", is a fun little comical track that feels like it came out of a Saturday morning cartoon. "Accelerating Time" seems like it would fit well in an old video game, while "Esperance" makes you feel like you're fighting a decisive, world-ending battle. The mission/MS select theme gets me pumped up to fight like no other DW track. Without spoilers, the final boss theme of the game seems straight out of industry veteran Motoi Sakuraba's best works. Each part of the soundtrack has its own unique feel that meshes together to create a comprehensive aural experience.

DWG3 also serves as one of Koei's first forays into online co-operative gameplay. While brief and possessing online missions unique from single player sessions, the online gameplay is not so bad, serving as an alternative method of acquiring Gold or leveling up characters while also allowing you to reserve slots in a game to invite your friends. However, due to balancing issues, neither skills nor attachments take effect online. Along with the brevity of missions, the rather barebones online certainly has room for plenty of improvement.

Online is not the only part of the game that has a few kinks. While the new, short stages of the game will lend itself to a more arcade-y feel, those expecting epic long campaigns may find themselves disappointed. There have also been removals of several units from previous games, the most egregious of which are Johnny Ridden's MS-14B Gelgoog and the majority of units from Char's Counterattack.

All in all? Yes, I'd definitely say it was worth the wait, with a fantastic new soundtrack, new fast-paced gameplay, and elements that will make the game feel far fresher than previous installments while improving on nearly every aspect of the game.

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I must admit, I occasionally get the craving for smash-em-up games and most of the time Koei gets me a quick fix. This time, I decided to give this spin-off collaboration a shot. I purchased this installment of DW:Gundam 3 without having experienced the first two (though I've had plenty of experience with DW games). Therefore, my review of this game is not affected by how they compare to their predecessors (which may be good or bad, your pick).

Cons:

-There are "Chapters" for each side, and in order to complete the story, you have to play from every side's perspective (in order to unlock more chapters). Sounds unique, but it turned out to be a tedious grind just to find out where the plot's going. For example, I completed Chapter 1 for each side it took me about 4 hours, and all the characters figured out was "We don't know why we're here".

-Battles are structured unlike normal DW games, you can't just rush in and kill the boss. You have to capture and defeat the enemies enough for the boss to show up. Even though there are "mini-objectives" here and there, there wasn't a battle that really surprised me in format.

-Balance If you want to play as your favorite character/Gundam, you might be out of luck. Some of them are a chore to play through.

-Limited play modes It feels like campaign mode only. No minigames, no boss rush, no player vs. player, or anything else Koei is known for. Not a big deal though, just a thought.

Pros:

-Battle Mechanics I really like the battle sequences. Instead of the traditional mash 1-button gameplay, you can mix it up for longer, more elaborate combos. Emergency Dash is like a much needed dodge roll, and helps get out of sticky situations. Controls are very easy to learn.

-Graphics Cel shaded, very vibrantly colored. Even if you have 100 mobile suits on the screen, the graphics will still be crisp and won't slow down. It feels like you're creating the battle in the anime yourself.

-Character development Even if you didn't watch all the Gundam series, by the end of the game you'll have a feel for who stands for what. Even though it is a fictional plot, the characters are consistent.

-Customization Instead of finding weapons, you find blueprints instead of finding seals, you buy upgrades instead of character specific skills, you buy skills from a store. There's a lot to be customizations and combinations to try out.

-Japanese Audio It's not really a perk for some, but I don't like English voice acting for anime-based games.

Hours to completion: About 20-25

Replay Value: 3 out of 5, like other DW games once you complete it there's nothing else to do but play hard mode for kicks.

Bottom Line: While it is a solid game (without considering it's predecessors), it can get a little repetitive at times. Weekend rental? Yes. Purchase? Wait till the price drops (The price for these types of games drop quickly).

Buy Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 Now

The first Dynasty Warriors Gundam was pretty rough around the edges, graphically, and mechanically. It had a weak story, and a sparse character and suit selection. The second game improved on all of these, and got rid of the story almost completely because of the difficulty of putting all of these characters into one universe in a sensical way, and having them behave as they would.

While the first two could be seen as steps forward, this one is a leap. Graphically, it's quite pleasing, as far as the suits go. The environments as with all Dynasty Warrior games leave something to be desired, but if you're a die-hard Gundam fan like I am, you won't let it bother you as you take your favorite pilot in your favorite suit and destroy your enemies with devastating attacks and flashy moves. One of the most notable improvements is the new mobile suit development lab which is far less convoluted and random than the previous game.

A big thing people were looking forward to is the online multiplayer, and sadly, it's almost non-existant. It plays nothing like the real game, just big empty zones with two or three ace pilots in them, and the net-code is so bad that they'll often be seen attacking the air while your team mate is off in the corner somewhere, so it really detracts from the action. The big boss fights are still fun though, like the Psycho Gundams, and the Devil Gundam, as the game doesn't seem to spaz out as much on those they're a good way to earn pilot points and parts for suits.

The music, unfortunately, is the standard midi-guitar soundtracks that you'll find in most Dynasty Warriors games, again disappointing me with the lack of liscensed Gundam tracks, but that might be expecting too much. The story is better, but that's not saying much, really. The characters are all lead to some 'signal' they've picked up, and end up in an alternate dimension same silly plot idea as the first game, basically, but one noticable change is that the characters seem to be acting and making decisions like the real ones from the shows, something I appreciated.

Overall, if you're a huge Gundam fan, and have a friend that can come play on your couch with you, you can't really go wrong with this game. Couch co-op is still a blast, as you can do most of the missions from single player this way, just don't rely on the multiplayer co-op to carry the game. If you're playing by yourself, your mileage may vary, but I find it a blast to unlock new stages, suits, and characters while I thrash on a sea of metal.

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If your a Gundam or Dynasty Fan simply put you'll love this. Camera angles are fine. If anyone took the time to learn the controls you'd realize that there is a camera reset button that you will constantly use, which is why they put it there. I just wish they had more 00 characters than just setsuna.

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As a fan of Dynasty Warriors, this game was by far the best i've played. Levels are not too long and its freakin GUNDAM! the downside is that the levels do get really repetitive and dont vary much as they do in Musou Gundam 2. But the graphics are pretty and you'll have a lot to do in this game if you play for the platinum trophy! But after you do get it, there's nothing really giving you incentive to replay. Still this is a fun game if you can get it for a slight discount!