Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3

Dynasty Warriors gundam 3 builds on the previous games, yes its true it plays much the same as the old 2 but with many new features that help you when in the thick of battle. The online is good but a lack of missions in the early stages and no online CO-OP story slightly lets it down but in no ways enough to make the game a bad one.

The online missions are a series of Deathmatch battles with computer aces win which you and your friends can take on aces from within the game. Up to four players at one time can do missions and there are 15 which have 10-15 minute time limits but are easily done with 2-4 players.

Fans of the old games and all Gundam series will love this game for the new cel shaded effect on the whole makes it seem alot more like the series and with a totally original story to go with makes it alot of fun and since you can play almost all the characters means you wont be stuck choosing who to be. The main improvement i like is they've done away with the old license missions and made it so at a certain point all you have to do is buy the license for all pilots to be able to use so no need to keep failing a mission to use your favourite suit.

All in all this game is nothing short of fantastic and is a must buy for fans and new comers to the series.

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. Read more ›

If so, then you will probably enjoy this game. Don't kid yourself its particularly deep or anything. You start a level and go from "room" to "room" killing everything in sight. Eventually you get to the last "room" and you fight a boss of some sort. As long as you have killed everything up to this point, the boss is easy.

You have dozens of Mechs and dozens of characters. You can build your own Mech or customise an existing one, however there are no real instructions to explain how or why you would do this. Plans? No idea.

As for the cutscenes and characters talking through the fights, well there ought to be a way of turning them all off. They are the longest and most banal conversations you have ever heard.

Still, quite fun and probably worth 4 starts.