Playkultur: Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3

I wasn’t much of a Gundam fan at first, but ever since the appearance of the first Dynasty Warriors Gundam on the PS2, I’ve enjoyed the series so far. Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 is the third installment of the Dynasty Warriors Gundam series, a spin-off on the Dynasty Warriors series by Koei. I’ll have to admit this game kept me playing for quite a while.

Character Variety

This game has more pilots to choose from compared to the previous games. From Mobile Suit Gundam to Gundam 00, it spans both heroes and villains you can choose from as well as the mobile suits they can pilot. In the beginning you only start with Amuro Ray, Setsuna F. Seiei, and Garrod Ran as playable characters. As you keep playing more missions and develop friendships with the other pilots through fulfilling certain objectives, you will eventually unlock them as playable characters.

There are some exceptions however; some pilots will always remain as NPC’s who only appear in battle such as the Black Tri-Stars (Gaia, Mash and Ortega) and Yazan’s wingmen (Dunkel and Ramsus).

If you play certain missions, you can even unlock alternate outfits for certain characters. Examples like Char Aznable with his helmet (MSG-079), Haman Karn in her Neo Zeon outfit (MSG-ZZ), and even Loran Cehack (Turn A Gundam) in drag.

Gameplay

What makes this different from the previous DW:Gundam games is that there are now different kinds of fields available for players to capture. Special fields like a missile base, repair bay, and a newtype lab are among the things that are available on the battlefield. Chain explosions also occur when you defeat a normal enemy unit with a charge attack so it’s really useful when you take down a base.

Random side-missions also occur while you’re performing your primary objective. It usually has some sort of story reference such as stopping Katejina Loos‘ manipulation of two pilots, or halting Glemy Toto and his squad of mass-produced Qubeleys. If you rescue or defeat pilots involved from their plots, your friendship level with them will increase slightly.

Grunts in this game have been slightly taken up a notch as those mass-produced Zakus and GM’s won’t hesitate to use charge attacks once you enter their line of sight. They’re also smart as they try to keep their distance from you while they shoot all at once; imagine how hard it would be at a more advanced difficulty with hordes of grunts defending a base. I’ve already seen some grunts that can actually perform an emergency dash on harder levels.

This game also has a lot of challenging missions such as fighting giant enemies (Big Zam, Queen Mansa, Dark Gundam, etc.) or this certain mission where you’re only allowed to pilot a mass-produced mobile suit with limited fighting capabilities. (Imagine using a Ball against a Strike Freedom Gundam.) The rewards are great however, as this gives you the opportunity to unlock Musha Gundam and Musha Gundam Mk.II… if you’re lucky enough to survive. Yes, the Challenge Missions in this game are definitely worth it.

As usual, you can also customize your mobile suits through plans you’ve obtained from missions and Astonaige Medoz is more than willing to help you out with that. (By chance, Paptimus Scirocco runs the Mobile Suit Lab.) You can also obtain licenses for other mobile suits to enable other pilots to use more advanced mobile suits. Imagine Char piloting a Gundam Strike Freedom or Full Frontal piloting a Gundam 00 Raiser!!!

There are also several missions wherein you can boost relationships with other pilots to unlock them as partners and playable characters.

Soundtrack

Although the NA release for this game didn’t have the original songs from the JP release (I’m guessing licensing is expensive.) , Koei was able to produce some kick-ass tunes to compensate for that loss. The music keeps changing from a neutral tone, pessimistic tone, and an optimistic tone; depending on which side is winning the battle and it really sets the mood. I downloaded the soundtrack rips, and personally, I must say it’s great to listen to while driving. My favorites are Silent Ops and Esperance.

Online Mode / DLCs

Sadly, I haven’t been able to experience Online Mode that much due to a lack of players. It’s really sad considering how great this game is.

As for the DLC’s, my game already had a free one included. It was Marida Cruz from Gundam Unicorn along with her Kshatriya. Other pilots like Lockon Stratos and Mr. Bushido/Graham Aker are available for download at a price.

The Cons

Alright, there were a few things that I didn’t like about the game was one thing recurring in most DW games. It can be very repetitive. A lot of maps are recycled and it feels as if you’re playing the same stage all over again with the only difference being a change of team mates, enemies, and the mobile suits that appear during battle.

DW Gundam used to have stages where you actually fight in space. It used to look as if you were flying around asteroids, going through space colonies, etc. However, DW Gundam 3 disappointed me in a way that every battle is ground-based, even if the setting was in space and takes place on an asteroid’s surface.

Verdict

If you are a Gundam fan, I’d definitely recommend this. If you’re developing an interest in the Gundam series, I would also recommend it! The variety of characters makes you curious about what roles they played in their respective series and that made me more interested to watch the other Gundam titles. I’m looking forward to watching Gundam F91 soon.

Now if you excuse me, I’m still working to unlock Knight Gundam as a playable character.

Tags: dynasty warriors, gundam, Playkultur