Based on the anime ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 has you suit up in your favourite giant mechs and battle the enemy in classic Dynasty Warriors style. This, naturally, means namely hacking the hell out of everything in sight while making tactical decisions.
Suit Up
First and foremost, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 will utilize a new graphical ‘cel-shaded’ style that is much closer to the presentation of the popular anime. You may remember that such games as Borderlands and Prince of Persia used this level of presentation to great effect, giving the games themselves a vibrant personality that differs a lot from most of the titles currently out there. The same can be said of Gundam 3, which drips with a unique style and artistic design that fans of the anime will absolutely lap up. Expect plenty of lovely vibrant colours and thick black lines around everything.
The Gundam series itself has now been going for upwards of 30 years, and the amount of content included within this Dynasty Warriors title reflects that. Comprised of over 70 mecha (that’s giant robots to you and me), the game will allow you to choose which pilots and which mecha you wish to use that particular pilot in, with the vast majority of these giant robots having different skill sets and moves that you can utilize to beat the vast hordes of your enemies squarely into next week.
Ooo, Shiny.
In order to do this, you’ll need to execute the traditional Dynasty Warriors tactic that is fast-paced hack-and-slash gameplay, smashing your various controller buttons into submission as you relentlessly attack the massive numbers of enemies that appear on screen. The plethora of enemies has, in recent years, really became a staple of the Dynasty Warriors series, so expect there to be untold amounts of enemies for you to defeat swarming the battlefield.
What exactly makes this differ from the rest of the titles in the massive Dynasty Warriors series, though? What exactly are developers Tecmo Koie changing up this time? Well never fear, dear reader, as I shall tell you. First up, there are partner strikes, which, as you probably guessed, allow you to summon an ally in battle who will help you out in times of dire need. There’s also emergency dashes (which allow you to dodge enemy attacks if you time them right), chance gauges that build up your chance meter and allow you to inflict more damage, and even the option to utilize various ‘bases’ for missile attacks and repairing your worn-out mech after a hard day of pummelling other mechs in the face.
There’s also a great focus on improving enemy AI in this title, as previous incarnations of the series have been widely criticized for the enemy AI simply standing there, waiting to be hit. In this incarnation, the enemy AI has been totally revamped, meaning those pesky adversaries will tactically support each other, flank you, and even group together for stronger attacks that are much harder to defend against.
Mega Mecha Missions
The way the storyline and mission structure of Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 is handled is also being totally revamped for this entry in the series. The old Original mode that has been introduced throughout the series will still make a return though, offering a non-canonical storyline that includes popular Gundam characters Amuro, Setsuna, Kuo and Kira. Mission and Official mode has been entirely stripped out of the game though, and has been replaced with a wide variety of different gaming modes.
The Art Style of Gundam 3 is Incredibly Striking
The first of these (and probably set to be the most popular amongst Gundam fans) are the History Missions. These reenact the very first series of Gundam utilizing some of the characters in the game, most specifically coming straight out of the Universal Century, Wing, X, G, Turn A, Seed Destiny and 00 story arcs.
Collection missions, meanwhile, will have you searching the battlefield for various different mech parts such as Zeon types, whereas Memorial missions (unlocked after killing 10,000 enemy mechs) allow you to acquire even rarer Mecha Suit plans, offering new mechs and piloting skills as you go along.
There’s also the underlining idea of creating friendships with other mechas. By playing missions with partners, you can upgrade your friendship level with them from 1-5, unlocking new abilities and new missions depending upon your level of friendship with another mech.
Mecha Online
See what I did with the subtitle there? See, they’re robots… so they’re online… get it? Anyway, that doesn’t matter, as this section is all about the online functions of Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3, not my cringe-worthy puns.
The online mode itself is to be a four-player cooperative experience that allows four plucky mech pilots to take part in fifteen unique missions that are quite impossible for you to complete all by yourself. In this mode you’ll be working actively as a team, collecting restoration points, and using each other’s abilities, allowing you to earn a much higher amount of experience than you would for playing a single player game, presumably due to the difficultly being ramped up because there are more people.
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 is set to be released on July 1st, 2011.
This preview brought to you by Curtis Productions, more specifically GG Senior Editor Dan Curtis, who should be immediately followed on Twitter @TheDanCurtis
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