I definitely beat this game, but I don't feel like I did anything. The game is split into two different modes named "Official" and "Original".
"Official" mode is basically hyper-condensed character specific scenarios from the original anime these characters come from. The gameplay across all of these modes use the same handful of maps with no significant changes. This mode is the smaller of the two, and ironically enough, it does more original things than the "Original" side. I think its the better of the two modes because its the only time the story even attempts to make sense, even if it makes heavy compromises while doing it.
Original Mode is a fan fiction scenario with 16 different playable characters with 5 missions each. This sounds good initially, but like Official Mode, every one of these characters pulls from the same small handful of maps and follows the same formula. At least 1 of these 5 missions for each character will have a confrontation with the Musha Gundam, whos actual purpose in this story is completely incomprehensible. He's apparently some kind of puppet for a planet that is on a collision course with Earth, but somehow the person who defeats him can gain control of the planet and obtain ultimate power? The planet itself is never explained, and it just seems hastily thrown together for the purpose of this crossover. Many of the characters have the same stories, and their separate game modes just exist to allow you to play as them instead in these scenarios.
The gameplay in this game is your standard Musou fare, but a little less. The mobility in this game is terrible, with it often asking you to run to the other side of the map in order to rescue a team member and constantly use up your stamina bar while dashing. You move like a snail, and the few characters that do have unique transformations that allow them to fly in the air use up their stamina meter even faster, making using it at all a bit pointless. Many of the characters who have similar looking Gundam suits also share an identical moveset, and it's very apparent with the Qubeley model characters because the occupy three entire slots. The alert system is often delayed by several seconds and sometimes even up to a minute, causing you to miss important notices of team members losing critical HP. Many times I would get the alerts for the same exact team member taking damage and then dying, back-to-back, before I would have had an opportunity to rescue them. The game also likes to undo your progress frequently when you reach milestones in the mission, spawning entire enemy bases on top of your already claimed bases. The progress you make is artificial, with you easily being able to reclaim base areas in a matter of seconds depending on their size. The only time enemy control seems to matter outside of bosses is with Argama missions, since it will often get swarmed and ally soldiers are useless when it comes to tower defense.
Ultimately this game was a bit of a mess. It's carried hard by the tried and true Dynasty Warriors formula. When it's done right, it's an incredible formula for simple dumb fun and can warrant the hours and hours these kinds of games need from you. Here, however, I think it fell a bit short. The magic of it here wears off in a matter of a couple hours.
"Official" mode is basically hyper-condensed character specific scenarios from the original anime these characters come from. The gameplay across all of these modes use the same handful of maps with no significant changes. This mode is the smaller of the two, and ironically enough, it does more original things than the "Original" side. I think its the better of the two modes because its the only time the story even attempts to make sense, even if it makes heavy compromises while doing it.
Original Mode is a fan fiction scenario with 16 different playable characters with 5 missions each. This sounds good initially, but like Official Mode, every one of these characters pulls from the same small handful of maps and follows the same formula. At least 1 of these 5 missions for each character will have a confrontation with the Musha Gundam, whos actual purpose in this story is completely incomprehensible. He's apparently some kind of puppet for a planet that is on a collision course with Earth, but somehow the person who defeats him can gain control of the planet and obtain ultimate power? The planet itself is never explained, and it just seems hastily thrown together for the purpose of this crossover. Many of the characters have the same stories, and their separate game modes just exist to allow you to play as them instead in these scenarios.
The gameplay in this game is your standard Musou fare, but a little less. The mobility in this game is terrible, with it often asking you to run to the other side of the map in order to rescue a team member and constantly use up your stamina bar while dashing. You move like a snail, and the few characters that do have unique transformations that allow them to fly in the air use up their stamina meter even faster, making using it at all a bit pointless. Many of the characters who have similar looking Gundam suits also share an identical moveset, and it's very apparent with the Qubeley model characters because the occupy three entire slots. The alert system is often delayed by several seconds and sometimes even up to a minute, causing you to miss important notices of team members losing critical HP. Many times I would get the alerts for the same exact team member taking damage and then dying, back-to-back, before I would have had an opportunity to rescue them. The game also likes to undo your progress frequently when you reach milestones in the mission, spawning entire enemy bases on top of your already claimed bases. The progress you make is artificial, with you easily being able to reclaim base areas in a matter of seconds depending on their size. The only time enemy control seems to matter outside of bosses is with Argama missions, since it will often get swarmed and ally soldiers are useless when it comes to tower defense.
Ultimately this game was a bit of a mess. It's carried hard by the tried and true Dynasty Warriors formula. When it's done right, it's an incredible formula for simple dumb fun and can warrant the hours and hours these kinds of games need from you. Here, however, I think it fell a bit short. The magic of it here wears off in a matter of a couple hours.
I like me some Dynasty Warriors, that's no secret around here. This was one of a pile of cheaper older ones I picked up last year when I first got into the series. So far, it's up there with Hyrule Warriors as one of my favorites in the series. Actually, while it may not pass Hyrule Warriors in term of sheer fan-factor, mechanically this is my favorite I've played so far in the series. I finished all 6 possible campaigns in the Official Mode and beat Original Mode with 10 out of 16 characters. I finally unlocked the ability to play as the final boss (which I misunderstood the conditions for so it took me WAY longer to do than it could've) as a playable character, so I call that beat. All in all, I spent about 32 hours with it and damn well enjoyed them.
The Official Mode follows the story of the original series story, through the One-Year-War with Amuro Ray through the AEUG conflict with Kamille Bidan all the way through Judau Ashta's brief encounter with Haman Kale. In traditional Warriors fashion, they REALLY skim through the details and give you only the briefest amounts of context you need, but it's enough to get you where you gotta. The Original Mode is an original story for this game. It's a crossover between the Universal Century arc's characters featured in the Official Mode as well as some characters from a few more recent spin-offs in a battle to stop a rogue planet from crashing into the Earth. It's a bit like Subspace Emissary from Smash Bros Brawl in how no one is really sure what they're fighting against at first other than whom they perceive as enemies amongst each other, but it's quite well written, all things considered. There are some characters with very conflicting philosophies about war who have to join forces, and I found their interactions very interesting.
Official Mode has like 6 or 7 maps between the 6 characters' campaigns, and Original Mode has 5 maps that you'll go through with each character, although in different orders and with different missions in them. Not too many maps, but they're big enough that the varied mission goals and set-ups keep them from feeling too stale. My only real complaint, and this is something more or less every other Warriors game up to that point had done, is once you start unlocking extra characters, their campaigns can sometimes be exactly the same as one you just went through. Granted, this does seem a little obvious, given the characters you unlock are generally the companions of the guys you just used, but it was still a little dissapointing. Luckily, the bad guys' campaigns you unlock are great. In the Official Mode and in the Original Mode, they tend to be a harder remixed version of the heroes' campaigns, with harder mission parameters and extra boss fights in each mission. I really enjoyed those, even if some of them were fairly retrodden ground :)
Now the mechanics of this game were what I liked the best. Like in other Warriors games, you can acquire items from fallen foes to equip between battles for passive buffs, as well as level up your pilot and mobile suits (aka gundams) as you use them. Each mobile suit acts more or less as its own character, having a unique move-set unto itself. Given that there are like 15 or 20 of 'em, there's quite a lot to choose from eventually (as everyone is locked to their specific suit in that scenario until you beat their campaign once). Unlike in other Warriors games, however, are your main face buttons. While one does do a normal attack, instead of the strong attack, that button fires your lasers/ranged weapons. Now that's not too impressive (I generally never used them save for chip-damaging scary bosses), what was impressive is what they give you in place of the dodge. Instead of the dodge or jump command found in (some) other Warriors games, you get a "boost," which fires your mobile suit's boosters to launch you in the direction you're currently pointing the left joystick. It allows for far more dynamic and agile fighting than in other Warriors series, and definitely makes for some really heated boss battles. My particular brand of fighting lent so heavily towards boosting and agility, I went 20 some hours without knowing the camera-refocus button was also your block button! I just assumed there wasn't a block command x3 (which to be fair some other action games do, though I'm not 100% sure all Warriors games do).
Any complaints I have are ones even I generally level at the series. With no tutorial, the barrier to entry is fairly high in terms of just learning how to play, although figuring out the best way to go about a mission isn't nearly so difficult as previous entries, as sub-missions throughout each battle are given often enough to give a general layout of a battle plan for you. However, there is no place to look at these submissions. Once they show up, you better fuckin' remember 'em, cuz they won't tell you again! This goes back to another complaint I have about the earlier games in the series: Lack of player information. In addition to the lack of any kind of tutorial, the stats of each mobile suit are very poorly displayed for you. It's sensible enough what "melee" and "shot" refer to, but what is the difference between "defense" and "armor?" :shock: I eventually found out that "armor" is just their word for health, and "defense" manages damage reduction, but there are even stats the game just never displays to you.
Each mobile suit has a certain tendency to stagger after getting hit. Some tend to stagger more than others, although you'd never KNOW that without a fuckload of trial-and-error and paying really close attention (as I've done). MS's like Scirroco's 0 and Judan's ZZ-Gundam (and the final boss's MS) can take WAY more punishment than other, lighter MS's. However, they tend to move a bit slower, and default move-speed is another stat the player just isn't given. Not to mention some MS's can do a Transformers and have a jet mode they can do a prolonged airborne boost in, but you'd never know unless you happened upon it yourself.
Verdict: Recommended. Even though some of the newer Warriors games (like Dynasty Warriors 7) have a much better introduction to the series in terms of showcasing the mechanics through things like intro levels and tutorials, this is still one of the best I've played so far in the series. Granted, I still have a long way to go in trying all the games, but the Gundam series definitely ain't no slouch entry in the franchise. If you've enjoyed any of the other entries in the series, this one is definitely worth checking out :)
The Official Mode follows the story of the original series story, through the One-Year-War with Amuro Ray through the AEUG conflict with Kamille Bidan all the way through Judau Ashta's brief encounter with Haman Kale. In traditional Warriors fashion, they REALLY skim through the details and give you only the briefest amounts of context you need, but it's enough to get you where you gotta. The Original Mode is an original story for this game. It's a crossover between the Universal Century arc's characters featured in the Official Mode as well as some characters from a few more recent spin-offs in a battle to stop a rogue planet from crashing into the Earth. It's a bit like Subspace Emissary from Smash Bros Brawl in how no one is really sure what they're fighting against at first other than whom they perceive as enemies amongst each other, but it's quite well written, all things considered. There are some characters with very conflicting philosophies about war who have to join forces, and I found their interactions very interesting.
Official Mode has like 6 or 7 maps between the 6 characters' campaigns, and Original Mode has 5 maps that you'll go through with each character, although in different orders and with different missions in them. Not too many maps, but they're big enough that the varied mission goals and set-ups keep them from feeling too stale. My only real complaint, and this is something more or less every other Warriors game up to that point had done, is once you start unlocking extra characters, their campaigns can sometimes be exactly the same as one you just went through. Granted, this does seem a little obvious, given the characters you unlock are generally the companions of the guys you just used, but it was still a little dissapointing. Luckily, the bad guys' campaigns you unlock are great. In the Official Mode and in the Original Mode, they tend to be a harder remixed version of the heroes' campaigns, with harder mission parameters and extra boss fights in each mission. I really enjoyed those, even if some of them were fairly retrodden ground :)
Now the mechanics of this game were what I liked the best. Like in other Warriors games, you can acquire items from fallen foes to equip between battles for passive buffs, as well as level up your pilot and mobile suits (aka gundams) as you use them. Each mobile suit acts more or less as its own character, having a unique move-set unto itself. Given that there are like 15 or 20 of 'em, there's quite a lot to choose from eventually (as everyone is locked to their specific suit in that scenario until you beat their campaign once). Unlike in other Warriors games, however, are your main face buttons. While one does do a normal attack, instead of the strong attack, that button fires your lasers/ranged weapons. Now that's not too impressive (I generally never used them save for chip-damaging scary bosses), what was impressive is what they give you in place of the dodge. Instead of the dodge or jump command found in (some) other Warriors games, you get a "boost," which fires your mobile suit's boosters to launch you in the direction you're currently pointing the left joystick. It allows for far more dynamic and agile fighting than in other Warriors series, and definitely makes for some really heated boss battles. My particular brand of fighting lent so heavily towards boosting and agility, I went 20 some hours without knowing the camera-refocus button was also your block button! I just assumed there wasn't a block command x3 (which to be fair some other action games do, though I'm not 100% sure all Warriors games do).
Any complaints I have are ones even I generally level at the series. With no tutorial, the barrier to entry is fairly high in terms of just learning how to play, although figuring out the best way to go about a mission isn't nearly so difficult as previous entries, as sub-missions throughout each battle are given often enough to give a general layout of a battle plan for you. However, there is no place to look at these submissions. Once they show up, you better fuckin' remember 'em, cuz they won't tell you again! This goes back to another complaint I have about the earlier games in the series: Lack of player information. In addition to the lack of any kind of tutorial, the stats of each mobile suit are very poorly displayed for you. It's sensible enough what "melee" and "shot" refer to, but what is the difference between "defense" and "armor?" :shock: I eventually found out that "armor" is just their word for health, and "defense" manages damage reduction, but there are even stats the game just never displays to you.
Each mobile suit has a certain tendency to stagger after getting hit. Some tend to stagger more than others, although you'd never KNOW that without a fuckload of trial-and-error and paying really close attention (as I've done). MS's like Scirroco's 0 and Judan's ZZ-Gundam (and the final boss's MS) can take WAY more punishment than other, lighter MS's. However, they tend to move a bit slower, and default move-speed is another stat the player just isn't given. Not to mention some MS's can do a Transformers and have a jet mode they can do a prolonged airborne boost in, but you'd never know unless you happened upon it yourself.
Verdict: Recommended. Even though some of the newer Warriors games (like Dynasty Warriors 7) have a much better introduction to the series in terms of showcasing the mechanics through things like intro levels and tutorials, this is still one of the best I've played so far in the series. Granted, I still have a long way to go in trying all the games, but the Gundam series definitely ain't no slouch entry in the franchise. If you've enjoyed any of the other entries in the series, this one is definitely worth checking out :)
played growing up cant remember null score
loved this game so much depth. loved how all the stories end with that one hug space battle super fun.
Not much to say about this one. It's a dynasty warriors games (and not a very good one) with a Gundam skin. I don't know much about gundam, but don't they shoot guns and rockets and stuff? It feels really weird controlling this giant mecha robot thingy, but mostly using a lightsabre? The maps are extremely bland with little detail, even more so that most DW games as you are in space. Even though there are two modes, one of which includes a new story, there's not very many missions. It does have coop which I guess is a plus. I found this one a bit more challenging also, with the enemies more likely to hit you when you are down, and the minions a little more likely to be aggressive, but it also may just because I suck and this game sucks, so there isn't really any tactics to it. For those of you who love mashing X, make sure you pick this up.
This is the game that people who don't play Warriors games imagine them to be when they shit on the series, a mindless slog with slow movement, enormous enemy health pools, where the sum of strategy is wailing on waves of enemies in completely nondescript colorless zones waiting for the game to spawn more in. Easily the worst musou up to this point, at least DW2 had an excuse