On a whim I decided to to play TecmoKoei's first HD game. As a fan of Gundam and having seen every series featured in this game, I'll be able to provide a more informed perspective.
From the intro movie and the ingame cutscenes, the game shows some promise, but then you start playing it and realize that omega force shit the bed from the ground running.
Both official and original modes share mostly the exact same maps. In the formers case this is especially apparent as the mode covers a large chunk of the UC timeline. But you'll be fighting in the same generic grassy plain, desert, and dark space colony wreckage for 80% of the mode.
While expecting intricate map design in a warriors game is definitely asking for too much, previous and subsequent games after this one had maps that were able to be navigated quickly. This isn't the case here. Even when in a mobile suits flight mode, it can take minutes to get from one end of the map to the other. Installing thruster parts in the upgrade tree does little to solve this, as it counter intuitively drains more of the thrust gauge than it should.
Most warriors games manage to properly convey the feeling of a near godlike power fantasy. Mowing down hundreds of enemies. Not this one. Even on the lowest difficulty enemies have very bloated health and mob fights are more of a chore than the catharsis of other entries.
Due to this problem. The player will be spending a lot of time replaying each pilots first mission to level them, and their mobile suit, up to levels 20 and 8 respectively, as the enemy damage values spike greatly at the pilots third missions. This can be a huge pain for pilots that used multiple mobile suits in their respective series, like Char, who uses 4 in his official mode alone.
Even capping out a pilot and suit, and installing stat boosting parts, does little to solve the damage scaling and bloated health of enemy mobs and pilots. So you'd best hope to god you pick up an atk boost from a power up crate or fallen enemies. As killing enemy commanders can take up 10 minutes in the final missions.
As said in an earlier paragraph, official mode adapts only the UC timeline, from 079-ZZ. You'll be told a cliffnotes version of the show from your chosen characters perspective, watch a well animated motion captured cutscene, and then play 4-6 boring levels that can take up to 45 minutes in some cases.
As is the case with most anime licensed games, playing as the villians like Scirocco and Haman simply has you replaying the same missions their heroic counterparts did, but on the other side. But most of the characters share cutscenes with each other, so players will feel obligated to skip them.
Original mode is even worse in this regard as many characters share not only cutscenes, but pre mission briefings as well. A way to somewhat alleviate this could have been to add exclusive dialogue to what ever character you are playing as during briefings. But alas, that isn't present.
Original mode presents a what if story, where pilots from (Tv shows only) 079-Turn A are transported to a mysterious planet that is crashing towards earth. This is where some originality shines, as it's neat to see characters like Domon and Puru interacting and them forming a Sentai parody team with Milliardo.
Unfortunately as stated earlier, since original mode features groupings of pilots, most of them share the exact same maps, bosses, mission breifings, and cutscenes. Some even share endings.
There isn't a good balance of reps from eras here either. UC pilots make up 70% of the roster. Where as AC and FC only have two each, and Turn A only has Loran.
Aside from these two modes, there's a gallery mode that gives brief synopsises on pilots, mobile suits and ships from the franchise. It's a neat mode fans might get something out of.
The music is very unremarkable, which for a warriors game is pretty astounding. As they're known for having bombastic hair metal OST.
Visually the game is good. The menu UI fits in well with the aesthetic of the franchise and character models look great, animations are top notch and the game runs at a locked 60 FPS and is 720p. You can't say that about most 7th gen games that only came out on consoles.
Unfortunately this game isn't really worth playing compared to any other warriors game (especially later Gundam warriors). As Omega force's first non historical warriors, it leaves much to be desired. Even gundam fans will get little out of this.
5/10
From the intro movie and the ingame cutscenes, the game shows some promise, but then you start playing it and realize that omega force shit the bed from the ground running.
Both official and original modes share mostly the exact same maps. In the formers case this is especially apparent as the mode covers a large chunk of the UC timeline. But you'll be fighting in the same generic grassy plain, desert, and dark space colony wreckage for 80% of the mode.
While expecting intricate map design in a warriors game is definitely asking for too much, previous and subsequent games after this one had maps that were able to be navigated quickly. This isn't the case here. Even when in a mobile suits flight mode, it can take minutes to get from one end of the map to the other. Installing thruster parts in the upgrade tree does little to solve this, as it counter intuitively drains more of the thrust gauge than it should.
Most warriors games manage to properly convey the feeling of a near godlike power fantasy. Mowing down hundreds of enemies. Not this one. Even on the lowest difficulty enemies have very bloated health and mob fights are more of a chore than the catharsis of other entries.
Due to this problem. The player will be spending a lot of time replaying each pilots first mission to level them, and their mobile suit, up to levels 20 and 8 respectively, as the enemy damage values spike greatly at the pilots third missions. This can be a huge pain for pilots that used multiple mobile suits in their respective series, like Char, who uses 4 in his official mode alone.
Even capping out a pilot and suit, and installing stat boosting parts, does little to solve the damage scaling and bloated health of enemy mobs and pilots. So you'd best hope to god you pick up an atk boost from a power up crate or fallen enemies. As killing enemy commanders can take up 10 minutes in the final missions.
As said in an earlier paragraph, official mode adapts only the UC timeline, from 079-ZZ. You'll be told a cliffnotes version of the show from your chosen characters perspective, watch a well animated motion captured cutscene, and then play 4-6 boring levels that can take up to 45 minutes in some cases.
As is the case with most anime licensed games, playing as the villians like Scirocco and Haman simply has you replaying the same missions their heroic counterparts did, but on the other side. But most of the characters share cutscenes with each other, so players will feel obligated to skip them.
Original mode is even worse in this regard as many characters share not only cutscenes, but pre mission briefings as well. A way to somewhat alleviate this could have been to add exclusive dialogue to what ever character you are playing as during briefings. But alas, that isn't present.
Original mode presents a what if story, where pilots from (Tv shows only) 079-Turn A are transported to a mysterious planet that is crashing towards earth. This is where some originality shines, as it's neat to see characters like Domon and Puru interacting and them forming a Sentai parody team with Milliardo.
Unfortunately as stated earlier, since original mode features groupings of pilots, most of them share the exact same maps, bosses, mission breifings, and cutscenes. Some even share endings.
There isn't a good balance of reps from eras here either. UC pilots make up 70% of the roster. Where as AC and FC only have two each, and Turn A only has Loran.
Aside from these two modes, there's a gallery mode that gives brief synopsises on pilots, mobile suits and ships from the franchise. It's a neat mode fans might get something out of.
The music is very unremarkable, which for a warriors game is pretty astounding. As they're known for having bombastic hair metal OST.
Visually the game is good. The menu UI fits in well with the aesthetic of the franchise and character models look great, animations are top notch and the game runs at a locked 60 FPS and is 720p. You can't say that about most 7th gen games that only came out on consoles.
Unfortunately this game isn't really worth playing compared to any other warriors game (especially later Gundam warriors). As Omega force's first non historical warriors, it leaves much to be desired. Even gundam fans will get little out of this.
5/10