I'm sure I'll get this eventually as I have the first two already....
Look into the Future: Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 Review
Looking at the title i bet you're wondering the the heck is Setsuna doing this time, well since i like to import my anime-ish games from Japan so i can play it early i might as well review it now to
Dynasty Warriors games have always been about mashing two buttons in certain orders or combinations and then cool stuff shows up on the screen and for some reason a lot of us just can't get enough, heck the franchise as brought true meaning to "Hack and Slash". Dynasty Warriors Gundam brings you Gundams and Pilots alike from different series to fight off in a crossover clash to fight for their beliefs in how the world should be run and their views on peace and stuff.Within the game you are given only TWO modes; Story Mode and Online mode.
"Anime Games need to follow this example"
Story mode consists of basically the entire single player aspect of the game but not only does it hold your multiple story mode missions but it also holds missions such as: History Mission, Collection Missions, Challenge Missions, Special Missions and much more. As far as the story goes, its just as i described it earlier and is really nothing different from other cliche stories however i will say that its pretty cool that to complete all the story mode missions you must alternate the team you use and you must see how events happen within their story before you can proceed in anyone else's. The other mission types are your typical random missions that give you different things like stronger attachments, new mobile suits or something that may correlate with an achievement however a cool mission selection i like is History Missions. History Missions let you reenact events from the actual anime in originated from, though you wont get much of an understanding of the story from each series especially ones like Wing, Seed, 00 and Unicorn you will get a large understanding of the first Gundam series as their history missions span well over 10 missions each, screw watching 25 minute episodes to learn the story (no seriously ... watch them instead lol).
Online mode isn't really anything special though you can exploit it to help with some of your achievements. How it works is you are to choose one of your many playable characters when you go into online mode, afterward you can select an online missions from the separate missions list online mode has, you can filter out the list and have it show you how many people are currently playing online if you want to use jump in and join someones games or you can just start your own lobby and wait for people to join, while you wait you can preview the missions yourself by playing it however progress will not count unless you are playing in with a partner. That's all it is, you cannot play the main missions from Story Mode with your friends ... get your act together Koei.
As far as Game Mechanics go the game added a lot of things to make things MUCH easier for your casual gamer. First off bases have special abilities to them after you capture them, there are different types of bases now in the game each indicated by a symbol in the middle of the base on the map displayed at the top right of your screen when playing the game. These bases can do things such as raise the strength of your army, launch you across the screen to avoid wasting time traveling there and a rocket attack then will give you a free base capture over time from the enemy (and much more obviously). Besides this the only other notable change is the Emergency Dash where if you dash right as an enemy is about to hit you then you will disappear for a split second and avoid all damage from that attack and counter accordingly (but seriously its not like the games hard anyway lol).
My only pet peeve with this game are the stages and maps. In my eyes you are given a location and setting and then they put a bunch of squares within that setting, a couple narrow lines inbetween each square and they call it a map. Despite the beautiful scenery i much preferred how spread out the other DW GUNDAM games were.
"Believe it or not but this is this Gundam's Super Saiyan Mode"
Now unlike regular Dynasty Warriors games, how i see it is that they keep adding people from history and making them main characters in their games however with Dynasty Warriors Gundam they add wanted characters and update the roster with newer Gundam series that may have come out. In this game gundams from Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Unicorn, X and a surprise gundam from the SD Gundam Sidestory: Sieg Zion Chapter were added and much more. Notable characters added were Duo Maxwell with Deathscythe from Gundam Wing a character petitioned for since the first game as well as Trowa Barton with Heavyarms from the same series. Other notable characters are the pilots from the msot recent Gundam 00 who were petitioned to be DLC when the 2nd game in the franchise was released, Setsuna F. Seiei (the character who i named myself after) is already playable upon purchase however the other meisters and Graham Aker are DLC characters which must be purchased separately.
As far as DLC goes there are no extra achievements that correlate with DLC content its more along the lines of "Do you want it or not" at a price of course. There's extra DLC missions and then the following characters:
Marida Cruz (Gundam Unicorn)
Graham Aker (Gundam 00)
Lockon Stratos (Gundam 00)
Tieria Erde (Gundam 00)
Allelujah Haptism (Gundam 00)
"I Choose you, GUNDAM!"
Achievement wise the game is alot easier then its previous game Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 however it is still pretty time consuming, the only thing time consuming is the grind for missions. Because i had to translate everything from Japanese websites and guess how to unlock everything it might be easier this time around for everyone and shouldn't take as long as it took my first time around which was almost 90 hours. If you do end up getting the game you can follow the guide made by yours truly: LeadExample / Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 Achievement Guide
Overall the game is well worth $60 to any Dynasty Warriors fan, Gundam fan or a combination of the two. With the new cell shaded graphics the game looks amazing and well fitting for an anime game, the achievements aren't anything too difficult so long as you put the time into it ... and all you have to do is mash one freaking button to have fun. If Dynasty Warriors games aren't relevant to your interest because its "the same old thing" then just wait for a price drop or maybe rent it and get yourself some easy achievements. I give the game an 8/10. Look out for Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 coming out Q3 2011 (unless Bandai Namco pushes it back some more).