User guide for the gameplay of Gundam Musou

Here we continure to talk about the PS3 game Gundam Musou

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, more aptly titled Gundam Musou in Japan, is the umpteenth Dynasty Warriors title to bludgeon its way into the hands of gamers all over the world.

One versus many. Those three words describe, more or less, what you'll be doing for the entirety of the game. The PS3 game Gundam Musou gameplay mechanic is simple, and mostly unchanged from the very first game. You control a single warrior (in this case a combination of a specific pilot and a specific mobile suit) and are placed in a large, often labyrinthine environment, where you have to run from base to base, defending your own from enemy incursions and capturing enemy bases as you advance. Most of your enemies are grunts--very weak footsoldiers that put up little fight, and are only truly menacing in terms of the sheer quantity of them you'll be facing at the same time. Of course, you'll also run into other characters--also combinations of mobile suits and pilots--that are just as strong as you are. These fights provide a bit more challenge, but once you grasp the basic strategy to take down a particular mobile suit, they become much easier. This format of gameplay is essentially identical to that found in the myriad of Dynasty Warriors titles found on the Playstation 2, and later Xbox gaming consoles. The only notable difference is that base-areas are now much, much larger--and very clearly defined. You now have to weaken enemy bases by defeating a certain number of grunts and guards (strengthened grunts or other named characters) before claiming it as your own.

There are several different modes of gameplay: first, there are the original and official modes (both of which support co-operative multiplayer). Missions in the original mode follow an original story that is somewhat interesting, but mostly not, involving a mysterious planet that looks kind of like Mars on a collision course with Earth. In this mode, characters from all of the different Gundam universes interact with one another, which is a lot of fun for someone that is a fan of Gundam (Jerrid becoming Maser Asia's disciple, Domon taking his shining-finger to Judau's ZZ Gundam's head, etc., are very, very cool if you're familiar with the characters) but are probably not quite so interesting to someone who is unfamiliar with the various characters and stories. Fortunately, a lot of this character action takes place in in-game cutscenes that are beautifully animated. Watching these cutscenes a Gundam fan will think "damn, that's awesome!" But someone who knows nothing about Gundam would probably think the same thing. The quality of the animation in these cutscenes really is phenomenal, and often times each cutscene will last a for a minute or two and be filled to-the-brim with over the top action sequences. This is a big part of the fun in the game, and for me, a big reason to play through all of the original story modes. The official mode is pretty much the canonical stories of Gundam--limited only to the Universal Century, in this version--all though certain liberties were taken. The game does an excellent job of providing the historical context of each battle, along with in-game radio chatter to really get the point across that you're fighting in an epic battle of the past. This is a very, very cool feeling to have in any game, and a pretty rare one at that.

Other than original and official modes, there's also a straight-up multiplayer mode. Unfortunately (and this is one of the BIG flaws of the game) there is absolutely no online multiplayer. At all. You can play with up to four other players by way of a split screen and compete with one another in three or four different types of games, but for the most part the multiplayer is pretty lacklustre.

It's pretty hard to describe just how the game feels to play. There are downloadable demos, so if you can connect your console to the Internet I suggest you do so. Basically, everything feels right. You're playing a PS3 game Gundam Musou game. It feels like a Dynasty Warriors game, it even looks like one--but at the same time the Gundams have a very distinct, different feel to them that really help to create the illusion that you're piloting a giant robotic machine. Dynasty Warriors: Gundam could very well have felt like a simple mod to Dynasty Warriors, but it doesn't. And this is a very very good, very very refreshing thing.

When fighting in a mission, you are given three basic attacks. You have the main attacks, which is always a melee, with a starting combo length of four hits. You also have a ranged attack, which varies from tiny chest-mounted vulcan machine cannons, to rifles the spew streams of ignited gas or super-charged mega particles at the enemy. Ranged attacks are pretty simple, if monotonous. Generally, the rate of fire for ranged weapons is pretty slow (to prevent abuse, I imagine) and they will automatically target the nearest enemy. Sometimes auto-targeting can be a pain, but here you'll almost always hit an enemy so it's not that bad. Of course, you'll hardly ever need or want to used ranged attacks because so much of the combat in the game is up-close-and-personal. The only real advantage to blasting at an enemy from a distance is that it will momentarily stun them--which, again, is not much of a result when you're getting charged by 200 enemies.

A lot of the games problems have to do with the melee system. It's simple. Very simple. You can kill every enemy by repeatedly hitting the same attack button. Attack combos have a limit of four different animations, and the length of each combo can be increased by gaining mobile suit levels. Unfortunately, even though you can string a combo of twelve or more hits together, you don't get any more than the base four attack animations, so it's basically the same four-hit combo being repeated three times over, or more. This can make fighting look and feel pretty repetitive (more so than in previous Dynasty Warriors titles) although it is possible to break the monotony by introducing slightly more advanced combos by using the ranged attack button mid-combo. Some of these additional combos can be very cool; the God Gundam, for example, will whip out two beam sabers, leap into the air and start spinning very fast--like a top--cutting through every enemy in its path. The Wing Gundam Zero, on the other hand, will split it's twin beam rifle in two, and fire two shots each with each rifle to hit all four direction rapidly. These "special" combos are very well animated, and really stand out in the game.

As with all Musou games, PS3 game Gundam Musou has special super-attacks called "Musou Attacks", though I believe this was translated to "SP Attacks" in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam to fit with a more sci-fi feel. Despite the differing terminology, the concept is basically the same as it's always been. As you defeat more and more enemies, you slowly build up your musou gauge. When your musou gauge if full, you can press the special attack button to unleash a massive, spectacular attack against a single enemy, or groups of enemies, depending on the mobile suit. As your mobile suit levels continue to increase, you can unlock up to three additional musou gauges--which correlate to two new musou attacks, for a total of three. This is where it gets a bit weird. With one musou gauge full, you unleash your first musou attack. With two musou gauges filled, you unleash your first musou attack and then you unleash the second musou attack, which is often slightly stronger in power. If you fill up all three musou gauges, then you automatically perform the first, second and third attacks, making for a kind of bizarre musou combo.

For certain mobile suits, an additional gameplay mechanic is added--transformation. The Zeta Gundam, Wing Gundam Zero and Epyon can all transform into fighter-like aircraft that can fly over the battlefields faster than any other unit. This is done simply by jumping into the air and then boosting. The transformation looks pretty cool, and gives you a different ranged attack (depending on the mobile suit) and greatly increased your speed. The only real detriment to transforming is that camera control can sometimes be a bit confusing, but never to the point of distraction.

The enemies in PS3 game Gundam Musou you'll encounter in each mission will be pretty varied. The official missions have you fighting a coherent group of enemy forces. The Earth Federation will fight Zeon. The AEUG will fight the Titans, or Neo-Zeon depending on the time. In the original mode, however, you fight a hodge-podge of enemy forces, from all different eras of the Universal Century. Unfortunately, no enemy grunts hail from any of the alternate universes. Of particular note, some of the enemy grunts will find the form of top-tier mobile suits--from Qubeleys to Gundams--and can provide quite a bit more of a challenge as such, even if they're still a bit weaker than the same suits piloted by named characters.

After each mission, you'll earn two different sets of experience. Your pilot will gain a certain amount, which determine attributes like melee and ranged damage, speed, boost power, etcetera. And mobile suit points, that level up the mobile suit. Mobile suit levels determine the health of a particular mobile suit, how many combos it can perform, and what musou attacks it can use. Each pilot starts out with a specific mobile suit, but by beating that pilots story mode you can then select any unlocked mobile suit for that pilot. Each pilot's mobile suit starts at level one, and mobile suit values earned by one pilot will not carry over to a different pilot. This means that if you level up Loran's Turn-A Gundam to the maximum level, you cannot start playing the Turn-A with Amuro or Char and expect it to start out at the same level. This all seems very, very logical to me--but I have heard some complaints.

In addition, after the completion of a mission you will earn (if you find them in battle or fulfil the correct conditions) a variety of mobile suit parts and pilot skill you can use to tweak the capabilities of your mobile suit and pilot. Pilot skills (which must be equipped to be used) do little things, like increasing level-up rates, boost speed and melee damage, whereas parts (which also must be equipped to be used) boost one or more of the four different stats for each mobile suit--speed, armor, defense, ranged attack and melee attack. I'm not entirely certain on what the difference is between armor and defense, but your own mobile suit will be dishing out a lot more damage than it takes, so I don't see that it matters all that much, aside from being a bit redundant. Unfortunately, equipping new parts and skills does nothing to effect the aesthetics of your mobile suit, and there are no new weapons to be found or used.
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All in all, the gameplay is very solid and well-animated, if a bit boring. Thankfully, the varying effects and mission structures help to add variety, but this doesn't do much to make you forget that you're spending nearly an hour per mission tapping the same button over and over.