Dynasty Warriors is a really, really weird franchise. It's a spin off of the all but dead Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, a grouping of games that are fairly intense simulations based on the novels about Chinese history. Basically, it's not exactly the kind of thing that most people are terribly interested in. Whereas RoTK depends on numbers to show armies and changing powers, Dynasty Warriors is much more straightforward. You play the generals, and you beat the dudes. All the dudes.
This formula's generic enough that it can apply to a lot of different properties, luckily, which in turn gives us this particular series, Dynasty Warriors Gundam. Whereas classic DW relies on big burly men with swords, DWG obviously relies on big robotic mecha with guns and beam swords. The basic goals are the same (Beat up a bunch of guys on battlefields to claim fields, fight harder General-level characters and try not to die), but the game feels different. It's a much faster and more mobile experience, with the mobile suits having access to a quickly recharging dash meter, including flying. Additionally, the ranged attacks are stronger, which makes fighting from a distance more of a viable strategy. Same game, different name, different rules. As far as DW games go, DWG3 is aces.
For a DWG game, though, I'm not exactly sure what I think of it. The series featured have expanded since the second game, including such recent luminaries as 00 (Kind of sucked), SEED Destiny (My god how bad), and Unicorn (Have not seen, but it's UC, so that's cool), as well as Stardust Memories. Additionaly, series that were already here have gained at least a suit in representation, such as the three additional suits from Wing (Tallgeese II, Deathscythe Hell, Heavyarms Kai; all three are arguably the worst suits in the game in the beginning).
That said, there are still some holes that kind of annoy me. For example, where the hell is the War in the Pocket love? I like the Alex Gundam. I'd love a Kaempfer. Or what about more from Stardust Memories, rather than just the GP-01 and -02? I want the Stamen and Gerbera Tetra, dammit. And why'd they take away the Re-GZ? I know it was mass produced, but I liked it.
There were some other areas that were done better in previous games as well. Level design, for example. Each of the levels in this game are fairly generic and all feel like a series of connected boxy rooms. This wasn't the case at all in 2, where each level was huge, and each room (while essentially being a giant box) felt more natural and looked better. It's like the developers decided that to make the maps go faster, everything had to be smaller and less impressive. This does have the advantage of leading to a shorter game. I clocked 100% at about 80 some hours, whereas I don't think I've ever finished 2.
All in all, it's a gorgeous game, but it's one that I can't really suggest unless you like the franchise or the series. Ideally you'd be like me and like both. Ideally.
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