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It's often assumed that all of Tecmo Koei's Musou titles are largely the same game. You're some powerful warrior, you run around chopping at large groups of cannon fodder, then beat up some tougher opponents with names over their head. When you've duffed up enough of them, you've won. You do this over and over until the game has nothing left to give, and that's that. This is, perhaps, the most reductively shallow and inaccurate appraisal in video games history. It's akin to saying racing games are just pressing two buttons and moving left and right to be faster than everyone else, or that shoot 'em-ups are nothing but holding down the fire button and avoiding bullets.Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 was released in 2010 and found its way to European shores in 2011. At first glance, it's a cel-shaded hybrid of Bandai's legendary mecha universe and Dynasty Warriors' slash-happy crowd clearing. Bearing no relation whatsoever to the combat seen in the various strains of Gundam anime series, it's a curious link-up. After two previous games, it seemed that the third title would be business as usual.
It's not. It's actually the Musou concept abstracted and quantised into a much deeper experience that's closer to Disgaea than Dynasty Warriors tradition. It's a game that places player choice at the heart of matters, setting a target of optimisation and efficiency. It's a title that offers an impressive curve of progress and longevity, where the endgame clears away any restriction on pilot and mecha choice, and where the degree of challenge is entirely the player's to decide. It can be a leisurely romp in big robots or a bastard-hard fight for survival, and Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 never takes away your option to decide which end of the spectrum you want to play.
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