Shin Gundam Musou review: where is the love? Maybe somewhere else.

Shin Gundam Musou is an interesting game. Released a mere month before the phenomenal hit game Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. Full Boost, it’s almost as if Bandai Namco aren’t even trying to disguise the fact that this game is meant for a separate audience of Gundam fans entirely. Although I personally think this game has less of a lasting appeal and charm than EXVSFB, it’s not a bad game at all, and does fill some niche areas that will appeal to a different demographic.

Shin Gundam Musou, or Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 4 in English, is fundamentally a Dynasty Warriors clone, but instead of Chinese men with long beards you have 20-meter tall robots hacking and slashing their way to victory. On paper, this sounds absolutely brilliant, but it really isn’t. Here’s why.

Not muh Gundam

I think that the aim of every single franchise game should be to capture the feel of the original series, and to allow players to immerse themselves in the world and setting they are familiar with. Shin Gundam Musou does not capture that feeling for me at all.

Mobile suit battles are typically fought over long distances with copious amounts of pew-pew shooting. In this game, shooting is a poor option because guns offer very little horizontal crowd control, so you will typically spend all your time hacking and slashing. It also feels kind of silly to be taking on hundreds of enemy robots that spend most of their time just standing there like fodder as you plow your way through like they are nothing more than wheat fresh for the harvest. This concept of works for Dynasty Warriors, but it doesn’t quite seem to fit the theme of what Gundam is about.

I found beam projectiles only useful when they are special moves; your regular beam rifles don’t get you as much massacre-mileage as a good ol’ beam saber.

Lots to do, if you enjoy doing them

If you’re somehow able to get over the fact that Shin Musou Gundam is a Gundam game that doesn’t play very Gundam-ish, it’s not a bad game. There are over 120 mobile suits to unlock and play with, and each has its own unique skillset. The moves are flashy and well-animated, and there is a good amount of in-game dialogue that fans of the series will recognize and appreciate.

I played mostly through “Official Mode”, which is a story mode where the dialogue is accompanied with still images from the anime, or with talking heads. Occasionally, there were some kickass cutscenes of high-caliber 3D animation, capturing iconic scenes from the anime series. Those cutscenes alone made official mode worth playing through, and I’m actually tempted to skip playing the game altogether and just heading straight to Youtube to see if they’re available for viewing. They really are quite spectacular.

Also available is “Ultimate Mode”, which features a series of crossover missions and stories that carry a more ‘what-if’ tone, which fans of the series may appreciate. There are also more playable mobile suits to be unlocked through ultimate mode.

Ah yes, my favorite iconic moment from the anime, that one time Amuro Ray beat 300 Zakus.