Where to start? I guess I'll just go through the manual to try and cover as much as possible XD


EDIT: Forgot to include something that may be important...THE CONTINUITIES! Represented within this game are:

Universal Century(primary)
Future Century(limited to Domon, Rain, and Master Asia)
After Colony(limited to Heero and Milliardo)
...whatever Turn A is in...


Not appearing are:

After War(X)
Cosmic Era(Seed)
Anno Domini(from the upcoming Gundam 00)




Onto the post.



Official Mode: Play stages in the Universal Century setting, only six pilots to choose from(half of which are initially locked).

Original Mode: Play an incredible mishmash of the Gundam continuities represented within the game, the best part is that typical of Gundam there is no true hero or villain to the mode. Basically each pilot has their own unique versions of the stages present here and on each one you get a different group of pilots working as a very strange team(such as Elpeo Puru teaming up with Domon Kasshu and Milliardo Peacecraft for some interesting scenes). The story is that some mysterious planet appeared in space and is on a collision course with Earth, it trascends time so pilots of the various Gundam continuities are able to meet each other. It appears as though the Musha Gundam is behind it, but what it speaks of makes it seem otherwise...It still seems all villain-y, though. This is by no means a spoiler as the "plot" pretty much doesn't exist.

Versus Mode: Play three different types of battles. The normal match is just 1v1 without customization, any pilot and MS combo allowed. Warriors Match has you playing a two-part battle involving efforts to nab powerups from peons and then being thrust into the 1v1 battle. The shotdown contest is simply about fields, whoever has 50 MS on their field loses.

Gallery: View art&profiles on the characters(most of which are unplayable), the models of all the mecha(MS as well as ships), listen to certain voice samples(no Musha Gundam to be found o_O), and check out your personal records such as your total kill count. You can also switch what music is playing at the main menu of the gallery.



Choices, choices, choices...When starting a mission, you get these lovely options:

1: Choose your pilot. This determines what stages you'll be able to play. Pilots can grow up to level 30, at which point they'll have fairly high stats and a decent amount of skills to choose from.

2: Choose your preferred MS, assuming you've cleared the mode you're playing in with that pilot. A somewhat bothersome aspect of this is that MS are leveled up separately for each pilot, so even if you max out Hyaku Shiki with Char it will be level 1 once more for everyone else.

3: Equip pilot skills. Every pilot has two fixed skills and room for four others, any pilot can use any skill. Skills range in effects from your SP gauge constantly refilling at a slow rate to powering up your Charge attacks to netting you an instant 30 second power up every 50th kill to increasing the effects of powerups you nab from destroyed MS.

4: Change parts. Each MS has it's own pool of parts(which is thankfully is shared between pilots. A single part will only boost your MS' stats by the said bonuses, but equipping multiple of the same part or multiple parts from the same technician(five to choose from) will have set special bonuses and occasionally special effects such as increasing your boost speed or decreasing damage from certain types of attacks.



Okay. In actual battle, you get to hack through hundreds upon hundreds of enemy MS and quite often the events that unfold will leave you at such a disadvantage, you'll almost certainly rack up 1000+ kills just trying to keep from losing the stage. But per typical Omega Force fashion, there are special spawning points which a literally endless flow of MS will come through...


FIELDS

These are special areas depicted by blue, red, or yellow grids that are plainly visible during gameplay. Blue means allied MS will spawn there, while you need to tear apart everything inside a red or yellow field to keep your allies safe. Each field has a strength, noted by a number from 30 to 150. This is the "health" of the field, which is reduced as MS of it's side are destroyed within it. Whoever takes out the last MS necessary to drop the field's "health" to 0 gets credit for conquering the field and it becomes a friendly field after a few seconds of inactivity.


Another thing worth considering is the ships. With the exception of the Big Tray, these cannot be directly attacked(nor can any of them actually attack it seems). These can only be destroyed by conquering the field they sit in, often times this is a requirement for victory or defeat. If you lose your force's main ship(pretty much limited to White Base, Argama, and occasionally a Big Tray) you lose.



Attacks!

The combo system has(as usual) changed from what's been seen in any of Omega Force's games. There are only a few types of attacks to choose from, sadly though.

Normal: Press X up to four times for a non-special series of attacks. When your MS is level 6, you can repeat the basic combo twice without delay and when your MS is level 10 you can repeat it three times with no delay.

Charge: More powerful attacks that have a delay before or after their use, often with different arcs to them. Charges are numbered according to how many button presses are executed and can be performed at almost any time. Executing a Charge in the middle of your normal combo results in different attacks, as well. Basically Charge 1 is a shot from your character's choice of guns(except for Epyon which swings it's heat rod), Charge 2 knocks enemies into the air, Charge 3 often can cause enemies to be stunned and/or break their guard, and Charge 4 is an anti-crowd attack with a wide range for the most part. These can be pulled off during the repeats of your normal combos as well. Lastly, Charge 2-4 can be turned into a boost attack if they land on an enemy.

Boosting: Zips your MS really fast in whatever direction you press on the analog stick or D-pad. Goes directly forward without pressing a direction, in some cases jumping and boosting will transform your MS into mobile armor mode which will allow you to move much faster than even if you have the temporary speed-enhancing powerup. You have a boost energy gauge, however. If you overdo your boosting, it will overheat and you won't be able to boost until it recovers(roughly 5 seconds). Best thing to do is keep boosting until the gauge is almost empty, then wait the 2 seconds it takes to fill back up completely. Oh yeah, we have the boost system because there are no horses in Gundam XD

Jumping: You can jump multiple times, but jumping eats into your boost gauge tremendously. If you jump four times without touching the ground, you can expect your boosters to overheat.

Boost attacks!: If you boost after a Charge attack hits, you can only boost forward in an attack. You can also press the normal attack button for three extra hits.

SP attacks: When the green gauge is full, you can execute these. You're completely invincible during these attacks, they make great damage-dealers much of the time but usually don't last that long. You can build them up to level 3 versions if your MS has a high enough level(level 4 allows 2 SP, level 8 allows 3 SP) and if you execute the attack while you see energy flowing between your MS and an ally or your health gauge is red, your SP attack acts as if it's one level higher than normal(and Wing Gundam Zero's level 4 SP attack pretty much annihilates the entire battlefield :P).

Deadlocks: If you happen to cross swords with an enemy, you'll see a short little scene where each pilot taunts the other and are thrust away from each other...with both of their attack doubled for 15 seconds. This is usually a great opportunity to boost forward and unleash an SP attack...





That's the basic stuff. Now the real fun is in Original Mode. The unpredictable mixes of allies is amusing, unpredictable, and sometimes devastating. Charging the Musha Gundam with everal allies when playing the hard difficulty is also quite a blast, you never know who's going to bite the dust!

what about that gundam-sized horse thing from the end of G Gundam?

Correct Century.

Turn A > Every other Gundam and most mecha series.

Baaaaaaaaaad game...

Nope. Obsolete with boosting anyways.

Damn. I always forget that one. Maybe the whole mustachioed mecha thing is too weird for me to handle?

the mustache thing is weird for me as well. BTW it seems that loran/rolan is like the anime version of konig

You mean Spamtron? Loran's some kid from the moon that saves the world...Spamtron...umm...is special. In the I'm-afraid-to-ever-encounter-him-IRL kind of way.

i was refering to the crossdressing part

That I was not aware of. And I'm glad I missed out on such >_>



EDIT: And something in this post may as well be on-topic, as well.


These MS rock:

-Char's Zaku II(though lacking reach with the heathawk)
-Char's Gelgoog(superb arcs in attacks)
-Hyaku Shiki(moves around so much!)
-Musha Gundam(only lacking a mobile armor mode for perfection)
-any Qubeley(they're erratic but once you're accustomed to them they're deadly)
-Wing Zero(if only for the mobile armor&incredible crowd clearing SP attacks)
-Gundam Epyon(surprisingly decent reach!)
-ZZ Gundam(well-balanced and mobile armor mode makes up for lack of speed)




Also, the story in Original Mode should become a full-fledged story(as in it has an actual beginning&ending) in a game of it's own. The spectacular mixes of characters(Titans versus Titans, anyone?) and the unpredictable, often humorous interactions they have is significantly more entertaining than following bits and pieces of the anime stories presented in Official Mode.




I have an agenda with this topic, as a matter of fact. :evil:
I'm determined to get every geek I know to become a fan of Omega Force's games and Tool's music. They just kick too much ass to remain non-mainstream...

Tool is mainstream. I suppose not Omega Force games though.

The mustache is awesome and Laura is a sexy beast.

if turn A looked like that then I might like it abit more, but sadly it doesn't look that cool.

A non-SD Musha Gundam...Looks more badass in the game.

fear the beam musket!

It's a shame that's not a model kit instead of a figure. Still awesome though. The katana and shoulder armour reminds me of Astray Gundam Red Frame. Just a little though.

It fires bullets in the game...with the standard beam gun sound ^^

I got DW:Gundam yesterday (with my first paycheck :D). its fun. I've beaten heero's original mode wing 0 is freakin' uber when you need to shoot down alot in a short amount of time (lvl 3 musou :o ). i've also played some of domon's and loran's but I'm used to clearing fields in a few seconds not a few minutes. Zech's and epyon are fun to use. Im working on amuro's official and the orignal gundam isn't that bad.

Hmmhahaha. Wing Zero's level 3 SP attack is nothing. Try getting a second player to use Hyaku Shiki and unleash both their level 4 SP attacks at once, there won't be anything left of a field(even if it's Jupitris) if the Hyaku Shiki pilot uses the first two stages of the SP attack to move away from Wing Zero before unleashing the artillery...



Also, try a Qubely with a non-Newtype pilot(Heero, Zechs, Domon, Master Asia, Loran, Jerid, or Emma) some time. It's a little bit less effective, but it's level 1 SP is very much badass without the bits. You can still utilize the bits with the non-Newtype pilots though, you just need to unlock the Newtype or Cyber Newtype skills for them(which is moot since all the other characters have those skills by default...).

I just bought a Gundam at teh expo... A Strike Noir Gundam, GAT-X105E....

Just thought I'd throw that out there, been a while since I've built one...

A very nice choice. It's not some Strike clone like the Strike Rouge or even the Impulse, which is a good thing. Did you get the 1/144 High Grade or the 1/100 Master Grade?

High Grade, It was much cheaper...

They had a whole Gundam Stall there... 100's of gundams in taht one stall alone...

tried that it was a little more effective and I was killing things left and right easy (of coarse I have heero at a high level).

so far I've completed:
all official mode missions
completed heero, domon, loran, amuro, kamille, judau, and zech's originals (working on char right now).
most of the gallery minus the voices (About 81%).
Unlocked musha gundam (which is good even for a lvl 1 MS)

Really? I've found it to be a mixed bag depending on whether your chosen Qubeley pilot is a Newtype or not.


Newtype: Bits allow for more effective crowd clearing and greater range for most attacks.

non-Newtype: Badass laser hand attacks are more effective against a single foe but lack the range of bit-based attacks(especially notable in the level 3 SP attacks :/).

The MS and chararcter gallery mostly fill up by clearing Official Mode, but a handful of things only appear in Original Mode(Char's Zaku II for example). The voice gallery is a pain, mine is only at 92% or so and I've done everything else there is to do. Musha Gundam...hmmhahaha.