For anyone that’s played any of the previous installments of the Dynasty Warriors Gundam series, you would know that the provision of downloadable content has been sub-par. The previous DWG only provided a few select items with 10 additional missions, most of which followed a repetitive or unoriginal pattern of combat scenarios. (Of course, that is one of the major criticisms of the Dynasty Warriors Franchise as a whole.) Upon first learning of the DLC capabilities for Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 upon the release of its Japanese counterpart, I was personally excited at the prospect of the release of additional characters, mobile suits and maps. What we got however… was highly disappointing.
However, during December of last year, Gundam Musou 3 was released to much positive acclaim in Japan. Along with the release came the promise of more extensive and worthwile DLC avavilable for players. Significant promises were made in the way of particularly extra characters. Upon the release, fans of the series were VERY pleasantly surprised to see the DLC packs included a number of new suits, missions, characters and even storylines. The most significant bonuses are probably to the fans of the Gundam 00 series, having included 4 new characters and mobile suits to compliment the already in-built 2. Specifically, the additional content included:
- The Susanowo, piloted by Mr Bushido (AKA Graham Aker), Setsunna F Seiei’s main rival from the 00 series.
- Cherudim Gundam, piloted by Lockon Stratos II (AKA Lyle Delandy), the newest Gundam pilot of 00’s Celestial Being organization, taking over the mantle from his deceased brother. Also a Katheron agent.
- Arios Gundam, piloted by Allelujah Haptism, a veteran Celestial Being pilot from the 00 series with a violent split personality disorder.
- Seravee/Seripham Gundam, piloted by Tieria Erde, the mysterious syntheic lifeform Innovade pilot of Celestial being.
- Additionally, fans of the newer Gundam Unicorn series were also pleasently surprised to see the Quad-Wing Kshatriya piloted by Unicorn’s Marida Cruz
As an avid fan of the 00 series myself, I’m very much hoping that the western release will also localize these characters as DLC content (Especially since Lockon and Graham are among my favourite pilots of the series). Koei has already confirmed that DLC will be made available for the western installment of the DWG3, so hopefully they intend to pull across these little goodies from the Musou series.
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 is currently set for release on the 24th of June in Europe and Australia, and the 28th of June of the US.
Now if only EB Games/ GAMESTOP will start letting me pre-order… >_<
