Hidden Gems #23 Hyrule Warriors & The Dynasty Warriors Gundam Series
Today's game is not necessarily that big of a hidden gem since this is clearly one of the best games on the Wii U, but I had to include since it relates with the gundam games, and that would Hyrule Warriors. Literally all the games I say in this episode are all hack n slashers which similar to beat em up games which will be for another day.Dynasty Warriors Gundam: We will start with the first on the series, and I remember it very well. I was looking forward to this game back in 2007. I vividly knew what to do right away controls are good and responsive, and also still looks pretty good 10 years later. At times you'll see a cutscenes in between the gameplay which is not to bad, but after awhile gets old. Now notable cons includes a camera that likes to move on it's own accord, and also if you wanted to rank fast you would have to be repetitive and play the levels over and over until reaching the limit you want your pilot be at which the maximum is 30. Luckily for you you only have 16 playable pilots many in which you must unlock in its story modes which are original and official. Original is pretty much this game where you must defeat this mysterious Gundam that is unusual from the rest, and wants to land on earth to wipe out the planet. In each stage for the most part would be in this case the Musha Gundam you would end up facing in the end throughout battling other gundam pilots with back story that casual gamers may not know of. Official mode is an actual timeline in that gundam setting such as the Mobile suit gundam between earth federation and zeon, Zeta gundam saga, and the ZZ saga which has a lot missing in the first game why have it apart of the game if you have literally 2 missions of it. It was fun to play back in the day, but compared to the next two sequels this one seems to be forgotten. 6.5 out of 10
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2: Probably the best of the series well to me is all that the second one included that was missing in the first one, and made even better. Sure the boss battles are tough at first since it was the first to be included, but I did not mind a change honestly. Included most of the pilots from the last game, and added new additions from the SEED Destiny saga, Char's Counterattack, F91, Victory. A lot more diversity than the last game with only just limited characters from each saga we get mostly the memorable characters from that saga which seems right. Gameplay is a lot faster then the previous game in fact you can attack the enemy even when he is down to increase you're damage on your adversary. 2 year difference it looks very good back in 2009, most of voices are about accurate. I feel like the story in this game is a lot better, and a great representation added that were taken out of the first game such as the ZZ saga only having 2 stories to play now have 3 more additional missions. Much more time to keep you busy in mastering all the pilots. I feel this was a major step up from the previous game, and the fact critics fought it was worse is an understatement to me, and that makes it more underrated as a sequel.
7.5 out of 10
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3: The Third game kinda disappointed after how much the second game was a joy, and then you have replacement of voices some in which sound nothing close to the actual character its like what happened in a one year span? Its 2010 at this point, and they just figured ''no I quit.'' The Third game focuses literally on its original mode in which is not a Musha gundam its a Knight gundam who i'll give them credit sounds cool. In terms of setting it is a major step down I mean not only is it severely limited stages played over and over its just like how quick did they try to put this out? The one positive note the game has though is its at least playable, and that the cutscenes look a lot more crisp than the previous game. I know i have not mentioned any of the series multiplayer well I do not really need to say much about it since the first game you had to play offline, and to be honest it got old, and was not all that. The second game did more less the same thing, but in the third game this was a big deal, and well at least you could play with 3 others players, but it was pretty disappointing. This game I still look back like wow they had big ups, and in this case a massive downer, but still playable. 6 out of 10
Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn: The 4th installment was not simply called Gundam 4 instead title Reborn which I found to be very interesting. I had not gone to knowing of its existence until a few years ago looking at the series, and not knowing it was a late PS3 exclusive when the console's popularity was slowly dying to make room for the PS4. Reborn pretty much looks more dynamic in terms of its story, and gameplay... well actually it plays the same as the rest just playable which you can't go wrong if your bandai. Unlike the previous games you must listen to the Japanese voice clips maybe because they care about their fans, and I can see why they went this route. In a way this was a redemption for the bomb that was the third in the series, and they did click for the most part. Adding in new characters made it more unique slightly, and I was still flattered even by redundant gameplay over and over because master yourself by being bored ha! Before I give my final thought on the game I looked up a game Bandai plan to release in which Gundam Versus would be more playable of the likes of earth federation vs zeon which was one of my favorites back in the day, and I looked up what the gameplay looked like, and it looks quite promising, and they seem to go away from hack n slash aspect of the series for now, but this was not the end of that genre as you see with the next game they go in a completely different direction 7 out of 10.
Hyrule Warriors: To be fair though this you can argue is by no means underrated since many have played this on the Wii U, and in fact say it is one of the best on the console. Hyrule Warriors was one game I wanted to check out just to see how different they went from the Gundam universe transitioned into Zelda world. One thing I notice right off the bat is you have an Adventure, Free, and Legend Mode. Legend mode is the story in the game which follows very well, Free mode pretty much you plays as anyone you wanted for a test, and Adventure mode is very unique in which you can select a certain part of a map to battle in to progress in which you must search in certain areas in order to become a more powerful warrior. This leads me to several routes to do such the likes of playing levels over and over which you literally must in order to find the pieces you need to use. You can choose to use your rupees by ranking up your warrior a lot quicker. Sell weapons to make room for rupees, and or Perhaps fuse a part of an existing weapon unto your upgrade you earned in a previous battle. You can even buy hidden skills be saving up a ton of rupees. The first few minutes of the gamplay played very similar until I had bombs, Arches, Boomerangs, and a hook shot as my secondary arsenal which proved to be of good use when facing big bosses in the game. All of which have a weakness to them the toughest one to react quick thought is when Ganondorf transformed as a beast is reasonably tough. Yeah no seriously that was the end to the main story... anyways you also earn loot from treasure chests when you capture a keep or if it makes more sense an enemy field. The last few things they have you try to attempt is a challenge mode which you test out each character, and see which one is the quickest in that time, and throughout the game you will encounter gold Skulltulas opportunity in which case you must act immediately, after the time limit is up, and you still are not able to find it try again. Collecting those will be the hardest thing for a completionist to achieve. This game in fact blew all my expectations away, and pretty much was good all around fun, and rewardingly addictive. Hyrule Warriors is definitely one of my favorite games on the system, and saying that with a lot of hype that overachieved for me greatly. 9 out of 10
That's all for now until the next review i'm outlaws saying good night everybody!