The Free Mission mode will allow players to fight online both in four players cooperative mode and in eight players team deathmatch.
When creating a character each player will have to chose a side (Earth Federation or Zeon) and a name, and will retain his online persona from then on (there's no info on the possibility to have multiple characters at the moment). By killing the enemy online he will receive experience points that will contribute towards a leveling system granting new ranks and skills.
As his online career progresses each player will be able to purchase and customize new mobile suits to tackle different missions.
The customization provided online will be even more extensive than that of the campaign modes, as the enemy weapons will be available for capture, for instance allowing a Zaku to carry a beam saber, or a Gundam to fight with two beam axes.
Also, during the online missions, defeated enemy mobile suits will drop customization parts that will unlock new mobile suits (four Gundams and two Zakus, between witch the infamous "Red Comet" from the first anime series).
During online gameplay communication will be available both via text chat and voice chat and a system similar to the command palette will allow players to assign a pre-written text lines to the D-Pad, to give quick instructions to their team-mates.
Several screenshots of the online modes and customization are available on this article on the Japanese portal Gpara.com.
This is just another layer of depth added to this extremely promising game. As I told in my previous posts about it, it seems to have the potential to be the best mecha game of this generation. We only have to hope that Namco Bandai won't be blind to such potential. Not releasing Gundam Senki in the west would be a big missed opportunity. You heard me Namco, get those translators to work, we want some Gundam action!
