Talking about Super Robot Wars

[SpoonyGundam]

I like Super Robot Wars.

I know some of you like Super Robot Wars. So let's talk about them!

I just beat SRW: A Portable.

In case you aren't familiar with it, it's a PSP remake of SRW:A, originally on the GBA. Yes, this makes the "Portable" appended to the remake title pretty silly! It's the one Axel and Lamia and the whole Shadow Mirror thing comes from, if you've played OG2. Axel is one of the options for the protagonist! I chose him, because it meant I could use Soulgain.

The good news: It actually tries to go and make the series a little difficult again. Energy costs are generally way higher, accuracy is generally way lower, and there's not as much SP to go around. The biggest change is the "successive target adjustments" system, where each evaded attack will increase the probability that the next attack will land, until you get hit.

For example, an enemy misses an attack against Zeta Gundam with a 10% base hit rate. The next guy who tries to attack him that turn has a 20% chance and so on. He gets hit, the next attack is back down to 10%. This works against the enemy too, but it's mostly a means to prevent you from getting your evade so high on reals that nothing will hit you ever. Even at a base 0% chance to hit, it'll still go up eventually.

The bad news: The game reuses animations from previous games liberally. The only ones that aren't from Impact, MX, Alpha 2/3, or OGs are the Gundam Wing (Which are really just PS2-quality recreations of W's animations) and 0083. They aren't even scaled properly to the PSP's screen. There's a 4:3 option, a zoom option, and a stretch option. As you might expect, zoom gets all pixelated and strech looks like ass.

Also, the game is pretty poorly balanced in general. The lower accuracy makes Dragonar-3 essential, with its large EWAC, and guys like Shin-Getter and Master Gundam and Soulgain are absolutely brokenly good, while everything from Gundam Wing and 08th MS Team are comically bad. I don't think Zeta or ZZ fared much better, but Nu Gundam was OK by me.

Ace and Full-Upgrade bonuses are back, but they're similarly unbalanced. Soulgain gets a completely awesome FUB in the form of 30% damage reduction. Angelg gets... range +1 on all weapons. It's not terrible, but Soulgain is way better than Angelg to begin with. It's pretty obvious that the game just exists to make a quick buck while they put together SRWZ.

And some of the difficulty changes were a little excessive. How huge is the accuracy hit? Huge enough that Amuro Ray had a base 35% chance to hit one of the later bosses in the game. The boss that had the lowest evade in that stage, even. There are a couple bosses on route splits that have such high evade and HP regen that it would be literally impossible to take them down if you hadn't been playing the entire game up to that point focusing on the guys for that particular split. Fortunately, I rather like G Gundam, and the Shuffle Alliance proved up to the task each time. You do keep the money and levels you've gained in a stage if you Game Over, but farming money to build up some guys you'll never use again is hardly ideal.

But even with its... issues, the game is still fun enough for fans.

Personal highlight: halfway through the game, Zweizergain comes to send a bunch of Gespensts after you. He shows up on the other side of the map from where you would normally be, only sticks around for something like three turns, and is sporting 100000 HP, huge defense, and a Haro. He's also surrounded by a ton of Gespensts, Angelgs (Soulgains in Lamia's game?), and your rival. And he retreats at under 20000 HP. I like Haros so, after several attempts, I devised some massive, multi-tiered plan to get my guys down there, get their morale built up to workable levels, and take him down before he left. He ended up getting taken out by a Hot-Blooded Code: Kirin from Soulgain supported by God Gundam's Sekiha Tenkyoken. By that point the entire rest of the stage had converged on me, and it was pretty hectic getting out with my prize, considering most of my guys were pretty much spent SP-wise. Unfortunately, I learned afterwards that Haros are only +30 evade +2 range. Not terrible, but nowhere near what I'm used to. :(

So would I recommend it? I don't know. I had fun outside of stage 34 (Nadesico route, biggest obnoxious dodge/HP regen in the game) and stage 38 (Low accuracy combined with an entire mission full of Newtypes/Enhanced Humans is not fun). I can't actually say it's a good SRW, though. Or even if it's better than the original A, as I haven't played it.

[`Hrist]

You must be talking to me ;)


So would I recommend it? I don't know.

Been hearing mixed reactions about this one for a little bit now. Makes me kind of sad for the following reasons:

1. It has the old RX-78, which should be full of win.
2. It finally redid the Wing animations.
3. It was based on what some consider the best GBA game.

Instead, it seems like a pretty lazy effort. So many recycled animations (a lot of them from MX, which I haven't played, but still recognized), and recycled music too. Do we need Last Impression again? Would it be so hard to put in White Reflection? Or maybe, and I know this isn't EW but still, Rhythm Emotion?

Anyway, I was planning to get this with a PSP, but I'm wondering if I should get MX Portable instead. All of the animations, but I get Evangelion with my dose of Zeta and G Gundam...

[SpoonyGundam]

Admittedly, RX-78 is pretty awesome. I spent most of the game with Amuro in that (Or the full armor version), since it takes so long to get Nu Gundam. I think I had it for four missions.

It's pretty nice to have new Wing animations, but the Wing units themselves are pretty sorry. Deathsythe has two attacks, neither of which are good, and Wing Zero is lacking his rolling twin buster rifle. I think Deathscythe was in a similar boat in W, but you get him in stage 1 there, not over two-thirds through the game.

I haven't played the PSP version of MX, but I've got the PS2 version.

From what I hear, it sounds like the PS2 one is the way to go for that particular game. The PSP one apparently increases the game's "difficulty" by cranking up everything's HP. Ho hum. It sounds more tedious than anything, really. Making a boss take 20 Hot Blood hits instead of 10 doesn't actually make it harder.

But I like the PS2 one. It's good.

I'll go ahead and warn you about the item dropping in it, though. Like the PS2 OGs, when an enemy drops an item, it actually drops the item. Like, on the ground. In a box. You can move to the space and pick it up or wait until the end of the stage for everything to be picked up automatically, but if another enemy moves to that space, it's gone forever. So! Watch out for that!

[`Hrist]

Admittedly, RX-78 is pretty awesome. I spent most of the game with Amuro in that (Or the full armor version), since it takes so long to get Nu Gundam. I think I had it for four missions.

That's cool ^^ Go RX-78. I'm watching the original series right now ;)

Deathscythe was actually pretty awesome in W. It had a map attack that covered all sides, and it could tank a lot of enemies at once. It looks like in A Portable that they're still using the Deathscythe animations from Alpha 2. -,-

And PS2 is the way to go for MX huh? lol, well, I need something to play on the train. But I'll keep that in mind. I'm thinking that Z is going to be my next SRW game. They're a commitment. :P

[teekun]

I love what I've played of the SRW games, I just wish there were more available in English. I struggled through a copy of SRW Alpha 3, despite knowing only extremely rudimentary Japanese, and still enjoyed it, but had a much better time playing the two GBA games that Atlus localized. I wish they'd bring out OG for PS2 over here :(

[SpoonyGundam]

It's been forever since I've played the Alphas. I forgot Deathscythe's "jumping in front of the moon" thing was from that. Now I'm even more disappointed in Wing this game. And I didn't use him (or any of Wing) in W outside of the required missions. That game was all about GaoGaiGar and Astray Red Frame for me.

Do you have any of the GBA ones? I can say from experience that J is pretty nice, if a bit on the easy side. A lot of the animations in W are taken from it. It's pretty impressive that the game looks as good as it does. It'd be a fun train game.

[`Hrist]

Do you have any of the GBA ones? I can say from experience that J is pretty nice, if a bit on the easy side. A lot of the animations in W are taken from it. It's pretty impressive that the game looks as good as it does. It'd be a fun train game.

The thing is that so much of the experience for me is putting in the headphones and grinning to the classic, hot-blooded BGMs. They focused so much on graphics in J that the music sounds, to put it charitably... urgh.

I recently did a Gundam only run through the Continue+ of W. I had a good time with that. ^^ But I prefer Blue Frame to Red Frame.

[SpoonyGundam]

I can definitely see that. But J has G Gundam, which means the game immediately flew into my heart. Inluding the Maxter/Rose and Bolt/Dragon combination attacks made me about as happy as I could be.

And speaking of W. My first time through the game, I took down the last boss with Boss Borot's self destruct attack. Awesome ending or awesomest ending? You decide!

And man, Teekun, Alpha 3 probably isn't the best untranslated game to start with, but I salute you for fumbling through the squad system and whatnot through to the end. There are some absolutely amazing things you can do in that game with the Macross 7 units, and I'll always love it for it.

[`Hrist]

And man, Teekun, Alpha 3 probably isn't the best untranslated game to start with, but I salute you for fumbling through the squad system and whatnot through to the end. There are some absolutely amazing things you can do in that game with the Macross 7 units, and I'll always love it for it.

Totally agree. Alpha 3 is brutal to start with if you're, A) Unfamiliar with the series and B) Unfamiliar with Japanese. My first SRW was W, and Alpha 3 was the second. Everything from the squad system to the way things were laid out really through me for a loop. And, of course, I was still discovering what certain seishin did well into the game.

Seems like something like W is great for easing in a new player, despite the bugs. It had a pretty good series lineup, the OG mech that could positively wreck everything, and it looked good. I think Z might take that crown soon though.

As for G Gundam well... I can't help but love it for the lunacy =) The attacks translate so well to SRW that I'm almost surprised that it hasn't appeared as much as Wing.

Taking the final boss down with Boss Borot's self-destruct? Too awesome ^^

[SpoonyGundam]

I think Z might take that crown soon though.

No go! Possibly. Z also has a squad system. Three guys to a unit, but there's no cost stuff to deal with like in the Alphas. W will probably stay as the easiest for initiation for a while, especially when you consider that you don't have to mod a DS in any way to play it. MX Portable and A Portable share this benefit, but see above for reasons why they aren't good to start with.

Normal MX is fine once you get past the PS2 modding, though, and is actually the first one I beat. Because of this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kZwU3MCsXQ). But first one I played was 3 for the SNES way, way back when Aeon Genesis made a translation patch for it. Speaking of them, apparently their translation for Alpha is moving along nicely (http://agtp.romhack.net/news.php?date=2008-07-02+23%3A01%3A54). This is exciting news! Especially since I can play it on my custom firmware PSP when it's done.

[Lucas]

What timing! I actually just got a loaned copy of Super Robot Taisen Original Generation in the mail on Monday; it's the first one I've ever played.

I'm enjoying it so far. I hear it's supposed to be really easy? I can kind of see that, mainly because I'm making some headway in it (despite loving strategy games, I suck at them). However, without an instruction manual there's a lot of things that are frustrating me. The big thing for me right now is that I keep not being able to use the weapons I want. Maybe I don't want to use the beam cannon on my transforming mecha right now, maybe I want to use a missile instead so I can save my energy for the guy with 18K HP, is that so wrong?

Another thing, and I kind of hesitate to say this in a fan thread, is that to me this is less a giant robot strategy game and more of a game where the characters just happen to be giant robots. Giant robot games should have giant robot customization, gosh darn it! Still, this is less a negative for SRW than a statement that I really need to get a Front Mission game...

All in all though, I'm having fun with it. Will continue to play, possibly would play others.

[teekun]

And man, Teekun, Alpha 3 probably isn't the best untranslated game to start with, but I salute you for fumbling through the squad system and whatnot through to the end. There are some absolutely amazing things you can do in that game with the Macross 7 units, and I'll always love it for it.

Believe me, I know. I had no idea what I was getting into when I got a copy, all I knew is that I liked tactics games, and the battle animations were pretty. But after shelling out a good $70 to import it, I wasn't going to give up easily.

[`Hrist]

lol, Spoony and I are turning this into a tidy little thread for ourselves...

No go! Possibly. Z also has a squad system. Three guys to a unit, but there's no cost stuff to deal with like in the Alphas. W will probably stay as the easiest for initiation for a while, especially when you consider that you don't have to mod a DS in any way to play it. MX Portable and A Portable share this benefit, but see above for reasons why they aren't good to start with

I didn't mod my PS2 actually. Just got swap magic. Works a charm. The most work I had to do was to open it up so I could put a little flip top lid on it.

And I had forgotten about Aeon Genesis's translation of Alpha. =) I'm excited now.

Lucas: Glad you're having fun, but SRW isn't about customization and tactics. It's about fan service. Pure, unadulterated fan service. And I love it.

[SpoonyGundam]

I'm enjoying it so far. I hear it's supposed to be really easy? I can kind of see that, mainly because I'm making some headway in it (despite loving strategy games, I suck at them). However, without an instruction manual there's a lot of things that are frustrating me.

I don't remember OG1 being too bad, no. None of the recent ones are, really. In fact, most of the ones I've played get much easier as they go on. This isn't a bad thing, in my opinion! If there's any series where you should feel like your characters are complete badasses in the end, it's SRW.

The big thing for me right now is that I keep not being able to use the weapons I want. Maybe I don't want to use the beam cannon on my transforming mecha right now, maybe I want to use a missile instead so I can save my energy for the guy with 18K HP, is that so wrong?

I'm not sure what you mean here. You can select any weapon that you meet the range/ammo/energy/will/movement/terrain requirements for on attacks or counterattacks. The games typically default to either your strongest attack or your weakest attack able to kill the enemy on counter attacks, and it does a pretty good job of guessing at that, but I agree with you. I usually change my counter attack to something with no energy requirement if possible.

Another thing, and I kind of hesitate to say this in a fan thread, is that to me this is less a giant robot strategy game and more of a game where the characters just happen to be giant robots. Giant robot games should have giant robot customization, gosh darn it! Still, this is less a negative for SRW than a statement that I really need to get a Front Mission game...

I like Front Mission too! I can definitely see the appeal in the customization, and the OG series is unique in SRW by having a small degree more in it. You can't make your guys look any different, but you can change the weapons around on most of your units. It's a good idea to experiment too, since certain weapons can help fill in weaknesses in otherwise solid units.

But the main draw for SRW is and always will be the fanservice in the main games. They all draw from mechs in anime, which kind of limits the customization options. I know I'd be pretty upset if I played in SRW Z and found out someone gave a beam saber or something to The Big O. The iconic mecha in the series aren't quite as iconic without their repetoire of attacks.

All in all though, I'm having fun with it. Will continue to play, possibly would play others.

Great! I'd say OG2 is the better of the two, but they're both fun enough. I... can't really play the GBA versions anymore, thanks to the PS2 remake, though.

I didn't mod my PS2 actually. Just got swap magic. Works a charm. The most work I had to do was to open it up so I could put a little flip top lid on it.

I use a swap magic too, actually. It's still a lot more than you have to do to play imported DS games (Which is nothing), so I can see how someone could be turned off by the thought. You're right that it's easy, though! But a lot of people probably don't know that.

[`Hrist]

I've always really liked the OG mechs in things like Alpha 3 and W, but is the OG remake worth picking up for the PS2? I've never been able to wrap my head head around SRW without... well.... Gundam :P

[SpoonyGundam]

You'll get over the lack of Gundam when you have things like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nB0G95mtRg) and this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw-W3CAfJmw).

And besides, the Huckebeins (http://srwog.velv.net/og_mecha/huckebein.html) are close enough to Gundams anyway.

But the remake actually is pretty good. The twin system is a neat take on squads and the games are just all around better than the originals.

[`Hrist]

lol, I'll pick them up then. ;) I've actually played enough SRW now that the OG characters becoming recognizable. It'll be nice to see them all in one place. I hope that the W crew show up in OG 2... (Or OG 3 I guess, since the OG remake had both, right?)

[Lucas]

This isn't a bad thing, in my opinion!

Or in mine! SRPGs are one of my favorite genres, and I like the feeling I might be able to beat one!

I'm not sure what you mean here. You can select any weapon that you meet the range/ammo/energy/will/movement/terrain requirements for on attacks or counterattacks. The games typically default to either your strongest attack or your weakest attack able to kill the enemy on counter attacks, and it does a pretty good job of guessing at that, but I agree with you. I usually change my counter attack to something with no energy requirement if possible.

I'm not sure what I mean here either, which is the problem. When the screen has something like EN 30(26) on it, then I know my problem is that I need 30 energy for the attack but I only have 26. My problem is when I'm looking at the screen and I can't see any reason why I shouldn't be allowed to use a certain weapon other than that the game won't allow it. I did notice just before I stopped playing earlier that some weapons can't be used after moving, but I don't know for sure if that's the problem I was running into.

But the main draw for SRW is and always will be the fanservice in the main games. They all draw from mechs in anime, which kind of limits the customization options.

This... this actually makes me less likely to play more SRW games. The appeal for me in SRPGs is as much the ability to build your army from the ground up as the tactical bits. Having a humongous cast from which to cherry-pick theme units to build my army could allow for enough customization to satisfy me, but I'd have to try it to find out; I'm not an import gamer though, so as far as I know I have to stick to OG games (none of the games with licensed mechs have been localized, right?). So far this game doesn't have that "this is my army" feeling that I want. Looking at my friend's save on the cartridge, I know that I'll eventually end up with a lot more mecha and equipment than I have now, maybe that'll do it.

The fanservice in a non-OG game probably wouldn't do much for me either, sad to say - I may love giant robots, but I don't actually get to watch much giant robot anime and don't have much attachment to any particular mecha. Even then, I can see myself happily mixing and matching famous mecha parts. I would totally take the big gatling guns off the Heavyarms gundam if I could install them on, say, one of the Voltron lions to make a fast, long-range scout unit.

[`Hrist]

So far this game doesn't have that "this is my army" feeling that I want.

Once I get enough machines, I tend to feel like I have a team that I built myself. Once you use certain robots enough, you get attached to them, and there's an exciting and powerful feeling that comes with deploying your team on the battlefield at the beginning of a mission. The feeling of potential, that you have a lot of attacks stored up that will positively wreck the field.

You have so many to choose from that the customization ends up being in the sheer selection. Even something as elementary as choosing between supers and reals makes for a different experience.

My problem is when I'm looking at the screen and I can't see any reason why I shouldn't be allowed to use a certain weapon other than that the game won't allow it

The other problem is Will. You have to build up a machine's will in order for it to perform its best attacks. Will is built up when you land an attack, you dodge an attack, your partner dodges an attack, etc. As the game progresses, you can get certain items and seishin that will make your will go up really fast. ^^

The fanservice in a non-OG game probably wouldn't do much for me either, sad to say - I may love giant robots, but I don't actually get to watch much giant robot anime and don't have much attachment to any particular mecha.

I ended up liking SRW so much that I found myself checking out the series that were included and becoming a fan. Then, when I came back, I appreciated it even more. =) The hook, of course, was that W had Voltron, which was win.

[Gredlen]

Regarding not being able to use certain moves, some weapons can't be used after moving, which might be your problem.

Anyway, I picked up Super Robot Wars A: Portable the day it came out and played it fairly often. Since getting back home, though, it's been languishing a bit. I really need to get back to it.

A single question: is there more than one track from Zeta Gundam in the game? Because the one they always use is incredibly boring. I was over that song halfway through Alpha. The song I REALLY want is the one in the final showdown, where Kamille pulls out the infamous Wave Rider Crash. Speaking of which, is that in the game as well? I know it was in one of the GBA SRWs.

The thing that really disappointed me about SRW OG was the fact that the character I picked in Alpha (Yuuki Jegnan) took forever to get introduced, and when he finally was, he started on the wrong side. =(

[`Hrist]

The Wave Rider Crash song should be in there somewhere... Probably when you do the Wave Rider Crash ;)

I miss Believe in the Sign of Zeta. =/ That would be a great BGM.

[Gredlen]

I've always preferred Mizu no Hoshi he Ai wo Komete myself. Again, I'm pretty sure it was in one of the GBA games, but I can't remember which.

[SpoonyGundam]

(Or OG 3 I guess, since the OG remake had both, right?)

Yeah, the remake had OG1 and OG2. And OG"2.5."

W would be awesome, but I don't think it'll show up in OG3. It's been pretty much confirmed that Alpha 3 (Cobray was added in to a scene in OG1) and MX (The entire cast showed up in OG Gaiden with custom Gespys) will be the focus of the next one, and they still have D and J to deal with before W.

But a word of warning about the OG games, so you don't get caught off guard: thanks to the weapon customizing, they use the old weapon upgrading system. As in, instead of upgrading every weapon at once, you upgrade them one at a time. I opted to just focus on the unit's strongest attack (or the attack related to a combination attack, when applicable) and spend the rest of the money on the unit proper for the awesome unit-unique full upgrade bonuses.

Also, like a lot of other SRWs, you'll be getting a good amount of bonus units that start pilotless. Unlike the main series, you're actually going to want to use these ones. In OG1, the Armorlion (Unfortunately only available in the remake) and Valsion Custom rock the house. OG2 has less room for the bonus units, but the Vaisaga is ludicrously good and you want to move Lamia into it ASAP, and the Wild Wurger Type L has the most broken attack in any SRW ever. Its Stun Spark (Also only available in the remake, I believe.) will make any enemy unable to attack or counterattack for one turn, provided it does damage. This basically just means you need to have someone who can cast Fury pilot it. Leona's a great choice for it if you want to reduce any boss anywhere to helplessness.

I'm not sure what I mean here either, which is the problem. When the screen has something like EN 30(26) on it, then I know my problem is that I need 30 energy for the attack but I only have 26. My problem is when I'm looking at the screen and I can't see any reason why I shouldn't be allowed to use a certain weapon other than that the game won't allow it. I did notice just before I stopped playing earlier that some weapons can't be used after moving, but I don't know for sure if that's the problem I was running into.

In addition to the will and movement that Hrist and Grendlen went over, you might also be running into terrain problems. Certain weapons just can't be used against flying enemies.

A single question: is there more than one track from Zeta Gundam in the game? Because the one they always use is incredibly boring. I was over that song halfway through Alpha. The song I REALLY want is the one in the final showdown, where Kamille pulls out the infamous Wave Rider Crash. Speaking of which, is that in the game as well? I know it was in one of the GBA SRWs.

I don't remember any other Zeta songs in it, though I will admit to not using Zeta Gundam much. The track list in A is pretty... lacking, honestly.

RE: Wave Rider Crash. The good news is it's in the game! The bad news is it's Zeta Gundam's unique FUB. I didn't fully upgrade any of my units by the end of the game, since I was focusing mostly on weapon upgrades. Your results may vary, though.

But a word of advice since you're using the Zeta guys. Cha- er, Quattro, is awesome if you get him Aced. He essentially gets a leadership aura that gives a bonus 10% to hit and evade to everything around him and it actually stacks with the EWAC part. Ace him, give him an EWAC, and you practically have another Dragonar-3. Only Quattro can be pretty good at killing things too. I'd hold off on actually upgrading the Hyaku Shiki, though. You'll get a shiny new Sazabi for him late (And I mean late) in the game.

[MarsDragon]

W would be awesome, but I don't think it'll show up in OG3. It's been pretty much confirmed that Alpha 3 (Cobray was added in to a scene in OG1) and MX (The entire cast showed up in OG Gaiden with custom Gespys) will be the focus of the next one, and they still have D and J to deal with before W.

How are they going to do Alpha 3 before they even do Alpha 2? Even if Sanger and Arado got their mech upgrades from there, we still haven't fought the War of Seals. Right now we're about right after Alpha Gaiden in that timeline (beat Neo Granzon) and right after SRW3 in the original timeline (...beat Neo Granzon). Alpha 3's looking like it will be put off until at least OG4, and then it will probably be concurrent with W, possibly with Guest as well, depending on how they handle them this time around.


Also, like a lot of other SRWs, you'll be getting a good amount of bonus units that start pilotless. Unlike the main series, you're actually going to want to use these ones. In OG1, the Armorlion (Unfortunately only available in the remake) and Valsion Custom rock the house. OG2 has less room for the bonus units, but the Vaisaga is ludicrously good and you want to move Lamia into it ASAP, and the Wild Wurger Type L has the most broken attack in any SRW ever. Its Stun Spark (Also only available in the remake, I believe.) will make any enemy unable to attack or counterattack for one turn, provided it does damage. This basically just means you need to have someone who can cast Fury pilot it. Leona's a great choice for it if you want to reduce any boss anywhere to helplessness.

I never liked getting the Vaisaga much because a: The Angelg stays useful up to the endgame and Lamia's more of a tank shooter than a dodgy puncher and b: I can put ANYONE in the Ashsaber. I usually go with Gilliam because he needs a good mech by the end of GBA OG2 (remake fixes this, but I don't think Lucas is playing that), or Ring because Ring's old-school Will gains are TERRIBLE for the Huckebein, but everything else about her is awesome.

Stun Shot is available in the GBA version of OG2, and yes, it is nicely broken and why people generally put the shooty Leona in a melee mech. The only people that learn Fury in OG2 are one battleship captain (can't move), Rai (don't want to move unless you don't like the SRX), Ratsel (don't want to move unless you don't like Tornado Blade), and Leona (fine to move). Just note that you might want to give it a good ranged weapon, since Leona, like all the space Germans, loves her guns more than punching.

Anyway, right now I'm playing through the original Alpha, with Leona on the super route. (I couldn't pick between Leona on the real or Carla on the super, so I split the difference) It's pretty fun, with enough modern conveniences that the odd old-school things are more charming than annoying. It's odd to not have the tons of Will everything after OG1 or so gives you, and all the spirit costs feel high, but tanking is actually useful and real enemy bosses have real unit HP totals. It's pretty fun, and with any luck by the time I feel like playing through again on the real route the translation will be done.

[Excitemike]

I miss Believe in the Sign of Zeta. =/ That would be a great BGM.

Fun Fact: Believe in a Sign of Zeta and Mizu no Hoshi e Ai wo Komete were written by Neil Sedaka. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Sedaka#Other_musical_works) Yes, that's really all I have to add, you guys are way ahead of me :P

[SpoonyGundam]

How are they going to do Alpha 3 before they even do Alpha 2?

Yeah, you're right. My brain kind of glossed over Alpha 2 for some reason.

EDIT: Though, after thinking about it, it's also extremely likely that some of the Alpha 3 characters and mechs will show up in the next one, even if the game doesn't go over the main Alpha 3 story. I wouldn't be surprised if all of the new protagonists in Alpha 3 show up in some form.

I never liked getting the Vaisaga much because a: The Angelg stays useful up to the endgame and Lamia's more of a tank shooter than a dodgy puncher and b: I can put ANYONE in the Ashsaber. I usually go with Gilliam because he needs a good mech by the end of GBA OG2 (remake fixes this, but I don't think Lucas is playing that), or Ring because Ring's old-school Will gains are TERRIBLE for the Huckebein, but everything else about her is awesome.

Angelg sitting there without a pilot after getting Vaisaga is pretty sad, yes. But she's just as good at punching things as shooting them, based on her stats. Her ace bonus gives her a bit of a shooting edge, but Vaisaga's generally stronger attacks and absurd terrain bonuses make up for that. And Lamia is more than dodgy enough when you're packing 70% bunshin. Yeah, it's kind of a waste to not use Angelg, but it's also kind of a waste to not use Vaisaga.

Of course, this doesn't really matter as much for the GBA version, since you can't get Vaisaga on the first playthrough.

Stun Shot is available in the GBA version of OG2, and yes, it is nicely broken and why people generally put the shooty Leona in a melee mech. The only people that learn Fury in OG2 are one battleship captain (can't move), Rai (don't want to move unless you don't like the SRX), Ratsel (don't want to move unless you don't like Tornado Blade), and Leona (fine to move). Just note that you might want to give it a good ranged weapon, since Leona, like all the space Germans, loves her guns more than punching.

Did not realize this. I wonder how I missed it when I actually played the GBA one. I think I ended up with Leona in a Huckebein or something. I was about to add Kai to the list of guys with Fury, but it turns out he doesn't have it in the original. That version is... foreign to me now.

Anyway, right now I'm playing through the original Alpha, with Leona on the super route. (I couldn't pick between Leona on the real or Carla on the super, so I split the difference) It's pretty fun, with enough modern conveniences that the odd old-school things are more charming than annoying. It's odd to not have the tons of Will everything after OG1 or so gives you, and all the spirit costs feel high, but tanking is actually useful and real enemy bosses have real unit HP totals. It's pretty fun, and with any luck by the time I feel like playing through again on the real route the translation will be done.

I have a real route Leona game on hold for that right now. I guess it's probably going to be on hold a bit longer now that I know the translation is getting closer to a public release.

[MarsDragon]

Yeah, you're right. My brain kind of glossed over Alpha 2 for some reason.

EDIT: Though, after thinking about it, it's also extremely likely that some of the Alpha 3 characters and mechs will show up in the next one, even if the game doesn't go over the main Alpha 3 story. I wouldn't be surprised if all of the new protagonists in Alpha 3 show up in some form.

Well, Touma and Cobray have already had cameos. Kusuha's there already, so the only person who could would be Selena. She might get a cameo, maybe related to Calvina in some way, if I understand J right. Touma and Selena might even show up and get mechs early, but Cobray is probably going to wait until the Balmar plot really gets going again. Kusuha, of course, isn't going to get Shin RyuKoOh for a good long time. Maybe by then they'll be through nerfing her so she can be awesome again.


Angelg sitting there without a pilot after getting Vaisaga is pretty sad, yes. But she's just as good at punching things as shooting them, based on her stats. Her ace bonus gives her a bit of a shooting edge, but Vaisaga's generally stronger attacks and absurd terrain bonuses make up for that. And Lamia is more than dodgy enough when you're packing 70% bunshin. Yeah, it's kind of a waste to not use Angelg, but it's also kind of a waste to not use Vaisaga.

I still say that having Gilliam sit in a less effective mech when you could be bringing out his full awesomeness with Sword Breakers plus not using the Angelg is worse than not using the Vaisaga. But I like Gilliam a lot. (plus you need him for friendship bonusing Sanger and Kai so they can hit and dodge properly)


Did not realize this. I wonder how I missed it when I actually played the GBA one. I think I ended up with Leona in a Huckebein or something. I was about to add Kai to the list of guys with Fury, but it turns out he doesn't have it in the original. That version is... foreign to me now.

I seriously need to modchip my PS2. I played a bit of OGS when I had a friend with a modded PS2 around, but he's not around anymore.


I have a real route Leona game on hold for that right now. I guess it's probably going to be on hold a bit longer now that I know the translation is getting closer to a public release.

Given that it's Aeon Genesis I'm going to say that we'll be lucky if Alpha is released next year. Their products are quality, but take awhile to come.

[`Hrist]

I seriously need to modchip my PS2. I played a bit of OGS when I had a friend with a modded PS2 around, but he's not around anymore.

Swap Magic (http://www.swapmagic3.com/)

I didn't realize that the OGs retraced the stories of the original games. I really want to try OG 1 now...

[Mightyblue]

Yeah, OG1 is something like SRW 2 and a bit of early 3, and 2 blends SRW 3 and Alpha 1.

[MarsDragon]

OG1 is straight up SRW2 (Bian and the DC, plus the cheap DC/Zeon knockoffs Kyosuke has to fight) into the basic idea of Alpha 1 (first invasion of the Balmar, Judecca), minus a few points like the Chinese machines and the whole Euzeth/Ingram/the actual empire behind the invasion stuff.

OG2 is a bit more of a mish-mash, with the main plot being SRW3 (Inspectors, Neo DC I think), A (Shadow Mirrors), Compact 1 and 2/Impact (Einst) and some Alpha/Alpha 2 stuff (Chinese machines, DyGenGuard, Wildfalken/wurger, Ibis' first half).

OG Gaiden is R (Duminass and the time travel stuff), Compact 3 (Shura), some intro stuff for MX (Cry Wolves), the Bartolls are original and I forget what else is in there, I haven't actually played it. I keep planning to get a Swap Magic, but I'm going to wait until I get my first paycheck for this place until I do, because I really want to go through Alpha 2 Ibis route and finish up my Alpha 3 playthrough. Plus all the OG stuff.

[`Hrist]

I enjoyed the Alpha 2 Ibis route. Gave me a chance to become acquainted with the Crossbone Vanguard, which was cool.

[SpoonyGundam]

Well, Touma and Cobray have already had cameos. Kusuha's there already, so the only person who could would be Selena. She might get a cameo, maybe related to Calvina in some way, if I understand J right. Touma and Selena might even show up and get mechs early, but Cobray is probably going to wait until the Balmar plot really gets going again. Kusuha, of course, isn't going to get Shin RyuKoOh for a good long time. Maybe by then they'll be through nerfing her so she can be awesome again.

I thought Touma was in OGG, but I wasn't positive. I haven't gotten around to that yet. Now that I'm sure of that, I'm going to say RaiOh is almost certainly going to show up in OG3, with the DaiRaiOh upgrade coming in OG4. Selena could be worked in easily enough, and I'm willing to say she probably will be, if only to have another new character for the game. You're probably right that Cobray will sit out until 4, though. Maybe he'll show up for another shadowy cameo or something.

I still say that having Gilliam sit in a less effective mech when you could be bringing out his full awesomeness with Sword Breakers plus not using the Angelg is worse than not using the Vaisaga. But I like Gilliam a lot. (plus you need him for friendship bonusing Sanger and Kai so they can hit and dodge properly)

I'm not going to argue against Gilliam being awesome, but again, Gilliam's situation is only really a factor on replays of the GBA OG2. He gets his badass Gespy in the remake, so he's good to go with or without Ashsaber. There's less of a pressing need for it in that case, but I guess Viletta could benefit from it after you transfer Mai to the R-Gun.

I didn't realize that the OGs retraced the stories of the original games. I really want to try OG 1 now...

This (http://akurasu.net/wiki/index.php?title=Super_Robot_Wars/OGs/Series) does a decent job labelling where the characters come from. But yeah, the OG series does the same kind of thing that the normal SRW games do in that it takes several different stories and merges them all together. Only in this case, it involves the original characters/stories Banpresto has made over the years.

[Lucas]

I feel like I'm dragging the thread down with this, so I'll try to make this the last time I whine about it. The specific attacks that I'm talking about are the Wildraubtier FM's AA Missile, AG Missile, and Aerial Bomb - no will requirements, no energy requirements, and a variety of different terrains and ranges. They're all permanently attached to the mech, and as far as I can tell there's no method besides checking a weapon's stats as you equip to see if it can fire after movement, so in the absence of negative evidence I'm going to assume that moving and firing is just a no-no for most of the FM's weaponry. Understandable in an artillery mech, but in a jet it's just weird.

I can only hope that someday there's an SRW with the mecha from Gurren Lagann. If I could understand whatever language it was in, I would be all over it (hey, I bought Chaos Wars just because it had some Shadow Hearts characters in it; it's not like fanservice can't sell me).

[SpoonyGundam]

Whenever an attack in OG1 can be used after movement, there's a little circle with a P in it after the attack name to indicate it as "post-movement."

Mystery solved!

[Lucas]

I'd been wondering what that thing meant. Thanks! My best guess had been some kind of weird trademark symbol, since I mostly noticed it on the Cybuster's weird-ass attacks.

[Mightyblue]

The Cybuster is awesome! That is all.

[Excitemike]

Has anyone played that Cybuster SNES game? I only spent a few minutes with it, but it had a Front Mission vibe.

Also: Great Battle? Or Greatest Battle?

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/Great%20Battle/STFKamen.gif http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/Great%20Battle/STFUltra.gif
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/Great%20Battle/STFGundam.gif http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/Great%20Battle/STFRoah.gif

[webrunner]

The Cybuster is awesome! That is all.

I'm currently painting one

[SpoonyGundam]

Also: Great Battle? Or Greatest Battle?

That one's just a plain Great Battle. The Greatest Battle is Great Battle 5, where everyone is inexplicably a cowboy. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4IUT8OnZpI)

EDIT: Oh god, I didn't realize the game had a Big Zam wearing a sombrero when I made that statement. This really is the best game ever made.

[MarsDragon]

I'm not going to argue against Gilliam being awesome, but again, Gilliam's situation is only really a factor on replays of the GBA OG2. He gets his badass Gespy in the remake, so he's good to go with or without Ashsaber. There's less of a pressing need for it in that case, but I guess Viletta could benefit from it after you transfer Mai to the R-Gun.

Or Ring. Ring is perfect for the Ashsaber, and it's really handy to have another Rouse/Enabler around. I ended up with her in the Rathgrith for my Ex-Hard playthrough and she was all right, but could've used some more dodge. But having her around to Enable the hell out of the SRX was what let me beat Nue Reggissuer, so.

As for Great Battle, I've never played them. I've played Hero Senki, though, which is the same team except for having Gilliam and a Gespenst instead of Fighter Roar and the Compatible Kaiser. (and Gilliam leaves in the first couple of hours. Jerk.) It's a decent enough SNES RPG, though the encounter rate is jacked all to hell. It's still cute and needs someone to do a fan translation.

[Mightyblue]

Man, all this SRW talk made me dig out of my copy of SRW J I imported a while back (a while being a few years). After having played the OG games, I'm surprised by how much prettier the sprites and a lot of the cutscene work is in J. Also, it has Nadesico, Tekkaman Blade, and FMP in it, which are favorites of mine. Well, it's got G Seed in it too, but eh.

Also: Boobs.

[Mightyblue]

Sigh. I love SRW, but it is taking me forever to finish up some of these missions, although I'm doing the challenges too. I've been playing J on and off throughout the day and I'm still only on the 12th mission.

[SpoonyGundam]

I'm not going to argue that the missions are long sometimes. Mission 38 in A Portable took me over two hours to play through.

J in particular, I remember having tons of enemies to deal with. But that's honestly one of the things I liked about that one. All of the 20 enemy ambushes that happened throughout the game gave it a... grander feel, I guess. Another thing I like about it is that you're stupidly overpowered by the end. The full-upgrade bonuses in it are seriously insane.

I'm not a huge fan of the skill parts system, though. It's nice that I can actually get my support units skills, when they normally wouldn't get enough PP to learn much in other games, but it's really limiting on my main guys.

You might want to check out W if you aren't burned out by the time you get through J. They're pretty similar, down to the battle animations being more or less the same. It's really kind of impressive that they managed to pull off what they did with the GBA when they made J.

[Higharolla Kockamamie]

I have only one thing to say in this thread: It's time for L-GAIM. Although unfortunately isn't in Z. Sigh.


ANYWAY, talking of overpowered, anyone here besides me bother with SRW 64? Godmars can one shot the final boss twice in a row. Easy!

[Mightyblue]

Yeah, I'm working my way through mission 25 in J right now. One of my pet peeves with SRW is that they include "Supers" along with "Real" robots, and they never really bother to balance the game properly. I'm a Real fan anyway so my Supers usually get stuck with battleship killing.

[`Hrist]

I just have fun and don't use the supers after I've beaten the game once = )

[SpoonyGundam]

SRW 64 is a bit... ugly for me. In any other circumstance, I'd say that graphics don't matter much, but this is a franchise built entirely out of fanservice. I usually skip battle animations anyway, but sometimes I like watching some elaborate attack wreck a boss. Alpha 1 is about as far back as I can go, graphically.

One of my pet peeves with SRW is that they include "Supers" along with "Real" robots, and they never really bother to balance the game properly.

They aren't honestly that different, gameplay-wise. One's just defense-based and the other's evasion-based. Unless the fact that they generally aren't much different is what bothers you. Of course, they've been trying to move away from the strict super/real classification recently.

But anyway, this raises a question:

Reals or supers? One or the other, though I think I can guess what most of you are going to say.

For me, it's probably supers. I always choose the super original my first time through the game, and out of the guys on my list of things that I'd use in any SRW that they show up in, regardless of how good, most are supers. Off the top of my head; GaoGaiGar, Gunbuster, God Gundam, Shin Getter, Mazinkaiser, Dancouga, The Big O, and Daimos as opposed to Nu Gundam and ARX-7 Arbalest. Even if you consider God Gundam a real (Which I definitely do not (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kZwU3MCsXQ)), supers still outnumber reals. Add in the fact that all of the shows that I want to see introduced to a SRW are supers, and... yeah. I like supers.

[Mightyblue]

Arbalest all the way! *cough* J also bugs me in that Sousuke doesn't even get to use Lambda Driver based attacks yet, despite having taken down the Behemoth already. It's odd for a series fan like me to see that.

[SpoonyGundam]

The Lambda Driver attacks are just graphic modifications to the normal attacks. I.E. the shotgun looks like it's shooting lasers when the Lambda Driver is activated. The animation changes are a little more involved in W, with the shotgun and knife attacks (And possibly others?) turning into dynamic kills. The knife turns into that huge energy wave thingy from the end of The Second Raid.

So, the Arbalest doesn't get any massive attacks, but it's still a monster simply because of how the Lambda Driver works. Among other things, your base damage is set to a percentage equal to Sousuke's current will. In other words, you're doing 150% damage on every attack, all the time, when you're at max will. Add in the fact that Sousuke can cast Soul, and he is a beast.

Things get crazier in W, where you can give Sousuke a skill part that raises his max morale to 170.

[Mightyblue]

Haven't played W yet, although I've got the cart sitting around after I ordered it off NCSX (because it was on sale and I am weak willed). It's why I'm playing through J again because I heard they were prequel/sequel somewhere.

[SpoonyGundam]

It's a sequel in the sense that they reuse a lot of assets and the same basic systems from J. It's not a direct sequel, though, and actually treads a lot of the same ground. FMP, Gundam SEED, Mazinkaiser, Nadesico, and Tekkaman Blade all show up again, but it's made different by throwing a timeskip in the middle of the game, allowing them to work with the later parts of all the franchises in the game. It's mostly just more of the same, but better. Which is fine. J was good.

[`Hrist]

Supers can be fun. I have a certain soft spot for Mazinger, Dancouger, Getter and Voltron. But I tend to hew heavily toward to reals in pretty much every game I play.

[Higharolla Kockamamie]

Supers can be fun. I have a certain soft spot for Mazinger, Dancouger, Getter and Voltron. But I tend to hew heavily toward to reals in pretty much every game I play.

I guess I'm the only person here who ignores most reals (I despise every Gundam series that isn't UG.. well, Turn A and 00 are okay, too.) I use almost exclusively super types, Jeeg being a top favourite, even if he barely works like a super type. Oh yeah, I love L-Gaim too, but it's some sort of bizarre cross between super-type and real-type.

[Indalecio]

How the heck did I not notice the existence of this tread?

Currently playing SRW OG 2, though I took a short break to for the Etrian Odyssey 2 FC. Its my first playthrough, but I did manage to pick up the Wild Wuerger L, and the Boosted Hammer.

I still need to do the Bonus Stage from OG1, though.

[MarsDragon]

After a horrible stage in Alpha where I had to run my supers past a gauntlet of powerful Zendradi warships that were destined to hit no matter what the percentages said (oh god the old RNG is so fucking broken I hate it) to kill Breetai before the Macross could do it for me, things are looking up, even if it was followed by the Lune rescue stage where she can't really dodge and can't take more than two hits. And she won't move and you can't heal her. Goddamnit Lune. But she joined me now, so that's cool. Though I'm actually kinda bummed by how she is in Alpha. I want to use her, but she has almost no post-move attacks and sniper-based mechs just aren't as good without Hit and Away. Without Mega Beam Cannon being post move or the ability to give her new weapons, the Valsione just...isn't worth it. Too bad.

As for the super-real debate, I skew heavily to the supers, usually with only powerful or well-liked reals backing them up. (not in OG, but the GBA OGs are pretty skewed real anyway, and have a number of things that make reals more worth it) Right now in Alpha the only reals I consistantly use are Usso in the V2 Gundam, occasionally Chris in the V Gundam and Seabrook in the F91, plus Rai and Ryusei. Aya doesn't get used until she gets the R-3 Powered. I'd like to use Amuro, but he just can't hand out the damage in the Re-GZ, so I'm waiting until he gets the Nu. He was as unto a tiny god in the Hi-Nu in @2, so I'm hoping he can be half as broken here. I'm probably going to use Bernie when I get him too, just because I love the idea of him and Chris being aces above all the Newtypes.

[Mightyblue]

Omigawd. I just unlocked Bonta-kun. Horribly digitized version of a FMP piece for BGM aside, his combat actions are hilarious.

[Indalecio]

Omigawd. I just unlocked Bonta-kun. Horribly digitized version of a FMP piece for BGM aside, his combat actions are hilarious.

Wow, Bonta-kun. You do not mess with the Teddy-bears when they're having their picnic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TObHMuTClw)

[SpoonyGundam]

So! Speaking of J, I ran across this last night (http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,5845.0.html).

It won't be finished for a long time, but still! It's neat!

[MarsDragon]

Well, I stopped playing Alpha for a few days then pounded through something like 18 stages in a weekend, and I want to talk about them.

First off, the fact that upgrades to the Grungust Type 2 don't carry over to RKO/KRO is TOTALLY WEAK. I sunk a ton of money into Leona's ride, and now it's gone forever. I was pretty bummed.

But not for long, because it turns out RKO is incredibly overpowered. They're a little harder to use than in OG2 because RKO still doesn't have any decent post-move options until 130 will, and hardly any of KRO's attacks hit flying enemies, but the sheer amount of damage they can output makes up for that. (Also Tasuku coming with Spirit and SP Regen. That's pretty awesome.) I'm still a little sad I have to upgrade Dragoon Fang from scratch, but I had to do that with Stoner Sunshine too, so...it's probably going to be worth it.

I also got Gunbuster. Awesome touch: every robot is standing straight with their arms down in their map icons...except Gunbuster. Gunbuster is doing The Pose (http://usuarios.arsystel.com/nai_grossich/blog/anime/gunbuster/gunbuster6.jpg). It's great.

[Excitemike]

I have three SRW games open and I can't decide which one to finish. And decisions are so much better when other people make them for you, so: W, A Portable or Mugen no Frontier?

[Kishi]

That one's just a plain Great Battle. The Greatest Battle is Great Battle 5, where everyone is inexplicably a cowboy. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4IUT8OnZpI)

Consider it explicable (http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/wildguns/wildguns.htm).

[SpoonyGundam]

I haven't played Mugen no Frontier yet, but W is easily better than A Portable, I think. It's definitely on the easy side, but I think that's better than being "hard" in the wrong ways, like A Portable is.

Consider it explicable (http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/wildguns/wildguns.htm).

Well, that still doesn't explain why someone looked at Wild Guns and thought God Gundam needed to be a cowboy. But I'm glad that person did.

[SpoonyGundam]

Oh god

I'm a week late here, but the originals for SRWZ were revealed earlier.

The Super (http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/4687/srwhotnewszog8eg1.jpg) is amazing. Giant monkey wrench for a weapon? Piloted by a mechanic who looks pretty much like the opposite of your typical Japanese protagonist? Sign me up.

The Real (http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/4402/srwhotnewszog7zs2.jpg) is much more boring to me, though. As is the generic angsty-looking villain. Sexy McWearsnoclothes doesn't seem very interesting either, but I feel the need to point out the fact that her mech has an erection. Take that as you will.

[`Hrist]

Oh geez, I actually like the Super better this time around. I'll probably take the Real just so I can get to the real robots faster though -,-

[Mightyblue]

So...is this one on DS again?

[`Hrist]

No, this one will be on the PS2.

[SpoonyGundam]

Yep. Videos of it here (http://suparobo.jp/srw_lineup/srw_z/movie/index.html).

Also, don't worry too much about which shows you have access to early on. Apparently the director said something along the lines of Those who want to see "ex-red comet," "impact," and "gravity" early, go for "female". For "moon," "mustache," and "escape" early, go for "male" on the game's blog.

Most interpretations of this is Zeta Gundam/Either GSD, Big O, or Xabungle/Gravion early for the Real, Gundam X/Turn-A Gundam/King Gainer for the Super path. Again, Super is the clear winner for me, but the possibility of early Big O is tempting.

But anyway, other things I've recently found out. First, the good!

Aquarion has several different combinations of pilots, and will actually change the unit's attacks based on which three are currently in it. This is neat to me, because I was kind of hoping they'd include that feature. I didn't honestly like the show very much, but that struck me as an interesting thing to implement in SRW. Also, when the pilots hit 130 morale, Aquarion uses the highest stat between the pilots from each category for calculations. This is also nice.

Now, possibly bad: Grankaiser can only combine to form Gravion when it hits 130 morale. And Gravion only lasts for three turns. Having multiple seishin pools has made some units pretty broken in the past, but that's pretty harsh. Gravion (and Sol Gravion and God Sigma Gravion and Ultimate Gravion) has to be a powerhouse to be worthwhile.

Also unfortunate: Gundam X's Sattelite Cannon can only be used on certain maps, and it takes four turns to charge. There's a MAP and an ALL version, but I can't imagine enemies staying bunched up long enough to pull off a four-turn map attack on them. The range better be huge. And, again, it better be a powerhouse.

[`Hrist]

The satellite cannon is such a pain to integrate, I imagine. Can't wait to see it in action though.

And awesome for the series choices. Hard choice, honestly, cause I'd love to get Zeta and GSD early, but having never seen Gundam X or Turn-A (I'm waiting for Alpha Gaiden to get an English patch first), I think I might hit those.

Looks like wrench robo is the winner!

[SpoonyGundam]

I liked the Satellite Cannon in A.C.E. 3, where you could use it regardless of where you were or what time of day it was (Or whether the moon facility is even in the dimension you're in, if I remember right.) and it just required you to hold still for a couple of seconds for the charging. I imagine the developers just threw their hands up and yelled "Whatever!" when trying to think of an appropriate way to include that in an action game.

I haven't played enough of Alpha Gaiden to know how it works there, though. I imagine I'm going to be working the Gundam X Divider a lot in this, though.

Also, Turn-A Gundam is great and is my favorite Tomino Gundam. I rather like Gundam X too, but it's pretty obviously rushed at the end what with the show being canned and all.

[Egarwaen]

Also, Turn-A Gundam is great and is my favorite Tomino Gundam. I rather like Gundam X too, but it's pretty obviously rushed at the end what with the show being canned and all.

(Interestingly, Turn A seems to be a direct response to/repudiation of X)

So... This sounds awesome. Is it going to be a "you must import" type thing, or is there any chance of getting a North American release?

[SpoonyGundam]

Technically, there's always a chance that it'll be released in North America, simply because marketing speek says so, but it's such an abyssmally low chance that it isn't honestly worth considering. The licensing fees for the shows and the voice acting costs would make it damn near impossible for it to actually make a profit here, and it really does not help chances any that the PS2 OG games (Which cut out the licensing issues entirely) were never localized.

So, yeah. Import only. And it'll probably be the same for all the future games in the series, OG or otherwise.

[MarsDragon]

The chances of a mainline SRW getting released in the US are incredibly low. They're slightly better than they were previously depending on the series in the games due to a ton of American anime companies collapsing into each other, but it's still pretty much nil. Heck, there aren't even any real chances for OG games to be released anymore. So yes, You Must Import.

In other, Alpha-related news, one-shotting Ingram with Leona way back when cost me getting the R-Gun back because I didn't have Ryusei attack or something. I really wish Alpha had a decent secrets guide, some of this crap is obscure.

[Excitemike]

Future OG games stand a great chance of being localized. Bandai wants your US monies so bad. (http://www.collectiondx.com/node/2706)

[Mightyblue]

Then why the fuck haven't we gotten OGs and OGG for PS2? Eh?

*cough*

Anyway, if the series list is what you guys are saying, then Bandai actually holds most of the licenses for the shows listed, and the only one that isn't is Gravion (which is ADV's). This one actually stands a better chance than most since whoever would localize it wouldn't have to play license hockey nearly as much.

[Excitemike]

Most of W's list boiled down to Bandai, ADV and whoever has Voltron. Never say never, I just hate to hear the sound of a mecha fan's heart breaking. I honestly do believe we'll see something else released here, it's just a matter of time.

[SpoonyGundam]

Nitpicking: Aquarion is Funimation.

Also, A Portable (And, by extension, A) is all Bandai and unlicensed shows, except for Nadesico. Yeah, it's possible that one of these will be released here, but actually believing it'll happen is just setting yourself up to be disappointed. The games just won't sell here, regardless of whether or not it's conceivable to pay the licensing fees. Nobody in their right mind would think they would, and actually localizing and releasing one of these is a very different beast than manufacturing some limited-supply toys and models.

Again, another OG game might be released. But it's been so long since OGs and OGG have been out with no word on any plans to do such a thing, that I can't really imagine that being the case. But whatever! I'm fine with importing things.

[MarsDragon]

Yeah, the fact that they really haven't changed the basic gameplay in ever means you can pretty much just play the GBA OG games and you're set, barring some weird mechanics/different spirits, which tend to have lists online. You'll miss out on the story, but enough SRW fans speak Japanese that you can usually find basic summaries of what's happening pretty quick.

There's also learning Japanese yourself, but I'm being horribly lazy on that. They talk so damn much...

[MarsDragon]

I just beat Alpha, after sitting at the last stage for days because it's hellishly long and the bosses are pretty annoying. It really could've used a break in the middle, maybe after the Excelion blows up, because a three-part map is just too long and I really could've used the chance to make last minute upgrades before facing the final boss. They could've cut out that stupid all text scenes Evangelion stage, no one would care.

All in all, it was fun, and mostly only hard(ish) because I'm too used to the later style of bosses where you have to spam your most powerful attacks for three turns on your first time through to beat the boss, instead of Alpha style where once you beat through their tendency to full-heal every so often you can kill them in two hits. One if you have a fully-upgraded HTB Cannon. (I didn't, which was why I had to pound through the regen) About the only thing that makes them annoying is that they have incredible damage output too, to where they can literally one shot Mazinkaiser. DAMNIT NO.

Anyway, now I'll start on Alpha Gaiden, which is supposedly harder. I'm not sure if I'm really looking forward to seishin-spamming bosses, but I want to see Turn-A Gundam so bad I'm willing to put up with anything they throw at me.

[`Hrist]

Ah Alpha... That game could use a remake...

Z coming out in three weeks. Wondering if I should reserve it.

[Balrog]

Ah Alpha... That game could use a remake...

Z coming out in three weeks. Wondering if I should reserve it.

Wonder no more? (http://www.japanator.com/elephant/post.phtml?pk=8619)

[`Hrist]

Wonder no more? (http://www.japanator.com/elephant/post.phtml?pk=8619)

Hahaha... It wasn't a question of whether I was going to buy it. That was decided on Day One. No, I was wondering aloud if I should chance it being sold out on the first day. I decided not to take that risk today. :P It's all reserved and happy.

And yeah, that PV... hot. And I'm sold on the Original Super. The BGM alone was enough.

[Excitemike]

And yeah, that PV... hot. And I'm sold on the Original Super. The BGM alone was enough.

I haven't seen this yet, who's the "original super?" (I thought there was one last hold out on the series list, just making sure I'm not missing any cool news)

I pre-ordered my copy of Z because I am a fool for bonus discs. I'm not even sure what's on it! I think I may sell A Portable to pay for it, I haven't spent much time with it.

[`Hrist]

I haven't seen this yet, who's the "original super?" (I thought there was one last hold out on the series list, just making sure I'm not missing any cool news)

The one with the wrench? It has a male and a female pilot.

[SpoonyGundam]

Here's the scan with the Super on it. (http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/4687/srwhotnewszog8eg1.jpg)

Or you could just watch the PV posted a little ways up so you can hear its amazing theme song and see it in action.

[MarsDragon]

One brand new RCA-VGA converter box later, I've started a new game of Alpha 2! This time Ibis is my main, so Crossbone Gundam right off the bat. Awesome. It turns out most of the problems with Ibis' early game piloting go away with enough money to max out her mech's mobility and weapons right off the bat, plus enough PP for SP Regen and two S-ranks. It still took her a bit to get to her rightful top ace slot, but now she should stay there for the rest of the game.

After this I'll try to plow through Alpha 3 Touma (already started, on stage 10), Cobray, Selena and maybe Kusuha depending on how I'm feeling by then. I'll try to intersperse that with the rest of OGS1 Kyosuke, OGS1 Ryusei, OGS2, and OGG. I'm not going to be getting to Z for a long, long time.

[SpoonyGundam]

Man, I need to get back to my Touma game. He's my last Alpha 3 character, and I've been sitting on it for... something like a year and a half now. And I've only barely started OGG. And Z hits in less than a week. Hrm.

Anyway, SRW Z got Famitsu'd a while ago. It came out with a total of 36, getting straight 9s. Which is pretty good considering that's 4 to 6 total points higher than most SRWs! Most notable comment outside of the predictable "prettier and more balanced" thing: speedier load times. I'm always happy with faster loading.

[`Hrist]

Happiness is splurging on Super Robot Taisen:

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f249/kflyer1up/ST280011.jpg

8300 yen well spent.

This is going to be the longest day of work ever.

[`Hrist]

So um, yeah.

Super Robot Taisen Z?

I don't know if I can look at Alpha 3 with a straight face again.

Wow.

[SpoonyGundam]

Pretty much, yeah.

I, uh, acquired the game a few days ago so I'd have something to do while waiting for my actual copy and MM9, and it's pretty much exactly what I wanted it to be. My initial thought was that the TRI formation wouldn't be very useful, but I've definitely gotten plenty of mileage out of it now that I've played more.

The only real complaints I can think of is that it's kind of hard for a lot of units to gain Will (I've never actually gotten enough Will for King Gainer's Overskill to activate since it was first activated by a story event.) and that some of the units are just silly about attack variety (Silly as in Nirvash TypeZERO has two flavors of "Cut-back Drop Turn" and nothing else. The TRI attack is presumably one too.). The first isn't as much a problem as it is something I'm just going to have to fix with skills. The second can't exactly be fixed in any way I can think of, but it was kind of unavoidable. The Nirvash was pretty silly in ACE 3 too.

But speaking of skills! I honestly think it was a great move to take out a lot of the "must-buy" skills. Infight, Gunfight, SP Regen, and Attacker are all either missing or unbuyable. Of course, there's going to be a perfect skill setup, but it'll likely differ for each robot. Or at least differ between supers and reals. Basically, each pilot's skill list probably isn't going to look identical to every other pilot's skill list anymore.

Poor Touma's never going to get his playthrough finished now. :(

[`Hrist]

Pretty much, yeah.

I, uh, acquired the game a few days ago so I'd have something to do while waiting for my actual copy and MM9, and it's pretty much exactly what I wanted it to be. My initial thought was that the TRI formation wouldn't be very useful, but I've definitely gotten plenty of mileage out of it now that I've played more.

How did you... acquire SRW Z a few days ago?

[SpoonyGundam]

Japanese games sometimes get released in Hong Kong on Monday or Tuesday. Theoretically to try and discourage piracy, though the details aren't exactly clear to me why doing that would help. It... doesn't seem to be working very well either way.

So! I have a fake copy until my real copy gets here. Basically because I couldn't wait that long.

The HK version is identical to the Japanese version, other than the fact that the instruction manual is in Chinese. It also runs about $5 cheaper, so I guess the moral of the story is to get that version to get games sooner and cheaper, unless you think the Japanese manual is worth $5 and a couple of days.

Well, if you're living somewhere other than Japan, that is. It'd be cheaper and faster to just buy it there and not deal with shipping and handling costs and shipping time.

[Mightyblue]

So! I spent way too much money and got my copy of SRW: A Portable for the PSP tonight. I'm liking it, save for the load times going into battle scenes. Maybe enabling the UMD cache will fix that a bit though. Also: Lamia has big boobs, and I did not know that you can't use the most powerful attacks until your pilots reach a certain level. That is rather...irritating.

[SpoonyGundam]

So I played SRW Z a lot over the weekend.

More than MM9, even!

Initial impressions still stand, though it turns out Nirvash's TRI attack is... summon sky fish? Uhhh...

Whatever. The most important thing to add is that Big O is awesome. It's the tankiest thing I've seen in the game so far. Not only that, but Roger's crazy ass gets a 30% bonus to his critical rate for being the squad leader. I don't think I've used Sudden Impact without it critting yet, which is very nice when you apparently don't learn Hot Blood until fairly late in the game. Give him a Minovsky Craft, and toss a repair and resupply bot in his unit and he's golden.

[Egarwaen]

Initial impressions still stand, though it turns out Nirvash's TRI attack is... summon sky fish? Uhhh...

Possibly something to do with Trapar?

[`Hrist]

I really like this whole TRI system. Much more interesting than the old platoon system, even if the split screen is awkward at times.

I'm enjoying seeing After War: Gundam X and Turn A Gundam in action for the first time, but I kind of want to see SEED Destiny and Zeta Gundam as well.

However, Xabungle is a pleasant surprise!

My initial impression is that this game is actually a lot harder than the Alpha games. For one thing, the Supers and Reals seem a lot more balanced. Is this because I'm only on Level 9 and haven't yet reached the Strike Freedom and the Destiny? :P

[Mightyblue]

Yeah, I've only played SRW3, R, J, and W, but A Portable is harder than those, and I don't think the game is quite playing the hit/miss percentages straight either. It is a lot of fun though. I'm playing through using the TL guide for A GBA, although I really fucked up trying to recruit Getter Q and the Minerva X. I tried it twice, and after two hours I just decided to screw it and finish the stage. Supers are moderately horrible in this though. They hit for tons of damage, but their mobility is so crappy and the Real enemies is so high that even sitting next to a few EWACs units doesn't really help.

[SpoonyGundam]

Possibly something to do with Trapar?

Oh! I forgot that people reading this thread probably haven't played Z yet. So here's an explanation of the formation system.

You get a squad of three units, and there are three formations you can put the units in. You can change the formation anytime during your turn before that unit attacks.

The first formation is the TRI formation. It puts all your guys in a straight line. Think Jet Stream Attack. The main bonus you get in this formation is the ability to use TRI attacks, which are essentially combination attacks with all the squad's units that hit the entire enemy squad. The damage is an average between the three unit's respective TRI attacks, and the animation played combines all three attacks. They generally have little ammo or take a ton of EN, but unlike other ALL attacks, their damage doesn't diminish based on the amount of enemies they hit. They're pretty useful, and every unit in the game gets a TRI attack. The kicker is that, since the idea behind the thing is all your guys laying down a blanket of beamspan, all of these attacks are ranged. When you have a unit like Nirvash, who doesn't even have a ranged attack, you have to stretch things a bit. So Nirvash's TRI attack calls a few swarms of sky fish to ram things.

The second formation is the center formation. This puts the squad's leader in the back, with the other two guys in front. Main bonus in this formation is that the leader's two buddies will attack whatever he's attacking with their PLA attacks. Again, every unit has one of those, and it's typically some fairly weak post-movement attack, but it can help. As an additional bonus, if a unit in the squad has a barrier, it protects the entire squad while in this formation.

The third is the wide formation. The leader hangs out in the middle, with the other two guys way above and below him. When in this formation, the members of the squad will all hit different units of the target squad, with the two squadmates using their PLA attacks on their targets. In addition to that, the entire squad takes less damage from any attack that targets all units (Including TRI attacks), and the squad leader's damage is slightly increased. However, your squadmates can't support defend in this formation. Which is honestly a good thing a lot of the time, so some asshole won't keep insisting to throw his dumb ass in front of Big O every single time he gets attacked.

On top of all that, if you have a unit that can repair in the squad, regardless of formation, you get a passive 10% HP regen every turn. Same with resupply and EN.

tl;dr: I like the squad system.

[SpoonyGundam]

RE: A Portable

1. Never, ever, even think about not using Dragonar-3. It's seriously the single most important unit in the game.

2. ACE Char as soon as you can, then toss an EWAC on whatever unit you have him in. Congratulations, you just made Char almost as useful as D-3. I didn't do this. But it would have helped a bunch.

3. Do not pick the route split later in the game that leads to Don Saucer. Seriously. Just don't. It was probably the worst SRW experience I've ever had. Come to think of it, the only missions I've played that even come close to being that bad are also from A Portable. Have fun fighting Haman and pals near the end of the game. (You won't have fun.)

4. You might have already noticed this, but the RNG doesn't reset upon loading a quicksave. In other words, you can't keep reloading to make a 30% hit rate attack stick. You can, however, attack with different units in different orders to mix up the RNG. In fact, I encourage doing so. I can't imagine how it would even be possible to take down Don Saucer without doing that.

Don Saucer is an asshole.

[SpoonyGundam]

So, uh, a little warning for Z.

Most of a character's upgraded units carry over the upgrades from their previous units, even if you get to keep the previous unit. This is not the case for Amuro's Nu Gundam. So avoid upgrading his Re-GZ and Rick Dias.

Upgrading some of those other "pass-me down" units isn't a bad idea, though. You get to keep Gundam X and Impulse Gundam, for example, and their upgrades carry over to the next in line. They'll make better squad fodder with upgraded weapons, at least.

[Mightyblue]

Oh man, I cleared stage 12 on the space route in A Portable last night, and that was a beast and a half. Slay something like fifteen enemies plus five boss caliber enemies (well, four if you recruit Lalah, and I did that just to spite that fooking mission) in a seven or eight turn limit? Man, that was brutal even with the three reinforcement units you get partway through.

I couldn't really pass up Lalah though, since Newtypes are your best pilots, what with the inherent bonuses to everything that they get, and the Ace bonuses are nice as well even if I can't understand what the description says. Amuro basically crits all the time, and with the FA Gundam's weapons partially upgraded and Amuro having a few levels in Gunfight, he basically crits all the time for over 10k and almost never misses. Camille's almost as good too.

[SpoonyGundam]

I was awake for way too damn long yesterday finishing up Z.

Final impressions:

It's pretty damn easy unless you're shooting for the SR points. And even then, it's not really that bad outside of some missions near the middle of the game where the enemies start to ramp up in HP, but before you get widespread access to Hot Blood. Like the Alphas before it, the squad system makes seishin spamming oh so easy. It's really hard for enemies to do anything when you have confusion cast every single turn, and it's hard for bosses to do anything when you can easily lower their morale to the point that they can't use their stronger attacks. And this is with me going into every mission during the final chunk of the game about 3-5 squads short. I only ever bothered to put 15 together throughout the game.

Also, supers seem to be pretty much king this time around. I hardly ever even bothered casting defensive seishins with them, since bosses (Including the final boss) struggled to hit most of them for over 1000 damage. On the other hand, there are a pretty noteworthy amount of bosses that'll decide to cast lock-on every turn. Flash negates it, but it's still SP you could use on something else in the end. Even normal grunts had a 20% chance to hit Kamille and Amuro on occasion. Not King Gainer, though. I don't know what his deal was, but I can't even remember the last time anything ever had a nonzero chance to hit him, even when he had less mobility upgrades than other units. And things always try to attack King Gainer.

As far as individual units go, I'm sure you all know how much I like Big O by now. Well, someone over at Banpresto apparently likes it even more. On top of the stuff I mentioned earlier, Roger has a unique skill that reduces all repair costs at the end of a mission to 0. He also gets Dorothy as a very useful sub-pilot later in the game. And he has a pretty fancy 3-radius map attack. And his best attack is the... sixth (?) strongest non-unite attack in the game, coming behind Twin Satellite Cannon, normal Satellite Cannon, Aquarion's final attack, ICBM toss, and Great Booster. All of those outside of Aquarion's only have one shot, and the gap between Aquarion and Big O's damage is easily surpassed because Roger learns soul. He also has a hell of a lot of SP. And can equip three parts. Big O's just swell.

King Gainer's great too. Get him over 100 kills ASAP and toss Attack Again in as one of his skills. You'll see why about halfway through the game. HINT: Attack Again activates when your skill stat is 20 higher than the enemy's. BIGGER HINT: Gainer has a unique skill that raises his skill stat by 10. It gets upgraded to 30 a little over halfway through the super route if he has over 100 kills. Otherwise you get it automatically much later in the game. That's a big enough bonus to double damn near every boss in the game.

But the secret best unit in the game is... Nirvash spec 2. Renton had somewhere around 700 kills by the end of the game. Roger, in second place, had somewhere around 300ish. The reason? Spec 2 gets a 6-radius map attack, and a sub-pilot that can cast awaken. Just make sure you spend Eureka's PP in SP up when you can, so you can cast it before level 60 or whatever you need her to be on to get enough natural SP. Remember to toss a Bless on him every time you use it, though. It wasn't uncommon to walk out of a mission 1 million monies richer because of this. There's not really much else to say about that particular unit, though.

Also, there are several missable attacks in the game. Big O's last attack (And getting his sub-pilot), Gundam X (And DX)'s G-Bits, Zeta Gundam's Waverider Crash and Hyper Beam Saber, Go Nagai crew's Final Dynamic special, and Baldios' something I didn't bother getting because I didn't use Baldios. I was going to type whited-out instructions on how to get those, but it ended up being too much white for my liking. Let me know if you think you need any of those and don't want to risk missing them, Kat.

[`Hrist]

I don't want to miss the G-bits or the Waverider Crash. Do you mind PM'ing them to me, Spoony?

Also, I saw Original Generations Gaiden for 980 yen today. Why on earth is the price on that game collapsing? It's cheaper than Original Generations now. o-o Is it much shorter? Much worse?

[SpoonyGundam]

OGG is pretty significantly shorter than OGs. OGG is 36 missions long, not counting route splits. OGs has a total of 104 missions between the three (well, more like two-and-a-forth) games included. Again, not counting route splits.

OGG is shorter than the OG1 part of OGs.

[`Hrist]

Ah... that makes sense.

Well, I wouldn't mind getting OG, but I think Gundam Battle Universe, Macross Ace Frontier and G-Generation Spirits comes first...

Shame I won't be here much longer.

[MarsDragon]

So while you guys are playing Z with all its shininess, I got the Hyperlion in Alpha 2.

Range 10 natural movement (okay, she has a Haro too), 11 with Ibis' squad leader bonus, and she gets Accel. Even slowed down with Gaiking and some random support craft her squad still has a good nine move. Crazy. Meanwhile, everyone else is lucky if they have 7 move. The only sad bit is that you have combine the Altairlion and Vegalion manually, so Sleigh has to be a permanent spot in Ibis' squad just so she can be an SP bank. It still has insane move and some of the few post-move ALL attacks, so there's not much to complain about.

This has made me think that it really is a good thing that you don't get the Altered R-machines in Alpha 3, since this is a pain, but I still wish Rai and Aya weren't permanent subpilots, as it seriously harshes my favouritism. Oh well, there's still OG3/4/whenever they finally get around to Banpreois.

[Mightyblue]

I...I don't like the way the sprites look in Z. They're too "soft" and they just don't look quite right to me. I need me some black borders around sprites otherwise they just look funny. Sigh.

[SpoonyGundam]

You're crazy.

[Mightyblue]

You're crazy.Yeah, well, I recognize that they're really well done, they just look odd. So sue me!

[Excitemike]

Apparently this is old news (http://www.siliconera.com/2008/09/25/will-endless-frontier-super-robot-taisen-og-saga-generate-raunchy-jokes-overseas/), but I just heard about it. Namco Bandai filed for the Endless Frontier trademark in September. Curious... If whatever brave publisher picked this up can dial the bewbs down a notch it might surpass the original.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/Virtual%20Console/endlesstrademark.gif

[Indalecio]

So I am going through SRW OG2 for the first time. I've played OG1 and beaten it a few times, (never got the bonus stage, thought), so I am pretty familiar with how all this works.

-Cybuster and Valsione Custom. These are awesome mechs, but the pilots for them, require a lot of work to bring out the potential of them. S-ranking them in Air and Space seems to help, but thats 80PP right there. Also, most of Cybuster's low-will weaponry is ranged, but his high-will weaponry is melee. Getting his will up to use his good melee weapons is a bit problematic.

-Where's my Valsione? Rargh!

-SRX is sooo good. Also the Boosted Hammer, and Wildwurger L. I just wish the storyline wouldn't keep moving my pilots out of the mechs I've put them in.

-I can't find find a use for the Shishioh Blade, wouldya believe? Most of the melee users have Super-Robots, and Arado has the Boosted Hammer. For awhile, Latooni was using it, and then I started upgrading the weapons on the Fairlion, and it became redundant.

[SpoonyGundam]

I gave the Shishioh Blades to the Fairlions. I only ever upgrade a unit's strongest attack or unite attack-related one, so having a decent EN-free attack on the Fairlions was nice to have until they build up their will enough to go to town with their unite.

[MarsDragon]

-Cybuster and Valsione Custom. These are awesome mechs, but the pilots for them, require a lot of work to bring out the potential of them. S-ranking them in Air and Space seems to help, but thats 80PP right there. Also, most of Cybuster's low-will weaponry is ranged, but his high-will weaponry is melee. Getting his will up to use his good melee weapons is a bit problematic.

-Where's my Valsione? Rargh!


Wait, Valsione (girl mech) or Valsion (Bian mech)? Which are you talking about where? Valsione is in this game, Valsion Custom was only in OG1. Sadly. And no playing as Bian anywhere :(

I generally raise Masaki as melee, since Zepher Sword requires no will and you're going to be using Akashitc Buster a lot. On the other hand, Cosmo Nova is ranged, but only one shot. Lune's main advantage is natural support, high dodge, and a nice ace bonus (+10% final damage, combine with her Love with Masaki for big damage).

They stop moving people around after awhile...and by after awhile I mean after the final route split.

[Indalecio]

Wait, Valsione (girl mech) or Valsion (Bian mech)? Which are you talking about where? Valsione is in this game, Valsion Custom was only in OG1. Sadly. And no playing as Bian anywhere :(

Valsione Custom(Lune) versus generic Valsione(Bian mech). Yeah, I miss it. Katina was crazy in it.


I generally raise Masaki as melee, since Zepher Sword requires no will and you're going to be using Akashitc Buster a lot. On the other hand, Cosmo Nova is ranged, but only one shot. Lune's main advantage is natural support, high dodge, and a nice ace bonus (+10% final damage, combine with her Love with Masaki for big damage).

I also generally raise Masaki as melee, but early on, transforming his mech into jet mode raises his survivability greatly, its just that that form has has no ranged attacks. Actually its a bit of the same deal with Ryu. Melee user, but early on, the best way to survive is to use the mode which has no melee attacks. R1 = Cybuster Jr.?


They stop moving people around after awhile...and by after awhile I mean after the final route split.

Thankfully. :kicks Radha out of the Schutzwald and into the Schwertz:

[MarsDragon]

Valsione Custom(Lune) versus generic Valsione(Bian mech). Yeah, I miss it. Katina was crazy in it.

Er...let me try again.

VALSION (no e) - Bian's red mech.

VALSION CUSTOM (still no e) - Blue mass-produced version of Bian's mech, didn't have all the armaments of the original, but anyone could go in it. You apparently put Katina in.

VALSIONE (e) - Lune's mech shaped like a girl. Daddy made it custom for her after she didn't like the original Valsion.

You don't have the Valsion Custom in OG2. It's a little sad, but there you go. It probably would've been outclassed pretty quickly anyway, though. Witness the original Huckebein...originally an incredibly powerful secret mech, now a normal mech that probably won't see endgame.

I also generally raise Masaki as melee, but early on, transforming his mech into jet mode raises his survivability greatly, its just that that form has has no ranged attacks. Actually its a bit of the same deal with Ryu. Melee user, but early on, the best way to survive is to use the mode which has no melee attacks. R1 = Cybuster Jr.?

I just boost mobility for both mechs and they survive just fine. Cybird and R-Wing just don't do enough damage to justify them. And actually, Ryusei has much less emphasis on melee this time around...if you want to make him a boss-killing machine you have to raise him ranged to get the full use out of the HTB Cannon, and his natural stats are balanced. Your first time through you probably won't be using the R-machines on their own that much unless you really love them.

[Indalecio]

Er...let me try again.

VALSION (no e) - Bian's red mech.

VALSION CUSTOM (still no e) - Blue mass-produced version of Bian's mech, didn't have all the armaments of the original, but anyone could go in it. You apparently put Katina in.

VALSIONE (e) - Lune's mech shaped like a girl. Daddy made it custom for her after she didn't like the original Valsion.

Ah ok. I keep confusing them.


I just boost mobility for both mechs and they survive just fine. Cybird and R-Wing just don't do enough damage to justify them. And actually, Ryusei has much less emphasis on melee this time around...if you want to make him a boss-killing machine you have to raise him ranged to get the full use out of the HTB Cannon, and his natural stats are balanced. Your first time through you probably won't be using the R-machines on their own that much unless you really love them.

I actually gots some pretty decent mileage out of Ryu, even without the rest of the team. I was doing combo attacks with his Tk-Knuckle. Good against mooks, and upped melee stat works pretty well with Tk-Slash(on SRX. At least I think its TK-Slash).

[MarsDragon]

Due to some vague-ish news posts on Aeon Genesis' page (http://agtp.romhack.net/) and the fact that a mysterious someone has been posting lots of English screenshots on 4chan's /m/, it seems that Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden should be released in fully translated form by late tomorrow. Anyone else getting psyched?

In the meantime, I'm plugging away at Alpha 3. Just got Gunbuster, though without Kazumi. This game is really stingy with the endgame units. I much prefer the @2 way where you get pretty much everything by stage 35. As it is I don't know what to concentrate on.

[ChefCthulhu]

Well I am just now starting to play SRW OG1 and I just want to know how in the world I ever missed this game.. It's a total blast. Really makes me wish I knew Japanese so I could play the PS2 versions as they just look killer as well.. Oh well what can you do.

[MarsDragon]

It is Alpha Gaiden, and it's finished. Go check it out! (http://agtp.romhack.net/)

[Gredlen]

Well, I guess it's time to finally finish Alpha 1. I think I was like six missions away from the end.

[Mightyblue]

Okay, I'm finally getting back to SRW Z, and I have to say I'm amazed. Partway through Setsuko's route, and the map allows me to deploy three battleships plus 16 3-man squads. That's 41 units man, and I've got squads to spare.

This game has a ridiculous (-ly wonderful) bodycount to it. It's not uncommon for me to brawl my way through 60 units a map now. -_-'

[MarsDragon]

Brand-new SRW for DS! Called SRW K, it has a lot of brand-new shiny series instead of the old warhorses from the 70s.

Series list: Dangaioh, Overman King Gainer, Fafner, Virtual On, Gundam SEED, SEED Destiny, SEED Stargazer, Mazinger Z, Gaiking Legend of Daiku-Maryu, Kotetsushin Jeeg, Gun x Sword, Godanner, Zoids Genesis

Famitsu scans!
http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/1144/1231896410956hv2.jpg
http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/2750/1231895914215uw7.jpg
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/518/1231897920277dv6.jpg
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7014/1231898020374ys3.jpg
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9175/1231898186504pl8.jpg
http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/8813/1231898257107cy8.jpg
http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/8240/1231898597850hb3.jpg
http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/8655/1231898742780yq1.jpg
http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/5961/1231896415842eo6.jpg

April 2nd release date, so get your importers ready.

(also Alpha Gaiden is awesome, just so everyone knows)

[Reluctant Hero]

Wha wha WHAT?! This looks incredible. Damn you american licensing issues that prevent the SRW series form properly coming to the US!

[SpoonyGundam]

G... Gun X Sword!?

There's another one of my shows I want to be SRW'd knocked off my list. Now they just have to get on the ball and put Diebuster in the next one.

And the return of Virtual On? And an inevitable combination attack between the two Jeegs? Zoids?

This is a happy day.

[`Hrist]

I knew it!! YES! Happy days!

EDIT: Are you kidding me, they're only featuring SEED this time around? Sadness! I mean, come on... =/ At least Gainer is in there...

EDIT2: Silver lining: Blu Duel, Verde Buster, etc will be cool. But geez... I hope stuff like Gun x Sword are really, really awesome...

[Mightyblue]

I'm wondering how they're going to handle the time jump from SEED to Destiny. W's exercise in handwaving (especially for Nadesico) was rather amusing, anyway.

But yeah! Zoids. Wow. Wonder why they didn't start with Chaotic Century first? It would've fit with the general setting better, unless they were going to include Turn A Gundam again.

[`Hrist]

I'm wondering how they're going to handle the time jump from SEED to Destiny. W's exercise in handwaving (especially for Nadesico) was rather amusing, anyway.

But yeah! Zoids. Wow. Wonder why they didn't start with Chaotic Century first? It would've fit with the general setting better, unless they were going to include Turn A Gundam again.

They might handle it in the same way they handle putting the original Gundam, Zeta Gundam and ZZ in A Portable. Play out the original SEED story in brief, then bring in the Destiny people.

[Gredlen]

I'm waiting for a SRW game to have an actual timejump. You start off at the beginning of a bunch of series, then partway through the game you have the timejump, and next thing you know, it's the second series/season for everything.
I think it's a good idea.

[Mightyblue]

That was W, where a six month gap somehow accounted for a range of one year to six years depending on the series I think. (Nadesico's is hilarious because they handwave Ruri being three or four years older in the movie sequel as a "growth spurt" in game).

[Gredlen]

Oh, right. I guess I forgot about it, but W was probably what put the idea in my head. I want a more comprehensive take on the idea.

[SpoonyGundam]

The time dilation in Gunbuster could deal with timeskips better than the way W did it. Gunbuster fixes everything.

please use gunbuster more often

And, yeah. I'm kind of sick of SEED at this point. I guess it's not significantly different than how older games were all UC all the time, but that's not going to stop me from benching all the SEED guys for the entire game.

Between King Gainer and Jeeg and Virtual On and Gun X Sword, I have plenty of more interesting options for speedy heavy-hitters.

[`Hrist]

I guess I don't mind the SEEDiness as I did the last night. Just wish they had a different Gundam in there to mix things up a bit :P

[Excitemike]

I didn't mind Seed in W because it also had the Astray and I love that design.

And here I was running over to post this because I thought it was news... Oh well, the pics are already uploaded, might as well post.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/suparobo/SRWK/srwk090114_01.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/suparobo/SRWK/srwk090114_02.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/suparobo/SRWK/srwk090114_03.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/suparobo/SRWK/srwk090114_04.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/suparobo/SRWK/srwk090114_05.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/suparobo/SRWK/srwk090114_06.jpg

The inclusion of Zoids is cool because it means Bamco and Takara Tomy are playing nice which means one step closer to getting Transformers in SRW. While I was looking for better scans I also came across a rumor about a SRW Alpha port for Live Arcade/PSN....

EDIT: found some clearer pics right after I posted.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/suparobo/SRWK/srwk090114_08.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/eye_robot/gamespite/suparobo/SRWK/srwk090114_07.jpg

[MarsDragon]

EDIT: Are you kidding me, they're only featuring SEED this time around? Sadness! I mean, come on... =/ At least Gainer is in there...


Honestly, at this point I'm starting to be more annoyed at all the whining about SEED being in than at SEED being in. I mean, it's not my favourite Gundam, but considering how many damn times they've done Z/ZZ/CCA at this point I'm happy for a break. If I want Amuro in the Nu I can play pretty much any other SRW ever. At least they keep adding new series to SEED instead of again, doing Z/ZZ/CCA over and over and over. Plus all the bitching takes away from how awesome this line-up is.

That said, what I really want for Gundam is for it to start after CCA and do a set of F91/Crossbone/Victory properly. Amuro's dead, Kamille's mindraped, Judau is hanging out incognito on Jupiter and occasionally shows up to be a mysterious benefactor (and maybe joins as the older and wiser veteran towards the end). If they need to keep mining the earlier era they could do sidestory stuff like Blue Destiny. It would be great.

(okay, that and more G, X, and Turn A)

[SpoonyGundam]

I wouldn't mind seeing vanilla Wing again, either. It's just goofy how much more often Endless Waltz shows up than the original.

[`Hrist]

That said, what I really want for Gundam is for it to start after CCA and do a set of F91/Crossbone/Victory properly.

See, that's exactly what I want. :P It wasn't like I was going, "Boo, I want more Z/ZZ/CA," especially with Zeta having been doing perfectly in SRW Z. I want some Victory! Or the original Gundam Wing (not Endless Waltz). Or hell, pretty much any other AU series to break K's SEEDness.

I even like SEED! But it's been a bit too much lately.

[Mightyblue]

I don't think Wing's ever been given an honest treatment in SRW has it? I mostly remember the Endless Waltz version being used to get an extra bad human faction from space almost every time.

[MarsDragon]

Wing TV was in Alpha! ...and that's about it.

[MarsDragon]

SRW K site is live (http://www.suparobo.jp/srw_lineup/srw_k/index.html) and slow as hell. There's not much there besides the usual marketing fluff about "best animations on a handheld SRW", no voices, and people with better Japanese reading skills than I claim there's some sort of Twin/Squad System thing going on. The real meat so far is the characters page with all the early screenshots of various mains. And Cagalli. (Kira is the main character of Destiny, of course) It looks the SEED unit sprites are getting reused again, but everyone else is new. Looks a lot like W, which is to be expected.

[SpoonyGundam]

SRW K trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kal12fRsk4&fmt=18) is on YouTube.

Cut-ins everywhere!

[Mightyblue]

SRW K trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kal12fRsk4&fmt=18) is on YouTube.

Cut-ins everywhere!Nothing on the Originals yet, eh?

[MarsDragon]

Mightyblue gets his wish to see the (http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/8899/20219673ae1.jpg) most (http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2821/93263009kl7.jpg) generic (http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5192/37670300gk7.jpg) Originals (http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7752/21405854pu7.jpg) ever. (http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/4811/40396434ko4.jpg)

Katoki is seriously just phoning it in at this point. He's like the Nomura of mech design. They really need to get someone that can design a real that's not just a Gundam. Who designed the Gespenst? That's a good, original, real.

Just one main character, which was all right in W but I seriously want some choice between male, female, super, and real. Preferably so I can have female super and male real as options too. Main also looks ripped off from another Original, though I can't think of who. He also has Tall and Bishojo + Token Loli as partners. Great.

They've really been failing on Originals lately. It's like they used up all their creativity with the Alpha series and have just been coasting since then.

[Mightyblue]

The male guy reminds of Tasuku without his bandanna on. Otherwise yeah, it's an army of R-1's! Sigh.

[SpoonyGundam]

They've really been failing on Originals lately.

Hey, I liked Gunleon. :(

But yeah, these look pretty bad. Hopefully the inevitable combined version won't be as awful.

[MarsDragon]

Hey guys! The latest SRW K preview is out on Youtube! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LwTCFbtj8w&fmt=18)

The animation is basically upgraded W, which is fine because W had great animation. I don't reconize a lot of these series, but they all look pretty cool, and the originals look better in-game than they do in the art. I still wish we had a super route and a female protagionist, though.

[SpoonyGundam]

Some of those cut-ins are nuts for a DS game.

I kind of wish there was more variety in the protagonists too, but I guess I'll just hope the upgrade(s) do something interesting.

I've seen (And liked!) most of the shows involved in this, so this one's pretty exciting for me. I'm kind of having trouble deciding who I won't use when the game comes out, even. The SEED crew's probably getting the bench, and I couldn't stand what I watched of Fafner, so that's some room for the others. If I must, I guess I'll drop Mazinger Z just to get some new blood in too. Unless Tetsuya shows up at the end of the Z story, like some people are guessing. Then all bets are off.

EDIT: And the release date got moved to 3/20 too? Hot damn.

[Mightyblue]

Yeah, I'll probably end up using the Stargazer crew because the Strike Noir and Stargazer Gundams are pretty neat looking, but the game will probably force me to use Athrun and Kira anyway at some point.

[`Hrist]

Well hello, I have a blog topic for tomorrow.

[MarsDragon]

I...I might use Destiny Gundam or whatever. I'm a sucker for Wings of Light, and the V2 isn't in this game. (I have Sochie in it in Alpha Gaiden. It's awesome.)

Not knowing as many series means there are less units I have to field out of pure favoritism, so I'll have to see how a lot of these guys preform.

[SpoonyGundam]

SRW K uses Skill Parts.

God damn it. :(

[MarsDragon]

So, SRW K! The Hong Kong version came out and was instantly dumped, and some of the pirates have made it to the unit upgrade! As suspected, it is a super robot, and is formed by combining with one of the ladies' mechs. It has two forms, and it, uh, well...yeah (http://i44.tinypic.com/wi6af.png). This is past phoning it in.

You know, I got into SRW through Original Generation, as I suspect a lot of English-speaking fans did. Then I went on to Alpha, and its collection of great originals. (okay, besides Alpha Gaiden) I'm used to making the original the top ace and star of the show, lavishing them with money and attention. Seeing this, I'm wondering if/when I get K if I should even bother putting Mist on my team. I mean...look at that thing. The one on the right makes the Strike Freedom look good. So I'm probably overreacting a bit, but after stuff like Ryuu-Ko-Oh, DaiRaiOh, Valcazard, and even real upgrades like Hyperion and Dis Astragant it just feels like such a letdown.

On the upside, El Dora V from GunxSword has it's final attack as El Inferno Y Cielo. Yes, it look exactly like you'd expect.

[SpoonyGundam]

Yeah, I saw the upgraded originals earlier too. Not only is it uninspired, but it's pretty ugly too! Way to clash colors, guys.

I'm probably going to end up using him, since the partner system should give me enough room to include a couple of throwaways. But I'm definitely not picking it as one of my favorites, which is the only time I haven't since the three-favorite system's been around. But that's fine, I guess. I didn't really want to have to decide between Jeeg and Gaiking anyway, and there's no way I'm going to leave GunXSword out of the cool kids club.

Maybe more troubling than the awful original is that the game is apparently ridiculously short. Like, OGG short.

[Mightyblue]

So, after looking at a couple vids of the Originals' attacks, when did they start porting over 00's stuff? I mean, the MC's mech is basically a reddish-orange and somewhat gimpy Exia/00, and the first girl's mech has the little pistol/smg with the blade attachment that the Cherudim uses.

That's depressing, and the combo mechs are even more ripoffy.

[MarsDragon]

I finally beat Alpha 3! Touma route, normal ending because I started this before I really knew what I was doing in SRW and screwed myself over for skill points and turn count before stage 10. I think this was the second Japanese SRW I started playing, something like two years ago. Huh.

The last stage was fun enough, if pretty easy once I started really abusing Zeal. I had a Puru each for Combattler and Voltes, so I just spammed the Romance Trilogy combo attack to knock Quaser Ephes from 90%-95% of his HP to the event at 100K or so, and still have some Zeals in reserve. After that I had to save and reset just to see what everyone would say against him before he died. The only thing I regret is not Trombe-ing his music before GONG kicked in.

The ending was the usual WE TALK TOO MUCH ending. I suppose it's to be expected, really. At least I could understand the Touma-specific bits well enough, since they were fairly straightforward. I'm not really looking forward to Selena or Cobray because of this.

Anyway, after this I think I'm going back to Alpha 2 for the Kusuha route, Alpha 3 Kusuha route, then girl-only squad leaders Selena route, Alpha 2 Arado route, then solo Alpha 3 with Cobray. And at some point I repair my PS2 so it will play OGS without freezing on the unskippable opening movie so I can play that and OG Gaiden. And finish Alpha Gaiden at some point sooner than later, since I'm already over halfway through. Whew.

[MarsDragon]

Well, I started Alpha 2 Kusuha route. I'm not sure if I really like the Ryujinki's normal pose, it makes the shoulders look weird. It's okay in full size or even just standing up, but the normal hunched over pose is just odd-looking. Besides that it's a pretty nice, well-rounded machine. I really like the Chinese mechs and their offshoots, they just plain look cool. And why didn't anyone tell me Kusuha got to hang out with GGG, the Good Thunder team, and the Mazingers? She's got all the fun super robot series! So far I'm up to stage 4, and liking it a lot.

And then I overwrote my old first playthrough Sanger save with my brand new Kusuha save. Sure, it had served it's purpose in giving Ibis a boost up, but in order to get my save screen back in the proper order I started a new clean Sanger game and reclaimed the first spot. I'll have to play through it sometime to make the numbers match up as well. Damn gaming OCD.

[SpoonyGundam]

Got K yesterday. Favorite'd GunXSword, Jeeg, and Gaiking. It's pretty fun!

The game's definitely harder than W, and you kind of have to keep a closer eye on your Supers thanks to their generally pretty large EN consumption, but I wouldn't say the game has been especially difficult a dozen missions in. The absolutely absurd number of pairs you get to field and the ridiculous number of repair/resupply bots make sure it isn't too hard.

The originals haven't been very useful so far, outside of the two girls packing the only mechs I've seen so far that can repair and resupply, but I suspect that will change once they upgrade a couple times. Godannar has felt disappointing, somehow, but Gou's managed to stay at the top of my Ace list since the beginning of the game. It is baffling.

Mazinger Z is hilariously awful at the moment. No Mazin Power yet, and Breast Fire is 1 range, 3800 damage for 50 EN. It's his strongest attack right now. Compare that to Gaiking's Hydro Blazer (Which is not his strongest attack for me anymore.) at 1 range, 4500 damage for 80 EN. Or Jeeg Breaker, which is still 1 range, but 100 points stronger than Breast Fire for 10 less EN. And Jeeg has Bronze Bell Power (Which is even better than Mazin Power, since it gives a 10% hit/evade bonus on top of the stuff Mazin Power gives.) right out of the gate. At least you start with the scrander, I guess.

Dann of Thursday is pretty nuts, with it having an ability that raises all of Van's stats as his will goes up. At 150 will, his melee stat was around 25 points higher than the next highest character. And he apparently gets his own version of Mazin Power later on. Even though his attacks are already decently strong without taking much EN. One of them is even completely free! And has 3 range! And is post-movement! This is an oddity among Supers in this game. And did I mention that all of his attacks other than that one also pierce barriers? Because they do.

[Mightyblue]

Yeah, I don't know if the game will pick it up, but Van in the anime has an innate ability which allows him to exceed the abilities of Dann in extreme situations. It's how he beat the villain of Gun x Sword. I don't imagine you'll get access to it until you get access to Van/Dann's ultimate moves at the end of the Gun x Sword storyline.

[SpoonyGundam]

Super Robot Wars K music and (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm6487384) extreme (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm6540984) flattery (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm6546607).

If you don't have an account there, the short version is that the composer ripped off music from Lufia 2, Megami Tensei 2, and Chrono Trigger.

The Warcraft 2 music (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3997323) from W is back too.

[`Hrist]

The Warcraft 2 music (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3997323) from W is back too.

So you're not the only one who heard that. What the heck is up with that!? lol.

About five missions into K. Can't really make any comments other than that the animations are phenomenal. Still getting used to lineup...

[Gredlen]

It's amusing how blatantly those songs were ripped off. Plus all the comments wondering if the "K" stood for "Korean" (or "クロノ").

[Mightyblue]

Hey, I've got K, and I'm surprised how well the Zoids turned out. Excellent balance between ranged and melee, and they're pretty well armored for reals.

[SpoonyGundam]

Yeah, the Zoids are actually pretty nice. Three or four of them are up there with the better snipers in the game, and Deadly Kong's combo attacks are pretty brutal.

The problem with them (And Overmen and GxS units) is that the B rating in space really hurts in this, and there are only so many Thruster Modules to go around. There haven't been a lot of space stages on the routes I've picked that haven't let you just land on the moon to use your land terrain rating, but there's something like a 30% difference in hit/evade between A and B ratings.

[SpoonyGundam]

Just beat K.

Holy shit, the Koutetsushin Jeeg combination attack was 9950 attack with 10 upgrades and Infight 5 or 6. Holy shit, Kenji learns Soul and I had enough SP up parts on him to use it twice. Did I just do 85,000 damage to the last boss in one attack? Yes. Yes I did. And Big Shooter's sub-pilot learns Awaken. That was pretty crazy, but I didn't actually get to a high enough level for those until the final mission.

[`Hrist]

Anybody else excited about the new SD Gundam G-Generations game? Cause I am. *^^*

[teekun]

Ok, so after my failed endeavor at trying to play a Japanese copy of Alpha 3 as my first foray into the SRW games, I've decided to take a different approach. I've now started on the fan-translation of Alpha Gaiden.

I've heard that it's definitely one of the harder games in the series, but I'm hoping that playing it in English helps a little.

So, I'm just starting chapter 2, and I'm looking for some tips on upgrading my units. I've got a bunch of Gundams to work with, which as I understand are classified as "real robots" right? What stats should I be focusing on?

This is the one part of the SRW games that I can never seem to get my head around. :(

[Mightyblue]

Reals: Mobility. Always Mobility. Reals can't take hits for crap except against other reals, and they have cruddy Armor upgrade gains anyway.

So: Mobility -> Weapon Power -> EN (If the real has a lot of energy consuming attacks, otherwise ignore) -> HP -> Armor

[teekun]

Awesome, thank you!

So for Super Robots, is it defense and HP first?


edit: and when should I be upgrading weapons instead of unit stats? There's always so much to customize and so few funds to do it with.

[Mightyblue]

I think AG allows you to keep your money after losing a battle. Basically you can let weapons slide until you can't get decent damage returns.

Supers are generally: EN -> HP/Armor -> Weapon Power -> Mobility

Most Supers already have stupidly high armor and HP levels, so it's pretty much your choice of what to upgrade first. Almost everyone of their most powerful attacks draw EN though, and lots of it so building up their EN is your first priority (including sitting a supply unit next to them if you can).

[teekun]

Ah, that's right. I completely forgot about EN. It's been forever since I slogged my way through OG1, and I've only just recently played the first few missions of OG2, so supply units are a vague memory as well. I'll keep that in mind.

Playing this game is such a tease, though. It's such a shame that we'll never see any of the PS2 games localized as well.

[MarsDragon]

Tip: Upgrade Great Mazinger. He's around for most of the game and is great at killing grunts and bosses until you start getting the crazy endgame units. He's easy on the EN unless you start seriously spamming Thunder Break and none of his weapons cost will, plus he tanks great straight out of the box. Even if you prefer reals I'd recommened keeping a super or two around for bigger damage/meatshielding, and Great is a good choice for the majority of the game.

By the same token, don't upgrade Mazinger Z unless you happen to really really love it, as I don't think upgrades carry over to Mazinkaiser. Just put Kouji in Great for a mission or so if he starts falling behind on levels. I'm pretty sure upgrades carry from Getter Dragon -> Shin Getter, though, so worries there.

[teekun]

Cool, thanks for the tips.

I've been kind of breezing through the game so far, and did 4 missions without losing a unit until I used Gundam Wing's area attack without realizing it was an area attack and killed 3 of my own units :(

[MarsDragon]

Alpha Gaiden isn't too bad for most of the game, even getting all the skill points (except for a few really annoying ones where I hadn't upgraded my weapons enough). It's the last few missions where it gets its reputation. If you're not getting skill points, then you shouldn't have too much trouble.

[teekun]

Alpha Gaiden isn't too bad for most of the game, even getting all the skill points (except for a few really annoying ones where I hadn't upgraded my weapons enough). It's the last few missions where it gets its reputation. If you're not getting skill points, then you shouldn't have too much trouble.

I'm definitely not concerned with getting skill points, so that's not going to be a problem.

As for the last few missions, let me take a guess. Does it involve auto-healing boss characters with massive HP pools and energy shields? Because that's the point in OG1 where I just about gave up.

[Mightyblue]

That, my friend is a SRW tradition. Almost every Final Boss is like that, with vary exceptions to the rule which are generally in favor of utter assholery on the CPU's part.

[MarsDragon]

Hey, hey. The HP Regen is mostly OG. Laodecea and Euzeth both plot!heal at certain points, but you can one-shot them both anyway and avoid it completely. Shu....okay, let's not talk about Shu, but at least he doesn't have HP Regen; he just spams spirits. Irui never heals and I don't think she has a barrier either, just a massive HP pool and takes annoyingly little damage. Queser Ephes plot!heals once for a comparatively tiny amount of HP, considering his whole pool is about as much as Irui had and the hero power levels in Alpha 3 are completely out of whack. I can't remember W's last boss too well, but W was so incredibly broken it didn't matter.

That said, if you had trouble with the R-Gun Rivale and Judecca...you probably won't like the endgame of OG2 too much. OG1 is a walk in the park in comparison.

[SpoonyGundam]

To add to the list, Z does something completely different and K's final boss doesn't have HP Regen and its barrier/damage boost thing only kicks in when it's over 120 or 130 will or somesuch.

[`Hrist]

To add to the list, Z does something completely different and K's final boss doesn't have HP Regen and its barrier/damage boost thing only kicks in when it's over 120 or 130 will or somesuch.

Z's final boss was crazy -- I liked it. Made me glad that I held back against the first iteration, anyway.

The fact he's screaming, "I LOOOOVE YOU VEEEERRRYYY MUUUUCH" in katakana though? Well....

[Al Baron]

Guess what the latest Famitsu has? (http://gonintendo.com/?p=82328)

Roster:

Mazinkaiser
Mazinkaiser Shitou! Ankoku Daishogun
Change! Getter Robo (Armageddon )
Full Metal Panic!
Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid
Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz
Gundam SEED Astray
Gundam SEED X Astray
Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness
Gaogaigar
Gaogaigar Final
Koutetsushin Jeeg
Gundam SEED Destiny
Gundam SEED C.E. 73 Stargazer
Overman King Gainer
Fafner
GAIKING Legend of Daiku-Maryu
Godannar
Godannar Second Season
Dangaioh
Gun X Sword
Zoids Genesis
Virtual On MARZ
Combattler V
Voltes V
Golion
Dancouga
Zeorymer
SPT Layzner
G Gundam
Brain Powerd
Detonator Orgun

Looks like W, K, and J combined.

[SpoonyGundam]

I don't think I'm very excited about this. On the one hand, G Gundam, GaoGaiGar, GunXSword, Gaiking, Jeeg, etc etc all in one game.

On the other hand, I've seen this all before since, yeah, this is basically just the cast of J/W/K minus Tekkaman, vanilla Nadesico, and original SEED.

I think I'll just wait for the next actual entry.

[Mightyblue]

Bah, no post TSR Full Metal Panic, no sale.

[`Hrist]

Super Robot Gakuen? An SRW dating sim? I know not what to make of this! It has a killer series list though:

Mazinkaiser
Mazinkaiser: Death! The Great General of Darkness
Shin Getter Robo: Armageddon
Getter Robo
Full Metal Panic
Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
Full Metal Panic The Second Raid
Mobile Suit Gundam W Endless Waltz
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED X Astray
Martian Successor Nadesico: The prince of darkness
The King of Braves GaoGaiGar
The King of Braves GaoGaiGar Final
Steel God Jeeg
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
Overman King Gainer
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED C.E.73 STARGAZER
Fafner of the Azure: Dead Aggressor
Gaiking Legend of Daiku-Maryu
Combination Godannar!!
Combination Godannar!! SECOND SEASON
Dangaioh – Hyper Combat Unit
Gun x Sword
ZOIDS GENESIS
Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Marz
Super Electromagnetic Robot Com-Battler V
Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes Five
Beast King GoLion
Dancougar – Super Beast Machine God
Project Zeorymer
Blue Comet SPT Layzner
Mobile Fighter G Gundam
Brain Powered
Detonator Orgun

http://superrobotwar.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/this-weeks-famitsu-magazine-31/#more-6347

Head explodes

[SpoonyGundam]

I think I'll just wait for the next actual entry.

oh hey it kind of snuck up on me

SRW Neo for the Wii, in the vein of GC/XO.

Cast List:

Mazinger Z
Great Mazinger
Juushin Liger
New Getter Robo
Sengoku Majin Goshogun
NG Knight Lamune & 40
Ginga Senpuu Braiger
Zettai Muteki Raijinoh
Genki Bakuhatsu Ganbaruger
Nekketsu Saikyou Gosaurer
Kanzen Shouri Daiteioh
Shippu! Iron Leaguer
Kidou Budoten G Gundam
Hao Taikei Ryu Knight

Opening themes for the new shows. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SXRAIJy8K8)

First reaction: Oh, huh. It's basically 100% super. I'm OK with that.

Second reaction: Oh hey, that Ganbaruger show Ample Vigour told me about a million years ago is included.

Third reaction: ...All of the Eldoran shows are included. Even the one that was just a single pilot episode. It seems like they'd kind of blend together.

I'm not going to rush out and buy a Wii for this game alone, but it's definitely on the radar for whenever I do get one.

I'm easily more excited for this than Gakuen, though that is admittedly not a very hard thing to accomplish.

[`Hrist]

I'm not going to rush out and buy a Wii for this game alone, but it's definitely on the radar for whenever I do get one.

Much prefer reals... Oh well.

Not getting a Japanese Wii, so I won't be playing this one. Like you, I'm more excited for this one than Super Robot Gakuen. If I had a Japanese Wii, I would consider Neo (despite the 3Dness)

[MarsDragon]

Well, I finally beat my Alpha 2 Kusuha run. Here are some thoughts, even if everyone else has done this years ago.

One thing that I really liked was all the set up around Irui. Not just throughout the game, though that was good, but in the final stage especially. Irui probably has the best lead up to her fight in all the SRW games I've played so far, mostly because you actually see her doing crazy stuff and you can stop her, right there. Her blasting the colonies and Orphan was a nifty effect, and you can see how the heroes realise that they just can't reason her out of this. The way the music changes is great too, from ordinary, to Twin Icon, finally to the main character's theme and SKILL. By the end of that I was completely pumped to take out Irui Ganeden, something I really can't say about Euzeth or Quesar Ephes.

On the other hand, the big problem with Alpha 2 is that after a few replays, it gets rather repetitive. A lot is reused between routes, and it all starts feeling a bit the same. A smaller cast and a less epic story make for a tighter plot and a lot less team management, but Alpha and Alpha 3's sprawling over the top-ness do lend themselves better to replays. Still, Alpha 2 manages to be a lot less tedious in the endgame than either of those...until you get to Irui and her annoyingly huge HP bank.

For Kusuha's route specifically, I was amazed at how much I liked her by the end. I came into SRW from OG, so I didn't have the greatest opinion of her when I started. It turns out when she gets to be the hero, though, she actually becomes pretty likeable. Weird personality quirks are annoying in a moe girlfriend archtype, but surprisingly charming in a heroine. Plus, she ends up growing a spine and becoming pretty darn hotblooded by the end. Bullet's still boring as a plank of wood, though.

I should probably take a break from SRW after this, because Ex-Hard games are notoriously tedious and that's what I'm on in Alpha 3. It's just that switching back to American inputs is spectacularly annoying after playing on Japanese inputs for months. Damnit Sony, was there some particular reason you couldn't just switch the X and O button's placement on the controller back when you were designing it?

[MarsDragon]

This is basically at rumours on the internet stage, but a guy using the same nick as the one who previously posted the Alpha Gaiden translation shots before it was released showed up on /m/ looking for an editor for a mysterious set of extremely large text files, which require an editor with familiarity with multiple mecha series. Apparently all their other editors flaked out on them.

Needless to say, this all sounds a little familiar if you've been following Aeon Genesis' Super Robot Wars translations. They're obviously getting more than a little desperate if they're coming to /m/. I threw my hat into the ring, even though I know I won't have that much free time over the next few weeks. I'm hoping even a little bit would help, since I really do want to see Alpha released as soon as possible. Or any of the other SRW projects, those are fine too.

Here's the original post:

The AEUG is looking for a good editor for a project or projects that is/are HIGHLY relevant to /m/'s collective interest. Such an editor should have decent knowledge of a wide variety of shows and movies featuring, yes, giant robots. This prospect would have copious amounts of free time, be highly self-motivated, and understand that a completely literal translation can be made BETTER through editing, often through drastic cuts and changes, while the original meaning and intent remains the same. Depending on how well you work out for the group, we may have a *lot* of work for you - somewhere to the tune of nine or ten megabytes of raw translated text. Possibly more, depending on what the future brings!

If you're interested, send an email to the newly-registered and not-at-all-connected-in-any-way-to-the-group-proper address, aeugrecruiting@gmail.com. I will thank you, /m/ will thank you, and Kamille will thank you for not pointing out that his name sounds like a girl's.

[Excitemike]

The next OG title is a remake of The Lord Of Elemental (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178287) for DS.

Not really a Masaki fan but his cats remind me of Sailor Moon. This game has already exceeded my expectations just by not being another titty game.

[SpoonyGundam]

Super Robot Wars L for the DS announced.

Series list:
Rebuild of Evangelion
Fight! Iczer One
Iczer Reborn
Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz
Gundam SEED
Gundam SEED Destiny
Combattler V
Voltes V
Gaiking: Legend of Daiku-Maryu
Kotetsushin Jeeg
Dancougar Nova
Mazinkaiser
Mazinkaiser vs Great General of Darkness
Godannar
Godannar Second Season
Macross Frontier
Linebarrels of Iron

So six new things, with everyone else probably pulled straight from W/K. And I guess Combattler V and Voltes V are just going to be touched-up J animations. Seems kind of weird that they're giving the center spot on the cover to Combattler V, though.

The Eva movies and Linebarrels are interesting choices to me just because of how new they are. Linebarrels ended last year, and it looks like they're going through the second Eva movie in the game, which was only released on Blu-Ray a few months ago.

[Mightyblue]

They might be drawing off the Linebarrels manga which is actually pretty good (and which the anime only partially covers).

[Excitemike]

Eww, SEED. That series is like a bad penny.
But hooray for Macross Frontier!

[`Hrist]

This game looks like it's being remade on the cheap. I spy tons of reused animations just looking at the scans. =/

Least they can do is pick some good music from SEED/SEED Destiny this time...

[SpoonyGundam]

This game looks like it's being remade on the cheap. I spy tons of reused animations just looking at the scans. =/

Yeah, there's not really any way to put a positive spin on that. I was going to go, "Well, six newcomers is the same that W and K were working with. That's not that bad!" But W and K also had some newcomers to handhelds on top of that.

If there was anything that wasn't either new to the series or came directly from J/W/K, it'd be much easier to swallow. Even some UC Gundam or Getter G, as overused as they are, would have helped to make it seem less like a shameless cash-in.

[`Hrist]

Yeah, there's not really any way to put a positive spin on that. I was going to go, "Well, six newcomers is the same that W and K were working with. That's not that bad!" But W and K also had some newcomers to handhelds on top of that.

If there was anything that wasn't either new to the series or came directly from J/W/K, it'd be much easier to swallow. Even some UC Gundam or Getter G, as overused as they are, would have helped to make it seem less like a shameless cash-in.

They might have some in-game voices this time around.

I dunno, seems like a quick and dirty way to make up for the debacle that was SRW Neo/SRW Gakuen. Hopefully it'll mostly be there as a companion to a PS3 SRW.

In happier news, editing today's episode of ATB reminded me that Super Robot Taisen OG for the PS2 is in my drawer and is desperately crying out to be played.

[SpoonyGundam]

Hopefully it'll mostly be there as a companion to a PS3 SRW.

Yeah, that's what I'm expecting. Just something quick that they can get out while they work on a console version, like A Portable was. Except probably less terrible.

[`Hrist]

Yeah, that's what I'm expecting. Just something quick that they can get out while they work on a console version, like A Portable was. Except probably less terrible.

The fact that Terada isn't even serving as producer tells me that he's got bigger fish to fry than SRW L.

[Mightyblue]

Wonder who they got to design the Originals this time?

[SpoonyGundam]

The fact that Terada isn't even serving as producer tells me that he's got bigger fish to fry than SRW L.

He's totally still listed as a producer in the scans. There's another one too, so he's probably devoting most of his time to a console game, but still.

[MarsDragon]

Wonder who they got to design the Originals this time?

Hopefully not the last guy.

I dunno what to think about this announcement. It's not filling me with burning desire, but the amount of hate it's getting from the internet makes me annoyed. That's hating the fandom, though. I guess I'll wait and see if the originals and gameplay mechanics are better than K before deciding how to handle this.