Let's Sperg Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden - The first game in the series to make mecha nerds cry from the difficulty

[GethN7]

Since I did a Let's Sperg on Namco x Capcom, which is also a turn based strategy crossover game, I figured I might as do a followup, also with a game America never got (due to licensing costs for all the series involved) save for a fan translation with a few goofs but otherwise is very good.

And that would be SRW Alpha Gaiden for the Playstation, the game that bridges the gap between the first and second game, but can mostly stand on it's own minus a few plot leftovers from the first game.

First off, a list of all series involved:

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (post-series, bad ending averted)
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (post-series, bad ending averted)
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (post-series, bad ending averted)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack (prequel)
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (post-series, bad ending averted)
Turn A Gundam (debut)
Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (debut)
After War Gundam X (debut)
Macross (post-series, bad ending averted)
Macross Plus (partially portrayed)
Macross: Do You Remember Love? (post-series, bad ending averted)
Mazinger Z (partially portrayed)
Great Mazinger vs. Getter Robo G: Kuuchuu Dai-Gekitotsu (partially portrayed)
Great Mazinger (partially portrayed)
Mazinkaiser (partially portrayed)
Getter Robo (partially portrayed)
Getter Robo G (partially portrayed)
Shin Getter Robo (Manga) (partially portrayed)
Combat Mecha Xabungle (debut)
Invincible Steelman Daitarn 3 (partially portrayed)
Super Electromagnetic Robo Combattler V (post-series, bad ending averted)
Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V (post-series, bad ending averted)
Choujuu Kishin Dancougar (partially portrayed)
Brave Raideen (post-series, bad ending averted)
Galaxy Cyclone Braiger (debut)
Masoukishin: THE LORD OF THE ELEMENTAL (partially portrayed)
Banpresto Originals (partially portrayed)

Notes on what the tags mean:

(post-series, bad ending averted): Means the main series plot is done, minus some minor stuff they didn't use in the previous game, will be noted where needed. Also means any nasty crap from the source was averted, like someone dying in canon. Exceptions to this will be covered below.

(debut): Will have it's story told in this game in parts or as a whole. Anything excised will be covered below.

(partially portrayed): Most of the series played out in the previous game, but they still left some stuff for future games.

(prequel): This game will lead into the events of this series by next game.

See below spoiler to see what this entails:

Spoiler

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory: Characters appear, story basically over, but a few things from the series happen regardless. The bad ending and any stupid shit from this show did not happen.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Mostly wrapped up, this game will finish what's left, mostly bad stuff averted.

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ: Story is more or less over, bad crap averted.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack - This game will lead into the events of this by SRW Alpha 2, changes the motivations of the title character from the source slightly, but the same events will occur by next game.

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam: Story wrapped up, most bad stuff averted, a few leftover things were kept for this game, will wrap that up by game end.

Turn A Gundam: Most of the relevant bit of the plot will be recounted in this game.

Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz - All of this will play out largely like in canon, with minor alterations.

After War Gundam X: Most of this will play out and the story will be completed, though the Earth based villain faction from this series is absent, their role taken up by the villains from Xabungle. The Moon Race from Turn A Gundam will take up the role of the space based villains, but all other events from this will occur, with some alterations.

Macross: post series, plot mostly over save a few things retained on purpose for this game.

Macross Plus: Half of this was portrayed in the previous game, most of the second half debuts in this one.

Macross: Do You Remember Love?: Same as Macross.

Mazinger Z: Most of the story of the first arc is wrapped up, this game will lead into the second arc.

Great Mazinger vs. Getter Robo G: Kuuchuu Dai-Gekitotsu: portions of this were adapted into the plot.

Great Mazinger: Most of the plot of this will be recounted in this game.

Mazinkaiser: Essentially just a new upgrade to the Mazinger, original story for this specific to SRW.

Getter Robo: Story somewhat over, any leftovers will be wrapped up in this game.

Getter Robo G: All of this will be mostly concluded in this game, though the next game will retread some of it.

Shin Getter Robo (Manga): New Getter Robo upgrade, portions of the original manga adapted for this game.

Combat Mecha Xabungle: All of this will be portrayed as depicted in the TV series, not the movie.

Invincible Steelman Daitarn 3: Post series.

Super Electromagnetic Robo Combattler V: Mostly post series, minus a few things saved for this game.

Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V: Again, mostly post series.

Choujuu Kishin Dancougar: Story was mostly concluded in previous game, characters play a role here, but story does not until later games.

Brave Raideen: post series.

Galaxy Cyclone Braiger: A condensed version of the plot will be portrayed here.

Masoukishin: THE LORD OF THE ELEMENTAL: Parts of the first half portrayed in the previous game, this will tell what's left of it.

Banpresto Originals: A few original characters from the first game show back up and play a degree of importance to the plot.

Now, to get that out of the way, a little basic plot to address the previous entry, Super Robot Wars Alpha.

In the previous game, most of the series that aren't marked with a debut tag above showed up to fight off an alien invasion consisting of several villain empires serving as vassal states of aliens known as the Balmar, and while fighting them off, the STMC (Space Terrible Monster Crowd) from the anime Gunbuster were going to be unleashed on the Earth Sphere unless drastic measures were taken.

So in the final battle they used a massive gravity wave bomb to essentially send all of these planet destroying bastards into the mother of all black holes, which saved Earth, and the Balmar were beaten in the process, but unfortunately, this meant that eventually a super gravitational wave of kinetic energy was gonna hit the Earth Sphere in a few months afterwards as a consequence, and now the good guys have to figure out a way to cover Earth's ass.

Meanwhile, most of the villains who survived the first game plan to subvert the plan to save Earth to cover their own ass, and an ally of uncertain loyalties from the previous game is gonna execute his own agenda and fuck everyone over sooner or later, and then the real plot begins.

For the purposes of this Let's Sperg, I will be using the ePSXe emulator for ease of screenshots, and I may pause inbetween stages to cover any lore or technical information that needs to be covered that may be necessary.

I will also include some story help and gameplay advice.

One last word of warning: This game has a "skill point" system, in which fulfilling certain conditions will make the game harder if you get a certain number of skill points, but will also unlock the true ending, which I intend to go for in this LS.

The "easy ending" will not be covered here, except to say that getting this route means you skip a few final boss battles you otherwise would fight, and since the true ending is canon for future games, I'm going with that.


Finally, I invite @Jaimas and @AngeloTheWizard, as well as anyone else who may be interested to backstop me if need be or offer additional commentary. This will not be done as expediently as my previous LS, since this game, while having about the same number of stages as Namco x Capcom, has somewhat more ground to cover in regards to the plot, so please bear with me if this one doesn't update as fast.

P.S. - I will be covering route splits in full if at all possible.

 

[Kiwi Jeff]

I remember when I played this a few years ago because I wanted an SRW with licensed series in English. Good times. I didn't actually think it was that hard though. At least compared to Original Generation 2. Looking forward to seeing what series you'll favor.

 

[GethN7]

Prolouge Stuff:

We start the game to the following dialogue as we get a slowing panning downward shot of the Macross docked in Dakar from Zeta Gundam:

New Western Calendar Year 187, December.

Several months have passed since the climax of the conflict that would come
to be known as the Balmar War. The unfathomable danger facing mankind was
averted by the valorous efforts of the SDF forces and the Londo Bell, but at
a very high price.

The shockwave produced by the ultra-gravitational collapse from the end
of the final operation of the war would reach the Earth in half a year's
time... It was predicted that the resulting devastation would wipe out the
better half of the space colonies and wreak extensive damage on the Earth's
surface as well.

However, this information was distorted by the Balmar war, and suppressed
by the Titans, who dismantled the SDF and the Londo Bell. Most people have never
been told the truth...


To explain a few things, they are recounting the ending of Super Robot Wars Alpha, where the 13th Autonomous Corps Londo Bell (name taken from Chars Counterattack for the heroes there, blanket term for the good guys from that game) and the SDF (Space Defense Force) from Macross helped fend off the invasion by the Balmarian Empire and their various alien allies from other series, but the ending required them to detonate a WMD to finish off the STMC threat from the series Gunbuster, and unfortunately, this meant Earth and the space colonies of the Earth Sphere were gonna get raped a few months later from the blowback of that WMD getting cooked off, but the STMC were like the Tyranids of Warhammer 40K on crack, the ends justified the means, at least at the time.

However, this allowed the Titans (the Schutzstaffel in Space from Zeta Gundam) to seize control of Earth's military and press outlets while the good guys were busy saving the solar system, and they basically passed off what Londo Bell did as their own work and buried the information about that incoming disaster so they could later use it as a bargaining chip in their bid to control the Earth Sphere.

Three guesses who is gonna be making your life suck for awhile, and the first two don't count.

I remember when I played this a few years ago because I wanted an SRW with licensed series in English. Good times. I didn't actually think it was that hard though. At least compared to Original Generation 2.

I'm going for the hard route and true ending, and considering the true final boss was so freaking hard until he finally got upstaged almost over a decade later by Dark Brain from SRW Original Generations Gaiden for the PS2, that means I'm gonna be gimping myself out of a lot of stuff that makes the game easy, as the game throws better mecha at you and softens the difficulty of the game if you aren't aiming for the secret stuff/skill points.

But I'm going to do just that, and since I want this to be a legit playthrougth, I COULD hack in all the stuff I lose from the easier routes, but I plan to refrain.

 

[AngeloTheWizard]

SO what you're telling me is this is a massive bunch of giant robots fighting each other in a supreme wave of crossover autism?

Well hell yeah, I am so on board baby.

EDIT: You should do an easy run after this one and show us you righteously pummeling all the assholes that give you trouble the first time through.

 

[GethN7]

SO what you're telling me is this is a massive bunch of giant robots fighting each other in a supreme wave of crossover autism?

Well hell yeah, I am so on board baby.

EDIT: You should do an easy run after this one and show us you righteously pummeling all the assholes that give you trouble the first time through.

Well, there is a New Game+ option, and on that one I could do fun stuff like hack in all sorts of silly stuff and OP mecha once I'm done with the serious playthrougth.

Fun fact, the game engine is basically a hack of Super Robot Wars Alpha, so a lot of SRW Alpha 1 stuff still exists in the code, including OP versions of Alpha Gaiden units, so I could have tons of fun with that.

However, one limitation: I cannot hack anyone into piloting a unit NOT from their home series or, in the case of the Gundam shows, did not exist in the same universe.

For instance, Turn A Gundam pilots can use anything from a Universal Century Gundam show, but NOT anything from Gundam Wing, since it's not part of the UC canon.

That also means Mazinger pilots can't get into Getter Robo or Combattler and vice versa.

If I try, game will fuck up BAD and can corrupt save files.

Also, for story reasons, I CANNOT hack in any unit from any of the new series into the game BEFORE Stage 10, it will cause all sorts of save file crashes.

For the purpose of the serious playthrougth, I'll be playing honestly, unless I need to hack to get past a few game breaking bugs (being a hack of SRW Alpha 1 codebase wise, it has a slightly unstable codebase and a few game crashing issues that can be triggered).

 

[AngeloTheWizard]

Well, there is a New Game+ option, and on that one I could do fun stuff like hack in all sorts of silly stuff and OP mecha once I'm done with the serious playthrougth.

Fun fact, the game engine is basically a hack of Super Robot Wars Alpha, so a lot of SRW Alpha 1 stuff still exists in the code, including OP versions of Alpha Gaiden units, so I could have tons of fun with that.

However, one limitation: I cannot hack anyone into piloting a unit NOT from their home series or, in the case of the Gundam shows, did not exist in the same universe.

For instance, Turn A Gundam pilots can use anything from a Universal Century Gundam show, but NOT anything from Gundam Wing, since it's not part of the UC canon.

That also means Mazinger pilots can't get into Getter Robo or Combattler and vice versa.

If I try, game will fuck up BAD and can corrupt save files.

Also, for story reasons, I CANNOT hack in any unit from any of the new series into the game BEFORE Stage 10, it will cause all sorts of save file crashes.

For the purpose of the serious playthrougth, I'll be playing honestly, unless I need to hack to get past a few game breaking bugs (being a hack of SRW Alpha 1 codebase wise, it has a slightly unstable codebase and a few game crashing issues that can be triggered).

So, with how you're talking i'm guessing you can swap pilots around to some degree? Is it a thing where you can kind of min-max and say, put a pilot who's really good at dodging into a really agile mech and let him Dodge-Tank his way through everything or is it less stats and more flavor?

 

[GethN7]

So, with how you're talking i'm guessing you can swap pilots around to some degree? Is it a thing where you can kind of min-max and say, put a pilot who's really good at dodging into a really agile mech and let him Dodge-Tank his way through everything or is it less stats and more flavor?

A mix of both.

For instance, Quattro Bagina from Zeta Gundam pilots the Hyaku Shiki by default, and while it's not a bad at all, I could instead put him in Quebley from Gundam ZZ or the Nu Gundam from Char's Counterattack, which play better to his Newtype abilities.

I can also take Boss from Mazinger Z and have him pilot the Mazinger while Kouji pilots Boss' mech, for which they both have unique dialogue, but Boss is less suited for the Mazinger stat wise, while Kouji's stats were tailored for it. On the other hand, some of the custom dialogue is hilarious.

And in some cases, it's merely dropping pilots into units best suited for certain situations, like taking some short range mobile suit pilots and putting them in long range aerial units when there is a lot of water or poor terrain.

I can also reenact certain things, like when Heero Yuy temporarily piloted other units like a Taurus or Leo from Gundam Wing in lieu of his standard unit, while letting another GW pilot who might need to level up who pilots a POS to use his ride until you can upgrade them to a better unit of their own.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

Great game, I remember playing the shit out of it in high school (since it was translated and all). I always liked Isamu/Guld and their Valkyries from Macross Plus. Not many enemies get more than 0% chance to hit them plus they have some powerful attacks to counter with. Plus all the enemies target them, since unlike a lot of later SRW games they target the weakest unit instead of your stronger super robots/battleships.

 

[Hodor]

For instance, Quattro Bagina from Zeta Gundam pilots the Hyaku Shiki by default, and while it's not a bad at all, I could instead put him in Quebley from Gundam ZZ or the Nu Gundam from Char's Counterattack, which play better to his Newtype abilities.

iirc, isn't the best option for Quattro/Char is the Turn A? I remember using that through Z1 and Z2, since Loran's stat growths are kinda shit until you hit a certain level.

I remember when I played this a few years ago because I wanted an SRW with licensed series in English. Good times. I didn't actually think it was that hard though. At least compared to Original Generation 2. Looking forward to seeing what series you'll favor.

as a rule of thumb, most SRW games aren't hard at all tbh. After Winkysoft was replaced as lead dev studio, barring a few standouts, the series' difficulty dropped like a rock.

 

[Intelligent Calcium]

I still remember the Christmas when this got released. First time I was hyped for a translation, eventhough it was late a few days iirc.

as a rule of thumb, most SRW games aren't hard at all tbh. After Winkysoft was replaced as lead dev studio, barring a few standouts, the series' difficulty dropped like a rock.

I haven't played any newer ones but I remember some skill point requirements in this being pretty annoying, though optional.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 1 - War, Again


The first stage starts off with a bang, or rather, alarms going off at the Saotome Labs in Japan, where we learn Professor Saotome and Hayato Jin are out for the moment,and that really blows, since there is an incoming enemy force of Titans are attacking the lab that got past the Far East Japanese military base defense network, and Saotome's daughter, Michiru, is understandably concerned:

Musashi Tomoe (the original Getter 3 pilot) is flummoxed they snuck up through the Far East radar net, but has no time get an answer as the Titan commander of this unit, Lieutenant JG Jerid Mesa orders an immediate surrender:

Jerid is a bit of a dick and not known for taking no for an answer, but Ryouma Nagare (pilot of Getter 1) is ready to tell Jerid to go fuck himself.

Jerid doesn't seem to notice as he demands the surrender of not only the lab, but the Shin Getter Robo as well.

For those not aware, the Shin Getter Robo is basically HAX incarnate, and understandably, given the the fact the Titans are evil assholes, the Getter team isn't just gonna hand stuff over, with Benkei Kurama (Getter-3's other pilot) being all "Say WUT?"

Ryouma decides to play for time and ask what they want it for, and that's when Jerid's wingman Kakcrinon Cacooler tells them to quit playing dumb, they already know, specifically, they intend to use Shin Getter for use in Project Aegis, currently in the development stage at the DC (Divine Crusaders) Japan branch.


Before we go on, brief explanation: The Divine Crusaders exist in two forms in the franchise, but both were founded by a guy named Bian Zoldark for protecting Earth, and in series where Bian's warning that Earth needs to take it's thumb out of it's ass because an alien threat is imminent is ignored, the DC become a military force to take over the planet to scare people out of their complacency.

However, in the Alpha series, he was taken seriously (aided greatly by the fact the SDF-1 Macross crash landing on Earth full of alien stuff at the time he made his warnings), and thus they exist as a "If Earth is being threatened, we'll pull something out of the desk drawer to help others defend it" R&D team in the Alphaverse.

Project Aegis (named for the shield of Grecian legend) is the plan in the works to protect Earth from the gravitational wave.

Anyway, Musashi is all 0_0 how much the Titans know, but Ryouma is not surprised they've been keeping tabs on that, with Michiru speculating the Titans deliberately waited till Aegis was almost ready to seize it for their own ends.

At any rate, Ryouma's gonna be damned if he just lets the Titans have their way, so he orders Benkei and Musashi to sortie.

With that, the original Getter piloted by Musashi and the separate Getter-1 and Getter-3 parts of the Getter Robo G piloted by Ryouma and Benkei respectively take to the field. Jerid expected this, and when Ryouma tells Jerid to quit screwing over the peace the good guys won, Jerid retorts the world is kinda got Damocles sword hanging over it's head in the form of the oncoming gravitational wave, and thus blames Londo Bell and the SDF for that (despite it being a sadistic choice they had to take to prevent a worse alternative).

Benkei tries to shoot back they had no choice, but Jerid smugly believes the Titans are the only ones who can keep the peace now, and when Ryouma is all "We want the same thing, so why not let Project Aegis do it's thing?", that's when Jerid lays the real motive on the table.

The Titans want Project Aegis under their control, for their own goals.

Considering the Titans are elitist Schutzstaffel ripoffs who don't give a fuck about anyone born in space or whom they consider less than human, that basically means they plan to protect who they care about, the rest can just go hang.

And that's when he adds the Titans have already put Japan's military assets under siege, and Michiru confirms both Far East HQ and the Photon Power labs (from Mazinger) are under attack, and as the severity of the situation dawns on Ryouma, Kakcrinon repeats the order to disarm.

The Getter team give him the middle finger in response, and Jerid is all "then prepare to die then".

When we finally gain control, we start out like this:

The map starts with your units in front of the Saotome Labs, and to the north near the shore and over the ocean are several Marasai (grunt units) and two Bylarants, piloted by Jerid and Kakcrinon.

There isn't a time limit on this map, so you might as well camp your units over the labs, which provide a healing and defense bonus, ideally with the smaller units each directly adjacent to the Getter so they can benefit from Musashi's Support skill.

A turn will pass, and the enemy will move in, but thankfully, the Marasais cannot directly attack unless they are right atop you.

The next turn, Musashi then advocates they just run, and when Ryouma asks if he left his balls at home, the former points out the stupidly bad odds and that running would make sure that Project Aegis' HQ won't be seized, and besides, the Titans don;t know shit about how to actually turn Shin Getter on.

It's at this point, Ryuoma gets two choices, which amount to:

1. Be a pussy.
2. Fuck the Titans, I'm standing my ground. (+1 Skill Point)

I'm going with Option 2, and while this means we miss out on 20000 credits (instead of the 15000 you get for letting your balls drop), we want that skill point.

Ryouma insists they stay, and when Michiru tries to get him to reconsider, he points out the other branches have their own badass robot pilots on hand to look after things, and more to the point, the Titans can kiss his ass.

Musashi and Benkei decide valor is better than discretion, and Michiru accepts this while advising enemy reinforcements are incoming soon.

With this in mind, on the next enemy turn, sure enough, some more Marasai appear in the northwestern treeline while the already present ones move in for the kill. Your team should continue to stay put until they get in range.

On your next turn, it's time to kick some ass, and thankfully, the Marasai's have shitty range, so have Ryouma and Benkei use missiles while Musashi supports with his kick ass GATLING MISSILE LAUNCHER (an awesome piece of gear invented by a crazy yet awesome dude in the original manga)

On the next enemy turn, more enemies appear, including two Bylarants and a Xamel, a land artillery machine that the former Principality of Zeon used, which prompts your team to note the Titans weren't too proud to buy up former enemy tech for their own ends. All but Jerid and Kakcrinon's units will continue to move in for the kill this turn.

Thankfully, on the next turn, you get reinforcements, namely Kamille Bidan in the Zeta Gundam, Marbet Fingerhut in the White Ark, and Usso Evin in the Victory Gundam, and they aren't happy to see the Titans:

Kamille namedrops Lady Une (from Gundam Wing, former villain turned good guy), as she tipped them off to check up on their friends, and Musashi is glad to see them. Kamille mentions he's with the Preventers (good guy name from Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, essentially the group title for this game as a whole at this point), and while Musashi wonders why they aren't using the Londo Bell designation anymore, it becomes a moot point as Jerid sees his longtime rival Kamille.

Note: Kamille and Jerid HATE each other, goes all the way back to when Jerid called his name girly and Kamille punched him for it, and it's only gotten worse since.

Anyway, as the fight resumes, move one of the new units to cover the last empty spot on the labs (you lose if they occupy even one lab tile), and have the other two units stay close to the others.

You can use the flight mode option of Kamille's Zeta to put it into Waverider mode, which increases it's evasion, Marbet's White Ark has a healing skill, and Uso has a long range laser cannon (but cannot be used post movement), so for now just get them into position while your Getter team continues shredding Marasais.

Note that as you kill enemies with a unit, their Will stat rises, which is needed to make some attacks work, and you can use this to spam Musashi's Getter Beam. This also has an effect on overall damage of all attacks, so the higher you raise it the better (this stat resets back to 100 at the end of every battle)

By next enemy turn Jerid and Kakcrinon will quit jerking off and join the other enemies in closing in for the kill.

On your next turn I advise continuing to pick off incoming goons, but do try to conserve energy or ammo for awesome weapons if a lesser one will work just fine, and especially don't try to use the Victory Gundam's suicide attack or use the Split option to separate the two part of the unit, it leaves you with a shittier unit after you do so.

I'd also refrain from using spirit skills (or seishins in original JP version) unless you really need to, cause this a really easy battle map.

At any rate, just kill everyone on the map, and make sure to have Gundam and Getter pilots fight the Titan bosses for some special dialogue where they shit talk each other. The Marasais are a joke, and the Bylarants are nothing too scary, but the Xamel can attack from long range, so you may need to shuffle some units until your own long range guns can hit, always making sure to cover the lab in the process.

Once all foes are dead, you should have gotten a Propellant Tank from Kakcrinon, a Magnet Coating from Jerid, and 15000+ credits for not being a wuss as well as a Skill Point message.

Once the level is over, Ryouma asks for a status report, and Marbet has bad news:

EOT refers to the "Extra Over Technology" Institute, basically where technology that is too advanced to be native to the planet or the time period it was from is studied.

Usso confirms this, as they just managed to cross the Sea of Japan to make ingress to the Saotome Labs, and Ryouma is all that the Far East HQ will be fine with the Voltes V and Cyber Beast Force (Dancougar) teams as a garrison, but Benkei points out that if the Titans blindsided the Saotome Labs as easily as they did, what makes the Far East HQ any safer.

Musashi then asks what the "Preventers" are, and Usso is going to fill him in, but Kamille nixes that idea:

He then mentions the Titans next target is the DC Japan branch, currently in the care of Banjou Haran (Daitarn 3), and Ryouma then says he and Benkei will haul ass for there, while Musashi stays behind to guard the lab.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

as a rule of thumb, most SRW games aren't hard at all tbh. After Winkysoft was replaced as lead dev studio, barring a few standouts, the series' difficulty dropped like a rock.

I wish they had kept the difficulty of Alpha Gaiden in later games. Like Alpha 2 which is hilariously unbalanced thanks to the squad system letting you put a bunch of backup characters with the spirits which cast Gain/Luck on other characters so you end up with a massive amount of money and a massively overleveled characters.

I haven't played any newer ones but I remember some skill point requirements in this being pretty annoying, though optional.

Been a while since I played it, but OG2 I recall being harder for the skill points than Alpha Gaiden, but every SRW always has a couple which are a bitch to get. Like this game, all the skill points involving the Frost brothers are a pain.

 

[GethN7]

iirc, isn't the best option for Quattro/Char is the Turn A? I remember using that through Z1 and Z2, since Loran's stat growths are kinda shit until you hit a certain level.


as a rule of thumb, most SRW games aren't hard at all tbh. After Winkysoft was replaced as lead dev studio, barring a few standouts, the series' difficulty dropped like a rock.

You can stick him in the Turn A if you want, that is just as viable as in SRW Z.

Also, this game still uses the same engine as SRW Alpha 1 and Winkysoft hadn't entirely parted ways with the Banpresto guys yet, so it was still kinda hard, though not as much as some of SRW Alpha 1 could be due to some even more crappy game mechanics, many of which had been ironed out by Alpha Gaiden.

I still remember the Christmas when this got released. First time I was hyped for a translation, even though it was late a few days iirc.


I haven't played any newer ones but I remember some skill point requirements in this being pretty annoying, though optional.

Yep, some of the skill points can be a pain in the ass to get, but I'll go over how to pull off at least enough for the Hard path.

I wish they had kept the difficulty of Alpha Gaiden in later games. Like Alpha 2 which is hilariously unbalanced thanks to the squad system letting you put a bunch of backup characters with the spirits which cast Gain/Luck on other characters so you end up with a massive amount of money and a massively overleveled characters.



Been a while since I played it, but OG2 I recall being harder for the skill points than Alpha Gaiden, but every SRW always has a couple which are a bitch to get. Like this game, all the skill points involving the Frost brothers are a pain.

The Squad system made Alpha 2 and 3 way too easy.

And yes, most of the rip your hair out frustrating skill points are Frost Brothers related.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

You can stick him in the Turn A if you want, that is just as viable as in SRW Z.

Also, this game still uses the same engine as SRW Alpha 1 and Winkysoft hadn't entirely parted ways with the Banpresto guys yet, so it was still kinda hard, though not as much as some of SRW Alpha 1 could be due to some even more crappy game mechanics, many of which had been ironed out by Alpha Gaiden.

I stuck Quattro in the Dendrobium on my playthroughs. Can't let such a nice mobile armor go to waste on some loser like Kou.

Alpha 1 indeed did have a lot of fake difficulty since that Alpha Gaiden is the SRW which introduced quite a few of the gameplay mechanics in SRW, although the insane amount of strong units you get made it pretty easy anyways. But there's a couple of skill points which are pure luck thanks to the game mechanics. All that has put me off from playing the pre-Alpha SRW games.

Speaking of Winkysoft, weren't they setting up some Masoukishin stuff with this game's plot, hence why a bunch of Masoukishin characters/mecha show up (aside from Masaki and Shuu) in this game, but then there was the falling out with Banpresto, and that's why they never show up again in the Alpha games? Plotwise it would've made sense to have them, given all the underground factions that show up in Alpha 2 and all (especially regarding the Sanger route).

The Squad system made Alpha 2 and 3 way too easy.

Definitely. I like endlessly casting spirits on Judau with the Full Armor ZZ Gundam and having him spam the map attacks it has. I wonder if they thought through the implications of having 40+ characters on the map instead of 10-15? It would've helped if the bosses acted the way they did in Alpha Gaiden with casting spirits and healing and all.

 

[GethN7]

Speaking of Winkysoft, weren't they setting up some Masoukishin stuff with this game's plot, hence why a bunch of Masoukishin characters/mecha show up (aside from Masaki and Shuu) in this game, but then there was the falling out with Banpresto, and that's why they never show up again in the Alpha games? Plotwise it would've made sense to have them, given all the underground factions that show up in Alpha 2 and all (especially regarding the Sanger route).

Well, the reason for this is pretty simple.

The divorce between the two companies left Banpresto with a bit of a problem. Around the time it happened, SRW Alpha was in the pipeline, and they already included enough Masoukishin stuff that it was too late to remove it from the plot, so they had to go ahead with it, and Alpha Gaiden was not their original plan.

In fact, they originally wanted to start with Gao Gai Gar (which showed up in Alpha 2) from the get go, but they had no choice but to get the Masoukishin stuff from their Winkysoft divorce out of the way first.

So they hit upon a solution: They altered the end of Alpha 1 so Alpha Gaiden could happen, then crammed as much of Masoukishin as they possibly could into it (since that is split into two parts and Alpha/AG cover all of Part 1 of that), then wrote things so they could drop the Masoukishin stuff into a black hole and go back to their original plans.

As you may be aware, the "Classic" SRW games also portrayed all of Masoukishin Part 1, so they basically used Alpha Gaiden to get that out of the way (since Part 2 was specific to Masoukishin itself) so they could move on to other things.

In a way, it worked out better for them, since Alpha 1 was a sprawling mess of plotlines that Alpha Gaiden let them clean up somewhat, it also allowed them more time to fine tune their game engine to excise some retarded Winkysoft specific stuff, and they got a good excuse to use Gundam X/Turn A/Xabungle in the process.

 

[AngeloTheWizard]

Wait, the game hands you a Gatling missile launcher and then asks you very politely not to use it? No wonder you said fuck the Titans, I wouldn't pass that opportunity up for all the credits in the world!

 

[GethN7]

Before I begin the next stage, I'm going to describe the menu mechanics of the intermission screen:

Unit Info - See information on your various mechs.

NOTE: Due to a memory overflow error, sometimes the pilots of some machines will not display properly, nor their stats. For instance, Benkei should show as the pilot of the Poisedon here. this can be fixed by simply clicking on the unit for more information or exiting and re-entering the menu a few times.

The translation patch tends to aggravate the issue, as they had to shuffle around a lot of memory addresses to fit in the English text, but it can occur under rare circumstances in the original game.

This same issue can also affect other menus and while generally harmless, it can be annoying.


Pilot Info - See Information on your pilots.

Note: Sub stands for subpilot, should their be one for a machine controlled by more than one party.


Parts - Equip additional parts to your mechs, like that Magnet Coating and Propellant Tank you got in the last level.

Note: The game has a hard limit of 9 copies of every part in the game. DO NOT attempt to hack in anything over this limit, or you will get crashes and save file corruption. It is unlikely you will get over 9 copies of any one part in this game to prevent this, but if you want to hack stuff in, keep that in mind.

Units can have anywhere from one to four part slots.


Unit Upgrade - Upgrade various unit stats:

Note: You can hack in any unit in the game code and upgrade it here, but beware some dummied out mechs WILL crash the game, either due to corrupted data or because they were never intended for player use. Thankfully, these units are limited to a select few.

Also, you can upgrade HP and the four different stats mentioned at the bottom of screenshots. Super Robots (big mechs or non- mobile armor Gundams) benefit more from Speed and Limit, while Armor is better for Super Robots, though Real Robots (Gundams and similar sized machines) do get added protection from Armor.

Energy is useful for units that use it for attacks, though about 5 EN is consumed a turn for most units that fly or hover, though it can be regained at the same rate per turn. Weapons with ballistic ammo or a certain clip size do not use energy, and some weapons do not have a limit on uses, like swords.


Weapon Upgrade:

Shown here is the Weapon Upgrade subscreen for the Zeta Gundam, and all weapons are upgraded at the same time.

Unlike the first Alpha, which let players upgrade unit weapons separately, this game does them all at once in gradual increments to prevent an exploit where cheap weak weapons could be upgraded to be uber powerful then spammed while conserving stronger weapons.

And like units and pilots, weapons have limits on certain terrain, such as beam weapons being nigh useless underwater. They also have a rating, and the higher said rating, the more damage they do on that terrain.


Switch: Switch pilots to different machines.

You can only switch pilots from the same series or franchise to different units, no cross series piloting like Ryouma piloting a Gundam.

Certain games in the series bent the rules on occasion, like allowing even original pilots to use Zakus, but this game enforces the no cross series pilots rule rather strictly.

The only games that had nearly unfettered pilot switching were the Original Generation games, and even then some pilots had limited choices depending on story restrictions and training.

If you want to hack character into units never intended for them, the game does have error handling for some, like making a character pilot a nuclear missile (for which they will use generic dialogue), but most will crash the game.


Save/Load: Self explanatory.


Modules: Certain units have different configurations you can switch them to use, like certain Gundams have expansion pack units you can combine with or separate them from.


Settings: Change game settings.


Next Map: Go to next level.


-----: This option is dummied out until past Stage 10, more on that when it's unlocked.

 

[Tranhuviya]

Spoiler

It's a shame Getter Robo: Armageddon wasn't eligible for inclusion yet. The situation after level 9 would be perfect for it.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 2 - Bearing Disgrace

Note: the literal translation of this stage title is more along the lines of "Acquiring a Bad Name", but the fan translation goes for a more thematic translation, which, as you will see, is quite appropriate.


We start the level with Banjou Haran from Daitarn 3 at the DC Japan branch describing the Project Aegis plan:

Two things before I go on:

1. Banjou Haran is from Daitarn 3, which is basically James Bond with giant robots, with some Iron Man as Banjou is Tony Stark level rich and runs his own company, and since the plot of Daitarn 3 can be excised and Banjou's character still works well anyway, many games chuck Daitarn's plot out and just keep the good guys and have Banjou be Uncle Pennybags for the good guy teams when he not kicking ass in his sun themed mech.

Alpha mostly chucked the Daitarn plot out the window until Alpha 2.

2. Project Aegis is essentially this: Get all the various super robots and awesome power sources they use in one place, build a bunch of power converters and oversized surge protectors to hook them up to a forcefield generator, then have them create a defense matrix around the planet to withstand the gravitational wave.


Both Professor Saotome (left) and Touzan (from Brave Raideen) are at a loss for how to respond to this, and Hayato Jin sums up the insanity rather appropriately:

Given the sheer scale of this idea, he's not wrong, and some more info.

Hayato Jin is based off the classic, watered down for TV version in this game (later games would default to his more badass incarnations, like the other Getter characters), but even Classic Hayato is smart enough to realize this plan is a bit 0_o.

Banjou concedes this sounds pretty ridiculous, but the Divine Crusaders already laid most of the groundwork for this before the first war, even building a microwave relay station on the Moon, and while Banjou still is not sure it's gonna work, but considering Bian Zoldark was one of those crazy prepared guys who wanted Earth to be ready for ANYTHING, and his ideas for the SDF from Macross worked out pretty well, everyone is banking on this idea being batshit enough to work.

However, it seems another wacky scientist named Dr. Edmond had the idea a few years back, Bian liked it, and it get expanded into it's current form, and Professor Saotome confirms he met the guy at tech conference a few years before, though he's been AWOL since.

We also find out the DC invented several shelters to preserve a decent chunk of humanity if that plan goes to hell, like the Moon Cradle, located below the lunar city of Von Braun (from Mobile Suit Gundam).

At any rate, Kentarou Go (left) from Voltes V sums up the general consensus of the eggheads with this:

Banjou then goes into the specifics, saying a series of satellite relays for projecting the shield have already been set up, all they need to do is get all the tech for assembling the various power sources and converting their energy in one place for deploying it.

Then Banjou's butler and effective adjutant Garrison informs up things are nearly ready as is:

Mao Industries is a Banpresto Original organization, headed by Ring (also transliterated Rin) Mao, who was one of the protagonists of SRW4, but she's somewhat older in this universe, like she would be in the Original Generation timeline, canonically the pilot of the original Huckebein (aka Banpresto's blatant Gundam ripoff, albeit one designed by the same guy who drew the original Gundam and they do own the Sunrise company, so they can rip off what they already own).

We then get into the hard part,which is the fact they need a shit ton of power. The lunar station on the Moon can supply half the power they need, and while they planned to hotwire the Fold Engine of the SDF-1 Macross into the shield to boost the power, the Titans got to it first and asking them to hand it over without strings attached is off the table. We also discover that South Atalia island, DC's main HQ, was seized by the Titans and anything useful there confiscated as well.


Note: South Atalia was an island in the Pacific Ocean where the SDF-1 crash landed in Macross, and the DC built their main HQ there. In Original Generation, they switched to another island called AIdenous Island in roughly the same spot to write around no Macross being in that game.


Bian Zoldark kinda dropped off the map during the first game (and he only shows up for a brief cameo in the final Alpha game, mostly glad he was taken seriously and that the good guys were doing fine, his help was not needed in this universe), and the DC vice president, Shu Shirakawa, he's also AWOL.

Shu is a Masoukishin character who has genius level IQ, is smug as fuck, but also deadly serious about helping the DC, at least he was in the last game, but he's AWOL now. He also is not liked by Masoukishin's main protagonist Masaki Andoh for reasons I'll get into later, except to say he and Masaki both were on opposing sides in another world called La Gias and while they had to work together in the last game, neither liked it at all.

Touzan adds this means the SRX Project (the Super Robot X, another Banpresto Original) was seized by the Titans, which is another planned power source for the Aegis shield.

Banjou is not thrilled by this bad news, but sums up they need to figure out how to fix all this and get Aegis ready before Earth gets bukkaked by a fatal energy wave, and Touzan figures Banjou's Plan B is to use Getter Rays (Getter Robo), Photon Power (Mazinger Z), Mutron Energy (Brave Reideen), and so on to fill in the blanks.

He's correct, but before anyone can breathe easy, Judau Ashta, Gundam ZZ's hero, comes in with bad news:

He asks for clarification, and that's when Quatre from Gundam Wing comes in and elaborates:

Banjou is pissed, figuring the Titans are planning to hijack the key components of Aegis for themselves, and they basically played dumb until now to let the good guys do most of the hard work. Banjou figures they'd better get ready in case the Titans come knocking and orders the others to get ready, and while Judua wonders what they'll do to protect the other bases, Banjou points out they have defenders too.

However, before Hayato and Saotome can leave to return to the Getter Labs, the alarm klaxons signal approaching enemies.


We cut to the nighttime battle map where some enemies that look like giant mechanical bees are gathered at the southern edge. Meanwhile, the Daitarn, Judau's Double Zeta, Quatre's Sandrock, Hayato's Liger (his separate portion of the Getter Robo G), and Elpeo Puru's Quebley are deployed in the middle of the city.

Before we continue, Elpeo Puru (actually Ple, but Puru is the usual translation) was a child soldier created by Neo-Zeon in Gundam ZZ that Judau convinced to join him, and unlike canon, she survives the show.

Anyway, no one save Quatre seems to recognize the incoming enemies, and they look like meachines created by the Nubia Connection, a crime syndicate from the Braiger series. No one knows what their goal is exactly, but Banjou isn't taking chances and says they need to be shot down.

Before that happens, Puru points out the white boxes around the battlefield, and Judau explains they might have rare parts they can use later if they run over where they are (hint hint).

Anyway, here's a overview of the battle map:

The blue denotes your team, the red your enemies, and the yellow any containers with rare stuff you can pick up.

The skill point for this map will require killing all enemies that will show up on the eastern shoreline of the main landmass after the first wave of foes dies within 3 turns after their arrival, so here's what you need to do.

The Nubian machines are really damn weak scout units, so have Hayato fly over a building nearest to one of them and park there. Meanwhile, have the Daitarn and Gundam ZZ assume flight mode for greater movement and have your units move towards the middle of the eastern shoreline, snapping up the containers, one of which containing a Dual Sensor that is rather nice.

Note you have unlimited turns to get into position until the first wave is dead, so can mess around a little grabbing stuff so long as everyone is positioned at the edge of the eastern shore towards the center by the time Hayato murders the last foe of the first wave.

Make sure to conserve ammo for everyone as well in case they get attacked, you will need to save your better attacks for the next wave. Meanwhile, have Hayato pick off units as they approach, leaving one alive if need be until all other allies are in position.

Keep in mind Puru and Quatre have the support skill, so having adjacent units next to them can be very useful for getting extra attacks on foes.

Once Hayato ices the last scout unit, Judau wonders what their deal was, and Banjou remembered a tip of his from a guy named Issac (who warned him Nubia Connection was up to something lately), and that's when the next wave shows up.

...well, not quite. It's actually the good guys from the last level to the north. Everyone catches up, Kamille confirms the band broke up but is slowly reforming, Puru asks if Shakti and Karl (Usso's girlfriend and a kid they adopted) are okay, and Hayato is relieved to hear the Titans got their noses bloody trying to take the Saotome labs.

Or, if you chose to be a pussy, he's not happy to hear you ran like a bitch.

And that's when a TON of Titans forces show up near the eastern shore, including Marasais, Bylarants, some Victory Gundam mechs now incorporated into the Titans like Recarl mobile armors and Shokew mobile suits, and they are headed by Yazan 'The Animal" Gable.

You'll also notice a black Gundam and a gold unit across from it, but I'll cover that in a minute.

For those who don't know your Zeta Gundam, Yazan is the resident cockroach of the series, as he's survived shit that should have killed him more than once, and is also the resident pet lunatic of the Titans, whom he follows not so much because of ideology, but more because they don't give a shit about little things like morality so long as his kill streak includes their foes.

Kamille is stunned Yazan survived the Balmar War, and Yazan lols, mentioning yep, he's harder to kill than Kamille thought.

That's when Judau goes all 0_0 at the gold unit with the Titans, as it's the Hyaku Shiki, which should be piloted by......

Yep. Lt. Quattro Bajina (also transliterated Bagina, or, hilariously, even Vagina) aka Char Aznable's Zeta Gundam era alias.

Everyone is horrified to see a sworn enemy of the Titans on the Titans team, and while he plays evasive about why he's apparently defected, he just asks the good guys to politely surrender all assets to the Titans for Project Aegis.

That's when Emma Sheen in the black painted Gundam MK-II speaks up and confirms she wants Quattro's request honored, which really shocks everyone, as she once defected from the Titans once she realized they were evil scumbags early in the first game and the original show.

Banjou, however, senses this wasn't a clear cut betrayal, and while Quattro still evades a straight answer, Banjou realizes Quattro and Emma cannot be cooperating with the Titans willingly.

And it's quite likely something like live human bodies are being used as hostages or something similar to make them cooperate.

Yazan then snaps time for talk is over, either fall in line or prepare to get shot, then sarcastically orders Char, er, Quattro to shoot his friends if they don't surrender, with the implication Yazan is going to do the job if he won't regardless.

Banjou then tells Garrison to evacuate the noncombatants from the area via a secret passage out of the city, which will take 3 minutes (turns), but in the meantime, that means all combat forces will be serving as a distraction to prevent the Titans from killing the evacuees.

Everyone thinks this is a bit chickenshit, but Banjou points out so long as the Titans are denied the extra energy from their machines, they still can reverse things later.

With that, the three turn limit begins, and all Titan forces must be shot down in that time.

With that in mind, move all reinforcements from the top of the map in for the kill and ideally have them work on the upper flank of the Titans while the others stand ready to deal with the others if they have already moved.

Yazan's Gaplant Mobile armor isn't too much tougher than a Bylarant, and while ther Hyaku Shiki and Gundam MK-II are about the same, don't worry about going soft on either. The Marasai's are still a joke, and most of them will likely home in on Quatre, whose Sandrock takes laughable amounts of damage from them while his Heat Shotels can OHKO them. The Shokews suck slightly less damage wise, but have crappier HP and armor yet greater accuracy. Be wary of the Recarls, those bastards have high HP and hit pretty hard too.

The first turn should see most of the weaker goons die, the Hyaku Shiki and Gundam MK-II crippled, and most of your team should have enough Will to use some of their better attacks.

If Judau fights Quattro, he namedrops Puru's older clone sister Puru Two and demands to know Char's game. If Banjou fights him, while Quatrro remains silent, Banjou says he understands that, for now, Quattro has chosen to "bear disgrace".

If Quattro is shot down, he hints Banjou was correct.

Also, if anyone has the Focus spirit skill, use it to make it easier to hit enemies, but harder to hit you.

By the last turn, you should only have a few enemies left, and they should be easy to finish off. In fact, you have to be a real dumbass to screw this skill point up.

Once all foes are dead, Garrison finishes the evacuation and Banjou promises to link up with him later.

After the battle, Judau asks Banjou about Quattro's sudden change of loyalty, and Banjou reassures him Quattro is certainty cooperating under duress, and when Ryouma wonders what collateral is being held over Quattro's head, Banjou mentions after the last war some of their former members were put under house arrest by the Earth Federation military, and considering who has that by the balls now, and it's a safe bet that includes most of their friends, whom Quattro doesn't want shot anymore than you guys do, hence his reluctant cooperating with the devil.

Banjou mentions Bright Noah (Londo Bell's commander and the UC Gundam verse's longest running good guy captain) tried to discharge everyone from military service to the Earth Federation after the last war to make sure that didn't happen, but the EF brass overrode his decision and the Titans seized up as many who couldn't escape in time.

Thus, most of your friends are in Titans hand, and some of the rest are being forced to fight their former allies as a sadistic cooperate or your other friends get shot scheme.

Banjou then says your plan is to link up with the Preventers, gather as many allies as possible, then turn the screws on the Titans once your forces are reconstituted.

Marbet confirms she was able to send the Preventers a distress call, so they will be showing up as reinforcements if you guys hold out long enough, and Benkei finally demands to know what the Preventers are.

The Preventers in SRW AG are what happened when former members of anti-Titans groups like the AEUG and Karaba and members of the League Militaire from Victory Gundam decided to form a successor to Londo Bell from the last war due to foreseeing the bullshit the Titans were gonna pull, but the problem is getting the band back together in full now.

Note: The Preventers hail from Gundam Wing's Movie, and the SRW AG version includes former OZ (Organization of the Zodiac) members from that series who turned good guy.

We also found out that before Bright Noah got placed under house arrest, he arranged to spread out all the former members of Londo Bell to make it harder for the non EF military among them to be coerced into helping the Titans.

So now you have to link up with the other Preventers and put the band back together to stop the Titans and get Project Aegis back on track ASAP.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 3 - V Sign to Victory


We start this stage at the Nanabara Connection Labs where the Choudenji Super Robot Combattler (Choudenji is Japanese for Electromagnetic) was created, and they are currently under siege by the Titans.

As Ropet shits a digital brick, Professor Yotsuya (one of the eggheads who built the Combattler) is wondering how no one noticed them:

He's also wondering how their own security system didn't fire up and start taking potshots at people trying to get on their lawn, and Ropet reports the system was disabled by someone.

That's when Professor Nanbara (the other egghead who built Combattler) shows up to explain how:

Yotsuya is stunned cause he thought they had changed the security locks awhile back, and more bad news is that special ops troops are currently making ingress on the grounds, so they try to radio the Far East base to get some information, but the line jammed with ECM (electronic counter measures) according to Ropet.

Nanbara orders Yotsuya to get his granddaughter Chizuru and the others out of there, but that's when Ropet reports intruders are entering their part of thebase.

One explosion and some gunfire later, the door to their part of the labs comes down, and Kackrinon orders them to freeze.

And just as Yotsuya is about to ask what the hell is going on, Jerid shows up:

Jerid makes it clear the Nanbara Connection is under Titan control now, and that it would be best for the staff to surrender peacefully. Nanbara and Yotsuya immediately realize they want to seize the Combattler and its pilots, and when Jerid demands to have their location to place them under Titans custody, Yotsuya tries to get them to get their head out of their ass, but Nanbara tells him arguing with the Titans is pointless, then he goes on a brief nihilistic spiel about how the Titans have sealed mankind's fate, but this is just to distract the Titans so Yotsuya can take Ropet and escape.

And for that little act of defiance, Professor Nanbara, who survived his canon death in the first game, finally dies in this one as Jerid shoots him.

As Nanbara bleeds out, his last words are for Yotsuya to keep Combattler out of Titans hands.

We then cut to the main hangar, where Combattler pilots Hyouma and Juuzou are pinned down, and while Juuzou has managed to pick a few off sniper style, it's only a matter of time before they are gonna be drowned in Titan reinforcements.

They realize the Titans haven't flattened the place, so they obviously want Combattler intact, and Chizuru wonders about her granddaddy:

Hyouma wants to bust out of their with the Battler Machines that make up the Combattler and kick some Titans ass, but the hangar is locked down.

That's when Yotsuya shows up and tells them they need to run, deliberately not going over Nanbara's fate in the process. They don't want to just up and run, but Yotsuya tells them they need to deny the Titans possession of Combattler above all else, and once they escape, they need to head for Nagano and link up with the Preventers.

Yotsuya plans to stay behind, kick open the hangar door and buy them some time, and when they still prove a little reluctant, he tells them if they die here, everything they did in the last war was for nothing.

Note: Yotsuya's dialogue is rendered somewhat informally, transliterated as sounding somewhat Southern, as he was a bit of a drunkard in canon (albeit one with a good heart underneath it all).

That gets the Combattler team off their asses, and the stage finally begins.

Four of the five Battler Machines launch, and Titans commander Buran takes note of this, as does Lyla Meia Jura, who, while never a member of the Titans, is effectively consider one as she was basically a liaison officer from the regular Earth Federation military who worked with them and shared their basic core ideology.

Lyla also comments that Jerid fucked up again, and this is hilarious for Zeta Gundam fans.

If you never watched it, Lyla was both Jerid's superior officer and one he had the hots for, especially after she handed him his ass once, and in canon, she got offed before Jerid could prove himself enough of man for her.

SRW games usually let her live past her canon death and count her as a Titans member (although she never dons the Nazi style outfits they wear) for story purposes, which all kinds of amusing since Jerid eventually gets a second love interest, which is all kinds of weird since Lyla is still alive.

Anyway, we cut to Hyouma, who noticed Chizuru's Battle Marine hasn't launched yet:

This sucks because she apparently was worried about granddad and went back in with Ropet, and that REALLY sucks because without her and Ropet, they can't combine their machines into Combattler.

Fellow Combattler pilots Kosuke (obligatory kid genius) and Daisaku (obligatory gentle giant) realize they can't run and notice the Titans outfitted their forces with former Jupiterian (Victory Gundam) mechs as well as their usual assortment of mobile suits, but Hyouma tells them suck up it up, looks like they'll have to kill all Titans until Chizuru can launch.

To this, Buran puts Lt. Lyla in charge, and says he doesn't care if the machines get shot down, they already have one in custody (Chizuru's).

This leaves your guys having to fight a ton of Titans goons as the battle starts.

Here's the tactical map of the situation:

The blue guys are you, and if you are smart, they'll camp out on the Nanbara Connection tiles for defense and recovery bonuses, their machines will get blown the hell up otherwise.

To the west is Lyla in a Bylarant with some Shokew reinforcements, and to the north are some Asshimars (mobile suits which in flight mode look like yellow flying saucers) and a Recarl mobile armor, and Buran pilots the lead Asshimar.

There is also a small leavening of Marasais.

For the next few turns, basically be a camping fag and shoot anything in range of your weapons, and be careful not to go outside the protective screen of the Nanbara Connection, you lose if even one Machine dies.

The Shokews and Marasais will come for you first, and so long as you are careful, they should be easy kills, and don't worry about conserving ammo, you only need to hold out a few turns. Also, prioritize the Shokews for death, they hit harder than the Marasais.

After a turn or two, Lyla quits twiddling her thumbs and moves in for the kill.

You'll know you no longer need to hold out when Jerid says this:

Sure enough, he has Chizuru and Yotsuya hostage, and that's when Yotsuya finds his balls once more and decides to use himself as a human shield so Chizuru can make a break for it, and in the process he finally spits out that her grandfather died, and if she does take this chance to get in her machine, his death will have been in vain.

She manages to bust out of there, but the Titans follow, with a few more Marasai and ground deployed Asshimars near your position as well as Jerid and Kackrinon in two Titans colored Gundam Mk-IIs.

Seems Yotsuya distracted the Titans with a minibomb, and the Combattler team thinks Yotsuya is dead now too, which only enrages them, and Hyouma orders the team to combine their machines, and in classic cheesy Super Robot fashion, they all yell COMBINE in Engrish, as Ropet starts the sequence.

As the Combattler team forms the Combattler V, Jerid tells Kakcrinon they need to shoot it down, hopefully generally intact for capture.

However, the tables have turned now, as despite all the enemies around you, Combattler is a damn tank, and so long as you are parked over the Nanbara Connection, the Titans will be little more than a bunch of targets doing laughable damage, and I recommend killing as many as you can.

Keep in mind Combattler has a shitload of attack options, but try to conserve your really damaging ammo based attacks for later, you'll need them for the skill point.

Here's what Combattler looks like, and another one of the bugs of the game rears it's ugly head here:

Due to a memory pointer issue with the translation patch, sometimes you'll see text fuckups like in the above shot, which are harmless but annoying.

Anyway, now you have Combattler V, make the Titans your bitch. You also get some shit talk if you fight a named Titans member.

Good news, after a turn, you get some help, in the form of the Reideen from Brave Reideen, accompanied by it's peppy theme tune.

Hyouma asks Akira (Reideen's pilot) if Mutropolis (the floating seagoing base of Raideen) is safe, and they were able to close the Big Shell (cause it looks like giant clam) and prevent enemy ingress.

At any rate, he's here to help.

See the spoiler for some miscellaneous Reideen sperging.

Spoiler

Reideen is one of those series that got the shaft in SRW portrayals. In the classic games, it got an incredibly abbreviated ending to its own canon so it could be used without plot attachments, and while most of the first half of the plot was covered in the first Alpha game, it shows up here minus plot, and the second half was never shown, just wrapped up offscreen by Alpha 2.

After that, it's almost never shown back up in other games.

Anyway, Akira was told by his boss Touzan to link up with the Preventers, but he noticed the Titans here, and he wants to help.

However, as Raideen joins up, Buran remarks to himself he's glad he prepared for this.

Anyway, I'd let Raideen build up some Will by killing Titans goons, it will help for the skill point about to come up. Akira also gets in some shit talk if he fights a named Titans goon.

Note around this time Buran and his goon squad finally move in for the kill as well. Also, don't get too cocky, because while the grunts are little more than jokes, the named Titans can still kill you if they get lucky, so take them out and use any spirit skills like Focus for evasion/accuracy bonuses and Vigor/Guts for healing, especially because the enemies will prioritize taking down Combattler, and you lose if they do.

After a turn or two, some more Titans goons show up to your immediate north, including some Xamels, bird like mechs called Contios (from Victory Gundam), and a flying black brick that is actually the Psyco Gundam, which is basically a big evil looking Gundam shaped behemoth capable of wrecking your shit.

Some miscellaneous Psycho/Psyco Gundam sperging in the spoiler:

Spoiler

The Psyco Gundam is often called the Psycho Gundam by fans because it has a really damn high chance of driving it's pilot crazy if they weren't already nuts, but the Psyco is actually short for "Psycommu System"

The Titans, being hypocrites and Space Nazis, hate anyone born in space and especially Newtypes, Gundam's answer to Star Wars Jedi. However, they created their own bastardized version called Cyber-Newtypes doing immoral shit that would make Mengele proud to pilot units outfitted with the Psycommu System, which augments the power of the unit based on their Newtype potential.

Paired with the Psyco Gundam, a massive ass kicking behemoth, this makes a machine powered up by Jedi mind tricks very deadly, but there is one catch:

The Titans bastardized Newtype ripoffs are some degree of mentally fucked up from the process of being made Cyber-Newtypes, and the Psyco Gundam generally causes a feedback loop that drives them utterly rabid to the point of being out of control sooner or later.

Given the Titans don't really give a shit about the morality of this nor give a damn about Cyber-Newtypes outside their utility value, they don't really see this as a downside, as this sort of thing is basically a suicide weapon they deploy to do as much as damage as possible anyway.

It's being piloted by Rosamia Badam, a woman of questionable sanity who is convinced the sky is gonna fall like Chicken Little, and because the Titans told her you're responsible, she wants to kill you with her mini skyscraper sized robot of Fuck You.

She heads over to Combattler and proceeds to open a can of whoop-ass:

The resultant effect of getting cold cocked by a shitload of laser cannon fire nearly wrecks Combattler V's shit, and as Hyouma and his team desperately try to keep from having Combattler blow up on them, Rosamia sounds like a lunatic as she blames them for the sky falling, and plans to finish you off.

Buran orders her to stop, as they need to CAPTURE Combattler, and as she almost loses control of her remaining sanity trying to comply, Buran facepalms as he realizes her mind needs a mind wipe back at the Titans lab because her eggs are getting a bit too scrambled by the Psyco Gundam (which is really like putting a band-aid on the problem of driving someone permanently insane piloting a machine that fucks with their head, but who said the Titans were smart?)

However, Hyouma refuses to die like a bitch before the Psyco Gundam, and in classic 80's anime fashion, Yotsuya makes a dramatic voice mail to show he's not dead and tells Hyouma he cannot die here, and that prompts Hyouma to have a heroic second wind.

Cue Combattler's theme as Yotsuya tells their V sign for Victory to stand tall, and this results in a lot of dramatic screaming about not losing and Combattler getting it's energy and HP refilled to full.

Once this bit of classic anime tropes plays out, your Skill Point goal is this.

KILL THAT PSYCO GUNDAM.

It will retreat after about over half it's HP is gone though, so you have to be careful because if it retreats, you lose out on that Skill Point.

The good news is that there is no time limit, you just need to make sure you do enough damage to kill the damn thing, so you can take your time having Reideen and Combattler killing all the other enemies and making sure both have enough energy and Will points to use their best attacks.

The Psyco Gundam can still do a fair amount of damage, and it will likely park on the Nanbara Connection, thus gaining a defense and recovery bonus, but this can work in your favor to get it's HP just low enough you can murder it in one shot before it runs.

But more good news after a turn or two:


The rest of the good guy team has shown up to kick some ass, and the heroic theme from Super Robot Wars Alpha plays to punctuate this.

Kamille feels a Newtype presence in the Psyco Gundam, but can't tell who it is (he never met Rosamia in person in the first game, that's why), but she does sense him and knows who he is.

With the other good guys around, you can still get that skill point whenever you are ready, then grab all the containers on the field and kill the rest of the goons.

That's basically it for this level.

BTW, you now have the fully formed Getter Robo G now, so have fun, Getter fanboys:

I'll cover everything after this fight in the next post.