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

[Jaimas]

Stage 13: Sanctum of the Innocent


We start this level with Jiron yelling about how Timp ran for cover in the Innocent dome and how that's no coincidence, but everyone else points out the Innocent generally don't let people waltz in without a pass and blue stones.

Jiron counters, correctly, that Timp is under Innocent aegis, but Cotset thinks that's exceptional. The other Sand Rats think Jiron need to guzzle some "Lol, calm down", and point out even if Jiron is right, the domes are neutral ground, so no matter how pissed Jiron is, neither he nor Timp can start shit in one.

We then cut inside the dome, where Biel is hearing Elche out. He lets her off on the fight nearby, saying it was self defense and the Innocent do not find her at fault. He then subtly needles Dowas by stating it was obvious Elche didn't intend to start said fight, and not only does he let their blue stone delivery happen like usual, he asks her to do him a favor, and he'll give the Iron Gear a new weapon.

Said favor is letting him meet the Irregulars and Jiron Amos personally, which Elche is happy to comply with.

After she leaves, Dowas is not sure this is a good idea, but Biel nearly makes Dowas shit himself by pointing out it's not bad the arbitrary rules got broken every once in awhile, and when Dowas objects, Biel points out that not only are there people similar in culture living on the other side of the world (referring to the Turn A Earth cast), but also that Innocent don't need to hold the hand of the people under their demense forever, and also points out the Moon Race is planning to invade and they can't afford the trouble.

Dowas makes reference to a guy named Kashim, who claims the Irregulars could be a Moon Race vanguard, which Biel rejects out of hand, pointing out the tech differences are too great for that to be plausible, even referencing legends of mechanical giants (Alpha-verse era). Dowas thinks the White Devil is likely more real than that, and then they discuss about how they could have come from the past, and while both are unaware of any time travel tech at present, doesn;t mean it's outside possibility.

See spoiler for stuff that will be important to keep in mind later:

Spoiler

In the first Alpha, a few forces, like the Balmar, had access to various weaponry with dimension warping powers, and Shu Shirakawa's Granzon, as you may have already guessed, had a time-space dilation engine, and it going nova was what flung everyone into a time warp.

Dowas then reasonably points out blindly trusting the Irregulars given the lack of solid data is risky, but Biel points out the imminent Moon Race threat leaves them little choice but to take that risk.

Dowas outwardly agrees, but remarks to himself he worried the Iron Gear crew could be a threat to the Innocent and plans to have Timp go after them again.


We cut back to the Iron Gear, where Elche relays the news, and when they find out Elche got a new piece of weaponry for the Iron Gear, Kenichi brings up the very valid point that if they got all their kit from the Innocent, they could be acting as weaponry testers for Innocent engineers, and they also point out Xabungle and the Iron Gear are more similar to mobile suits and super robots than other Xabungle stuff like walker machines (a reference to the fact some rejected sketches for stuff from other Tomino works were dusted off and recycled for Xabungle), and points out that could mean they are mean to handlemore than just walker machines, like foes from space.

Chiru doesn't believe that, but Rag thinks Tetsuya's onto something, as have the Innocent send Breakers to attack them to get weapon data makes sense.

Rag and Elche nearly start another catfight, and that's when an attack occurs, right on the Innocent's front doorstep.

We cut to the battle map, where Timp is a bit annoyed he couldn't have shot Jiron in the dome where he least expected it, but it's not all bad, he has more maneuver room outside anyway.

Jiron pops out to shoot his ass, and Timp accidentally lets slip he's working for the Innocent, which only makes Jiron go "I KNEW IT!", then as Dowas is about to have a heart attack, Jiron then asks if the Innocent ordered Timp to murder his parents, and Timp gets offended Jiron even thinks he'd do shit like that as a job.

Meanwhile, Biel is really annoyed at Dowas and suspects Dowas has been plotting behind his back, and as he facepalms at how that might have revealed Timps connection to them, Elche comes to the horrified conclusion Jiron wasn't being exceptional.

Meanwhile, Jiron is about to beat Timp crosseyed, and while Timp tries to repair the damage he did letting his Innocent connections slip, Jiron doesn't give a shit, all he wants to see is Timp's bloody corpse.

With that, the fight formally begins, tactical map time:

View attachment 381407
The Skill Point for this level is really easy, just kill Timp's Government is two turns, not very hard to do at all.

Note, it will appear Timp died if Jiron kills hims, but he'll be back.

Anyway, once you get the Skill Point or not, Vickman and some of his goons will show up to compound things,meaning you'll have to fight them too. The Voltes team are sure Vickman is being used by the Innocent too, and in any event, you'll have to fight them for the next few turns.

After a few turns pass, Vickman decides to play his trump card, but Elche decides to beat him to the punch and uses the new Potan Cannon the Innocent gave her.

It works, wiping out all the Duggers guarding Vickman's ship, but then Elche goes all 0_0 in shock as Vickman plays his own trump.

He has one of his own.

Elche is shocked, she was told it was a one of a kind weapon for the Iron Gear only, and Vickman comes to the realization he's been used, but he doesn't give a shit, so long as he takes down the Iron Gear.

As the fight resumes, take down Vickman's remaining troops and beat his landship into scrap. He'll either run or die, either one works.

And that when things get weird as a jamming field fires up, tech that shouldn't be around here in this day and age.

And that's when we see a bunch of Turn A Mahiroos, led by the Frost Brothers, Shagia and Olba, who were doing recon and stumbled across your team. Olba wonders if they should fight your team, but Shagia says they need to make sure neither the Turn A or GX fall into Innocent hands.

With that, they leave the Mahiroos to annoy you, while Olba leaves us with this comment:

View attachment 381413
These are the Mahiroos:

View attachment 381418
They aren't too hard, but are decent ranged units, so be wary as you kill them.

As you finish, Biel radios you all to congratulate on your hard work, and while everyone is suspicious, they do want answers.

Upon entering the Innocent Dome, everyone goes through a sterilization procedure (keep this in mind for later), then they enter a place that looks, compared to the Mad Max outside, civilized.

View attachment 381425
Elche is all agog at how nice it looks, but Tetsuya and Megumi notice it's totally sterile, like the controlled atmosphere of a space colony, and based on what happened earlier, the Ascencion of Light was space tech the Innocent were deploying against the latest threat.

When everyone meets Biel, he first thanks them for defending P-Point from the Moon Race. He also confirms the Moon Race are enemies to everyone on the planet, and his description of them sounds like a rehash of the Universal Century Gundam space colonies versus Earth bullshit.

Biel then asks where the Preventers came from, and Kenichi replies honestly, and while Biel is somewhat confused, he admits that while he'd like to clear up any confusion they have, most of records of the past are sealed as the 'Black History", and only Director class Innocent have access to all the archives.

This however tells the Voltes team something, that the time they are in is basically a future where they failed to prevent the gravitational shockwave.

Biel then changes the subject and says he will provides supplies and information insofar as it's available to him at no charge, save them doing him a favor in return. Jiron calls bullshit on this and points out they now know Vickman and Timp are Innocent puppets and that they'd be fools to trust Biel without an explanation bare minimum.

Biel concedes that have a point, and explains he can clear that up, as his request dovetails into the explanation for that crap.

First, he'd like them to join the fight against the Moon Race, and confirms yes, Vickman was used to test the new weapons developed for fighting the Moon Race, and his fighting you was no accident. He however denies Timp's association with the Innocent, claiming he's a liaison for Vickman.

Tetsuya then snarks that since they won the shell game the Innocent played with them, that makes them the Innocent's chosen warriors, and Biel tells him if he wants to see that way, fair enough. He then admits he has no ability to compel them to fight the Moon Race, but the threat isn't going away even if they don't.

Elche wisely asks for time to think ti over, and Biel concedes that's reasonable.

We cut to the Iron Gear where Elche says they'll need to cross the ocean to do what Biel wants, and when everyone expresses shock (this deviates from canon, where they didn't do this), she adds she found out they weren't the only ones asked by the Innocent to head over there, so to some extent they did not lie.

Jiron, oddly, wants to do it, figuring they'll find out the Innocent's angle if they do, and if they do this, the location will be a place called Fort Severn (Gundam X location).

The Voltes team presents a counterargument, saying trusting the Innocent completely would be dumb, and sticking behind to gather intel would also be prudent.

It's at this point I'm gonna stop, as we get a route split either way:

If we go to Fort Severn, we get to follow Gundam X canon.

If we don't, we'll follow Turn A Gundam canon.

Both routes will end at the same place, but I'll let you guys decide which one gets covered first, and I'd particularly like @Jaimas to weigh in before I pick a route to do first before I cover the other.

Goddamn the entire Moonrace. Every time you turn around in the Gundamverse they're fucking things up for someone someplace, and they're responsible for two of the most cancerous maps in all of Gundam Versus' single-player mode. I'll upload 'em some time.

Given how canon works I'm going to go with the branch of Turn A I hate the least, so we'll be siding with Loran on this one. After all, anyone who can put up with his crew pulling this shit deserves some kind of credit:

 

[Kiwi Jeff]

I vote Gundam X because it was the best 90s Gundam show

 

[GethN7]

I vote Gundam X because it was the best 90s Gundam show

Okay 1 vote for Turn A, one for Gundam X. If anyone wants to tie break, let me know.

In the meantime, I feel the need to explain something so people need to know just how they managed to make the apocalyptic backstories of Xabungle, Turn A, and Gundam X play nice before we get to that.

Xabungle and Turn A had apocalyptic backstories in the distant past, so to make them work was easy, all they really had to do was make sure that the world settings didn't conflict, and they don't, since Gallia, where Xabungle takes place, is situated roughly around Northern Africa while Turn A, amusingly enough, is situated in the American South (right down to the characters from that region looking like an anime take on Gone With the Wind fashion wise).

Since they could place the two settings far enough apart to prevent conflicts, those worked fine, but Gundam X required a little more creativity, since it's apocalyptic scenario is set fifteen years prior to the start of the plot and takes place on an Earth roughly similar to ours topographically, just one that got bitchslapped by a ton of space shit awhile back.

Without giving too much away until later, it wasn't just the failure to prevent the gravitational shockwave that Earth has gone through, the planet has been brutally assraped more than once since then, and the Gundam X plot takes place after the most recent assrape of the planet, and since the ages of the Xabungle and Turn A cast roughly line up with the Gundam X cast due to this, the three settings exist in harmony, though they were forced to play fast and loose with all but a few specific locations to avoid any geographical conflicts, but the way they structured the plot and how the planet geography looks post-Stage 9 meant they could still get pretty creative anyway.

The tech level of all three shows is also all over the map.

Xabungle has gas powered robots.

Turn A has nanomachines and self healing robots.

Gundam X is about UC Gundam 0083-0093 level technology wise, except they don't have Minovsky Particle based physics.

This actually becomes a major plot point. Won't spoil exactly how this is, though.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 14 - Uninvited Guests (Turn A Route)

Okay, flipped a coin to break the tie, Turn A Gundam won out, so here we go.

Since we chose not to head directly for Fort Severn do this route, we cut back to Biel and Dowas, and Biel figures it isn't so much important they head straight to Fort Severn, but more they just cross the ocean and interdict the Moon Race, who want control of the Sun Belt region of North Ameria.

We also discover there is a big rift in the Innocent. While Biel hopes the military result of sending the Breakers over to interdict the Moon Race will help out the Kashim loyalists, he still wants to adhere to the original intent of the Innocent, which is help the Civilians crawl until they can walk, then let them do their thing from there, but Dowas, as a Kashim loyalist, knows that means the Innocent will eventually fall from power and he doesn't want that, but Biel tells him to just continue to observe things for now.

The Bazaar is open again, and we can buy the following:

Units:

Dugger x 1
Caprico x 1
Government x 1


Parts:

Dual Sensor x 2


If you got the blue stones, get the Government, it pisses all over the Caprico in stats.



Anyway, we cut away from the Iron Gear guys for awhile, and instead link up with Akira, Mari, Kou, Monsha, and Keith on the outskirts of an old fashioned town,and while they don't know where they are, it's not Dakar or anywhere in Africa.

Monsha then asks Akira if Sarumaru's jamming gear is working, just in case. It is, but they don't seem to need it at present.

And that's when they spot someone on a nearby mountain.

Two things: First, that's Loran Cehack, and this stage is retreading the first episodes of Turn A. Second, see the hole in the mountain. Mountains that look like that are called "Mountain Cycles", and buried in them are new parts and/or units, so be on the lookout, some nice units can be found in them.

They first mistake Loran for a girl (see below spoiler for why), and he's digging something up, a unit called a FLAT (Moon Race unit), and he remarks he's going to be taking part in the coming of age ceremony for the village of Vicinity soon.

Spoiler

In the original plans for Turn A Gundam, Yoshiyuki Tomino wanted to have a female hero protagonist, but the TV executives voted that down, so to troll them, he made Loran as girly looking as humanly possible, to the point Loran later gets dolled up in some pretty convincing drag later for story reason.

He remarks Earth is a wonderful place and yells to the skies for the others to come back to it.

If you haven't guessed, Loran is from the Moon Race, he was sent to Earth in advance to check it out.

Later, after Kou leaves, they check out the MS Loran dug up, and they don't recognize the registration.

We then have Monsha confirm mobile suits and bipedal machines have only existed as commonplace tech from their perspective for the past seven to eight years (from the backstory of Alpha 1 to present), so that can only mean, given the FLAT is not made from that time period, they must be in the future.

However, it seems technology has taken awhile to return to modern day,and is currently only up to 20th century standards, including combustion and reciprocating engines. Keith wonders if it's purposely a time capsule of the past, like the Texas colony from the original Mobile Suit Gundam, but Monsha votes that down and instead wants to know what civilization centers are around.

The only one is near the coast, so Monsha tells Keith and Kou to take Akira's bike from Raideen's chest cavity (Akira's a biker when not mech piloting) and do some recon next morning.

We cut to the town next morning, where Kou gets a newspaper from a girl named Fran.

He astounded to see a newspaper of actual paper (not common in the space era), and he and Akira play evasive with where they are from and find out they are having a military parade for their militia soon.

FYI, their militia has tech that is OLD. We are talking, World War I-early WWII level old at latest.

Compared to mobile suits, that's like a dude in a flak jacket with a pistol taking on a modern day tank.

Oddly enough, the weaponry is for defense from invasion from the Gallian continent, hence the Militia.

With that, Kou and Akira leave,and Loran and a woman named Kihel show up, as well as a girl named Sochie.

As you can see, Loran here is almost as girly looking as Kihel. Also, Kihel is Kihel Heim, Sochie is her younger sister. Also, despite what Sochie thinks, he's not sticking with them, he just dropped them off while Kihel meets with a guy called Sir Guin (also transliterated Gwen, but that's a girl's name, so I'm going with the more correct translation).

BTW, Sochie here has a thing for Loran, which he's pretty oblivious to.

Anyway, both sisters have an argument about Sochie wanting to get a job with the military, instead of college or something less rough and tumble, but Sochie is one of those empowered types and points out Kihel is being hypocritical, given how she's trying to find a job too.

Later, both Sochie and Loran will be having their coming of age ceremony,and Kihel admonishes both to do it properly.

We cut to Sir Guin, who is conferring with a Militia leader:

Apparently Guin here is moving up their military parade because the invaders they been expecting are closer than before, and he tells Colonel Mikhail of the Militia to be ready.

We then cut to a nearby mountain in front of the "White Doll" (three guesses what it actually is, first two don't count) where Sochie and Loran take their vows of adulthood with flowers and leaves in their hair tribal style.

Meanwhile, two guys named Josef and Sid are having a conversation about Josef wondering why they do traditions like this in a age where machines are making a comeback, and Sid points out they don't need a logical reason for it:

BTW, Sid here is named for the American art designer of the Turn A Gundam.

They then discuss excavating treasures from the Mountain Cycles,mention the guys crossing the ocean, and even rumors of the Moon Race, with Sid remarking to himself they'll be very busy soon.

We cut back to the ceremony, where Loran is bit squeamish about finishing the rite of adulthood for Sochie, where he has to use leeches to make six stigmata marks on her back, and then we segue into the level opening proper.

Akira and Mari and watching the ceremony not from far off, and wonder if the White Doll isn't a robot in disguise, as Reideen was discovered in a similar manner,and Mari tries in vain to get Akira in a romantic mood, but he's oblivious.

And that's when shit explodes.

Loran realizes it's a long range battleship cannon, and apparently the Moon Race has finally launched Operation Homecoming.

Meanwhile, two Moon Race units appear briefly, led by a woman named Poe, who tells the other to head back, she's got this area.

Meanwhile, the shock from the attack shook apart the White Doll, revealing it's a half buried Mobile Suit as Turn A Gundam's theme song fires up, and while Sochie is all 0_0, Loran is, but for different reasons, it appears to be fully operational despite it's long burial.

Loran tells Sochie to get inside the White Doll, it's safer, and as Loran puts it's helmet on it starts to move for him.

Meanwhile, Poe finally notices from where she is in the nearby city, and she's stunned a Mobile Suit reading is detected. Meaning, the Turn A moves on it's own and fires at Poe's WaDom (Walking Dome),and the stunned Poe wonders if it isn't a secret Innocent superweapon.

Loran recognizes the WaDom but obviously doesn't share it with Sochie, albeit accidentally lets slip a little about his MS knowledge but covers well.

And with that, the fight begins:

The goal here is simple: Destroy Poe's WaDom in 4 turns.

Here's the Turn A, huge mustache and all:

Aside from decent terrain stats and low grade HP regen, it's not all that special now, but as the game goes on, it will get insanely overpowered.

Here's the WaDom.

As the design shows, it's an artillery unit, and Poe Aijee here is a decent shot. However, don't worry, you'll get some help in killing this thing before the 4 turns are up.

After about two turns and a few shots are exchanged between the WaDom and Turn A, Monsha and the others shit themselves wondering what the fuck the WaDom is.

Kou is more interested in the Gundam, which has the color for demonstration model Gundams (as opposed to the more practical military paint jobs), but Monsha refuses to believe it's a Gundam due to it lacking the head crest and instead having a huge stache.

Note, this references two fan complaints about Gundam. The first is how the usual bright colors for Gundams aren't very practical for military tech, this was imposed by toy producers on the creators of the Gundam franchise, so they used the explanation the mass produced models have military markings, the demonstration prototypes have the bright paint to distinguish them.

The second remark is referencing how fans found the design of the Turn A very strange from the usual Gundam look.

And that's when Akira decides to get off his ass and help out the white unit, and Monsha is all "WUT?".

Akira is not listening, people could die, so everyone sorties.

Poe is all 0_0 over the new arrivals, this was not in the recon reports. Meanwhile, given how they don;t match Moon Race tech but look closer to the Turn A, Loran assumes they are friendly.

As the fight resumes, beat the WaDom retarded. It won't run away and there is no time limit, just kill it in under 4 turns, which is very easy to accomplish.

Once you shoot Poe down, two more drop from the sky, and Monsha wonders if the Aerogaters are making a comeback (codename for the Balmar based on their favored tactic of orbital drop strikes)

Killing these two WaDom shouldn't be much harder than taking Poe down, so no special strategy needed here. If you don't finish them in a turn or two, they run, but that's fine, killing Poe got the Skill Point.

With that, Monsha and the others decide to fade into the stonework, and the White Doll finally stops moving.

As the stage ends, Sochie notices the Moon Race attack left Vicinity in flames.

We cut over to Guin, who apparently has the Moon Race on the horn, and he's pissed their first act was to attack people, but they warned him awhile back they'd do this shit, and worse will happen if he doesn't surrender now.

Meanwhile, Colonel Mikhail gets a call tells him two entire battalions of the Inglessia military were just wiped out, and as Kihel is all aghast, Guin reveals they had been in communications with the Moon Race in advance, but despite promising signs, something has gone south, but Guin still claims he doesn't believe it impossible to work things out with their leader Diana Sorrel of the Diana Counter.

And that's when Sid calls Guin, with news of Turn A emerging from what they called the White Doll, and he calls Loran Laura (cause he looks so girly, but he has another reason, see spoiler below for more info), and upon hearing of the Preventers who showed up to help, he orders Sid to dig up the surrounding area, and gives him leave to request Militia reinforcements for help.

Meanwhile, as he hears Moon Race troops flying overhead, he screams, as if to tell them "back the fuck off" that:

"We have excavated the mechanical dolls spoken of in the Black History!"

Spoiler

Guin is, even though the show never outright said it, GAY. In fact, he has the hots for Loran, and this was done partially out of spite by Tomino to the TV execs because Loran had to be male.

However, given Loran is barely 16 and Guin is around his twenties but could pass for early thirties, it just makes him come off as a creepy fuck.

The other reason this was done was to hint Guin has some hidden motives, not just the fact he's somewhat in the closet, more on that as the game progresses.

Anyway, this stage has ended, and the Bazaar is temporarily unavailable.

I invite @Jaimas or anyone else who remembers more of Turn A than I do to make sure I haven't screwed anything up, been forever since I watched it.

 

[Jaimas]

Wadom

FUCK YOU

I have a particularly obnoxious hateboner for Turn A's Moonrace, and this fucking thing nicely shows why. It's an obnoxiously overpowered Mobile Armor with a retarded amount of firepower due to villain fiat, and even in the games it shows up in where it's not the most ridiculous thing on the battlefield (read: Gundam Versus) it shows up in fucking groups and exists to be as much of a pain in the dick as humanly possible. Fucking all of Turn A is like this because the Moonrace faction consists of the biggest dickbags in all of Gundam. Yes, worse than the entire Zabi family and Captain M'Quve. Yes, worse than Alejandro "The UN is perfectly down with this series of War Crimes" Corner.

The entire story of Turn A is as follows: The Moonrace has designs on taking earth back after living on the moon in a Utopian society for generations for reasons that aren't well explored. It sends a couple of kids out as scouts, but shit goes south and the Kids make friends with the earthlings. Moonrace forces invade some time later and the Earth's mobile suit technology is badly outdated, with their best shit being mothballed crap from the one-year war (which happened centuries ago) with only marginally improved tech behind it due to there not being much of a need for it (hence the Zaku-like Borjarnon suits). One of the moonrace kids finds the goddamned Turn A in drydrock, and uses it to help protect earth, but throws himself into combat against his one-time allies in the process.

Why does Moonrace want earth? Fuck you, that's why. At least the Principality of Zeon fought and died for something, and Ai-Saachez had an understandable fucking motive behind his psychopathy.

At least Turn A did bring us one of the funniest bits in any Anime ever, however:

 

[Kiwi Jeff]

The one thing that Gaiden does right about Turn A, is that the final battle with the Turn X is actually fun

 

[GethN7]

FUCK YOU

I have a particularly obnoxious hateboner for Turn A's Moonrace, and this fucking thing nicely shows why. It's an obnoxiously overpowered Mobile Armor with a retarded amount of firepower due to villain fiat, and even in the games it shows up in where it's not the most ridiculous thing on the battlefield (read: Gundam Versus) it shows up in fucking groups and exists to be as much of a pain in the dick as humanly possible. Fucking all of Turn A is like this because the Moonrace faction consists of the biggest dickbags in all of Gundam. Yes, worse than the entire Zabi family and Captain M'Quve. Yes, worse than Alejandro "The UN is perfectly down with this series of War Crimes" Corner.

The entire story of Turn A is as follows: The Moonrace has designs on taking earth back after living on the moon in a Utopian society for generations for reasons that aren't well explored. It sends a couple of kids out as scouts, but shit goes south and the Kids make friends with the earthlings. Moonrace forces invade some time later and the Earth's mobile suit technology is badly outdated, with their best shit being mothballed crap from the one-year war (which happened centuries ago) with only marginally improved tech behind it due to there not being much of a need for it (hence the Zaku-like Borjarnon suits). One of the moonrace kids finds the goddamned Turn A in drydrock, and uses it to help protect earth, but throws himself into combat against his one-time allies in the process.

Why does Moonrace want earth? Fuck you, that's why. At least the Principality of Zeon fought and died for something, and Ai-Saachez had an understandable fucking motive behind his psychopathy.

At least Turn A did bring us one of the funniest bits in any Anime ever, however:

Well, @Jaimas, SRW feels your pain, and this game does a lot to mellow the stupid of Turn A.

That whole selfish motives of the Moon Race that you pissed you off? Well, they get called on their shit.

Also, living on the Moon would eventually be a space and resources issue, part of the reason the Moon Race came down to Earth was to solve that. However, the selfish, ass backwards way they went about doing this gets bitch slapped multiple times through the plot of Alpha Gaiden.

In fact, they do this with all of Xabungle and Gundam X too. All the stupid of those shows is relentlessly called on their shit too.

The one thing that Gaiden does right about Turn A, is that the final battle with the Turn X is actually fun

Amen to this. Especially on the Hard route. It's like training for the true final boss.

 

[GethN7]

Making a separate post for @Jaimas on the kind of stupid SRW is fond of avoiding, calling out, or fixing, just for Gundam alone before I resume with the AG Let's Sperg.

Original Gundam: A lot of the character deaths can be avoided, some games even allow you to save Degwin Zabi and General Revil from dying in the Solar Ray incident. Kycilla Zabi will sometimes call a ceasefire to end the One Year War after Gihren dies or even before, thus avoiding future Gundam crap to some extent. A few of the more honorable Zeon characters are occasionally recruitable.

08th MS Team: Aina gets to formally join the good guys, Norris Packard is occasionally recruitable, And Ginias gets called on his shit even more than in canon.

War in the Pocket: Bernie doesn't have to die.

Gundam 0083: Character deaths are pared down to nil, the love triangle gets ignored or resolved less stupidly, Synapse doesn't have to kill himself over getting the GP-03, Anavel Gato is even recruitable in some games. Sometimes they even throw in Kelly Lazyner. The crappy ending also doesn't happen, as the Titans either never form or at least not by the asinine means they did in the source.

Zeta Gundam: A lot of stupid deaths are avoided, Scirroco doesn't turn Kamille into a drooling vegetable, Reccoa gets called on her shit towards the end of the series, sometimes with Char himself calling her an idiot.

Gundam ZZ: Not too much changes, but sometimes Haman gets convinced to join your team and the more likable Neo Zeon cast doesn't have to die. The Dublin colony drop generally gets averted and both Purus get to live.

Chars Counterattack: Either Char gets called on his shit or you can stop or even entirely avert the Axis drop. Super Robot Wars Z even went so far as to have Char swear to never drop Axis and secretly work to foil the plans of those who intended to. Char even gets to be downright heroic in SRW Destiny and allies with OZ to defend Earth and the colonies.

Unicorn: A lot of characters get to live, Frontal can sometimes get convinced to quit being retarded and accept humanity isn't a lost cause and most of the Sleeves become recruitable as a result.

Hathaway's Flash: Hathaway gets to live and realizes becoming Mufty Nabiyu Erin would be a really stupid idea.

Victory: The body count is a lot lower than normal, though at least Oliver Inoue has to die most of the time. Katejina gets called on her shit and either gets killed for it or stopped before she can do most of it. She even joins your team in SRW Destiny because of the latter.

Wing TV series: A lot of stupid doesn't happen. Treize even gets to be somewhat redeemable in some games, even being downright heroic alongside CCA-era Char in SRW Destiny, and even when he isn't, he gets to have a positive effect on many of the other characters.

Note, this isn't everything, don't want to spoil too much.

 

[Kiwi Jeff]

War in the Pocket: Bernie doesn't have to die.

both Purus get to live.

These are the most important people to save.

Katejina gets called on her shit and either gets killed for it or stopped before she can do most of it.

Actually that kind of makes Victory worse for me considering that part of the appeal for me was just how ridiculously awful she would get.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 15: Diana's Advent (Turn A Route)


We resume back with Keith and Akira, and they are shocked to see FULLY INTACT mobile suits being dug out of the mountain where Turn A was found.

I feel the need to point out this is bizarre, because being buried under a ton of crap for a long time should have led to rust and other forms of decay.

This does however confirm they are in the future, and they decide to report this back to Monsha.

We cut over to Guin who is getting a welcome from Sid, and when Sid apologizes for the long journey, Guin's chill with it, he wanted to see what they dug up. They then say it wasn't the guys in Gallia who attacked, and Guin is sure it's the Moon Race who are the actual aggressors.

However, Guin is of the opinion, not unreasonably, that since Diana Sorrel will be arriving soon, and since what happened may have just been a way to force them to the negotiation table with a Moon Race advantage, it would be prudent to have a mechanical doll force of their own for when that happens, just to even the odds.

Guin is also clearly a futurist, feeling this could spur further industrialization and progress.

Interestingly, one of the units they dig up is the AMX-109 Kapool, which is basically a slightly different variant of the UC Gundam unit Kapule. They also discuss who bailed Turn A out, and Guin is hoping to contact them and enlist their help,since they aren't with the Moon Race.

He then calls Loran Laura again while asking where he is, which briefly confuses Sid, and he finds out Kihel and Sochie's father, Diran Heim, has passed away, and Loran is there out of respect for his late employer.

Josef shows back up and says they found some weapons for the Turn A, and Sid tells Josef to keep them around for when Loran gets back.

We then cut to Sochie and Loran, who have just arrived at the dig site, and Loran is all 0_0 at the idea Sochie wants to pilot a Kapool and kick some ass. He tries to tells her that's a little crazy, but his friend tells him to give up:

He still tries anyway, and she's like "dad died, someone needs to die for it, end of story."

Just as she about to bitch Loran out for not being good enough to save her dad, Guin shows up, and inbetween continually getting Loran's name wrong, he asks Loran to pilot the White Doll to show the Moon Race they want to be at the peace table as equals.

Loran is kinda conflicted on this for obvious reasons, but before that can be pursued, an attack occurs.

As we cut to the battle map, it's more WaDoms around the city, and they are trying to hunt down the White Doll, only this time Poe Aijee has her boss Phil Ackerman with her.

BTW, she has a thing for the guy.

Phil is a bit concerned, and he says they need to capture the robot (Turn A) before Diana Sorrel lands in her Soliel.

And the end result of this is them trying to blow up the surrounding landscape to flush their quarry out of hiding. So far they are aiming at the wrong locations, but they are getting warm. However, all they manage to do is flush out where Monsha and the others have been hiding.

As the 0083 and Reideen crew decide to defend themselves, the Kapools sortie. Meanwhile, Loran is ready to sortie, but the Rifle he used last night is messed up, so he's told to wait a bit, they found some other weapons to attach to the Turn A. Meanwhile, the 0083 guys recognize the Kapool as an offbrand Neo-Zeon suit best at fighting underwater.

At any rate, the fight starts, here's the map.

To get the Skill Point for this level, you need to kill all enemies in 5 turns. If you park over the nearby mountain cycle hole near the start, you can get an Anti-Beam Coating.

Anyway, here's the Kapool:

As you can see, it's essentially a flightless Methuss stat wise, and it's not that great at fighting either. However, if possible, have Sochie and Miashei get at least one kill shot apiece, they will level up quite a bit if you do.

BTW, tip for the Skill Point: have the Kapools lure the WaDoms to your other allies, then gang up on them with mass support attack fire.

After a turn or two, Loran will sortie, and his unit will have a morningstar like weapon, which is both a callback to the original Gundam having a similar weapon, and SRW decided to be nice here: in the original show, it was a single episode weapon, but here, you get to keep it as a permanent addon to the Turn A.

Oddly, it has an ammo limit despite being a melee weapon.

This gets both Phil and Poe's desire to capture stuff up, and you need to make sure you foil that plan.

Notably, if Akira attacks Phil, he will assume the Reideen is an Innocent superweapon.

Around Turn 3, the Soliel is approaching, which gooses Poe and Phil to want to hurry this up.

Once you take out all enemies, this guy shows up:

This is Harry Ord, Turn A's resident Char analogue and his voice actor also does Radiese F.Branstein's older brother Elzam's voicework, which lead to an amusing meme in the below spoiler:

Spoiler

Thanks to some hilarious Engrish in Zeta Gundam, a letter meant to say "Lt. Quattro is actually Char." got garbled into "Lt. Quattro....he is a CHAR."

So anyone who is based off Char is said to be A CHAR.

Since Elzam F. Branstein is Banpresto's own Char analogue, and since his seiyuu did the voice for Harry, the meme becomes (since like Char Elzam had an alias, his being Ratsel Feinschmecker) "Ratsel....he is an ORD.

And just to further the Char ripoff jokes, both Harry and Elzam don hilariously thin disguises to pretend they are someone else and wear some form of obscuring eyewear that looks ridiculous.

Anyway, after Harry arrives, the Soliel and her guard ships arrive, and as Loran barely contains his gushing over Diana Sorrel (he has a crush on her), Guin is a creepy fuck:

Anyway, Diana gets Guin on the horn, she's here to talk:

He manages to not utterly screw up diplomatic courtesy, and as the stage ends, he realizes Kihel and Diana look nigh identical.

We then cut to where Guin is reassuring Diana's retinue he doesn't want diplomacy to be a lost cause, but Milan and Harry are skeptical:

Guin concedes he can't pretend to say the current residents of Earth are on the level of the Moon Race, but when they point out their mastery of mechanical dolls, Guin tells them they consider self defense a prudent measure, and their only intent in showing this off is to reiterate they want to enter negotiations on a level field.

Harry plays bad cop and asks what Guin would think if that was just interpreted as the residents of Earth bringing a sword instead of peace, and Guin regrets he would think so, but he concedes the point.

Harry thinks it over briefly, then say he'd like to do the actual negotiations three days hence at nearby Bostonia Manor, and when Consul Milan objects to Harry's initiative, Harry, like any good security officer, tells Milan this time is needed to secure the area on the Moon Race end, just to make sure no threat to Diana are to be expected as they have other enemies.

Later, Colonel Mikhail isn't so sure what transpired was wise, but Guin points out they can make use of this interval to have their own forces ready, assuming the Moon Race show bad faith. He then turns his attention to the good guys currently watching from a distance, says he wants to meet with them too, and alludes to the Gallians and how they too have uncovered ancient tech.

After another cut, Guin gets an abbreviated version of the good guys story, minus the whole time travel part for obvious reasons, and Guin accepts this saying they'll help find their friends and provide lodging and resources, and in return, they'd like Monsha and the others to teach their pilots how to not make a hash of using mobile suits.

Monsha agrees, given how Guin is offering a reasonable exchange, and since the Moon Race come off as Titanish to Monsha, he's all for teaching people how to defend themselves.

We then cut over to some ways away, where Phil is conferring with Milan in the Soliel about how none of this shit was in the recon reports:

We find out those recon reports are a bit dated, and apparently their agents in place didn't get the memo to send regular updates in a timely manner. Harry reasonably points out that in the interim they could have discovered mechs like the Innocent on the other side of the planet did, so to expect they'd just be stupid enough to not learn their use is retarded, but Phil is about to go off on an autistic screeching fit.

Diana decides to cut that off before it starts:

Phil still isn't satisfied, so Diana compromises: He is forbidden from initiating offensive action on Earth, but discreet investigations of the Mountain Cycles are fine. She then tells Milan as the Stage ends to get Arthur Rank of the Innocent in on this, she really wants to avoid a war.


The Bazaar is still unavailable for now as well.

 

[Y2K Baby]

Lol u boiz are such nerds OWO

 

[Jaimas]

Fuck off moonfags

 

[GethN7]

Fuck off moonfags

Just want to add something in case you're a bit annoyed Turn A is being followed rather strictly for now.

Super Robot Wars is professionally sanctioned fanfiction, with all the rights owners to all the series involved giving explicit consent to retell the stories of the shows depicted, in whole or in part, but even though that means they don't have to follow the canon and do whatever they please, in some cases, like with Neon Genesis Evangelion, the plot structure is such that they MUST follow the "stations of the canon" and follow the general plot structure as faithfully as possible, though they are free to alter HOW said stations are depicted or how they get resolved.

In the case of of something a bit more flexible, like Gundam 0083, they were free to be more creative.

For instance, Chap Adel and Alpha Bate don't show up as Monsha's wingmen until Alpha 2, where they make use of Synapse and the Albion as well, while Alpha 1 pares down the cast to just the essentials and uses the GP-02 hijack by Anavel Gato to kick start the 0083 plot, then it all goes off the rails from there as they shelved the rest of the game plot for later games save for introducing Cima as a Titans collaborator and using an abbreviated version of the first few 0083 episodes.

By Alpha 2 they resolve most everything else, including Gato's ultimate fate.

Turn A was somewhat flexible. They had no choice but to be faithful to the first couple of episodes without exception, but after that they get pretty flexible and start getting creative.

It's worth noting that in some cases, they completely rewrote the plot of some shows almost from scratch, like Gundam Seed Destiny, which is such a trashfire by default it has almost never seen use in ANY SRW game without fixing all sorts of stupid from that show.

For example:

SRW Z1: Not only did the basic plot call out Kira on being an asshole, the good guys fought each other under far less idiotic circumstances than in canon, and they also made several characters act far less like a bunch of glue sniffing jackasses, they even had an unlockable secret route that starts just as the ZAFT cast turned villain protagonist in canon, and they decide that would be utterly retarded based on how things have played out, meaning they don't become dumb pawns in the Destiny plan and you don't see that clusterfuck of stupid from the final GSD episodes.

SRW K: While a pretty shitty SRW game for multiple reasons, it did try to restore Cagalli's neutered badass cred from the source, to the point Cagalli is basically the hero and Kira is her sidekick. Hell, she's making the nigh unstoppable Festum from Fafner in The Azure her bitch at one point.

SRW L: Mass rewrites occurred. Shinn has far less reason to act like a dumbass, the ZAFT protagonists follow an alternate version of canon events where they did all that dumb antagonistic crap as a smokescreen to fake the villains out instead of just being imbeciles, and Gilbert Durandal was forcibly manipulated into being a batshit lunatic, and he gets to redeem himself by turning the Destiny Plan around on the villains and dies a hero instead giving his manipulators a Messiah sized fuck you.

SRW V: The Cross Ange crossover allowed both casts to see the stupid on both sides and they called each other out on it, and LORD DJBRILL, of all people, got to look less stupid than in canon, to the point he called Julio from Cross Ange a retard for the shit he pulled and had every reason to do so.

Fun bonus fact; The director of the original Gundam SEED Destiny was salty as fuck people hated his take and prefer the SRW versions of GSD, especially Z's take, but Shinn's seiyuu LOVES it, mostly because he literally got spit on for the original role and compared to the source, he's sincerely proud of how SRW made his portrayal as Shinn actually likeable.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 16 (Moon Race) - Laura Rolla

Alright Kiwis, it's time for another stage about Turn A, and much like the previous ones had @Jaimas begging for the Moon Race to collectively eat a gun for mass stupid (and this is likely to not change his opinion very much), this is yet another level that follows canon strictly more or less.

It's better once they stop, but until then, here we go.


We begin with Monsha trying to teach Miashei and Sochie how to Mobile Suit, and while he's trying to teach them like he got taught, they draw a blank on the concept of computers and are like "duh, we know the basics", causing Akira to comment on Monsha's exasperation.

Sochie then takes a break to tell Loran to head to Bostonia Manor in Knox on orders of Guin, just as he barely dodges having his mobile suit skill questioned on its odd high level.

Meanwhile, we cut to Kou asking if Sid know squat about the past.

Sid only knows most of it is know as the Black History and that it's relics are found in the mountain cycles all over the world, and we find out there are two reasons the Turn A guys haven't interacted with most of the rest of the world.

1. Technology is primitive as shit.
2. There is some sort of unofficial taboo on doing so.

We then cut to Guin, who is getting an update on both Moon Race movements and the guys following the Gundam X plot.

We then have Loran show up, and he says they'll be holding a dance-off as part of the diplomatic reception, but there is a twist. Kihel then leads Loran off to explain that.

The twist is this: Because Loran looks girly as hell, Guin wants to pop a massive boner as Kihel dolls Loran up in drag and teaches him how to act like a lady so as to bullshit the Moon Race into thinking he's a girl and that girls can even pilot their best mechanical dolls.

He could have had one of the actual girls do this, but I did mention Guin was gay for Loran, right?

Loran actually agrees, but for his own reasons, as this will allow him to keep from getting spotted as the Moon Race Plant he is and see Lady Diana without that getting out.

We then cut back to Monsha, who is wondering why the 0083/Reideen cast have to show up at this party, and then talk turns to the MS training, and while Monsha admits they don't totally suck, having them use a GM or Zaku for training would be less annoying than machines best suited for amphibious combat, which prompts Kou to mention the intro to 0083, where he and Kou trained with refurbished Zaku II, and Monsha figures they should dig up Zakus then.

And then they see Loran in drag.

Surprisingly, THEY ALL FALL FOR IT, and Monsha changes his mind about going to that party.

...
......
.........yeah, I know, the WTF meter just went TILT.

However, remember Fran? The chick who handed Kou a newspaper? She's not fooled (or at least is sure it's Loran in drag). She also runs into a friend of hers named Keith, and we find out both her and Keith are also Moon Race plants.

Keith works at the Donkey bakery, which is why one of the items you can pick up for recovery is called Donkey Bread.

We then cut back to where "Laura" is getting more lessons in not being a man in a dress from Kihel, and Kihel is going all drill sergeant on the ladylike etiquette

We cut away from this to where Diana is laying out the terms of the Moon Race migration to Guin, and they do want to live in the Sun Belt region, which is sparsely populated and are confused why so few people live there.

Guin finally gets a little pissed by the assumption they can just have it, saying the Moon Race ran to the Moon after disaster befell Earth while the people who stayed worked their asses off with what they had, and even if the Moon Race had any claims, they are negated by the Black History obscuring the truth.

They work in Xabungle into this by Guin having been descended from the Innocent (rather logical, really), and before the meeting gets more heated, Guin asks for a recess and hopes to resume negotiations after the goodwill party.

We then cut to the party, where Harry is asking about Turn A's pilot.

Cue Guin selling this crock of shit in response:

We cut over to Diana, looking kinda Egyptianish as she realizes it's not a very relaxed party:

Harry decides to break the ice by offering "Laura" a dance, and it's worth noting Loran's seiyuu even made their tone sound more ladylike, and Harry uses the oppurtunity to try and get some information about the Militia and Turn A, and Guin asks after a short while of this to introduce Laura to Diana,and Harry does not object.

The talk kinda right turns into Loran trying to project his own wishes for things to go smoothly into the negotations, and Diana forgives the blunt disregard of diplomatic protocol to agree she would like the same, and Guin concurs.

And that's when an attack occurs.

Diana heads out to the Soliel to shield Knox, and Harry and "Laura" sortie into their respective machines.

The attackers are Militia members who just couldn't let well enough alone and want to take out Diana out of fear. Guin is immediately suspected, but but he manages to clear himself by pointing out he's at Ground Zero for said attack and he'd be getting himself killed if he were that ruthless, and he's not that stupid.

On a more interesting note, the suit used by the dissident Militia are Neo Zeon suits, and while Monsha is still dumb enough to fall for the 'Laura" disguise, Akira was smart enough to figure out it was actually Loran.

Anyway, battle map time.

Your forces are the 0083 team (minus Chuck Keith), the Reideen crew, Harry in his gold SUMO, and Diana in her Soliel, and if you want the Skill Point, kill all foes in five turns.

It's a surprisingly decent unit, but not as sturdy as it looks.

The Soliel is a stationary gun battery for this level, but it's quite good even with no upgrades, on par with a mostly upgraded Argamma.

As a nice bonus, while in drag, Loran's battle art changes.

Your foes are the following

Jenice x 4: The Gundam X version of the Zaku. Yawn.

Gaza-D x 3, MA version x 3: Again, nothing special.

Driessen x 2: Slightly tougher, but still nothing too special.

R-Jarja x 3: Better range than the Jenice, but still yawnworthy.

Gallus-J x 3ecent range, but nothing to freak out over.

Geara Doga x2: Chars Counterattack Era Zaku analogue. Much better than the Jenice, but only real advantage is more HP.

Zaku III: About the same as the Geara Doga.


BTW, you'll notice the enemy forces try to aim for the Soliel, so use this to your advantage while getting that Skill Point mentioned above.

After about a turn, Harry realizes that for Militia, their military training is just too good, leading him to wonder if they are either with the Innocent, or, shudder, even the Moon Race.

After another turn, Chuck Keith, the Kapools, and Mari sortie.

Keep in mind the Kapools kick ass underwater, so make good use of them.


Once all foes are down, the city had minimal damage, and despite Milan's upset over the apparent Milita attack, it's clear to Diana this was not planned by Guin, so she tells him to have the Diana Counter stand down.

As the Soliel leaves, Poe shows back up, ready to start killing shit, but Harry tells her calm the fuck down, Diana said NO.

As everyone is about to start fighting, Loran has had fucking enough of this shit, and decides to come clean:

Everyone present craps a gigantic brick when they hear this, Sochie especially, but Loran is so pissed that people are fighting he's willing to shoot everyone who still thinks doing something so stupid is a good idea.

And as the stage ends, he'll tells everyone who doesn't value human life he WILL gun for them.

We then cut to Harry, who is asking Milan about Diana. We find out she still wants to do negotiations, but wishes to speak with Kihel instead of Guin. We also find out Harry was right, Moon Race terminals were found in the MS that everyone fought.

They immediately brings up two suspects: Gym Ghingham and Agrippa Maintainer, both of whom have apparent motive, and it's likely they don't want her meeting up with Arthur Rank of the Innocent.

They also know there was no Laura Rolla who went to Earth two years ago, and they agree to keep this quiet until they have more information.

We cut to the Soliel hangar, where Phil has called Poe over for a chat:

As punishment for defying orders, Poe was gonna get a 17 year imprisonment, but as she's about to turn on the waterworks, it's been waived since they are shorthanded, and that's when this guy shows up:

This is Corin Nander, a guy who hates anything remotely Gundam, especially white colored.

Phil is more concerned with why he has been released from a military prison cryoslumber sentence, which is being left in suspended animation yet still being mostly conscious at the same time.

And that's when Corin asks for him.

Phil find out the hardasses on the Moon are getting restless, and Corin is just the tip of the iceberg, citing it was likely Agrippa Maintainer who gave the orders, even though he's supposed to be one of the moderates.

We then cut to Loran, where Sochie is not taking well his confession. The 0083 guys and Akira try to reasonably point out for a supposed enemy, Loran saved her ass numerous times, but she's not in the mood to be reasonable right now.

That's when they all get wind of Diana wanting to meet Kihel, and despite Colonel Mikhail's concerns, both Kihel and Guin agree to it.

We cut to the Soliel, where Kihel is nervous and Diana is trying to get her to relax.

The ice is broken when Diana confirms she knows the recent attack was not sanctioned by the Militia, then asks Kihel if they can share some tea.

We also discover both of them are righthanded, and could pass as each other in a lot of ways, and then, for the lulz, Diana suggests they switch outfits to test that theory.

We cut to a bit later, and they manage to pull off each other's look exactly, and Kihel even imitates Diana's manner perfectly, and Kihel realizes Diana probably doesn't have a lot of friends.

As the stage ends, the Bazaar is open again, but no units to purchase, and there is nothing new on sale for parts.

 

[Jaimas]

Be fair, half of you degenerates would hit Loran anyway.

 

[GethN7]

Be fair, half of you degenerates would hit Loran anyway.

Bonus horror for you all: There are yaoi doujinshi where Loran is getting ass raped, in a dress or not.

Keep in mind, Tomino had Loran in drag because he couldn't make Loran a girl in the first place, and he meant for it to troll the show producers, but he didn't seem to realize he just created a turn-on for another crowd entirely.

 

[GethN7]

Stage 17 (Moon Race): The White Devil

Just a warning, the Skill Point for this stage requires severe autism to get. I'll try to make it as non-aggravating as possible.


We start this level with Milan making noise about Earthnoid forces gathering in North Ameria, and Phil confirms they've got several landships and have been excavating mountain cycles like crazy. Worse, they seem to be Innocent affiliated, and have both Civilians from Gallia and Newtypes among them. The last worries Milan the most, as Newtypes fought on the front lines of the most devastating war between Earth and space in recent memory (The Seventh Space War from Gundam X is what this refers to).

Phil advocates Diana's no combat order is foolish in face of this information, and Milan is not sure how to counter that information. Worse, they have no idea who is pulling the hardliner Moon Race faction strings.

Milan realizes Phil is making a valid enough case to not be disregarded, so he plans to bring this to Lady Diana's attention. However, that will take awhile, as Lady Diana is with Harry, inspecting the Vicinity area.

We then cut to them, where both Diana and Kihel are still cosplaying as the other, and since Diana has to return to the Soliel soon, Kihel as Diana asks Harry to drop her off by Kihel's, ostensibly to look around, but really, it's so her and Diana can quick change.

Harry reluctantly agrees, and Guin promises to keep things on down low.

We then cut to Kihel's place, where Sochie greets Diana coolly, not realizing the switch, but Harry says hi to Loran, who has apparently figured out Loran's drag outfit guise.

However, Sochie drags Diana as Kihel outside to bitch about Diana showing up and how that's terrible because their dad was killed by Moon Race people and how Diana's an arch asshole because of it. Loran shows up and tries to defuse things, but Sochie is still not over Loran being a part of the Moon Race, and Guin then tries to be the diplomat. Diana, meanwhile, is quietly shaken by all this.

A brief cut later, Loran leads Diana!Kihel to the grave of Kihel's father, and is joined by Kihel!Diana. Loran almost realizes something off when the latter is about to offer condolences, but the real Diana as Kihel decides to do so, both to maintain the ruse and to say she's sorry for his death. The real Kihel, meanwhile, is rather touched, as Diana's grief appeared quite genuine.

We then cut to the battle map, where Monsha is having Kou take a turn being a combat instructor, and here's comes that autistic Skill Point, just warning you all now.

Akira disses Monsha by asking if he's finally pussied out of being a combat instructor, and Monsha is like "You do it then, and you see how long your patience lasts.". Akira then makes a crack about the tomboy Mari is enough trouble as is, and she remarks that she heard that.

Anyway, the autism starts when Kou has Loran and Sochie race in their MS to see who can grab a container first, while avoiding the others, who will act as obstacles, and without weapons discharges being allowed.

Meanwhile, Harry and Diana both comment to themselves from nearby on what's going on, and Diana realizes what the White Doll really is.

Battle Map time:

The Blue dot is Sochie's Kapool, the red dot next to her is Loran's Turn A, and the rest (save the one below those two, which is Harry's parked SUMO) are the 0083 guys and the Reideen crew.

The goal is the yellow container, which Sochie must reach before Loran to get the Skill Point.

Pointers for this.

1. The AI will always move in fixed patterns.

2. Loran wins on turn three if Sochie screws up on Turn 3.

3. Key to win is to end turn two right above Reideen after taking a turn into the city, leaving Sochie enough distance to get the container on turn three.


Whether you win or lose, this guy shows up:

That's right, he's from Louisiana.

Also, those aren't a Zaku I or IIs, those are Turn A takes on them, but they call it the Borjornan, after the name of a family from that region. Gavan almost goes ballistic literally once he realizes Diana is nearby, but Loran tells him to calm down, there is a ceasefire at the moment, and that only prompts Gavan to ask Loran "Isn't the pilot of the White Doll a girl?"

Loran evades the question by calling it newspaper BS, and Harry confirms his suspicions about where the Militia is getting their gear. Guin tells him that if the Moon Race keeps being aggressive, guys like Gavan are sure to be more common, then Harry flips that around and asks Guin how he's going to get the hothead to not start a war on the Earth side of things.

Guin says he'll let Laura handle that, and Harry trolls Guin by saying he does see Laura, so how is that gonna work, leaving Guin with no response, as Harry has figured out the ruse, he just wants to see Guin admit it.

Meanwhile, Gavan offer Loran a deal: Kick his ass, and his guys will leave peacefully.

SECRET UNIT TIP: If playing this route on Hard, reduce Gavan's Borjornan to 20% or less HP WITHOUT destroying it to get Gavan in his custom Borjornan later.

Note, this is Loran vs. Gavan ONLY, no one else can help on either side. If you uber maxed Turn A's stats, use Loran's Mercy seishin/spell to keep from destroying Gavan's unit.

As Gavan is all"not bad", that's when Lily Borjornan, who Gavan's unit get the name from, shows up to chide him:

Gavan goes all "sorry, princess" mode in response, and Lily gives him an earful about he's ruining her social call on Sir Guin. Harry gets informed by Guin on who Lily is, and says he wasn't expecting her social call.

And that when Harry gets signals that aren't standard MS readings.

It's the Iron Gear crew, thankfully.

This prompts Harry to shit himself and drags Kihel!Diana into his SUMO to fly back to the Soliel to keep her out of harm's way, leaving Diana!Kihel, not realizing he picked up the wrong Diana.

Meanwhile, the Iron Gear crew assume the gold SUMO, is, correctly, Moon Race affiliated, and Cotset realizes they aren't Breakers either.

And that's when they recognize the Reideen and 0083 guys and say their "good to see you's"

As the stage ends, Guin realizes they might not be enemies after all and decides to see if he can't make a deal with them for assistance.


We cut to the Iron Gear, where Akira is getting the story from Tetsuya and Kenichi on the Gallia side of things. Rag is utterly confused by the lack of domes and blue stones, which confuses the shit out of Loran, but Guin is on hand to explain blue stones do exist, but they are essentially worthless rocks to the guys on the Ameria continent at present.

Elche is gobsmacked by this, and Guin patiently explains the Gallian and North Amerian people have been out of contact for along time, so it's understandable things would be different for each side of the world and both are understandably out of touch with the other on some matters.

Rag then starts another catfight with Elche, and Jiron ignores this to get the scoop on the Innocent from Guin, who confirms his family and the Borjornans are descendants of them.


NOTE: This actually makes some sense, as their being the most cultured and well off members of the Turn A cast would fit nicely with them being descend from the Innocent that were the founders of the reestablishment of culture on the non-Gallia side of the world, and provides a plausible Xabungle tie to Turn A.


However, Guin doesn't know much more than that, and has no clue about the domes still lived in by the Gallian descended Innocent.


NOTE: Once I do the Gundam X route, they actually clear this up somewhat.


Meanwhile, Kenichi realizes that aside from a ruling class, the culture of both North Ameria and Gallia diverged extensively, and realizes it's like their contemporary world, only with even more schizo-tech than the contemporary Alpha-verse, and presumes that going on the Turn A route was wise, as Biel had to have been hiding something.

Guin then asks Elche their destination, and she mentions Fort Severn, to which Guin draws a blank,even though it on the same continent, and Akira explains the lack of mass travel as the reason, and Guin learns that apparently, the Fort Severn people have plans to fight the Moon Race. (more on this in the Gundam X route)

We then cut to where Gavan is introducing himself to Josef.

He also says hi to Sochie, complimenting her hotblooded Kapool piloting.

Meanwhile, Monsha's offhand sarcasm about why they didn't dig up Zakus earlier has come back to mock him:

Gavan then punches a hole in Monsha's pride by saying he'll take over mechanical doll training for Monsha, assuming he's not that good as Gavan is, and when Monsha fires back he's been piloting before Gavan was born, Chuck Keith remarks to himself on sheer truth in that. Meanwhile, Kou remarks about the Zaku I was ancient history even in his era.

Gavan brushes this off as braggadocio, then asks Josef if he can handle a Borjornan, and he's all "if told to, sure".

Meanwhile, Lily comments on Gavan's dick waving:

Diana!Kihel nearly blows her cover when Lily says hi and she initially draws a blank, and as they just chalk this up to Kihel being overloaded by recent events, Diana is worried sick for Kihel, who is now on the Soliel and has no clue how to get the Diana Counter guys to chill the fuck out.

And that when an explosion is heard in the direction of Knox.

Worse, the apparent Diana Counter forces who did it (in defiance of the ceasefire) are headed in your direction.

Guin immediately asks Elche for help, and she agrees on the spot.

Time for battle again, and this time you can select six units of your choosing (with Sochie and Loran's units being default deploys, but they only deploy after a few turns.)

It's more Neo Zeon and Gundam X mainstay units, with Corin Nander in command, and he has a, to quote George Carlin, PSYCHOTIC FUCKING HATRED of the Turn A.

Anyway, battle map time:

Your objective is easy, kill everyone.

SECRET UNIT TIP:

1. Have Loran (and Sochie if on Hard) each convince Corin ONCE.

2. Have Iron Gear convince Corin ONCE.

Doing this means you can get Corin's custom red Kapool later.


As for the enemy forces

Jenice x 4
Driessen x 4
Geara Doga x 4
Zaku III x 4
Eagail x 1 (Corin)

Brief overview of the Units:

The Borjornan Gavan Kai (Kai is Japanese for "Custom") is pretty sturdy for an offbrand Zaku I, but still pretty frail.

This is the standard Borjornan, which basically the Turn A Zaku II

This is a Jenice:

The Jenice is Gundam X's shitty ripoff of the Zaku, and it's named for the month of June.

The Driessen in the Gundam ZZ update to the original Zeon Dom.

Geara Doga: Char's Counterattack version of the Zaku. Tougher than the other breeds at least.

Zaku III, debuted in Gundam ZZ. Oddly tougher than the Geara Doga in some regimes.


Anyway, after a few turns, Corin goes into total autistic screeching mode over wanting to see the Gundam, and his tard rage makes the Preventer guys wonder if he's from their timeline.

After this turn, The 0083 guys, Sochie, and Loran finally deploy, but this time Sochie is piloting Turn A. Kou is shocked, but Corin doesn't care, he's finally happy to see what he's wanted to kill. He even calls it the White Devil, in a shoutout to the original Gundam,and when Kou wonders what's up with the name Monsha snarks:

"Put yourself in the enemy's shoes. That's what a Gundam looks like to them."

He even references the One Year War from the original series while saying this.

Anyway, if you want that secret, wait until the Eagail gets in range of the Iron Gear, Sochie, and Loran's units before destroying it.

The Iron Gear persuasion has Diana!Kihel playact as Diana (it's the real one, but they don't know that) to get Corin to stand down. It actually works, so do this AFTER Loran and Sochie speak to Corin once (just surviving an encounter with the Eagail counts for each)

BTW, this is Corin's Eagail:

It's a bruiser of a melee unit, but slow as hell.

Note, if Kou fights him, he'll be just as pissy at Kou's Gundam as he will Turn A.


As Corin withdraws (or is destroyed), the Frost Brothers show up:

Seems they were trailing the Gundam X cast after finding the GX Gundam, and that led them to the Turn A as well. Jiron recognizes them as the guys who attack P-Point with a Mahiroo squad, and Olba Frost convinces his brother Shagia to dance a few rounds with the Turn A to see its power.

Which means you have to fight these assholes.

If Loran fight Olba, he confirms the Frost Brothers are in bed with the Moon Race, but they want war, where Diana does not, and are likely members of the Ghingham Army Diana will comment on just before this.

Thankfully, more good guy reinforcements show up, in the form of the Gundam X casr, plus a lot more of the Preventers with them.

Note: Cotset refers to them as the Ameria continent's version of Breakers, which is not wrong, as Gundam X's Vultures were basically the same thing in terms of function and story purpose.

Akira recognizes the Zeta and Double Zeta, and Kamille is relieved to see Akira as well.

Meanwhile, aboard the Freeden (The landship from Gundam X), Jamil Neate asks Tiff Addil if her Newtype power sensed the Gundam, and she confirms this where the Gundam with shining butterfly wings is.

AKA, the Turn A.

Garrod Ran in the GX then confirms it by reading the IFF signal of the Turn A, and Jamil nearly shits his
pants when he realizes both the GX and Turn A are in the same spot, and does a poor job of convincing his XO he doesn't know squat.

Shagia recognizes Jamil and the Freeden, and the Frost Brothers get a chilly reception from the Gundam X crew for understandable reasons as depicted in the Gundam X route, which I'll start on after this level.

Anyway, you goal is to beat the shit out of the Frost Brothers, and both time and allies are you side, so have fun.

BTW, here's the respective units of Shagia and Olba Frost:

The Virsago looks like a derivative of the Gundam Epyon from Gundam Wing (fun fact, some of the same designers and staff of that show worked on Gundam X), except this thing has long range beam cannon attacks.

The Ashtaron, on the other hand, is a crab like unit that looks like what happens when the Cancer from Gundam Wing and a Quebley from Gundam ZZ have an ass baby, in mobile armor form or not, it's got good range and high defense.


The Frost Brothers will likely run like bitches before you can finish them off, but that's fine, you can kick their ass another day.

As the stage ends again, Guin wants to talk to the new people amongst the team.

We then cut to the Freeden hangar, where the Combattler and Voltes team leads are doing some bro talk, and both the Freeden and Iron Gear sides of things get the blanks filled in.

They also find out Garrod unit is a stupid powerful machine that can do sick damage thanks to receiving energy from the Moon, enough to hose entire space colonies, which also means the microwave station fo Project Aegis is still around.

We then cut to the Freeden bridge, where Guin is getting the story from Jamil.

However, everyone else senses some gaps in Jamil's story, and he finally admits what said gaps are:

He's looking for Newtypes.

When pressed, he explains he fought in a war (the one on the Gundam X backstory), piloting the same unit Garrod pilots now, the GX-9900 Gundam, and with it, he closed the door on the most recent war between Earth and space, but Jamil was so scarred from seeing the destruction he left in his wake (as he was a Newtype himself) he wants to prevent other Newtypes from ever becoming tools of war like he was.

However, it's here they fudged things a bit to resolve Gundam X's issues with fitting into the crossover.

If they had gone by the timeline Gundam X set, the Seventh Space War would have taken place just around the time most of the current X, Turn A, and Xabungle cast was born, so they moved it to just slightly before to prevent canon clashes, which is fair enough and doesn't really break continuity.

Also, Jamil plays evasive on which side he fought for (it's different than in Gundam X canon), but he makes clear regardless of the truth of that, he never wants to repeat that tragedy and never wants others to be victims of another, and this answer satisfies everyone for the time being.

Guin then offers Elche and Jamil a chance to help him out, but Jamil declines, as he still is heading for Fort Severn himself, and since this is the Turn A route, that means Elche isn't going there, and as the stage ends, Guin advises they all have soem means to keep in touch, and Jamil cocnedes to the logic of that.

We then cut to Puru and Judau. Puru is all agog at Turn A's stache, but Judua thinks it's just an oversized cheek guard, and then Haro (as in, Usso's Haro from Victory Gundam) is asked if it knows the make and model, but it doesn't.

In the process, we discover the GX is also a mystery to Haro. Diana!Kihel almost gets spotted by a member of the Gundam X crew, but Sochie says it's her sister, who could pass for Diana's twin.

We then cut back to Elche, who is hearing the other Preventers want to check out Fort Severn, though some will remain with Elche.

You get a chance to hear the crew splits again if you desire thanks to Elche, in a replay of the gag between Henken and Judau.

After this, we get a choice of remaining in Vicinity with Elche or going on to Fort Severn.

This is important.

Remaining in Vicinity allows us to finish out some remaining Turn A plot in the next two levels, while Fort Severn route allows us to finish the remaining Gundam X plot before the two routes dovetail together.

I was going to finish up the Turn A stuff than do the Gundam X route as the "canon" path, as the secrets for Gundam X are worth a LOT more in the long run.

That said, I just wanted to ask guys like @Jaimas, think you can hold out on Turn A for two more levels, or do you feel like tapping out now?

 

[Jaimas]

BRING IT ON, MOONFAGS

 

[Cubanodun]

mostly because it's universe is set on an Earth greatly divorced from a SRW friendly setting

And for some reason we are getting Robots for kiddie animes in "mainstream" Super robot taisen like Might Gaine and Mashin Hero Wataru and in "spin off" things like Zoids, SRW is a weird place

As an aside, Getter Rays are what inspired Spiral Power in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (to the point SRWZ2 essentially explained one is simply a variation of the other)

In V they were the reason the Dragon exist by making them capable of absorbing and purifying the world that was irradiated with Getter energy, i think that was the only relevant plot that Cross Ange has in that game, i dont like that anime very much

We then cut to Dakar City, where Jamitov is slinging a line of shit about how the good guys proved utterly fucking incompetent and has the Titans made out to be the good guys, in blatant defiance of the facts.

If you get into perspective the SDF-1 is never playable in any Super robot taisen as far as i know, we had to wait until Macross Frontier was aired to use the Macross Quarter even getting the rapetastic final attack of the movie with several Macross firing their cannons

The Gundam Sentinel assets from Alpha 2 are still in Alpha 3's files, and it has never seen the light of day in a SRW game since.

Well knowing Sunrise they are going to probably revive it considering they are milking very hard the UC now with things like Twilight Axis and Thunderbolt, heck they even resurrected G-Saviour for that Gunpla battle anime (expecting the third season that custom OO Gundam looks sick)

Zeta Gundam: A lot of stupid deaths are avoided, Scirroco doesn't turn Kamille into a drooling vegetable

This is more a politic of Sunrise, for all purposes the anime of Z is not canon anymore, instead A New Translation is what is used in every piece of merchandise to the point that Kamille sprites in several games come from those movies now, this is a general consensus with my friends, same as taking Beltorchika children as the official wrap of Amuro story instead of Char counterattack

Hathaway's Flash: Hathaway gets to live and realizes becoming Mufty Nabiyu Erin would be a really stupid idea.

He also get to try his luck with Asuka from Evangelion in V to the point that he is sucessfull and everyone in the crew got surprised about it, shame that his Gundams doesnt have cool perks like the Crossbone

SRW V: The Cross Ange crossover allowed both casts to see the stupid on both sides and they called each other out on it, and LORD DJBRILL, of all people, got to look less stupid than in canon, to the point he called Julio from Cross Ange an exceptional individual for the shit he pulled and had every reason to do so.

Dont forget how my boy Athrun made all the lesbians of that show STRAIGHT, he is more likeable when his waifu is not around

Fun bonus fact; The director of the original Gundam SEED Destiny was salty as fuck people hated his take and prefer the SRW versions of GSD, especially Z's take, but Shinn's seiyuu LOVES it, mostly because he literally got spit on for the original role and compared to the source, he's sincerely proud of how SRW made his portrayal as Shinn actually likeable.

Even the staff agreed that the show was uber trash and the take in Super Robot Taisen was the superior version, the most fun part that everyone agree is Amuro kicking Shinn ass using a Rick diaz when Shinn has a Gundam and SEED mode activated, Bampresto also gave him a exclusive dual attack with his canon waifu Lunamaria because both seiyuus are married IRL and almost all the time they work together (like for example both are regulars in Typemoon works to the point that if he appears is probably that Maya sakamoto is there too)

Also after that Rick Diaz incident all the pilots of SEED venerate Amuro like a GOD, to the point that their support dialogs are custom with Shinn calling him Captain Amuro in a very respectful manner, Athrun and Kira just call him Amuro-san, privileges of being MC i suppose

Keep in mind, Tomino had Loran in drag because he couldn't make Loran a girl in the first place

Is rumored that he tried to do this again in Reconguista but the producers trolled him again, the sucess of this series is... weird for so to speak i watched the anime and barely understood anything but then i read all the extra stuff and now i consider it a good gundam anime, at least is not that trainwreck that was AGE or IBO

 

[GethN7]

And for some reason we are getting Robots for kiddie animes in "mainstream" Super robot taisen like Might Gaine and Mashin Hero Wataru and in "spin off" things like Zoids, SRW is a weird place

In V they were the reason the Dragon exist by making them capable of absorbing and purifying the world that was irradiated with Getter energy, i think that was the only relevant plot that Cross Ange has in that game, i dont like that anime very much

If you get into perspective the SDF-1 is never playable in any Super robot taisen as far as i know, we had to wait until Macross Frontier was aired to use the Macross Quarter even getting the rapetastic final attack of the movie with several Macross firing their cannons

This is more a politic of Sunrise, for all purposes the anime of Z is not canon anymore, instead A New Translation is what is used in every piece of merchandise to the point that Kamille sprites in several games come from those movies now, this is a general consensus with my friends, same as taking Beltorchika children as the official wrap of Amuro story instead of Char counterattack

Agree with most of that, but a few notes.

1. To fit in stuff like Zoids, they really had to get creative. K had all the Zoids stuff happen in a Bermuda Triangle like vortex of weirdness called Area Z, and SRW OE had to use multiple universes to pull it off. Same way they managed to get all the various series ending in -raiger to play nice in SRW GC/XO.

2. Cross Ange is one of those shows you really hate for awhile until it gets good, but I don't blame you for hating it, I did an episode by episode take of it on my blog and I wanted to toss it aside after episode two, and it's not a series I want to revisit again except via an SRW filter.

This is a series with a shit ton of lesbian cheesecake, and I still fucking hated it, that's an impressive feat if you ask me.

V mostly dealt with it by basically making it's main villain be such a scumbag even Leonard Tesatarossa from Full Metal Panic wanted to watch him die because even he thought the guy was a scummy son of a bitch, and Leonard is a pretty scummy son of a bitch himself. They also had the racists of GSD pal up with the Cross Ange bigots for mutual gain, and as I said, when Lord Djbrill, a dumbass of his own series and a guy who would blend in the Cross Ange universe just great for being a bigot alone, when even he thinks you're too fucking stupid to stand by (especially because that nimrod Julio got half the world declaring war on the other half, ZAFT leading the charge, and they had just cause to do so), you KNOW SRW is being a subtle as a brick calling out a mecha show on it's shit.

I did love that Athrun's meme status as a chick magnet made the lesbians of Cross Ange make an exception, that gag was funny as hell.

3. The SDF-1 was playable in Alpha 1.

4. Well, SRW tends to switch between movie and TV canon, whichever works better at the time,and sometimes they use parts of both.

It's why Full Frontal in SRW Z3 was basically Char who went through Zeta TV, while the original Char went through the Zeta movies, done deliberately to give them contrasting perspectives and to explain why Frontal was all "fuck humanity", while OG Char went through the less depressing Zeta movie canon and had Treize Khushrenada show him going full retard would be really stupid, just in case Char needed reminders, and why Char worked to undermine Frontal despite initially working with him after awhile.

It's why Frontal name drops the Dakar speech and Char doesn't get the reference as well.