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Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost


What is it?
For the uninitiated, Super Robot Wars is a long-running strategy RPG series from Banpresto. It's pretty much the apex of giant-robot geekery, taking a host of popular mecha anime series like Gundam, Macross, GaoGaiGar, etc. and throwing them together into a gigantic crossover-fanfictiony smashup. The writing to justify this madness ranges from the excellent to the nonexistent, but even the least story-focused entries can usually get by on the strength of exploding giant robots alone.

So what's the "Original Generations" part about?
In addition to the robots and characters licensed from popular cartoons, like the Doozy Bots and the Robotechs and the Starvengers, nearly all of the SRW games include original heroes and villains created specifically for the series. As more games were made and these new characters (collectively called Banpresto Originals) accumulated, there were eventually enough of them to fill the cast of a game all by themselvs. The result was 2003's SRW: Original Generation on the Gameboy Advance, followed by a sequel in 2005. Atlus USA released both of these games in English in 2006 to little fanfare (and I'm guessing little in the way of sales, considering Namco Bandai's relative lack of interest in continuing the series Stateside).

Anyway, in mid-2007 Banpresto released Super Robot Wars: Original Generations (or OGs), a PS2 remake/re-release of the two GBA games. In addition to the general improved look and sound that the PS2 offered, OGs also took the opportunity to expand and alter parts of the existing story and pave the way for future titles.

So what are you doing here?
Personally I've always preferred the OG games to most other Super Robot Wars, although that puts me in a minority among series fans. I'll be doing a screenshot LP. OGs is essentially two games in one, so for the foreseeable future this is basically an LP of the remade OG1, playing through both routes. My Japanese is questionable at best, so I'll be using the Atlus GBA script for reference and muddling through the new or changed bits as best I can. This will also give the opportunity to point out which bits of content are new to the remake. For those who are curious about that sort of thing.

In any case, with this being my first LP odds are good that I'll burn out in grand fashion in short order. So it goes.

:siren:SPOILER POLICY:siren:
Original Generations occupies a pretty weird place, being a remake of a pair of games that compiled storylines from multiple existing games that, in some cases, were themselves reusing elements from other existing games. Banpresto almost certainly was aware of this, since the remake no longer goes to much effort to hide a couple of story surprises. Still, people here may be new to the characters and story. So. Feel free to discuss Super Robot Wars and games in the franchise, but let's try to avoid going into detail on things you know are going to happen in-game. At least until Banpresto spoils it for us.

Opening Movie

Contents

Original Generation
Mission 1 Ryusei Elzam Kyosuke
Mission 2 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 3 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 4 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 5 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 6 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 7 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 8 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 9 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 10 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 11 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 12 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 13 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 14 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 15 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 16 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 17 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 18 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 19 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 20 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 21 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 22 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 23 Combined
Mission 24 Combined
Mission 25 Combined
Mission 26 Combined
Mission 27 Combined
Mission 28 Combined
Mission 29 Combined
Mission 30 Intro Battle
Mission 31 Combined
Mission 32 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 33 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 34 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 35 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 36 Ryusei (intro)(mission) Kyosuke
Mission 37 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 38 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 39 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 40 Ryusei Kyosuke
Mission 41 Ryusei Part 1 Part 2 Kyosuke
Mission 42 Combined
Ending Ryusei Kyosuke

OG1 Conclusion

OG1 Library

Original Generation 2
Mission 1
Mission 2
Mission 3
Mission 4
Mission 5
Mission 6
Mission 7
Mission 8
Mission 9
Mission 10
Mission 11
Mission 12
Mission 13
Mission 14
Mission 15
Mission 16
Route Split 1
Mission 17 Ethiopia Moon
Mission 18 Ethiopia Moon
Mission 19 Ethiopia Moon
Mission 20 Ethiopia Moon
Mission 21
Mission 22
Mission 23
Mission 24
Mission 25
Mission 26
Route Split 2
Mission 27 Aviano Izu
Mission 28 Aviano Izu
Mission 29 Aviano Izu
Mission 30 Aviano Izu
Mission 31
Mission 32
Mission 33 Intro 1 Intro 2 Battle Closing
Mission 34 Intro Battle 1 Battle 2 Battle 3 Closing
Mission 35 Intro Battle 1 Battle 2 Closing
Mission 36 Intro Battle/Closing
Mission 37 Intro/Battle Battle 2

Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Dec 13, 2016

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Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost
The Jukebox

General OG1 Pilot Theme - Born to Fight


General OG2 Pilot Theme - Rail to the Dangerzone


Stage Music - An Even Fight


Stage Music - Armageddon


Stage Music - Boosted Crisis


Stage Music - Steel Messiah


Scene Music - Apocalypse


Scene Music - Her Question


Scene Music - The Roots of Memory


Scene Music - Third Sadness


Aerogater Boss Theme - The Arrow of Destiny


Alfimi - Alchemist's Query


Axel Almer - Dark Knight


Aya Kobayashi - Psychic Energy


Bian Zoldark - Valsion


Brooklyn "Bullet" Luckfield - Vanishing Trooper


Daitetsu Minase - Steel Messiah


Elzam Branstein - Trombe!


Excellen Browning - Silver Fallen Angel


Fiona Graden - Over the World Wall


Garnet Sunday/Giado Venerdi - Beat and Beat


Ibis Douglas - Rip through the Night, Shooting Star (Alpha 2)


Ibis Douglas - Rip through the Night, Shooting Star (OGs)


Ingram Prisken - Time Diver


Ingram Prisken - Messenger from the Void


The Inspectors - Violent Battle


Irmgard Kazahara - Time to Come


Kai Kitamura - Rushing Dandy


Katina Tarask - OCTO-BRAWL!


Kusuha Mizuha - Cockpit of Steel


Kusuha Mizuha - Blue Blue Sky


Kyosuke Nanbu - Steel Beowulf


Lamia Loveless - Ash to Ash


Latooni Suvota - Brass Devotion


Lefina Enfield - Soaring Dragon


Leona Garstein - Treue


Levi Tolar - Marionette Messiah


Lune Zoldark - Flapper Girl


Masaki Ando - Blazing Wind! Raging Gale! Cybuster


Masaki Ando - Winds of La Gias


Ouka Nagisa - Ephemeral Blossom


Radha Bairaban - Asana of Destructive Thought


Raidiese F. Branstein - Ice Man


Raul Graden - Over the Time Flow


Rio Meilong and Ryoto Hikawa - Right and Kind


Rio Meilong and Ryoto Hikawa - Ace Attackers


Ryusei Date - Everywhere You Go


Sanger Zonvolt - The Sword that Smites Evil


Sanger Zonvolt - Blade and Soul Are One


Septuagint - The Adjudicator


Shine Hausen and Latooni Suvota - Fairy Dancing Dang-Sing


Shu Shirakawa - Dark Prison


Viletta Vadim - Femme Fatale


Vindel Mauser - Chaos


Wodan Ymir - The Gate of Magus

Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 05:31 on Dec 13, 2016

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost
Original Origins

Kyosuke and Excellen



Kyosuke Nanbu and Excellen Browning have a pretty convoluted history as Super Robot Wars characters go; they originally hailed from SRW Compact 2 on the Wonderswan, a black-and-white handheld that nobody knew existed. This was the tail end of the super-superdeformed phase of SRW, when the Gundams had human-like eyes and the Psycho Mk. II looked like it was going to crawl out of your TV set and murder you in your sleep. Additionally, Compact 2 was split into three separate games, a little trick Banpresto hadn't really pulled before or since (until recently with the Z and Masoukishin games). Part 1 took place on Earth and starred Kyosuke, Part 2 took place in space and starred Excellen, and then (I'm assuming, not quite clear here) Part 3 finally brought the two groups together.

Anyway, skip forward a just a year or two, into the PS2 era, when SRW Impact was released. This was basically an improved compilation of the three Compact 2s in a single title, but keeping the same essential story structure of the originals. Despite being a PS2 title, Impact ran off of the same graphics that had powered Alpha and Alpha Gaiden on the PSOne. It's also reputedly one of the harder games in the franchise in the better-plan-ten-missions-ahead-when-buying-upgrades vein.

As for their story, Kyosuke and Excellen find themselves at the forefront of a conflict with extradimensional race?/collective?/hive-mind? called the Einst, which may actually have a lot more to do with them both than either initially suspects. But they'll get their time in the spotlight in OG2 - and then some.

Voice Actors:
Kyosuke: Toshiyuki Morikawa, who had the distinction of dubbing both the Jude Law and Martin Freeman versions of Dr. Watson.
Excellen: Yuko Mizutani, who was the Japanese dub voice for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.



Team SRX



Like Kyosuke and Excellen, the SRX team members are in their fourth incarnation as of Original Generations.

Ryusei, Rai, and Aya debuted in Shin Super Robot Wars on the PSX, which had the distinction of being the only game in the franchise with non-superdeformed character models. Their role in the game is actually fairly limited; their original villain Gozzo isn't even the final enemy of the game. Due to Ingram's absence, Hayato from Getter Robo takes his place as the team's "coach."

Meanwhile, Ingram made his first appearance in Super Hero Operations, an RPG on the PSX featuring a smashup of superhero types like Ultraman and Kikaider. You had the choice of playing Ingram or a female counterpart we'll be meeting on Kyosuke's route, and eventually ended up fighting against Euzeth Gozzo (remember him from the intro? No relation to the Shin SRW villain) who'd been observing the powers of all the assembled heroes and combining them into a single design.

When SRW Alpha came out a year or so later, both groups were thrown together into the same unit. The Aerogater invasion became Alpha's primary original story thread, with Euzeth being made into the chief advisor of the fleet's admiral (from Shin SRW). Here Ingram found his way into the role you see him in now, as the SRX team's organizer and leader.

Voice Actors:
Ryusei: Shinichiro Miki, who voiced Marilyn Manson in Bowling for Columbine.
Rai: Ryotaro Okiayu, who dubbed Leonardo DiCaprio's role in Romeo + Juliet.
Aya: Yumi Toma, who voiced Kate Winslet's role in Titanic.



The Divine Crusaders



Part of the challenge of doing a big smashup like SRW is that you can't really pick a villain to roll with without feeling like you're somehow diminishing the ones you didn't use - and while it makes perfect sense for the good guys to team up since they're all heroes, who's going to keep the bad guys in line?

Super Robot Wars 2 on the NES answered that question with the Divine Crusaders. Led by Professor Bian Zoldark, possibly the world's biggest mecha otaku at the time, their stated mission was to take control and forge humanity into a fighting force the likes of which it had never before seen. Our heroes in Londo Bell, being the lovers of freedom and justice, took issue with that. This decision was helped by the fact that the DCs filled their ranks with such luminaries as Dr. Hell, the Hyakki and Dinosaur Empires, and the house of Zabi - the sort of guys you'd expect to get right on board with an organization bent on world domination, in other words. The moral grayness that you'll see more of in the missions to come hadn't really become A Thing at this point, although the game did end with a bit of a surprise that set up for sequels.

The DCs did appear in one other SRW setting: the Alpha series. Inexplicably, here they were good guys, helping to supply and coordinate efforts against a myriad of threats. A couple of missions in the translated Alpha Gaiden actually required you to defend DC headquarters. They sort of faded out after Alpha Gaiden, as did a few other elements Banpresto had copied over from their earlier games (Alpha 1 very much used the grab-and-stuff approach when it came to fitting things into its story), until Dr. Zoldark made a surprise reappearance during a cutscene towards the end of Alpha 3.

The OG timeline starts off firmly grounded in the original series timeline, with the Divine Crusaders sticking to their role as antagonists; you'll see a couple of notable scenes and characters from SRW2 as we progress, and I'll try to point those out as we go.


The Lord of Elemental



Debuting in Super Robot Wars 2, Masaki was the first Banpresto Original. We met him there pretty much as we meet him here: as some guy who randomly pops up during a mission, nukes half the map, rages about how much he wants to kill a guy named Shu, and then disappears again, only to pop up again later and join the team. The talking cats came later, but even at that early stage it was pretty clear that Masaki and Cybuster were the developers' babies; he could fly, he could transform, he had ranged weapons (reserved to a few units in SRW2), and Cyflash was the only MAP weapon in the game, even if the NES made it looks more like Cy-Gaseous-Eruption than anything.

Masaki remained part of the team during SRW3. Then, in SRW EX, he finally got some exploration of his backstory, as all of our heroes traveled (involuntarily) to the fantasy kingdom of Langran in the subterranean world of La Gias. There they discovered that there were others like Masaki - gifted individuals from Earth, summoned to pilot magical machines called Elemental Lords in a battle across the fantasy world. As a couple of posters have already pointed out, this takes heavy inspiration from the 1983 series Aura Battler Dunbine, a series in which individuals possessing a large amount of prana Aura Power are summoned from the surface to an underground undersea fantasy land to fight a war, and which also jumped the shark in a big way halfway through its story. Licensing issues have been suggested as the reason for Cybuster's invention, although Dunbine was also introduced to the franchise during SRW EX, so maybe Banpresto just assumed nobody would notice the similarities. :psyduck:

Masaki remained a fixture of the original series through its conclusion in SRW 4. Then in '96, a dedicated Lord of Elemental game was released on the SNES. Since his role in Super Robot Wars began in medias res, this game filled in the rest of Masaki's story, beginning with his initial arrival in La Gias and proceeding through his return to the surface during SRW2, then skipping forward in time to the end of SRW4 and showing the resolution. (As mentioned a while back, this is also where Thomas Platt made his first appearance, as an ex-DC officer who had somehow made his own way to La Gias.)

The Alpha timeline saw Masaki reprising his original-series role, which he played more-or-less faithfully through the end of Alpha Gaiden. Then he sort of faded out of the story by Alpha 2, much like the Divine Crusaders and PTX pilots did. :shrug:

Aside from a couple of appearances in crossover games, Masaki's other main source of screentime is the revived Lord of Elemental franchise (all five? games of it), mixing mecha action and wacky harem-anime "comedy" in a thoroughly :japan: way. One of these days I'll play them. Maybe.

Masaki is voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa, who's been a lot of characters and is also famously one of the biggest Super Robot Wars geeks on earth, to the point that he helps Banpresto to playtest their games.


Sanger



Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden featured the intrepid defenders of the Earth traveling forward in time. They found themselves in a post-apocalyptic future in which the Earth had been devastated by a massive shockwave generated during the final mission of Alpha 1. Our heroes' efforts to help the ragtag survivors (and maybe find themselves a way home) ended up pitting them against an insane computer, overseer of a facility formerly meant to preserve humanity in the event of just such an apocalypse.

One of this computers' faithful servants was an immortal, unkillable German guy in a mech with a Norse name who thought he was a Japanese samurai and waved around giant drills and a sword made out of the T-1000 from Terminator. That's right; Sanger was introduced to Super Robot Wars as an enemy. Eventually he could be persuaded to join you in fighting his former master; when the heroes returned to their own time, he remained in the future, never to be seen again.

Until Alpha 2, anyway, which opens with that same facility coming under attack from the game's original enemies, and its occupants - who you'd just finished fighting as bosses at the end of Alpha Gaiden - being wiped out. Sanger turns out to be one of the only survivors, but finds little to live for; he'd forsaken all of his ties in the belief that he'd be in cold sleep for a very long time, if not forever, and yet he awakes to discover that he's already failed in his mission to protect his comrades. However, as new and old threats arise to threaten the Alphaverse, his spirit compels him to step into the cockpit of the Grungust Type-3 and fight until he can find a new reason to live. Londo Bell is surprised to see him after their marathon boss fight against him from the end of Alpha Gaiden, but soon accepts him as one of their own.

Obviously, his background has changed ever so slightly in Original Generation, and they got him a new (well, I suppose technically old) machine to boot.

Voice Actor: Kenichi Ono, who hasn't had any amusing dub roles so I'm reduced to admitting that he also voiced Prospector in Nadesico.



The Captains



The captains and crews of the Hagane and Hiryu are new to the Original Generation games (there's typically only room for a couple battleships in an SRW game, and they're usually spoken for by Gundam series), but influences from other series are pretty plainly evident.

Daitetsu takes his inspiration from captains like Juzo Okita (Space Battleship Yamato, plus sequels) and Bruno J. Global (SDF Macross). There's the visual similarities - uniform, impressive hat, facial hair, smoking at people. They also occupy similar character roles as old veterans, burdened by the sins of their past, called to reluctantly take command of new ships (always described as "humanity's last hope") in the heat of battle. For his part, the by-the-book yet perpetually exasperated Tetsuya comes off as a young Captain Bright (Mobile Suit Gundam).

As people have already pointed out, the Hiryu crew and captain are a nod to the title ship from Martian Successor Nadesico, the ship with the biggest crew of misfits in the galaxy (aside from every other series that has that premise). Rather than corresponding to the Nadesico's captain Yurika, Lefina is closer to Ruri's role instead - that of the only sane person on the ship, eternally put-upon and overridden by the antics of everybody else. Meanwhile, Sean Webley can be seen in the traditional dirty-old-man role in every other anime series ever released.

Voice Actors

Daitetsu: Hidekatsu Shibata (Kingpin from Police Academy: The Animated Series)
Tetsuya: Jin Horikawa (Richter Belmont from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. No funnies here)
Eita: Hirofumi Tanaka (who was going to be in a series unironically titled Cat poo poo One before it got cancelled)
Lefina: Junko Iwao (Also nothing funny, unless you count the college kid's girlfriend from The Brave Little Toaster)
Sean: Kan Tanaka (Parappa the Rapper had a TV series. He was in it)
Eun: Shiho Kawaragi (Isabella from Phineas and Ferb, among other things)


PTX



While Masaki was an original character (the first in the franchise), he couldn't be called the main character of SRW 2 or 3 by any means. He only appeared halfway through each game, and the main focus of the story was on elements completely unrelated to his development. Super Robot Wars 4 tried something new, introducing a character who could serve as "your" pilot during the game. Character development still wasn't a major focus; rather than choosing a character, you chose a personality, which affected how your dude (or gal) reacted to things throughout the game. There was a set of pregenerated name/face/personality combinations (four male, four female) or you could mix and match (and rename) as you chose.

Two of these were Irm Kazahara and Ring Mao, pictured above. Recognize them? Me neither. Whichever one you play, your character joined Londo Bell as the pilot of the PTX-001 Gespenst that we all know and love (?) which came in two flavors, Real and Super (depending on whether you preferred shooting things or punching them). Partway through the game you got an upgrade, either to the Huckebein or the Grungust, as the war against Earth's alien invaders continued. Additionally, your character had a love interest - either a high school sweetheart or a pilot met after enlisting, depending on your choices in-game.



When the series moved into the Playstation era, Super Robot Wars 4 was remade as a pair of games, F and F Final - a bigger, badder, and infinitely more sadistic retelling of the same story (they had both Neon Genesis Evangelion and Space Runaway Ideon this time around, so I guess that last part was inevitable). The new version kept the same setup with a character serving as the player's avatar, and even reused the same names and personalities. As you can see above, Irm and Ring got a bit of a makeover in the process.

Then, in Super Robot Wars Alpha, they resurfaced again, as older and (possibly) more mature versions of the people we met in F. Their role in the story was much more restrained this time around. Ring was mostly seen in cutscenes, while Irm's role was to spirit away the main character's significant other (something we'll get into in more detail after we've met all the appropriate people) to fight the war independently and generally get in your way throughout the story, before finally deciding to play nice and joining up with you during the latter part of the game. They appeared again in Alpha Gaiden; then, like the other elements that were carried over from the classic games, they pretty much disappeared. And now we see them again here, reprising their Alpha incarnation but as larger contributors to the story.

People have mentioned already that Irm's design, both physically and in terms of his machine, is a nod to Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3, a bigass mech that transformed into a tank and an aircraft, and whose pilot, Banjou Haran, has impressive hair.



Katina



Unlike most of the Banpresto Originals, Katina didn't come from a video game. In the late '90s the company released an SRW-themed trading card game called Scramble Gather; as part of the promotion for the game, they took fan submissions and made the best and/or most popular of them into a card for the game. By the time OG1 came out three or four years later, references to Katina as "the octopus" (see it?) had become a minor meme among franchise fans, leading to her inclusion as the head of the Hiryu's "Octo Squadron" in that game.

She had a machine of her own, too, which hasn't yet appeared in OG. Instead she got Russell.

Voice Actress: Asami Yaguchi, who hasn't done too much else that we'd notice. But she was in Tamagotchi: The Movie.

Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Oct 19, 2015

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost
Original Generations 1

First released in 2003, OG1 uses Super Robot Wars 2 and Alpha as the bases for its storyline. As such it represents a starting point both for the characters and for the franchise; a number of the characters we'll be seeing here got their start in both of those games.



Many SRWs start you off by selecting a main character, usually boiling down to a decision between the two classic robot styles: Super (towering superhero-esque robots) and Real (more "realistic" designs portrayed as weapons of war). Here we're given a choice of Ryusei Date from Team SRX, allegedly a super, and Kyosuke Nanbu of Team ATX, supposedly a real. The game will turn both of these categories on their heads in short order.



The missions you see will largely depend on which character you choose. However, the story as a whole is more focused around Ryusei and the SRX crew than around Kyosuke (he'll get his spotlight in OG2), so we'll be choosing him for starters.



The first thing we see is a snazzy little video in which the camera pans through space and over to this object.



In a room full of glass tubes, a man wakes up with no idea of where he is. He starts to remember a name, "Aleph," but then stops himself.



He's interrupted before he can think on it further, and reacts about like you'd expect upon being greeted by a face like this first thing in the morning.

Not immediately clear from the still images, but there's a ripple effect on the guy in the mask's image, indicating that he's appearing on a display rather than being there in person.



The masked man notes that the emergency code appears not to have transmitted properly. Perhaps it's fate that this happened now, of all times... but it may be advantageous in the end.



Something causes our friend pain, and the masked man informs him that he now belongs to him, to serve as his puppet. To stride into the forbidden land, to tear through the barrier this star has erected, will be his role; before the empire, or the inspectors, have their way, he must deliver unto Gozzo the key to victory.



At last the masked man orders "Aleph Balshem" to carry out his duty: serve as his eyes and watch over this land.



The camera pulls away...



...And a swarm of insect-like robots surges forth.

:eng101:This entire scene is new to the remake. The guy on the right with the distinctive headgear is Euzeth Gozzo, a figure who's appeared a couple of times across the SRW franchise - notably in the first Alpha game. He's pretty much the quintessential crossover villain; his main schtick is stealing/copying the powers and technology of other major players and combining them into one massively powerful weapon. He was conspicuously absent from OG1 despite Alpha's prominence there. This time around, Banpresto's putting him front and center. He won't appear again in this game. As for the guy on the left, this style of hiding faces (with the lower part of the portrait visible) is Banpresto's way of acknowledging that everybody in the audience should already know who the person is even though it's "secret." :ssh:

Also, apologies for what was probably a comically inaccurate translation/summary.




The "Divine Wars" title is new, to correspond with the Original Generations anime that was released a few months before this game.



Year 179 of the Space Era, near Pluto



Under heavy fire from some awfully familiar robots, Captain Daitetsu Minase of the Hiryu demands a report of his ship's status. His executive officer Sean Webley informs him that blocks 4-9 and the secondary bridge are destroyed, while their main weapons are offline.



Meanwhile, the Giganscudo is completely surrounded. Sean recommends that they withdraw, as they're heavily outmatched; these insectoid machines resemble no human design. Daitetsu picks up on what that must mean, and his XO adds that the enemy carrier or mothership must be close by. The captain is furious at having to turn back after finally reaching the edge of the solar system, but under the circumstances they'll have no chance of making it back to Earth if they try to continue.



As they begin their retreat, Daitetsu vows not to forget this disgrace...





Mission 1: Second Contact

Phew. I thought we'd never get here.



Somewhere much closer to the Earth sphere, Major Elzam Branstein, formerly of the elite Aggressors unit, confirms his coordinates and prepares to test out the Gespenst Mk.II-R. He tells the observing technician that, thanks to Colonel Kar-Wai's adjustments, the mech handles "like a 2-year-old thoroughbred."



Before he can put his machine through its paces, however, a number of unidentified robots show up. It's unclear exactly what they are, though Elzam is certain there's nothing like them in the military's arsenal. They fan out and approach, and he announces that he's switching from test mode to combat mode; the technician protests that the Mk.II has no weapons, and Elzam wryly replies that it's equipped with two perfectly good arms.



The tech appeals to Professor Kirk Hamill to rein the Major in, but Kirk just tells him to do as he likes - what better way to prove the worth of the Personal Troopers to the EOT Institute?



Having received all the clearance he needs, Elzam spurs his steed Trombe into action...



And there's our mission objectives. Kill everything, don't get Elzam killed. Simple enough. The third pane denotes the battle mastery requirement, an additional challenge on top of the normal objectives; earning a lot of masteries raises the game's difficulty and puts you on track for a more complete ending. I'll be shooting for all of them, if possible. In this case, we need to take out all the enemies within four turns. SRW battles take place in alternating player and enemy phases, with each turn consisting of a player and an enemy phase, so we have until the end of the fourth enemy phase to pull this off.



On the hardware front we have Elzam in the Gespenst Mk.II-R, which has one ability: punching things. Our enemies, meanwhile, have five Megillot mechs, which are a bit more mobile - they can ram you at close range, or zap you with a laser from up to 5 spaces away. (I neglected to grab a shot of their status screen, but if there's serious demand for it, we'll have plenty of opportunity to see them in the future.) There's also a Tausendfussler on the map (our support ship,) but it's considered an NPC unit and won't do anything. Anyway, we've got some killing to do, so let's hop to it.



And here's a problem. They're too far away. Most missions won't start you off within striking distance, but drat it, we've got a deadline to meet.



Every pilot has a list of six spirit commands (less at the start of the game) which are basically "spells" they can cast to gain an edge in combat. Pilots have a limited supply of SP to use for this, and once it's gone they're on their own for the rest of the mission. In this case, Elzam has Accelerate, which gives an extra +3 movement on your next move. For good measure we'll cast Focus as well, improving hit and dodge rates by 30% for the entire turn.



Now we can get close enough to the nearest bug to punch it in the face. This matchup is just a wee bit lopsided. If I hadn't used Focus the Megillot would have a nonzero chance of hitting - not high, mind you, but enough that you could conceivably lose the first mission if you were unlucky.



Now that he's up close, Elzam confirms that this machine is not of earthly origin.


Carve this music into your brain. Most characters have a unique music track that plays when they're in combat, and here's Elzam's. Trombe! is a unique track for another reason as well, but we'll go into that when it becomes relevant (much later.)





Elzam wasn't lying about not needing a weapon.



The Megillot is a bit less effective with its horn.



Then I take a break to head into the System Menu and turn off force feedback on my controller. I always forget to do this, and it's on by default whenever you start a new game, which usually leads to my having a near-heart attack when an impact happens due to setting my controller down on hard surfaces when I'm letting animations play. :downs:



The enemy phase begins, and the adjacent bug is no more accurate than before. Elzam's counterattack finishes it off.



I'm close enough to one of the others that it can zap me. Or try, at least.



I've never really understood how these ring-shaped lasers are supposed to work from a physics (or even magical anime physics) perspective.



Turn 2 begins, and we have another problem: none of the other enemies budged an inch. 4 targets remaining, 3 turns left to trash them, at a rate of one enemy per turn. My keenly-honed mathematics skills tell me that this isn't going to work out in my favor.

Given the lack of resources and options available to you, first-mission battle masteries tend to be either laughably simple or frustratingly bullshit. This one seems like the latter, with you relying on a lucky crit at the end to pull it off, unless you have a little foreknowledge. Here, the two closest bugs won't move at all until the third turn, even though you'd expect them to start moving before the guys in back.

Meanwhile, the guys in back will move on this turn. So I park myself six spaces away from them both - too far for their laser to hit me, but close enough that they can still try to ram me after moving.



Which they do, fruitlessly.



Then I clobber them both on the counterattack. One thing you realize very quickly is that the enemy phase is when most of your damage is dealt; you can attack once during the player phase, but if you set it up right, on the enemy phase you can attack as many times as there are enemies. Both of these hits were criticals, which do something like 1.25 times the normal amount of damage.



Turn 3, I move over to the bot on the left and smack him; conveniently, this lets me once again be six spaces away from both of the enemies in the middle. Note the difference in damage between a crit and a non-crit, given that Megillots have 3000 HP total.



During the enemy phase the one still-untouched enemy off on the right heads towards me, while the other three get themselves counterattacked to death.

Now on Turn 4 I only have one enemy left. I can easily hit it once and finish it during the enemy phase---





---but that ends up not being necessary. You'll notice that Elzam's damage has been steadily increasing; we'll get into this mechanic further when we have more opportunity to demonstrate it.



With the enemies wiped out, I get a little pop-up saying that I've completed the battle mastery requirement.



Immediately another bug pops up. Elzam uses cutscene power to rush this one and disable it, saying that Professor Bian Zoldark will want to look at a live specimen of the extraterrestrial "guests" he's spoken of. He muses about what it means for humanity if those who attacked the Hiryu have made their way to the Earth sphere...



And that's that. The loading-screen image actually happens to be a preview of Ryusei's next mission, in which Ryusei might even get to appear!

But not yet. Next time, we'll check out the beginning of Kyosuke's route.

BlitzBlast
Jul 30, 2011

some people just wanna watch the world burn
SRW LPs are becoming the new FE LPs, huh.

Good luck making it through all of OGs.

Digital Jello
Nov 2, 2012

Now I have a machine gun. Ho! Ho! Ho!
I played the two OGs on the GBA, which actually served as my introduction to the SRW series, and this seems to be a more "advanced" version of said two combined. I never actually played Ryusei's path (sorry, Kyosuke was cooler), so I'm looking forward to seeing what I missed in this LP.

I do have one request though; is it possible to brighten up the screenshots a little? Not a big thing really, but they look unusually dark, and not just cause the first campaign is in outer space.

Digital Jello fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Aug 10, 2014

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost

BlitzBlast posted:

SRW LPs are becoming the new FE LPs, huh.

Good luck making it through all of OGs.

Is that a good or a bad thing? :ohdear: If I even make it through the first game (around 70 missions total), I'll consider that a victory.

Digital Jello posted:

I do have one request though; is it possible to brighten up the screenshots a little? Not a big thing really, but they look unusually dark, and not just cause the first campaign is in outer space.

Yeah, I'm pretty new at the images-from-video thing. I recorded as an .mpg file through WinTV, and everything is nice and crisp-looking in Windows Media Player, but then when I go into VirtualDubMod to do any kind of editing tomfoolery it gets darker and grainier. I'm still experimenting. EDIT: Looking over at Brunom's Z LP, I'll probably also go with smaller images from now on, too.

Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Aug 10, 2014

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost
Kyosuke Route: Mission 1


All right, let's back up and check things out from another angle. Kyosuke's route begins with the scenes we've already viewed involving the mystery men and the ship near Pluto. I'll skip those.


Then we get a Super Robot Wars tradition: an opening text crawl giving us an overview of the state of the world - meaning you get to watch me translate crap again.

quote:

Nearly two centuries have passed since humanity began its expansion into outer space, heralding the start of the Space Era. Yet human life has changed little; a pair of meteorite impacts during the 21st century plunged the world into turmoil, effectively arresting human advancement.

Then, in the year 179 of the new era, a third meteor, designated Meteor 3, struck Aidoneus Island in the Pacific. Investigation of the fallen meteor by Professor Bian Zoldark revealed this object to be artificial in origin - sent here deliberately, he believed.

But the reason behind its sudden appearance out of the L5 sector and its subsequent descent - to say nothing of its deceleration prior to impact - was yet to be determined. Furthermore, upon investigating the meteor's interior, it was found to contain materials and technological data completely new to human science.

These new discoveries were dubbed "Extra Over Technology," or EOT for short. To explore their possibilities and maintain secrecy around their nature, the leaders of the Earth Federation created the EOT Investigative Commission, with Dr. Zoldark as its head.

The additional discovery of schematics for weapons, among them 10-meter-long insectoid robots, led Zoldark to conclude that the probability of an imminent invasion of the Earth by advanced extraterrestrial forces, designated "Aerogaters," could not be ignored. General Norman Sley of the Federation military took these warnings seriously - and so began the development of the Personal Troopers, bipedal combat robots meant to fight these new enemies...



Japan - Federation Far East Base



Lt. Colonel Hans Weber is overseeing today's equipment test, but test pilot Kyosuke Nanbu has been reading the Wildraubtier's documentation and has his reservations; under the circumstances, the mech hardly seems ready for combat testing. Hans scoffs at this, saying that drones armed with paint rounds hardly qualify as a "combat" situation. Surely having to clean some paint off of his machine isn't too much of an ordeal for him?



Kyosuke says that the ammunition isn't his concern. Hans starts to shout him down for refusing to follow orders, but Kyosuke claims he isn't afraid to put his life on the line. Instead, he argues that the machine needs to be able to shoot and evade. In the Raubtier's current state, any test data they collect will too unreliable to assist the Personal Trooper project, which has already supposedly lost two pilots while testing the Gespenst. Hans doesn't think much of Kyosuke's concern for things that aren't his responsibility, and hadn't pegged him as the kind of coward who listens to rumors. :drat:



Probably realizing the futility of talking to Hans when he has his angry face on, Kyosuke tells himself that it is critical that they bring the PT project to fruition as quickly as possible, and heads out to his duty without further objection.



Hans is privately grateful that the defective machine will be getting Kyosuke out of his hair soon enough. As a bonus, the pilot's impending death will leave Mao Industries with a debt to be repaid. Fade out as he ku-ku-ku's and fu-fu-fu's evilly to himself.



Mission 1: Broken Wings, Blunted Talons



Outside, Lieutenant Irmgard Kazahara confirms with Kyosuke that everything is ready to go for the test.



Irm reminds him that the Wildraubtier is the first personal trooper designed to transform, so don't do anything too reckless; it wouldn't do for there to be an accident while Commander Laker is away from the base.



Meanwhile, Hans tells him to relax and enjoy himself. After all, they're only paint rounds...



...Paint rounds that can destroy you! :haw:



And here we are. Again, we have a straightforward mission to start us off; kill everything, don't get Kyosuke killed, and pull it off in two turns if we want the battle mastery.



On our side we've got the Wildraubtier in flight mode. Kyosuke is a very melee-oriented pilot with the skills Counter (which randomly lets him get his counterattack in first when somebody attacks him), Commander (to improve the skills of all the teammates he doesn't have yet), and Lucky (which earns him some extra money from kills).



The Raubtier also has a few more attacks than Elzam's unarmed Gespenst did. The numbers at the right are each weapon's damage, effective range in squares, and accuracy modifier. Another consideration is that only weapons marked with a P can be used after moving. The Raubtier's flight form is nice because its most powerful weapon has a decent range and can be fired on the go.



Kyosuke has Focus and Accelerate for spirit commands, just like Elzam, so I throw them both on and charge into the fray. Luckily, there's a spot where I can park him and use the main beam cannon on everything.



The two Type-71 Waldung tanks are pure cannon fodder, but the F-28 Messer aircraft at least have a chance of hitting Kyosuke. If I were worried about this I technically should've gone for one of the jets first, but I'm really not. So I didn't.





As he goes into battle, Kyosuke notes that the handling is different from under the Moon's gravity.








Kaboom. As a reward we get some experience, a Pilot Point, and some money. You get experience from every battle encounter, but PP and cash are only given after an actual kill.



Kyosuke is shocked to discover that the large underslung beam cannon on his machine does not, in fact, fire paint rounds. Hans ignores his emergency call, and pulls rank to shut Irm up when he tries to intervene. Kyosuke realizes that whatever's going on, he just has to ride through it...



Enemy phase. The second tank goes down like the first did.





The Messers want to be in a Macross series when they grow up, but for now six missiles is all they can muster.



Kyosuke returns fire to slightly greater effect.



I was hoping I could show Kyosuke getting hit, but instead his Counter skill kicks in and takes out the second Messer before it can try anything, giving us the battle mastery in a single turn.



The drones destroyed, Hans orders Kyosuke to proceed with the transformation test. Kyosuke and Irm demand to know why the drones were combat-ready...



...And Hans responds by accusing Kyosuke of being just scared. :what:



Realizing he has no choice but to leave it to fortune, Kyosuke proceeds with the test over Irm's objections.





And immediately things go wrong.



The operator and Irm frantically try to raise Kyosuke on the radio.



What a shame, Hans says, Mao Industries' defective merchandise has cost them the life of a talented pilot. He orders the operator to contact the moon at once, so that Irm can deliver the news personally to his old partner Rin.



His fun is ruined when the operator reports that Kyosuke has survived the explosion.



Hans curses the pilot, who seems to have the devil's luck, but at least this accident can be used as a pretext to have him removed from the base.



Meanwhile, Kyosuke counts his broken ribs and reflects that, somehow, he's lived through another one.

Next time on Super Robot Wars: We attend an e-sports tournament.

Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 05:36 on Aug 11, 2014

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

I'm glad this is getting LPed, I'm quite a fan of OGs. I tried playing it while watching videos of the GBA version as a sort-of translation, but having a LP as reference in the future should be much handier.

It will be quite the long ordeal even with only OG1, Seyser Koze, so I wish you the best of lucks.

Kyosuke's shocked face when he discovers his cannon is shooting lasers is great, he truly looks shocked as hell. OGs as a whole has some really pretty graphics.

Dr Pepper
Feb 4, 2012

Don't like it? well...

Oh hey another SRW LP.

Good luck!

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost

Dr Pepper posted:

Oh hey another SRW LP.

Good luck!

Thanks. I have a feeling I'm going to need it.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Hey it's OGS!
I loved OG1/2, It was a lot more comfortable playing with entirely new characters than having to know all Mech anime minutiae from the last 30 years.

And maybe because I played it in my massive weaboo phase. Still a good game(s) though, and I still love the mech designs.

Koorisch
Mar 29, 2009
Yeah, I really like OGs even if I don't understand a word of japanese, it's cool. :)

Brunom1
Sep 5, 2011

Ask me about being the best dad ever.
Always good to see more SRW LPs - especially of these games, since they're what got me into the franchise.

Keep at it, Seyser! :hfive:

legoman727
Mar 13, 2010

by exmarx
There is one really, really stupid plot change in OGs that annoys me, but that's not till probably months from now. It's a shame we never got this overseas though, played the GBA ones and loved them.

Khisanth Magus
Mar 31, 2011

Vae Victus
Giving up on the series in the US on the basis of the GBA OG games failing really is kind of dumb given the circumstances, but I guess not surprising. The GBA was essentially a dead system by that point, with the DS having been out for 2 years before the GBA games hit the states. Sure, the DS could play GBA games, but games for the old system released to no fanfare at all were not likely to sell well. A release of this game translated at the time would have gone over a lot better, but that is game companies for you.

Of course, this is the only other game in the series they could release in the US, due to the horrendous nightmare that is anime licensing in the US, and with companies going under all over the place, so it is hard to tell who even has the license for any given show.

AradoBalanga
Jan 3, 2013

Khisanth Magus posted:

Giving up on the series in the US on the basis of the GBA OG games failing really is kind of dumb given the circumstances, but I guess not surprising. The GBA was essentially a dead system by that point, with the DS having been out for 2 years before the GBA games hit the states. Sure, the DS could play GBA games, but games for the old system released to no fanfare at all were not likely to sell well. A release of this game translated at the time would have gone over a lot better, but that is game companies for you.

Of course, this is the only other game in the series they could release in the US, due to the horrendous nightmare that is anime licensing in the US, and with companies going under all over the place, so it is hard to tell who even has the license for any given show.
Actually, Alpha 1's Dreamcast version almost did get a US release. Every company holding a license (for the series that had been licensed) was on board with the plan and approved the game, even though some series in Alpha 1 weren't licensed in the United States.

Except for one company, Harmony Gold. They were the holdout company and ultimately, Alpha 1 DC never made it outside of Japan. This supposedly happened again with W, with Harmony Gold again being the holdout company, causing that game to not be released in the US.

That said, the GBA games failing was also on Atlus doing jack poo poo for advertising for the games. I found the games by walking into a Gamestop and being curious, not through ads. So, Bandai-Namco giving up on the series seems to be a mix of "Harmony Gold will always be a butt over their crap" and "The first people we gave the series to did gently caress all to advertise the games" on top of the financial failings.

Khisanth Magus
Mar 31, 2011

Vae Victus

AradoBalanga posted:

Actually, Alpha 1's Dreamcast version almost did get a US release. Every company holding a license (for the series that had been licensed) was on board with the plan and approved the game, even though some series in Alpha 1 weren't licensed in the United States.

Except for one company, Harmony Gold. They were the holdout company and ultimately, Alpha 1 DC never made it outside of Japan. This supposedly happened again with W, with Harmony Gold again being the holdout company, causing that game to not be released in the US.

That said, the GBA games failing was also on Atlus doing jack poo poo for advertising for the games. I found the games by walking into a Gamestop and being curious, not through ads. So, Bandai-Namco giving up on the series seems to be a mix of "Harmony Gold will always be a butt over their crap" and "The first people we gave the series to did gently caress all to advertise the games" on top of the financial failings.

I'd like to see XSEED or NIS bring OGs and OGs2 over, but that is pretty unlikely at this point because of their age and the systems they were on(PS2 & PS3 respectively). They aren't afraid to just leave the Japanese voice actors alone in lower budget localizations, which I think a niche game like this would call for, and they are in touch enough with gamers that the word would spread more than did with Atlas. This is all just wistful thinking though.

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost

legoman727 posted:

There is one really, really stupid plot change in OGs that annoys me, but that's not till probably months from now. It's a shame we never got this overseas though, played the GBA ones and loved them.

I'm extending an open invitation to any SRW buffs to shout out anything I happen to miss, since I most likely am going to miss some stuff.

Also, to be fair(ish) to Atlus, at that point their MO pretty much was "Advertise nothing, achieve modest success anyway." Although I gather the OG games fell short of even their expectations.

But not too far short of them that they wouldn't release a game about boob jokes a couple of years later.

Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Aug 11, 2014

Montegoraon
Aug 22, 2013
Yeah. Atlus USA is superlative for its faithful translation, but back then their marketing division was staffed by a snowman in tennis shoes and nobody else.

So, a significant number of the characters introduced in OG were government and military officials meant to take the place of, mostly, Gundam characters in those same roles, such as nation champion asshat Hans Weber here. Since OGs borrows and reimagines scenarios from the other games just like the other games take scenarios from the anime series, I'm curious to know what the circumstances in the other games were. Who was around, what else was going on at the same time, etc. Like, who was the guy in place of Hans in Kyousuke's first scenario? Was it a Titan? I bet it was a Titan. What happened there seems exactly like their kind of ludicrously blatant corruption.

Ryusei originally came from Shin SRW and the Alpha series. Kyousuke is from Compact 2/Impact. Elzam first appeared in OG, but was also added to Alpha in the later games. Irm is from 4/F.

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost
OG doesn't really have any hyper-nationalist/racist leaders in the vein of a Gihren Zabi or even a Miwa from Daimos. By and large the rear end in a top hat-military-leaders are Titan analogues, looking for any chance to expand their own power and influence. Hans is pretty small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, so he's probably more of a Jamaikan (Zeta) than a Basque or Jamitov.

I'll probably be doing writeups of the Banpresto Originals' home games as more of them appear. Excellen will be appearing in Kyosuke's next mission and the SRX team will be together in two more Ryusei missions.

Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Aug 12, 2014

Hellioning
Jun 27, 2008

Yay, OGs! I've played the GBA versions and heard about the differences in the remake, but I've never seen them, so I'm definitely watching this.

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you
I really want an English translation of OGs. I played through quite a bit of the first one a few years ago. Then I found out they were remade looking much nicer and because of how much nicer it looked I did not want to play the outdated version.

GimmickMan
Dec 27, 2011

Oh look at that an OGs LP, Godspeed you crazy person.

Montegoraon posted:

Yeah. Atlus USA is superlative for its faithful translation, but back then their marketing division was staffed by a snowman in tennis shoes and nobody else.

So, a significant number of the characters introduced in OG were government and military officials meant to take the place of, mostly, Gundam characters in those same roles, such as nation champion asshat Hans Weber here. Since OGs borrows and reimagines scenarios from the other games just like the other games take scenarios from the anime series, I'm curious to know what the circumstances in the other games were. Who was around, what else was going on at the same time, etc. Like, who was the guy in place of Hans in Kyousuke's first scenario? Was it a Titan? I bet it was a Titan. What happened there seems exactly like their kind of ludicrously blatant corruption.

Ryusei originally came from Shin SRW and the Alpha series. Kyousuke is from Compact 2/Impact. Elzam first appeared in OG, but was also added to Alpha in the later games. Irm is from 4/F.

Kyosuke's accident happens as part of his backstory, so basically no named character does it IIRC. Impact is post-Zeta so there's only a few Titans left anyway. In fact, by stage 1 he already has his signature mech and is assigned to Londo Bell alongside the NT-Alex, Dancougar, and some Gundam mooks. There is no explanation behind this but they try to lampshade it with Bright scratching his head at the federation sending him the prototypes unfit for mass production.

Compact/Impact weren't particularly inspired games.

e: You know how SRW often improves the plot of the shows that appear in it? OG vastly improves the plot of the originals it features... Unless you're the cast of SRW R. The R Originals got the shaft pretty badly in OGs.

GimmickMan fucked around with this message at 07:36 on Aug 12, 2014

Veloxyll
May 3, 2011

Fuck you say?!

AradoBalanga posted:

Actually, Alpha 1's Dreamcast version almost did get a US release. Every company holding a license (for the series that had been licensed) was on board with the plan and approved the game, even though some series in Alpha 1 weren't licensed in the United States.

Except for one company, Harmony Gold. They were the holdout company and ultimately, Alpha 1 DC never made it outside of Japan. This supposedly happened again with W, with Harmony Gold again being the holdout company, causing that game to not be released in the US.

That said, the GBA games failing was also on Atlus doing jack poo poo for advertising for the games. I found the games by walking into a Gamestop and being curious, not through ads. So, Bandai-Namco giving up on the series seems to be a mix of "Harmony Gold will always be a butt over their crap" and "The first people we gave the series to did gently caress all to advertise the games" on top of the financial failings.

Harmony Gold being lovely with regards to IP. WHAT A STUNNING AND UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENT.
I'd love these in english, because I am enough of a nerd to appreciate dumb references. Not enough of one to learn Japanese though.

TheLastRoboKy
May 2, 2009

Finishing the game with everyone else's continues
I'm glad you're doing this after the last attempt at the OG series fell through. I've beaten OG1 and OG2 on the GBA, have just beat 2ndOGs as of like five days ago and I've started playing OGs on the PS2 as a sort of psyche-up run to playing OGG, and I've just now remembered I haven't touched my copy of Dark Prison yet so holy crap am I immersed in it right now. I'm so ridiculously on board with this you couldn't scrape me off.


I like Hans. The OG series has such a great collection of people you want to just kick in the teeth, but I like Hans because from the word go you know he thinks he's a lot cleverer than he actually is and from the word go everyone's calling him out and he's only getting away with his horseshit because the real boss isn't home. Also his angry reaction face just cracks me up.

I also enjoy Kyosuke's line in the GBA version just before he attempts the transformation sequence.

"Whatever happens, happens!"

If he'd actually been killed after that, you just know Hans would somehow gotten that engraved on his tombstone.

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
Hey, this is nice! I just started playing SRT OG1 on gba, Kyosuke route. It'll be interesting to compare to with it'S remake as this LP continues.

Hunter Noventa
Apr 21, 2010

I bought a JP PS2 to play this and Alpha 3, it'll be nice to read the plot changes I didn't catch due to not being Japanese-literate.

Broken Loose
Dec 25, 2002

PROGRAM
A > - - -
LR > > - -
LL > - - -

Seyser Koze posted:

I'm extending an open invitation to any SRW buffs to shout out anything I happen to miss, since I most likely am going to miss some stuff.

I guess it would be fair to point out that there are established localizations for some of the names that differ from yours (Ring Mao for example, possibly Irmgult but Irmgard is also correct). When in doubt, consult Akurasu. They have ship names, too! Tausendfüßler!

Otherwise, brighter screenshots, good luck, rock on, etc. This is a great series and a great game, even if this one in particular ends up hugely breakable with the Twin system and such.

AradoBalanga
Jan 3, 2013

Montegoraon posted:

Yeah. Atlus USA is superlative for its faithful translation, but back then their marketing division was staffed by a snowman in tennis shoes and nobody else.
While Atlus USA did a good localization job....they dropped the ball on one character we'll meet in Ryusei's route first. Like, holy poo poo, did they drop the ball on localizing this character.

Then again, there's another character that I have to give Atlus USA credit for attempting to localize their name. Mostly because every piece of official artwork/liner notes feature that character's name in loving Cryllic.

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost

Broken Loose posted:

I guess it would be fair to point out that there are established localizations for some of the names that differ from yours (Ring Mao for example, possibly Irmgult but Irmgard is also correct). When in doubt, consult Akurasu. They have ship names, too! Tausendfüßler!

I'm mostly going to stick with Atlus' names. "Ring" always just rubbed me the wrong way for whatever reason.

AradoBalanga posted:

While Atlus USA did a good localization job....they dropped the ball on one character we'll meet in Ryusei's route first. Like, holy poo poo, did they drop the ball on localizing this character.

Well great, now I'm paranoid about missing it and getting yelled at. :ohdear:

AradoBalanga
Jan 3, 2013

Seyser Koze posted:

Well great, now I'm paranoid about missing it and getting yelled at. :ohdear:
Since you're using the OG1!GBA script, you'll know who I'm talking about when we get there.

Hellioning
Jun 27, 2008

AradoBalanga posted:

While Atlus USA did a good localization job....they dropped the ball on one character we'll meet in Ryusei's route first. Like, holy poo poo, did they drop the ball on localizing this character.

To be fair, that is a REALLY EASY mistake to make. I'm more confused at Banpresto than AtlusUSA, honestly.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Kyosuke's rather having his face rubbed in the gutter by the plot, isn't he?

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost
Ryusei Route: Mission 2

This mission starts off with the introductory text crawl from the last update.



In Akihabara, Kusuha Mizuha struggles to tear her friend Ryusei Date away from a toy robot display; he's been saying "just another minute" for the past half-hour. She reminds him that his mother's waiting, which finally manages to persuade him.

I've played the remade OG1 a number of times, and this is the first time I've actually noticed that the video screen in the background changes as you watch. :pseudo:



As they move, Kusuha comments that Ryusei really loves his robots. He wholeheartedly agrees; nothing captures the burning passion of a man's SOUL like a super robot. Kusuha says she's heard of those Personal Trooper things on the news, leaving him no choice but to correct her at once. Super robots have totally awesome designs, and they can transform, and combine, and they have rear end-kicking finishing moves, and---

Ryusei basically just summarized the Super/Real divide more eloquently than I can.



Kusuha responds "But aren't they all just robots?" leading Ryusei to conclude that there was no point explaining this to a girl after all. :rant: She giggles at this, saying he's just like a kid when he talks about robots. It's his dream to pilot one himself one day, which is why he spends so much of his time playing Burning PT, a super-realistic mech simulator. He's rank S2 now, and the cash prize offered at today's national tournament will let him take a break from working.



They check in with Ryusei's mom Yukiko at the hospital; she says she's doing better, but that doesn't stop Ryusei from nagging her to eat properly and get lots of rest, prompting her to observe that sometimes she's not sure which of them is the mother and which is the child.



She turns the tables and asks about his studies. Ryusei tells her that he's not planning to go to college; the money his father left behind for them is running out, so he's going to go straight into the workforce and do his part to support them both. This doesn't sit well with Yukiko, who says that his life is his own and he should embrace it for himself; if his father were still alive, she knows he would say the same thing. Reluctantly, he agrees. They're interrupted by the nurse, and Yukiko tells them to hurry and run along or they'll be late.



As they walk to the tournament, Ryusei does a last-minute review of his data. Kusuha notes that he's taking this tournament very seriously, and he tells her that the reigning champion Tenzan Nakajima will be there - he's something of a legend among gamers, and so Ryusei's going to give it his all against him. With his determination to take care of his mother once this is over, it's not just a game to him any longer, but a chance to end his gaming career on a high note.



Mission 2: Personal Trooper



The curtain rises and Ryusei has just lost to Tenzan, who thinks the competition was hardly worth his time.

I've never been to one of those Korean Starcraft tournaments. Do they have announcers like this one?



Ryusei does his best to keep the ol' stiff upper lip, waving off Kusuha's concern with a "you win some, you lose some." And hey, second in the country? That's not too shabby, right?



Tenzan swaggers by, saying that he thought he heard the whimpering of a whipped dog over here. Ryusei tries to brush it off, but Tenzan continues that it's bad enough that he had to lower himself to participating in this farce of a tournament; now he has to listen to some loser make excuses for his failure?



Ryusei says that's not what's going on at all. His opponent seems unperturbed, saying that it's just too bad he had to take a drubbing like that in front of his girlfriend. Ryusei angrily shoots back that Kusuha isn't his girlfriend, which earns an "I knew it! This does piss you off, doesn't it?" in response. Ryusei needs to level up, because right now he's no good as a rival; he'd be dead ten times over in actual combat. Good thing it was just a game, right?



"So long, Ryusei the little whipped puppy. Run along home and cry now." :smug:



Tenzan leaves, and Ryusei tells Kusuha that it doesn't matter; he's done playing Burning PT after today, so it's not like they'll ever meet again in any case.

:eng101: Here's another pretty significant change. This scene is lifted from the Divine Wars anime; in the original game, Ryusei actually wins the tournament because Tenzan doesn't even bother to show up. He still doesn't get the chance to roll around in his prize money, though. :smith:



In a nearby trailer a technician reports that they're detecting TK Alpha pulses from Sample 55. Captain Aya Kobayashi tells Major Ingram Prisken that Ryusei Date has shown considerable aptitude through his entry in the tournament; Ingram's been keeping an eye on his family, and it looks like that may have borne fruit. He orders Aya to recruit him once the tournament is over.



Those plans are derailed by the approach of four AGX-01 Bugs; fighters are scrambling to intercept, but Ingram orders that the Type-TT be prepped for action. The bugs arrive, followed by three fighters who open fire at once. They succeed in blasting one out of the sky...



...right on top of the stadium where the tournament was held. :ohdear:



Ryusei and Kusuha are both sent flying by the impact. Still observing from the trailer, Ingram orders Aya to open the trailer and reveal the Type-TT; it's time to see what Ryusei is made of. Aya protests forcing him into combat with no experience, but gives in when Ingram reiterates that it's a direct order.



Ryusei and Kusuha are both mostly unharmed, but they're still left facing down a giant mechanical insect. Mecha otaku that he is, Ryusei knows that this isn't a Federation design. In the next instant he feels a stabbing pain in his head, leading him (somehow) to notice the Gespenst Mk-II standing nearby, completely inert. On cue the aircraft leave the area, to his utter disbelief.



He tells Kusuha to make a run for it and bolts for the Gespenst, promising to cover her. The robot's hatch is wide open, and against all odds, the controls are exactly like the controls for the Burning PT game. There's no time to wonder about that, as the bugs immediately swarm him.



It's time to see if his gaming experience will make the difference...



Mission objectives. Yet again, we have the old kill-them-don't-die requirement, with a 2-turn limit for the battle mastery.



Here's our golden boy Ryusei. His main skills are Telekinesis, which gives an increasing hit/evade bonus, and Prevail, which gives defense and damage bonuses as the pilot's HP drops. The Type-TT, unfortunately, kinda stinks, being not too good at either dodging or taking hits. For the time being, we'll take what we've got.



Focus is Ryusei's only spirit command, so I toss it on him and stake out a position within shooting distance of all the enemies.



The bug has a 33% hit rate, even with Focus cast. I miss Elzam. As combat begins, Ryusei struggles to maintain his balance in the machine, and it starts to sink in that this is nothing like a game.



Ryusei's battle theme is pretty much an extended and spiffed up version of the Banpresto logo music.





No problems yet. Don't think too hard about how the physics of that first shot are supposed to work.



The first enemy phase begins, and Aya yells at Ryusei over the comm to change to mid-range mode. He yells right back at her, demanding to know why the hell nobody else is helping - she's with the military, isn't that their job? She's aware of that, but... well, we don't get to hear anything else.

This will be a bit of a running theme with Aya, unfortunately.



The bugs close to melee range, which actually gives them lower accuracy than if they'd stayed put. :iiam:





He takes out the one he weakened before and tags the other two nearby. The third manages to land a hit on him, but as you can see Ryusei is in no real danger of dying on this mission, even if every single enemy attack connects.



Ingram and Aya's trailer gets a move, oddly. Not that they do anything with it.



As wholly unnecessary as it may be, I move Ryusei onto the wrecked stadium for a 25% bonus to evasion and defense. That ends up being the difference between a 1-in-3 and a 1-in-7 chance to be hit.



A nice little touch on this mission is that Ryusei has a few more desperate-sounding combat lines that you won't hear normally. "I can't just disappear here!" "Eat it! Eat it!! EAT IT!!!" and so forth.



Enemy phase again, no surprises here. In the midst of effortlessly smacking down the remaining enemies, Ryusei levels up and learns Grit, which causes the next hit you take to deal only 10 damage.

:eng101: Yes, I'm lifting this from the Fantasy Maiden Wars translation. I don't think this spirit was even in the original game, which brings us to another difference: pilots don't necessarily have the same spirit commands any longer. I'm not going to take note of all these, though, since if you're enough of a geek to care you've probably already played this game for yourself. Plus there are GameFAQs guides.



The enemies have been destroyed and Sample 55's brainwaves are within acceptable limits, given the ordeal he's just been through. Ingram heads outside to recover the Type TT and its pilot. Ryusei, meanwhile, is in a panic that he can't find Kusuha anywhere. Ingram introduces himself and tells him that she's fine; an emergency medical team picked her up, found no serious injuries, and brought her to a hospital.



However, instead of telling Ryusei where the hospital is, Ingram tells the kid to come with him, employing what I have to assume is the most trustworthy face he can muster.



The two of them don't hit it off. Ryusei is impatient to leave. Ingram, on the other hand, decides to establish a friendly relationship by pointing out that "commandeering" the Type-TT is a serious crime, then offering to overlook it if Ryusei becomes his subordinate. When asked what's so important about Ryusei specifically that he'd go to these lengths, Ingram pauses a moment before filling him in on the (classified) Aerogater threat. The entire thing sounds like the backstory from a robot anime, but then it sinks in: the Personal Troopers he's been so enamored with were developed as weapons for this conflict. Ingram's own project, meanwhile, is working to develop a new type of machine entirely - one that can exceed the Aerogaters in sheer power. At last Ingram puts the stick away and dangles the carrot instead; given the talent he just displayed, Ingram wants to scout Ryusei as a test pilot for this new robot.



Ryusei still hesitates, thinking that he's not qualified. Ingram maintains that that's not the case, and adds that the Aerogaters pose a dire threat to his own friends and family; can he really remain passive, knowing that? After a moment, Ryusei says that he has one condition.



That condition turns out to be having the military pick up his mother's hospital bills; with that taken care of, he's agreed to join the SRX team. Ingram thinks to himself that he was right to monitor Yukiko Date so closely, and tells Aya that he's placing Ryusei under her command for training purposes.



Ryusei is given ten minutes to visit his mother, during which he laments that he wasn't able to keep track of Kusuha during the attack. She senses that he has more to say, and it gradually comes out that he won't be able to visit her any longer. She'll be lonely, but tells him to give his utmost in the path he's taken; home will still be there for him whenever he returns. Then Ryusei says "oh, by the way, you don't have to worry about the bills any longer," which probably sets her off worrying again about what he's gotten himself into. :doh: They say their goodbyes, neither one seeming all that happy with the situation.

:eng101: This scene is new to OGs.



A government MiB brings him back to the facility, just in time to run into this guy. The gate guard confirms his identity as 2nd Lieutenant Raidiese F. Branstein, transferring in from Mao Industries. As Rai (the game calls him that already, I'm not going to wait for him to give us permission) heads inside, Ryusei thinks that that's the company developing the Personal Troopers... and then notes that he only had a glove on one hand. What a weirdo.



Then Aya shows up and introduces herself. Ryusei recognizes her voice from the Type-TT's comm system, and she apologizes for yelling at him earlier. He waves it off and says he didn't expect his superior to be so pretty. Any suave points he earned from this are lost when Aya says he has a knack for flattery, pretty much deflating him on the spot. She laughs and tells him to just dispense with the rank and call her Aya, leaving him confused as to whether she's actually strict or easy-going.



It takes a moment to settle into this (with Aya deciding to call Ryusei Ryu as well,) after which Aya extends a hand to shake - seeing as how they're teammates and all. She gets a little telekinetic shock from touching him, but covers her surprise by saying that Ryusei has soft hands, which is apparently news to him.



Meanwhile, Ingram is reviewing Rai's background and notes that he has quite the pedigree; between his father Maier V. Branstein, commander of the space colonies' military forces, and his brother Elzam, noted ace pilot and veteran of the Aggressors, he has some sizable shoes to fill. Rai says that he's long since cut his ties with both the Branstein family and the colonies, then asks a question: why him? He assumes that Ingram is aware of the accident he was in, as well as the condition of his body. Ingram says that Rai's skills suit his needs; that's all. He asks if there's another question, but Rai merely excuses himself.



Left alone in his office, Ingram thinks that the samples have all been collected. Now the work begins...

Truly the face of a man you can trust.



There are a few other little differences scattered about, although I don't know whether these are actually new or if they were dropped/changed in the Atlus version.
:eng101: In the opening scene in OG1, Kusuha drops a couple of hints to Ryusei that they should go on an actual date one of these days, to which he's completely oblivious. Not really anything like that here.
:eng101: In OG1, Ryusei doesn't make paying the hospital bills a condition of joining the SRX team; Ingram just mentions to Aya afterward that it's something they're doing.
:eng101: Maybe due to the omission of the second hospital scene, the scene with Rai at the gate begins with Ryusei arguing with the guard (he forgot his ID and can't get in).

Next time, we travel to America and meet a man called Honcho.

Seyser Koze fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Aug 13, 2014

TheLastRoboKy
May 2, 2009

Finishing the game with everyone else's continues
How could you not trust Ingram? He has such beautiful hair.

vibratingsheep
Nov 2, 2013

Fudou, Gunzou. The Face of the Franchise Killer. 2004.
I have a couple of friends who were on the localization team at Atlus USA, and they tell me that another big barrier to this game coming out in the US was Sony's insistence on a complete dub for PS2 games. And if you've seen how truly, grossly massive the voiced script for this game is, you'll realize that hiring enough voices to fill in all of the roles would've probably cost more than the modest amount of money they expected to make from curious SRPG fans and fans who would be willing to buy the game a second time in English. There were also issues with disc space that fans of SRW would probably have taken them to task on, since it would've meant cutting the entire Japanese language track.

So it's not JUST licensing that made Atlus go "fuckit" with the series as a whole...

vibratingsheep fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Aug 13, 2014

Weissritter
Jun 14, 2012

Just chiming in to say that I love this series, and it is good to see a translated LP to know what is going on in the scenes that are new or differ from the GBA games.

Also, I guess my name is technically a spoiler :v:

Hellioning
Jun 27, 2008

TheLastRoboKy posted:

How could you not trust Ingram? He has such beautiful hair.

Exactly! I mean, a suspicious pretty boy in a piece of Japanese fiction? Those are always trustworthy.

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MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
Shouldn't his name be Plisken, like Snake "I thought you were dead" Plisken?

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