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We return to our lightning dash through the Land of Gundams and Nothing Else.    A little money for Celestial Being.  Setsuna learns Energy Save.   Lockon and Tieria both learn Hit & Away, because one is a sniper and the other is a bombardment platform. Allelujah is up for grabs, as is Crowe's one remaining slot. I still recommend Chain Actions. I like extra turns.  Anyway. As we get into the chapter, Crowe is blindfolded and being interrogated by Celestial Being. He explains that he's a test pilot and only trying to get data on his Blaster. But he admits that he was supposed to mess up the Enact at the expo, if Celestial Being hadn't messed it up first.  CB is getting tired of Crowe's mouth, and they have no problems shooting him, since they aren't bound by any international treaties or regulations. Anyway, he has no choice but to submit to their questions. Yes, colliding with Celestial Being at the expo was a complete coincidence. On the other hand, yesterday's skirmish (that being chapter 3) was definitely planned, or at least what Crowe was hoping for. Celestial Being are celebrities, and celebrities mean paparazzi. It's all about the money, and Crowe knows his boss will pay top dollar for data on the Gundam machines themselves.  For Celestial Being's part, though, this means they can't let Crowe go alive. Crowe decides this means he might as well satisfy his curiosity, since it's already killed the cat - do they really think they can end all war in the world?  Liu-Min isn't sure, but Setsuna interrupts with an emphatic yes - the first thing he's said all day that isn't "...". Crowe is impressed by his confidence, but his time's up. For the interrogation, and for Crowe, too.  Or maybe not! Celestial Being still has business with Crowe: the Axion prototype, of course. She says they're going to hold him until they're done, then take the Blaster and erase his memories of Celestial Being.  They all leave Crowe bound and blindfolded, though they say they'll keep him fed and watered. But Crowe has plans of his own. It doesn't seem to be his first experience with this kind of thing.  Elsewhere, Lockon wants to know why Veda is so interest in the Blaster. Tieria knows that the machine's power reactor isn't a plasma battery like the rest of Axion's mecha. Maybe that's why they want to keep Crowe alive, but little do they know that even he isn't allowed to touch the reactor.  Anyway, the Meisters' orders to hit the AEU base are in. It's being guarded by PMC soldiers, and among those soldiers are a team called the Red Shoulders. These are more Armored Troopers from Gilgamesh, same as the pink Scopedogs from last chapter, but the Red Shoulders are supposedly the absolute best of Gilgamesh's forces. Remember that the various Astragius forces were scattered throughout the world in the Great Dimensional Quake, and they've all formed up into mercenary cells. The Red Shoulders are contracted with the PMC Trust, it seems.  As for the Colony Gundams, Tieria guesses the two that smashed the Britannian outpost are still nearby. If they happen to show up in the battle, Celestial Being will take them as well as the AEU.  Oh hey, Crowe's free! He's taken the Blaster and ditched! Celestial Being gets ready to give chase.  Chapter 4: Chaotic Battlefield (Celestial Being route)  Whatever Traia thinks, Crowe figures he can barely handle one Gundam, let alone all four at once.  Suddenly, shots!  But it's not Celestial Being - it's the Colony Gundams!  Quattre is relieved that it's not an AEU machine as he thought, but he's going to have to disable the Blaster anyway, just to be safe.  On Crowe's side, he figures as long as he's stuck between two Gundam teams, two Gundams are gonna be easier to break through.  Blah blah defeat enemies and don't get killed.  As always, Focus all the time forever.  Both enemy Gundams are out of sniping range. Spiker's the best option.  More Gundams? I'll be scoring some nice data off these guys. The hard part's gonna be getting out with that data alive.      No, not really.   Trowa (is there a reason it's not Trois? always bugged me) is a little Tieria-y - high range, intense firepower, and depressing accuracy. Never really liked him in any previous games Wing's been in.       I guess it looks kind of cool, if you like guns?  This is the part where Crowe catches incoming bogeys - four of them.  Celestial Being has finally caught up with him. Lockon orders him to get down or they'll destroy the Blaster.  So Crowe hails the Colony Gundams and suggests a truce so they can work together to fight off Celestial Being.  Quattre isn't sure, but Celestial Being fires during the...  poo poo, that wasn't Celestial Being! Who was it?  AEU forces, led by Patrick, and they've got the Red Shoulders with them. Great.  Remember how Axion got the main AEU forces to overlook the Blaster? Well, too bad, because Patrick doesn't give a poo poo.     The Red Shoulders, just so you know, contain four named characters (and two filler grunts), and one of them has an interesting face... they don't think much of Patrick's command, but they're being paid quite well, so whatever.  Once again, Crowe proposes a temporary alliance, to the Colony and Celestial Being Gundams alike.  Not only do they all bite, but an old friend is also on our side.  And another. We've almost got a full set of Colony Gundams now.  To win, I only have to take out Patrick's Enact. To grab the SR point, I have to do it within three turns from now - again, the remainder of this enemy phase is taken out of that count - and I have to wipe out the rest of his units before I do it.  Red Shoulder squad 1 charges Celestial Being.  Squad 2 moves to engage Heero and Duo.  We've got Gundams from the Colonies and Celestial Being... you don't stand a chance! The world's changing, you know. We're the ones changing it! Duo may be a dangerous pilot in a dangerous machine, but ATs are small and scrappy, and the Red Shoulders are as good as they say.    Duo washes with Mazu...       but exchanges damage with Gregoru. Of course, a Gundamium-armored Gundam - and Deathscythe, at that - is much better at absorbing damage than a tiny AT.   The Leos struggle around in the sand. The Enact team doesn't move.  At the beginning of the next turn, Crowe detects yet another incoming.  It's Dancouga! Allelujah doesn't think there's a losing side in this battle.  Dancouga disagrees. It's firing on Patrick! As with Dai-Guard, it refuses to reply to any hails. Well, let's just let it do what it wants. So anyway, it has become time for some mecha exhibitions!  Gundam Sandrock (Quattre Rababa Winner) Skills Prevail L4 Block Defensive Support L3 Spirits Invincible Traits Blade Shield Ace Bonus: Gains 10 Will when using Offensive or Defensive Support. Invincible was never in an Atlus game. It's a lot like Alert, in that it goes off the next time the pilot is hit and reduces all damage the machine takes from that attack to 10. Advantage over Alert: it only discharges on a hit, not automatically on being attacked. Disadvantage: you're still hit for damage, so additional effects from the attack still go off.  Gundam Heavy Arms (Trowa Barton) Skills Prevail L4 Offensive Support L2 Combo Attack Spirits Strike Trust Traits Blade Shield Ace Bonus: Evasion +15%. Range of non-MAP, non-range 1 weapons +1. Why doesn't this guy have Hit & Away? Come on, Banpresto.  I don't remember if Duo had Focus before, but he does now.  Chirico's Scopedog is equipped with a Muscle Cylinder, which bumps up the equipped unit's Mobility by 10. I'll be snagging it in the process of getting the SR point.  Speaking of Chirico, the Red Shoulders have miscellaneous fighter skills, usually along the lines of Prevail and Will bonuses, but Chirico is special. He has Prevail L9, which most pilots, even in super robots, never even see without special training, and a ??? skill that kicks up all his stats immensely at extremely low HP. Both of these are related to his VOTOMs arc, which doesn't conclude until Restoration, but I thought you should know. The other cool thing about Chirico is his high Skill stat, which goes incredibly well with Attack Again, as well as the Precise Attack skill he already has which boosts his critical hit damage.  But enough talking about robots, let's blow some up! Here's the board. I have to chew through all of these enemies in the next couple of turns.  Quattre and Trowa can't reach any enemies.  Heero has two choices: move, or...  shoot an AT, which will take 5 Will more than he has. Every live pilot gains 1 Will per enemy destroyed, so we can sit on him for now.  An enfocused Duo takes point.   No kill, but that's okay. The more damage we spread, the more the enemies will kill themselves on their phase.  Speaking of spreading damage, it's a 4 v 4 fight for Celestial Being right now.      Tieria, the worst off in the group in terms of accuracy (even with his Targetting upgraded), opens by Attuning himself and aiming at Pyman, one of the nearer AT pilots.  Lockon Strikes and snipes at Chirico.     And uh. Wow.  Lockon gets the Cylinder and a level for himself and Haro.    Setsuna cuts down Generic McEyeless.  This is why Allelujah didn't get an AT to himself. He doesn't have Strike, getting Tieria to Attune two guys would be kind of wasteful when he has Focus, but his Focus doesn't get him 100% like it does for Setsuna.  Instead, he gets to fire on the Leo.     Besides, he got a kill.  Crowe goes long, and-  Look at that, the Leo pilots are crappy enough that Crowe can Attack Again at them.          Attacking twice is pretty useful.  Now, Heero is in a bit of a trouble spot. He has no Focus and can't reliably hit the ATs. Maybe I shouldn't have spent Tieria's turn. Oh well.  Instead, we'll place him back over here. Sure, he can't attack from here, but at least if he does get attacked, Quattre will be there to defend him with his tank of a Gundam (and soak up sweet sweet Will).  Forgot about Dancouga.  Oh god I hope he doesn't soak up the AT's attacks and miss all his counters. On the other hand, most of Celestial Being doesn't have much better to do next turn than sweep up the Shoulders anyway...    On the one hand, woo. On the other, he's stealing my XP!      So ends the skirmish of Celestial Being.  Now it's Duo's turn to take on the Red Shoulders. Both of them, unless he can cut down the first one before the second can Support.   Guess not.     Everybody versus Duo!     Pretty sure that was the Red Shoulders' captain. Duo gains two levels.   Now that the ATs are all done, the Leos take a crack at Deathscythe too. What fools.  I guess the last one didn't want to get reaped.  The AEU would rather hunt us down than defend their own base? They must really want our heads. Can the Colonies really win if this goes on?     Quattre's pretty solid.  The remaining Enacts move in, but Patrick stays put. This looks pretty bad, but here's the strategy. We're going to tag as many healthy units as possible and try to finish the entire board within the enemy phase.  Trowa can't reach anyone worthwhile, so he's just going to take some guy out.  The AEU's thrown all their weight at us... Abandoning their base's defense was a daring move. We must be careful. Anyway, the enemy army summary now says there are five units that need hitting. Celestial Being is way out of range, so we have four units ready to attack (Heero, Duo, Quattre, Crowe). This means least one enemy needs to get one-shotted on a counter. Cross your fingers.  Heero gets Attuned. It's not like Tieria's going to use the SP for anything else.  Celestial Being... for now we have no choice but to cooperate.  One. Heero finally learns Focus.  Two. Not dead yet, but close enough.  Three.  Four. Just a lot of totaled machines left, and Patrick. (I know what I'm doing, I swear.)  Now here's a feature I've never gotten to show off before. If you try to end your turn with units unmoved, it will actually let you know how many units have yet to act. In this case, four Celestial Being Gundams.  But in this case, I'm sure.     Trowa and Duo take out the remnants.  Patrick targets Crowe. Just as planned.  "Gundams to the left, Gundams to the right! Today the AEU's Ace will become the Gundam Slayer!"    You know, the Blaster might be a little bit overupgraded.       It was a close call, but I made it.  Now that their main mission is over, Celestial Being once again turns on their temporary allies.  Dancouga ditches.  The Colony Gundams ditch too, but Duo mumbles that his next target is Area 11. The Meisters convince Tieria not to pursue - a Gundam vs Gundam war will help no one except the superpowers.  That leaves just Crowe.  Crowe has another player choice: surrender to Celestial Being or follow the Colony Gundams to Area 11. The surrender option leads him to exactly the same place as joining Celestial Being from the Japan route, so if you don't mind this timeline will be heading off to Geasstown. As Crowe cuts and runs, Lockon tells the other Meisters to ignore him - there'll be plenty more chances to go head to head with Axion, and Sumeragi has handed down the next set of orders anyway.  Once again, Tanaka and shadowy man fret about Dancouga.  Quattre and Trowa regroup elsewhere in northern Africa and discuss the mission they just finished. It seems that they just met during the assault on the Britannia base, and didn't know about each other or the other Colony Gundams. They introduce themselves to each other and part ways.  Quattre's partner Rasheed is concerned that Trowa knows where they are now, but Quattre is willing to trust him. The two realize that the other Colony Gundams are probably going to hit Area 11, which is being subjugated much like the Colonies are.  Back at the AEU base, Patrick is raging about his loss, blaming the Red Shoulders (he makes a Bottoms joke). The Shoulders don't think too much about his command skills, and that just makes him rage harder.  This PMC Trust rear end in a top hat, Ali al-Sachez, interrupts and points out that the AEU will have to withdraw from the area.  The other PMC Trust rep, Inge Riemann, agrees that it was Patrick's fault for using the AEU's force like a moron.  As Patrick throws a tantrum, Ali and Riemann take the Red Shoulders aside and gives them their next mission - or missions, as they're to be separated. Chirico's mission is up on a little space rock called Rid, and it's far from the first time he's been there...  This is Chirico's memory. Past Chirico steals into the compound on Rid, only to find Gilgamesh forces.  His commander, Conin, refuses to tell him anything about the mission other than to press on and call back if he finds anything unusual.  He finds a strange capsule, and out of curiosity, takes a look inside...  And inside is a woman!  Conin arrives with his team and declares that the capsule is what they were looking for. Without another word of explanation, he orders Chirico to retreat. Chirico tries, but...  as he gets out, Conin opens fire!  Chirico's AT is completely trashed.  He wakes up on Earth, in a Gilgamesh base. The commanding officer Rochina (I do not know how to spell 99% of these names fyi) tells him that he was rescued from Rid and brought to the base. He begins to grill Chirico. Chirico claims that he didn't know anything about who was responsible for the mission beyond Conin or what its purpose is. Rochina asks him about the capsule, and Chirico lies that he didn't look inside it, and truthfully says he doesn't know where it went. Rochina doesn't believe him, and starts torturing him with electricity. Chirico soon passes out, and Rochina's assistant warns him that Chirico's heart could stop. He leaves Chirico with one guard until he's ready to be tortured again.  The guard unstraps Chirico to see if he needs any treatment. Of course, Chirico isn't really unconscious, or maybe he just recovered really quickly. He makes short work of the guard and escapes. Back in the present, Chirico goes into monologue mode, explaining how the Hundred Year War between the two halves of the Astragius galaxy, Gilgamesh and Valarant, was thrown into complete chaos in the wake of the Great Dimensional Quake. But Chirico's fight is his own, and it's only just beginning...  On this path, we have Heero and Duo. However, this path will have to wait, for I do believe I am beholden, by a 16-8 (!) vote, to roll the clock back to Crowe and Kouji's adventures in Japan, the land of brightly-colored super robots. Caphi fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Apr 29, 2012 |
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Apr 29, 2012 02:17
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 04:52 |
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The Gilgamesh Commander's name is spelled "Rochina" BTW
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Apr 29, 2012 02:40
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Tobias Grant posted:The Gilgamesh Commander's name is spelled "Rochina" BTW Thanks. As if Gundam names weren't bad enough...
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Apr 29, 2012 02:45
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What route is our official one? The Super Robot one?
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Apr 29, 2012 03:07
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I'm really liking how the series' are playing off of each other so far. Looking forward to seeing how the Geass plot plays out with Gundams periodically showing up to wreck either Brittania's or everyone's poo poo.
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Apr 29, 2012 03:33
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The inclusion of Votoms is what persuaded me to import this game, and I can't say I was disappointed. Also, you misspelled Balarant as Valarant. I have the US release of the main Votoms series, so I can check for the official spellings of some of the weirder names. Unfortunately, none of the Votoms side stories got released in the US so I can't help you with those. Now I should actually buckle down and beat the game...
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Apr 29, 2012 06:19
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Chirico's little flashback is actually a rough approximation of the first episode of VOTOMs, only a little less awesome. In the original anime Chirico is electrocuted for days and escapes thanks to a single screw. After thrashing in the same bed for hours every day one his restraints break and he steals a screw as he's lying on the floor, later he uses that screw to keep the automatic door of his cell slightly open and escapes when the guard comes to check on the door's apparent malfunction. Chirico proceeds to steal an assault rifle and flee the base on a spaceship. The other thing that Caphi mentioned was Chirico's "???" skill which is unique in its usage. Usually skills marked with a ??? are skills that haven't been unlocked and that ??? is there as a placeholder so that a skill slot is open when they get it later. Rarely they are unlocked by leveling, for instance Kyosuke in OG1 unlocking Leadership but usually they unlock by storyline. Z1 for instance Shin's ??? became SEED Mode after he uses it in the story and Setsuko gets SP Regen after she gets her final mech upgrade. Dancougar's eventual pilot also has a "???" skill that will eventually be revealed and Setsuna in Z2.2 also has a ??? skill though that one is revealed right at the end of the game. Chirico is unique, at no point in Z2.1 does his mystery ability actually become revealed, but it's still in effect right from the beginning. This is actually true to the series, Chirico's ability in VOTOMs is revealed to have always been there and that several times it activated without him knowing it. VOTOMs in Z2.1 only goes up through the first arc and one of the OVAs but since his mystery power was always active it's perfectly reasonable you can use an ability that is only explained much later in the series. Basically right from the start if you CAN trigger it you should, but it's not easy to make that happen, that mystery ability is active whenever Chirico's mech is under 10% HP.
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Apr 29, 2012 06:58
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It may only trigger when he's under 10% hp, so the trick is keeping him with just enough hp/armor that enemy grunts almost kill him in 1 shot, to trigger his crazy prevail and ??? and become infinitely dodgy.
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Apr 29, 2012 08:45
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chibi posted:It may only trigger when he's under 10% hp, so the trick is keeping him with just enough hp/armor that enemy grunts almost kill him in 1 shot, to trigger his crazy prevail and ??? and become infinitely dodgy. Alternatively, pump up the Skill stat on the Macross Quarter, cast Mercy and Strike and than MAP Chirico. Takes a bit of work, but hey, consistent activation.
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Apr 29, 2012 08:53
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Ah, the lower-tier Colony Gundams show up at last. Sandrock's main asset is the fact that it's basically a loving wall. There's Supers, REAL Supers, that don't take damage as well as it does. In exchange, it's not exactly an offensive star, and unfortunately, in SRW the best defense really is a horrific, all-devouring offense. Weak attacks and poor range plus Quatre's own shortcomings as anything besides a support pilot only seal the deal. The Heavyarms' gimmicks are having extremely long range, an absolute shitton of ammunition, and fuckall else. It's basically a worse Virtue. That said, you can easily set it up so that Heavyarms can use its best attack the entire stage without having to resort to its other weapons. Its FUB and the B-save Skill on Trowa combine to give it EIGHTEEN loving SHOTS. There's main rifles that have less ammo than that! Also, Chirico is a strong contender for the game's best pilot, period. Even if his Prevail and ???? never activate, he's unlikely to ever get hit, and with proper setup, he will crit on every single attack, effectively making him hit 1.5x harder than he should. This is, of course, thanks to his unique Precise Attack skill, which is what allows him to outdamage Supers with normal attacks. He's an absolute god drat monster in a game that's already loaded with superb pilots. The only pilots who are on the same level are guys we haven't seen yet.
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Apr 29, 2012 11:19
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It probably does not matter much in Z2 where you've got plenty of good units and can annihilate anything that comes close to being remotely threatening in one turn, but in many of the tougher games (64, Advance) guys like Trowa and George Sand rise up above their gundam team second stringer counterparts because being able to snipe enemies without fear of a counterattack is a godsend - plus they generally have MAPWs as well.
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Apr 29, 2012 12:51
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Heavyarms' gimmick is that Trowa is meant to park next to your other dudes and support attack the poo poo out of them. His range is phenomenal, his attacks never require much if any Will, and his plentiful ammo ensures that he can do it continuously for multiple turns. I highly recommend you pump up his Offensive Support skill (as he already has a couple levels AND Combo Attack, which makes it so his supports do massive damage). Even better if this game has a Command skill or EWAC-style aura to grant bonuses to adjacent partners. (This is also why he has Strike instead of Focus as his first spell)
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Apr 29, 2012 16:20
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Pureauthor posted:Alternatively, pump up the Skill stat on the Macross Quarter, cast Mercy and Strike and than MAP Chirico. Holy poo poo, I always forget about mercy. Looks like Chirico just got even more badass. Then again, I don't think I've ever managed to keep a battleship up to speed in terms of level/pp to use for anything, I definitely favor units with high mobility too much for it. chibi fucked around with this message at 07:29 on Apr 30, 2012 |
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Apr 30, 2012 07:26
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To remind everyone, we left Crowe behind in the Atami jailhouse in Japan. A rotund, moustachioed gentleman named Ohtsuka had just scouted him for an international spec ops team. He's with Kouji and Shiro Kabuto, as well as the robot operators of 21st Century's 2nd PR Division, and doesn't know about Celestial Being just yet. Likewise, our army now includes not only Team Photon, but also Dai-Guard.  Some cash for Dai-Guard, who will probably be with us for a little while on this branch.  A wall of text crawls by. The gist of it is that there are two Japans on this Earth. One of them was taken over by Britannia, and we know it now as Area 11. The other Japan is free and quite peaceful, just sort of chilling out on its own. Well, except for Dr. Hell's Mechabeasts and the Heterodynes. Luckily, the Peacekeeping Council is putting together a task force known as the Crushers to defend against them. So we turn to a training camp on the Izu peninsula.  Ohtsuka is filling Crowe, Kouji, and Akagi in on the Crushers gig, which is basically "fight bad guys" - and there are a lot of them, from terrorists to mad scientists to monsters like the Image and Damon. The Crushers are under the command of Peacekeeping Council representative and man of mystery Elgan Roddick, a stand-up guy (to Crowe's knowledge, one of the few good men left in the superpowers' territory). 21st Century has already thrown in with the Crushers - the board was unanimous, it seems - but Aoyama and Ibuki sure haven't, and they are not interested in playing hero until they've gotten things sorted out back at HQ, to Akagi's dismay. Kouji is still having doubts of his own. Crowe wants Ohtsuka to pay off his debt for his services - 980k G! - but they bargain to 200 G per mission, which suits Crowe fine. Still, that leaves just him, Sayaka, and Akagi, and Akagi can't do his job because Dai-Guard can't function without its full complement of three. There are already some members of the Crusher squad, but they're out investigating some asteroids. The Great Dimensional Quake did a hell of a number on the solar system, leaving it with, among the Astragius and other things, two moons! Ohtsuka seems concerned at the topic.  ANYWAY, with such thin manpower, Ohtsuka decides to ask A Certain Company for help... the Space Handymen, Takeo General Co., a tiny little do-anything company quite different from the enormous and beaureaucratic 21st Century. Speaking of Takeo, a little boy named Watta has just come back from a job in space hauling construction materials for a new Colony. Kaoru fills him in on all he missed (Dr. Hell, Heterodynes). Young Watta knows something about it - his mom's daycare is out on a field trip and the disasters have held them up out of town, meaning he's alone all night (no dad). So Kaoru invites him to eat at her place and tell her all about work.  But not so fast! Watta is a grade schooler, and he's been missing school due to work, and he's scheduled for makeup lessons as of right now. Oh well. Dinner with Kaoru will have to wait until after school.  But in a double interrupt, the old director of Takeo, Kakekouji, arrives bringing a job for Watta - and what's this, he's calling Watta the "young CEO"?! At any rate, Watta and his teacher both object, but Kakekouji insists: Takeo General is hard up and badly needs income. Having to balance a company and an elementary school schedule is hard, but Watta chooses to take a raincheck on the lesson and look out for his employees instead.  Chapter 5: We're the Space Handymen (Japan route) Takeo General Company I'm the grade-school CEO and I get to pilot the G7 Protecting the company's bottom line- I mean, protecting peace on Earth! Let's go, G7! Trider G7! Um. Where was I?  A suspicious-looking playstructure in a playground.  We apologize deeply for the inconvenience. Trider will be launching shortly. Please stay behind the white line for your own safety. That's no play structure shaped like a giant robot's head - that's actually a giant robot's head!  Yes, Watta is not only the CEO of Takeo, he's also the pilot of Trider G7, Takeo's super robot. Along with the company shuttle, he flies off to his new gig.  On the way, inside the shuttle (I'm not sure where they put Trider), Ikue Sunabara (the lady on the PA in the park) is serving snacks. No impact on Takeo's expenses - she actually made them herself, at home. drat. As he snacks, they get down to business, and by business I mean briefing. Watta apparently has a history with Ohtsuka, and not a bright one by the sound of it, but Ohtsuka was a friend of Watta's late father, the previous CEO, so Watta's willing to do his best in memory. Besides, a job's a job. The job itself is moving a Photonic Dynamo from the laboratory on Mount Fuji over to the town of Atami, where it'll help the rebuilding effort. By a wonderful coincidence, Atami is where Watta's mom is held up, so he actually gets to help her out as well.  Back at Izu, Akagi is still trying to convince Ibuki and Aoyama to fight with him in Dai-Guard. Their job may be to fight Heterodynes, but neither of them is interested in playing with mad scientists, terrorists, or other monsters. Akagi wants something very simple. He doesn't want to fight only Heterodynes, and he doesn't want to join the military and get into political wars. He just wants to use Dai-Guard to fight anyone who threatens peace.  Aoyama and Ibuki still aren't convinced. Let the Crushers fight for peace or whatever. They want to be left out of it, and they're still going back to HQ to take it up with the board.  Well, Crowe happens to stroll by and lets Team Dai-Guard know that the Crushers are moving out for Atami. Let's start the party.  Trider and the Shuttle are over Atami already, ready to show off to the eager children in Mrs. Takeo's care. With impeccable timing, the WLF shows up to try and take the Photonic Dynamo. Watta refuses to hand it over, so the terrorist leader programs his robots to move in for the kill. Time for a fight!  Trider G7/Trider Cosmic (Watta Takeo) Skills CEO Prevail L4 Resolve Spirits Vigor Gain Traits Transform Ace Bonus: Doubles extra PP granted by the CEO skill. Trider is a standard-issue one-seater super robot built much like, say, a Mazinger, Daimos, or Daitarn - that is to say, heavy armor, a reasonable Prevail skill, and Spirits that serve Watta in combat and virtually nothing else. On the other hand, Watta's signature skill is anything but. He may be a green CEO, but he grants 5 bonus PP to anyone live and deployed at the end of a successful stage, or 10 per stage with his Ace bonus unlocked.  Shuttle (Umemaro Kakikouji, Tetsuo Otsui, Touhachiro Kinoshita, Ikue Sunabara) Skills Salaryman (all) Offensive Support L2 Defensive Support L1 Spirits (Kakikouji) Vigor Gain (Otsui) Trust (Kinoshita) Exhaust (Ikue) Scan Traits Supply Ace Bonus: Gain the item "Ikue's Snacks" at the end of each mission. (unearned) But so close! Ikue's snacks are a consumable that restores a modest sum of 20 SP to the main pilot when used. Unfortunately, the rest of the Shuttle is kind of bad. Let's try to snag the Ace within a couple of chapters anyway. For now, the Shuttle will do a reasonable job supporting Watta's Trider and restoring its energy when necessary. As with Dai-Guard, all the Shuttle passengers are decorated with Salaryman even though only Kakekouji does anything with it. Exhaust drains one enemy's Will by 10. It won't see too much use for now, but it becomes a very useful arrow in the anti-boss quiver as bosses become more and more threatening.  To begin with, let's send Watta into the action with Trider Cosmic.  My mom works hard all day long at her daycare! You're interrupting her field trip, and you're giving the people of Atami trouble! I'm gonna beat you!     Trider takes hits pretty well (as with most jet modes, Cosmic is weaker than G7), but Watta needs some help aiming.  Tetsuo, where did all my missiles go? Um, er... I'm so sorry, sir! We were forced to cut Trider's missile supply to fit the budget. Seriously? You'll have to use your melee weapons, sir! Aww. Being a small company is hard. Trider Cosmic only has two missiles. WELP.   Lacking any (P) weapons, only missiles, the Shuttle moves in and hopes to take some heat off of Watta.       Trider hits reasonably well, when it hits.  Out of ammo, Cosmic is forced to defend.  Naturally, the entire enemy force has at him.  Time to switch back to G7 and throw some stuff.     Like all good super robots, Trider can just pull out weapons from wherever.     Kakekouji's support gets the kill.  Watta doesn't gain a kill notch...  But Kakekouji did.  Spreading damage is for chumps. Equippable cookies are for cool people. Got a feeling the SR Point here is going to be a "from team X's appearance" type, anyway. Mr. Director! Mr. Kinoshita! Miss Ikue! We will protect the young CEO! Yes, sir! Hang on, we're going in! Roger! I'm all ready here! We'll get this done in a snap! Snap! E-excuse me! Do not get overly excited!   69 kills. I hope he gets a chance to shoot one down next round! (If the active pilot got a kill, note how it shows up in the top-right corner.)  Another turn down.      Kakekouji steps in to take damage for Watta - reduced damage, because all Defensive Supports are treated as if taking the defense action.   So that's the end of that.      And that. They're probably both dead this round.  Please hit.  Score.   This is what it looks like to gain an Ace bonus. There may be more of these coming.  Somewhat concerningly, Trider's most accurate attack at this point is the shooty missiles, not anything cool like the flail or the spear.   They get the job done. (I think I'm out of them, though. Budget cuts!  ) Ha ha! How do you like that? That'll teach you to steal stuff!Watta likes trash-talking, but he's in grade school, so he's not great at it.  Ankokuji snags the terrorist and takes him in.  Unfortunately, here's a familiar face or two...   Ashura calls in his/her Mechabeasts. Watta is very confused. But when Ashura orders the Iron Masks to steal the the Dynamo, Watta's confusion turns to determination.  Three turns to take out the new Mechabeast, Nonacargo H7, and all the minions.  But hell, I'm out of usable robots again! Why does this keep happening to me?   gently caress it. I'll just let them advance at Trider. So you're the Mechabeast army! Well you're not gonna get the Photonic Dynamo from me! Takeo General Company takes pride in its flawless service! You ready?  (Defensive Support!)  Other than the one, the Mechabeasts just move up. Blah.  Meanwhile, an Iron Mask is threatening Mrs. Takeo's kids! He is going on about painting the walls with their blood and other sociopathic things.  But a man named Cross (because of his awesome face, I guess) jumps in to their rescue, effortlessly beating up the violent Iron Mask.   Yasu the Weasel (remember this guy?) and a little old lady who we'll call Okiku also join in to cover Mrs. Takeo's and the kids' escape.   Even the Master is there, along with a gunslinger named Django.  The final shady ally is this woman, Tsubasa Nishikiori, but Ashura can just call her... his/her executioner. (dun dun dunnn) She taunts Ashura as the villain receives a powerful shock.  And to punctuate Tsubasa's victory, the Crushers arrive. Kouji is, as always, ready to beat up the Mechabeasts. Akagi's good for action, but Aoyama and Ibuki still haven't really bought in.  Crowe is confused that a little kid is piloting a mech, so Watta introduces himself. Unfortunately, he introduces himself as the Takeo CEO, which doesn't help matters one bit.  Dai-Guard's armor is now functional, but not great. His speed is also slightly better, but not by enough. He has, for some reason, gained the ability to use Supply on other units. Supply is a trait (the Shuttle had it too) which allows a machine to fully restore the Energy and ammunition of an adjacent unit. It is indispensible when dealing with machines that drain a lot of energy to fight either swarms or bosses, as well as certain units that fire off their ammo like there's no tomorrow. The fact that Dai-Guard is a  Most importantly, he has gained useful weapons, for a certain value of useful. The Finger Net Arm is his counter move, even though its range and ammo are depressing for a counter; still, it's fairly accurate and slows the enemy's dodges. The Drill Arm is what passes for a power attack for now, though its power is still subpar. All of Dai-Guard's attacks are garbage against flying targets, which will become damning in short order, but isn't much of an impediment for now.  Two turns to knock all of these guys down. It's possible, but it might be a little messy. Aphrodite and the Shuttle are too weak to be of much use. Dai-Guard is too slow. Looks like the main force is going to be Crowe, Kouji, and Watta.  (Grandpa, I think I sort of understand what I have to do.) But I've still gotta take down Dr. Hell! I'm going to take him down myself!    Kouji: still awesome.  Watta going down would be bad.   Vigor restores Trider's HP to a healthy amount.       You get to thinking, maybe Watta just likes flying-kicking people.     I didn't want to kill on my turn if I could help it, but Crowe couldn't reach anyone else.         Watta takes on a bunch of Talos.   Kakekouji takes out one.  Now this here, this looks like a problem.  When in doubt, I defend.      Definitely a good move.  On my turn, I confirm that Nonacargo has, in addition to pretty goddamn high specs, the runt of all equippable parts - a Screw Module, which makes units that suck underwater suck less, for all the good that will do. The parts that give S ranks in terrain to units are good in theory, but water is seriously not a huge issue, so the Screw Module is uniquely sad.  Dai-Guard's speed dooms him to sidekickhood for now.  We've got the Net Arm and the Drill Arm, and they've toughened up the armor, too! This'll do just fine! Don't get cocky, Akagi! We're just a support team! That's why they've equipped us with a supply unit! Got it! Dai-Guard's fighting for everybody! I don't think he gets it. Still, he gets the kill. Anyway, on the Nonacargo front... the Shuttle has a missile with one of those Talos' name on it, but that would be a waste of Offensive Support.  So we're going to have Watta attack it and trip Offensive Support first.  If I had my way, he'd be showing off his super move and I'd be recording it, but Trider is low on energy and there's no time to get it refilled now. Instead, you'll have to settle for a video of Takeo General Company's kind of lame combo attack. Remind me to find a spot for the Bird Attack later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDxItF4Jzng  Happily, Crowe doesn't even need to get support from Kakekouji - once again, he has the chance to do a double attack, and from clear outside Nonacargo's range.    Skipping the unnecessarily long Clutch Sniper times two, Crowe's double attack takes Nona down to the "fairly low" category. Hopefully this means Kouji can finish it. (Though if he can't, there's always the counter round.)  Sayaka drops a Cheer on Kouji in case he does off it.      Mind the expenses! You mustn't use too many missiles! Not the time!Sayaka and Kakekouji each finish off a Talos. Only Nona is left.        And that's a finisher attack. Watch closely, Dai-Guard. (He'll get better, I promise.)   Kouji gains three levels thanks to Cheer, the Screw Module, a fair sum of money, and the exceedingly useful Accel Spirit, which lets him dash three extra squares on one move.  Naturally.  Just when the team is cooling down from the fight...  Mazinger zips off! Looks like Kouji's spotted Baron Ashura!  A special end-of-mission screen informs us, in order, that the CEO skill has given each deployed pilot 10 bonus PP, and that Kakekouji's Ace Bonus has given me the Ikue's Snacks equipment, as promised.  Ashura is enraged that Tsubasa could possibly affect his/her body. Only his/her master, Dr. Hell, is allowed to cause him/her pain like that!  Apparently Tsubasa and Ashura has a history that Ashura doesn't remember. S/he attacks Tsubasa and is again stunned before s/he can touch her. Ashura demands to know how Tsubasa is doing that. She says it's a safety that was put into his/her body in case s/he attacked those around her when s/he was awakened from his/her "long slumber."  Kouji finally arrives, and Tsubasa tells him to finish Ashura off himself. But Kouji refuses to take a life while his opponent is defenseless and can't even move. Tsubasa is disgusted with his weakness, as all mysterious and callous NPCs are bound to be. She even says that if he's going to be so pathetic, he will never be able to use Mazinger to its full potential.  Sure enough, Kouji's weakness costs him. Another of Dr. Hell's minions, Viscount Pygman, drops out of the sky on a lightning bolt and helps Ashura escape. According to Tsubasa, Pygman is "the most powerful shaman of the burning lands, one of Dr. Hell's five generals, who fights with the elements and not a Mechabeast." Quite a mouthful. Ashura is not happy to see him, but tough, he's there on Dr. Hell's orders.  Tsubasa gleefully informs Pygman that he can no more attack her than can Ashura, and Pygman's response is to put out his own eyes. If he can't see himself attacking her, the curse won't trigger. Apparently that works, okay, sure, why not. Tsubasa gives up and orders Kouji back as Pygman leaves, promising to take Tsubasa's life.  Kouji wants Tsubasa to give him some answers about how she knows all about Ashura and Mazinger and such, but when Crowe arrives, Tsubasa makes a break for it and vanishes. She leaves Kouji with a place to find her if he really wants to talk: the Kurogane bathhouse in Atami. "There, I'll show you what Hell means. If you can't handle that, you have no chance against Dr. Hell."  Back at the Izu base, Takeo's staff have managed to extract a bonus from Ohtsuka since the Mechabeasts were an unexpected complication. Ohtsuka agrees, but he has a better deal for Takeo too. He wants them to contract with the Crushers! Well, he's not pushing very hard. He doesn't want to put his old friend's son in danger, after all... but hell, Watta's perfectly fine with the danger. He wants to put himself on the line to help people and fight for peace and good, whatever the adults say. "I'm sure. I want to protect peace on earth and the company's bottom line." A cute reference to the Trider theme song.  He won't be alone, either. Crowe introduces himself properly for the first time as a fellow Crusher. "We're partners now. I'm not going to treat you like a little kid, Watta. I'm sure you'll pull your weight. You see what I'm saying, Mr. Director? Yeah, it's going to be dangerous, but Watta's tough enough to handle it. I think he'll be a good teammate." Crowe is pretty goddamn cool sometimes. Kakekouji is convinced, but he wants to join up too to help protect the young CEO. Watta's attention to the bottom line only makes Crowe like him more.  Kouji's made up his mind, too. He'll join the Crushers and fight with all he's got. But he has one condition...  He wants to stay at the Kurogane bathhouse with Shiro. There, he'll find out all Tsubasa knows about Mazinger, Juuzou, Ashura, and the rest. Crowe came along to keep an eye on them, but of course, it's an excuse to take a hot soak.  Look at that, it's old Cross!  The rest of the gang is here too - Yasu, Django, Master, and even Okiku.  And finally, Tsubasa Nishikiori, the bathhouse's landlady, herself. I'll get stronger here, right? That's up to you. But I have high hopes for you. The mission completion gives me a free Ikue's Snack. This is a regular thing, apart from the Ace Bonus stuff.  Our team has gained Trider and the Shuttle. See you next chapter. Caphi fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Jun 4, 2012 |
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May 10, 2012 07:09
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Caphi posted:
I never liked Trider much at all, but okay, this is pretty great.
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May 10, 2012 08:26
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Trider seems to be the runt of the Muteki Robo litter, mechanically. It's not as tanky or gently caress-you powerful as Daitarn 3 unless it has its Full Upgrade Bonus, and it's not as versatile as Zambot 3 either. It ends up being a middle-of-the-road Super for much of the game, and ultimately doesn't make it into the top-tier of units, despite Watta's unique skill and the extreme power of the fully upgraded Bird Attack. It's not a bad unit by any means, but compared to the next member of the Crushers, it falls flat. Of course, the next member of the Crushers is probably within the top five units in the entire game, if not the top three, so it's a rather unfair comparison.
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May 10, 2012 09:35
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Caphi posted:On the way, inside the shuttle (I'm not sure where they put Trider) In the show, the Shuttle can actually dock with Trider G7's jet form, which is how Watta is able to hang out with the others when nothing is going on at the moment. Trider G7 is a fun little show, but unfortunately, only one episode is subbed, and poorly I might add. If you don't count Shin Super Robot Wars for the Playstation (because it doesn't use chibi-fied mechs), this is actually Trider G7's first "proper" SRW appearance. I pretty much deploy Watta as often as possible due to his CEO ability; PP is king. Besides which, the show's theme song rules. Snot Man posted:I never liked Trider much at all, but okay, this is pretty great. Spoiler from Z2-2, but if you liked that scene, they do the exact same joke when you first get Trider G7 again, only you also get Zambot 3 on the same map, with both robots having the same ammo budget cuts, and Kappei complains after Kakikouji explains it to them.
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May 10, 2012 09:54
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Watta's CEO ability pretty much makes him required, yeah. The only way there would even be a debate is if the Trider sucked, and while it's kind of middling it's definitely not bad.
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May 10, 2012 10:17
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Trider G7 is not my favorite Super Robot, it's really mediocre in a lot of ways and it's actually sort of mishandled by the game. Basically in both Z2.1 and Z2.2 Trider gets a minor upgrade about 2/3rds of the way through the game that would have REALLY been useful out earlier in the game. It's not helped that Bird Attack is incredibly overcosted at 80 EN, it's one of the most expensive attacks in the entire game and unless you get the Full Upgrade Bonus it's not even that good. You need EN Save on Watta if you intend to do Bird Attack with any frequency and even then you'll be hamstrung by Watta not being good himself. Watta is NOT a good pilot, it's a very bad thing in this game to start with no spirits that actually effect combat and worse his spirits as a whole are pretty unimpressive. He doesn't get Iron Wall, Accelerate, Sense, or even Hotblood which are all very good to have on a Super Robot. Skill-wise Watta's prevail is not very good either. At prevail 4 Trider won't start to gain bonuses until it's under 40% HP and they won't be that big, so unlike a number of other Super Robots Trider is sadly going to be consistently taking bit hits. Even with the value of Watta's president skill I always benched him once I started to get some other units and I dumped him completely once the mid-game recruits started to pile in. On the other hand In Z2.2 at least I got a lot of mileage out of the shuttle as a flying supply unit. As the game progresses you start to get more ways to manage energy but early on giving Kakekouji the Supply Expert skill helped me a lot, and the shuttle being full of pilots with good support spirits was a big help as well. Also round of applause, we've had our very first character returning from SRW Z1! Sort of.
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May 10, 2012 10:53
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Wait, we did? Who and where?
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May 10, 2012 10:57
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Snot Man posted:I never liked Trider much at all, but okay, this is pretty great. This single made me start to like - at least a little - Watta and Trider beyond his fantastic pilot skill. Yeah, Watta, being a small company is hard specially if you're funding giant robots. Loving Akagi and the Kurogane five's performances, but why would anyone expect otherwise?
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May 10, 2012 10:58
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Spiritus Nox posted:Wait, we did? Who and where? Who and where is actually a really drat big spoiler for both games and it's not actually revealed until late in Z2.2. Forget about it for now, but Suffice to say that this character becomes a very important side-character in Z's overall plot and the revelation of his identity is a really big curveball. Once the main plot gets rolling and the game starts talking about Black Knowledge I might give an explanation with Caphi's approval.
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May 10, 2012 11:07
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Omnicrom posted:Who and where is actually a really drat big spoiler for both games and it's not actually revealed until late in Z2.2. Forget about it for now, but Suffice to say that this character becomes a very important side-character in Z's overall plot and the revelation of his identity is a really big curveball. Once the main plot gets rolling and the game starts talking about Black Knowledge I might give an explanation with Caphi's approval. Ah, I see. Yeah, don't spoil it for us if it ties into the larger Z-verse stuff. I thought Daitarn made a surprise cameo I kept missing or something.
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May 10, 2012 11:21
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The Shuttle is pretty amazing in that it goes from crap to being without question the second best support unit in the entire game in Z2.2. All it needs is a small upgrade and its amazing selection of spells makes it great bar-none. The reason it is not the best is because it exists in a game with (I don't think this needs to be spoilered since it's for Z2.2 not Z2.1) Nekki Basara.
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May 10, 2012 13:31
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I love how crazy it is that a child CEO with a super robot and a tight budget is barely worth comment in game. Oh well, as least they had enough funds to outfit it with flight and armor.
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May 10, 2012 16:02
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Omnicrom posted:Also round of applause, we've had our very first character returning from SRW Z1! Sort of. Great, now I'm going to be expecting one of the originals to be (Z1 Spoiler-ish) The Edel in disguise. Thanks for raising my expectations!
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May 10, 2012 16:20
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TK-31 posted:This single made me start to like - at least a little - Watta and Trider beyond his fantastic pilot skill. Yeah, Watta, being a small company is hard specially if you're funding giant robots. I'm glad I made a difference. The bit that roped me about Trider is the jokes, especially in the theme song, about how wacky it is that he's in grade school! and a CEO! and a robot pilot! that were frankly probably already old when the show was on. But actually, the show is pretty serious about it. Watta inherited his position and the robot from his dad, and he's doing his honest best to balance his school life, friends, jobs, and fighting the "Robot Empire" (really!). Kakekouji and Otsui are really indispensible because seriously, he's like twelve, he can't run a company. A lot of Trider G7 is more about that balance than about the robot. The unfortunate result of all this is that in the game, Watta gets to make a few jokes, have a few cute scenes, and follow everyone around filling in the "little kid with a simple sense of justice" slots, which I think is just taking on Kappei's role in Z. By the way, Trider's not the best unit, it's true, but I still like him, and not just for the bonus PP (though those are delicious). But while the theme lyrics are kind of amusing, I have to admit not being a fan of those oldie super robot tunes in general.
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May 10, 2012 18:17
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I'm glad that Dai-Guard eventually gets better, though I don't know exactly how yet - the whole premise of Dai-Guard seems rather interesting and cool, in a way. I kind of enjoy the 'underdog' aspect that Dai-Guard seems to radiate, and how Akagi doesn't take that lying down. Then again, maybe I just enjoy underdog units in general. I mean Mazinger tops the charts at being awesome, but there's only so much you can say that hasn't already been said when you're basically a mainline star in terms of appearances.
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May 10, 2012 18:48
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It'd seem the extra PP would have made him a shoo in unless his unit was absolute poo poo. You could run him with pretty much anyone and they'd become more awesome.
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May 10, 2012 19:21
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Caphi posted:By the way, Trider's not the best unit, it's true, but I still like him, and not just for the bonus PP (though those are delicious). But while the theme lyrics are kind of amusing, I have to admit not being a fan of those oldie super robot tunes in general. I hope this means you'll be using it a lot more often when you have the tough choice of either fielding him or not. I always find it a shame when other SRW fans pretty much only care about newer shows or whatever is the most obviously overpowered and broken mechs they can field. I'm a huge fan of old school Super Robots, because their one-dimensional black-and-white good-and-evil stories and toy commercial appeal just give me a burst of nostalgia that I shouldn't even have because I never grew up with those shows at all, yet could totally see myself watching (about the only super robot show I did watch when I was really young was Voltes V, which was, and last I heard still is, super popular in the Philippines). But like most folks said already, Trider G7 isn't terrible. The problem is that it's in a game full of overpowered mechs, and Watta's spell pool is rather poor, at least until you get Lock-On when he can start going offensive more often; the lack of that spell in general hurts him in later levels. In any case, by the time much more difficult enemies and bosses show up, Trider G7's real strengths show up later in the game as a barrier-busting, combination-attack engine when next to Zambot 3 and, later, Daitarn 3.
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May 10, 2012 20:35
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Mercury Crusader posted:I hope this means you'll be using it a lot more often when you have the tough choice of either fielding him or not. I always find it a shame when other SRW fans pretty much only care about newer shows or whatever is the most obviously overpowered and broken mechs they can field. I'm a huge fan of old school Super Robots, because their one-dimensional black-and-white good-and-evil stories and toy commercial appeal just give me a burst of nostalgia that I shouldn't even have because I never grew up with those shows at all, yet could totally see myself watching (about the only super robot show I did watch when I was really young was Voltes V, which was, and last I heard still is, super popular in the Philippines). Z1 was actually pretty good about balancing old and new series and had some good balance in the units. A lot of good early game units like the Hyaku Shiki, Walker Gallia, Zambot 3, and Grendizer don't start to fall off until the very end of the game and the squad system let you get mileage out of all the support units the game gives you (Kapools, the 3 spazers, Diana and Venus A, the Panthers, etc.) I also like some good old fashioned 70s Super Robot fashion, its why every time I've played Z2 I've tried to get some good mileage out of Trider G7 but I never could bring myself to keep using it. I'll say this though: Trider is a LOT better in Z2.2, it starts with its Z2.1 upgrades and joins at the same time as Zambot 3 letting you do the Double Brat Attack right off the bat. In addition Kakekouji starts with enough PP to buy Resupply expert so you can use the Shuttle for that immediately. Plus having Exhaust/Daunt is much more important in Z2.2 because of how many bosses have Extreme as a skill (Too goddamn many). Z1 had some good old fashioned good vs. evil stories as well. Gaizock was never anything more than a genocidal monster no matter how he tried to spin himself at the end, The Vegan and Hyakki are the old school cartoonish bad guys, and the original villain it turns out is just flat out evil for the hell of it.
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May 10, 2012 20:58
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Franky the idea of a elementary school kid becoming the CEO of a corperation and then getting a giant robot is so hilarious that there's no way I wouldn't use Trider.
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May 10, 2012 21:18
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Mercury Crusader posted:I hope this means you'll be using it a lot more often when you have the tough choice of either fielding him or not. I always find it a shame when other SRW fans pretty much only care about newer shows or whatever is the most obviously overpowered and broken mechs they can field. I'm a huge fan of old school Super Robots, because their one-dimensional black-and-white good-and-evil stories and toy commercial appeal just give me a burst of nostalgia that I shouldn't even have because I never grew up with those shows at all, yet could totally see myself watching (about the only super robot show I did watch when I was really young was Voltes V, which was, and last I heard still is, super popular in the Philippines). I fully admit I use units almost exclusively depending on whether they're good or not, this ends in me rarely not fielding the Strike Freedom whenever possible. That said I think a lot of the charm of these games, and mecha in general, is in being able to like these shows for what they present themselves as. A lot of the time I see people complaining that classic super robots are campy and that gundams are "emo" and I can't help but think that they're missing the point.
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May 10, 2012 21:25
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Dr Pepper posted:Franky the idea of a elementary school kid becoming the CEO of a corperation and then getting a giant robot is so hilarious that there's no way I wouldn't use Trider. If I remember the first episode right, the backstory behind that is basically "Watta's dad passed away, and in his will he just gave full control of the company and all its assets to Watta", which just happens to include Trider G7. And the Takeo General Company was never really that well-off, which is why the company advertises itself for pretty much any kind of job (most of which happen to require Trider G7, whether it's combat-related or manual labor ala hauling heavy stuff). TK-31 posted:I fully admit I use units almost exclusively depending on whether they're good or not, this ends in me rarely not fielding the Strike Freedom whenever possible. That said I think a lot of the charm of these games, and mecha in general, is in being able to like these shows for what they present themselves as. A lot of the time I see people complaining that classic super robots are campy and that gundams are "emo" and I can't help but think that they're missing the point. I found that a lot of the games are easy enough (SR points notwithstanding) that you don't really need to break the game to do really well, and a lot of the games get really easy, especially near the end of these games. It's why I often challenge myself by using "lesser" mechs whenever possible. But yeah, I agree with sentiments about being able to enjoy a lot of the series for what they are. I like to field a bunch of super robots in a super robot-centric map, and field a bunch of real robots in real robot-centric maps. I could just bust out Mazinger Z against every kind of enemy ever since it can literally steamroll maps by itself, but sometimes I just gotta give the Wing and 00 guys a chance to shine, despite not being big fans of those shows myself. If you didn't guess by my avatar, I sure do enjoy classic super robot camp!  (I hope Combattler V and Voltes V show up in a future game again)
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May 10, 2012 22:05
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veekie posted:I love how crazy it is that a child CEO with a super robot and a tight budget is barely worth comment in game. In a world where there are two Japans, one of which is conquered and one of which is free for no apparent reason (other than to include Geass), stranger things have happened. Mercury Crusader posted:If I remember the first episode right, the backstory behind that is basically "Watta's dad passed away, and in his will he just gave full control of the company and all its assets to Watta", which just happens to include Trider G7. And the Takeo General Company was never really that well-off, which is why the company advertises itself for pretty much any kind of job (most of which happen to require Trider G7, whether it's combat-related or manual labor ala hauling heavy stuff). That kinda disappoints me. I was hoping the kid inherited the money and the company and blew it all on building his own giant robot. That's sure as hell what I'd do if I became a billionaire as a child. Well, and if I lived in a world where giant robots were a thing that seemingly everybody has.
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May 10, 2012 22:49
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Caphi posted:But while the theme lyrics are kind of amusing, I have to admit not being a fan of those oldie super robot tunes in general. I dunno. I rather like them. They add some diversity of instrumentation that's highly welcome. I rather like the frequent inclusion of a brass instrument or instruments, for one thing. They're fearfully underused these days.
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May 11, 2012 02:32
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I run all super robots all the time. If you're not brightly coloured and piloted by someone whose primary motivation is justice, GET OFF MY TEAM. (okay, Amuro can come too)
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May 11, 2012 03:38
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MarsDragon posted:I run all super robots all the time. If you're not brightly coloured and piloted by someone whose primary motivation is justice, GET OFF MY TEAM. Amuro is best known for piloting a white devil and fighting for justice and equality between new- and oldtypes. 
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May 11, 2012 03:47
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MarsDragon posted:I run all super robots all the time. If you're not brightly coloured and piloted by someone whose primary motivation is justice, GET OFF MY TEAM. Considering this game, that doesn't exactly count out any of the real robots. You've got Code Geass and Gundam 00, both of which are both brightly colored and full of justice.
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May 11, 2012 04:01
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TwoPair posted:That kinda disappoints me. I was hoping the kid inherited the money and the company and blew it all on building his own giant robot. That's sure as hell what I'd do if I became a billionaire as a child. Well, and if I lived in a world where giant robots were a thing that seemingly everybody has. It's kind of funny if you think that Watta's old man spent most of the company's money to fund the construction of Trider G7, and with most of the company's assets invested in that robot, the rest of the company is barely getting along, and then he decides it's a great idea to dump the company and the robot on his son at the company's current financial state. I don't recall anybody mentioning that Trider G7 was actually used before Watta took over Takeo General Company, either.
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May 11, 2012 04:02
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