After a few months' wait from the impressive preview imagery, and a last-minute two-week delay, the latest game in the Super Robot Wars series has finally released. Having received my copy a couple days ago, and played in nearly all my free time since then, I figured I'd give a few impressions:
The lineup's great. Dancougar and Eva are both back, with Gunbuster as well; and they've rolled out everyone's favorite galaxy-obliterator, Ideon, to do his "densetsu no kyojin no chikara / ginga kirisaku" schtick. For a recent real-robot addition, I would have rather had Full Metal Panic than Gundam SEED, but on the other hand SEED leads to a profusion of Haros to decorate the cockpits of your aces. And there's Macross DYRL, Plus, -and- 7 in to fill in a bunch of reals that aren't overly whiny.
System is vastly improved from Alpha 2---no more slowdown, no more hires shudder, no more load times, and actual difficulty. Keeping up enough skill to stay on hard mode means the AI is as bloodthirsty as it was in the SNES era, most supers take damage almost like in D, and units -don't- gain morale when an enemy is killed unless they did it, or at least fought that enemy before---the days of building up those last few points for a sure kill by having your fodder take out some enemy fodder are over. Also, the new music system is excellent---no more listening to Anime Ja Nai, and the first time seeing Jeeg appear to the CCA main theme is pure comedy gold.
Storyline, except for as relates to SEED's lame shoehorning into UC, is good. There's an honest feel of desperate battle about it, and the writers aren't afraid to do things like
even given her popularity.
And, of course, the characters interact to a high degree---there's a kind of dividedness of opinions and aims among the heroes that hasn't been seen, while at least Kusuha and Bullet are getting more development as original characters, even though they're both straightforward, than was seen in 2. (There's also the absolute best "special drink" scene ever.)
While there are a few nitpicks, mostly related to either the inclusion of SEED and its implementation or information gleaned from datafile examination that almost point to a second Gaiden, so far it's an excellent sendoff to the Alpha series, and probably the best addition to the overall series yet, bringing together the best of the old and new.
(In addition, for any of you playing Kusuha route, I've been taking notes on my playthrough, with rough translations; it's available here.
The lineup's great. Dancougar and Eva are both back, with Gunbuster as well; and they've rolled out everyone's favorite galaxy-obliterator, Ideon, to do his "densetsu no kyojin no chikara / ginga kirisaku" schtick. For a recent real-robot addition, I would have rather had Full Metal Panic than Gundam SEED, but on the other hand SEED leads to a profusion of Haros to decorate the cockpits of your aces. And there's Macross DYRL, Plus, -and- 7 in to fill in a bunch of reals that aren't overly whiny.
System is vastly improved from Alpha 2---no more slowdown, no more hires shudder, no more load times, and actual difficulty. Keeping up enough skill to stay on hard mode means the AI is as bloodthirsty as it was in the SNES era, most supers take damage almost like in D, and units -don't- gain morale when an enemy is killed unless they did it, or at least fought that enemy before---the days of building up those last few points for a sure kill by having your fodder take out some enemy fodder are over. Also, the new music system is excellent---no more listening to Anime Ja Nai, and the first time seeing Jeeg appear to the CCA main theme is pure comedy gold.
Storyline, except for as relates to SEED's lame shoehorning into UC, is good. There's an honest feel of desperate battle about it, and the writers aren't afraid to do things like
have the player control SRX while a Balmar commander wrecks it, incidentally killing Aya
And, of course, the characters interact to a high degree---there's a kind of dividedness of opinions and aims among the heroes that hasn't been seen, while at least Kusuha and Bullet are getting more development as original characters, even though they're both straightforward, than was seen in 2. (There's also the absolute best "special drink" scene ever.)
While there are a few nitpicks, mostly related to either the inclusion of SEED and its implementation or information gleaned from datafile examination that almost point to a second Gaiden, so far it's an excellent sendoff to the Alpha series, and probably the best addition to the overall series yet, bringing together the best of the old and new.
(In addition, for any of you playing Kusuha route, I've been taking notes on my playthrough, with rough translations; it's available here.
