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Monday 8 January, 2007
The Super Robot Wars SRPG series has a long-running history in Japan (from about the days of the Super Famicom), but has never seen light in the US. The reason for this mostly comes down to the fact that the main draw for the series is that it is, in effect, a gigantic crossover of nearly every robot series in Japan. Mazinger Z, any given Gundam, Raideen, Evangelion, Giant Robo...all of them have been in a SRW game. As a result, it's impossible to bring over to the US, due to the massive licensing problems.
However, in each SRW game there was a cast of original characters which were eventually collected into two games for the GBA: Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, and Original Generation 2. As the anime robots were taken out, the series was able to be brought over by Atlus, changing the name to Super Robot Taisen (Taisen being Japanese for battle, war) in the process. Though it's sad to not be able to SHIIIINING FIIIIIIIIINGEEEEEEEEEEER the enemies, the game is a remarkably solid strategy game under the appeal of seeing your favourite robots duking it out.
The game is somewhat like Shining Force and Fire Emblem, though without the latter's perma-death and no true limited-use weapons. (while gun-type weapons have limited ammo, they are refilled between battles along with your health, along with items that can be used during battle to the same effect) You move your robots around the map, and when you come in range of an enemy you can attack with a variety of weapons determined by what robot you are using. The fight sequences are nicely animated, but skippable (a welcome addition). The attacking robot will attack, then if possible the attacked robot will counter. If you're being attacked you can pick the attack to make in return, to evade, or defend. This give-and-take action, where you have to balance damage versus hit chances, nicely spices up the gameplay.
I started playing the game a bit ago, but didn't get very far. This play session took me through a couple of missions and a few game overs. While most of the time it was fairly standard 'run up and hit the enemy' battles, there was one sequence where my 'super robot' (characterized by "screw the laws of physics, this looks awesome" attacks, rather than 'real robots' general deference to reality. Think Gundam Wing/G Gundam versus any other Gundam.) ran out of ammo and couldn't attack the boss, leaving my other pilots, all of whom had barely any chance to hit to gang up and try to take the guy down. It took some gambling, raising hit percentages with skills, and a few people getting their mechs exploded before he went down, but eventually I damaged him enough to make the plot take over.
...and then my super robot ran after him. Damnit.
Overall, Super Robot Taisen is a great strategy game, with plenty of save anywhere for days on the road and some darn satisfying tactical gameplay under it all, which is something you wouldn't really expect from something that originally came from a series that made its name on having a bunch of licensed characters. The story is deep and complex, sometimes a bit too much (there are a ton of characters, and you're pretty much thrown straight into the story), but with its excellent localization it doesn't feel too confusing. All in all, it's a very good game.
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