Super Robot Wars
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Super Robot Wars (スーパーロボット大戦 Sūpā Robotto Taisen?, or Super Robot Taisen, abbreviated as SRW) is a series of tactical role-playing video games produced by the Japanese gaming company, Banpresto, a division of Bandai, for various video game consoles and video game handheld consoles. The games' main feature is the use of mecha units from multiple Japanese anime and manga titles, mixing them together in a battle simulation and adding a complex plot involving some of their respective storylines, characters, and backgrounds. Another feature is a simple menu interface that can be understood by the gamer, even if he or she does not know how to read Japanese.
The very first game in the franchise was released for the Nintendo Game Boy in 1991. The first animated mecha series featured on the game (and the ones usually present in all the series' games) are Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and the earliest incarnations of Mobile Suit Gundam. The first two, both creations of famous Japanese manga artist, Go Nagai, and his production company, Dynamic Productions, are representatives of the super robot type of units, while Gundam, realized by animator Yoshiyuki Tomino, represents the real robot units. It is a tradition for a Super Robot Wars game to include a Mazinger, Getter and a Gundam series, forming what fans call the "Holy Trinity", but as of July 2007, only the Mazinger franchise has appeared in every non-original incarnation of Super Robot Wars.
As more games were released, more characters, units and storylines were added to these games, both from existing mecha series and/or original units designed by Banpresto, exclusively for the games. As the number of series involved in the games increased, the stories have become increasingly complex.
Some series that have been featured, including Neon Genesis Evangelion and Gundam, are well-known worldwide, whereas others, such as Heavy Metal L-Gaim and Raideen, have little to no fame at all outside of Japan. Because much of the appeal of any Super Robot Wars title resides in the player's knowledge of and familiarity with the various series involved, the games are most successful and have their biggest fanbase in Japan. There is, however, a small but loyal fanbase for the games, internationally. It was widely believed that the series would never see release outside of Japan, largely due to potentially complicated rights and licensing issues (a problem that also affects other games, such as Jump Superstars). Because of this, fan translations of some of the games have been made.
On March 3, 2006, Atlus USA released two Original Generation titles for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance in North America, thus making them the first games in the series to ever see release outside of the Asian market.[1] Because the Original Generation lineup uses original robots and characters not from any anime or manga series, these games do not have the licensing problems that other games might have.
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[edit] Basic gameplay
Most games in the Super Robot Wars series follow the same basic premise: the player begins by selecting a Banpresto original character and a Banpresto original machine (though in some games, the characters have default machines), and the game begins in proper. From there, the original character is drawn into the events of the constituent anime for the game, all while an overarching storyline and enemy force, always connected in some way to the original character, ties them all together. Typically, some of the anime featured also has its plot intertwined with others. For example, Super Robot Wars Alpha combines the White Fang plot of New Mobile Report Gundam Wing with Paptimus Scirocco's rebellion from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, resulting in the two enemy forces working together. Notably, Banpresto tends to wait until three years after a series has finished airing on Japanese television networks, to include it in the game, so as to avoid spoilers, but there are exceptions.
All the games follow a basic structure: when a stage begins, the character receives some introductory dialogue between the playable characters. After this finishes, the battle begins. To complete the battle, the player orders their units to attack the enemy, taking careful considerations into what weapons to use, what Spirit Commands to cast, and on what terrain to attack from. Many games also feature "Skill Points" (Battle Masteries, in the North American localizations), optional goals that are more challenging to achieve, that affect the game's overall difficulty. After the player accomplishes the stage's goal, more dialogue between characters closes out the stage, before the player is taken to an intermission menu. From there, units can be upgraded, optional parts installed, change or upgrade pilots' stats and skills, save, and perform other maintenance actions before the player continues on with the game.
During battle, the player chooses a unit and takes an action by the commands available (move, attack an enemy unit, use a unit's ability or power, etc). Some units have unique characteristics: for example, units such as the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam have the ability to transform from a humanoid mode to a vehicular mode, thus making them unique among other units that cannot transform or fly; or, in the case of units such as the Getter Robo, it can transform into different robotic forms with new weapons and different defensive attributes.
Battles are carried out in different kinds of terrain scenarios (land, sea, space, etc.), which affect the development of the battles, since some units can move or fight better in one type of terrain, while having a lot of difficulty in others. The effect of terrain is also affected by the statistics of the pilots (for example, most Gundam characters excel in space combat, but suffer major handicaps underwater). In addition, terrain also affects certain attacks (for example, like in their series, the Gundams and mobile suits' beam weapons are weakened or unusable underwater. Another example is how attacks that need atmosphere, such as the Mazinger Z's Rust Hurricane, are unusable in space).
Later games included more complex combat, allowing ranged weapons to be used after moving, and longer, multi-part missions. To add more tactical features in combat, "Support Attacks/Defense" and simultaneous attack by two or more units were introduced. Also, as games were developed for more advanced consoles, such as the Nintendo 64, Sony PlayStation, and Sega Dreamcast, the games included fully-animated battle sequences, complete with detailed graphics, whether larger 2-D sprites, or, in the case of games, such as the Dreamcast port of Super Robot Wars Alpha and Super Robot Wars GC for the Nintendo GameCube, 3-D graphics.
Voice acting provided by Japanese seiyuu from each anime series would accompany the animations, and some games contain CG mini-movies, depicting a certain mecha's dramatic appearance and/or transformation during the stage. As many of the seiyuu who feature in the Super Robot Wars have worked in various anime over the course of their careers, many of the games include in-jokes concerning their other roles. For example, Amuro Ray from Gundam and Misato Katsuragi from Evangelion flirt often, referring to their seiyuus' roles as Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon, respectively. In another example, Hojo Shingo, the pilot of Goshogun once did impersonations of Haran Banjo of Daitarn 3 and Bright Noa, the reference being that all three were voiced by the late Hirotaka Suzuoki.
In most of the entries in a game, missions involve a storyline directly taken from a specific mecha series. This ensures that some of the gamer's actions must follow some steps according to the events of that series to accomplish the mission or acquire a new unit. In some cases, those events are predetermined, and will occur no matter the player's course of action; sometimes, one action taken by the gamer will lead to or skip an event. Most games feature at least one path split, in which the team is split roughly in half and each goes to deal with different events and the player chooses which series of events they wish to follow.
One noteworthy and popular aspect of the Super Robot Wars games is the fact that character death happens only rarely. Players will often have the chance to prevent the death of an allied character, as depicted in his or her animated series, while some games take this a step further and prevent heroic deaths freely, without any extra effort on the part of the player. Additionally, the player can often convince certain enemies (usually those who are not completely villainous, or who have good intentions) to abandon the antagonists and join the players' side, whether they do so in their respective series or not. When these two concepts are combined, the player can create a team that would have no chance of existing within the original series.
Many games also feature hidden units and characters that can only be gained through a special sequence of events. These include following one specific series' plot, convincing a certain enemy multiple times, defeating certain enemies with certain characters, and others. Sometimes the bonuses are simply enemy machines captured and handed over to the heroes, while other times, they are special units, such as the IWSP Pack for the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam.
Since the 4th Super Robot Wars, many games also feature a database of every character and unit that appears in the game. The database entries are written in the context of the character/unit's original story, regardless of how it was altered in the game, only exception are games from Original Generation series. The player usually only has access to the profiles of units and characters already encountered during gameplay and must play through the game several times in order to complete the database.
[edit] Units, weapons & tactics
Like other tactical games, Super Robot Wars boasts a variety of units which excel at various roles. The units in-game are generally separated into two categories: "super robots" and "real robots". Mazinger Z, for example, being an archetypical super robot, has exceptionally high hit points and armor, which enable it to sustain heavy attacks, and powerful, close-range weapons, such as its signature Rocket Punch and Breast Fire. On the other hand, the RX-78-2 Gundam, a real robot, is faster and more agile than the Mazinger Z, but has less armor and hit points, relying instead on dodging the opponent's attacks, rather than absorbing damage. As a whole, its weapons have longer range and better accuracy towards opponents than that of Mazinger Z; however, the increased accuracy comes at the cost of doing less damage per hit, requiring it to attack a single enemy more than once, in most cases. Furthermore, it requires less energy for its weapons, whereas Mazinger Z would lose its energy faster, when using its most powerful attacks. There are exceptions to these rules: despite being classified as a super robot, the Raideen is a long-range attacker, with most of its best weapons requiring it to attack from afar, and despite having stats equivalent to that of other real robots, the machines from Aura Battler Dunbine are primarily close-range fighters.
Weapon in Super Robot Wars has various attributes other than range, accuracy modifier and attack power. All weapons can be divide in melee and shooting categories, which determine its effectiveness by pilots status. Some weapons can be use after the unit has been moved while other need to be stationary. Other attributes can be effect by terrain or targets defensive ability. For example, typical beam rifle will deal much less damage or can not target submerged enemy at all. Its attack can be prevented or reduced by ability like beam-coating, but can bypass Gundam Seed's phase-shift armor ability. When attacked, player usually has choice to counter attack with available weapons, dodge to rise evasion rate or guard to reduce upcoming damage.
In addition, some units make use of "MAP Weapons", attacks which target several enemies in a selected area, such as MSZ-010 Double Zeta Gundam's High Mega Cannon. While usually not as strong as other, single-target weapons, they are capable of eliminating several weakened enemies, or softening up a group of enemies for other pilots to take out. Later games also feature weapons that inflict status effects on the enemy machines, from draining their energy to weakening their armor; some weapons, such as those used by Macross 7's antagonists, also damage the stats of a pilot. Later MAP Weapons include variations that don't target allied units in the line of fire.
Some units are treated as "support units", which give health and/or energy to other units. While most of these units are weaker in attack and defense, they tend to be valuable in many battle situations. These resupply units are usually the sidekicks of the title character units. Examples include the Aphrodite A and the Boss Borot (from Mazinger Z), the Methuss (from Zeta Gundam), and the Ginrei Robo (from the Giant Robo Ginrei Specials OVAs). Another type of support unit, unique in Super Robot Wars Destiny, Super Robot Wars Alpha 3, and Super Robot Wars W, are machines that can bolster the stats and morale of the players' allies, as well as deal with the enemies they face, using music-based attacks.
The games also feature battleships and carriers, whose main purpose is to transport units and resupply them. In most games, the destruction of a battleship results in an instant game over. Examples of these units used in the series are the White Base from Mobile Suit Gundam, the SDF-1 Macross from Super Dimension Fortress Macross and the Daiku Maryuu from Gaiking.
The units in Super Robot Wars series are varied by size. While every unit only takes a single grid on the tactical map and has little visual difference in battle animations, unit size plays a big role in combat calculation. A larger unit gains bonus defensive capabilities when attacked and damage dealing towards smaller unit. However, smaller units have an advantage to successfully evade and accurately target larger units. In later games, there are attacks which can bypass the size attribute, as well as a learnable pilot skill, that nullifies the effect of size in combat.
All pilots in the game play a role in determining the usefulness of a machine. Each pilot has abilities in ranged and melee combat, accuracy, dealing critical hits, dodging, and defense that increase the effectiveness of a machine offensively and defensively. In addition, the pilots may carry special abilities that allow them to use their machine's melee weapons to intercept enemy missiles and melee attacks, or use a shield to defend themselves, including abilities that increase the overall performance of the machine. All pilots carry a set of six Spirit Commands, similar to magic in traditional role-playing games, which give them the ability to deal double the amount of damage, ensure a successful hit or dodge, drastically lower the amount of damage taken for the next hit, and other beneficial effects.
Some characters from series have special stats that affect their accuracy, evasion, and even allow them to use specialized weapons, such as the funnel weapons on the Sazabi or the Nu Gundam. Players may switch pilots into other machines from the same series, such as placing Zeta Gundam pilot Kamille Bidan into Judau Ashta's Double Zeta Gundam, or if the player desires, placing Nu Gundam pilot Amuro Ray back into the RX-78-2 Gundam.
The enemies featured in the games range from simple A.I.-controlled mechanical minions and units with common pilots to giant beasts and powerful arch-enemies in the most bizarre-looking machines. Classic animated villains, from Char Aznable, the 17 Angels from Evangelion and Mobile Fighter G Gundam's Master Asia to Dr. Hell and the Great General of Darkness, are a few of the foes encountered throughout the series.
[edit] Influence
The Super Robot Wars games eventually would have an influence on the Japanese animated industry, itself. It sparked a fan interest in old anime mecha shows, some of which were first heard of or seen by fans playing the games.
JAM Project, consisting of veteran anime theme musicians, like Ichiro Mizuki, Hironobu Kageyama, Rica Matsumoto, Eizo Sakamoto, Masaaki Endoh, Hiroshi Kitadani, Masami Okui, and Yoshiki Fukuyama, has also contributed to many Super Robot Wars game soundtracks, usually providing the opening theme song and the song played over the closing credits. The Super Robot Wars series also spawned a series of concerts and albums called Super Robot Spirits, in which veteran vocalists -- some of whom would go on to form JAM Project -- sing covers of popular mecha anime openings, and in some cases, live versions of songs they themselves originally sang.
But the games' main influence has been in the creation of anime shows influenced by original units and characters that were created for the games. The best examples of this is are Getter Robo Armageddon, Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo, and the Mazinkaiser OVA, released in the United States in 2002. Shin Getter Robo first appeared in Ken Ishikawa's manga for Getter Robo Go, then became by its apparition in various Super Robot Wars games until receiving its aforementioned OVAs. Mazinkaiser appeared for the first time in Super Robot Wars F Final, released for the Sega Saturn and the Sony PlayStation in 1998, as an upgrade to the original Mazinger Z. Mazinger Z writer and illustrator, Go Nagai, would eventually implement it into his manga as the prototype of the other Mazinger machines. A 1999 anime called Masō Kishin Cybuster loosely adapted the story of the first original Banpresto mecha in Super Robot Wars into a 26-episode series, featuring both characters inspired by the allies of the Cybuster's pilot, Masaki Andoh, and original characters created for the anime. There is also a manga series, Chokijin RyuKoOh Denki (超機人 龍虎王伝奇 Chōkijin Ryūkoō Denki?), which provided the background story for another original machine, the RyuKoOh.
Banpresto also has released a Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation, which reunites many of Banpresto's original characters and units that had appeared throughout the franchise. This version of the game has become very popular, creating a fanbase around the storylines and plots involving the original characters and mecha. In May 2005, Banpresto released an animated OVA series called Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Animation, a 3-part non-canonical sequel to the second Original Generation. The OVA was followed up by a TV series, entitled Super Robot Wars Original Generation: Divine Wars, which retells the plot of the first Original Generation game.
[edit] Super Robot Wars titles
[edit] Continuities
Most of the titles are standalone games, whose background stories may involve the plots of the series but no other Super Robot Wars titles. However, there are two main continuities with an overall storyline.
The first series, known as the Classic Timeline, consists of the 2nd, the 3rd, EX, F and F Final games (in that order). F and F Final replaced the 4th in the continuity, and 2G was not considered canonical, because of its non-inclusion in the Complete Box set. The side-story, Masō Kishin - The Lord Of Elemental, is divided into two parts: "Part One" takes place before the 2nd and "Part Two" takes place after the 4th (4th was released before F and F Final).
The second series is the Alpha series, which consists of Alpha, Alpha Gaiden, Alpha 2, and Alpha 3 games (in that order). "Part One" of the Masō Kishin - The Lord Of Elemental side-story also provides relevant information, taking place before Alpha.
Original Generation is the most recent series, consisting of only characters and mechs created solely by Banpresto. It also spawned two animated titles. Both Original Generation games have been compiled, with updated visuals and sound, as Super Robot Wars Original Generations, with the follow-up game, Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden.
The Compact 2 trilogy for the Bandai Wonderswan had its own continuity. The three games were compiled, with updated visuals and sound, as Impact. It is theorized that MX was originally meant as a sequel to Impact, because it was created by the same development team and used most of the same series.
[edit] Series included in the franchise
[edit] Games in English
As of now, there are currently two Super Robot Wars games in English, unofficially, and two Original Generation titles officially released by Atlus USA. Below, the translated games are listed by name and translator. Atlus released Original Generation on August 8, 2006, while Original Generation 2's release date was November 14, 2006. It should be noted that the Original Generation series are easier to release outside of Japan, due to a lack of licensing issues. The titles of the games are given as Super Robot Taisen, to avoid potential confusion with the British television series, Robot Wars.
- Super Robot Wars (GB, translated by Aeon Genesis Translation Proclamation)
- Super Robot Wars 3 (SNES, translated by Aeon Genesis Translation Proclamation)
- Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation (GBA, translated by Atlus USA)
- Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation 2 (GBA, translated by Atlus USA)
[edit] Trivia
- Hikaru Midorikawa, the seiyuu of characters like Heero Yuy and Mike Betts, is a huge fan of the Super Robot Wars. In fact, he even volunteers to do extra lines for no charge, and has done beta testing for Banpresto's games. He also has a blog on Banpresto's website. [2]
[edit] External links
- Banpresto's official SRW site
- Atlus' announcement of SRW OG in America
- Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation from Nintendo.com
- Super Robot Wars Original Generations official webpage
- Zona SRW : A spanish spoken forum dedicated to the SRW saga.
- The Gate of Magus : A fansite dedicated to the original characters and mecha of Banpresto
- Super Robot Wars at Gears Online
- Super Robot Wars at Wikia
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