Hogan Reviews

When I reviewed SRW T in 2021 I said about the then-soon-to-be-released Super Robot Wars 30 and how I’d wait a year this time, and given its now 2023 you’d think I kept that promise but the truth is I brought this and all its DLC back in August it’s just that the game is so long that I started getting burnout in early October so decided to “rest it”, picking it back up last month and finally completing it last week (after Resi 4 Remake) Is the staggering 139 hours I sank into this tactical RPG worth it? Let’s find out!

Background:

The game exclusive suit: the “Huckebein 30th”, with no explanation in-universe as to why it’s called “30th”, but hey-ho..

Super Robot Wars 30 was released in Japan and Asia on October 28^th 2021 for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch, with the Asia version once again having a full English language version on it. The big difference this time though is it was also released on Steam the day before, meaning people in the US and Europe could access it and play it without any importing. I mean I’m much more comfortable sitting in front of my TV with a controller in my hand as you know so I still imported the physical PS4 version (and used an Asian alt account to download the DLC)

As the name suggests its celebrating 30 years since the release of the first game in the series, something that in the majority is lost on me given beyond a brief go on a fan-translated version of PS1 game “SRW Alpha Gaiden” I’ve only played the recent PS4 games, but it’s still an impressive feat anyway. Including pre-order incentives and DLC the games comes packed with protagonists from past SRW games, which again was lost on me but there were some really fun characters and suits, especially Sanger Zonvolt and his mounted suit the Dygenguar, which has frankly the most satisfying gigantic sword slash ever animated.

Told you it was satisfying! … I assume he’s doing Van’s “Chesto!” call because of a connection they had in Sanger’s game…

As for outside franchises? Well again including DLC SRW 30 actually set a Guinness World Record for most “Most Intellectual Property licenses used in an RPG Video Game”, which while overly specific is still impressive. It features suits, characters, music and storylines from: Mobile Suit Gundam, specifically the original Gundam series, Zeta Gundam (plus some “Variation” suits for Zeta characters), Char’s Counterattack, Victory Gundam and Gundam Narrative; Super Electromagnetic Combattler V; Heavy Metal L-Gaim; Brave Police J-Decker; The King of Braves GaoGaiGar FINAL and Hakaiou -GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman-; Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion III and Re;surrection; Getter Robo Armageddon; Mazinger Z: Infinity and Mazinkaiser Infinitism; Magic Knight Rayearth; GunXSword; Majestic Prince; Knights & Magic; and SSSS.GRIDMAN. The DLC packs add: Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V; Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans and Char’s Counterattack – Beltrochika’s Children; Sakura Wars; ULTRAMAN, Armoured Trooper VOTOMS; Super Mechanimal Dancouga; Majestic Prince: Genetic Awakening; Getter Robo Devolution; and (deep breath) Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion THE ANIMATION: The Mythically Fast ALFA-X that came from the Future.

Gameplay:

I imagine with all that equipped you won’t!

Well I guess it’s time to explain Super Robot Wars for the fourth time, though I am happy to say it actually has some changes compared to V, X and T! Those changes are mostly in structure though rather than gameplay, so let’s get that bit out the way first: the game is a tactical RPG where you take control of an ever-increasing number of machines/pilots and when a mission starts you place them on a gridded stage. It then becomes a turn-based affair with you taking a turn to move characters and attack enemies, then the CPU taking a turn and you having to defend against their attacks. Each attack takes a certain amount of energy or ammo and deals a certain amount of damage, how much depends on several factors as every character has stats that can be upgraded and each suit has their own stats that can also be upgraded as well as both levelling up alongside the pilots as they gain experience, plus as their kill count goes up they get even more bonuses for reaching “Ace” and “Great Ace”. You can attach “Power Parts” to suits as well that can boost stats and offer other bonuses as well as give you deployable extras during battle like a health restoring item, so it’s never a straight “this will do this much” thing based on looks alone.

The upgrading is done through two different types of collectable currency, but there are three other stats to look out for during play: morale effects what attacks you can do (the higher the morale the more access to more powerful attacks) as well as critical chance, while Exec points get added each time a pilot takes down an enemy and can be used to “buy” one off upgrades like guaranteed critical or even an extra turn, and finally SP also goes up during the battle and allows you to use abilities like a guaranteed dodge or “next attack does double damage”.

Gridman kicks one of those crap wheeled capital ships from Victory Gundam. Good!

Some attacks are Map Attacks and allow you to hit multiple targets at once, and where your chosen fighter is and the suits adaptability towards certain terrain type with effect likelihood of hitting the enemy or getting hit, as well as how far they can move on the field (very rarely recommended to be underwater, for instance). Each map sees you deploy capital ships as well as robots / suits, these act much the same way except they can take on-board an injured unit and restore their health for the next turn and they have different Exec bonuses. *sigh*. I THINK that’s all the actual gameplay… Though I will mention in this game the new-lore-exclusive ship, the Dreisstrager, is special in that it has its own upgrade screen where you can use yet another currency to upgrade it across six different areas of the ship, plus gain some powerful Power Parts in the process.

This brings me to the new things about the game, mainly the mission structure. In the past three games it was completely linear, you just did one mission into the next one, but this time there’s a world map (which turns into a Earthsphere map, then a solar system map) where you can pick from a variety of missions: Main Missions move the story forward (though there are normally five or six at one time and its actually possible to pick the big story moving mission and lose access to some, so be weary of that!), then there’s Area Missions which “respawn” every few turns allowing you to use them to grind levels and farm currency, and Artefact missions which net you unique Power Parts and are often small maps with just two or three units on your side and something of a puzzle to figure out, like eliminating five enemies in two turns or some such. Finally there are Simulator Missions which are just like regular missions except, well, they’re in the simulator so aren’t technically happening and therefore they’re not constricted to storylines. The missions involving DLC characters are neatly woven into the overall narrative, appearing alongside regular missions at various points, which is nice.

I think that’s everything, beyond the usual gallery and stuff, plus a metric tonne of story cutscenes and characters “chats”. There is an Auto mode during combat as well where the AI can do the battles for you, which I assume is for the respawning grindy missions. I never used it, mainly because there was enough bloody content without re-doing grinding missions!

Graphics and Sound:

So much 70s Super Robot cheese in one picture. You have to love it! (otherwise this will be an annoying game for you…)

As per usual the graphics are nice and clear 2D sprites for the battles plus plenty of character portraits for the tonnes of cutscenes. I’m thrilled to report that all the menus and UI are completely redone as well thank goodness. I love these games but three lengthy RPGs worth of pretty much the same menu layout was a bit much…

Sound is the same as usual, some original songs plus an instrumental version of each series’ main theme (or one of their openings) playing each time they attack, with voice work appearing for attacks and defence but not during cutscenes. Much like the graphics I’m happy to say the usual background songs have been replaced by remixes of “classic” SRW themes as well as new music, but given I’ve only played three other games it was all new to me!

Story:

How am I going through this insanity on this blog AGAIN?!

The story follows similar lines to the previous games in that a new ship is created, in this case the Dreisstrager, and a whole bunch of pilots end up on board to take on a major threat to Earth. The pilots include your chosen protagonist (either female Az Sainklaus or male Edge Sainklaus. I went with Az because I went with a male last time, may as well alternate!) as well as pilots from all the series represented, some of whom (or a lot of whom if you have DLC…) are displaced from other universes via “Dimensional Boundary Distortion”, or DBDs for short. The Dreisstrager crew is original sent out to end all war but they soon end up clashing with a group of AI craft called Quaestors. Meanwhile the core plotline of several featured series also play out, including more Dr. Hell and his minions from Mazinger Z, another look at Van’s endless thirst for revenge from GunXSword, the underdog story of Majestic Prince (which I did not like, man that a bunch of unfunny generic character types!), the weird police story full of robo-ninjas and AI from Brave Police J-Decker, a re-run of Magic Knight Rayearth that’s barely different from the last game, the Star Wars-esque story of Heavy Metal L-Gaim, the fun kaiju-smashing story of SSSS.Gridman, the so bad its often funny story of Victory Gundam (but without any killing, which made a hell of a difference to THAT narrative!) and somehow an even more over-the-top insane story from the realms of GaoGaiGar, plus more I’m sure I’m forgetting.

Story Spoilers Below!

Turns out the Dreisstrager was build using the technology of an ancient lost civilization known as Aos and the last surviving member of that race, Orchidacea, revives within the ship and wishes to enslave humanity and get revenge on the race that wiped them out: the Quaestors, who soon reveal themselves to be led by a shadowy cabal of living people. As the three-way fighting picks up we find out that the Quaestors are led by a man named… Quaestor, who is the last of his kind because when they wiped out Aos, who had been going round the universe wiping out any species that didn’t fit their perfect universe, he decided to follow their example and keep the universe in check so another Aos doesn’t rise in their place and ironically became the very thing he wished to stop, wiping out his own people and cloning himself in order to take over the universe. As the story reaches its climax Orchidacea is humbled and sinks back into the Dreisstrager and the humans manage to wipe out the Quaestors.

There’s nothing spoilery in this photo, I just thought the text needed breaking up at this point. Still, you know what they say: Gemu giru gan go gufo!

But wait! There’s a lengthy epilogue where a new enemy known as the Etrangers appear and seem to be the ones behind all the DBDs, so defeating them should mean a way home for the displaced members of the group. At the centre of it all though ends up being Cyclaminos, another member of Aos who managed to survive the purge and who fell in love with a human and burned an entire country to ash when he died before hibernating until the Quaestors were wiped out. In the final showdown with her Orchidacea leaves the Dreisstrager and sacrifices herself to takedown Cyclaminos, thus putting a very final end to Aos as a race. Cyclaminos was voiced by Masako “Son Goku” Nozawa, which was fun! After her defeat all the displaced go back to their own universes and peace comes to Earth at last.

Story Spoilers End!

It’s a fun story, at least in terms of the female protagonist playthough there’s a real sense of a mother-daughter relationship between the Dreisstrager captain Mitsuba and Az, plus the latter’s background turns out to involve being something of an experiment by Earth military leader Commodore Fikes, who actually turned out to not be a straight up villain as a subversion of how these things normally go. Really enjoyed some of the cross-over dialogue and the weirder new-to-me stories from the featured series as well. For the record the DLC series have some hints of their story but are mostly just a “we want to get back to our universe so we’ll tag along until then” plot.

Downloadable Content:

…. …. Nope.

As mentioned many times now, there was indeed DLC! Pack 1 had Voltes V, Beltorchika’s Children and Sakura Wars, DLC2 had Iron-Blooded Orphans and ULTRAMAN, and DLC3 had the Majestic Prince movie, the Shinkalion movie, Devolution (which for the record is only a manga at the moment, so that was fun), VOTOMS and Dancouga, with all three packs coming with several OG characters and suits from past games. There’s also a stand-alone mission pack as well.

Thoughts Now:

Well based on my time playing this game I assume what you do next is slam your giant mace down on multiple enemies, Mika…

I really enjoyed my time with Super Robot Wars 30, in fact there were times when I was loving the freedom to pick and choose missions and switching up the massive cast, but as mentioned it’s LONG, especially with all four DLC packs ready to go from the start, so I did have to take a break from it. Still, the fact after those few months I was happy to go back to it and really enjoyed the last stretch must mean something! Recommended, so long as you’re willing to invest the time.