A Review in with Weirdly Arbitrary Levels of Detail

HAY EVERYONE IT'S PROGRESS UPDATE TIME!

So. We're into what I think is either the second or third "main chapter" of the game. More shit is coming in to harass us. The story so far:

The year is NSE 100. The last 10 years feature a shit ton of supermassive wars. The One Year War, followed by the Hell Uprising, the Mycenae War, the Lunar Conflict against the Invaders, the Primeval War against the 31 Machine Primevals, the Gryps Conflict, the First Neo Zeon War, the Second Neo Zeon War and the assassination of Emperor Lelouch. That's 9 wars big enough to have their own anime in the last 10 years.

Earth Federal Forces have commissioned a big fuckin boat and decided a team of highly trained children are going to operate as an independent force and save everyone. That's our protag force, the Dreikruz. What are we up against? Well, we've got the invasion of the Wulgaru, the Third Neo Zeon War, the war against the Zanscare Empire, and as yet unnamed invasions from both a parallel world featuring two different magical anime, and aliens from the Pentagona star system. How is Earth going to stand up to all these invading armies? GONNA BEAT THE FUCKIN SHIT OUT OF THEM LET'S GOOOOOO!

Time to unveil our new units!

CARRYOVER UNIT: Gundam -> Mass Produced Nu Gundam

OH SHIT WE GOT A NU GUNDAM.... sort of. Okay, it's got Fin Funnels, or an incom system for "people not named Amuro Ray" to use. Power is lacking, Fin Funnels are using ammo instead of energy (BOOO), and we've got no power attack, no ballistics, and our beam saber range is fuckall. But we got Fin Funnels sooooooooo

Tier: B

(Note: Uso Ewin was transferred from the V Dash Gundam to the Gundam by virtue of the Gundam being just better)

NEW UNIT: Combattler V

From the ancient past of Super Robot Wars, a unit I've not had access to since the days of Super Robot Wars 3, 4 and Alpha. The 90's games that made me fall in love with the series in the first place. Unfortunately, this thing sucks and I hate it. It's got like 10 different attacks that have weird ranges and escalating energy costs, so controlling outbound damage is pretty on point, but I dunno, I hate this thing. Electromagnetic Yo-Yo's are not a real giant robot weapon.

Tier: B but it can go fuck itself

UNIT UPGRADE: Gundam Mk II -> Full Armor Gundam Mk II

It's got more horsepower, this is true, but given the lack of difficulty I'm not really threatened enough by crack backs that I want to invest in agile units. Maybe when I get the Zeta Gundam I'll use Kamille, but this just isn't cutting it for me right now. At least it's better at charging in than the stock Gundam Mk II but the power just isn't there.

Tier: B/C

NEW UNIT: L-Gaim

It's not a fantastically unique real robot. It's best described as "fine". Damage? 'sfine. Range? 'sfine. Survavability? 'sfine. But I'm gonna make this damn thing work. Why? Because the combat theme is the MOST 80's thing that exists. The combat animations? Similarly the most 80's thing that exists. I'm here for this and we're gonna ride this thing to glorious, massively haired victory.

Tier: B BUT WE'RE GONNA MAKE IT WORK ANYWAY

NEW UNIT: J-Decker

From the people that brought you TRAAINZZ, we now present: CAARRSZZZZ. While I do kinda love the aesthetic of like, a giant robot with the AI not that far removed from Murphy in Robocop 2 after they fucked him up, the child is too annoying, and the power just isn't there, and the theme is kinda eeeehhhhh. Plus this thing has like no armor, which is surprising for how chonk it is. Also, it has a critical flaw...

Tier: C

NEW UNIT: Super Build Tiger

Literally the only point of this shitbrick is to enable J-Decker's combo attack of unimpressive destructive power. It sucks at everything else it tries to do and it's a homunculus of bad clones of the GaoGaiGar braves. Fuck this thing.

Tier: F

NEW UNIT: Shadow-Maru

It's like Volfogg from GaoGaiGar, only dumb and shitty and also a car.

Tier: F

NEW UNIT: Guren Type Special

Code Geass is no stranger to the Super Robot Wars franchise. Throughout the Z2 and Z3 era, so many stages were cleared by having the Guren Mk II running around as a rampaging berserker, spamming Radiation Wave at anything that game in army grabby range. Well now we've got the Guren Type Special from the Code Geass sequel, and it's everything I ever wanted. It's not going to win any long term drag races, but it starts with Drive (+30 to Morale) skill so it can really hit the gas out of the gate and fuck some shit up. Also comes with a damage shield this time around!

Tier: A

NEW UNIT: Mazinger Z

uuuuugggggggghhhhhhhh. From Mazinger Infinity so it isn't even one of the GOOD ones. Super Robot with not much super robot power or super robot endurance. Has Double Breast Fire out of the gate but that means I'd have to deploy Great Mazinger and fuck that noise. Nah.

Tier: C

NEW UNIT: Flame God Rayearth

I first saw the Magic Knight Rayearth girls in Super Robot Wars T. They were not very impressive then, and have become even less impressive now. The Red one is the all rounder but even the allrounder seems to just be lacking in all areas. Not a good sign.

Tier: C

NEW UNIT: Sea God Selece

All the problems of Blue 1 without a damage shield to keep it from getting instagibbed on counterattacks. Big ol pile of YIKES.

Tier: F

NEW UNIT: Sky God Windam

So this time around Windam has the ability to cast magic spells in the field. I was kinda excited about this at first until I saw the offerings. AOE +Armor sounds nice but armor seems to be kinda eeeehhhh this time around as a stat in general, possibly a side effect of the difficulty. The other spells are a bad AOE heal that doesn't target the caster, and I think a +mobility one? The range is also super small. And this thing is completely helpless in combat.

Tier: F

NEW UNIT: Gridman

Hooooooly shit. This thing was already STRONK out of the gate. A couple upgrade side missions later and this thing is as powerful as the SRX of all things. Possibly more. And it really looks like there's going to be even more room to grow. The only issue is that a lack of a damage shield like the SRX's TK Field makes this thing a bit vulnerable to death by 1000 cuts, but we'll take that risk for the massive amounts of damage this thing can dish out.

Tier: S

NEW UNIT: RyuKoOh / KoRyuOh

The protag unit of Super Robot Wars Alpha is here! Unfortunately, the fiddlyness of it does not really translate into utility. It's a 12 piece screwdriver in a setting where hammers rule all. And aside from the mission where I had to attempt to take down the RyuOh portion with Arrow of Destiny blasting for multiple rounds, I don't have the fondest memories of this thing. It's kind of an oof.

Tier: C/F

NEW UNIT: Gespenst

The protag unit of Super Robot Wars 4 is here! Unfortunately, it's basically a downgraded Huckebein 30, and without it being the actual protag unit, no way am I gonna dump resources into this thing to make it function. +30% dodge on enemy turns is okay, I guess, but not enough of a bonus to really give a shit. Also dies in like 2 hits so his turns are basically run it into places, and then just sit there yelling "DEBATE ME". I don't have room in the active roster for this.

Tier: F

Updated Active Unit List

1. SRX
2. Gridman
3. Huckebein 30
4. MP Nu Gundam
5. Guren Type Special
6. Red 5
7. Shin Getter Dragon
8. Gold 4
9. L-Gaim
10. Dann of Thursday
11. Gundam
12. Rose 3

In the case of only 10 units deployed instead of 12, dump Gundam and Dann of Thursday from the list, because Rose 3 is still my "generate shit by just doing wind sprints" unit.