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[Shouta]

Ok. Well I too would like to see pics (at least) of his run, at least up to the point I'm at. And turn counts.. and whether he save/load spammed, etc.

So what do you think of his statement that Hakai-hen was more difficult to no upgrade/no pp/no parts run than Saisei-hen?

I don't know. I haven't done one for either because I don't find them particularly fun.

As I said in my other post though, the game does give you more units with a few upgrades than in previous games, I think. However, the number of enemy units and how strong they get towards the end of the game goes up as well, definitely more so than Hakai-hen. So I don't really think it'd be as easy to do a no upgrades/parts/PP spent run.

You do get access to a few things that you didn't in the previous game, namely the numerous amount of map attacks to help clear/soften enemies up but I don't know how much that'd change things.

 

[HaRyu]

As I said in my other post though, the game does give you more units with a few upgrades than in previous games, I think. However, the number of enemy units and how strong they get towards the end of the game goes up as well, definitely more so than Hakai-hen. So I don't really think it'd be as easy to do a no upgrades/parts/PP spent run.

I agree. Considering how a lot of the last dozen or so stages have Skill Points that pretty much have to be done by about Turn 3, and the amount of enemy units on the map, one shot kills are needed (weapon upgrades), as well as the Continuous Action(spending PP), otherwise, you're never really gonna make it. Or at least make it, and wanting to get those Skill Points. If you could care less about Skill Points, and would rather have a abnormally high turn count and death rate, sure, I can see one doing it.

 

[Bebpo]

At map32 full scenario run after about 60 hours/2 weeks. Game is greaaaat. Really excited to see where it goes.

Re: map31/OG mech:

Spoiler

I did map 31 twice to get both Blasta upgrades and while I think they are good designs and have cool sprites...really disappointed by the animations. Why do they all look so stiff and flash-like? The game has lots and lots of great animations, I don't get why the OG mech would get such weak animations. I think Ester's unit actually had better animation than most of Blasta's animations.

 

[Bebpo]

Man, real robot route 2nd half = MAP WEAPON CITY.

Huge range map weapons on lots of units + Move Again = positioning crazy broken + Basara for ki increases if needed. I'm just tearing through the grunt enemies like its nothing. Never seen a SRW suddenly become so map weapon amazing before. Good stuff.

 

[HaRyu]

Man, real robot route 2nd half = MAP WEAPON CITY.

Huge range map weapons on lots of units + Move Again = positioning crazy broken + Basara for ki increases if needed. I'm just tearing through the grunt enemies like its nothing. Never seen a SRW suddenly become so map weapon amazing before. Good stuff.

Yeah, once Heero gets the Wing Zero, his revolving buster rifle map weapon is rated as being usable after moving. If you max out his weapons and give him move again, and use his x2.5 damage seishin, he can tear through groups of enemies pretty damn quick. In fact, he's probably the main reason why I'm able to finish the last couple of stages so easily. ^O^

 

[Shouta]

Yeah, the game is designed either for you to use map weapons like crazy or fight it out against the grunts one by one with all your units. MAP weapons are faster but less interesting. On my second run, I'm only deploying Gundams aside from required units, originals, and occasional favorites though Gundams get priority if I don't have space.

Sandrock Kai and Arios are surprisingly boss in this. Sandrock's offense is relatively poor but it's basically a Gundam version of Mazinger with some support Seishin and the ability to Resupply after FUB bonus. Arios' movement and evasion are monsterous.

 

[Pureauthor]

Whoever did the Black Getter's animations must really, really love the unit.

It's like watching poetry in motion.

 

[Bebpo]

At stage 38 now. The scope of the story is so huge with so many plotlines and characters going on +

Spoiler

they haven't even started GL space arc

. I have no idea how all this is going to get resolved by the end of the game but I double checked the back of the package and it does say "THE CONCLUSION ENTRY FOR Z2", so somehow they will do it and it will be glorious. Really liking the game so far. Probably one of my favorite SRWs.

 

[fionel]

At stage 38 now. The scope of the story is so huge with so many plotlines and characters going on +

Spoiler

they haven't even started GL space arc

. I have no idea how all this is going to get resolved by the end of the game but I double checked the back of the package and it does say "THE CONCLUSION ENTRY FOR Z2", so somehow they will do it and it will be glorious. Really liking the game so far. Probably one of my favorite SRWs.

Hmm... I'm not sure if I would be spoiling this for you so read the following at your own discretion. From what I read on Mk2 reviews,

Spoiler

There are quite a bit of unresolved plotlines at the end of the game and it becomes quite obvious that there will be a Z3.

Hope you're not setting yourself up for disappointments.

I've played way too many SRWs in the past and now I just don't really care about their storylines anymore so I would play the ones with a decent a challenge and pretty animations So to me the above isn't a big deal but there you go.

 

[Lucis]

finished the first run with IF route... didn't like how they edited geass's story, it made it feel more incomplete. and most of the 黒騎士団 story are with super robots... this time

BUT HEY, they

Spoiler

EVEN BROUGHT EUPHIE BACK TO LIFE

going to do the second play through taking all the gundam related choices.

they have to make a z3.

at the end basically there are still 5 spheres un-revealed (actually z1+z2.1+z2.2 only really touches on 6 spheres. and the extra one they threw in here is kinda a wtf. there are some rumor on 2ch on who the 7th sphere is.) However at the end of this story they are really setting it up for another game, basically nothing is resolved...

 

[Bebpo]

Hmm... I'm not sure if I would be spoiling this for you so read the following at your own discretion. From what I read on Mk2 reviews,

Spoiler

There are quite a bit of unresolved plotlines at the end of the game and it becomes quite obvious that there will be a Z3.

Hope you're not setting yourself up for disappointments.

I've played way too many SRWs in the past and now I just don't really care about their storylines anymore so I would play the ones with a decent a challenge and pretty animations So to me the above isn't a big deal but there you go.

I didn't read the spoiler because I'm trying to stay unspoiled (haven't had anything spoiled so far in the game besides the total map count). But as much as I love this game after spending ~70 hours straight every day for the last 2 1/2 weeks, I will definitely be disappointed and bitching a bit at the end if they don't at least finish the Z2 OG story (aka, the dimensional beasts and wrap up every new OG character introduced in Z2) and finish every new entry series that Z2 brought. That's pretty much what is standard for a SRW title. The overarching "Z" plot about the spheres, stigmas and stuff doesn't need to finish because it's part of the overarching Z story that will eventually conclude in a Z3 or Z4. But if they can't finish the Z2-specific OG plot or the Z2-specific anime series despite having TWO full $70 SRW games that are probably like 230 hours total and something like 200+ maps...there's something wrong with their structure.

Z3 should continue the OG plot of Z and maybe finish it as well as introducing 7-10 new anime series and telling their stories. That's not going to work if it still has a bunch of left over stuff because they couldn't finish telling it in Z2. Alpha 2 didn't finish Gaogaigar but that's because GGG was still running when they wrote the script, so they had to just do the material they had and then do the rest in Alpha 3. But usually they finish the series they start in an entry. Z2-1 didn't finish all that much but that was because they split it into Z2-1 and Z2-2. So Z2-2 better finish it!

Anyhow, this is all hypothetical because I still have like 22 maps left + branches and that's a lot of room to cover what's left.

 

[Bebpo]

Also, I'd rather them make a Z2-3 if there's still things to wrap up and have that come out in a year, than wait the usual 3 years for a Z3 to wrap those things up. But since the package does state it's the conclusion of Z2 on the back, I don't think they can do that. It's either wrap everything up or wait 3 years and tack it on to Z3. 2015 is faaaar. I hope they have some other team doing licensed SRW games on 3DS or something between now and then. Z2 reminds me how much I prefer licensed SRW to OG.

 

[Lucis]

it's probably a conclusion for this world and zexis
but it doesn't stop them bring back zeuth and zexis into the next z (which I think might happen)

they concluded 00 (no 00 movie)
for mf they concluded they even have a dialog at the end that match sayonara no tsubasa
it's pretty much the end for code geass too, at least lelouch's chapter.

i'd rather them wait for 3 years for the next z, add in some new shows that's coming out in the next 3 years, hopefully a decent gundam (NOT AGE), another geass (they changed the current one to movie i think?), Z's got potential. The end of story is pretty much just a sign for a new chapter to come.

Spoiler

oh, you defeated me, but I am not your real enemy, I was actually suppose to be your ally to protect mankind (well living things). The real enemy will come. Protect, like you have always done

 

[Kokonoe]

I've never played one of these games, but I plan to get this one. Does this one have Virtual-On characters?

 

[Pureauthor]

I've never played one of these games, but I plan to get this one. Does this one have Virtual-On characters?

Nope. Virtual On was in @3 and K.

 

[Shouta]

Also, I'd rather them make a Z2-3 if there's still things to wrap up and have that come out in a year, than wait the usual 3 years for a Z3 to wrap those things up. But since the package does state it's the conclusion of Z2 on the back, I don't think they can do that. It's either wrap everything up or wait 3 years and tack it on to Z3. 2015 is faaaar. I hope they have some other team doing licensed SRW games on 3DS or something between now and then. Z2 reminds me how much I prefer licensed SRW to OG.

They won't do a Z2-3 because they've properly wrapped up all the things they needed for this chapter of the story. There are certain things that are unfinished but on it's done on purpose because it wouldn't fit within the scope of all the stories present in Saisei-hen. In a way, the game is very much mirroring Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 in story planning and scope.

In that area, Z2 does something similar to what happened with GGG in the Alpha series. Alpha 2 only did half-ish, maybe a bit more (as I recall), of the GGG storyline despite the TV series having aired several years prior and the OVA finishing with the release of the game. The reason for this is because the last half of the GGG storyline and the Final OVA fit much better within the context of Alpha 3's overall scope and storyline. The same happens with Z2 and at least one series for sure. It doesn't fit within the scope of Z2's storyline, even with 2 games so they're saving it for the eventual 3rd game in the series where it'll fit much better.

For reference, Z and Alpha are doing very similar themes for their games. Z and Alpha 1 are stories that are very grounded on Earth and it's orbit. Z2 and Alpha 2 do the same thing, further develop the story on Earth and orbit but also expand more into the other planets of the solar system. Because of this, it's likely that Z3 will be similar to Alpha 3 where the scope will start on Earth and then go galactic, or dimensional I guess, by the end of the game. It'll be a much more fitting end to the series and I can only imagine the awesome that'll come because of it.

 

[Bebpo]

They won't do a Z2-3 because they've properly wrapped up all the things they needed for this chapter of the story. There are certain things that are unfinished but on it's done on purpose because it wouldn't fit within the scope of all the stories present in Saisei-hen. In a way, the game is very much mirroring Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 in story planning and scope.

In that area, Z2 does something similar to what happened with GGG in the Alpha series. Alpha 2 only did half-ish, maybe a bit more (as I recall), of the GGG storyline despite the TV series having aired several years prior and the OVA finishing with the release of the game. The reason for this is because the last half of the GGG storyline and the Final OVA fit much better within the context of Alpha 3's overall scope and storyline. The same happens with Z2 and at least one series for sure. It doesn't fit within the scope of Z2's storyline, even with 2 games so they're saving it for the eventual 3rd game in the series where it'll fit much better.

For reference, Z and Alpha are doing very similar themes for their games. Z and Alpha 1 are stories that are very grounded on Earth and it's orbit. Z2 and Alpha 2 do the same thing, further develop the story on Earth and orbit but also expand more into the other planets of the solar system. Because of this, it's likely that Z3 will be similar to Alpha 3 where the scope will start on Earth and then go galactic, or dimensional I guess, by the end of the game. It'll be a much more fitting end to the series and I can only imagine the awesome that'll come because of it.

Gotcha. Well at least I know

Spoiler

I'm not getting my GL upgrades

so I can enjoy the story of the game without continually waiting for something that's not going to happen. While I've really enjoyed maps 1-38, every map I'd keep thinking

Spoiler

"c'mon, c'mon, start GL part 2 already. There's a lot of forms to cover and we need to get going on this!"

. At least they finally

Spoiler

Started the anti-spiral story at map 38, though I don't know why they are even bothering if they're not going to do much with it in this game. Might've been better to just not include GL in Z2-2 and do this arc in Z3.

I just hope this doesn't mean that after a 3 year wait we're not going to have that many new series entries in Z3 because they still need to do

Spoiler

GL S2, Gundam OO movie, CCA, and maybe Endless Waltz

. It's one thing to wait a year and not get many new entry series, but after a 3 year wait I expect at least as many new entry series as Z2-1 (so around 8+). There's a lot of new mecha series that haven't been in SRW and a lot of the series that premiered in the DS games need a proper animation/voiced entry. Especially if we're going to have to wait until 2018 for the next one after that, as the other team seems like it'll be sticking to OG games for the next decade and the portable teams will do the lesser quality ones.

Also decided to read the whole thread at this point, and saw the thing about obscure requirements for final branch. Guess I will be playing the game again even after I finish this full scenario-except-the-final-branch run. Not really a fan of hidden requirement final routes. I'm ok with hidden requirement final ending maps, but missing 10 maps is kind of ridiculous. I hope it's not like a normal SRW final route split where half of the series endings occur in the other route, so you miss certain series endings if you don't hit the requirement.

On the positive side, the writing has been really good in Z2-2. Lots of great interactions between the series, lots of great maps and moments. Some of the new music is excellent like the new OG themes, Geass R2 OP1, M7 DE. Sprites are all pretty good with some great ones. A lot of the side characters in OO S2 actually got good sprites this time around with Aerios and Seravee. OO Raiser and OO Gundam have a lot of animations combined, though I still prefer most of Exia's. Cherubim animations all kind of suck. Mac 7 Dynamite animations are nice. Good voice work, especially Simon. The new cutins for the Z1 guys are great, like all of Turn-A's. Maps are pretty fast, usually only 2 waves max. Some good quips back and forth between enemy bosses.

I think the biggest praise I can say about the game is the game length and structure (first half introduce series each map, 2nd half introduce upgrades each map) makes it feel like a real full length SRW like Z1, as opposed to Z2-1 which felt like half a SRW.

I think the biggest complaint I can say about the game is that 75% of everything is recycled from Z2-1 or Z1, both animations and music. I mean

Spoiler

even the Arcsaber crew are 2 pallete swaps and then 2 dudes sharing 1 mech. Laaaazy

So it doesn't quite have that wow factor of a full length SRW like Z1 or Alpha 2/3 because so much of the sprites and music is stuff you've already seen/heard. I think Pureauthor or Mandoric said in the media-crate that it's akin to an "expansion pack" and I think that totally nails the feel of the game. Very enjoyable and loooong expansion pack to a great SRW.

tbh, if Z2-2 actually wrapped up all the plot lines it's started so far, it'd probably be my GoTY so far in 2012. I reaaaaaaally enjoy it. But I have a feeling it's going to less than satisfying in the end, like how Z2-1 was less than satisfying in the end. So it'll probably just be a great game and great srw, but not up there with the best entries. Plus OO S2 storyline is terrible and bland and makes up a huge chunk of the game with all the A-Laws and Innovator crap.

 

[Shouta]

Gotcha. Well at least I know

Spoiler

I'm not getting my GL upgrades

so I can enjoy the story of the game without continually waiting for something that's not going to happen. While I've really enjoyed maps 1-38, every map I'd keep thinking

Spoiler

"c'mon, c'mon, start GL part 2 already. There's a lot of forms to cover and we need to get going on this!"

. At least they finally

Spoiler

Started the anti-spiral story at map 38, though I don't know why they are even bothering if they're not going to do much with it in this game. Might've been better to just not include GL in Z2-2 and do this arc in Z3.

I think the reason why they're doing it up to the point that they did (I imagine you know where they're going to cutoff) is because it does two things, 1. Lets the player characters know of the coming conflict with an enemy that's incredible in scale, and 2. It marks the last part of the conflict centered around the planet. Many of the series already have around Earth sphere plots and that's where they wanted to end.

Thanks to this though, it's likely that they'll properly cover it later on and maybe we'll get it as a unit, heh. I can only hope they come up with a nice mix of series for Z3 and the eventual outer space hijinx.

 

[Bebpo]

Well, I also think it might be that

Spoiler

they just didn't know how to do the final form GL stuff in SRW. So they pushed it off a few years to give them breathing room to figure it out. Gamers can't even figure it out. It's just such an immense scale that's never been done before in a SRW. GGG Final has nothing on the size of the latter GL forms.

I mean how do you go from even Gattai-ing with the moon to then bringing your giant ship to fight on earth in later battles? They pretty much have to do the final forms directly one after another in a series of GL themed SRW in last maps in space of a game and then have an ending. Once you go REALLY BIG GL it's just impossible to come back to finish earth based battles. And you know, that no matter what series are in Z3, there will be some with conflicts on earth and you will be fighting on earth for some of the final stages of the game.

I think they didn't know how to handle it, lol

Also I was thinking about Z3 and Gundam OO movie. Because Setsuna and the QUAN[T] don't even show up until the ENDING SCENE of the movie, I think they're going to have to do the entire movie plot in the first half of the game so you get Setsuna + QUAN[T] to actually use a unit in the game. Or I guess they could not start the 00 movie plot until halfway and have Setsuna sticking around with the OO Raiser, but if you didn't get QUAN[T] to use in the game until the last maps, that would be super lame. So yeah, I think they'll do the story entirely in the first half so you at least get QUAN[T] for half a game.

Also I have this feeling that none of the DS new entry shows are going to be in the Z series. When the spots are limited they'd rather use those spots for actual NEW ENTRY shows. Now I'm kind of hoping for an MX style offshoot game with decent production budget & voices by the portable team for 3DS featuring some of those series like Godaner/GunxSword/new Jeeg.

 

[mjemirzian]

I agree. Considering how a lot of the last dozen or so stages have Skill Points that pretty much have to be done by about Turn 3, and the amount of enemy units on the map, one shot kills are needed (weapon upgrades), as well as the Continuous Action(spending PP), otherwise, you're never really gonna make it. Or at least make it, and wanting to get those Skill Points. If you could care less about Skill Points, and would rather have a abnormally high turn count and death rate, sure, I can see one doing it.

I think you might be exaggerating that a no upgrade/pp/parts run would have an abnormally high turn count and death rate and miss most/all skill points later in the game. I'm up to sc 28 on a no upgrade/pp and low turn count run and I haven't run into anything particularly difficult yet.. no allied units destroyed either.

I've been playing all routes and I've noticed that the real routes are both more difficult and give worse part rewards.

I am using parts, but I don't think they have a huge impact on the difficulty level overall. That might change later in the game with the more powerful parts like platinum emblem and that item that gives a free use of Love seishin once per scenario.

 

[Bebpo]

And I gotta say that the pacing in Z2-2 is WEIRD as to the shows included. The actual eps are paced great, and the OG story is paced fine. But like series will appear and be a focus and then never be seen again for 20 hours.

Spoiler

Like early on there's a bunch of Geass and then it drops off the map as the story becomes almost ENTIRELY Wing/OO for the 20s and early 30s. Macross F is the same way. MF is always happening in Z2-1 and the start of Z2-2 always has MF stuff going on and then they drop off the map entirely for the 20s/30s. Mazinger in Z2-1 was story heavy at the start and then dropped off the map until it got to his scrambler jetpack and then he dropped off the map for the rest of the game. In Z2-2 we got some good Mazinger at the early maps and then it's dropped off the face of the planet again for the 20s/30s. Same with Votoms which had the early rebellion stuff and then nothing.

I guess a better way to put it is that the first 18 maps covered all the series pretty evenly outside Gurren Lagann, then it went OG a bit and then the entire game became Wing/OO story while everything else is largely ignored for a huge amount of the story and time.

I'm guessing for the last 20 maps or so where I am now, it'll revert back to covering everything again to start moving them all to a conclusion. But it's still bizarre pacing where everything just fell to the wayside and it was just non-stop OO/Wing for a 1/3rd of the game.

 

[Shouta]

I think you might be exaggerating that a no upgrade/pp/parts run would have an abnormally high turn count and death rate and miss most/all skill points later in the game. I'm up to sc 28 on a no upgrade/pp and low turn count run and I haven't run into anything particularly difficult yet.. no allied units destroyed either.

I've been playing all routes and I've noticed that the real routes are both more difficult and give worse part rewards.

I am using parts, but I don't think they have a huge impact on the difficulty level overall. That might change later in the game with the more powerful parts like platinum emblem and that item that gives a free use of Love seishin once per scenario.

First half is pretty easy, aside from a few odd units like the Firebugs but they really bring it up towards the end of the game in terms of number of units and strength. It's not as brutal as it could be but it's certainly a more work than the first half. Some of the bonuses given to the bosses are pretty interesting and can surprise you if you aren't paying attention.

 

[Lostconfused]

Same with Votoms which had the early rebellion stuff and then nothing.

At least for Votoms this is perfectly fine because most of the show is made up of self contained arcs. The arc gets it's own proper treatment and then Votoms takes a back seat story wise until the next arc comes along.

This only gets really weird with something like Wing where they cram several specific events from four or five different episodes into one map.

 

[HaRyu]

I think you might be exaggerating that a no upgrade/pp/parts run would have an abnormally high turn count and death rate and miss most/all skill points later in the game. I'm up to sc 28 on a no upgrade/pp and low turn count run and I haven't run into anything particularly difficult yet.. no allied units destroyed either.

I've been playing all routes and I've noticed that the real routes are both more difficult and give worse part rewards.

I am using parts, but I don't think they have a huge impact on the difficulty level overall. That might change later in the game with the more powerful parts like platinum emblem and that item that gives a free use of Love seishin once per scenario.

First half is pretty easy, aside from a few odd units like the Firebugs but they really bring it up towards the end of the game in terms of number of units and strength. It's not as brutal as it could be but it's certainly a more work than the first half. Some of the bonuses given to the bosses are pretty interesting and can surprise you if you aren't paying attention.

Stage 28? That's still first half, and I think most of us would agree the first half isn't that hard.

Now, LATER ON, you'll probably have a hard time. Do I know when the difficulty kicks up? I have no idea. I only realized the game was getting harder when Chirico was starting to get into situations where he started to encounter grunts who could one-hit kill him.

Its not really a matter of it being HAAAAAARD, but its more of a war of attrition later: high HP enemies (10k+), large waves of enemies, how most of the Skill Points require you to kill either a single wave of enemies (40-60 enemies), OR kill a boss unit (who usually has 50k to 100k HP, depending on if its a real or super unit), by Turn 3.

Hell, later on, its kill the entire wave THEN kill the boss by Turn 3, is the norm. There's one stage later where you have to kill 6 boss units in the SAME TURN, but thankfully, there's no time limit for that one.

I'm near the end (still!), and nearly every unit I have has Continuous Action, Ignore Size Penalty, Predict, and Will Limit Break (seriously, nearly all of them, even the dinky support units and motherships). Every unit is at least level 5 upgraded in all of their stats. The only units I have that are max weapons at this point are Amuro's Nu Gundam, Wing Zero, Chirico's units, Crowe's OG unit, Shin Mazinger, Shin Getter, Shin Getter Dragon, and Gurren Langann. Only Wing Zero and Crowe's mech have FUB. And those units I just named that have max weapons are the only ones I equip items on.

Even with all that crap, I'm STILL getting frustrated by these final stages. Not because its hard, but because they have high numbers, and they keep throwing waves at me, even though I should be used to the fact that in after playing over a dozen different SRW games, wave after wave should be a norm I should expect, BUT NEVER DO. My ONLY consolation is that at the very least, I have at least learned to not spend my SP like there was no tomorrow.

Yes, the above is pretty much a rant, because a few days ago, I thought I beat the last wave in the stage I was on, but LOL NO, they threw another wave at me. I put the PSP down at that point, because I needed to calm down, lest I throw my PSP against a wall.

Obviously, I haven't calmed down yet. ^O^ And I'm so close to the end (I'm on stage 58).

 

[Bebpo]

I'm guessing the game will be easy for me because I'm playing on normal, not going for skill points, and had a shit ton of carry over bonus from Z2-1 so I had maxed units pretty early on and most of my crew at this point have the ACE bonus.

I was telling Shouta before Z2-2 came out how I used to always play SRW games dead seriously, making sure to get every skill point and always stay on hard mode. This would lead to lots of quick resets and annoying moments that would take me out of the story as I tried different setups to get the exact hits I needed.

Then I had a revelation when replaying Z2-1 that...I don't really care about the gameplay in these games and really just play them as visual novels for the OG stories and to relive all my favorite anime that I haven't seen in years. So I decided to not even look at the skill points, not care about the challenge, and just kick ass with all my favorite robots while enjoying the story. Like I always have the protoganist from any particular series do the final hit on the antagonist from that series when they show up on maps. Not for any gameplay reason, but because it just feels right for Roger in the Big O to always be the one to strike down Beck, etc... I just play these games to have mecha anime fun. So yeah, I'm kind of done playing SRW series for challenge and I'm enjoying my challenge-free SRW

 

[HaRyu]

I'm guessing the game will be easy for me because I'm playing on normal, not going for skill points, and had a shit ton of carry over bonus from Z2-1 so I had maxed units pretty early on and most of my crew at this point have the ACE bonus.

I was telling Shouta before Z2-2 came out how I used to always play SRW games dead seriously, making sure to get every skill point and always stay on hard mode. This would lead to lots of quick resets and annoying moments that would take me out of the story as I tried different setups to get the exact hits I needed.

Then I had a revelation when replaying Z2-1 that...I don't really care about the gameplay in these games and really just play them as visual novels for the OG stories and to relive all my favorite anime that I haven't seen in years. So I decided to not even look at the skill points, not care about the challenge, and just kick ass with all my favorite robots while enjoying the story. Like I always have the protoganist from any particular series do the final hit on the antagonist from that series when they show up on maps. Not for any gameplay reason, but because it just feels right for Roger in the Big O to always be the one to strike down Beck, etc... I just play these games to have mecha anime fun. So yeah, I'm kind of done playing SRW series for challenge and I'm enjoying my challenge-free SRW

I was so set on getting a perfect Skill Point run, with no "deaths" of any allies. That was all fine up till about stage... 48 or 49. I think I mentioned it earlier, but I discovered that I somehow missed the Skill Point for stage 45. I didn't really want to go back and redo those 4 stages, mainly because I'm probably going to do a 2nd play through anyway. So I kept going...

Well, yeah... kinda went downhill from there. When I hit stage 50, discovered I didn't get the optimal route I was going for. Then I got into a situation on that stage where when an enemy wave came, I had 2 units far enough removed from my main group, that they had no defense support, and had low HP. They died, and there went my "no death" run... and at that point, I said "f*ck it", and for the last couple of stages, I've been playing just to finish. I'll try and get a perfect run the 2nd play through.

 

[Lucis]

The final 4 maps on the IF route is HARD, especially if you hit it the first play through.

With 55 SP, you get a part that gives you an extra move

That + "Move again' + "awakening" = 4 moves a round on a single unit. and if you stock up "restart" you can easily move a unit 6-7 times, give the unit some SP recovery support and you can turn your ACE into a beast ;o

There's no real reason to get no death run though other than feel good. My second run is going to focus on making everyone (if possible) an ACE pilot.

 

[HaRyu]

The final 4 maps on the IF route is HARD, especially if you hit it the first play through.

With 55 SP, you get a part that gives you an extra move

That + "Move again' + "awakening" = 4 moves a round on a single unit. and if you stock up "restart" you can easily move a unit 6-7 times, give the unit some SP recovery support and you can turn your ACE into a beast ;o

Luckily (or unluckily), didn't get that on the first playthrough.

There's no real reason to get no death run though other than feel good. My second run is going to focus on making everyone (if possible) an ACE pilot.

"No Death" is a personal goal I always use when I play any SRW game, and technically most tactics games (FF Tactics, Tactics Ogre, etc).

I restart and reload saves a LOT in tactics games.

 

[Bebpo]

YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Spoiler

After doing map 38 geass and seeing the obvious outcome of me not knowing there was a hidden route and not doing anything to try to get it until today....shirley died, and I was fucked; so I looked to see if I had any saves not toooo far back in the hopes that even if I missed some of the triggers, if I just PUMP THE BLACK KNIGHTS FULL OF KILLS maybe I'll get lucky and still get it.

I had a save at map 36. Before that my last save was 31 and I wasn't going to go that far back for something I still might not have gotten.

So I did map 36/37 deploying ONLY the Black Knights, no one else. And I let them get all the kills and in the process I got two of the Grunt dudes to ACE 70+, C.C. to 50+, and one of the other grunts to 40+ and Dogi to 40+ while Lelouche was always ~80 kills and Kallen around 130 kills.

So after those two maps, I do Geass map 38 AND SHIRLEY LIVES. FUCK YEAH ZOMGGGGGGGGGGGGG

I just saved myself having to replay a 20+ hour game by spending an hour redoing 2 maps and getting REALLY LUCKY.

So glad I'll be able to do a full scenario run this playthrough, because after like 100+ hours on this game I really really don't want to play it again anytime soon!

 

[hteng]

i did not find the stages hard, especially with carry overs, i can get all the SR points naturally while balancing all my crew's EXP, PP, Killcounts.

only one that even remotely gave me trouble was 35, which the stage sorta crippled you for the first few phases.

The hardest stage to SR for me was in Z2-1, gundam route, where you had like.. what? 8 bosses on the field with their goons + they spawn very far away + a fucking mad Ali bent on killing Setsuna + you have to clear it within the 6th phase (your phase!) + they all spawn like.. in 3rd phase or something, so technically you had only 3 phase to clear them out.

 

[Lostconfused]

Even with all that crap, I'm STILL getting frustrated by these final stages. Not because its hard, but because they have high numbers, and they keep throwing waves at me, even though I should be used to the fact that in after playing over a dozen different SRW games, wave after wave should be a norm I should expect, BUT NEVER DO. My ONLY consolation is that at the very least, I have at least learned to not spend my SP like there was no tomorrow.

More waves than in Z2-1? Because that game didn't have all that many waves at all, very few really. At least when you compare it to something like J where the final stage had an infinite number of enemy waves. A new one would always show up when you destroyed a certain number of grunt units. Oh and the final boss gained full health and powered up at least twice on that map.

 

[Pureauthor]

More waves than in Z2-1? Because that game didn't have all that many waves at all, very few really. At least when you compare it to something like J where the final stage had an infinite number of enemy waves. A new one would always show up when you destroyed a certain number of grunt units.

By stage 29 you're facing enemy numbers comparable to the final stages of Hakai-hen.

So yeah, more.

 

[HaRyu]

More waves than in Z2-1? Because that game didn't have all that many waves at all, very few really. At least when you compare it to something like J where the final stage had an infinite number of enemy waves. A new one would always show up when you destroyed a certain number of grunt units.

No no, not more waves than other games, to be honest, I think most stages don't exceed 3 or 4 waves in this game.

Its the mere fact that even though I've played tons of SRW games, I get a case of the stupids, and I end up not expecting a next wave, even though I should expect them, after all these years.

So I end up in situations where my main force of units were all moved up on the map, taking care of a current wave, but stupid me, I leave the support units back near the starting position (or just separate from the main force, because, LOL THEY'LL BE SAFE THERE). Then the next enemy wave kicks in, and now there's a group of enemy units between my main force and support units, and now I have to scramble back to the support units to keep them alive.

I'm just mad and frustrated at myself, not the game. I'm not calling this game hard, far from it, I think its about average difficulty compared to most other SRW games. I'm just pissed at myself at doing stupid shit in this game, I'm just not playing smart for this latest SRW installment. for some damn reason.

Other stupid things I've been doing in this game that I've never done before in previous SRW games:

-quicksaving after moving ALL my units. Normally, I'd just leave a few units free, quicksave, then finish moving them, then end turn. Those units in question usually have heal seishins/spirit commands, or some kind of debuff they can use on an enemy unit.
-not bothering to check the terrain rating for attacks. I mentioned this earlier, but the thing about me not noticing Chirico's strongest attacks, for some of his mechs, are crap in space, made me spend a few moment smashing my head against my desk.​

I'm sure there's other little stupid things I'm doing, all together, its just ticking me off so much. The only smart thing I'm doing is not wasting SP in the first three turns.

 

[Lucis]

By stage 29 you're facing enemy numbers comparable to the final stages of Hakai-hen.

So yeah, more.

There are 2 stages like that in Z2.2 with infinite spawn also. at least 2. One of them the SP is to destroy 100 units before 5 turns over, the other one they will just keep coming.

 

[Bebpo]

Man, Geass upgrades are so weirdly illogical. GUREN NOW WITH WINGS! Wait, wasn't that the first upgrade to make it fly? Wait, wasn't that the second upgrade to make it fly with magical green barrier wings? Now it can fly with magical red barrier wings!

But hey, new animations so I'm not complaining.


I do wish the game let you keep old suits when units upgraded like some SRW games do. I miss seeing some of the old animations!

 

[Lostconfused]

They had to add a face to it. That's why the second upgrade in R2 happened.

 

[Bebpo]

I barely remember Geass R2's plot at all. When the halfway stuff happened ~map 40, I thought it was the finale for the series, lol. I think I tried to block that show from my memory after watching it. Same thing with OO S2's plot.

 

[Bebpo]

BIG BANG PUNCH

wow

Having never actually finished watching the Mazinger reboot this is all totally new and awesome to me.

 

[Pureauthor]

BIG BANG PUNCH

wow

Having never actually finished watching the Mazinger reboot this is all totally new and awesome to me.

You're gonna love the Mazinger finale.

 

[Jubern]

BIG BANG PUNCH

wow

Having never actually finished watching the Mazinger reboot this is all totally new and awesome to me.

You don't know what you're missing. There were some pretty boring parts in the start, but the last ten-or-so episode are definitely top-tier, and the finale is mind-blowing. Especially if you don't know what's coming, so I'd suggest you watch it before being spoiled by Z2.2.

 

[Lostconfused]

Having never actually finished watching the Mazinger reboot this is all totally new and awesome to me.

Ahhh the very first episode started with the Big Bang Punch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy6eBBaG82A

Spoiler

man that video quality is horrible

 

[Bebpo]

Well, to be fair, while the first ep was awesome, it made zero sense in the context of the show early on!

I think I got about 8-10 eps in. Was just very, very slow. Went in hoping for Giant Robo Mazinger, but the pacing was no Giant Robo :X Will get through it eventually. I still have like 30-40 classic non-gundam mecha shows to watch over my lifetime.

That's why I like SRW. It lets me "watch" lots of great classic mecha shows I'll never have the time to actually watch in anime form.

Anyhow, Boss Borot always has some of the best animations in SRW games.

 

[Bebpo]

Just merged back together at stage 44. Man, the stages starting in the 40s are getting LONG. Like were talking Alpha 3 stage lengths because of how many freaking grunts there are. Just watching them all move on a turn takes too long for my patience >_< Good thing for map weapons, but still takes a while.

One thing I liked about Z2-1 and the first half of Z2-2 was the stages would only take me about an hour each (story+combat). Kept it pretty speedy. Now it's more like 90mins-120mins per map like Alpha 3, which is one of the reasons why I'm still playing Alpha 3 after a year! ^^;

Not that I dislike these more epic end maps. Epic is good. Large scale is good. Just kind of bugs me at all these grunts. And I totally hate the maps where enemies spawn over and over and you have to kill 100 of them to get the skill point and advance the map (or wait 5+ turns, which usually takes even longer). I've done 3 of these maps so far and they were all really boring and even with map weapons and animations off they still took like 90mins+

Managing about 1 map a night on the weekdays, and 4-5 on the weekends. Probably will finish it in about 2 more weeks at this rate. I think there's about 26 maps left with splits. Then it's time to get back and finish Alpha 3, lol. Have about the same amount of maps left on that one currently (stage 43 there).

Story spoiler question about Votoms & map43:

Spoiler

So I've never watched any Votoms anime. Was map43 space route where Kiriko kills Wiseman the TV series ending?

 

[Bebpo]

STONAAAAAAAA SUNSHIIIIINEEEEE

They did a nice job with that map.


Also, I find it funny and also like that whenever the SRW fan community complains about a sprite or animation, it gets fixed in the next game if it's used again (for the Z series). First Nu got his sprite fixed, now Aquarion's gets its final sword animation fixed. Hehehe. They sure like to appease their fanbase

 

[Pureauthor]

Just merged back together at stage 44. Man, the stages starting in the 40s are getting LONG. Like were talking Alpha 3 stage lengths because of how many freaking grunts there are. Just watching them all move on a turn takes too long for my patience >_< Good thing for map weapons, but still takes a while.

One thing I liked about Z2-1 and the first half of Z2-2 was the stages would only take me about an hour each (story+combat). Kept it pretty speedy. Now it's more like 90mins-120mins per map like Alpha 3, which is one of the reasons why I'm still playing Alpha 3 after a year! ^^;

Not that I dislike these more epic end maps. Epic is good. Large scale is good. Just kind of bugs me at all these grunts. And I totally hate the maps where enemies spawn over and over and you have to kill 100 of them to get the skill point and advance the map (or wait 5+ turns, which usually takes even longer). I've done 3 of these maps so far and they were all really boring and even with map weapons and animations off they still took like 90mins+

Managing about 1 map a night on the weekdays, and 4-5 on the weekends. Probably will finish it in about 2 more weeks at this rate. I think there's about 26 maps left with splits. Then it's time to get back and finish Alpha 3, lol. Have about the same amount of maps left on that one currently (stage 43 there).

Story spoiler question about Votoms & map43:

Spoiler

So I've never watched any Votoms anime. Was map43 space route where Kiriko kills Wiseman the TV series ending?

Spoiler

Chirico killing Wiseman

is indeed the TV ending (the story continues in OVAs set a couple decades later). Not sure how it went down in SRW vs the show because I haven't done the Space/Gundams routes yet.

 

[HaRyu]

On the 2nd to last stage, and that whole "wasn't expecting next enemy wave" thing again... its making me really lazy about finishing the game.

Bebpo is probably gonna beat the game before me, honestly. ^O^

 

[Pureauthor]

On the 2nd to last stage, and that whole "wasn't expecting next enemy wave" thing again... its making me really lazy about finishing the game.

Bebpo is probably gonna beat the game before me, honestly. ^O^

C'mon man. They even gave you the nice colour coding for 'Okay, for reals, this is the final stage objective' this time around!

 

[HaRyu]

C'mon man. They even gave you the nice colour coding for 'Okay, for reals, this is the final stage objective' this time around!

I can't help it, my will to finish this game is draining. ^O^

I just love it how I'm putting off on finishing a game, by playing other games. I do this a lot, apparently.

 

[Bebpo]

Map 45

Spoiler

WTF WHY DID YOU KILL OFF CARLOS HE WAS MY FAVORITE OG CHARACTER IN Z2

Plus we haven't even seen his backstory of why he hates the world so much and wants a revolution.

This reminds me of Z2-1 when Aimu (I dunno what the romaji spelling his for his name) died without the story ever explaining wtf he was trying to do. BUT THEN HE CAME BACK in Z2-2 so it was all good. This makes me hope that Carlos will be back too since they still need to cover his backstory. I HOPE HE COMES BACK

Plus it seems like no one ever dies in SRW considering I just saw Shioni in this map which is wtf because she kind of EXPLODED IN A SHIP last game. A ship that was IN OUTER SPACE ON THE SEALED MOON at that. Will be interesting to see how they explain (if they even bother) her getting back ok.

Anyhow, in Insaram now. This could be interesting...

 

[mjemirzian]

I'm also getting tired of the long enemy turn times and zillions of grunts. Would be a lot better if I could play it on an emu and speed things up. It hasn't gotten difficult to me yet under my run conditions. Up to 35b atm.