Super Robot Wars/Taisen W
Cast List:
--GaoGaiGar -> GGG Final
--Tekkaman Blade -> TB II
--Nadesico -> Nadesico PoD
--Gundam SEED Astray, Astray R, Astray X/ Gundam SEED
--Go lion/Voltron
--Full Metal Panic!
--MazinKaiser
--Getter Robo G
--Shin Getter Robo
--Detonator Orgun
--Gundam Wing Endless Waltz
And cool Banpresto originals like these:
Some attack vids:
Orgun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Cj_cSj_q4&mode=related&search=
FMP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxqvNsokC7U&mode=related&search=
FMP Bonta-kun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-AOn7oOuwI&mode=related&search=
Gensic GaoGaiGar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RnA4f2jNTU&mode=related&search=
Banpresto Original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jkGyUTE-Zk&mode=related&search=
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Ok, so finished this last night after about 50-70 hours gametime (animations set "off" after seeing them once or twice). I'd picked up a few of the earlier SRW games but they were just so massively long (100 hours+) that I never found time to play them. Being handheld, W was easier to get into since it's an incredibly addicting game and at the time when I got it I was doing a lot of long train rides/plane flights in Japan. Took me from early April to last night to get through with casual amounts of playing.
Story
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In an industry full of weak rpg/s-rpg plots where we make excuses "but the battle system rocks!", it's nice to play an srpg with a story that keeps you interested. Sure they kind of cheat by taking all these already written great characters/plots/events and writing them into their original story...but regardless of their methods, the end result is one of the most epic tales out there involving multiple factions, planets, and universes.
There's usually about 20 mins of dialogue before a mission, 5-10 mins during a missions, and 10-20 post-mission, which adds up to A LOT of story. All told, out of the 1-2 hours each of the games 55 missions take, at least 50% if not 70% of that time is just reading dialogue (which on the other hand means if you skip all the dialogue the game is quite a bit shorter!).
Still, the dialogue is great and it does a good enough job that if you haven't seen some of the anime it covers, the script will do a good enough job portraying it that you won't have to see it, but will be knowledgable about it. Though all told, the characters and sections from shows you have seen will likely be your favorites.
Gameplay
Fun! Though from what I've heard it's the easiest of the SRW games. Basically it's near impossible to die, but if you play it Fire Emblem style and reset when losing a unit (no perm death, but you do lose $$$), then there's enough challenge trying to make it through each map without anyone getting destroyed.
It's different from most srpgs because you pretty much only have 5 types of units in the game:
--Super Robo Tank (big dudes with high def who can't dodge but can take tons of hits)
--Real Robos (little dudes who dodge 90% of the time but die in 1 hit)
--Snipers (guys who can't move and attack in the same turn)
--Healers (guys who heal and restore EN (MP))
--Battleships (big things with tons of HP that all the enemies concentrate on. They suck at attacking but have great support skills)
And with ~70 unique units of all kinds, it's up to you to basically mix and match your own teams of these 5 groups, to make the most efficient killing group of 20 or so.
The most important aspect of playing the game are the "seishin" or skills that you activate with SP. These do things like make the unit only take 1/4th damage for a round (great for tanks), or up the dodge/accuracy by 30% for a round (great for real robots), or do 2x damage once, or always critical attacks for a round, etc...
The gameflow is all about managing your usage of seishin as, for example, once your real robots run out of SP for dodge up 30% when up against a boss...well, since they die in one hit, if their dodge rate is only 50%...it's bad. Same thing when your super robots (who often have terribly accuracy) run out of SP for "accuracy always 100%" and then they're having a 6% chance of hitting the boss. So since maps have tons of enemies and multiple bosses, management of SP is really the most important part of the gameplay.
Another thing that's important is the counter attack that's done FE style after enemies attack you. By sticking a extremely high DEF tank up front with 100% aim accuracy and good attacks, you can kill most of the small enemies without using a single turn just by letting him counter the enemy's attacks.
Now you can equip some equipment, up pilot stats (accuracy, close range damage, shooting damage, etc...), up mech stats (weapons, HP, armor, etc...), which also play into gameplay decisions as do team attacks when certain units are near each other.
Graphics
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Simply said, the graphics in W are amazing and by far the best graphics on the DS outside FFXII:RW during battle animations. Hell, the sprites may be less detailed, but they animate even better than some of the PS2 SRW games! (see youtube links above for example).
Watching the animations is awesome and each map you gain new units or new attacks or new upgrades, which all translates to a constant flurry of new animations. So not only are you hooked on the story and want to see what's next, but you're also hooked on the animations and want to see the new ones on the next map. There are probably (enemies included) about 100+ units in the game, each with 3-8 attacks. That's a lot of cool animations.
One thing that I hear W added, WHICH IS AWESOME is that tons of movies have finishing animations, meaning if you kill an enemy (not injure them) with a specific attack, the attack animation will change and become even more awesome. For example if normally you rush in and slash an enemy and fly away, on a finishing version you might rush in and slash through an enemy, pause, spin your sword around and sheath it, then the enemy explodes into a mushroom nuke cloud, and then you fly away. Because of this not only do you want to see all the animations (plus combination attack animations), but you want to see the finishing versions of all the ones that have them.
Character portraits on the map are great and detailed, and the 2d cut-ins look good as well.
Sound
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First let's get the bad out of the way: There are no voices. Well, normally SRW games even on consoles don't have full voice acting because there are like 3 million lines of dialogue in each game. But still, they usually have all the yelling and roaring that goes along with moves and W (like the other portable SRWs) lacks that. It's a little sad, but you just have to yell and roar outloud instead. Nothing like yelling HIKARI NI NARE!!! on a crowded train. Hopefully the next DS SRW features voice since the 1gig carts should be large enough to support voice.
Now, OTOH, the music in the game is AMAZINGLY AWESOME. Hell, if they released this stuff on cds you'd have the gaming ost of the year, easy. Not only do you get the main theme of all these classic shows (some which had excellent music), but you get unique songs for certain attacks, unique songs for each unit, unique songs for story points. Heck, there are like 10 instrumental versions of major vocal songs for all the series. You even get 2 of Hirasawa Susumu's Detonator Orgun EDs and a few SEED vocals. So, so awesome. I was singing theme songs along with my attacks by the end.
Replay
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Ummm...the game is already way too long (and it's one of the shorter ones) at 50-70 hours. Yet, if you do a 2nd play the game slightly changes here and there and so some people will want to keep on playing. But everyone else will just move to the next SRW. You definitely get your money's worth though.
Negatives
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My only major issue with the game, which is an issue in all SRW games is that there are lots of branching plots. Basically the game will split up every 5-10 missions and you choose a direction and do 2-3 maps with that story and then rejoin. The problem is that sometimes you miss some great stuff story-wise by not going the other way.
This is supposed to be for the replay value, but most people have lives and aren't going to replay a 60 hour game to see a handful of maps they missed the first time around.
So what happens? Well you basically pick a side and play through it for a few hours, then once you join up you reset and load your pre-branch save and then go the other way and keep playing until the next branch. Basically you play all the missions in the game, except you don't get any exp/money/kills/equip for a handful of them. Since most gamers will want to know what happens in ALL THE MAPS, they really should just make the gameflow linear with all the maps in a single playthrough and all the story.
This is most annoying at the end when it's like "You've just spent 50 hours following the story of characters A and B. Would you like to: See the end of A's story and miss the end of B's story, or vice-versa". No one is going to want to miss out on the ending of either plot, so they're pretty much forced to beat one and reset and do the other. Lame.
Overall
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Super Robot Wars W is an awesome game and from what I've read and played, probably the best introduction anyone could have for getting into the franchise. It's fast, great looking, a bit easy, not 100 hours long, and has an awesome cast list. While it's more enjoyable if you can read the 30 hours of dialogue in the game and really get into the story and characters, even for those who don't know any Japanese the game should be a lot of fun, especially if you know some of the units. Since the DS is region-free, the game is highly recommended to all fans of giant robots wherever they maybe and whatever language they make speak. SRW W has hooked me on the series, and now I'll definitely be there for PS2's OGs in a few weeks
