So that stage took me 2 and a half hours (granted with some interruptions and watching all the battle animations), EXHard sure is what it says.
Anyway, a few things we do know about this new game is that the SRWJ protagonists will play a large part.
There are two main characters in SRWJ,
Touya Shun and
Calvina Coulange. In the game you chose one, and the other never appears. In Moon Dwellers, they will of course both be present.
Touya I find not particularly interesting. He's a fairly standard "Teenage Boy With Surprising Past Who Pilots Giant Robot To Save The World", and thats a character type I just don't find very interesting. But its not surprising they use him as the face for the new game. Also not surprising that of the three units you can choose in SRWJ, his default unit here is going to be
Granteed, which is very much a Super Robot, and fits his character type well.
On the other hand, I find Calvina significantly more intersting. She's an adult, unlike Touya, and she is actually a military pilot. I forget the precise details of how her backstory was presented in J, but the gist of it was that she was part of an elite team of pilots, who were ambushed and wiped out by a mysterious enemy. Calvina was the only survivor, and afterwards she quit the military, until she stumbles into the cockpit of a mysterious unit. It seems in Moon Dwellers her default unit will be the
Bellzelute, which is very much a Real Robot, and fits her character type as a military pilot.
The big gimick behind the OG characters in J wasn't just the 2 selectable characters and three selectable mechs (The third being
Coustwell, a melee-focused Real Robot, that I find rather dull. On New Game+ you can also choose the overpowered
Vorlent. Both of these will preseumably become available as well for Touya and Calvina in Moon Dwellers), is the other three OG characters.
Commonly known in the fanbase as the "Powerpuff Girls", they are
Festenia Muse,
Katia Grineal and
Melua Melna Meia. They act as subpilots for either Touya or Calvina, since they are able to interface with the units, and in fact they stole whatever unit you chose and are the ones to deliver it to Touya or Calvina. You can only have one of them at a time as your sub-pilot, and which one you use changes the finisher for the unit, and each of the three provides their own bonuses and spirit commands.
After you receive the upgrade for your chosen unit (
Granteed Dracodeus,
Bellzelute Brigandi,
Coustwell Brachium or
Raftclans) the girl you have used hte most as your sub-pilot will unlock a super-special finisher for that unit. I'm assuming a similar situation will obtain in Moon Dwellers, albeit one for Touya and one for Calvina
Another reason I find Touya pretty meh is that he is pretty much in a harem situation with the three girls, while Calvina (to be honest somewhat sadly) does not share that.
Its highly likely that Calvina will share backstory with
Selena Recital, from The 3rd Super Robot Wars Alpha, and who was introduced into OGverse in the Super Robot Wars OG Dark Prison sidestory game. Their backstories are quite similar, and this would be an easy way to introduce both into the main plotline.
Also being introduced this game are the OG characters from Super Robot Wars GC, on the GameCube, but unfortunately I know very, very little about them, so I can't really provide any information.
