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I'd go with option B.
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Feb 4, 2016 01:56
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Go with whatever works easier for you, but I'd prefer the second option as well.
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Feb 4, 2016 05:25
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Robot Roll Call: Prologue 3 There's gonna be some jankiness to this particular Robot Roll Call, among others going forward, because not every series out there has nice, clean artbook-quality lineart of its robots. For such instances, I'll be getting Creative with sourcing suitable reference images. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann  Gurren Lagann  A gestalt of the Ganmen-body Gurren and the Spiral Power conduit head Lagann (and a flight drone Ganmen that it bolted to itself as a backpack). Aside from the stylish sunglasses on its chest-face functioning as a multipurpose bladed weapon, its core competency is generating and unleashing increasingly ridiculous drills as the plot demands. For our purposes, this includes being one of the few mecha other than Getter-2 derivatives capable of using the "Dig" command to transition onto an unassailable (but impossible to attack from) underground map layer.  King Kittan Inspired by Kamina being the first human to decisively steal a Ganmen from a Beastman, Kittan hijacked a fast-assault robot and customized it into the dancing banana from the Peanut Butter Jelly Time meme. Little sister Kiyal provides it with the King Kittan Deluxe armament by separating her own small-scale Ganmen, the Kiyalunga.  Yoko M-Tank A clone of the artillery Ganmen Dayakkaiser issued to Yoko in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's compilation movies. She pilots it here because smashing through hordes of mooks just using her rail sniper rifle as some kind of Tekkaman Blade/Quiet hybrid would be entirely unfair.  Dai-Gurren The lumbering land battleship of (naturally) the Dai-Gurren-dan (lit: Great Gurren Brigade), whose hijacking from the Beastman general Tylimph was Kamina's final heroic stunt. Along with typical battleship capabilities, it can scoop up allied units in need of refit at range using the arms on its bridge tower and hosts a complement of Sirs Not Appearing As Playable Units for its Summon Attack. Getter Robo Armageddon    Shin Getter Robo The fourth iteration of Getter Robo (and third powered by Getter Rays), and the first where its animated appearances take the 70s kiddie gloves off and start hemming close to the brutal, semi-inscrutable portrayal of Getter of the Ken Ishikawa manga stories.  Invaders An extraterrestrial parasite ranging from mecha-sized down to microbial organisms, capable of infecting and subverting anything, organic or mechanical, that can't irradiate them to death with Getter Rays. The purely organic versions we just fought bear a passing resemblance to Ishikawa's Skull Killer Jakio, with its arms and wings split between the two varieties.  Shin Dragon A shambling hot mess evidently intended as an evolution/mass amalgam of Getter Robo G, the second robot of the line. First appearing in the PS1 game Getter Robo Daikessen as a souped-up non-transformable version of Getter Dragon, it's really let itself go since then. And will continue to do so as we go on.
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Feb 11, 2016 11:09
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This game makes me wish they'd used some of the stuff from the TTGL manga, cause in that one Simon's Lagann can combine with any of the gunman, not just Gurren. So there's the moment where Lagann combine with the Yoko W-tank to form the sniper version Gurren Laggan.
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Feb 13, 2016 17:00
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SaitoBatch posted:This game makes me wish they'd used some of the stuff from the TTGL manga, cause in that one Simon's Lagann can combine with any of the gunman, not just Gurren. So there's the moment where Lagann combine with the Yoko W-tank to form the sniper version Gurren Laggan. Gurran Lagann manga? This is a thing? Well, time to go spend some money.
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Feb 18, 2016 00:05
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The opening FMV for Z2.2, since it's evidently custom in J-games these days to have it show up after the first hour or so of play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsj_jEp7CM4 (Not my upload, hence the obnoxious watermark) And now we're back from commercial break. The present situation, as broken down in the text crawl at the end of the Prologues: Akurasu's Z2.2 story translation posted:It has been one year since the "Break the World" Incident (Events of Z2.1: Hakai-Hen)... One month has passed since the formation of the Earth Federation.  Dateline: India! I couldn't pinpoint the city from this far out, but no doubt this is India as portrayed in Code Geass: superprovince of the Chinese Federation and arms dealer to Britannia's would-be colonial pushovers. Also note the presence of two geographically identical Japanese island chains: the 'normal' one is where it should be, pressed close to the Korean peninsula, while the 'extra' one lies some 800 knots directly southeast. Also also note the Dark Continent filling in the gap between southern Africa and Antarctica. That's got to screw with the trade winds quite a bit, even before we get to all the Super Robot shenanigans thereupon.  These random civvies basically repeat most of the information the crawl gives us, from a more in-universe perspective: the DBs are basically just animals to them, but if not for the adored Dimensional Beast Busters, they'd pretty much have the world overrun already. On cue...  It's Esther! She sticks her lacking chest out, proud to be one of the much-adored DBBs... but nobody recognises her, and she gets treated like a kid.  Scenario 1: Fighting Girl BGM: HARD WORK & LOVE (SRW Originals - Esther's theme)  Esther's out here with the Brasta Es to drum up some good publicity, along with Carlos Axiom Jr., our favorite chili-dog scarfing CEO. Esther's not too pleased, because it's keeping her from spending time with her beloved Crowe. Carlos doesn't know what she sees in him, but their bickering is cut off by...  ... some DBs spawning in.     So here's Esther and her ride. The "Es" actually stands for "Easy type", but Esther thinks it stands for her name, since she's the pilot, and nobody quite has the heart to tell her otherwise. Overall, it's a very solid machine, and it's going to be our main character for the first branch of the game (and if I have my way, Esther will continue to make appearances). Its movelist is slightly condensed from the Brasta's, not having the Bayonet Spiker or a finisher beyond ACP Iota, but Iota will eventually end up with like 7 ammo when the Brasta Es is fully-upgraded, which is extremely silly and lets Esther make great use of her native access to Support Attack lv2. She also has a new skill, Repair Skill, which makes the HP granted x1.5 the usual and increases the range of Repair to 2 panels. The Es has a repair unit, and Esther is locked to it, so she'll get some good use out of it. If you didn't catch Z2.1, Esther is a girl we picked up shortly into that game; her family were killed by a particular white DAMON, Dimensional Beast MD (Moby Dick), who I believe eventually turned out to be her brother or something like that. I personally loving hated MD every time it appears so the less I have to think about it the better.  Here's a condition you don't see very often: the Brasta Es' HP has to be at full when the DAMONs are defeated in order to get the skill point. Note the catch in terms, here: the Es' HP has to be at full, it does not need to have taken no damage. This is probably intended to highlight the Es' repair unit and Esther's Repair Skill.   Esther begins life with Focus and Gain, which are solid for a character who is probably going to lag behind occasionally, so we'll begin by casting focus and moving her into the forest to engage the DAMON. I move her to this panel in specific so that she can use her best post-movement attack, her bunker shield, but won't have to move far to engage the second one.  "Watch, Crowe!"       I'm not used to Esther only doing this much damage. She doesn't throw her shield around like Crowe, instead opting to get up close and personal. Her animations are also really quick which makes them hard to screenshot (and use some odd transparency layers which makes them harder still to record; see the black spots in this update's videos). On the enemy phase, the DAMON up top moves closer - they only have a non-post-movement 1~5 attack, so he was out of range - while the one in the forest swings and misses, going down to critical HP in the process. On my turn, Esther uses Focus and Gain, to double the EXP of the next battle she involves in, and goes after the weak DAMON with her FALCON gun (as opposed to Crowe's EAGLE)...  "Um... alright, this'll work!"  "Hit it! I'm gonna hit it! Please hit it!"       Esther's FALCON is more of a machine pistol than the tak-tak-tak carbine Crowe's EAGLE is. Speaking of, DAMON have a super-cool death animation where they explode into that heart-shaped thing, then contract and wink out of existence. Because of Gain, Esther gains two levels from that kill, and then it's the enemy phase.      Surprising nobody, the DAMON totally blows it...     https://a.pomf.cat/mpryhv.webm ...and opens itself up to return sniper fire from the Es... this animation is MUCH shorter than Crowe's. Actually, many animations in Z2.2 are much shorter, since the sheer length of animations, especially Crowe's, was criticized in Z2.1. On the player phase, Esther takes out the DAMON, and...  We get the skill point, and the town is saved...  ... until these guys spawn in. Speaking of which, don't you think they look a little bit different than before? Carlos identifies those weird helmet things as control devices, meaning that someone - other than GaiOh - is using them. Esther doesn't care: there are civilians to protect... she doesn't get much of a chance, though, as she's already moved on this phase, so the enemies get their turn unopposed.  Compared to their gold buddies from Z2.1, these guys are a lot suckier, as you can tell from the terrible hit rate on an unfocused unit in a forest.    Fortunately this one totally blows it. They do actually hit pretty hard when they hit, but they're a lot weaker than they were last game, presumably because the player team is much stronger now. Esther levels off the evasion and sniper counterfire, too, giving her a bit of a head start.  At the start of the next player phase, Duo and Quatre come through with their Gundams, which Esther misidentifies as Heavyarms and Shen-Long. For their part, the Wing Boys briefly mistake Esther for Crowe, since that is a Brasta after all, but once they've cleared that up they get to work on taking apart all the DAMONs.     Here's a proper look at them. Quatre, as discussed in prologue 2, is primarily a tank unit, with a whopping 1700 armor, but his mobility and targeting are both quite solid - unusually so for a super-ish unit. His combat leans towards the close range, but he's better at not being sniped than Deathscythe, and as you can see on his skill page, he has Support Defend lv3 - one off the cap - and Guard, which reduces all damage he takes to 80% when he reaches 130 morale. His starting spells are Guard (yes, this isn't confusing at all), which reduces all incoming damage to 25%, and Alert, which lets him automatically dodge the next attack.     Duo is a little more unusual, being a dedicated melee machine with no ability to take a hit. He's very strong and agile, though. He has higher prevail than Quatre, at lv5, but his other two skills are what can make him quite nasty: he has Predict, which buffs his accuracy, evasion, and critical rate by 10% at 130 morale, and he has lv4 Counter, which means he has a non-trivial chance of attacking first when attacked on the enemy phase, limiting his ability to take damage. On top of that, the Deathscythe has an ECM field, which increases the accuracy and evasion of all allies within 2 panels of it by 10%, and its signature Distortion Jammers, which give him a flat 30% chance to evade any attack that would otherwise hit him when he's at 130 morale. Overall, these two aren't really that great - although you can make a case for Duo - but they're going to be our mainstays for the first few missions. Also, something that can't be ignored about these two is that they have both Shield and Sword modules. In Z2.1, a pilot needed the Blocking skill to use those, but in Z2.2 and onwards, just having the module on the unit is sufficient: shields reduce incoming damage to 40%, while swords completely negate certain attacks, both determined based on the comparitive Skill of the pilots involved. Shields will also automatically be used when defending (which normally reduces damage to 50%). Duo's skill stat is actually abnormally high (a whopping 190), which helps him to stay alive more than you might otherwise expect.  Unfortunately Quatre is slow as poo poo so this is as close as he gets to the fray.  Duo though... I've placed him here because it means that if any of the DAMONs pick on them he's definitely in snipe range, and he's closer to the DAMON not in shot.     Honestly, I just like how Duo's posture in his cut-in matches well with the "dashing" pose of his Gundam. He hits this mook DAMON pretty hard, and it misses in return. In the meantime, Esther picks on the DAMON nearest her.      And misses. Goddamnit Esther. You had a 93% chance to hit and you blew it. YOU BLEW IT The enemy phase is what you'd expect: Duo and Esther pick off the weaker DAMONs, Esther weakens the one that was far out of shot on the right, and then she gets her chance at redemption:  Round 2, woman. Your hit chance is higher this time. YOU'D BETTER DO IT RIGHT THIS TIME.  "Ugh...! I'm not gonna lose...!"      https://a.pomf.cat/gfjnnz.webm  "Alright! Good work, me!"On Will's side it's not a kill, but it weakens the DB enough that this is going to be the end of it on this player phase. Quatre moves up and takes on the weakened DB...   Rip. Duo can't move far enough to get the other weak DB (I like the main character to kill non-series bosses...), so he takes out the bull DAMON that Esther has been smacking for a few turns.   Duo's melee bnb with his beam scythe is a pseudo-dynamic kill; you get a second slash if the target is going to die from the attack, but there's no special animation, or one-liner, or whatever.    Esther blows away the last DAMON, finishing up the map. She also levels, but doesn't get anything interesting, just stats. After the battle, Esther pumps them for information about Crowe, but Duo and Quatre have to correct some of the... "facts" she learned about ZEXIS from Crowe. The Wing Boys ask if she's dating Crowe, which she vehemently denies, although she wishes that was the case, and around then Carlos rolls up to tell them to scram, since they can't very well sell a unit that's been seen with terrorists.  Esther protests on their behalf, and Carlos eventually shrugs and walks away, figuring that Esther will do whatever she wants regardless of what he says, so she's Chief Traia's problem now. The three kids talk for a bit about how the A-Laws (Gundam 00), Britannia (Code Geass), and OZ (Gundam Wing) have basically joined together and cemented themselves a position of serious power, and are using the media to basically cover up the truth. WAKE UP SHEEPLE etc. Esther decides she's going with them, which Duo can't really recommend since they're wanted, but they see the fire in her eyes that reminds them of Crowe's legendary stubbornness and cave. They do, however, insist that if anything happens, Esther leaves it to them, since they don't want her to be branded a terrorist like they've been.  As a prize for the battle, we also get a repair kit and a propellant tank, which can be used 1/stage to completely repair a unit's HP or restore its EN.  Now we can actually use the intermission menu. The portrait on the left shows our top ace (currently Duo), and the columns give us various options. The top row (View Pilot) is essentially an encyclopedia where we can review stats, skills, and the like. Below that (highlighted), you have Pilot Training, where you spend PP; Unit Change, where you can switch pilots between units (usually only their same series); and Sub-Orders, which lets you send pilots you didn't sortie in the previous mission on various tasks to bring in money/exp/pp (and in Z3, z-chips). The Robot column, by contrast (and once again from top), gives us options to View and Upgrade our mechs, Equip Parts to them, and, for units that support it, Equip [weapon/mobility] Packs - for example, equipping the Macross Frontier units with their space packs, or modifying the equipment loadout for Chirico's Scopedog. The final column gives you Search (a quick lookup of Spirit Commands by which pilots have them, and for what prices), system options, save, and load (do not get these mixed up as Will has done in the past).  As you can see, because of the PP bonuses from the clear data, we're able to give our pilots a big pump right away - Duo and Quatre can both buy Continuous Action, but Esther has to save up a bit. Andy posted:Given Will's continued insistence on the matter, I'm going to mirror his purchase of Continuous Action for both Duo and Quatre despite my usual aversion to using the Wing boys (Quatre will have to wait a mission on my end, as a scheme to feed Esther enough kills to get CA herself not only proved fruitless, but also left Quatre without enough kills to make the cut). Too many Endless Waltz-focused games have clouded my judgement on that one, I guess. However, I'm gonna play the long game with Esther, and instead of simply snapping up CA for her next Intermission, will blow some of her load on B-Save now. Justification on that matter below.    We also have enough money to do this. Esther is going to be a great unit for the entire rest of the game, so it's worth it to pump her up now, even if it does cost half of the money we saved from the clear data and prologues. When you fully upgrade a unit (not including its weapons), you get a Full-Upgrade Bonus, or FUB, which is unique to the unit, along with another common bonus of your choosing. The Brasta Es' is to make the ACP Iota 500 points more powerful (base power), give it 1 extra range, and 2 more ammo - so it now has 6 shots, enough to basically spam. It's even better if you buy B-Save (180 PP, +50% base max Ammo for ammo-based weapons). Note that the +2 ACP Iota ammo from Brasta Es' FUB is considered base ammo for B-Save; Esther will cap at 9 if you go this route. For the custom bonus, you get your pick of (down the columns, from top left) +10% to HP, EN, Mobility, Targeting, or Armor; +1 movement; granting the unit a Jamming Field; turning one of your weapon terrain rankings (Air/Ground/Water/Space) to S; making the unit's Barrier/Armor-type skills (if innate or equipped) cost 0 EN per activation; +1 weapon range (except range 1 and MAPW); or +10 critical rate. Normally I'd buy +1 movement, especially for a highly-mobile unit like Esther, but I'm going to try out something different this time and get her a Jamming Field: when used as a repairer, this means she can also help defend units that are low on health when they pair up so she can repair them. No idea how well it'll work, but... I also upgrade the Wing Boys units 2 each in everything, because I have to use them for a few stages and Duo gets force-deployed on some routes; this will basically let them be competent. Andy posted:All good picks, and I'm going to copy them to the letter, but my justification for the Jamming Field is less to optimize the Brasta Es as a Repair rally point, and more to do so as a Support Attack node. An attacking unit has to be adjacent to the Supporter (and the Supporter must not have expended their action for the turn, hence Will's insistence on an early Continuous Action buy) in order to call in a Support Attack; may as well give them an evasion buff for it. Efficiency! As you can probably tell, Esther has no intention of actually sitting out like she said that would, or else we wouldn't have upgraded her this much.  Basically, the better the unit is, the less slots it has for option parts. The Brasta Es has two, which is normal for a good real-type unit. Units that have 3 or more slots tend to be second-tier real robot units, while many super robots only have one slot. The Brasta Es gets the Crest of Hakai, giving it +1 movement, +1 weapon range (except MAPW/range 1 weapons, as normal), and +200 weapon power to all weapons. The Crest of Hakai is one of the items received from having clear data, and that's actually the only way you can get one. As she's heavily reliant on ammo, Esther also gets a Cartridge, the Repair Kit/Propellant Tank equivalent for ammo.  Quatre gets this barrier, which costs 5 EN but negates an attack that comes in below 1000, which is most attacks when Quatre is (manually or Support) defending. He also gets a repair kit, just in case, and the A-Adaptor, which makes the unit and weapons' terrain rankings all "A", letting him strike without issue at any type of enemy (a problem Duo and Esther don't have).  Finally, Duo gets this DM Unit, giving him +10 mobility and targeting to make him even more ridiculous, and he gets a Propellant Tank, as his weapons can really chew up EN. Andy posted:Anon, erat demonstrandum. That Crest of Hakai, god drat - on top of all we've already poured into it, Brasta Es' also gaining the benefit of two common FUB picks and the weapon power bump, all from a single item slot's expenditure. And on top of being exclusive to a run with a Z2.1 carryover save, it's also the only part in the game that influences Weapon Power without meeting a Will quota. That's a case you can make for keeping it bolted on vs. the otherwise superior Haro/Hero's Mark/Soul of Steel. If you think that took a while, wait until we get a lot of units. Will's sister likes to call it "Super Menu Wars" when he streams, put it that way. Even when it's small like this, though, solid prep work can make SRW a lot easier. The first time Will played through Original Generation he had no idea and the game basically kicked the poo poo out of him, which doesn't tend to happen anymore. I kinda had the same experience going through SRW3 for the first time, but then again it's loving SRW3, which I'll probably reserve for a far less academic LP once this either finishes or bottoms out. NEXT WORLD: Running from the law! Andy Waltfeld fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Mar 4, 2016 |
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Feb 18, 2016 17:04
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Glad to see this rolling again.
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Feb 18, 2016 22:29
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Robot Roll Call: Scenario 01 A short one this time, because we're hemming closer to OGs in the way of introducing a minimum of new units per stage in the early chunks of the game. SRW Originals  DMB-00Es Brasta Easy Type A simplified version of Crowe "T. Robot" Brust's Brasta, so named   Dimensional Beast DAMON (no fandom wiki data available) Beasts that emerge from cracks between the dimensions from which the SRW Z series's Earth is fused together. These are the most basic of the lot, capable of firing shockwaves from their tails and not much else. Evidently the control modules placed on their heads by whoever's presently harnessing them aren't watertight; their Water rating is improved in the offing but they lose the ability to actually move into undersea terrain.  Dimensional Beast BULL (no fandom wiki data available) Gaudier than the DAMON and thereby stronger, albeit not by much beyond a modest bump in HP and Armor. Rather than slinging wind from their tails to attack, they launch the entire (regrowable) latter portion itself, which acts as an Invader-style encroaching and exploding parasite.
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Feb 25, 2016 09:47
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Another difference with the Brasta Easytype is that the final boss is changed from a weird skeleton beast to a giant robot with a bikini-wearing elf stuck in the middle  And a much better info source than the wikia wiki is the Japanese wiki, though that's obviously not in English. Regardless, if you can make sense of it you can learn a ton about basically everything in every game.
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Feb 25, 2016 18:34
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So I've always wanted to know, why does everyone in this game say the words Jigenjuu? Is that what the DAMON are called in japanese? Cause I thought they were just called DAMON.
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Feb 27, 2016 15:22
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"Jigenjuu" is the rough Japanese equivalent of "Dimensional Beast", in the vein of older mecha shows calling their monsters of the week Machine Beasts, Fossil Beasts, Mechasauruses, et al. The nuance, as you can see from the Robot Roll Call, is lost on the Super Robot Wars menu-patching community, hence the names being rendered as "Jigenjuu DAMON", etc. (Speaking of lost nuances, I've yet to meet an SRW patch that managed to implement a variable-width English font without just fully translating the game, apart from Endless Frontier EXCEED which I'm told was a planned-to-be-full translation but stopped after getting the menus running?) As for the Japanese Wiki, I'll think on integrating that into the Robot Roll Calls on a trial basis. Enough on my plate already going into the next update, including whether to actually buy B Save for Esther as specified prior (just to be on the safe side, I made my save prior to actually making any expenditures).
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Feb 27, 2016 17:10
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In true mecha anime fashion, we're back from commercial break in a lovely time slot with zero advertisement and an expectation to sell gangbusters regardless. DATELINE: Myanmar! To my knowledge there hasn't been anything terribly big in our source materials that happened here or anywhere else in Indochina; I'm assuming this is just an "en route to elsewhere" thing.  Duo and Quatre are giving Esther some exposition. Basically, despite being branded as terrorists, their thing isn't really to take down the whole government - after all, they helped build it during Hakai-hen to deal with the Imperium. Problem is, the world wasn't really ready for that kind of power all at once, and a lot of individuals with ulterior motives had themselves in good positions once ZEXIS was out of the picture.In terms of allies, they're basically getting the poo poo kicked out of them, since Celestial Being got obliterated. The biggest and best-organized terrorist group in the world is Katharon (actually a player in this game, unlike in Gundam 00S2 where they hail from where they're basically irrelevant and getting poo poo on). The problem is, because of them, the A-LAWS have been able to employ increasingly inhumane measures, like the deployment of mindless Automatons which kill all witnesses, on the grounds of defeating a terrorist threat... sound familiar to anyone? The A-LAWS' media manipulation engine would make Big Brother proud, too, so the world populace is largely totally in the dark about all this. Esther doesn't really have the words to describe how pissed off she is about this, but before they can move on with the conversation, they get interrupted by the radio ringing.  They're interrupted by a Federation pilot, who wants to search Esther's ship. Esther responds that she's a DBB, but the Feds are above the law and don't really care - but if they search the ship, they'll find the Gundams and everything will go to poo poo. Thinking fast, Duo pretends to have taken Esther hostage and hijacked her ship, which the Feds fall for hook, line, and sinker.  SCENARIO 02: Escapee  They hop out and tell Esther to get the hell out of dodge. She initially refuses, but ultimately has to do as demanded.  Here's the initial lineup of enemies. Most of these units are year-old junk, but we only have two units... well, two slightly-upgraded units, so this won't be too bad. There's basically two enemy squads, so Duo gets the one on the left while Quatre gets the one on the right.  I move Quatre over here specifically because I know that the rest of the map takes place more across the north end of this lake, so he's getting in position early.   "Can we really not win against the Gundams!?"   The Enact can't really be taken out in one hit by Quatre, but because the other enemies can be, it means they can be shot down on the enemy phase.  Duo moves over here for much the same reason. This keeps him in range of his one ranged attack, so he can't be sniped.  These weak-crap Hellions can't take a standard scything from Duo. This would have killed even if it hadn't critted.  This is basically what the enemy phase looks like. Dynamic Kills and other trash removal all around.    This is Duo's ranged attack. They never quite explain where the shield keeps coming back from in the anime. In this game it's ammo-based, which implies that it hides a number of shields somewhere...      Duo is pretty much MVP for these first couple of stages, combining great movement with solid range, decent armor, high mobility, and powerful attacks with surprising range.  "We won't let the Gundams do as they please!"  "You can't hit me like that!"  This GN-XIII (pronounced "Jinx 3", spelled "GN 13") is basically the mid-stage boss, and as you can see, it's a fair bit tougher than the rest of them, but not really tough enough.  Duo moves over here, getting evasive and defensive bonuses from the forest and setting up for the next phase...   ... and does his daily dirty deed.  Suddenly, everyone gets shelled, taking out the fatally damaged GN-XIII and its one remaining backup unit, and all of these ATs spawn in, along with a Genocidron for a flagship.  At this, Esther arrives as well, having ditched her shuttle in favor of the Brasta Es. Duo and Quatre try to wave her off, but she responds that she's not here to help terrorists: she's here to aid the Federation pilots who were shot down by the unaffiliated mercenaries! Despite her stubborness, they relent when they see her heart is in the right place. As for the mercenaries, they were hunting some other prey, but that prey has escaped for now... I'm sure that will never be important.  We now have our skill point for the map: destroy the Genocidron, which retreats at 6000 HP. Obviously, this is going to require Support Attack; even with Esther's super-buffed Brasta, she'd have a hard time doing more than that in one go.  Esther casts Focus, lands to get terrain bonuses, and moves over here. ATs and these Axio mechs are right little bastards on difficult terrain, but Esther's super-buffs and Focus will let her reliably hit them.  "Bang, bang, here we go! BUNKER!!" (I think Esther is making a pun here since the noise she's making is the same sound as the first characters of "bunker" but she's also saying like "Let's be gutsy!" or words to that effect.)      "Evasion was a HUGE SUCCESS!" Did I mention I love Esther? She's not even particularly great in this game, but she's got such exuberance and heart.  Because I bought Continuous Action for Duo in the last intermission, he gets another move after having taken out the GN-XIII, so he moves on to bnb one of these Scopedogs.  "Hey, hey! The God of Death is back from Hell!"    I forgot these guys are actually pretty tough for some reason, despite being Scopedogs, which have an in-universe reason for being made out of wet paper.  Since Quatre doesn't have Focus, this is a good chance to point out how stupid Scopedogs are on terrain. This is after we've buffed Quatre a little more than is likely on a completely blank playthrough, too.       Quatre's finisher does just barely enough damage... I just remembered how much I hate these little fuckers. They're not as bad as Ghost X-9s or anything, but still.  Quatre has Continuous Action as well, so he moves over here and does it again... he also levelled, but I forgot to show that and clicked through it. He didn't gain a spell or anything. Levels in this game aren't really as exciting as in, for example, Fire Emblem, since one point of stats doesn't mean anywhere near as much in this. The enemy phase basically consists of counter-attacks as usual, with most of the enemy units dying... and then eventually the Genocidron joins in.  "Gundam! Don't get in our way!"      Remember the barrier we put on Quatre? Will accidentally miscast Guard on him earlier (all incoming damage reduced to 1/4 the intended value), so he can no-sell the Genocidron. He responded with the vulcans for two reasons: one, Quatre is almost out of EN, and two, he forgot how much HP it actually had and needed to check. After the Genocidron attacks, its crew picks up an incoming Knightmare Frame...  BASED KALLEN arrives, along with a familiar-looking KMF in tow... could the pilot be Zero?  Bzzt, it's C.C., and she's not happy that they're involved in a fight they could have avoided. Esther is in full fangirl mode over Kallen, due to Crowe's tall tales.  Will tried to screencap the player phase transition and missed... :ace LPer:     So here's Kallen. She's pretty much the same as she always was, a close-range melee beater. Her Guren Repair is basically identical to the Guren Mk2, although Karen's cut-ins, dialogue, and portrait etc. are different to account for the year gap and the upgrade to R2. Her spirits pretty much support her combat style: the Guren is dodgy but has surprisingly low staying power even after the Radiation Barrier, so she has a Super Robot pilot's command list; Guts, Invincible, Strike, and Guard. In a sense, she's sort of an offensive version of Quatre, trading some mech-based defensive power for sheer offense.     Meanwhile, C.C. has co-opted Zero's old command Burai, albeit she has a resupply unit, presumably because she's eventually going to upgrade to her support-focused unit from R2 (and then even further beyond). C.C.'s abilty as a pilot isn't astonishing, and her spell list is kind of weird; early on she gets spells like Invincible and Focus, but later on she gets support-oriented spells. Her skill list, however, sets her apart: she's one of only three pilots to natively receive SP Regen (the others being Loran from Turn A Gundam and Takeru from Godmars with his ace bonus), and she comes with Support Attack 2 and Counter 4, which cement her as being a very solid support unit.  C.C. first. We're intentionally feeding her, because Will absolutely adores Pizza Butt and thinks it's great that she's playable at all. Sadly also incontrovertible facts: she's slow to develop, and her unit sucks, so feeding her is important.    Rip mercenary dude. Kallen started at 110 morale, and she needs 115 for her      I got this far before I realised there weren't enough enemies on the map for that and had her just move up and use her Slash Harkens.     "I could take you on with a single finger!" Which is true... if she had access to her Shining Finger, but she doesn't. Quatre moves on the mook near him...    ... and gets another move, which I spend performing a bnb on the Genocidron to knock its HP down to something reasonable.     This time the Genocidron gets through the barrier, but with Guard and Sandrock's already tremendously-high armor, it all but bounces off. Duo moves up and uses his vulcans on the Genocidron...     He does a little better than Quatre in the dodging department, and now everything is almost in position to finish off the skill point.      Enemy Phase, C.C. shows off her delicious cut-in and delivers an unneeded overkill to a Scopedog. Why? ... because Will wanted to see her cut-in.   I don't get Genocidrons. They just don't look functional, and considering how far your disbelief has to be suspended to even pick up this game, that's saying something. And on top of that, with a name like 'Genocidron' you'll never be able to repurpose it for a defense or other humanitarian role. Even the back-of-a-garage crew behind Kamen Rider Dragon Knight picked up on this, and rechristened Ouja/Strike's ultimate Advent Beast "Cerebeast" to go with their adaptation's cute twist. Anyway, Player Phase!  Because I want the skill point, I can't do much this turn except jockey into position. Kallen and Esther are now set up to tag team the Genocidron, while Quatre and Duo move so that on the next turn, Quatre can be resupplied by C.C. to give her EXP.  "This is the Guren's power!"   Resupplying and repairing give really good XP in this game, presumably because in Z2.1 the Ptolemy had no weapons at all and was solely a repairbot, but you had to get XP for its subpilots somehow. Resupplying has big downsides (the target loses 10 morale and it can't be done after moving without a specific skill), but it gives a crapload of XP, and as a result of her level, C.C. learned Focus, which is very important since unlike a lot of pilots she can't function without it. Elsewhere, Kallen casts Strike (it's the only way to be sure), Esther uses Focus and Gain, and I do a quick safety save in case the game hoses me. Now then, TO WAR!  Something important here is that both Kallen and Esther are using Ignore Size Modifier weapons, so the Genocidron being big and bulky won't negatively impact their damage.  "Don't underestimate this Guren!"   "If I charge into close combat...!"    "BLOW AWAY!"  "Ha! Are you trying to make me laugh?"  "A woman who charges in is a fine woman!"  "If it's this, I'll go with a Combat Pattern!"  "Kkh...! I WON'T LOSE!!"   "Teeeeyyyaaaaa!!"  "I did it! Good for you, me!"  "O, our Genocidron is...!" Things progressed a bit differently in the Andyverse given our differences in luck, troop placement, and play aggression. https://a.pomf.cat/qohvgk.webm On the approach, Quatre bisected an Axio. Then Esther decided to try whittling down the (fresh at the time) Genocidron with a solo ACP Iota, leaving it with 6001 HP and leading to THIS on a repeat performance: https://a.pomf.cat/jtsslh.webm    Our haul is 4800 cash, plus a skill point and the 10k that comes with it. The mercenaries bail, swearing revenge and so on, and Esther invites everyone back to the shuttle to chat. Andy-side, Esther scooped the entire bounty, levelling up and learning Sense (20 SP, gain Strike for 1 turn and Alert for 1 incoming attack).  Meanwhile, Treize learns that Gundam 02 and 04 (that's Deathscythe and Sandrock) are making moves, and suggests that Zechs deals with it. Zechs is like  because Heero isn't involved. Treize pretty much tells him to know his role and shut his mouth, because the A-LAWS made them look like poo poo after they took down Celestial Being, and it doesn't matter what Zechs thinks about dealing with the non-Heero Gundams (Zechs is sure Heero lives, since he's already blown up his Gundam once before and was fine), he's going to do it anyway... and he's going to have Lieutenant Quattro Bajeena with him to support his Gundam Hunting sport. Back with the crew, Esther is totally hype over Kallen, since Crowe told her SO MUCH about everyone... like, for example, that Kallen is an Oni. Kallen denies everything and is pretty salty that Crowe was spreading rumors like that, but C.C. at least finds it pretty funny. After all, he basically said that Heero was a serial self-destructor who blew up his Gundam multiple times and always came back alive. Esther basically begs Kallen to teach her to be an Action Girl and Kallen eventually tells her to shut up, stop fangirling, and they can be friends, which prompts C.C. to remind her that they aren't in a friendmaking position, which Kallen knows full well. C.C. thanks Esther for the bed and, of course, says she wants pizza for dinner (fat chance). After she's gone, Kallen admits she thinks of C.C. as a witch, although she owes her for setting her straight on the Geass and Lelouch, and that she's stuck with C.C. if she wants to save Lelouch. But, she's unsure whether that's due to her own feelings or because of the Geass, and her heart aches over it. Esther offers to help Kallen out, but Kallen says she doesn't want to drag Esther into her problems or force her to deal with C.C.'s antics. Esther insists it's not an issue, although she has to admit Crowe didn't tell her a lot of truths about ZEXIS, and many of his so-called "facts" are anything but... Intermission! Kallen gets Continuous Action. C.C., not surprising anyone, doesn't have enough PP for that, so instead I buy her two weird skills: Resupply Skill (180), which lets her resupply after moving, and Parts Supply (120), which lets her use any equipped consumable parts on her unit on any allied unit within two panels. I'm building C.C. as a hard support, as she's never going to be an amazing frontline unit, so instead she gets great flexibility. Andy posted:Ditto here, and Quatre gets the CA buy I missed out on last mission. Esther will be in the hole for a while due to buying B Save, but we'll see it prove its worth yet.  Kallen gets a 50% upgrade. This is because while she is an amazing unit with great availability, she also disappears literally every route split to the Area 11 routes, which means that if we don't take those, we don't use her. As a consequence, I'm upgrading her halfway instead of all the way, to save at least some cash for other units depending on which route split we take next map. She's definitely on the list of things to fully-upgrade, though, due to being amazing (especially late-game once she has the Guren SEITEN).  C.C.'s Lelouchmobile gets a minor upgrade, mostly to make her more useful in the clusterfuck that is the next map. Like Kallen, she disappears a lot, but frontline combat is never going to be her strong suit anyway.  Because she has Parts Supply, I also give her a Repair Kit and a Cartridge, so she can scoot around and help people out. There's no point giving her a Propellant Tank because she can resupply already. Andy posted:As no one dropped a second Cartridge from the latest mission, we've torn C.C.'s allotted one off the Brasta Es. Between the extra ACP Iota ammo from her Full Upgrade Bonus and every other weapon getting an ammo bump through B Save on my end, it's no big loss. Sadly, Esther can't afford Continuous Action on Will's side and blew what would've let her buy it on Andy's, so we're done for this intermission. Next World: GIGANTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!
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Mar 4, 2016 10:28
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I can support this C.C. love. Carry her to the end game!
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Mar 4, 2016 11:00
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Until we get ahold of a save editor and can get C.C. into a certain 70s robot support unit, I'm not 100% on her stats being able to carry her all the way to endgame. We'll see, though. While we're on the subject: several among you are probably trying to figure out what C.C.'s true name actually is. The one time it was spoken on both the JP and ENG audio tracks, it was censored via cutaway (so no lip-reading tomfoolery to compensate for lost audio), and none of the side works, artbooks, etc. broach the subject. I had a poorly-educated guess stemming from Code Geass drinking from the same watering holes as the Fate/ franchise, but it synced mostly with her intervening and modern motives and not very well with her root backstory. Andy from a month and a half ago posted:
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Mar 4, 2016 13:01
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That's from Megaten.
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The Genocidrons are so dumb. So, so dumb. The name might make some sense though, Dancouga Nova happens in the same universe as Gravion (as Sandman himself has a cameo in the former), where the Genocidrons are very dangerous machines from another planet that could've easily destroyed Earth. It's possible that the terrorists/arms dealers/whatever behind the robots took the name themselves as a way to make their junk look more exciting and dangerous to potential users. Or Obari might be uncreative and just reused the same cool name. That's more likely.
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Mar 4, 2016 15:11
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Logicblade posted:I can support this C.C. love. Carry her to the end game! Same, except Kallen
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Mar 4, 2016 16:30
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Even with them being reusable, I still think using consumables for anything other than cash is a huge waste of slots. And I appreciate Cici's identity being a mystery. Not every question needs an answer, and not everything is a question. I'm looking at you, mr. Face of Boe.
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Mar 5, 2016 22:52
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Wow we have a lot of series to cover this go-round. Not that many units, though. Robot Roll Call - Scenario 02 Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (First and Second Seasons)  AEU-05 AEU Hellion The evident bastard child of a Leo and an Aries. So Kindling mk.III, I guess.  AEU-09 AEU Enact First seen back in the very beginning of Gundam 00 S1, where it (and THE IMMORTAL PATRICK COULASOUR) got styled on by Gundam Exia. As a mass-production unit, it's just a sad reminder that the AEU took two frame revisions to nail the aesthetic that the Union nailed in one with the Flag   GNX-609T GN-XIII (Earth Sphere Federation use) The original GN-X's successor, made by an ESF capable of manufacturing its own GN Drive Taus with improved outputs (albeit nowhere close to that of oldschool green-sparkles GN Drives). The watchword is "streamlining," with much of the original Jinx's finny armor cut down and its armaments compacted into a hybrid-contact GN Beam Lance with integrated beam machine guns. Armored Trooper VOTOMS  ATM-09-ST Scopedog The VOTOM (Vertical One-man Tank for Offense & Maneuvers) and/or Armored Trooper that revolutionized mechanized warfare in the Astragius system...or would have, were its inhabitants not dumped onto Z2's Earth en masse. They're cheap and easy to fit with mission-swappable weaponry, which would be a great niche if Earth hadn't filled it with a half dozen Mobile Suit and Knightmare Frame designs alone. The purple variant seen in the previous mission are the colors of the Melkian Federation, a ceasefire coalition force formed from VOTOMS's Gilgamesh Confederation and Balarant Union, which reached a truce in that show's first episode after being at war for a hundred years prior. MAHQ didn't have lineart, so today's sub-in is the 1/12 completed figure by Yamato. Dancouga Nova  Genocidron (no fandom wiki entry available) Blaze Dragon posted:The Genocidrons are so dumb. So, so dumb. The name might make some sense though, Dancouga Nova happens in the same universe as Gravion (as Sandman himself has a cameo in the former), where the Genocidrons are very dangerous machines from another planet that could've easily destroyed Earth. It's possible that the terrorists/arms dealers/whatever behind the robots took the name themselves as a way to make their junk look more exciting and dangerous to potential users. And there you have it. It's a ramshackle manmade mockery of a better, alien robot. And as demonstated in the previous update, we didn't even need to put a New Hat And Shoes on our robot to style on it. Incidentally, attempting to GIS "Genocidron" yielded no animation-still results for either the Dancouga Nova or the Gravion version. It's all other people playing the Z2 duology. SRW Originals  Axio A mass-production machine developed by Axiom Labs, because I guess someone in the Z2 world wanted a Zenith but Front Mission didn't get folded into it. First-party production ceased after the Ver.7's release, I must presume because Carlos and Chief Traia realized too many people were buying a Dimensional Beast-killing robot to use against humans (when they weren't suffering from market saturation vs. Glasgows, Scopedogs, and 00 S1 detritus). Code Geass  Type-02 Guren Mk.II Repair Guren with a secondhand shoulder; the original right shoulder was blown off by the Lancelot during the Battle of Tokyo at the end of Code Geass S1 (contrary to our interpretation of events). At any rate, the Radiation Wave Surger hasn't suffered any loss in performance.  Type-10R Burai (Zero's use) (C.C.'s use) An oni-headed Burai originally used by Zero to provide field coordination for the fledgling Black Knights. With the movement presently driven underground, its present use is the disappearance of vast quantities of pizza and/or field replenishment of munitions.
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Mar 13, 2016 06:54
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drat, that totally is a Zenith. And now I'm sad at both the demise of Front Mission and the complete impossibility of FM in SRW. Again.
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Mar 13, 2016 14:45
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Wounded Land posted:drat, that totally is a Zenith. And now I'm sad at both the demise of Front Mission and the complete impossibility of FM in SRW. Again. Square has a couple great robot properties that would be great in SRW, namely Front mission and Xenogears. Though we can still hold out for Xenosaga coming in with more than just Kos-Mos and T-ELOs in OG Saga.
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Mar 13, 2016 16:48
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Armored Core in SRW. Imagine.
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Mar 14, 2016 13:07
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Armored Core in SRW. Imagine. No need, it already exist, it's called Another Century: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Century%27s_Episode
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Mar 14, 2016 22:15
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Guy Fawkes posted:No need, it already exist, it's called Another Century: Not at all. The only AC unit in that entire series is Nineball appearing in ACE:R as a boss. Rigged Death Trap fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Mar 14, 2016 |
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Mar 14, 2016 22:39
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Guy Fawkes posted:No need, it already exist, it's called Another Century: And another game goes on the wish list. Thanks. 
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Mar 14, 2016 23:53
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 Scenario 03: Messenger of the Sun, Tetsujin 28 Thank goodness for savestates, is all I'm saying about this episode's denouement. Two game saves have to turn into four, then back into two, then back into one as we try to cover the route split missions semi-contemporaneous to one another. And on top of technical issues and work, Final Fantasy Explorers is shaping up to be a hell of a drug, so barring Will doing the Karen -> Kallen find/replace in his copy himself, I'm not sure I'll be able to maintain the alternating biweekly update schedule as I have so far.
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Mar 24, 2016 07:16
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I did the space route first because it unlocked Lion really early and I wanted to use that over Triangular. Also I didn't care that much for the other routes as at the time Macross Frontier was the only one I was familiar with.
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Mar 24, 2016 08:08
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Haven't found the Assign BGM button yet. That's gonna piss me right off when we hit Xabungle.
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Mar 24, 2016 14:26
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Well, since you said two votes, I'll go with Kumen and Japan as my choices. Kumen because VOTOMS is, to me, more fun than Wing and a bit of 00, and Japan so we can do the monkey.
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Mar 25, 2016 03:14
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I will also be voting for Kunmen because team C.C. cannot be denied. As for the second vote, lets go into space with the Macross crew.
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Mar 25, 2016 06:38
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My preferences are, in order, Kunmen, Japan, Space and No. I'm probably going to be so disappointed when we do Space because I know they're not covering the best part of Godmars.  Also, CC seems a bit feisty without Zero around to fill her with pizza.
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Mar 25, 2016 22:55
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Underestimated the amount of Valkyrie stills I'd have to grab for the Robot Roll Call, so it's coming to you via Tester. Votes so far: Chaos/Kunmen: 3 Law/Japan: 2 Law/Space: 1 Chaos/Middle East: 0 Will's gonna be mad as hell; I might have to have us swap recording duties on the top two.
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Apr 1, 2016 07:19
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I do hope this isn't dead-ified!
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Jun 11, 2016 06:11
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Sadly I kind of have to call it thus. Will misplaced his copy of the game while moving house and couldn't be arsed to go fetch it, and in the interim Hyrule Warriors Legends and Gundam Breaker 3 happened.
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Jun 11, 2016 13:20
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