I see. So I guess your way is similar to mine, in that you aim to try and preserve the difficulty/balance.
Yes, that's the whole point. Z-2 has SO MANY "custom" quotes for every enemy type, for cross-over interactions, for bosses and for cooperation (support attack, support defense) it's a shame to be forced to concentrate on strategy.
Anyway my general "balance" check in SRW are:
- in SRW W and SRW J the no upgrade run is very viable. Things can heat up a bit if you put one point of additional upgrades to enemy units when you do consequential runs. Some bosses become downright frustrating on W if you put two points of additional upgrades: Tekkaman Evil dodges everything and the last boss at half his hp reduces stoner sunshine damage on hot blood to a mere 5000. Rubbish.
In J putting two points on enemy upgrades makes fighting og units and Gawloon a huge pain in the ass, because of their barriers. Halfway through the game it almost becomes unplayable.
- SRW A (PSP) I'm playing through it again. Upgrading every stat to one point for every ten stages makes the game quite balanced until mission 30 and so on. After that, some enemy units become too weak and others are still problematic even with four points on every stat. I'd say it's pretty much impossible to "forcefully" balance the game, because either you are too underpowered or too overpowered. The Ace bonuses even things a bit.
- Alpha is doable on a no-upgrade run, but I'd definitely use upgrade parts. This is if you are going for the SR points also, otherwise is VERY doable. The biggest problem is if you do a no-upgrade run you can't possibly bring along the weaker units because they get steamrolled mercilessly. I did my best to keep Kakizaki and Bilgitte until the end but their stats were too low.
- Alpha Gaiden needs upgrades if you go for the SR points. No questions about it. Like A though, some type of enemy units will become too weak: problem is, most boss units will become so strong you won't be able to get SR points if you don't upgrade. A cool thing in Gaiden was that character stats would improve through multiple deployments.
- SRW GC is no upgrade viable until mission 50 or so, but you really have to pay attention to the proper upgrade parts and the use of spirits. After that, the game is still accessible but it takes too much time to finish a mission so a bit of upgrading to the weapons, at least, should be done.
- Impact... you definitely need upgrades XD parts have to be used and spirit skills have to be abused.
- R if viable to a no upgrade run.
- D need some points of upgrades here and there. Mazinger is like an house of cards and gets destroyed in three hits by Victory Gundam units even if he keeps a defensive stance.
- L is also no upgrade viable. Even without parts.
- the Masoukishin remake (I still haven't played the second) is a mess. No upgrade and you are too weak, some upgrade and you are too strong. It's a shame because there's a lot of voice work to be appreciated.
- Mx is... a joke XD no seriously, sooner or later I want to try a no upgrade run with a single unit on each mission XD
Maybe it's been asked already but are we getting a third PV before release?
Initially the 2nd PV should have been released midway through march. Then they anticipated the date to February so I guess another PV at the end of march is... possible.
I guess that works too.
Anyone planning on making use of the custom soundtrack feature?
Definitely. I will probably abuse all three Unicorn osts. And the one from Attack on Titan also. SRW OE soundtrack would be perfect, but I can't seem to find a "clean" version.
