And yet for some stupid reason, they cut out the Advance theme. It's so weird to have Lamia and Axel being forced to use their normal themes again after 2 games.
Thinking about the low sales of MD, unless Asia really really makes up for those sales, I think the OG series is gonna die after 3rd OGs. Like I could see them killing off the franchise at MD, but they've done so much work setting up the end of Alpha 3 storyline in 3rd OGs and OGs really is basically the Alpha storyline at its base, plus they can just re-use these sprites and keep costs down, so I'd like to think 3rd OGs will come out no matter what. But since it'll be the conclusion to the core OGs storyline and since OGs sales have gone down the drain along with game sales in Japan in general I can see them selling 3rd OGs as the "end conclusion" of OGs and dropping the series for a decade until the next videogame replacement market comes into existence in Japan.
Wouldn't be surprised to see the OGs team go back to licensed after 3rd and make another game like MX. Or they'll just end up stuck on mobile or something that sells.
I hope we at least get Rand in 3rd with some new gorgeous animations. I'd love to get Crowe someday since he's my favorite Z character but his animations were never that great.
Another random thought on MD is the PP skill costs are so ridiculous. 30 maps and over halfway through the game a lot of my regulars still don't have enough PP to buy something like continuous movement at 380pp. The pp skills are really geared towards 2nd playthroughs which takes some of the fun away. I'm still waiting for Raul to get to 180 PP so he can at least refuel EN after movement. I deploy him every map and have him take out as many enemies as I can just to grind his PP up.
One thing I really like about MD coming from Z3 is that the bosses in MD actually have more than 1 attack animation! It's nice seeing like 3 good animations per boss unit (close range, long range, ultimate attack usually). I mean, in general I'm 110% satisfied with all the new units in MD, there aren't a huge amount of them, but every single playable new unit and boss unit has fantastic animations. But with bosses it's just such a night and day difference from Z3 where the bosses got completely skewered animation-wise. Remember that one sphere holder cancer-ship guy whose only attack is a ship beam? Or Ox-Lady's golden ship with 1 laser beam attack? God, Z3 was such a disappointment animation-wise. They're like "well, people usually only see 1 of the bosses animations anyways, so let's just animate one attack per boss and save money!!", I mean they were already splitting the game in 2 and selling one product for $150 to save costs, you'd think they didn't have to screw the bosses over as well
V is totally going to have 1 attack animation per boss again While the MX/OGs team takes forever and are probably fucked at this point, I really do prefer these guys to what's become of the budget gutted Alpha/Z team. I think if the OGs team did a licensed SRW after 3rd OGs it'd probably look way better than whatever the Alpha/Z team pumps out after V.
As someone who loved the GBA OG games, I am seriously excited for this game coming out in english. I dont care if it isn't the best of them all, just having anything is better than nothing.
I'm taking my slow time on MD at this point. Just doing a stage here or there when in the mood. Around stage 30 now. Nothing wrong with the game just nothing super engaging about it either after the initial get everyone together part. Once you get all the units there's like 15 stages or so of nothing new to play with and so many stages fighting the least interesting grunts ever seen in SRW (purple things). J stuff is always awesome and GC stuff is alright. Definitely feel at this point there could've been about 1/3rd fewer stages already and the game should've been more like OG Gaiden 35-ish map length. But gotta keep those used market returns down so 1-2 purple monster filler grunt maps for every substantial map.
At this point I'm holding off on recommending this game to English speakers as their first SRW since I'm fairly concerned it will kill their interest in the franchise and they won't give V in English a shot. But if the last 17 stages are amazing or something that could change my mind.
Another random thought on MD is the PP skill costs are so ridiculous. 30 maps and over halfway through the game a lot of my regulars still don't have enough PP to buy something like continuous movement at 380pp. The pp skills are really geared towards 2nd playthroughs which takes some of the fun away. I'm still waiting for Raul to get to 180 PP so he can at least refuel EN after movement. I deploy him every map and have him take out as many enemies as I can just to grind his PP up.
Been blowing through the last dozen maps. SRW pacing is always the same to me, the first 15-20 maps each game are fun as the games introduce the characters, plotlines and give you new units/attacks each stage. Then there's usually like a 20-30 map drag where the plots all meander, there's a bunch of filler, the bosses all run away and come back and run away, and you hardly get anything new to play with besides a mid-season upgrade unit here and there. Finally you get to the last 10-15 stages where shit kicks into gear and the plot gets focused and starts bringing all the dangling subplots together for action packed finales filled with boss rushes and multiple endings and it's exciting and fun again. That's been sort of my srw pacing experience over the last decade more or less and MD is the same. Probably finish it this weekend now that I'm in the endgame.
So since I didn't play LoE2/3/F,
When Shu shows up and explains all the stuff that happened offscreen between Dark Prison and Moon Dwellers, is that 2, 3 and F? Or just 2 & 3? Here I thought like how 2nd OGs/Dark Prison covered LoE1, that 2/3/F would be covered in OGs slowly, but I guess they're just skipping it all?
Although they're definitely building up that if 3rd OGs is the last OGs finale, at least part of it will take place on La Geais since the world down there is all messed up atm.
I ordered the Asia-English version on play asia. The official release date is the 5th of august, but my order says something like "delivery on 28th of august or earlier"
So i asked them what's going on.
The answer:
"Thank you for writing to us about your concern. As per checking, the
release date of the item Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers (English)
is on Aug 05, 2016 and the estimated date of arrival from our supplier will
be on Aug 28, 2016. That's why we're unable to ship it out on August 5. We
hope you understand."
That sounds strange and makes no sense to me. I hope it is not delayed, and the end of august is just a placeholder of the supplier + the person at the customer service is wrong.
I ordered the Asia-English version on play asia. The official release date is the 5th of august, but my order says something like "delivery on 28th of august or earlier"
So i asked them what's going on.
The answer:
"Thank you for writing to us about your concern. As per checking, the
release date of the item Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers (English)
is on Aug 05, 2016 and the estimated date of arrival from our supplier will
be on Aug 28, 2016. That's why we're unable to ship it out on August 5. We
hope you understand."
That sounds strange and makes no sense to me. I hope it is not delayed, and the end of august is just a placeholder of the supplier + the person at the customer service is wrong.
I'm fairly certain the placeholder for an unreleased title is the final day of its release month for a good while up to release. I'm not entirely certain how close to release it actually updates however. I think by around tuesday order statuses should start changing to "being prepared" so we'll know more then.
EDIT: Order status has updated. It looks like they will be shipping as expected.
-What they did with Masaki is lame. He joins so late that even if you spend the money to max upgrade him, you're still screwed on him having no PP and no good PP skills and not enough maps to even get him morale break. Also his stats seem really nerfed, even with concentrate SP he can't hit that well or dodge that well and can't tank particularly well. Shu is a lot better, but he has the same problem of lack of PP and not enough time to build up PP to even get morale limit break.
-Al Van is fucking good for a lower-tier boss that joins. I mean at weapon level 10 his strongest attack is 7500 damage. That's higher than a lot of the main characters.
-Why did they even bother putting Selena in this game when you can't really use her. Like they already introduced her in Dark Prison, why not have this be the game that incorporates her into the main cast? Unless there's some @3 story reason, been a while since I played @3 so don't remember how her storyline goes.
-To be fair I kind of wanted more @3 stuff in this to setup @3. What's in there is nothing really, and it also reminds me how fighting an army of clones is gonna be pretty boring for the first half of 3rd OGs. Hope the other series makes that more interesting. I feel like @3's OG plot only gets good in the 2nd half.
So for 3rd OGs, I'm figuring these are the new units we can expect?
-Cobray being the main character like how Ing was in 2nd OGs. Start with his normal unit and then get upgrade unit.
-Touya will get his upgrade
-Bullet/Kuzuha will get their weirdo hybrid units and then upgrade
-Selena will get her main unit and upgrade
-Masaki will get his Cybuster upgrade the LoE sequels introduced possession mode or whatever
-W original & upgrade
Also the only real major SD OG team good guys character that hasn't transitioned from PS2 graphics to HD graphics is the kung-fu dudes from OG Gaiden. Would be really nice if they came back in 3rd OGs. They're probably my favorite OG units.
Then probably some original units and maybe another game or two entry. Should be pretty alright assuming the OGs series doesn't get cancelled before then due to MD's lower sales.
Singapore PS blog update.
It's getting closer. These screenshot don't look terribad. I'm expecting some awkward stuff but not SAO levels of machine translation Engrish.
Compact units needs to come back somehow for sure. Probably some of the most badass units among the original characters, they need to be brought back in glorious HD (with new animations of course).
Singapore PS blog update.
It's getting closer. These screenshot don't look terribad. I'm expecting some awkward stuff but not SAO levels of machine translation Engrish.
All I know is that the same thing happened with Gundam Breaker 3 and that other Gundam game on Vita. I was a bit surprised too, I know they weren't available digitally at launch but never checked to see if they somehow came up later.
All I know is that the same thing happened with Gundam Breaker 3 and that other Gundam game on Vita. I was a bit surprised too, I know they weren't available digitally at launch but never checked to see if they somehow came up later.
-What they did with Masaki is lame. He joins so late that even if you spend the money to max upgrade him, you're still screwed on him having no PP and no good PP skills and not enough maps to even get him morale break. Also his stats seem really nerfed, even with concentrate SP he can't hit that well or dodge that well and can't tank particularly well. Shu is a lot better, but he has the same problem of lack of PP and not enough time to build up PP to even get morale limit break.
-Al Van is fucking good for a lower-tier boss that joins. I mean at weapon level 10 his strongest attack is 7500 damage. That's higher than a lot of the main characters.
-Why did they even bother putting Selena in this game when you can't really use her. Like they already introduced her in Dark Prison, why not have this be the game that incorporates her into the main cast? Unless there's some @3 story reason, been a while since I played @3 so don't remember how her storyline goes.
-To be fair I kind of wanted more @3 stuff in this to setup @3. What's in there is nothing really, and it also reminds me how fighting an army of clones is gonna be pretty boring for the first half of 3rd OGs. Hope the other series makes that more interesting. I feel like @3's OG plot only gets good in the 2nd half.
So for 3rd OGs, I'm figuring these are the new units we can expect?
-Cobray being the main character like how Ing was in 2nd OGs. Start with his normal unit and then get upgrade unit.
-Touya will get his upgrade
-Bullet/Kuzuha will get their weirdo hybrid units and then upgrade
-Selena will get her main unit and upgrade
-Masaki will get his Cybuster upgrade the LoE sequels introduced possession mode or whatever
-W original & upgrade
Also the only real major SD OG team good guys character that hasn't transitioned from PS2 graphics to HD graphics is the kung-fu dudes from OG Gaiden. Would be really nice if they came back in 3rd OGs. They're probably my favorite OG units.
Then probably some original units and maybe another game or two entry. Should be pretty alright assuming the OGs series doesn't get cancelled before then due to MD's lower sales.
Contextually, Masaki has to be nerfed. He lost the wind spirit and now the cybuster operates on negative energies. This will work toward your prediction of him getting the spirit/possession mode back.
Shu doesn't really need morale limit break. Just give him hit & away.
Did you notice that one of the late stage bosses was basically W's Valzacard in red paint?
Finally, Cobray would be too OP. They would never include him.
Contextually, Masaki has to be nerfed. He lost the wind spirit and now the cybuster operates on negative energies. This will work toward your prediction of him getting the spirit/possession mode back.
i was beginning to worry at the lack of hints toward W. Seems fitting, Aria's mech in W is wine-red-ish, and when she defects from the antagonists it helps form the Valcazard, so the Database having a counterpart of their own in that color scheme would make some sense.
She gets put in the hospital in this game because of stuff that happened either between this and Dark Prison, I think. Elmer is busted and is sent back to the manufacturer to be fixed. That's probably to set up the fact she's out for revenge of some sort to set her Alpha 3 storyline unless they started that in Dark Prison.
She gets put in the hospital in this game because of stuff that happened either between this and Dark Prison, I think. Elmer is busted and is sent back to the manufacturer to be fixed. That's probably to set up the fact she's out for revenge of some sort to set her Alpha 3 storyline unless they started that in Dark Prison.
I thought she was in the hospital because she got injured on the map she joins in MD escaping from the balmer clones? But still it's bizarre they make her playable for one stage and then you never see her again.
Also is it just me or did the final boss of MD hint at Z's plot coming after @3? I mean he calls Ing one of the 12 keys, sphere holder? Hmm, actually going back to my last save and trying different dialogues, he also says D's fortgigas unit is one of the 12 keys. Interesting. Also the final line the boss mentions
taikyoku, which was a Z thing right?
. I remember some people not believing OGs would go into Z and that @3 would be the end of OGs unless they reboot it. Good to know it seems like if OGs and SRW doesn't go out of business we'll start getting Z stuff after 3rd OGs. Hope Rand is in 3rd with lots of Z setups.
Oh and the one area I was a little let down on was Compatible Kaiser in MD. Considering he's one of the three main storylines in MD, I expected him to get some kind of an upgrade. I thought
the foreshadowing about his mothership was hinting on him getting the ship and having some kind of gattai with it. Then it turned out to be the final boss ;_; Kaiser didn't even get a new attack :
Didn't realize until the last stage that the J unit gets different animations on its ultimate attack depending on which of the three sub units are in.
I didn't play the space route yet so I dunno about her.
and yeah, the J units get unique animations depending on pilot just like in their original game which is SUPER cool. All of the animations are really nice too boot.
Selena was never playable.
She appears in a cutscene, but never playable. At least not from my beginner(earth) or EXHARD (Moon) runs.
Finally beat EXHARD Chapter 42 after a 3 hour run...
I just realized a possibily broken strategy for the final boss:
XN-L has a max range of 14 squares. < confirmed during beginner run)
Soul Saber GG's strongest attack has a max range of 11 (needs 140 will)
Akemi has 2 parts slots for an additional range of +2
Yuuki Jegnan's ace bonus = Range of all non-range 1 or MAP weapons +2 (applies to squad)
Support them on the side with:
Michiru Hanaten's ace bonus = No will penalty when using the "Resupply" command)
Alfimi has Inspire(感応 at 15 SP and recovers 10 SP per turn.
So technically, I can just take pot shots at the final boss at 15 squares out forever.
Selena was never playable.
She appears in a cutscene, but never playable. At least not from my beginner(earth) or EXHARD (Moon) runs.
Finally beat EXHARD Chapter 42 after a 3 hour run...
I just realized a possibily broken strategy for the final boss:
XN-L has a max range of 14 squares. < confirmed during beginner run)
Soul Saber GG's strongest attack has a max range of 11 (needs 140 will)
Akemi has 2 parts slots for an additional range of +2
Yuuki Jegnan's ace bonus = Range of all non-range 1 or MAP weapons +2 (applies to squad)
Support them on the side with:
Michiru Hanaten's ace bonus = No will penalty when using the "Resupply" command)
Alfimi has Inspire(感応 at 15 SP and recovers 10 SP per turn.
So technically, I can just take pot shots at the final boss at 15 squares out forever.
No, I had Selena playable for one stage along with her buddy from dark prison. Actually iirc the guy was a green COM controlled unit and you could only directly control Selena. I remember because I was seishin healing the guy with Selena since he wasn't escaping the map and he'd just tank hits. Their move sets are identical to dark prison, nothing new, nothing less. They both have their BGMs and unique battle dialogues. It's half a stage on one of the routes (I did a full scenario chart run as I usually do on my one playthrough). You start with her and the other dude
getting trapped by Balmer, then the objective is to escape to a 3x3 white box area at the end of the map. You get maybe 3-4 turns playable as both units and then her buddy guy dies and Selena takes a major hit but escapes.
Then the map transitions to the second half of the map where she runs into the main team and they save her.
Pretty sure it was moon route around stage 25-30. Not sure why you didn't get it with your moon route run. I didn't play beginner mode if that effects it.
Also the problem with your ex-hard final boss idea is the boss has HP regen so I'm pretty sure it'd recover more than your single pot shot attack each round if that was all you were attacking with per turn unfortunately.
No, I had Selena playable for one stage along with her buddy from dark prison. Actually iirc the guy was a green COM controlled unit and you could only directly control Selena. I remember because I was seishin healing the guy with Selena since he wasn't escaping the map and he'd just tank hits. Their move sets are identical to dark prison, nothing new, nothing less. They both have their BGMs and unique battle dialogues. It's half a stage on one of the routes (I did a full scenario chart run as I usually do on my one playthrough). You start with her and the other dude
getting trapped by Balmer, then the objective is to escape to a 3x3 white box area at the end of the map. You get maybe 3-4 turns playable as both units and then her buddy guy dies and Selena takes a major hit but escapes.
Then the map transitions to the second half of the map where she runs into the main team and they save her.
Pretty sure it was moon route around stage 25-30. Not sure why you didn't get it with your moon route run. I didn't play beginner mode if that effects it.
Also the problem with your ex-hard final boss idea is the boss has HP regen so I'm pretty sure it'd recover more than your single pot shot attack each round if that was all you were attacking with per turn unfortunately.
Ah I recall now.
You are right, she didnt have her @3 unit which is why it was weird for me.
It has to be an earth route, since the cutacene has her running across a desert environment.
You aee also right about the hp regen(s) om the final boss, but I will take counter-free damage anyway. Especially exhard when most things hit like a brick.
DP and MD set up Selena's @3 backstory the same way OG Gaiden set up the MX characters for their appearance in OGs2.
From what I recall from @3, the event where Spectra murders Selena's team occurs off screen before the game even starts, or only happens through hazy flashbacks. The take away from it is she confuses Spectra with Viletta. Selena has an interesting early story in @3 as she works with ZAFT until the events of Heliopolis colony.
I got my english version of MD and I'm super excited - it's been years since I've been able to play a SRW in english (since the GBA OG games actually) so this is great for me.
The english is pretty rough, honestly, but if the choices I have are
1- Game is only in Japanese and I don't understand a word of it
2- Game is readable in english (albeit sometimes NES-level english)! and I can at least follow the story
I'll gladly take 2 any day of the week.
I have a question - there's Beginner Mode and Normal Mode. From what the game says, in Beginner, when you get SR points, you get Money and PP. This would sound nice, honestly, but I'm curious as if you can replay the game from Beginner into Normal with NG+. Does anyone know? I know it's probably a sin to play in Beginner mode but I sadly do not have the time anymore to sink into this, reloading like a madman, etc. so I'd rather take it a bit easy but I don't want to ruin my chances of unlocking extra stuff from Normal mode.
You should be able to jump to whatever difficulty you want on new game+. I think even EX-Hard will unlock on the first completion, but not sure.
I'm watching some of the english clips on youtube and I'm still impressed at what a shit character Calvina is. Especially when she first meets Touya and gets annoyed at him "trying to be a tragic figure" when every line out of Calvina's mouth is "I'll kill that Thorn no matter what" and "all my friends are dead!" especially when she's surrounded by characters that have all suffered betrayal or death of a loved one. Touya's kind of a wimp at the start of the game but it's understandable and he straightens up pretty quick once he gets in the Granteed.
Calvina on the other hand, "I have a chip on my shoulder and you will acknowledge it, goddammit!!"
I made a Mega Man X style remix/arrange of the Moon Knights theme a while ago and decided to put it up on youtube.
For the interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF0argnZ6-Q
I got my english version of MD and I'm super excited - it's been years since I've been able to play a SRW in english (since the GBA OG games actually) so this is great for me.
The english is pretty rough, honestly, but if the choices I have are
1- Game is only in Japanese and I don't understand a word of it
2- Game is readable in english (albeit sometimes NES-level english)! and I can at least follow the story
I'll gladly take 2 any day of the week.
I have a question - there's Beginner Mode and Normal Mode. From what the game says, in Beginner, when you get SR points, you get Money and PP. This would sound nice, honestly, but I'm curious as if you can replay the game from Beginner into Normal with NG+. Does anyone know? I know it's probably a sin to play in Beginner mode but I sadly do not have the time anymore to sink into this, reloading like a madman, etc. so I'd rather take it a bit easy but I don't want to ruin my chances of unlocking extra stuff from Normal mode.
