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[Lucis]

Where did you hear this rumor from? Have a source?

From a friend,
who works at one of the biggest gaming website in china as a senior editor (SRW is a lot bigger there than probably anywhere in the world other than Japan itself)

As for concern about it not being as good, here's my take on it.
The game def grew on me, I didn't like it as much at first, but I like it more and more as I played on.

Z2.1 was released APR 2011, 2.2 released APR 2012

Z3.1 came out this time APR 2014, so by trend Z3.2 APR 2015?

They had 2 years working on it, maybe they have planned things out and made things half way for 3.2 already? who knows. (But Z1 was released some times in 2008 if I remembered correctly, gap between Z1 and Z2.1 is only 6 month longer than Z2.2 to Z3.1)

To be honest I hope it come out in OCT this year, Z needs to finish. Then we will all be in withdraw for filler entries until the next big thing comes out (which will be 2017 for all we know)

 

[Bebpo]

I think most likely is April 2015, yeah. The reason it only took a year last time, and will probably only take a year this time is that Z2-2 re-uses a ton of assets from Z2-1 and I'm sure they were working on Z2-2 assets and map planning while Z2-1 was being made. Z3 should be the same.

My problem is that Z2-2 was a bit lazy in that it didn't have a ton of new stuff, but that was ok because Z2-1's base was pretty good, and it worked ok to just add series/attacks/maps and call it a day.

But Z3-1's base is a bit weak, most likely because of rush for deadlines or lack of budget. I'd really like them with Z3-2 to not only add new series/attacks/maps, but to have the time/budget to go back and spruce up a lot of these existing units like Arbelest, Gundam Deathscythe, etc... who knows if they'll do it.

I think Terada takes a lot of the criticism to heart, hence the fixes for Nu Gundam and Strike Freedom. So I think if he had the time/budget he'd totally fix up Deathscythe Hell, but the question is if scamco will give him the time/budget. -_-

PS. I also think Terada is pretty damn aware of the lacking animation, which is why he's been fairly silent leading up to Z3-1's release whereas he was super excited and hyping up Z2-1's release like crazy in the months before because he was really proud of what they'd done.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

So what does everyone think of Hibiki, compared to Crowe and I guess Setsuko and Rand as protagonists.

I think Hibiki is definitely my favourite out of all of them.

I especially think it's interesting how they've handled his upgrade situation, as it's kind of like a progression (on stage 36 now with the

Spoiler

one turn activation limit

).

 

[Lucis]

Man you guys are so fast =(
I am only on like stage 20 (2 stages a night, maybe some times 3 is all I have time for)

 

[Naite]

So what does everyone think of Hibiki, compared to Crowe and I guess Setsuko and Rand as protagonists.

I think Hibiki is definitely my favourite out of all of them.

I especially think it's interesting how they've handled his upgrade situation, as it's kind of like a progression (on stage 36 now with the

Spoiler

one turn activation limit

).

I prefer Crowe as a character for his design and personality. Rand has the awesome music and Setsuko is okay. Don't really like Hibiki's character design.

On the other hand, Genion is probably my favourite mecha design out of all of them. Never really was a fan of Brasta or either of his upgrades.

 

[Bebpo]

Brasta sucked but Crowe was a hilarious great aniki, absolutely loved his character and the OG support characters like Carlos and Ester and Ain were great. Gauou was ok, but underdeveloped.

The Z1 OG characters were just ok. Even Rand, though likable, was just kind of a generic oaf. Gunleon's a cool mech though.

So far like Hibiki and the OG characters more than z1 less than z2.

 

[CorvoSol]

So I'm loving that they paired VOTOMs and FMP up. Just loving that. I may make Chirico Sousuke's permanent partner for the game, although I'd intended on sticking him with Heero.

 

[Bebpo]

How's Eva unit 1 in this game? I kind of stupidly blew all my cash getting him the 50% upgrade bonus right away because I'm a big Eva fan. But he wasn't that good in alpha 3 (asuka was better) maybe that was a bad idea...

I'd assume the top tier units are Kiriko, Unicorn w/NT-D on, and Gunbuster/GL for supers?

 

[Zengar]

Unicorn D-mode is just OK, not great. I think it's worse than the Nu Gundam with Pschyo frame activated.

 

[MechaX]

How's Eva unit 1 in this game? I kind of stupidly blew all my cash getting him the 50% upgrade bonus right away because I'm a big Eva fan. But he wasn't that good in alpha 3 (asuka was better) maybe that was a bad idea...?

Unfortunately, I can't help you with how good EVA 01 ends up, but at least you didn't FUB Rei and Unit 00!

 

[Zengar]

Eva-01 is OK as a support unit for accelerate; it's not really good to be a lead unit since AT field cost 20EN per block, its strongest attack cost 100EN. Unless I have another D-charger, I don't think I would use it in the front line at all.

 

[Naite]

I really chose the wrong mission to learn not to lose Eva01. Losing units left and right to the Mycenae and now I got to deal with this.

 

[Jubern]

I didn't know about the Custom Bonus at 50%! I'll get on that ASAP.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

How's Eva unit 1 in this game? I kind of stupidly blew all my cash getting him the 50% upgrade bonus right away because I'm a big Eva fan. But he wasn't that good in alpha 3 (asuka was better) maybe that was a bad idea...

I'd assume the top tier units are Kiriko, Unicorn w/NT-D on, and Gunbuster/GL for supers?

I don't have the game in front of me right now but the top tier out the gate units are;

Simon
Ryouma
Noriko
Anyone who comes with Will Limit Break

Kiriko in my game is really weak for some reason. He does low damage even with high morale. I guess I should wait until

Spoiler

I get the scopedog that doesn't have an ALL attack as its best attack.

I prefer Crowe as a character for his design and personality. Rand has the awesome music and Setsuko is okay. Don't really like Hibiki's character design.

On the other hand, Genion is probably my favourite mecha design out of all of them. Never really was a fan of Brasta or either of his upgrades.

Brasta sucked but Crowe was a hilarious great aniki, absolutely loved his character and the OG support characters like Carlos and Ester and Ain were great. Gauou was ok, but underdeveloped.

The Z1 OG characters were just ok. Even Rand, though likable, was just kind of a generic oaf. Gunleon's a cool mech though.

So far like Hibiki and the OG characters more than z1 less than z2.

It's here where I realize again that we're essentially playing two different games. For those of us who can't read Japanese fluently, we really just have the gameplay/animations/visuals to go off of for enjoyment while those who can read fluently can experience the story and character interaction which no doubt adds a lot more enjoyment to the game. I suppose it's my fault that I'm in the former camp so I can't really complain now.

 

[Shouta]

Eva-01 at least early is like mostly ammo based. Makes him pretty nice with a cartridge and a big supply of EN to power the AT Field. His biggest problem for me is lack of an all attack currently but I assume that gets remedied.

Lelouch + Gendo Ikari, I'd watch that anime.

 

[Ken]

Dumb question: what am I supposed to do in the first mission with Mazinger?

 

[Shouta]

Hold out until the hostages are saved. You can then fight the enemies.

DSH is hella good support unit for attacking. Maxed out its assist and its 5400 atk power and just 5 en. I think it might have been the same in alpha 3 though.

 

[Ken]

Hold out until the hostages are saved. You can then fight the enemies.

DSH is hella good support unit for attacking. Maxed out its assist and its 5400 atk power and just 5 en. I think it might have been the same in alpha 3 though.

So don't do counterattacks or attack anything?

 

[Pureauthor]

So don't do counterattacks or attack anything?

Just guard. It's Mazinger Z, it'll survive.

 

[CorvoSol]

I'm only on mission like, 9 or 10 and I blew all my money maxing out Arbalest, hahaha. I don't even know if the unit is good or bad anymore because at maxed stats any mech is absurdly broken. Like I'm dealing 8k or whatever just using the vulcans.

 

[Ken]

Just guard. It's Mazinger Z, it'll survive.

Well finally got that out of the way.

This game's version of Mobile Suit kind of stinks.

 

[Jubern]

Sheeeeeit. On the stage you obtain Spada and Guepard I somehow forgot about the "Destroy the 2 bosses

Spoiler

ON THE SAME TURN

" condition T-T
Thank god maxing SR points is just for the glory, but it feels bad since I tend to always go for full SR and never made such a simple mistake before...

 

[Buster Machine]

You get so much money that it doesn't really matter who you upgrade. I'm only on stage 20 and have Geninon, Guren, Arbalest, Unicorn, and Mazinger Z at 50% and the former 4 with full upgraded weapons.

Guren is even more ridiculous now with that post-movement map attack. Game difficulty has dropped like a rock ever since I got it.

 

[Lucis]

You get so much money that it doesn't really matter who you upgrade. I'm only on stage 20 and have Geninon, Guren, Arbalest, Unicorn, and Mazinger Z at 50% and the former 4 with full upgraded weapons.

Guren is even more ridiculous now with that post-movement map attack. Game difficulty has dropped like a rock ever since I got it.

Not only that, Heero and Karen's map attack is also now post move, which I thought wasn't the case back then.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

When an attack has the ignore size property, is that the same as having max level ignore size or just one level of it?

I'm also wondering if the Support Attack skill (always critical when support attacking) works on assisting sub units too.

 

[Shouta]

When an attack has the ignore size property, is that the same as having max level ignore size or just one level of it?

I'm also wondering if the Support Attack skill (always critical when support attacking) works on assisting sub units too.

I'd assume same as having Max.

 

[Beth Cyra]

Nearing the final few missions and I still feel mostly everyone's attacks are somewhat lacking.

Spoiler

-Mazinger: Pretty bummed at the dynamic kill removed for his Rocket Punch. His BB Punch is done better than in Z2, up until the move hits. Seeing the punch carry off into the distance and explodes a few seconds later makes it feel way less impactful than before.
-Aquarion: Maybe it's because I don't give it the right upgrades/parts but I feel like it's a giant meat shield early on. It takes a bit of morale to get its decent attacks and even then you don't a lot of moves til way later in the game
-Gundam Wing: Besides maybe Tallgeese, all of them seem pretty weak looking. Nataku doesnt even using both dragon claws.
-Nu Gundam: Sick as always but I think they removed his fin funnel dynamic kill.
-Unicorn and Zeta: Really good.
-Gundam SEED: Pretty sure there's some new animations but it looks mostly the same to me.
-Gundam 00: A lot of nice animation here. Except they're missing a ton of attacks from the movie (probably saving for Z3-2). Graham doesn't even Tran-Graham. Raphael is pretty bad, has 0 post movement attacks unless in the secondary slot of a team.
-Evangelion: They're okay I guess. I wish they included Eva02's ZA BEAST.
-FMP: Besides the usual complaints I like how M9-D Falke's final attack is animated which is all that mattered with him, and Sousuke's Lamba Driver-based attack is comparatively better. Only thing it could really use is some inbtween animation frames when he's charging the finishing blow. Sad there's no M9 combination attack like in W.
-Gurren Lagann: All the the space units have dumb-looking attacks. Gimmy and Darry just shoot a few beams then poke you a few times with sticks. Kittan just kicks you a few times.
-Getter: I personally like the animation for Z2-2's Black Getter final attack more than this one. Shin Getter has a way better change attack animation with all the Getter forms, but only Getter 1 has access to it. For some reason Hayato and Benkei are cut entirely out of Stoner Sunshine and it has a much weaker looking dynamic kill.
-Macross: I honestly haven't looked at a single Frontier animation since the early missions of the game, even after I unlocked YF-29 and got new attacks.

Also I'm not sure if it's a bug or whatever, but some of my characters are not using full attack names during attacks. When Black Getter spams his Getter Beam thru his cape, he sometimes screams Getter..... and then flies past the enemies. Gurren Lagann sometimes goes Hissatsu......Drill....Breaker.

I've shit on Z3 for the choices they've made, but the attack you point out for Shin Getter is right on the fucking money.

Easily the best version of the move since Alpha 2's Getter Dragon which even had the Lightning Crash before the final blast.

 

[Lostconfused]

Lelouch + Gendo Ikari, I'd watch that anime.

Its called Code Grass except Gendo is the king of Britain for some reason.

Not only that, Heero and Karen's map attack is also now post move, which I thought wasn't the case back then.

Pretty sure it was post movement in Z2-2, at least one of the two.

Oh in a twists surprise all of the budget was apparently spent on animating Sandrock.

 

[Pureauthor]

Gates and Gauron are truly villains: They stole all the animations budget from the protagonist units.

Seriously Gates' animation is incredible.

 

[Shouta]

Sandrock budget? Yesss. I'm totally maxing him out as soon as I get him. =o

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

That's the weird thing. The FMP villain units (not the grunts but the named enemies like Gates/Gauron) move around quite a bit compared to the FMP units you get to control.

The only attacks I kind of like are (Late game spoilers)

Spoiler

Coolidge's(sp?) Edge attack and Sousuke's Lambda Strike, everything else feels pretty meh.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Does anyone else feel that Prevail got nerfed?

Before you could stick level 9 Prevail on a unit and they would become unkillable once their health dropped low enough.

In Z3 I'm not noticing any kind of notice-able defense boost from it at low HP levels.

 

[Shouta]

I notice the boost after I heal them back up, lol.

Also, considering SRW, I got this today at Sakura-con because it's so damn hot.

 

[Parakeetman]

I notice the boost after I heal them back up, lol.

Also, considering SRW, I got this today at Sakura-con because it's so damn hot.

Oh shit thats badass!

 

[Shouta]

This was the other one I get. Relevant because it has Votoms, lol.

 

[Parakeetman]

This was the other one I get. Relevant because it has Votoms, lol.

My friend would flip out over that one since it has layzner in it lol.

btw hows that manga series? Ive been seeing it at the stores but never picked it up yet.

 

[Shouta]

Dunno, I haven't read it yet myself.

 

[Jubern]

I noticed something with the FMP stage titles, they're actually the titles from the novel, not from the anime. Wouldn't this be a fairly good indication they intend to go with the novel plot in 3-3?

I finally read the last volume of Sigma the other day by the way, I'm really happy to see the end of this after so long. I also bought the first volume of FMP Another (manga) and while it wasn't anything mindblowing it's okay! I'm going to look for the second volume this afternoon.

 

[Pureauthor]

I noticed something with the FMP stage titles, they're actually the titles from the novel, not from the anime. Wouldn't this be a fairly good indication they intend to go with the novel plot in 3-3?

I finally read the last volume of Sigma the other day by the way, I'm really happy to see the end of this after so long. I also bought the first volume of FMP Another (manga) and while it wasn't anything mindblowing it's okay! I'm going to look for the second volume this afternoon.

Dude who wrote the novels was apparently excited about the Laevateinn making it into SRW, so maybe?

 

[suko_32]

Does anyone else feel that Prevail got nerfed?

Before you could stick level 9 Prevail on a unit and they would become unkillable once their health dropped low enough.

In Z3 I'm not noticing any kind of notice-able defense boost from it at low HP levels.

I was wondering if I was the only one who thought that as well.

 

[Beckx]

I have been in an SRW vortex for the last week.

My first SRW game and I'm having a complete blast with it. Most enjoyable single player game experience in months.

If only I could recruit dat Sinanju.

 

[perorist]

I'm not even close yet but just found out you can recruit and keep

Spoiler

Kshatriya/Marida

by meeting a series of conditions. Is she any good?

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

I'm not even close yet but just found out you can recruit and keep

Spoiler

Kshatriya/Marida

by meeting a series of conditions. Is she any good?

Spoiler

I got her after stage 42 I think it was. Not sure if she's just joining temporarily though (didn't do any of the UC route splits). I can't remember what her spirit commands are but I remember thinking that they were bad.

 

[Lostconfused]

Ugh finally SEED mode, I sure hope Shinn and Destiny suck less now.

 

[Sseklebeast]

I laugh when I see Shinn's S.E.E.D. mode battle portrait, hilarious.

 

[Lostconfused]

I laugh when I see Shinn's S.E.E.D. mode battle portrait, hilarious.

Which one?

This one

Or this one?

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Kira's SEED portrait looks pretty funny too. It seems that some of them look perfectly fine while others are a bit weird.

 

[perorist]

Upgraded Wing Zero + multi action is really broken holey moley.

 

[Jubern]

Dude who wrote the novels was apparently excited about the Laevateinn making it into SRW, so maybe?

No, his tweets were a thank-you to the staff for including Full Metal Panic! (as a whole) in a mainline game. I'm pretty sure there's nothing official yet about whether they're going to do post-Owaru Day By Day material in Z3-2... Unless it's teased at the end of Z3-1? I'm only up to stage 21 so I don't really know if there have been hints about it.

 

[Lostconfused]

Upgraded Wing Zero + multi action is really broken holey moley.

Nah its just multi action itself that's broken.