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[Pehesse]

I have no problems with Japanese, so I guess I'll jump into Z1. If I don't like it at least it'll cost me less money.

Haha, absolutely :-D Z1 is definitely a very good one, and since it's the start, might as well take the time to go through it. Though now in retrospect it really feels they intentionally left plot threads hanging back then, but had no real plans on how to actually use them, and it's from Z2 onwards that they tried to design everything coherently - but ultimately, it makes Z1 feel pretty different from Z2+ (doesn't help that most of the cast list from Z2 sticks around from then on, while Z1's had some confusing disappearing acts).

Still, definitely good enough to warrant at least one, and maybe multiple playthroughs, before moving on to the rest!

 

[Hasemo]

Haha, absolutely :-D Z1 is definitely a very good one, and since it's the start, might as well take the time to go through it. Though now in retrospect it really feels they intentionally left plot threads hanging back then, but had no real plans on how to actually use them, and it's from Z2 onwards that they tried to design everything coherently - but ultimately, it makes Z1 feel pretty different from Z2+ (doesn't help that most of the cast list from Z2 sticks around from then on, while Z1's had some confusing disappearing acts).

Still, definitely good enough to warrant at least one, and maybe multiple playthroughs, before moving on to the rest!

Do I have to choose certain dialogue options in SRW to see the "true ending" or whatever or can I just sit back and enjoy the show?

 

[Sakura]

I heard you can get Alto to choose the best girl instead of the girl he chooses in the movies >.>

 

[Pehesse]

Do I have to choose certain dialogue options in SRW to see the "true ending" or whatever or can I just sit back and enjoy the show?

No, there are requirements for alternate endings in Z1 and Z2.2 (Z3.1 has an unlockable route as well but it doesn't change the end scenario). It's not just dialog, too, there are specific actions to take during some scenarios.
Thankfully those requirements are pretty well documented by now, and if you don't want to bother figuring them out yourself, it's all here: http://akurasu.net/wiki/Super_Robot_Wars, in their respective pages!

I heard you can get Alto to choose the best girl instead of the girl he chooses in the movies >.>

Heard the same! Though since I have followed none of the Macross routes, I believe I'm locked into the default choice, but it should unlock for the second playthrough onwards as before, if there really is a choice :-D

 

[Lostconfused]

I heard you can get Alto to choose the best girl instead of the girl he chooses in the movies >.>

Alto does choose the best girl in the movie, by eloping with his plane to god knows where.

 

[Bebpo]

Nono makes everything in Tengoku-hen so much better than Jigkou-hen. Man, I really freaking wish they had done Gunbuster proper in Jigoku from OAV1->7. Huge waste of potential to do the entire Gunbuster -> Diebuster story in one game. Last time they actually did OAV1-6 was Alpha 1 on PS1.

 

[Shouta]

I find Nono annoying lol.

Looking forward to more Gargantia stuff though I'm past the first stretch of its story.

Also wow Turn A looks niiiiice.

 

[Bebpo]

Yeah Turn A got the Zeta/CCA/Harute treatment. I love the movie-like animations even if they're super short. The part where Zeta backs out of the pink explosion cloud on a dynamic kill of his new long beam saber is friggen amazing. The new super robot animations are good too. Pretty impressed by Zambot 3 and all its detail. Gundam X is ok, just like in Z1/Z2 it's always gotten the ok, but not amazing treatment.

Also, as much as the Green Earth inital route is way better than the other routes since it's where you get all the new stuff that comes in Z3-2 whereas the other routes you get nothing (lol), stage 10 of the other route is a really good Gundam SRW stage. It reminded me that one of the only truly great parts of Z3-1 was how well written the CCA/Unicorn mixed storyline was. Nice to see it's still quality here.

PS. How can anyone hate Nono? She has the best portraits and every one of her lines is full of HOT BLOODED GUTSUUUUUUUU

 

[Bebpo]

I wasn't really sold on the game at the start. A bunch of nothing happens prelude OG maps and then a complete slap in the face version of Eva was pretty :/ Especially with no new units and loading still the same. Then the real robot route has a pointless merge and you've got that whole Z3-1 underpowered team (super path is much more refreshing).

But by the time you're back at combined, things are moving, you've got a great cast of characters to pick and play from. Good attacks and variety of enemies and sub-stories, new stuff to play with and it's much better than z3-1. And there's still 80% of the game to go from there.

Basically if you go green earth (super route), the game's only slow for the intro couple of hours and then gets moving in a fun way. On real robot side, it takes about 10 hours for the game to get good imo. And since most people are coming off 8-10 hours of rengoku, it can be a bit draining waiting another 10 hours for it to get fun.

 

[muteki]

Yeah Turn A got the Zeta/CCA/Harute treatment. I love the movie-like animations even if they're super short. The part where Zeta backs out of the pink explosion cloud on a dynamic kill of his new long beam saber is friggen amazing.

It's very tv OP Mk-II. Wish Mk-II got more love in the game, oh well.

Finished Green 7 last night. Fairly dull, but good stage to make a lot of money. I think I have had my fill of Gargantia by now.

 

[Mr. Nice_Guy]

Here everyone is talking about Gargantia and I hadn't even heard it it until this thread. Guess I have something to watch while I play Jigoku-hen. Hopefully it'll be in the mail today.

 

[Sakura]

Eh, you aren't missing much in my opinion.
I didn't like the show and the game certainly doesn't make the story seem that interesting either.

 

[Pureauthor]

Gargantia is two different and potentially good shows compressed together into a single show and both halves suffer as a result.

Chamber is the best, though.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

These custom fees are a pain but it's worth it in the end imo.

EDIT: It just arrived! What does the data transfer at the start of the game give you? Just additional cash and parts if you beat Z3.1?

 

[Buster Machine]

These custom fees are a pain but it's worth it in the end imo.

EDIT: It just arrived! What does the data transfer at the start of the game give you? Just additional cash and parts if you beat Z3.1?

Yeah. From the Akurasu wiki:

Link Bonuses

Upon starting a new game, you have the option of using previous clear data from BOTH SRWZ3.1 and SRWZ3-R(engoku) to gain some free bonuses. The 2nd option must be selected during the new game menu to take advantage of your clear data. If for some reason your data is uploaded onto the JP cloud via the networking option, the game is capable of reading that data as well. Each bonus adds up although multiple clear bonuses may only stack up to 5 times. The maximum total bonuses a player may get for starting a new game with Jigoku and Rengoku data are:

2,000,000 credits
3,500 Z Chips
250 PP to all pilots
15 kills to all pilots
Crest of Jigoku
Barrier Field
A-Adapter
Repair Kit
Crest of Rengoku
DG Fang

SRWZ3.1 Bonus

Game Clear - 500000 credits, 1000 Z Chips, 150 PP, 5 kills (for each pilot), Crest of Jigoku, Barrier Field
Scenario Chart Complete - 500000 credits, 1000 Z Chips, 50 PP, 5 kills (for each pilot), A-Adapter, Repair Kit
Multiple Clear Bonus (up to x5 clears) - 500000 credits per clear, 1000 Z Chips per clear, 50 PP per clear, 1 kill for each pilot per clear

SRWZ3-R Bonus

While players are able to continuously play on cleared Rengoku data, having consecutive completed runs does not factor into any extra link bonuses.

Game Clear - 500000 credits, 500 Z Chips, Crest of Rengoku, DG Fang

 

[Pehesse]

Stage 46: WHAT

WHAT

Oh, and:

Spoiler

WHAT

 

[Bebpo]

Gargantia is two different and potentially good shows compressed together into a single show and both halves suffer as a result.

Chamber is the best, though.

Tengoku might handle it better. Like how it's completely changing Unicorn's plot to fix some of the problems with it (Ridhe). Probably one of the best parts of SRW is that if they put in the effort they can fix shows that were good in concept, but didn't actually work and make them work.

This is why I want them to do Xam'd someday! It's sort of a robot.

 

[Shouta]

Gargantia is a very good show and does what it intended to do extremely well. The only issue is that it really isn't very much of a mecha show in the end despite the big opening and the presence of Chamber. It's a fish out of water story focusing on Ledo.

SRW fixes that lack of robot action by letting you use Ledo and Chamber to fight MOAR robots so there's that but the core story elements for Gargantia don't need fixing, just adjusting to fit the SRW game world, heh.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Yeah. From the Akurasu wiki:

Alright, thanks for the info.

 

[Tsukumo]

So, is Hathaway in the game? Is he still plagued by the shitty stats he had in Jigoku?

 

[Lostconfused]

So, is Hathaway in the game? Is he still plagued by the shitty stats he had in Jigoku?

That's not how you write Fa.

 

[Pureauthor]

A bunch of shit Universal Century pilots are in for no real reason, yes.

 

[Bebpo]

A bunch of shit Universal Century pilots are in for no real reason, yes.

I'd like to think the extended effort on Hathaway was because they were planning to do Hathaway's Flash but it got cut along with Eureka AO and whatever else. Can't shake the feeling that regardless of how well (or not) Z3 turns out in the end, it was a troubled development project.



Also just food for thought, I was googling some L videos and it's interesting to compare the animation quality, choreography and and dynamic kills in L vs. what we have today. Definitely some of the "fun" style lost at expense of higher detailed sprites and more realistic choreography (also in general, a lot of attacks have lost their sense of speed in Z3).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g0XlaSn3eU

Or even Z2-2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfMzTzW5MDs

 

[Lostconfused]

The attacks are simply worse. It's not more realistic choreography, or better sprites, they are just poorly made.

https://youtu.be/xa-DOrQ6Axw?t=35s

https://youtu.be/2hVhwH6_lYE?t=38s

Both are pretty much the same in terms of how the unit looks and animates, there isn't a huge bump in detail. The one in Z2 is just better.

Edit: It's not like hey "all units look better but animate worse". Nope, some units have better animations and sprites than any other Z games. It's just that in the process of re animating most things the amount of time, effort, and skill was not distributed equally. While some things bot barrel of the bottom scraps like FMP, even though its one of the main leading series in Z3.

Really they should just trim down the cast list if they can't maintain a consistent level of quality. Why does Gundam MKII have better animations than half of the cast? It's a fan favorite? Then why have 5 other characters that fit into the same role gameplay wise, it's a waste of resources.

 

[Bebpo]

Choreography is definitely more realistic and less fun though. Like in L, Tallgeese's whip attack grabs the enemy and throws them into an imaginary mountain before dragging them across imaginary ground and tossing them off. There's not a lot of "smash people into invisible mountains in space" stuff in Z3.


Also while I appreciate the slight changes when attacking into the sky or onto the ground. Like where the animation actually changes like Dai-guard's rock punch for drill arm against an air enemy, that's the kind of stuff they don't really need and I'd rather that extra animation go to improve the attacks and Dynamic Kills. For the most part Z3 has the worst DKs since they've been introduced. Instead of the unit cutting the enemy in half or vaporizing them and then doing a cool pose on all strong attacks, you get like a beam making a hole in the enemy instead of going through them and that's it. Hardly any attacks have good DKs where the units do something after the attack, which makes me sad ;( DKs were the best thing ever added to SRW.

 

[muteki]

Choreography is definitely more realistic and less fun though. Like in L, Tallgeese's whip attack grabs the enemy and throws them into an imaginary mountain before dragging them across imaginary ground and tossing them off. There's not a lot of "smash people into invisible mountains in space" stuff in Z3.

It is funny watching the M9 Gernsback cover behind imaginary ground in space though

 

[Bebpo]

It is funny watching the M9 Gernsback cover behind imaginary ground in space though

Yeah, although with that one I figure he's propping up on a spaceship. But yeah, the team attack is one of the few with invisible mountains. And Votoms makes invisible floors outside of space equipped version.

 

[Lostconfused]

There's not a lot of "smash people into invisible mountains in space" stuff in Z3.

https://youtu.be/PQlngx2WKfA?t=1m48s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vH1aslUYac

 

[Mr. Nice_Guy]

Eh, you aren't missing much in my opinion.
I didn't like the show and the game certainly doesn't make the story seem that interesting either.

Gargantia is two different and potentially good shows compressed together into a single show and both halves suffer as a result.

Chamber is the best, though.

Gargantia is a very good show and does what it intended to do extremely well. The only issue is that it really isn't very much of a mecha show in the end despite the big opening and the presence of Chamber. It's a fish out of water story focusing on Ledo.

SRW fixes that lack of robot action by letting you use Ledo and Chamber to fight MOAR robots so there's that but the core story elements for Gargantia don't need fixing, just adjusting to fit the SRW game world, heh.

Huh, these are varied enough opinions to make we want to check it out at least. Thanks!

Also Jigoku-hen came today so I'll be playing that first! It also came with a code for an SRW HD download which was a neat little extra. Kudos to Banpresto.

 

[Bebpo]

You know, I realized that Z2-1 (2011) had 3 years of development from Z1 (2008), whereas Z3-1 (2014) only had 2 years of development from Z2-2 (2012). Before Z2-1, every SRW had 3 years of development time.

So the fact that Z3 is the first mainline SRW in a decade+ to have a year less development time than they usually require could definitely explain the animation quality, lack of series in Z3.

Hopefully Namco isn't going to force SRW games to be bi-yearly now or they might really need to cut down on amount of series included.

 

[Shouta]

It's probably a money issue too. Redrawing that many series for HD is a lot of work and resources.

I'm totally fine with only having a few new series in Tengoku as long as they fit within the story well. My biggest complaint with Alpha 3 was that they had all of these plot treads going on from individual series throughout the game but they never really looped into a cohesive narrative like how Z has done it. Alpha 3 also recycled a lot of assets too.

I'm sure if Z had all been on one system, we would have had a game that reused every single asset if possible, lol

 

[Bebpo]

It's probably a money issue too. Redrawing that many series for HD is a lot of work and resources.

I'm totally fine with only having a few new series in Tengoku as long as they fit within the story well. My biggest complaint with Alpha 3 was that they had all of these plot treads going on from individual series throughout the game but they never really looped into a cohesive narrative like how Z has done it. Alpha 3 also recycled a lot of assets too.

I'm sure if Z had all been on one system, we would have had a game that reused every single asset if possible, lol

It might work ok here because it's the final game in the series, but next entry when it's an entirely new cast, if they're limited in time and budget it could be really rough. I hope they get 3 years until 2018.

 

[Bebpo]

The re-use is pretty lame though in Tengoku. Once Aquarion Evol enemies showed up it was kind of like "ugh, not these grunts again".

I think I'm ok with them re-using bosses like bringing back the Xabungle enemy guy in in Z2-1. But the constant re-use of grunts from finished series along with all the color swapped OG enemies is kind of a bummer.

 

[Sakura]

My biggest complaint about Z3 is it is too convoluted... I have a hard time following all the plot lines. There is too many series, too many factions in the games, too much nonsense. Too many Japans.

 

[Lostconfused]

Alpha 3 also recycled a lot of assets too.

It also had some things that looked horrendous. Like say the two strike packs that aren't Aile. Sword and Launcher even when they were low res SD looked nothing like you'd expect Strike to look like. Their animations were also a whole lot less impressive.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Do the "Meet in the Hangar"/"Don't Meet in the Hangar" choices affect anything?

I can't remember if they did in the previous game.

 

[Lostconfused]

No, it just skips the explanations for the other routes and conversations.

 

[Shouta]

Do the "Meet in the Hangar"/"Don't Meet in the Hangar" choices affect anything?

I can't remember if they did in the previous game.

Nope. it's just for going over what happened in the other route. If you don't want to know or just want to skip then don't go to the hangar.

 

[Pureauthor]

It's probably a money issue too. Redrawing that many series for HD is a lot of work and resources.

I'm totally fine with only having a few new series in Tengoku as long as they fit within the story well. My biggest complaint with Alpha 3 was that they had all of these plot treads going on from individual series throughout the game but they never really looped into a cohesive narrative like how Z has done it. Alpha 3 also recycled a lot of assets too.

I'm sure if Z had all been on one system, we would have had a game that reused every single asset if possible, lol

But Gargantia does pretty much its own thing and Eva 3.0... Well.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Nope. it's just for going over what happened in the other route. If you don't want to know or just want to skip then don't go to the hangar.

Thanks.

Just finished the first split and now I have to re-organize all of these units into good squads.

I just have to keep in mind that all the accel users should be spread around so my better units can move around quickly.

 

[Bebpo]

Do we know if any secret requirements are linked to units lost? Cause I'm losing units left and right on some of these maps. Thank god for Roger.

 

[Keylow415]

Is ace bonus still 80 kills?

 

[Pehesse]

Do we know if any secret requirements are linked to units lost? Cause I'm losing units left and right on some of these maps. Thank god for Roger.

That'd be pretty surprising? As far as I know, the secrets seem to function mostly like they did for previous Z games - they're still mid-research on akurasu.net so nothing's set in stone yet, but I've seen nothing that leads to believe losing units is a penalty apart from money/nothing if you have Roger. And yeah, I've been losing more units than usual as well (meaning, actually losing some for once :-D), it's refreshing actually!

Is ace bonus still 80 kills?

Yup! There's a medal for going further than that on a single pilot too, I don't recall the exact number of kills, 100 or 120? In Jigoku it was 150, but I don't have anyone that broke through that yet, and still have the emblem already - unless I read the stats wrong, these last few days are a bit of a blur for me :-3

 

[Bebpo]

That'd be pretty surprising? As far as I know, the secrets seem to function mostly like they did for previous Z games - they're still mid-research on akurasu.net so nothing's set in stone yet, but I've seen nothing that leads to believe losing units is a penalty apart from money/nothing if you have Roger. And yeah, I've been losing more units than usual as well (meaning, actually losing some for once :-D), it's refreshing actually!

Yeah, at least early on supers without 1/4th damage seishin can get destroyed if a bunch of strong grunts decide to target them in an enemy turn. At least all reals pretty much start with concentrate or concentrate+ and can dodge grunt attacks.

 

[Bebpo]

Stage 14 has to be one of the worst SR points ever. Get 4 shuttles to below 500HP but unlike OGs there's no "take it easy" seishin where you stop damage at 10HP. So it's a hundred trial and error soft-restart & reload as you measure the exact damage numbers of your units attacks so you an get a 10k HP to just perfectly under 500HP without killing them. Took me like 60-90 mins of 60-90 retries. Really really waste of time :|

Also, this game is MAP attack the game. Like half the units have map attacks by 12 stages or so in. Not that I mind.

 

[Pureauthor]

Stage 14 has to be one of the worst SR points ever. Get 4 shuttles to below 500HP but unlike OGs there's no "take it easy" seishin where you stop damage at 10HP. So it's a hundred trial and error soft-restart & reload as you measure the exact damage numbers of your units attacks so you an get a 10k HP to just perfectly under 500HP without killing them. Took me like 60-90 mins of 60-90 retries. Really really waste of time :|

Also, this game is MAP attack the game. Like half the units have map attacks by 12 stages or so in. Not that I mind.

What? Of course there is. Loran, Amuro, Kira and Lal'c all get Mercy which makes getting that SR point easy as pie.

 

[Pehesse]

Stage 14 has to be one of the worst SR points ever. Get 4 shuttles to below 500HP but unlike OGs there's no "take it easy" seishin where you stop damage at 10HP. So it's a hundred trial and error soft-restart & reload as you measure the exact damage numbers of your units attacks so you an get a 10k HP to just perfectly under 500HP without killing them. Took me like 60-90 mins of 60-90 retries. Really really waste of time :|

Also, this game is MAP attack the game. Like half the units have map attacks by 12 stages or so in. Not that I mind.

What? Of course there is. Loran, Amuro, Kira and Lal'c all get Mercy which makes getting that SR point easy as pie.

Beaten to the punch! That's right, there's plenty of Mercy to go around, though I'll confess to having done that specific SR point the same way you did, since I somehow ended up with none of those guys around to correctly disable the shuttles in time... Take note that there's another SR point later just like this, with 6 units and 3 turns to make it happen - might need some MAPs there :-D (but really, that one was fairly simple too).

I'm doing the lategame stretch now with ridiculous power upgrades all over the place, I'm really liking it. Unless the game dramatically drops the ball in the last 5 stages or so, I can confidently say I enjoyed this run way, way more than I did Jigoku, and I'm seriously considering immediatly replaying to go for the other route splits, which I usually never do before quite a while has passed. So far I still like Z2.2 better because of overall consistency, but I could see myself replaying this more often than Z1 down the line. We'll see how it all wraps up.

(That Turn A EN draining attack is just too good, it completely stops all Mykene dead in their tracks and makes them ripe for a bit of xp abuse, since they're always so high level)

Also, unrelated but it seems I'm somehow a member now? Dunno when it happened but yay!

 

[Lostconfused]

What? Of course there is. Loran, Amuro, Kira and Lal'c all get Mercy which makes getting that SR point easy as pie.

Yep, even better is that I had Loran paired with Garrod on that map. Satellite cannon pretty much reduced every single enemy on that map to 10 HP.

Also, this game is MAP attack the game. Like half the units have map attacks by 12 stages or so in. Not that I mind.

I am sorry are you playing Alpha again? You certainly aren't short shrifted on map attacks as much as the other Z games, but it's still not a huge overabundance. They are still kept rather in check.

 

[Bebpo]

What? Of course there is. Loran, Amuro, Kira and Lal'c all get Mercy which makes getting that SR point easy as pie.

Shit, that's really weird. I did a general "seishin search" from the in-map option list and it wasn't listed. But then again I have a ton of ????s because everyone's levels are pretty low this early in the game (~lvl.21-24) and most people only have 2-3 seishins max. Maybe none of those guys had it yet? I definitely had Loran/Amuro/Kira deployed.

 

[Buster Machine]

Yep, even better is that I had Loran paired with Garrod on that map. Satellite cannon pretty much reduced every single enemy on that map to 10 HP.

I am sorry are you playing Alpha again? You certainly aren't short shrifted on map attacks as much as the other Z games, but it's still not a huge overabundance. They are still kept rather in check.

DX, Strike Freedom, Guren, Gunbuster, Dix Neuf, Turn A, Wing Zero, Shinkirou, Quatre-Vingt-Dix, Aquarion Evol. Then you have a ton units with "middling" map attacks like all of the Valkyries, Virgola, Tallgeese, etc.

Don't know if it outnumbers Alpha 3, but it feels pretty close.