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[Shouta]

If you want to get that character, beat MD on Stage 30, and then convince/beat her with Crowe on subsequent stages, I think particularly stage 42/43

Anyway, Alpha 3 is a lot more of a mess plotwise and its story is built much more straightforward. Plus, at the rate we're going, Alpha 3 will be smaller than Z2 because the end of this game can be considered the halfway point.

 

[Ken]

Just got the game from NCSX. Before I jump in, are there any translation guides for moves and such so I can try to match the Japanese text to the English text?

 

[xero273]

Just got the game from NCSX. Before I jump in, are there any translation guides for moves and such so I can try to match the Japanese text to the English text?

not that i know of. Only guide is this

http://akurasu.net/wiki/Super_Robot_Wars/Z2

skill, parts, skill points.

 

[Bebpo]

I was just using @3 as one example. @2, Z1 also have much more going on imo.

I think the general consensus is that it's not fair to compare the plot of z2-1 with another srw because it's only half a game. But that doesn't strike me as a satisfying answer. If you took z1's plot, doubled the amount of maps while keeping the same number of story events and charging $150 for it...that doesn't necessarily make the game better or even the same.

Again, I may be speaking out too early as I still have a half of game to go and plenty of hot blooded events may be just ahead. So I'll revisit this in another 2 weeks when I finish it. I'll just say that I really love srw and so I really hope z2-2 will be awesome and exciting from the very start. I want z2-1=zoe1 & z2-2 = zoe2

 

[Ken]

not that i know of. Only guide is this

http://akurasu.net/wiki/Super_Robot_Wars/Z2

skill, parts, skill points.

Thanks. That actually has some stuff I was looking for.

 

[HaRyu]

Man, its so nice to have fully upgraded units for Crowe and Chirico on the 2nd play through.

Was the New Game+ carryover setup as:

2nd play: 50%
3rd play: 75%
4th play: 100%?

 

[Boss Doggie]

I think I'm just frustrated that the game has so much maps wasted on DIMENSIONAL BEASTS WOOOO!

Spoiler

I didn't get what happened in mission 50 though - did he (the guy you were fighting) become a dimensional beast? Does that mean dimensional beasts were former people?

I like your AVs Ookami-kun.

I'd say wait for Z2-2 to see how series storylines playout there Bebpo.

Thanks!

Hmm and I guess. I just hope we wouldn't get too much dimensional beasts.

 

[HaRyu]

I think I'm just frustrated that the game has so much maps wasted on DIMENSIONAL BEASTS WOOOO!

Spoiler

I didn't get what happened in mission 50 though - did he (the guy you were fighting) become a dimensional beast? Does that mean dimensional beasts were former people?

Thanks!

Hmm and I guess. I just hope we wouldn't get too much dimensional beasts.

Pretty sure that's what happened. I think it was due to that one attack though (since it involves crystalization, w/c seems to fit in w/ the characteristics of the DM Beasts).
If that's the case,

Spoiler

we may not even see DM Beasts in part 2, considering who you end up killing at the end of part 1.

 

[Bebpo]

The problem with Dimensional Beasts, is that like Invaders and Vajira they're just faceless grunt armies with no purpose other than to fill up a map and waste your time.

On the other hand, at least most of the time when you face alien races or human armies with actual characters, there tends to be some reason they appear, so the plot advances a little before they show up and after battle. So you feel like you're part of a story and things are happening. Plus while you're fighting them you get cut-ins and dialogues for the mini-bosses/bosses of each group. Just makes it more entertaining.

I'm ok with having one set of just "monster grunts", but between those 3 groups, probably like 40-50% of the enemy waves you fight in this game are just filler no-story waves. Kind of a bummer. At least Invaders and Vajira don't show up too often, but yeah DMs...all the time.

 

[Boss Doggie]

And don't forget the annoying Prevail, D-Fault and EN/Morale Reduce stuff

 

[Bebpo]

Finished the 3rd run through 24-27 last night. Killed stage 27

Spoiler

MD

with Crowe on the last run by positioning him next to a support attacker at the end of the 2nd run, then killing enough grunts to get him to AP Phase + support attack doing just above 5k barely.

24-27 3 routes were a good example of what I like and don't like about the maps:

Spoiler

00 Route:
24: lets head to macross ship; DMs -> enemies + thrones (ok map)
25: lets continue to head to macross ship; oh wait, DMs show up + zeuth pilots (zzzz filler)
26: we're near the macross ship; oh wait Vajira show up + zeuth pilot (zzzz filler)
27: ok, this is a good map with juicy asakim/ein stuff

Gurren Route:
24: let's explore continent; oh wait Gunmen grunts + zeuth pilot (zzz filler)
25: continuing; oh wait more gunmen + viral who shouts and does nothing + zeuth pilot (zzz filler)
26: continuing; oh wait, gunmen ...no Invaders + zeuth pilots (zzz filler)
27: ok, same good map with asakim again

Geass Route:
24: Epic Narita battle vs. Cornelia from Geass S1 (awesome)
25: General battle but important ep from Geass S1 AND Votoms plot advancement (great)
26: Great recreation of the vs. Mao ep from Geass S1 (awesome)
27: ok, same good map with asakim agin.

So yeah, OO & Gurren routes were really boring outside the final asakim stage; so 2-3 hours of boring each, whereas Geass route played like a REAL SRW where you play out events from the shows as they are intertwined with each other. These maps in Z2-1 are great just like they are in every other SRWs. But I think Z2-1 has far to many of the other type of maps where you're moving forward and some dms/invaders/vajira show up and it's just filler and kind of boring.

Also the way the Zeuth pilots were introduced was pretty bad imo. The whole "hey look, it's a few old cast members; now fight grunts; ok, now join the team" thing was very meh. There's really no reason they could have had story maps with build up and excitement that worked the zeuth pilots entrance into them for a nice surprise and more fun.

Also I realized that being lured by the FUBs was a trap after actually looking up what some of them do. In your first run, most are a total waste of money that could be used towards actually making more units useful in battle. Like for instance, even Exia's "all weapons + 400 damage" FUB...well if it's going to cost you 300k more to reach FUB and you're only at weapon lvl.5, for the same 300k you can get your weapons + 600 or something. So my point is, until you've actually maxed your weapons to lvl.10, there's no point in spending for the FUB. I was spending so much money maxing out all of GL's stats for FUB only to find the bonus was useless "survive an attack that would have killed you" since he never dies anyway and I could have spent that 200-300k i spent on stats I ddn't need to make another unit totally awesome and great in battle.

So I'll wait until 2nd runs to do FUBs. At this point I'm changing my playstyle to upgrade a good 30-40 units to quality status so whichever route I do at splits I'll have an awesome party of badass units rather than just 2 or 3 and everyone else sucks.

 

[Pureauthor]

I think stage 32 where a certain bespectacled dude bites it is where the game kicks into 'plot is HAPPENING' gear. There's less 'here, have some DBeasts' stages, anyway.

 

[Bebpo]

Nice. Should be there in a day or two

 

[HaRyu]

Day 2 of 2nd play through, made it to stage 17, Covert Route.

I've practically blew all my money already from the carryover bonus, lol. Due to some, *ahem* "trouble" experienced in the first play through, I've opted to make sure that the Gundams and Macross F units got some extra oomph in the upgrade the dept. Maxing out the Crowe's and Chirico's units are more than enough to handle most of what the game can throw at me, and this time, making sure everyone gets the awesome Continuous Action pilot skill ASAP. The stages are just whizzing by.

As it stands, I'm mainly concentrating on getting everyone to ACE status, and rebuilding funds for when the ZEUTH crew arrive.

My ONLY problem right now is that, I seemed to have made Chirico "too" powerful, and I am unable to unlock his first pilot skill. I'm gonna have to MAP (w/ Sure Hit) his ass at some point to unlock it.

 

[Bebpo]

I feel like I totally don't get Chiriko. From the start Shouta was telling me how awesome he is and everyone in this thread talks about how amazing of unit he is and what a beast he is, but that seems like opposite world of how he's been for me lol

In his first scopedog, he was so bad. His dodge wasn't that great and once he ran out of SP or was surrounded and kept getting lower dodge rates he'd get hit once and die. On the damage side he did like 2-3k damage, which was really sad. The only reason I was deploying him at this point was because I liked his BGM.

In his 2nd scopedog with all the weapons, which is what I have now, he's just ok. His dodge/accuracy is good and he has enough SP that he can go a lot of rounds with concentrate on. But he still doesn't deal that much damage! He's doing like 3-4k normal, 5-6k crits; but at this point in the game most of the good units are doing 5k+ normal and 7-8k crits. He also has pretty shitty move and is grounded unless you use equipment. I like using him at this point, but he is far from a beast and not even as useful as a standard frontliner real like Deathscythe.

I know his ACE/FUBs are apparently great, but that's not until pretty far into the game, so I'm just wondering what I'm missing about Chiriko.

 

[Boss Doggie]

The beauty of Scopedog is that it is cheap to upgrade, so go FUB it early!

 

[Bebpo]

Wait, different units have different upgrade costs? I never knew that. I just assumed it was the same for all units and 500k or so for the stats that aren't weapon and 500k or so for the weapon levels.

Hmm, if Scopedog is a lot cheaper then I'll start throwing more money into it.


Btw, anyone else curious about how they're going to handle the Z2-1 to Z2-2 transition in terms of upgrades? I wonder if you're going to lose all your upgrades and start from 0 again on the units that continue over? And when you get new units like OO Gundam, will your upgrades from Exia carry over? Same with character levels and seishin. Are you going to have to start with no seishin and re-level again and rebuy the same PP skills for the same characters? Seems like it'd be kind of lame to start completely over and have to rebuild everything back up.

Then again if they let you carryover, it'd break the game balance completely for the first run on Z2-2, soooo...seems like they can't do that either.

I wonder if you'll get get a money/PP lump bonus depending on what you carry into the new game.

 

[HaRyu]

I feel like I totally don't get Chiriko. From the start Shouta was telling me how awesome he is and everyone in this thread talks about how amazing of unit he is and what a beast he is, but that seems like opposite world of how he's been for me lol

In his first scopedog, he was so bad. His dodge wasn't that great and once he ran out of SP or was surrounded and kept getting lower dodge rates he'd get hit once and die. On the damage side he did like 2-3k damage, which was really sad. The only reason I was deploying him at this point was because I liked his BGM.

In his 2nd scopedog with all the weapons, which is what I have now, he's just ok. His dodge/accuracy is good and he has enough SP that he can go a lot of rounds with concentrate on. But he still doesn't deal that much damage! He's doing like 3-4k normal, 5-6k crits; but at this point in the game most of the good units are doing 5k+ normal and 7-8k crits. He also has pretty shitty move and is grounded unless you use equipment. I like using him at this point, but he is far from a beast and not even as useful as a standard frontliner real like Deathscythe.

I know his ACE/FUBs are apparently great, but that's not until pretty far into the game, so I'm just wondering what I'm missing about Chiriko.

He's essentially the equivalent of a Dunbine unit in this game. What that essentially means is that in the beginning, its like he's using a mech made out of tissue paper, it goes down pretty easily, and it doesn't cause that much damage, when compared to other units. Also the Scopedog seems to be essentially a bait unit, put him out front in the open, and most of the time, enemies will attack him more than anyone else.

However, if you upgrade the mech enough, he's on par in terms of damage w/ the big hitters, like GL and Mazinger. Not only that, but his hit and dodge rates are on par w/ Amuro, so you've got a high damage dealer who not only is hard to hit, but also rarely misses.

This is still even before you go and unlock his ACE bonus, or even adding extra pilot skills. Give him Continuous Action and Ignore Size, and he literally can go toe to toe w/ the DM Beasts later on.

Finally, his first pilot skill, w/c is locked, is the final piece of the of the puzzle to make him a severely broken unit. Bear in mind I actually made it through the first play through w/o unlocking it, and I have yet to unlock it yet in my 2nd play through (just made it to Stage 20). I don't have the skill, and yet Chirico is still a force to be reckoned with.

Seriously, at the end of my 1st play through, he and Amuro were basically my bait/diversionary units. I send them out to fight two seperate groups alone, and have the rest of my forces work on everyone else. In most cases, if they didn't wipe clean their respective targets, the enemy units were sure as hell damaged enough that I could pick them off easily w/ anyone on rest of my team.

 

[Bebpo]

How do you unlock his first skill?

 

[HaRyu]

How do you unlock his first skill?

You need to nearly kill him. ^O^
You're suppose to bring his health down to critical levels (red HP).

The skill is called: Abnormal Survivor, and if you watched VOTOMS, you'd know what that implies.

The skill triggers when HP is below 10% and gives +30 to Hit and Evade and +20 to Melee, Ranged, Defense and Skill.

So in other words, if some enemy unit was actually lucky enough to hit him and got him to critical levels, every enemy on the map would be screwed. ^O^

 

[Bebpo]

Ah, will try to do that though I'm not sure how often the skill would activate in a real battle. I mean an enemy strong enough to hit him (such as a boss) would likely kill him in 1 hit from my experience.

 

[HaRyu]

Ah, will try to do that though I'm not sure how often the skill would activate in a real battle. I mean an enemy strong enough to hit him (such as a boss) would likely kill him in 1 hit from my experience.

Considering what the skill does, that's not a surprise. This is basically a variation of the Guts/Super Guts skill that's in the Alpha series (should be in Alpha 3). Most notable pilot to have it would be Noriko from Gunbuster, and I believe Ryusei (SRX pilot) would have it too.

But its not that necessary to get it. Even without it, the Chirico and his Scopedog are a beast.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Wait, different units have different upgrade costs? I never knew that. I just assumed it was the same for all units and 500k or so for the stats that aren't weapon and 500k or so for the weapon levels.

Hmm, if Scopedog is a lot cheaper then I'll start throwing more money into it.

Yeah, each unit has different upgrade costs. Scopedog is quite cheap. Extra/grunt units tend to be cheaper too. He has four parts slots too. He is a Small unit size though, so give him Ignore Size. Predict also helps.

You don't even need his level 9 prevail (the one that boosts his stats when in danger) to make him broken, but it helps.

 

[HaRyu]

*cries tears of joy*
Oh god... second play through of the Stage 20 was so easy now. Continuous Action is the way to go. That and making sure everybody has at least a level 6 weapon upgrade. ^O^

 

[Shouta]

Wait, different units have different upgrade costs? I never knew that. I just assumed it was the same for all units and 500k or so for the stats that aren't weapon and 500k or so for the weapon levels.

Yes, different units cost different amounts to upgrade. It usually follows into several patterns though.

Scopedog to FUB and fully upgrade his weapons his 800,000ish or so. Compared to most of the supers or protagonist Gundams where it costs something like 1,000,000.

Fastest way to unlock Chirico's Abnormal Survivor skill is to Mercy a map weapon and tag him with it. Assuming his stats aren't through the roof, you'll leave him with 10 HP and make him pretty much invincible for the rest of the map, sans Sure Hit/Lockon.

 

[HaRyu]

Yes, different units cost different amounts to upgrade. It usually follows into several patterns though.

Scopedog to FUB and fully upgrade his weapons his 800,000ish or so. Compared to most of the supers or protagonist Gundams where it costs something like 1,000,000.

Fastest way to unlock Chirico's Abnormal Survivor skill is to Mercy a map weapon and tag him with it. Assuming his stats aren't through the roof, you'll leave him with 10 HP and make him pretty much invincible for the rest of the map, sans Sure Hit/Lockon.

Funnily enough, I just MAP'd him w/ the E7 battleship and GL, and while it DID activate, it didn't change the ????? to the actual name. Does it actually change at all, or does it stay as ?????

In any case, yeah, you almost kill him, and then he's pretty much unstoppable.

 

[Shouta]

I don't think it's given a name, but it's still there.

 

[HaRyu]

Stupid question, mainly because like the whole "Skill/Aim" fiasco from a few days ago, I was only assuming again, but...

The "NEXT" indicator that's on the Intermission screen (look in the lower right hand corner). What exactly does it indicate?

 

[Boss Doggie]

It shows the next chapter/scenario's title.

 

[Bebpo]

Man, wtf is with these deploy counts in the 28+ merge. I have 85 deployable units, telling me to pick 5-15 is REALLY HARD I have at least 20-30 units I really like to use.

Z2-2 better have partner/tri/squad back.

 

[HaRyu]

It shows the next chapter/scenario's title.

What?
Are we talking about the same thing?

It says NEXT in the bottom right hand corner, and there's a number there. That can't be related to the next scenario, because right now, I'm headed to Stage 25, but the number says 10.

Checking previous saves, it said 9 for Stage 24, and 15 for Stages 19 through 23.

I originally was of the belief that it stood for "The amount of XP needed for NEXT level", but like I said, it was an assumption, and now that I think of it, the number in the corner doesn't match up at all.

 

[HaRyu]

Man, wtf is with these deploy counts in the 28+ merge. I have 85 deployable units, telling me to pick 5-15 is REALLY HARD I have at least 20-30 units I really like to use.

Z2-2 better have partner/tri/squad back.

Oh that ain't so bad. However

Spoiler

wait till later in the game, because when all of a sudden you're allowed 20+ units to deploy, that should tell you that you're about to be screwed over.

^O^

 

[Versipellis]

What?
Are we talking about the same thing?

I think you are talking about the max number of deployable units in the next stage.

 

[HaRyu]

I think you are talking about the max number of deployable units in the next stage.

Ahhh! That's it. Thanks for clearing that up. ^O^

 

[HaRyu]

Oh nice. The upgraded attack for Crow's Barasta is different depending on w/c setup you chose in the beginning. Was wondering if it would have been the same or not. (and no, I haven't watched the "all attack" vids on youtube, so I definitely wouldn't have known)

 

[Pureauthor]

Finished playthrough 1 last night. Great SRW game overall.

 

[squall23]

Wait, different units have different upgrade costs? I never knew that.

Well think about it this way, you have a Scopedog and Gurren Lagann. You can improve a Scopedog by making it faster, giving it more weapons, etc for a cheaper price because they're logical evolutions. But for GL's case, how do you improve something that is supposedly impossible at the first place? You have something that should not exist, and you have to spend extra money on the R&D to make it even better.

 

[Mandoric]

Wait, different units have different upgrade costs? I never knew that. I just assumed it was the same for all units and 500k or so for the stats that aren't weapon and 500k or so for the weapon levels.

Hmm, if Scopedog is a lot cheaper then I'll start throwing more money into it.


Btw, anyone else curious about how they're going to handle the Z2-1 to Z2-2 transition in terms of upgrades? I wonder if you're going to lose all your upgrades and start from 0 again on the units that continue over? And when you get new units like OO Gundam, will your upgrades from Exia carry over? Same with character levels and seishin. Are you going to have to start with no seishin and re-level again and rebuy the same PP skills for the same characters? Seems like it'd be kind of lame to start completely over and have to rebuild everything back up.

Then again if they let you carryover, it'd break the game balance completely for the first run on Z2-2, soooo...seems like they can't do that either.

I wonder if you'll get get a money/PP lump bonus depending on what you carry into the new game.

It's been a long, long time since I played F Final, but IIRC it -did- carry over but you get a whole second tier to go back and fill in. Wouldn't be amazed if that happened here.

 

[HaRyu]

It's been a long, long time since I played F Final, but IIRC it -did- carry over but you get a whole second tier to go back and fill in. Wouldn't be amazed if that happened here.

I can only imagine the difficulty of the enemies for Z2.2 if they did that.
*shudder*

And also, for those that didnt play F, but played F Final instead, they gave you crap loads of credits just to get you up to par for the game. Although, the credits really wouldn't be as much as if you had actually earned them from the previous game, and you wouldn't get any secrets if you didn't fulfill the conditions back in F.

W/c is why: make as much bloody money as possible in Z2.1, and make sure you meet all the conditions, just in case!

 

[Shouta]

Good thing I'm going to do 3 playthroughs for the 15 levels and 100% of everything carrying over, no matter how they do it, they'll probably give you bonuses for clearing Z2-1 several times.

 

[Pureauthor]

Me too. I want to experience all the routes/plots/units.

 

[HaRyu]

Good thing I'm going to do 3 playthroughs for the 15 levels and 100% of everything carrying over, no matter how they do it, they'll probably give you bonuses for clearing Z2-1 several times.

Speaking of which, don't you have to do FOUR play throughs in order for the carryover bonus to equal 100%?

2nd play = 50%
3rd play = 75%
4th play = 100%

 

[Boss Doggie]

I just wish upgrades carry over. I heard some SRW games do that.

 

[HaRyu]

Stage 35, Area 11 Route... damn Crowe, you had my respect up till now, you penny pinching frugal scrooge bastard.

 

[Shouta]

Speaking of which, don't you have to do FOUR play throughs in order for the carryover bonus to equal 100%?

2nd play = 50%
3rd play = 75%
4th play = 100%

I thought the 15 Upgrades unlocked on your 4th playthrough not after.

 

[HaRyu]

I thought the 15 Upgrades unlocked on your 4th playthrough not after.

I have no idea. I'm actually shooting for 4 play throughs, but if anyone gets it before me, let us know.

Currently on stage 41, 2nd play through.

 

[Ken]

This game is so much fun and I love the sprite work. My last SRW was on the Wonderswan (SRW Compact 2) so jumping from that to this is amazing.

Currently on scenario 11 with a couple of questions:

I've been putting my SP into stuff like ranged attack for the protagonist. Is this what should be done or should I be saving SP for something else?

I read that I should specialize the protagonist into shooter/ranged over melee. How do I do this?

During combat when in defense position, what are the other 2 options besides counterattack? I'm thinking the third one is something like evade since the enemy's hit chance is lowered but not sure what the second option is.

What are the advantages/disadvantages if any of going from flight to ground mode?

 

[Pureauthor]

I've been putting my SP into stuff like ranged attack for the protagonist. Is this what should be done or should I be saving SP for something else?

I read that I should specialize the protagonist into shooter/ranged over melee. How do I do this?

During combat when in defense position, what are the other 2 options besides counterattack? I'm thinking the third one is something like evade since the enemy's hit chance is lowered but not sure what the second option is.

What are the advantages/disadvantages if any of going from flight to ground mode?

1) If you want to snap the game in half, save up 300 PP for Continuous Movement for all your attackers. (300 PP, last page of the Skill purchase section). There's some other stuff that's good depending on what the pilot in question does - like Mazinger really benefitting from E-Save.

2) The dialogue choice you got after the first stage was the decision point. Right now, look at your weapons loadout. If your last attack has a targeting reticule, you're range specialized. If it has a fist, you're melee specialized. Both will do fine.

3) First option is counterattack (selecting counterattack also brings you to the weapons screen so you can choose what to counter with). Second is 'Defend', where damage is halved. If you robot has the 'Blocking' skill it'll also cut off another 10% for 60% damage reduction. Third option is evade as you guessed.

4) Different robots perform differently depending on the terrain. The most universal example is that most robots absolutely suck in water. In-game though, air/ground doesn't yield much difference.

 

[Ken]

1) If you want to snap the game in half, save up 300 PP for Continuous Movement for all your attackers. (300 PP, last page of the Skill purchase section). There's some other stuff that's good depending on what the pilot in question does - like Mazinger really benefitting from E-Save.

2) The dialogue choice you got after the first stage was the decision point. Right now, look at your weapons loadout. If your last attack has a targeting reticule, you're range specialized. If it has a fist, you're melee specialized. Both will do fine.

3) First option is counterattack (selecting counterattack also brings you to the weapons screen so you can choose what to counter with). Second is 'Defend', where damage is halved. If you robot has the 'Blocking' skill it'll also cut off another 10% for 60% damage reduction. Third option is evade as you guessed.

4) Different robots perform differently depending on the terrain. The most universal example is that most robots absolutely suck in water. In-game though, air/ground doesn't yield much difference.

Oh it's PP not SP, my bad.

Thanks for the reply.

So instead of boosting specific stats I should save up for skills using PP.

Another question popped up whole reading the wiki: the wiki says there are team attacks in the game like GN Arms. How would I use those attacks? Are those available from the start as in I don't have to purchase the
ability?

Also when I move units, sometimes friendly units will have yellow text over their names and a 2 or 1. What do those indicate?

 

[Mandoric]

This game is so much fun and I love the sprite work. My last SRW was on the Wonderswan (SRW Compact 2) so jumping from that to this is amazing.

During combat when in defense position, what are the other 2 options besides counterattack? I'm thinking the third one is something like evade since the enemy's hit chance is lowered but not sure what the second option is.

What are the advantages/disadvantages if any of going from flight to ground mode?

Another question popped up whole reading the wiki: the wiki says there are team attacks in the game like GN Arms. How would I use those attacks? Are those available from the start as in I don't have to purchase the
ability?

Also when I move units, sometimes friendly units will have yellow text over their names and a 2 or 1. What do those indicate?

To be exact, defense cuts damage in half, or by 60% on units where the unit has a shield regardless of the pilot having the Blocking skill. Pilots with Blocking will randomly activate Cut Down on projectile attacks (if the unit has a sword), and randomly activate a shield's 20% cut even while evading or counterattacking.

Flight mode puts the unit in the air--some attacks are weaker against air than ground--and makes each square of movement cost 1 EN. Ground mode means that movement is free, grants bonuses to evasion and defense in terrain with cover, regenerates HP and/or EN in terrain such as docking bays or power plants, but some attacks are stronger against grounded units, rough terrain hinders movement, and most units suck in water. Also, Getter-2 and Gurren Lagann can drill down from the surface, rendering them untargetable, though this is typically a poor idea--it's basically there to get close to bosses with big sniping attacks, but Flash tends to work just as well.
(Submerging in water also renders most Gundams pretty much completely impotent.)

Combo attacks are just activated by having everyone involved near each other on the map, plus meeting the other requirements. Ther come later in the game, though.

The yellow text denotes units which can support attack or support defend. If you've got, say, Crow already on the front lines, you can move another unit next to him if he hasn't moved and he'll toss in a weakened shot after; on the other hand, the Macross Quarter will hover protectively over adjacent units and take one hit a turn for them, only triggering if they would actually be hit (evade, bunshin, cut down, and so on all proc before it.)