Guess who got his hands on SRW L!
So far, this game looks really, really good. Nuts to any pre-emptive criticism people might have had. The interface is really easy to work with. Setting up supports and figuring out hit chances on map attacks was never so much fun. Graphics and animations are really cool - not only for new series, even old ones have new animations. And almost every unit has a dynamic kill on its strongest attack.
Surprisingly enough, there are no parts to equip. There are, however, pilot parts that increase the pilots' stats and abilities. I didn't reach so far to use the partner system yet, but my hopes are high. Likewise, dunno about difficulty yet. The first stages were not too difficult, but not a piece of cake - you can lose if you are very careless.
Spoilered plot impressions!
[spoiler]
Mission 1 is Macross Frontier! VF 25s cannot enter Gerwalk mode as a seperate unit, but they use it for attacks like Ozma here presents. The Valkyrie Fighters are VERY good in this game. Lots of defensive abilities (shoot down, sword cut, pinpoint barriers), AND strong attacks.
Also, for some reason Voltes is working along SMS. It has a lot of HP, and its attacks are very damaging. V-Slash has the base of 5200 damage and requires only 45 energy, making it moderately spammable. Ozma's hissatsu is ~4500 base damage, in comparison, while the VFs' missiles are ~3500 and the gunpod is 2500. Just to give an estimate of how spread damage values are in this game.
Second mission brings us Macross Frontier pilots that weren't present in the first one:
Konig Monster! Yes, yes, YES. I've been waiting for this. Kanaria, you are awesome.
Klan's Pixie Squad Attack! That's right, Nene and Lalamia are in this game, and they already had more lines in one interlude than in the whole Frontier series. And Klan herself kicks ass too. Forget jobbing, that was canon. This is
better than canon.
The second mission is the one where Luka gets his shotariffic butt eaten by a Vajra capital ship and they have to rescue him. They're running kinda fast through Frontier's plot, aren't they? Frontier folded towards Earth, by the way, which means another series is introduced:
SEED Destiny! I get Shinn and his friends, as well as Minerva. Apparently in this game we play from ZAFT's perspective like in Z, rather than Kira's like in K.
Very, very good. We also had a small interlude earlier when the Gundam Jackers... well, jacked the Gundams. But it was not interactive.
Impulse is not as good as the VFs. Its strongest attack deals only 4050 base damage, and the spammable one is at ~3000. Of course, we know Shinn gets an upgrade. The ZAKUs are predictably weaker. Amusingly enough, Lunamaria's beam tomahawk attack reminds me of Getter Q from MX. She throws the axe and then twists it in the damaged robot.
Also, Brera. But shh. We're not supposed to know who he is yet.
After the mission, we have Ranka singing in the Zentradi ghetto mall (I told you, Frontier's plot moves fast here) with the Destiny folk watching, so I guess they joined in with SMS. But I cannot upgrade units now so the plot moves to other people's POV now. What will happen later? It's a mystery.
EDIT: A few extra comments.
No protagonist yet. He'll probably appear in the next mission, along his robotic maid sidekick.
Nagisa from Iczer-1 is hanging around Frontier, for some reason.
Mikhail's sniper rifle attack looks different whether the mission takes place in space or atmosphere. I hope it's the case for others too.[/spoiler]
PART TWO!
I familiarised myself with the partner system. As expected - it took the best parts from OGS and K and consolidated them into one good system. Lack of parts makes it harder to mix flyers and non-flyers, but some units have squad bonuses of "everyone gets A in this or that environment" so it helps.
Also, I noticed dodging drops as you receive more attacks in a round. To make dodge tanking riskier, I guess. This may become very annoying later in the game. On the other hand, it may help dealing with bosses, too.
Plot spoilers!
What we had before was the prologue. Real numeration starts now.
Mission 1
[spoiler]
We start with our MC! And his assistant, as this picture shows us. She's totally not Nia from TTGL. She is robot maid Nia. That's triple the moe.
They live in the house of a mad scientist that creates robot maids and actual giant robots. He also made a set (robot and maid) for the MC's rival, but he ran away when trouble has risen. Jerk.
And what was that trouble? Linebarrels plot. The bad guys are attacking and... well, I don't really know Linebarrels. But the series' MC is rogue at the moment and attacking both sides. And then...
Bang! Dancougar Nova to the rescue.
It's a pretty damn cool unit. Strong and tanky, with 4 pilots. Too bad you don't get to keep it yet.
Rushbird isn't halfway bad either. In fact, it is pretty awesome, if the lack of a really strong hissatsu suggests obvious upgrades later. And I really like its theme. It is upbeat and energetic.
Lastly, this scenario has the local SRW asshole, Wufei from Gundam Wing. He is an enemy, so you can do this.
Beat the crap out of him. Beautiful.
And also, I get supporting characters from Linebarrels to join me, but I didn't take any really awesome or amusing pictures so not much to say here.[/spoiler]
Mission 2
[spoiler]Time for people you recognize from SRW K. Kenji trains using Jeeg with the help of people from his canon and the Mazinger Z cast. And by help I mean they shoot missiles at him to make him focus harder. Harsh. And then the bad guys attack.
I'm pretty sure this cut-in of Kyo is new. Tsubaki gets one too, which she didn't have in K. But other than that, Jeeg has only small visual changes since the last game. A bit disappointing, but it's a cool series so I don't mind too much.
Mazinger has the Mazinkaiser plot here, so everyone looks appropriately over the top and insane.
Excellent.Predictably, Mazinger Z as a unit is not too hot (because it gets upgraded later. To what? Hint: it's in the series title), and Venus A is a support unit. Boss Borot though? Surprisingly powerful offensively. Boss can't take a hit without keeling over, so it's more like a glass cannon.
Okay, I'm pretty sure Jeeg Bazooka didn't have a dynamic kill, so that's one big change. It still kicks ass, just like the Jeeg Drill which you unlock this mission. Still, considering stats of units that joined so far, VFs from Frontier are really, really good. Can't wait to have them back.[/spoiler]
Mission 3
[spoiler]
STOP!
Space alien lesbian robots!
Yup, we're having Iczer-1 plot. Iczer herself isn't too strong at first but she gets an upgrade in a plot event later this mission and gets to keep it. So it's all good.
Other than evil space alien lesbian robots (as opposed to good ones like Iczer), we have Mimetic Beasts for enemies here. That means Godannar, right? Well, Godannar and...
Combattler V! Choudenji Yo-Yo time. Its stats are pretty similar to Voltes's, unsurprisingly.
But you know what? Even though it's old Combattler that we all managed to get bored of 5 times over... somehow, in this game it's kinda cool. SRW L made
Combattler cool. The world is ending or what?
As for Godannar...
Mila is in the Okusauer now? Does this mean we are starting BEFORE Godannar's plot? Weird.
Speaking of Okusauer, it kicks ass now. Angel Barrier was meh in K. It rocks in L. Zero Gunner and Core Gunner are stronger, too. Dannar... well, it forms into Godannar so it's alright. The units have different looking attacks now - the changes are not super dramatic, but are bigger than Jeeg's.
Anyway, the Evil Robot Lesbian tries to squash Anna (who is still a schoolgirl at the moment if we're before Godannar's plot), Iczer goes "Nobody kills a cute girl on my watch!", she and Nagisa get a power up, Iczer-1 goes from meh tier to awesome. The main unit's shtick is teleporting/dimension hopping, apparently. Like Baldios or Zeorymer, but with more yuri.
And here's Satoru, one of the three Linebarrels supporting pilots. Since he added cannons to his unit, it totally does not look like a
Schutzwald. No sir. Not in the world.
Post-mission, I check my unit list:
And apparently Iczer-1 ditched her giant robot, at least temporarily. If G Gundam and Tekkaman Blade taught me anything - on-foot combatants always kick ass. ALWAYS.[/spoiler]
Overall, I am having lots of fun and cannot wait to see new missions. Blind runs, when you don't know what will happen next, are really fun in SRW. Even if you kinda forfeit secrets that way... but does anyone even know what kind of secrets this game has yet?