To Iscandar and Back Again - Let's Play Super Robot Wars W

casanova_coeurl · June 14, 2017, 10:51pm

Super Robot Wars (known in its native homeland as Super Robot Taisen) is a series of strategic turn-based role-playing games wherein the fights are conducted between some of the most famous robots in anime & manga. Take the isometric 3D map battles of Final Fantasy Tactics, the beautiful 2D attack animations from the GBA Fire Emblem games, and the plots of a dozen or so anime/manga smushed together (as viewed through the eyes of an original protagonist) and you’ve got half the idea – the other half is hot-blooded robot fighting action!

SRW V is the latest entry in the series (released in February 2017) for PS4 and PS Vita. Notably, it’s the first in the series (not counting the OG games) to have an actual English translation. There’s the odd mistranslation, and the characters have a bad habit of saying “Hmm” instead of “…”, but if you’ve watched or read any of the properties below then you’re probably already used to that sort of thing.

Here’s the list of properties whose characters and robots appear in the game:

Cross Ange

Full Metal Panic! / Fumoffu / The Second Raid

Getter Robo Armageddon

Zambot 3

Daitarn 3

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack

Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash

Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny

Mobile Suit Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer

Martian Successor Nadesico: Prince of Darkness

True Mazinger Edition Z: The Impact!

True Mazinger ZERO vs. Great General of Darkness

Rebuild of Evangelion (1.0 / 2.0 / 3.0)

Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (also known as Star Blazers)

The Brave Express Might Gaine

I’ll be doing a fresh LP of the game (no New Game+ bonuses), although I will be taking of advantage of some DLC bonuses. Between the regular scenarios, secret stages and DLC maps, we’ll have around 90 scenarios to complete in total. Scenarios are a mixture of visual-novel-level dialogue and hand-crafted 2D robots beating the crap out of one another.

How detailed will this LP be, story-wise and strategy-wise?

Since battles regularly involve up to dozens of units, I’ll be trying to give simplified explanations of my strategies throughout the game. Larger chunks of in-game dialogue will be put into videos with descriptive blurbs, while most of the in-stage dialogue will be typed out. Attack animations will also be shown off via video. Expect updates at about a rate of one per week, possibly more once we start delving into route splits and DLC scenarios.

How can I participate?

One of the newer features of modern SRW titles is the ability to assign custom attack music when your robots attack. If you have any thematically-appropriate tracks that could be played during the attack videos, please feel free to suggest them in the comments!

Can I talk about spoilers?

Make sure to tag them first! This will apply to prequel and/or related anime/manga spoilers from the above list as well, such as the original Gundam SEED and End of Evangelion.

If you want to check out other SRW LPs (a lot of the games feature overlapping anime/manga series, each adapted differently), check out brunom1’s completed LPs of SRW MX, SRW W, SRW Z1, and their current ongoing LP of SRW L!

Playlist:

SRW Mini Primer

Scenario 1 – Flight from Despair
Special Scenario - Galvanizing Hope
Scenario 2 - The Pirates of Mars
Bonus Scenario - Trial by Fire
Scenario 3 - Memories of a Fallen Star
Scenario 4 - Anomaly on the Jovian Front
Scenario 5 - A Chilling Reunion
Scenario 6 - Dusk on Pluto
Bonus Scenario - A Life’s Vow
Bonus Scenario - A Fight Between Men

casanova_coeurl · June 14, 2017, 10:52pm

What are “Super” Robots? And what makes them different from “Real” Robots?

Units in Super Robot Wars can be described in one of two ways:

Super robots are the kinds of robots you see in shows such as Mazinger Z or Getter Robo. Most super robots have these things in common:

They are larger, taller and bulkier than other robots – sometimes they are hundreds of meters tall!

They are able to take a large number of hits from enemies.

Their power sources and weaponry lean towards the fantastical – laser beams, weapons that pop out of nowhere (and that usually get thrown), Rocket Punches, and more.

Real robots are the kinds of robots you see in shows such as Mobile Suit Gundam or Full Metal Panic. Most real robots have these things in common:

They are much smaller than super robots – the standard seems to be somewhere around 20 meters high.

They can’t take very many hits from enemies, so they prioritize mobility and dodging attacks.

Their power sources and weaponry lean towards the conventional – rifles, missile launchers, the classic Gundam head-mounted vulcans, and flying attack drones.

How do battleships fit into this equation?

Battleships in SRW are treated the same as any other robot; they often have high defenses as befitting of a battleship, and are piloted by a crew as opposed to a single person, but are not as mobile as actual robots and will generally need to remain stationary in order to attack enemies. One of the Big Deals™ about SRW V is its inclusion of the Space Battleship Yamato, which is from a series that does not traditionally have any robots.

Tell me more about pilots.

Each unit has one Main pilot and up to three Sub pilots. Main pilots are the ones with the combat stats and special piloting skills; Sub pilots have none of those.

Each pilot has access to a list of Spirit Commands they can invoke during battle. These Commands can do things such as increase accuracy and evasion, heal robots, and more. As the unit fights and defeats enemy units, its pilots will level up and gain additional Spirit Commands.

Spirit Commands are cast using Spirit Points (SP) that gradually regenerate during battle.

What kind of stats do robots and pilots have?

Hoo boy. Pilots, robots and the robot’s individual weapons all have different stats. Starting with the pilots:

Pilot Level

Focus, which has also been referred to as Willpower in prior games, is a measure of how serious the pilot is getting during battle. Each pilot starts the battle at 100 Focus, and through battle it can rise to a maximum of 150. Having higher Focus lets a pilot use stronger weapons, activate special skills/abilities, and generally raises their stats during battle.

SP, for casting Spirit Commands. Pilots always enter battle with 50% of their maximum SP, and gain 5 SP per in-game turn.

Score, indicating how many enemies the pilot has defeated.

A list of the pilot’s Special Skills. I’ll be going over these on a unit-by-unit bases, but you can view a comprehensive list of them all here. Some skills have levels; these levels can increase as the pilot levels up.

A list of the pilot’s Spirit Commands, and how much SP it costs to use them. Again, you can view a comprehensive list of them all here.

The pilot’s combat stats:
- CQB (for melee damage)
- RNG (for ranged damage)
- SKL (for critical hit rate and special skill activation rates)
- DEF (for reducing damage taken)
- EVD (for evasion rate)
- HIT (for hit rate)

The pilot’s Terrain rankings. Pilots have individual rankings for fighting on the ground, in the air, underwater, and in space. An A-rank indicates average ability, an S-rank gives a performance boost to the pilot’s stats, and anything below will weaken them instead.

Finally, upon reaching a score of 60 or more, the pilot will unlock their Ace Bonus that gives a unique boost based on the pilot. Reaching a score of 80 or more will unlock a Great Ace Bonus that is the same for all pilots; they get to enter battle with 75% of their maximum SP instead of 50%, and also start the battle with 1 ExC Point.

Next we move on to the robot’s stats:

Unit size, ranging from the small (S) to larger (Battleships are usually around 2L). Larger units deal more damage to, and take less damage from, smaller units.

HP value. If it reaches zero, the robot is removed from the battle and you, the player, will be stuck with the repair fee.

EN (Energy) value. Energy is used by robots when attacking with certain weapons; flight-capable robots also use energy to stay in the air.

The robot’s combat stats:
- Armor (for reducing damage taken)
- Mobility (for evasion rate)
- Sight (for hit rate)

The robot has its own Terrain rankings, separate from the pilot’s. The two sets of rankings are averaged together in order to determine the unit’s actual terrain rankings.

Move value, for how many squares on the map the unit can move in a single turn.

Terrain Type values are used to show if it is even possible for the robot to enter Air, Ground or Water terrain. You’ll never see a submarine in the sky, for example.

Power Parts are items that can be equipped to the robot to give it better stats or new abilities; robots can have a maximum of four parts equipped, although many will only have two or three available slots for parts. (List here)

Special Abilities are to robots as Special Skills are to pilots. (List here)

Finally, let’s look at the weapon stats. Each robot has a select list of weapons with the following stats:

The symbol to the left of the weapon name is used to tell if the weapon is melee-based (fist) or range-based (target).

To the right of the weapon name is the weapon’s class type. Most weapons are classless, but some weapons are MAP attacks (can hit multiple enemies) and some are Combination attacks that require adjacent allies to use.

Next we have a list of weapon attributes, shown by single-letter squares:
- C is for Counter Weapon. Robots are attacked and then counterattack if able. If counterattacking with a Counter Weapon, the counterattack will happen first 100% of the time.
- S is for Special Effect. These attacks inflict status effects if they hit.
- P is for post-movement attacks, translated into its literal meaning of Move and Fire. If an attack has this symbol, you can use it after moving first. If the attack does NOT have this symbol, you can’t move your robot if you want to use the attack.
- B is for Beam Weapon. Beam weaponry behaves differently against some units, such as those equipped with anti-beam armor.

Weapon damage; bigger is better.

The range of the weapon, which is how many squares away from this unit that the weapon can hit from. MAP Weapons will sometimes have a fixed range.

Each weapon gives an individual bonus to Hit and Critical rates when used.

Weapons are either ammo-based (they have a fixed number of uses per scenario), or EN-based (they subtract from the robot’s EN when used). You can’t use a weapon if it has no ammo or if you can’t pay its EN cost.

The robot’s stronger weapons may have a Required Focus value, which is the minimum amount of Focus the pilot needs in order to be able to use the weapon.

Some weapons have a Required Skill that the pilot needs to have in order to use the weapon. For example, a lot of the UC-era Gundam robots require a Newtype pilot to use some of their weapons.

Weapons ALSO have Terrain rankings! The pilot/robot Terrain rankings were for boosting defensive stats; Weapon Terrain rankings are for how much damage the attack would deal to an enemy in that kind of terrain.

The weapon’s special abilities. Inflicted status effects would be listed here, as well as special attack properties like Ignore Size and Barrier Buster.

Custom Level; you can increase the strength of the robot’s weapons, up to 10 levels. We’ll be covering this in a future update.

There’s a lot of stats!

That there are, my friend. That there are…

Can you go over Terrain again?

For pilots and robots, their Terrain rankings are averaged together. A pilot with an S in ground combat, and a robot with a B in ground combat, gives an overall A-rank for ground combat. If the unit is fighting on the ground (any kind of ground – open fields, forests, cities, etc), their ground Terrain ranking is applied.

S-rank raises the unit’s defense/hit rate/evade rate

A-rank is the default; no changes

B-rank and anything below that will lower the unit’s defense/hit rate/evade rate

Because 99% of every unit ever will not have a good underwater Terrain ranking, it’s a good idea to keep them out of the water when possible.

For Weapons, a better Terrain rank means it deals better damage when attacking an enemy unit on that Terrain.

How does the pilot’s Focus increase?

If a unit attacks, is attacked, or dodges an attack, the pilot gains 1 Focus.

If a unit defeats another unit, it gains 2 Focus.

When an enemy unit is defeated, all of your allied units gain 1 Focus.

For example, if an allied unit attacked and defeated an enemy unit, it would gain 1 (for attacking) + 2 (for defeating) + 1 (from the unit being defeated) = 4 Focus.

I think I read something about an “ExC point”…

ExC, standing for Extra Command, is a new system introduced for SRW V. Your units in battle can hold up to 10 ExC points, and gain them via the following:

1 ExC point for defeating an enemy.

1 ExC point for gaining a level.

2 ExC points if multiple enemies are defeated via a MAP attack.

Battleships gain 1 ExC point for every 10 enemies that are defeated.

ExC points can be spent on Extra Actions, which are very similar to Spirit Commands:

Boost Dash (2 ExC): +2 Move, ignores obstacles and terrain penalties.

Direct Attack (2 ExC): Ignores robot size differences and enemy unit’s defensive abilities.

Smash Hit (3 ExC): Guaranteed Critical Hit on next attack.

Multi Action (3 ExC): If this unit defeats an enemy, it can move and attack again.

Battleships also have an additional set of actions called Extra Orders:

Emergency Recovery (1 ExC): One ally unit within eight squares is moved inside of the battleship.

Boost Focus (2 EXC): One ally unit within four squares gains +10 Focus.

Boost ExC (3 ExC): One ally unit within four squares gains +2 ExC points.

Restore Action (5 ExC): One ally unit within five squares, that has already acted, can move and attack again.

Is there any other important information I should know about before we start the LP?

I’ll be going over any additional gameplay elements as they appear/as I remember them/etc. Please feel free to ask any questions and I’ll do my best to respond! As you can probably tell from the number of times I’ve linked to it, the Akurasu wiki is a great resource for SRW game knowledge.

casanova_coeurl · June 14, 2017, 10:52pm

Scenario 1 - Flight from Despair (click to view)

Upon starting a new game we are given three options:

Beginner’s Mode (game is locked into Normal difficulty; additional money/TaC point rewards; no SR Points)

Standard Mode (game starts at Normal difficulty; the difficulty increases if the player acquires SR Points)

Guidance Mode (a single-scenario tutorial mission)

SR Points are a Big Deal™ in SRW games because of the following:

Each SR Point is worth an immediate 10,000 money (used for upgrading our units).

SR Points can cause the game difficulty to increase from Normal to Hard mode.

SR Points are one of the game’s many point-based systems it uses for the unlocking of secret units, weapons and additional scenarios.

Since we want as many goodies as possible, we’ll be playing on Standard Mode.

Selecting Standard Mode takes us to the protagonist selection screen. The overall plot of the game remains the same regardless of choice. We’ll be choosing the female protagonist, partly because it helps to balance out the abundance of male robot pilots we’ll be encountering, partly because untrained newbies tend to make the best pilots, and partly because her uniform is ridiculous to look at.

We get to rename the protagonist (default: Chitose Kisaragi), and choose their birthday and blood type. The latter two choices are important because they determine what Spirit Commands our protagonist will have access to as they level up. (A list of these groupings can be found here.)

If you don’t have a specific preference in mind, it’s always a good idea to use 11/11 B – this is the birthday and blood type of SRW series producer Takanobu Terada, and it provides a unique list of Spirit Commands with slightly-reduced SP costs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTvKUT4NTlQ&width=690&height=380&rel=0

Our story begins in the year 2199 of the New Correct Century. In this universe, humanity has expanded into the far reaches of the solar system. Although it has had to survive many events and armed conflicts over the past two hundred years – such as Char’s Rebellion and the Jupiter War – humanity was looking to enter an era of relative peace.

But all that changed with the invasion of Gamillas. The militaristic alien armada appeared from the outskirts of Pluto, wiping out many space colonies and firing terraforming Planet Bombs at the Earth. With the planet in ruins, humanity is struggling to survive.

In the space surrounding Jupiter, the Earth Federation forces carry out the M Operation; as the Federation fights a losing battle, they stall for time as an escape pod containing “one of Earth’s last hopes” is expected to land on Mars.

Having stalled for enough time, Commander Juzo Okita orders the retreat of the remaining Federation forces. However, Captain Mamoru Kodai of the ship Yukikaze takes it upon himself to charge the enemy fleet, distracting them so that Okita may escape.

(Good luck, Commander Okita. Earth’s fate is in your hands.)

On the surface of Mars, Mamoru’s brother Susumu Kodai locates the escape pod. Its alien occupant did not survive the trip, but in her hands is a capsule…

Some time later, Ensign Soji Murakumo of the Lunar Defense Force makes a delivery from Earth’s moon to a research lab in Japan, which is received by Ensign Chitose Kisaragi. Before they can inspect the contents of the container labeled ERS-100, the Gamillans launch a surprise attack.

Kodai, as well as the remainder of Earth’s best military personnel, have been summoned to a military base close to Chitose’s lab. It is here that Commander Okita reveals the Earth Federation’s final plan:

The alien in the escape pod originated from the planet Iscandar, located 168,000 light-years from Earth. Having witnessed the Earth’s sad state of affairs, Iscandar (via the data capsule) has provided humanity with the means of travelling to Iscandar, where they can acquire the technology needed to heal their dying planet. To make this momentous voyage, humanity has retrofitted the sunken Japanese World War II battleship, the Yamato…

Kodai has concerns – concerns of his own inadequacies at being assigned as Tactical Officer onboard the Yamato, and concerns of working under the man that left his brother to his death. Nonetheless, he and the rest of the crew dedicate themselves to the cause.

As the Gamillans launch yet another attack as the Yamato prepares for liftoff, Chitose examines the damage to her research lab. It is here that she discovers the mobile weapon known as the VangRay. To defend the Yamato and the researchers, she takes action…

I have no choice. I have to give it a shot!

(The Federation base, at the bottom of a dried-up lakebed, is under attack!)

It’s not looking good. The base’s defense force has been wiped out!

Damn! Can’t we mobilize the Falcon?

Commander!

For now, we wait.

Are you sure?

Kodai, look! Some of the defense force is still alive!

(Enter the VangRay.)

What’s going on with that unit?

Wh-what is all of this? It’s impossible to control this thing! The cockpit looks sturdy enough to protect a pilot who’s not wearing a flight suit, but this still seems really dangerous! It has way too much power, and more weapons than anybody needs! Was this some sort of crazy prototype? Or a defective machine?

(The VangRay wobbles around for a bit…)

OK, it seems to have stabilized. Now I think I can get a handle of the controls. Now I just need to figure out what’s going on with the Firearms Control System! Huh, the FCS has been set to Auto. I think I can live with that!

Do you think it’s malfunctioning?

I can’t tell.

Let it take the front line! Focus on launching the ship!

Roger!

This machine even has its own repair apparatus. If things get crazy, I’ll bet I could activate it and somehow manage. Alright, Gamillans! I’m not letting you take anything else! We are eternally hopeful!

Thus begins the first scenario of the game. We’ll always have this handy screen popup at the beginning of any scenario, displaying the Victory, Defeat and SR Point Conditions. Most of the time these will come down to, respectively:

Defeat all enemies.

Don’t let any plot-relevant units and/or battleships be defeated.

Complete the Victory Condition relatively fast.

In this case the SR Point Condition is a slight bit more complex; we have to use all of the VangRay’s weapons (three total) at least once each before the scenario ends.

Before we do anything, let’s take a closer look at our first unit, all shiny and new:

VangRay (Chitose Kisaragi)

Special Abilities:

Shield (skill-based chance of Defending whenever attacked)
Repair (unit can repair itself and adjacent allies)

Special Skills:

Strong Luck (+20% extra money when defeating enemies)
Potential (Accuracy/Evasion/Critical/Defense rises as HP decreases)
Support Attack (can attack after an adjacent ally – damage is capped at 50% strength)
Enhance Attack (all support attacks become critical hits)

Ace Bonus: +10% extra damage dealt; +1 Move

As befitting of the protagonist’s unit, the game gives you lots of incentives to use Chitose and the VangRay, such as earning extra money, Support Attacks, and the ability to Repair either itself of ally units. We’ll be looking at the latter two once we gather some ally units - this first scenario is a solo operation.

The VangRay is flight-capable and currently flying above the ground (you can tell by the little shadow underneath the unit). If we wanted, we could have it land on the ground - it has A-rank in both Air and Groud - but we’ll keep it flying for now. The enemy force consisting of four Gamillan spacecraft are due north of the VangRay (there is a compass in the top-right of the screen). Let’s take a peek at their stats:

On the whole, not very frightening. These Melanca spacecraft are equipped with machine guns and missiles; those can’t compare to the power of a real (super) robot!

Here’s how far the VangRay can travel with its Move value of 6. An advantage of flight is that you can fly over any obstacles (holes in the ground, enemy units). Flying costs 1 EN per moved space – pretty negligible, but something to keep track of for longer battles.

Upon moving closer to the enemy we are given the chance to attack. The VangRay only has the one post-movement attack – the Particle Cannon Senpu – so that’s what we’re using.

Here’s the final pre-battle menu. The VangRay, attacking first, has a 100% chance of hitting the enemy. If it survives, the enemy can counterattack with a 13% chance to hit Chitose. Oddly, the attack damages aren’t listed on this screen, so you’d have to go back a menu to double-check if needed.

Plot-relevant pilots usually have something to say once you confirm their first attacks of the scenario; I’ll be referring to such as sortie dialogue for this LP. Here’s Chitose’s sortie dialogue:

That was my first combat experience! I never thought I’d be a part of the battle for Earth! (Mom, Dad, Yu. Give me the strength to keep fighting!)

As the battle begins, we change from the prior 3D isometric view to the lovingly hand-crafted 2D spirtework that this series of games is known for. Throughout this LP I’ll be using attack showcase videos to showcase the attacks – it’d be a crime to not show off these beautifully-animated attacks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J16AY_Eu86Y&width=690&height=380&rel=0

Our first attack is also our first critical hit! Enemy down.

At the end of any battle where our units successfully hit/destroy an enemy, this screen will pop up to show how much EXP the pilot earned. Defeating an enemy would award us much more EXP, in addition to money and TaC points. It takes a flat 500 EXP to go to the next level.

I did it! I can totally do this! I’m conquering my fear! I could even go into battle with this thing!

We’ve acted with all our available units (all one of them) but we have to manually end our turn by going into the Command menu and choosing to End Phase.

On the enemy’s phase, one of the attacks Chitose from a range she can’t counterattack from – the Positron Impact Turret Jinrai has the range, but Chitose needs at least 105 Focus to fire the thing.

Instead of attacking, we have the option to Defend (reduces any damage by 50%). We also have the option to Evade (decreases the enemy’s hit percentage, usually halving it).

Here’s a look at Chitose’s available Spirit Commands. Zero-in raises accuracy and evasion by 30% until the start of our next phase. Attune gives any one of our allied units 100% accuracy until the start of our next phase.

We cast Zero-in, and Chitose has a 0% chance to be hit. (Consecutively attacking a unit during a turn will gradually increase the attacker’s hit % against that enemy.)

The remaining Gamillan spacecraft move closer to the VangRay, with one of them attacking. At this point we have enough Focus to use the Jinrai, but remembering the SR Point condition we instead attack with the Railgun Gecko.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3lFF00czQo&width=690&height=380&rel=0

At the start of our second phase, the VangRay stays put so that it can use the Jinrai on a distant enemy. Beforehand, we have the robot land (to show off the game’s background variety) and cast Zero-in again (raising our accuracy from 79% to 100%).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5W5FSvOHY8&width=690&height=380&rel=0

The weapon is powerful enough to destroy this Melanca in a single hit, without needing a critical!

We’ve used all of the VangRay’s weapons, so we are immediately awarded the SR Point and a bonus 10,000 money. These also come with extra dialogue:

Though I wouldn’t say this machine is heavily armed. Saying that this weapon happens to have arms and legs is more accurate. I wonder if the people at the lab thought to leave this behind for anyone who got stranded? This isn’t just about the Yamato anymore. I have to protect this weapon too!

We end our second phase. On the enemy’s phase, they attempt to attack the VangRay again. For the one damaged spacecraft from earlier, we counterattack with the Senpu – its built-in Counter Weapon ability lets us strike first. The remaining enemies get a repeat performance of the Jinrai.

The enemies are all defeated; mission complete!

Whew, somehow I made it out of that alive. Time to survey the situation.

What’s the situation, Tokugawa?

We don’t have the power to start the-

Electricity, comin’ right up, old man! Sorry for the wait!

I thought we were going to fall short even if we used all the power in the Far East!

And yet, look!

-Earth Federation Forces Far East Headquarters-

The world pins its hopes on the Yamato, sir!

Engage wave motion engine!

Engaged! Connecting flywheel! Charge increasing! 90, 96, 100 – we’re at 120% energy capacity!

Wave motion engine cycles optimal! Here we go!

Interstellar ballistic munitions detected!

Time to reveal ourselves. Disengage cloaking!

(A giant battleship rises out of the ground!)

What just happened?

The ship was cloaked in order to avoid detection by the enemy.

This ship has cloaking capabilities? So that means the sunken battleship we saw-

Was this very ship. The Space Battleship Yamato! We’ll intercept the munitions and enemies! Prepare to fire main cannon!

Main cannon, prepare to fire!

Everyone get to your posts!

Time to leave. This is the Yamato, setting sail!

Departure! Yamato setting sail!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gfKHMfDf-4&width=690&height=380&rel=0

No! The Yamato’s been hit!

That explosion was immense. It must have vaporized the entire ship.

You spoke too soon! The Yamato is intact!

We did it! We survived!

Kodai!

S-sir!

Well done.

Thank you, sir.

C’mon, give yourself a pat on the back!

We’ve got a long, long journey ahead of us. One unlike any mankind has undertaken. Don’t congratulate me just yet.

So it’s finally awoken. Godspeed, Yamato. You’re our beacon of hope.

Is this some kind of simplified directive? I mean, how am I supposed to follow this order?

(A docking bay on the Yamato opens its hatch.)

The hatch opened! Nowhere to go but onward, I guess. Let’s go, VangRay. I can do anything as long as I’ve got you.

We are embarking on a 168,000 light-year journey to Iscandar! Steel yourselves! The Yamato’s battle has just begun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r4Oq5VVrko&width=690&height=380&rel=0

Chitose and the VangRay have boarded the Space Battleship Yamato; Ensign Murakumo has also found his way aboard. But seeing as they weren’t originally on the roster, they are immediately detained by the Yamato’s security detail…

Next Update:

We take a quick peek at the Intermission menu before beginning our second scenario.
We learn how many enemy battleships Okita has sunk during his career.
A certain Gundam-looking robot makes its long-awaited redebut to the SRW series.

casanova_coeurl · June 17, 2017, 3:56pm

Special Scenario - Galvanizing Hope (click to view)

Welcome to the Intermission menu, presented before the beginning of each new scenario and home to many, many submenus. The home screen itself does contain some important information:

On the right side of the screen is the portrait of the pilot with the highest score (defeated enemies). You might remember that Chitose downed four enemy spacecraft in the last scenario; Commander Okita has her beat with ten career kills, or nine plus that giant bullet-missile from the first update. He is clearly not a man to be messed with…

At the bottom of the screen lists the current number of SR Points, Money and TacP you currently have. Money is used to upgrade our robots; TacP stands for Tactical Points and is used to buy new skills for your pilots.

In the bottom-right of the screen is the Next Sortie listings for how many optional units (robots) and bases (battleships) you can bring into the next map. These listings don’t include any mandatory (plot-relevant) units, so don’t freak out that they’re both currently at 0.

We could spend some time this update going over Skill Program, Customization and Power Parts submenus, but I think we’re pretty powerful enough for these early-game scenarios. Our next scenario isn’t Scenario 2 like you may have been expecting, but a special Day-One DLC scenario celebrating the SRW series’ 25th year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWSh_rn6ce0&width=690&height=380&rel=0

The Yamato bridge crew discuss their recent stowaway issue, and the potential tactical advantages that “humanoid weapons” would provide against the fleet-based Gamillan forces. Double-checking the roster, it would seem that the Yamato is expected to pick up two more of these weapons before departing Earth’s atmosphere.

Humanoid weapons have a firepower advantage. If they prove as effective as they seem, that opens the door to incredible tactical possibilities.

As yet another fleet of Gamillans prepare to attack, the Yamato speeds towards the pickup point…

(At the previously-mentioned pickup point.)

I believe you’re correct, seeing as I was at the rendezvous point.

I’m Charlotte Hastings. Just call me Lottie. My Grungust-

I’m aware.

Excuse you?

The Grungust. A weapon concept built solely in pursuit of power and versatility. Designed and developed by Nicola Wilhelm Labs’ American branch, it’s equipped with the ability to transform from a humanoid form to aircraft and tank forms. Its power exceeds all extant weaponry, which necessitated a large, atypical design. Said custom design hinders mass production. It has been deemed “Super” both for the size of its chassis and to call attention to its own peculiarity-

Pardon me. I’ve fallen prey to my bad habits again. I am Veltav Text. It’s kind of long, so just call me Velt. I developed this Huckebein when I was on the research staff at Nikola Wilhelm Labs HQ in Germany.

A researcher and a pilot, huh? No wonder you know so much about Grungust.

Now that we have dispensed with formalities, allow me to tell you about the Huckebein. Huckebein is also powered by the very Black Hole Engine that drives your-

Shhh! Something’s coming!

(It’s a large number of Melanca spacecraft!)

Gamillans!

They’re combat units equipped with machine guns and missiles. Best suited for ground combat. (pic) Now, returning to my description of the Huckebein, which you so rudely interrupted.

Say what!

The Huckebein has been called a radical reimagining of the Earth Federation Forces’ weapon of choice – the mobile suit. Unlike Grungust, Huckebein is built upon designs already in use by the EFF, making it easy to maintain. This confers a large advantage. That being said, a number of innovations have increased its firepower beyond compare, making it worthy of the “Super” moniker. Huckebein turns conventional wisdom that humanoid weapons prize maneuverability over firepower on its-

Head! Yeah yeah, I get it! Now let’s get out of here before we lose ours!

I wasn’t finished.

Are we experiencing the same situation, here? The Gamillans are right in front of us!

So you’re saying we can launch a pre-emptive strike?

If we’re being optimistic, then yes.

Man, for an egghead, you really know how to handle yourself in a fight!

You’re rather crude, aren’t you? I merely assessed the situation at hand and chose the most appropriate course of action.

Baloney! You acted on intuition in the end, just like me. Which is why you should’ve followed my lead in the first place!

Hindsight is always 20/20. More importantly, we should not squander another golden opportunity.

Now that’s a strategy I can get behind! Let’s go, Velt!

Very well, Lottie.

Special and DLC scenarios don’t have SR Point conditions - less pressure, but also no monetary reward. This scenario is basically a scaled-up version of the last one - they have double the spacecraft to smash, and we have double the units to smash them with. Our smashers for today include:

Grungust (Charlotte Hastings)

No Special Abilities

Special Skills:

Support Defend (can defend and Guard when an adjacent ally is attacked)
Strong Luck (+20% extra money when defeating enemies)
Spirit Endurance (immune to the status effects of enemy weapons)
Guard (At 130 Focus, damage taken is reduced)

Ace Bonus: +20% SP when sortied; +1 Move

The Grungust is our first Super Robot; beefy and bulky, armed with such exotic weapons as Rocket Punches Boost Knuckles and laser lazer beams. Charlotte has the Support Defend ability, allowing the Grungust to take hits for its friends - as a super robot, it’s well-armored enough to tank quite a few hits.

Huckebein (Veltav Text)

Special Abilities:

Shadow (At 130 Will, gain a 40% chance - separate from Final Evasion - to dodge any attack)

Special Skills:

Support Attack (can attack after an adjacent ally – damage is capped at 50% strength)
Hit & Run (If stationary unit attacks, it can move after attacking)
Instinct (At 130 Focus, raises Final Accuracy/Final Evasion/Critical)
Protection (increases effectiveness of Defend and Evade commands)

Ace Bonus: +20% SP when sortied; +1 Move

Despite what Velt was saying earlier, the Huckebein definitely leans closer to the Real side of the spectrum than the Super side. Velt has the Support Attack ability (like Chitose before him), but his main gimmick is the Hit & Run ability - it allows you to use your powerful stationary weapons and then move afterwards.

The VangRay, Grungust and Huckebein (also their pilots) are what are referred to as Original Generation units designed specifically for the SRW series. The latter two have had previous appearances in SRW games (such as the F and Alpha series), but their acknowledgement in the series had been decreasing over the years. Especially the Huckebein, which looks particularly like a UC-era Gundam unit (not surprising, since they shared the same mecha designer). More people were surprised to see the Huckebein than they were the Yamato, and the Yamato isn’t even a traditional robot!

Back to the task at hand! In a reverse of the first scenario, we begin north of the enemy units. We move our units southward - the Huckebein is not flight-capable and thus stays on the ground. Despite the damage inflicted by the Gamillas Planet Bombs, it seems like there’s still at least a little bit of greenery left on Earth.

For future reference, Velt starts the Zero-in Spirit Command, same as Chitose. Expect to see this Spirit Command on a lot of our Real Robot pilots. Lottie knows the Fortune Spirit Command (+100% money from the next enemy she defeats), but it’s too expensive to cast right at the beginning of the scenario.

Sortie dialogue:

Alright Grungust, let’s go! Our battle starts right now! We’re fighting to revive the Earth! We’re pulling out all the stops now! It’s Iscandar or bust!

Huckebein carries the hopes and dreams of everyone at Nikola Labs, and all the other survivors! We shall make safe passage to Iscandar for the sake of the victims! For the sake of all who endeavored to get Huckebein and myself this far!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzRd5ezcPxk&width=690&height=380&rel=0

Since this scenario is the same as the first BUT MORE, let’s talk about some of the new unit mechanics instead:

First, MAP attacks. Huckebein’s Micro Missiles can hit multiple targets in a single attack, making seperate hit rolls for each, and the opponents can’t counterattack. Some MAP attacks have fixed ranges, and some turn off the friendly fire, so watch out for those.

Next let’s talk about Support Attack/Defend. Our pilots have Level 1 in those abilities, meaning they get one use per turn to Support Attack or Defend (with a maximum level of 4). Here are the rules:

Units have to be next to each other to Support Attack/Defend.

Support Attacking units can use any of their regular weapons (range/Focus requirements apply as normal) to attack after another unit, dealing 50% of what their attack’s regular damage would be.
If a unit moves/attacks, it can’t Support Attack any more for that phase, even if it has Support Attack uses available.
Support Defending units will, if the supported unit would be hit, instead Guard (halves attack damage) and take the hit instead.
You can’t Support Defend during your phase, and you can’t Support Attack during the opponent’s phase.

One more rule - right now the Huckebein is grounded and the Grungust is on the air. If the Huckebein is attacked, the Grungust could Support Defend. But if the Grungust attacks, the Huckebein wouldn’t be able to Support Attack - it can’t fly, after all! We can solve this by landing the Grungust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCht9b7_6YY&width=690&height=380&rel=0

You have no idea how hard it was to trigger that Support Defend on this map - half the enemies are fixed on targeting Lottie, and Velt’s dodgy enough to not trigger the Support Defend almost all the time. But trigger it we did!

You saved me. You have my gratitude, Lottie.

Grungust is tough, man! That was nothing. Leave any attacks that Huckebein can’t handle to me. Got it?

Understood. However, I will not leave you in harm’s way again.

Whoa! Look who’s the big tough guy now!

The Support Attack dialogue, thankfully, was much easier to trigger:

Nice one, Velt! Thanks for having my back there.

The Grungust has a short range, and cannot process tight turns.

Yeah yeah, I heard you the first time! Let’s just focus on cleaning up the remaining enemies, shall we?

Using these new tools, we efficiently wipe out all enemies in three turns - mission complete!

Enemy annihilation confirmed. They appeared to be acting autonomously.

Whew! It looks like Grungust’s first battle was a success! Time to put a notch in the win column!

Huckebein was similarly fortunate.

Hey, don’t you think we’d make a great team?

Your heavily-armored Grungust is uniquely suited to the front lines, where it can charge into enemies. Meanwhile, Huckebein can provide long-range cover, and take care of any enemy craft that dares to escape your assault. Though the development of our machines took different paths, their balance is ideal. Of course, they also require our unique piloting techniques. As far as I can tell, however, the final piece of the puzzle is cultivating a high degree of cooperation.

Apologies. Old habits die hard, as it is said.

Eh, don’t worry about it. It’s not like we’re under attack right now. And you’ve got quite the way of talking.

I shall take that as a compliment.

I still want a shorter answer though. Let’s try this again. Don’t you think we’d make a great team?

The tactical characteristics of our machines complement each other. They account for our weak points, and draw out our strengths-

In other words?

OK then! I think we’re going to make an awesome team, Velt!

As do I, Lottie.

(The Yamato finally arrives. So much for backup!)

That’s the Yamato!

Interstellar Cruiser, Super-dreadnought class Space Battleship, ID number DDY-01. Length: 333.00 meters. It is notable for its main thruster.

OK, Mr. Encyclopedia, that’s enough. We’re getting docking instructions. The Yamato’s going to be our home from now on, so we’d better not keep them waiting.

Indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p62KNQYt3XQ&width=690&height=380&rel=0

Pilots Veltab “Velt” Text and Charlotte “Lotte” Hastings have successfully rendezvoused with the Yamato. They greet the crew, and are quick to notice the VangRay that is also sitting in the hangar. It seems like Velt and Lotte will quickly become good friends…

Next Update:

We begin to navigate the scary world of Intermission submenus.
Meanwhile, the Yamato navigates itself to Mars.
We meet our first (of many) Gundam units.

LoakaMossi · June 17, 2017, 11:27pm

I’m liking this LP so far! I just ordered this game, so I’ll try to play along once it comes in. I really appreciate that you summarize the dialogue segments before and after the mission while providing a video of it. That stuff can be really sluggish in these games, so it’s nice to have to option to skip it while still getting the main idea.

casanova_coeurl · June 21, 2017, 1:49pm

Scenario 2 - The Pirates of Mars (click to view)

Commander Okita is never going to let us forget who’s in charge of this Earth-saving mission.

It’s time to start exploring these various submenus – but not all of them! There’s only so many times in an update I can say “look at this menu” and make it sound interesting.

Firstly, the Pilot List and Mech List allows you to check on your units’ stats (same as the screenshots I’ve been posting every time we meet a new ally). If a unit has “EV” next to its name, then they are an Event unit and are automatically deployed sometime during the next scenario.

Battleships like the Yamato get their own little anchor symbol, unfortunately this stops the EV symbol from showing. Once we have a large number of battleships, we won’t be able to tell which are Event-mandatory and which aren’t without going into the scenario first.

We unlocked the Yamato at the end of Scenario 1, but haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. Let’s do that now:

Space Battleship Yamato (Juzo Okita, Susumu Kodai, Daisuke Shima, Shiro Sanada)
Theme: Yamato Descends

Special Abilities:

EN Regen (M) (Recovers 20% of maximum EN per turn)
Wave Motion Barrier (Nullifies damage under 2,500; costs 10 EN per use)

Special Skills:

Commander (raises accuracy and evasion for surrounding units
Captain’s Order (increases the strength and range of Commander)
Potential (Accuracy/Evasion/Critical/Defense rises as HP decreases)
Spirit Endurance (immune to the status effects of enemy weapons)

Ace Bonus: All Yamato pilots gain +5 additional SP per turn.

Battleships in SRW games are all about the pros and cons. They have high HP, but if the enemy destroys one of your battleships then it’s Game Over. They have a large attack range and do decent damage, but most of their attacks can’t be used if the battleship moves. The attacks that cost EN also tend to cost a lot of EN.

Battleships do have two fully-positive qualities. One, they’re often manned by a crew of pilots instead of just one pilot. Each of these pilots has their own SP pool and different Spirit Commands (although the main pilot - Commander Okita - is the only one with actual combat stats). Secondly, the main pilot usually has the Commander skill, an area-of-effect booster for your other units’ accuracy and evasion.

Being the literal last hope of humanity, the Yamato is hands-down the best battleship in the game. It has powerful EN-based and ammo-based attacks! It regenerates EN every turn and blocks damage with the Wave Motion Barrier! Commander Okita has decent-enough stats for a battleship pilot, and the exclusive Captain’s Order skill to maximize his commanding power!

Next up on the Intermission tour, the Power Parts submenu lets us equip items onto our robots. Robots can have anywhere from 1 to 4 equipment slots, with most units having 2 slots as default.

Normally at this early point in the game, we’d have no Power Parts available. However, since I’ve gone ahead and purchased all the DLC scenarios, we have access to the following Power Parts:

Aura’s Protection (recovers pilot’s SP by 100; usable once per stage)

Auxilary EOS (+20 Mobility)

ExC Laser (when equipped unit receives ExC points, they receive an additional ExC point)

Fairy Breath (casts Spirit Command “Fortune” on all allies; usable once per stage)

Haro (+25 Mobility/Sight, +2 Move, +1 weapon range)

High Precision Sensors (+20 Sight, +1 weapon range)

Megabooster (+2 Move)

Quantun Computer (+10% skill activation rate)

Quantum Flywheel (+100 EN, recovers 10% EN per turn)

Super Repairkit (recovers all HP/EN/ammunition; usable once per stage)

V Aggressor (+100 damage, +20 Accuracy, +20 Critical)

V Circuit (+200 damage, +1 Move, +1 weapon range)

V Crystal (+200 damage, unit/weapons gain A-ranks in all Terrain)

V Defensor (+500 HP, +50 EN, +100 Armor, +15 Evasion)

Vitality Down (casts Spirit Command “Haze” on all enemies; usable once per stage)

There’s a lot of technical jargon there, and I’ll be sparing the details of what parts I equip onto what robots before each scenario, but here’s the general guidelines I follow:

Battleships want additional Move so that they can better ferry other units around the map. (We won’t have a good opportunity to show off ferrying until Scenario 4.)

Super robots want additional EN for using all their best moves more often. Adding additional HP and Armor isn’t a bad idea. (Sight/Mobility gains won’t help them significantly when fighting real robots.)

Real robots want damage-increasing parts to put them on par with super robots’ damage output, and extra Sight/Mobility for fighting against other real robots. HP and Armor is good if you have extra parts lying around.

The big winner (for now) on the above list of parts is the Fairy Breath, which casts Fortune on all our allied units. As you might recall, the Fortune Spirit Command (one of Lottie’s SCs) doubles the money we get from defeating enemies. More money means stronger robots, and we definitely want stronger robots.

That’s enough menu-ing for one update. We equip pilots with parts - Lottie gets the Fairy Breath, the Yamato gets a couple of +Move parts - and begin the next scenario.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB5sgh_djV8&width=690&height=380&rel=0

The Yamato exits Earth’s atmosphere, and the crew takes a final moment to look at their ruined planet before departing. Although some crew members remain skeptical of Chitose’s story, eventually both she and Soji are made permanent members of the Yamoto’s crew. Chitose is assigned to the Aircraft Squad hemled by Lt. Junior Grade Saburo Kato, and to the Accounting apparement staffed by Ensign Akira Yamamoto.

Commander Okita gives an overview of the Yamato’s 336,000 light-year journey to Iscandar and back. To accomplish this feat in the span of a single year, the Yamato is equipped with a Wave Motion Engine capable of warp speed. However, the engine has not been fully completed. To obtain the parts needed for the safe operation of the engine, the Yamato sets course for the abandoned Federation base on the planet Mars…

(The Yamato arrives on Mars, and I already miss the colorful scenery from last scenario.)

That’s definitely the Altinia Base site.

Looks like we’re in for a lonely landing, though.

We can’t waste a lot of time. Let’s get the materials we need, and get to work.

I’m picking something up on radar! It’s a-!

(It’s a squadron of mobile suits!)

Mobile suit inbound! Based on the type, it belongs to the Jupiter Empire!

Impossible! I thought they got wiped out in the Jupiter War two years ago!

Jupiter’s ghosts have resurrected on Mars, haven’t they?

Based on a quick survey of the situation, it looks like they’ve commandeered the Altinia base altogether.

Commander: The Jupiter Empire has entered combat preparations!

Aihara, open every communications channel we’ve got!

Yes, sir!

We wish to negotiate for the materials we need.

(The nearby mobile suits fire on the Yamato!)

They’re attacking!

I guess they’re not open to negotiating!

They’re forcing our hand.

The Yamato was built to make the journey to Iscandar, Kodai. You would do well to remember that. Human or not, they are obstacles on the journey to Iscandar.

Even if they’re from Earth?

We fight evil, Kodai.

But-

Get to your battle stations, everyone! The battle to reclaim the Alitina Base begins now! All gunners, prepare to fire!

Gunners, prepare to fire!

We must crush all opponents that stand in the way of our progress! That’s an order!

It’s going to be a little bit before we see a Victory Condition that isn’t “destroy all enemies”. Of note is the SR Point condition - one of our units has to defeat four enemies.

Our enemies for this scenario are a handful of Batalla mobile suits, and their slighly-beefier cousin the Pez Batalla. Both kinds of units are equipped with Shields that provide a skill-based chance to Defend (halve) any attacks, even while attacking. Just what exactly are these Jupiter Empire mobile suits doing on Mars?

Currently none of our allied units have sortied, so we’re stuck with the Yamato for our first turn. Commander Okita is really protective of his Intermission top-score portrait, so I guess he’s intending to solo the entire enemy force himself.

The yellow squares surrounding the Yamato indicate the Commander effect coming from Okita. If we had any other units out, keeping them within this field of yellow would increase their accuracy and evasion. Normally, allied units closest to the source (the Yamato) would recieve the highest gains, but Okita also has the Captain’s Order skill, so any allied unit within range will receive maximum gains.

If you guessed that the Yamato would spend its first turn moving towards the enemy squadron, you’ve read the other two updates. Sortie dialogue!

Attention crew! This will be the first substantial battle of the Yamato. However! We must not lose sight of our mission, which is to travel to Iscandar at all costs! Think of this as a mission not to eradicate our enemies, but to extend our lives!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJnQVZnUFQw&width=690&height=380&rel=0

On our second player phase, now’s a good time to talk about reinforcements. You didn’t think the Yamato was really going to solo the entire map, did you? (Although for the record, it totally could.)

Reinforcements are triggered either when specific plot-relevant things happen (story unit A fighting enemy unit B), or at the beginning of certain player phases. Oftentimes, however, you can force the beginning-phase reinforcements to appear if you defeat enough enemies early enough.

So if we wait until our third player phase, OR if the Yamato defeats two enemies anytime before then…

Will the Aircraft Squad be deployed?

We have no orders to do so.

I could understand that call if these were Gamillans, but the fact that we’re facing off against mobile suits says to me that we should be out there, too.

Commander Okita must consider this some sort of combat test for the Yamato.

I’m picking up more signals on radar! We’ve got more mobile suits inbound!

Argh, enemy reinforcements?

(It’s another Huckebein It’s a Gundam!)

Does that Gundam have a skull on it?

Commander! They’re-

Crossbone Gundams.

The Crossbones! The sea pirates who routed the enemy in the Jupiter War!

I can’t believe they’re on Mars!

Incoming transmission from the Gundam! Reading verbatim!

Thank him for his cooperation at once.

Aye, sir!

Kodai, deploy the Task Force.

Cosmo Falcon Squadron, sir?

Negative. The VangRay, Grungust, and Huckebein.

Understood!

(Why are the sending so many troops to Mars?)

Mobile units, fall in on the Yamato’s position! We’ll be able to turn the tide of battle in our favor if you remain within easy reach! If you drift too far out of range of the Yamato’s comms, we’re going to be in big trouble!

(This is the game’s way of telling us about how the Commander skill works, to mixed results.)

We were just supposed to travel to Iscandar! Now we’re teaming up with a Gundam pirate to fight the Jupiter Empire on Mars? This is crazy! We can’t let the Jupiter Empire walk all over us, though! They’ll destroy Earth! (Wait, what was it Officer Sanada said about the Pilot Verification System? Was there something about it I needed to know?)

Come in, Kisaragi! This is the captain speaking. You have one order! Make it back alive! That is all!

Roger that, Captain! You have my word! Lottie! Velt! Are you ready?

Ready and waiting!

Our opponents are the Jupiter Empire’s mobile suits. This battle will be easy if we remain wary of the Pez Betalla and its formidable rushing capabilities.

I’ve been assigned to lead this squad, but we should work together if we want to make it back safely! If we slip up here, we’re not going to make this 336,000 light-year journey!

The victory/defeat conditions usually get refreshed whenever new ally units show up, telling you not to let said new units get blown up!

Tobia Arronax and the Crossbone Gundam X-1 Kai Kai (so nice the translators named it twice) have spawned to the far west of the Yamato, and the Jupiter Empire forces closest to him will move to intercept. More pilots means more sortie dialogue!

I’m representing the entire Aircraft Squad. I’d better be at peak performance! Well, VangRay, we promised Captain Kato we’d make it back alive. We had better make good on our word!

I thought I understood the selfishness of humans, but upon witnessing it myself, I am enraged! I cannot comprehend how you can entertain such selfish thoughts in the midst of an alien attack!

If they’re not going to talk this out, I’m sure as heck not holding anything back! Let’s go, Grungust! Earthlings or Gamillans, bad guys are bad guys! I’ll crush’em all!

Argh, the Jupiter Empire! Do they think they can use Mars as a stepping stone to attack Earth? Don’t they know what’s happened? There’s no point in torturing the Earth anymore!

Crossbone Gundam X-1 Kai Kai (Tobia Arronax)

Special Abilities:

Shield (skill-based chance of Defending whenever attacked)

Special Skills:

Newtype (raises Accuracy/Evasion; extends certain weapon ranges)

Potential (Accuracy/Evasion/Critical/Defense rises as HP decreases)

Focus Over Limit (maximum Focus increases)

Ace Bonus: Spirit Command “Valor” cost reduced to 25 SP

There’s not a lot to say about Tobia as a pilot, but we’re not going to say no to more allies. The X-1 has a pirate’s arsenal available, making a nice change from the VangRay and Huckebein’s conventional weaponry.

Tobia has two new Spirit Commands. Guts restores the user’s HP by 30%. Intuition is a combination of two other Spirit Commands we haven’t seen yet, Bullseye (100% accuracy until next player phase) and Flicker (100% dodge rate for one attack).

Lottie uses the Fairy Breath power part at the first available opportunity, so we can start raking in the money. The Aura’s Protection part can restore SP to the user; we put it on Lottie so she could keep casting Fortune on herself for even more money.

We still need to fulfil the SR Point requirement for this scenario - the most likely candidates are Okita (who should already have a few kills) or Tobia (who enters near a group of four/five enemies).

If you ever want to feed kills to a specific unit, Lottie and Chitose are your friends. The Grungust can Support Defend, and the VangRay can Repair as needed. Repairing heals around 25% of the unit’s max HP, and Chitose earns extra experience as a bonus.

Here’s the dialogue if Okita scores four kills first:

(That was flawless. So this is what it’s like to work under Juzo Okita, Earth’s greatest commander.)

Don’t fall asleep on the job, Kodai. You’ve got to confirm that battle has ended.

Y-yes, sir! (We can do this. With this man at the helm, it doesn’t matter who or what stands in our way!)

And here’s the same for Tobia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KjAvPHSjYQ&width=690&height=380&rel=0

I took over this X-1! There’s no way I can lose! (I know you’re still out there somewhere, Kincade. You too, Captain Berah.)

With our ample firepower, we gradually whittle away at the enemy force until Mars is free of the Jupiter Empire. Mission complete!

Enemy forces eradicated. The Alitina Base is officially liberated.

Now we just need to retrieve the materials inside.

I want to know more about the Empire’s movements. Aihara, make contact with that Gundam.

Yes, sir.

Incredible! I mean, I’d heard the rumors, but now I’ve got a front row seat. Gundams are no ordinary mobile suits!

Given that it’s a pirate’s Gundam, I should think the pilot has considerable skill, as well.

I’ll say! I mean, look at those moves!

If that Gundam were to board the Yamato, we’d be pretty powerful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhNqF-X_J5E&width=690&height=380&rel=0

Tobia Arronax, member of the Crossbone Vanguard and veteran of the Jupiter War, has been busy combating both the Gamillans and the remnants of the Jupiter Empire. He requests that the Yamato ferry himself and fellow Vanguard member Bernadette Briett to Jupiter in order to investigate their actions.

Bernadette’s real name is Tetenith Dogatie; she is the daughter of the Jupiter Empire’s former leader, Crux Dogatie, whom was killed in the prior war. With their leader gone, she seeks to understand the reason behind the Empire’s resurrection.

After installing the parts found on Mars, the Yamato changes course for Jupiter…

Next Update:

We take on the first DLC mission, in space!
We make use of the ExC system, in space!
We sink some battleships, in space!

casanova_coeurl · June 25, 2017, 3:09am

Bonus Scenario - Trial by Fire (click to view)

We obtained the following Power Parts from the last scenario:

Repairkit (recovers 6000 HP; usable once per scenario)

Propellant Tank (recovers 250 EN; usable once per scenario)

Because Commander Okita is a mile ahead of our other pilots, we’ll try to only give him one or two kills per scenario - the rest of our pilots will catch up eventually.

Note the rather large amount of money and TacP we’re sitting on right now - most of it is a bonus reward from having purchased all the DLC scenarios, same as the Power Parts from last update. We’ll actually start spending some of that money during the next update.

Speaking of DLC scenarios, we’ve just unlocked the first of many. Heading over to the Network submenu lets us view all of the DLC scenarios and how far we need to progress in the main story to unlock them. Let’s jump straight into it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMmgfnX_4ao&width=690&height=380&rel=0

As they prepare to leave Mars, Tobia complements his fellow robot pilots. Given their level of tactical coordination during the last battle, he is surprised to hear that the pilots are relatively new additions to the Yamato’s crew. Chitose, Velt and Lottie begin to outline the intense, simulated training they were forced to partake in…

(SRW games always do a good job of making space look visually appealing.)

They did Grungust and Huckebein perfectly!

Exec. Officer Sanada has his reputation for a reason.

Look at that. They’ve modeled the damage. But if we get hit…

Who cares? Just don’t get hit.

She’s right.

The glass must be half full for you…

You said it, Lottie.

Hmm…

(Guess some of us aren’t on the same page. Might make teamwork a little hard…)

How about we get started?

Now focus. Incoming target.

(Incomming mobile suits!)

Whoa! They went old school with the mobile suits!

They’re almost a century old… Used in the lost decade of Char’s Rebellion.

Char’s Rebellion was the event depicted in the movie Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack. A famous Zeon war hero named Char Aznabel united the remnants of Zeon from prior wars and launched a renewed assault against the Earth Federation. His endgame was to drop the giant asteroid named Axis onto the Earth, thereby forcing mass immigration into space with the goals of ending conflict and triggering humanity’s latent psychic space powers.

Char’s eternal rival, Amuro Ray, eventually defeated Char as the asteroid was making its descent. He then used his own psychic space powers, resonating with his Gundam’s Psychoframe technology and the will of humanity, to literally push the asteroid back into space; this feat is referred to as the Axis Shock. (Gundam can be very super-robot-y when it feels like it!)

Try to remember the names of Amuro and Char, as well as Newtypes (those who possess psychic space powers). Their legacies are referenced continuously throughout the UC-era Gundam properties. (By the end of the next update, you certainly won’t forget Amuro’s name…)

Those Federation suits are the Jegan… And those colors must mean they were deployed with the General Revil…

Yes, I’m sure Executive Officer Sanada would love to talk about that! Now go!

Yes, sir!

New hotness versus old and busted! Let’s knock it out of the park!

Time to show what Huckebein can do.

(I know it’s a simulation… But you could try to be more serious… Or else who knows what’ll happen when we’re in a real fight!)

DLC scenarios don’t have SR Point conditions, remember. To clarify from the above paragraph, this scenario is technically taking place between our last two, while the Yamato has left Earth and is travelling to Mars to get the parts for the Wave Motion Engine.

The main thing to remember for the DLC scenarios is that none of our main-game progress is carried over. We have ally units at fixed levels, with no Power Parts or robot upgrades or additional pilot skills. We won’t earn any experience or money for defeating enemies, making Lottie’s Fortune SC pointless.

We also won’t earn any Extra Command (ExC) points, those as-of-yet-unexplained points you might have seen in prior screenshots throughout the LP, but we do get to start out with five of them apiece. We’ll be explaining those shortly, right after we look at these new enemies:

From the Earth Federation, we have the Jegan (top). And from the Zeon forces, we have the Geara Zulu (bottom). If a mobile suit has a single red eye, that’s how you know it comes from Zeon! Both kinds of units have shields.

ExC, standing for Extra Command, is a new system introduced for SRW V. Your units in battle can hold up to 10 ExC points, and normally you’d gain them via the following:

1 ExC point for defeating an enemy.

1 ExC point for gaining a level.

2 ExC points if multiple enemies are defeated via a MAP attack.

Battleships gain 1 ExC point for every 10 enemies that are defeated.

Of course, since we’re in this DLC scenario, none of that applies and each unit is stuck with the starting 5 ExC points. We can spend them during our player phase to use Extra Actions, which are like Spirit Commands that everyone has access to:

Boost Dash (2 ExC): +2 Move, ignores obstacles and terrain penalties.

Direct Attack (2 ExC): Ignores robot size differences and enemy unit’s defensive abilities.

Smash Hit (3 ExC): Guaranteed Critical Hit on next attack.

Multi Action (3 ExC): If this unit defeats an enemy, it can move and attack again.

Each action is situationally useful, and there’s no real wrong way to spend them if you have them.

On our first turn, the enemy force is southwest of our position. Seeing as how everyone’s just floating around in space, every unit is counted as being in/battling in Space terrain. The nice thing about space is that we don’t have to worry about Huckebein using Support Attack with one of the other flight-capable robots.

Sortie dialogue, as the Aircraft Squad-in-training take on the relics of yesteryear. We won’t be spending any of our ExC points just yet, though.

(Huckebein and Grungust… I never knew there were machines like that… I’ve got a lot of work to do! Me and the VangRay!)

Go, go, Grungust! We’ll make short work of these rust buckets! Me and Grungust? We’re unbeatable!

(We’re going up against older mobile suits… Not a problem for Huckebein… Forget the team. I can handle this myself!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO2DRwKIWO0&width=690&height=380&rel=0

Does it count as a war crime if you’re beating up on 100-year-inferior technology?

In two turns, our space pilots have space-routed the space badguys in the space training mission held aboard the spaceship currently flying through space. Just another day in the office, really.

That was too easy! Give us a real challenge!

With Huckebein and Grungust? It couldn’t have gone any other way.

How was the VangRay?

Uh…

Wh-what? Why’d you get so quiet?

Stuffed with weapons. Heavy armor. And you’re swinging it on full blast. I can see what they were going for, but I’d hesitate to call the final product anything but a failure.

What do you mean…

Wait. Don’t tell me it’s an experimental model?

I mean, I don’t really know what it can do. I just kind of fell into it.

That was just the first taste. Break a leg.

(Three enemy battleships!)

They’re sending out battleships!

Those are Zeon Musaka…

Wait. We’re supposed to fight battleships? All by ourselves?

That’s what’s on the menu.

No way! No frigging way! Mecha are supposed to go up against what’s on the ship! Not the ship!

A mobile weapon team versus a fleet of thips… Unconventional warfare. It’s why the Federation lost to the Gamillans.

I can’t say I see the point.

Yeah! I don’t care if it’s a simulation. It’s bonkers!

So what if it’s bonkers? It doesn’t mean we can lose!

Wait!

There are things out there we can’t even imagine. But that doesn’t mean we can stop.

We have to keep going…

And I don’t think this training is pointless.

Er…

So come on! The Federation may have lost, but that doesn’t mean we will! We’re going to run into the Gamillans sooner or later! Just think of this as a dry run!

O-OK!

It’ll be OK. You can do this.

Earth…

Yeah… We… We have to do this…

We could be up against anyone! Anything!

I like the sound of that! Let’s do this!

Now we’re facing off against battleships! Zeon Musaka are nowhere near Yamato-tier or anything, but you still wouldn’t want to tank a Mega Particle Cannon if you could help it. Attacking a battleship can be a difficult prospect since they’re able to counter with powerful stationary weaponry.

As we move closer to our new targets, we have the VangRay Repair its own HP back up to full. There’s no fancy attack-like animation for healing, unfortunately. Just imagine that the VangRay is getting whacked a few times with a robot-sized monkey wrench. (That’s how it worked in SRW Z!)

Once we enter attacking range (turn 4 player phase), now is the time we want to use ExC Actions; Smash Hit for the guaranteed critical, and Direct Attack to ignore size penalties. Larger units deal more damage to, and take less damage from, smaller units. (The VangRay and Huckebein are size M, the Grungust is size L, and the Musakas are all size 2L). Direct Attack would also bypass opponent abilities that reduce damage, such as shields.

With maximum power, Aircraft Squad-in-training goes in for the kill with their most powerful attacks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzMqsItX260&width=690&height=380&rel=0

(Velt. Lottie. We can do this… We can make it to Iscandar and back to Earth! We have to!)

That was one heck of a lesson! I guess it takes more than strength to win a fight! It’s all about will and courage! I’ll do better next time!

(I can’t expect to win by relying on Huckebein… You need something to win against a strong enemy. I learned what that is today…)

After all the battleships are taken out, it’s mission complete!

We couldn’t have done it without Huckebein and Grungust. And us as pilots, of course. But you, Chitose. You’re the one who pulled it out of us.

What now?

You said it, Velt! Honestly, I nearly lost it when I saw those ships. Thank you. Really. You told me exactly what I needed to hear.

Oh. My. Gosh. She’s blushing!

You cut that out, Lottie! But… I do think that was some good teamwork.

It was.

Yeah!

Cut the celebration! You’re not done yet!

Did you say ten?

Whoa, are we being trained to be Spartans or something?

Remember. No whining. We train until we get to Mars! Don’t forget it. Our failure means it’s over for Earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp77cWYwvVw&width=690&height=380&rel=0

Chitose’s words motivate the trio to work together and complete the simulations. But fiercer battles are yet to come…

Next Update:

We learn about robot upgrades and customizations.
We face our first competent (and therefore challenging) enemy.
One person’s name gets thrown around so much that we could make a drinking game out of it.

casanova_coeurl · June 29, 2017, 2:18am

[details=Scenario 3 - Memories of a Fallen Star (click to view)]

We obtained the following Power Part from the last scenario:

Barrier Field (-1000 damage taken; costs 5 EN per attack)

We didn’t earn any money or TacP directly from blowing up things last time, but we did get some of each for completing the scenario. Kill counts also didn’t carry over, so Commander Okita is still sitting pretty on top.

Today we explore the lucrative world of the Customization submenu. Each robot has six customizable stats - HP, EN, Armor, Mobility, Sight, and then a sixth stat representing the attack power of all the robot’s weapons. Each stat starts at Lv. 0, and can be increased to Lv. 10 by paying incremental amounts of money.

Note that it costs roughly the same amount of money to upgrade a robot’s weapons to Lv. 10, as it does to increase ALL of the other non-weapon stats to Lv. 10.

When you upgrade a robot’s non-weapon stats such that they reach Lv. 25 / 50, the robot gains a unique Custom Bonus. Here are the Custom Bonuses for our current roster of units:

VangRay: +1 Power Part slot

Grungust: +100 EN, +30 Armor

Huckebein: +100 EN, +20 Mobility

Yamato: +1 Power Part slot

Crossbone Gundam X-1 Kai Kai: Melee weapons gain +30 Critical and “Ignore Barrier” special effect

Furthermore, when the robot’s non-weapon stats are fully maxed out to Lv. 50, the robot gains a Full Upgrade Bonus that you can select from the following list:

+1 Move

+1 weapon range

+1 Power Part slot

Change one of the robot’s Terrain types to S-rank

Halves the costs of Barrier/Armor-related special abilities

Of these, I would consider the +1 Power Part slot to be the best investment. You could equip a Power Part that provides many of the same effects as the other choices on the above list.

Upgrading becomes a question of whether to max out the robot’s weapon damage, or aim for the Custom/Full Upgrade Bonuses. It’s also a question of whether you want to favor one robot, or upgrade a lot of robots a little at a time. There’s ALSO the question of availability - what if we spend all our money upgrading a robot, only for the story to make that robot unavailable?

It’s always a safe bet that Chitose will always be around, so let’s go ahead and upgrade the VangRay’s weapons to Lv. 10. I’m personally prioritizing damage over the other stats because it’ll make it easier to complete the time-restrive or otherwise challenging SR Point requirements.

Before the next scenario starts, we load up the VangRay with Power Parts that give it as much extra Mobility as possible. The Crossbone Gundam X-1 gets Aura’s Protection.

For the rest of the update, consider partaking in the following drinking game: take a shot whenever someone mentions the name Amuro Ray in full.

Prior to departing Mars, the crew of the Yamato pay their respects at the grave of Sasha, the deceased Iscardian princess that delivered the Wave Motion Engine schematics. Chitose, Tobia and Bernadette bond over discussion of Tobia’s Newtype powers; originally thought to be a sign of the next step in human evolution, these quasi-psychic powers are often the hallmark of experienced mobile suit pilots.

For all we know, we are evolving into Newtypes right this very second, without even realizing it. And we may yet be able to fully understand each other.

With the Wave Motion Engine fully completed, the Yamato performs its first successful warp and instantly arrives in the vicinity of Jupiter. With data provided from Tobia, they begin reconnaissance on the remnants of the Jupiter Empire.

During such reconnaissance work, Tobia and Chitose wipe out a small group of Jupiter Empire mobile suits, but not before one of the pilots makes a bold declaration:

You two shall be exterminated by Amuro Ray!

Could it be true that the legendary Earth Federation pilot – declared MIA over 100 years ago – could be in league with the Jupiter Empire? Our two heroes head towards the base to find out…

That’s the Jupiter Empire’s base.

There’s about a 50/50 chance of a Gundam space faction building a base or a colony inside of a giant asteroid, instead of just building one from scratch. It’s practical, but not very aesthetically pleasing.

(I just hope that Amuro Ray doesn’t show up.)

(Four Baterra mobile suits roll out the red carpet for us.)

Well, I don’t see any Gundams.

That’s reassuring, for now. But a Gundam isn’t the only thing he might show up in. We shouldn’t let our guard down.

Fair point. The Empire doesn’t have a very favorable view of Gundams, either.

Careful, Tobia. You’re piloting a Gundam yourself, remember. They may be a symbol of the Federation’s honor, but to the Empire they’re a sign of defiance.

Believe me, I understand the significance of my X-1.

OK Tobia, we’re going in! I’m counting on your experience!

Roger that. Let’s start with the enemies on the front lines!

(Again, I just hope that Amuro Ray doesn’t show up.)

The SR Point condition is that we need to defeat these initial Baterra mobile suits within three turns. Shouldn’t be a problem with our freshly-upgraded VangRay!

The trick to these kinds of missions where you have to defeat X enemies in Y turns, is to attack as many full-HP enemies on your player phase, and then counterattack/defeat them when they attack during the enemy phase.

With the upgrades, even the VangRay’s weakest weapon, the Railgun Gecko, can put our really high damage against the enemy Baterras. (Critical hits don’t hurt either.)

By our third player phase, all four enemies are wiped out. We’ve earned the SR Point, but what comes next?

We’ve made it through the vanguard!

And there’s still no sign of Amuro Ray. If he was in there, then I’d definitely be shot down!

When you put it that way, I- Augh!

What’s wrong, Tobia?

It’s coming from the base!

Hang on, Tobia!

Watch out, Chitose! It’s coming!

What’s coming?

I don’t know, but it’s headed right for us!

Empire reinforcements?!

(The mystery mobile suit does a drive-by on our units!)

Agh!

It’s so fast!

Oh my gosh, could Amuro Ray be piloting that thing?!

I don’t think so

No average pilot has skills like that!

I don’t know quite how to put this, but the power I felt from that pilot is also emanating from the base.

What do you mean?

Are they communicating on an open channel?

Before you die, I should tell you that the pilot of the Amakusa you see before you is none other than the legendary Newtype himself – Amuro Ray!

Don’t you lie to me! There’s no way a pilot over 100 years old could fight like that!

How observant of you! It is in fact a perfect copy of the great Amuro Ray’s mind!

A copy?!

We obtained the flight computer from Amuro Ray’s unit during the One Year War! We were able to craft simulations using the data. From there, we simply had to subject our Bio Brains to those simulations!

The One Year War was the chronologically-first event in the UC-era Mobile Suit Gundam series. The Earth Federation battled against the “spacenoids” led by the Principality of Zeon in a war of independence. Amuro Ray was a civilain who literally fell into the cockpit of the Federation’s brand-new Gundam; events progressed and Amuro improved as a pilot up until the war’s final battle, where he was forced to abandon the Gundam due to damage.

The Gundam was equipped with a learning computer – the Federation would take the combat data and use it to help design their mass-produced mobile suits – and evidently the Jupiter Empire came into possession of that computer. Why they’re acting like this is such a big deal is a mystery:

The battle data has to be over 100 years old, and based on outdated technology.

By the end of the One Year War, Amuro had nowhere near the level of asteroid-pushing Newtype power he would become known for.

Early UC-era combat included such oddities as the spiked-ball-and-chain, tactically christened as “Hyper Hammers”

We repeat this cycle on untold numbers of them, creating an endless supply of Bio Brains containing the exact same piloting skills as Amuro Ray! Not even Amuro Ray would object to such an existence!

And that is piloting this counterfeit Gundam?

Precisely! We now have the ultimate pilot under our control! Between the Amakusa and the Bio Brains, we’ve created not only the final weapon, but the final soldier!

I can’t believe you would use Amuro Ray’s memories for something so vile!

We can’t let the Jupiter Empire walk all over us with a weapon like that!

You’ve got that right, Tobia! We have to win, whether we’re squaring off against the real Amuro Ray or some cheap imitation of his consciousness!

We’ve got no other choice!

Alright, I’m with you! Let’s go!

One step ahead of you!

We’re fighting against Amuro Ray’s combat record. If we lose faith for even a moment, we’re sunk!

(Can we really defeat a weapon with the reaction time of the strongest Newtype? An enemy that pulls the trigger at a moment’s notice?)

The Amakusa represents our first real challenge of the game. The most obvious warning sign of an enemy ace unit is the HP value - triple our own units’, and more than the Musaka battleships had in the last scenario - and the rest of its stats are nothing to laugh at either.

The Jupiter Empire aimed for the full One Year War experience, so of course the Amakusa is armed with a Hyper Hammer!

Here’s a screenshot of the Amakusa vs. an un-upgraded VangRay with no extra Power Parts.For a first-time player it’s going to be a real shocker going from near-100% hit rates to… that!

Of the two available pilots, Tobia will have the easier time fighting this Bio Brain. He has the Intuition Spirit Command, giving him a free dodge and 100% accuracy for a turn. We’ve also equipped the X-1 with Aura’s Protection, a Power Part that restores 100 SP to an equipped pilot. (It’s a bit overkill at this stage in the game where every pilot has around 60 SP.)

For Chitose, if you have the DLC rewards you have a lot of workarounds including +Mobility Power Parts or upgrading the VangRay’s Mobility stat (in combination with Zero-in). Otherwise, if you’re feeling a little worried you could have the VangRay stay out of range and/or Defend instead of attacking.

Chitose and Tobia get sortie dialogue for fighting the Bio Brain:

This is unlike any enemy I’ve ever faced! (I may not make it out of this alive. Akira, Captain Kato, Officer Sanada – I’ve done my best.)

This is no mere machine! Its power is overwhelming!

Two turns after the Amakusa appears, OR if you’re able to take away 50% of the Amakusa’s HP, the following happens:

Tobia! Are you all right?

I’m fine. The bleeding’s stopped. Besides, we have other things to worry about right now.

Now that I’ve seen him fight, I think the legend of Amuro Ray shooting down a dozen enemies inside three minutes might be true!

Yes, that’s it, Amakusa! Excellent! If we can mass-produce these, we may finally lay claim to the entire universe!

How can you be so smug! The Gamillans are headed this way, you know!

That’s rich, coming from the people who continue to repeat the mistakes of their former Supreme Leader!

Enough talk! The Amakusa will put an end to you, now that it has finished analyzing your abilities!

How can we fight all of these enemies and still take out that Amuro Ray copy?

Chitose, I’ve got an idea.

A strategy for turning this grim situation around?

I don’t know about that, but it’s certainly worth a shot.

Don’t you want to hear the plan?

Tobia, we’ve only known each other for a few days, but somehow I trust you.

Wha-?

You’re young, but you’ve managed to persevere through a battle I couldn’t even imagine fighting. You’ve earned my trust.

Thank you. That vote of confidence gives me some hope that this will work. OK, here goes!

Roger! I’ll create an opening. After that, it’s all yours!

Roger!

Listen up, VangRay! We’re going all out!

Yes! Yes! This is it! This is the VangRay’s true speed! Now if I can just manage to-!

(I was right. It’s getting confused by the VangRay’s erratic movements. I don’t care what kind of Newtype you are, you can’t react to something you’re seeing for the first time!) Now, let me show you the tricks I’ve picked up from this X-1!

Amazing, Tobia! That was fantastic!

(I pulled it off! I used the same combo that Kincade did!)

Look out, Tobia! It’s still moving!

Say what!

(Someone interupts the Amakusa’s attack!)

That beam-!

Never let your guard down.

The Yamato and an unknown mobile suit (five gets you ten it’s a Gundam) appear to the north. We get our first in-mission Sortie Select menu - allowing us to deploy our optional units. If you looked closely at the Intermission screenshot (at the top of this update), in the bottom-right corner it lists 2 optional unit deployment slots, for the Grungust and Huckebein. We could choose to NOT deploy them for this scenario, but that would be crazy talk.

A Gundam? And the Yamato!

You musn’t stop until the enemy is destroyed.

That voice!

Kincade! Is that really you? Oh, but you’re no longer Kincade anymore…

I’m afraid I have to go by Kincade Nau.

Why?

I’ll explain later. Focus on fighting the Jupiter Empire!

Tobia, Chitose. Fall in on our position and regroup.

Roger!

Th-that’s the Yamato!

The Hayabusa will intercept any enemies that approach the Yamato! The Gundams and VangRay shall form the front line!

Roger! The Cosmo Falcon squad shall move to defend!

(This unlocks a new “Cosmo Falcon Squadron” attack for the Yamato.)

Be careful! That new mech is being piloted by a Bio Brain copy of Amuro Ray’s mind!

D-did he just say Amuro Ray!

The legendary ace pilot. They must have found a way to copy his combat data to a Bio Brain.

I knew he’d connect the dots! You’re exactly right, Officer Sanada!

Amuro Ray! The first Gundam pilot!

I know! I won’t let you down! I’ll use this X-1 you’ve entrusted to me to take out this impostor!

Gundam F91 Mass Production Type (Kincade Nau)

Special Abilities:

Shield (skill-based chance of Defending whenever attacked)

Special Skills:

Newtype (raises Accuracy/Evasion; extends certain weapon ranges)

Potential (Accuracy/Evasion/Critical/Defense rises as HP decreases)

Hit & Run (If stationary unit attacks, it can move after attacking)

Ace Bonus: +20 SKL, +1 melee weapon range
Custom Bonus: +1 weapon range, +300 damage for “V.S.B.R” weapon

Don’t let the mass-production moniker scare you away - the F91’s range combined with Kincade’s Hit & Run make for a good attacking unit. However, at least in my experience, the F91 is a massive hate-sink that enemies will continuously try to target. Kincade knows Zero-in and Persist (next damage taken is reduced by 7/8ths).

The Amakusa has retreated to the southwest, recovered a bit of HP, and a bunch of enemy mobile suits are in between us. All we have to do is keep our units within range of the Yamato (for the Commander bonus) as we slowly but surely make our way over there.

Our reinforcements have some sortie dialogue:

(This can’t be their base. There aren’t enough enemies here. Was the Jupiter Empire really rebuilding?)

(Cecily will have to remain Berah Ronah for the rest of her life if we don’t defeat the Jupiter Empire. That’s why I must put an end to it!)

And everyone’s got some new dialogue should they attack the Amakusa (again):

It’s definitely a machine, but there’s no way this is the same Amuro Ray who saved Earth from an asteroid! Let’s do this! I won’t let you use another pilot as a weapon!

Never in a million years did I think we’d have to fight a legendary pilot. I may not have a unit of my own, but I’ve got plenty of reasons to fight. There’s no backing down now!

It is a machine after all! I’m tripping it up with my erratic movements! But I can’t keep this style up for long. I’ve got to finish this quickly!

I have to fight Amuro Ray? How is this going to turn out? What am I saying? I’m going to send this 100 year old legend back to the history book it crawled out of!

Every pilot on Earth respected the name Amuro Ray. Countless pilots aspired to be Amuro Ray. He was the benchmark by which all pilots were measured. I welcome both the opportunity to fight against such a legend, and the chance to punish those who would dare tarnish it so carelessly!

So long as you keep your units healed as necessary, and remember to cast Fortune/Fairy’s Breath to double the money reward from the Amakusa, it’s a straight path to mission complete! Just be aware that taking out the Amakusa will cause the rest of the Empire’s forces to retreat - take them out for the money/EXP/score they provide before then.

Impossible! How could the Amakusa be defeated?

You did it, Tobia!

But it looks like the Bio Brain units are getting away!

We’ll deal with them later! We should press our attack on the base for now!

Roger!

Hold our current position. We’ll keep this area secure.

Good luck, you two!

This may not end well.

What are you talking about? How could it-

Think. Every soldier in that base failed their mission.

Velt’s worst fears are realized – the last remaining Jupiter Empire soldier locks Chitose and Tobia inside of the base, but not before turning on the self-destruct and killing himself! Tobia receives a Newtype premonition, and is able to guide the two out of the base just before it explodes. Could the Bio Brain, in its last moments of operation, have saved their lives?

Kincade Nau and Crossbone Vanguard leader Berah Ronah board the Yamato. The two of them had come out of an early retirement and were leading the resistances forces on Jupiter. Tobia is saddened to hear that his friends were not able to relax after their hard-fought victory in the last war, but Kincade sees it as a task that his generation is expected to carry through to the end.

You have more important things to attend to than waging war on the ghosts of past enemies.

The end might have come sooner than they realized – apparently that base that just exploded was the Empire’s last remaining stronghold near Jupiter, and their remaining forces have begun to fled the solar system. The only stronghold that still remains a threat to Jupiter is one belonging to the Gamillans…

As has been stated a bunch of times in the dialogue by now, Kincade Nau and Berah Ronah are not their real names. Seabook Arno and Cecily Fairchild (respectively) were characters in the movie Mobile Suit Gundam F91, wherein they helped stop the initial iteration of the Crossbone Vanguard from taking over a bunch of space colonies. Seabook piloted the F91 during that time, but for now he’s stuck in the inferior mass-produced version.

Next Update:

We window-shop at some Skill Programs.
We use the Yamato as an actual ship, ferrying around our other units.
We visit scenic Space Australia![/details]

casanova_coeurl · July 6, 2017, 12:54am

[details=Scenario 4 - Anomaly on the Jovian Front (Click to view)]

We obtained the following Power Parts from the last scenario:

Magnetic Coating (+10 Mobility)

Dual Sensor (+10 Sight)

In the last scenario it was mentioned that Amuro had over 100 confirmed kills. Let’s try to remember that if we ever run into the man himself.

Today’s Intermission submenu is the Skill Tree. Here we can spend our accumulated TacP – Tactical Points – on learning new skills for our pilots. On the first Skill page, we indeed have a literal tree of skills to view and purchase. We can buy as many of a single skill as we can afford, but if we want to buy skills lower on the tree, we first have to buy the skill(s) preceding it.

For example, if we wanted to buy the Focus Over Limit skill, we would first have to buy at least one copy of Potential, Spirit Endurance, Fighter’s Spirit, and either Focus+ (Atk) OR Focus+ (Def). There’s lots of skills here we won’t immediately be buying, so here’s a list to view when you get a chance.

The second page is for Parameter, used to increase the pilot’s stats and Terrain rankings.

The last page, oddly named The Special, is for skills that the game feels are really good. We have to unlock these skills as rewards for scenario-clearing (where we get a free copy of the skill), and afterwards we could buy more, but their TacP costs can be up to ten times what regular skills cost. Though we have no the special skills unlocked currently.

So why aren’t we buying any skills currently? One, TacP can be used to purchase something else a little later in the game. Two, I want to make sure that when we get a particular set of pilots that I have enough TacP to teach them a very particular skill. Can you guess which?

One last thing I’ll mention since we’re on the topic of skills, is that some skills have levels. Potential can go up to Level 10, giving maximum increases. Support Attack/Defend can go up to Level 4, increasing the number of support actions. And so on and so forth. Sometimes the pilot’s default skills will level up when the pilot levels up, or you could buy some extra copies of the skill to max them out early.

The leadership of the Gamillas base near Pluto begin to detect the Yamato on their long-range sensors. Commander Shultz is surprised that humans have been able to warp-jump through space, but does not deem the Yamato to be much of a threat, especially not enough to alert his superiors about.

For the record, these Pluto personnel are not defecting humans or anything like that. They come from the planet Zaltz, and just coincidentally look like regular humans. (Same with the few Iscandar people we’ve seen, come to think of it.) Later Gamillans will be varying shades of blue!

The Yamato crew analyze the Crossbone Vanguard’s data on their enemy’s base - another asteroid, but this one is the size of Austrailia and heavily terraformed; it’s basically a floating continent all its own. Commander Okita plans to use the same strategy against this base as during the last mission, with the mobile weapons fighting on the front line.

Discussion eventually turns to the Yamato’s newly-designed weapon; by linking the Wave Motion Engine directly to the main artillery, the resulting Wave Motion Gun would be incredibly powerful. A test firing is planned for after the current operation.

Chitose and the other pilots are given a pep talk by Lt. Kado and Akira before deploying…

You’re representing the Aircraft Squad! Show that idiot Nanbu what pilots are made of!

(The green continent is Space Austrailia; Jupiter lies below.)

Yeah. The scariest part is that they had the technology to bring all of this to our Solar System.

That’s the kind of enemy we’re up against.

I’m picking up signals on the radar! Gamillas warships, inbound!

(A whole bunch of small fry, and some newer ships in the back rows!)

A battleship, two astro carriers – multiple fighters!

Looks like they sent a welcoming party after all!

Launch the mobile suit unit!

Mobile suit unit, launch!

Again, the Grungust and Huckebein are optional units to deploy. Again, of course we’re going to deploy them!

You can see in the above screenshot that we’ve earned enough SR points for the game to change from Normal to Hard difficulty. Let’s see just how much harder it gets.

Kincade, are you sure you don’t want to pilot the X-1?

What are you talking about? When I gave it to you, you told me you won’t return it to me.

I did, but-

You’re the Crossbone Vanguard’s ace pilot now. There was a lot of talk about the Skull Heart on Jupiter. Besides, Kato said it himself. You must carry out the orders given to you.

I guess you’re right.

Let’s do this, Tobia! We’re all in this together!

In order to get back at Weapons Officer Nanbu?

And live up to Captain Kato’s expectations?

She’s right!

All units, commence operation! The assault on the Gamillas Empire begins now!

In an escalation of the SR Point condition from last time, instead of 4 enemies in 3 turns, now it’s 15 enemies in 4 turns! Luckily for us, the enemy is fielding a bunch of Melanca spacecraft that are frailer than mobile suits.

We finally start a scenario far enough away from the enemy forces that we can’t attack or be attacked on our first turn. So in lieu of violence, we’re going to have all of our units take a scenic cruise of Space Austrailia while riding aboard the Yamato!

Your non-battleship units can dock and redeploy from battleships, adhering to the following rules:

To board the battleship, a unit needs to be able to move on to its exact map square.

Boarding ends the unit’s action (but not the battleship’s).

Boarded units recover HP, EN, and weapon ammo at the beginning of every player phase.

The battleship can move next to units and, instead of attacking, use the Recover command to pick up any adjacent units.

On our first turn, we have everyone board the Yamato, and move it the maximum distance towards the continent. On our second turn, Yamato sub-pilot Shima has enough SP to cast the Accel Spirit Command (+3 move for one movement), and then Yamato moves even further forwards.

You can see in this screenshot just how far we’ve been able to move from our starting position to deep within enemy territory. Now, all of our units can launch from the Yamato and hit as many enemies as possible, maximizing our chances at grabbing the SR Point. Sortie dialogue:

The real battle with the Gamillas fleet starts now.

Don’t do anything brash, Kodai. No matter how much you may want to avenge your brother-

When have I ever acted brash?!

Enough! Both of you! We are at war!

Y-yes sir!

Cannons, prepare to fire!

(Based on the data, I doubt that their scale is this much. The test fire may need to occur ahead of schedule.)

As a member of the Yamato crew – No, as a human from Earth, I will not stand for this anymore!

(Cecily’s battle won’t end, even if we do defeat them here. This is just the beginning.)

I’ll be back soon, Akira! I’m going to fight hard enough for both of us. I’m counting on you, VangRay. Work with me!

I had heard the stories, but seeing it for myself really creeps me out. Let’s kick these greedy gardeners out of the Solar System once and for all!

Gamillas… Their technology is beyond our imagination. But technology alone doesn’t win battles! Let’s show them what we’re made of!

THIS is what I was referring to when I said the F91 is some kind of hate-sink!

There’s enough Melanca units on the continent that we can take 15 of them out without having to even touch the battleships, but we’d be foolish to not watch out for the two Polmeria-class battleships…

…and this one Destroia-class battleship. It’s best to let our battleships (Yamato) take on enemy battleships; battleship weaponry isn’t the most accurate, but when attacking other battleships (which have near-zero dodging ability) this is no longer a problem. It’ll also serve to keep Okita from taking experience/kills from our other units.

When we score the SR Point (or when turn 5 rolls around), we also score some positive reinforcement:

This strategy is proving rather effective.

We’re breaking the enemy’s front line while the battleship behind us wipes out the rest. This is a first for me, too.

It would never work without this combination, either. You need a balance of heavy fire from the battleships while mobile suit units hold the front line.

I’m picking something up on the radar! Enemy ships are flanking us!

Enemy reinforcements inbound!

An enemy battleship is headed right for us!

So they want to take us head-on, do they?

Intercept and evade! Quickly!

Shima, we need time to get the main cannon ready! You’ve got to find a way to dodge the first round of incoming fire!

Sometimes the in-game positioning of certain units turns serious cutscenes into silly cutscenes.

The Yamato’s under attack!

Not if I have anything to say about it!

Chitose!

You’re crazy, Chitose!

But I have to do something, or else Earth will fall! Please, VangRay! I need your help, now more than ever!

What?!

Generating action list.

Now I should definitely be able to use the battle tactic that Ensign Murakumo taught me!

Chitose has unlocked the VangRay’s new Tactical Charge Maneuver Rekka attack. It’s powerful, post-movement, has plenty of ammo, and comes with the very useful special effects Ignore Size and Barrier Buster.

That was insane!

What kind of combo was that?

I-I can’t even believe it myself!

My assistance made that possible.

What are you, anyway?

Main OS? Then that means you’ve been installed all along! Why did you wait until now to tell me that!

I am designed not to provide unnecessary information in the middle of tactical operations.

You could at least tell me before takeoff?

What are you doing, Chitose? That wasn’t the last of them! Keep fighting!

Leave this to us and return to the front lines at once, Chitose!

Roger! Did you hear that, Nine-Nine? And once we get back, you’ll have to answer to me!

The safe return of this unit is up to you, pilot. May you fight with valor.

I’ll only say this once, OK? You don’t make it back to the ship in one piece if I don’t so step up and give me a hand!

A couple of new enemies have appeared to the south, including one battleship. By this point your units should have a stockpile of ExC points built up, so it should be no problem to Boost Dash them over southwards and start hitting things.

Remember that the Yamato, being a battleship, has access to a set of Extra Order options. The first, Emergency Retrieval, costs 1 ExC and allows you to retrieve (board) any allied unit within 8 spaces. Have a unit attack, and then you can Retrieve it as the Yamato moves closer towards the enemy reinforcements.

Chitose and her new friend get more sortie dialogue:

Enemies approaching. Calculating velocity and distance. Enemy weapons include-

H-hey, hold it! I don’t care how much data you have, all that’s going to do right now is confuse me!

You’re not going to learn how to operate me, are you?

I hate to admit it, but you’re probably right! We’re stuck with each other now, though – got it? Now lend me a hand! I’m not going to die today!

Understood. I will do all I can to ensure that you live.

The remaining enemies get taken out, and that’s mission complete!

That’s it! The enemy forces have been destroyed!

Not yet, they haven’t!

I’m picking up more signals on the radar!

(That’s a lot of battleships!)

Oh man, that’s bad!

They were still sitting on a force this large?

It’s unfortunate, because this would have been the perfect opportunity to show off all our VR training.

Yes sir! All units, return to the ship!

(They do.)

All units have returned, sir!

Retreat, Shima. Get us away from the floating continent.

Understood!

We’ve reached the outskirts, sir!

Well this is escalating rather quickly!

What!

We’ll test fire the wave motion gun using the Gamillas base as a target!

With all due respect-

We have no idea how powerful the wave motion gun is, and this is an incredibly volatile situation. Wouldn’t a test fire be too risky, Commander?

Officer Sanada-

It’s OK, Kodai.

Crew, prepare to attack! Turn the ship hard to port and point the bow at the floating continent!

Switching to emergency mode in case of the power reboot!

Very well. Let’s show them exactly how large the power disparity between us really is!

Mori, where is the continent’s heat source?

It’s concentrated in the valley!

Good, give me the coordinates! Kodai, you know what to do!

Yes, sir! Aligning the ship’s bow with the center, sir!

Enemy ships approaching!

Ignore them! Aim for the base!

The Wave Motion Gun was powerful enough to destroy the base and the entire continent in a single shot. Some of the crew are thrilled at having the power to fight back against the Gamillans, but others are shocked at its sheer destructive power.

(This kind of power could destroy the universe. Have we acquired the very flames of the apocalypse?)

With Jupiter free of any future threats, Tobia and Kincade make the decision to permanently join the Yamato on its journey to Iscandar. Chitose tries to communicate with System Nine-Nine, the mysterious OS that made an appearance during the last battle, but doesn’t make any progress…

Next Update:

Conflicts of interest!
Also conflicts that require super robots to resolve.
First contact with actual, non-human-shaped aliens![/details]

casanova_coeurl · July 13, 2017, 1:30am

[details=Scenario 5 - A Chilling Reunion (click to view)]

We obtained the following Power Parts from the last scenario:

Thruster Module (S-rank in Space for the unit and its weapons)

Cartridge (recovers all weapon ammo; usable once per scenario)

The Wave Motion Gun is off-limits for the forseeable future, so the Yamato only has six deadly attacking weapons instead of seven. However will it manage?

We only have one more unexplored Intermission submenu for the time being: the Change Pilot menu. Here we are able to assign different pilots to different robots, the golden rule being that the pilot needs to know how to operate the robot or they won’t be allowed to pilot it!

Lottie and Velt can pilot each other’s robots, since they were both developed by the same lab (Nikola Wilhelm).

Any of the UC-era mobile suit pilots can pilot each other’s mobile suits; currently we could indeed put Kincade in the X-1 if we so felt like it.

We keep everyone in their current units, because change is scary. On to the next scenario!

System Nine-Nine is still unwilling to communicate, not with Chitose and not with other members of the crew. It has been determined that System Nine-Nine was responsible for the original order for Chitose and the VangRay to board the Yamato, but that’s all they can figure out.

Tobia and Kincade have an emotional departure with Berah before the Yamato leaves Jupiter. Bernadette sneaks back onboard at the last minute, as she still has concerns about the Jupiter Empire.

I just have to know… what the people who followed my father – who attacked Earth – are looking for in the outer reaches.

Shortly after leaving Jupiter, the Yamato picks up a Federation distress signal originating from Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. An argument breaks out among the crew about whether to heed the distress call, ignore the unlikely possibility of survivors in favor of confronting the main Gamillas base near Pluto, or ignore both of those in favor of heading directly for Iscandar.

Because the Yamato’s engine was damaged during the firing of the Wave Motion Gun, the decision is made to main the materials needed for repair on Enceladus, while also responding to the distress signal.

Lieutenant Kodai, Lieutenant Mori and others are part of the rescue mission, and find the wreckage of a Federation battleship. Suddenly, Gamillan androids – Gamiloids – attack them! But even more suddenly…

What is that?!

(The Gamiloids immediately get blown the heck up by… giant rabbits?)

Wait, those monsters aren’t Gamillan weapons? Gah! My cosmo gun!

Kodai, use this one!

Thanks!

(Kodai returns fire.)

You really saved my skin, Mori. Is this yours?

No. I found it lying there and threw it to you without thinking.

So whose gun is it then?

I detect hostiles approaching.

Let’s get out of here, Mori!

It’s no use! They’re catching up with us!

Mori, you go on ahead!

But-

It’s my duty to protect you. Now go!

(Luckily the away team is saved by the timely arrival of…)

It’s Cosmo Zero! But who’s piloting it?

Something else is approaching, Tactical Officer Kodai!

What are these, wannabe Invaders?

(This new robot does not care for space bunnies!)

What kind of robot is that?

No idea! I’ve never seen that type before!

Quick, get in! We have to get out of here while that robot is distracting those monsters for us!

Wait a second, aren’t you from Accounting?!

Do you know something about that black robot?

I only heard you were under attack and came to help. The Gamillans are heading to the cosmonite mines, too. The Yamato is going to intercept them.

Then let’s get out of here! It’ll be a tight fit, but Cosmo Zero can hold all of us!

Let’s go!

Whatever. Guess I should clear up this mess first! Come on, you wannabe Invaders! I may not know where I am, but I do know that your luck ran out the moment I showed up here! Guess I gotta finish you off before I go home to Earth!

Black Getter (Ryoma Nagare)
Theme: HEATS

No Special Abilities

Special Skills:

Potential (Accuracy/Evasion/Critical/Defense rises as HP decreases)

Focus Over Limit (maximum Focus increases)

Fighter’s Spirit (initial Focus increases)

Ace Bonus: +30% damage when Focus is 170 or higher.
Custom Bonus: All weapons gain S-rank in all Terrain.

Harnessing the power of the cosmic Getter Rays, this Getter Robo is ready to take on the hostile lifeforms - just watch out for its EN consumption. Ryoma has a high starting Potential - the more the Black Getter gets hit, the more likely the Black Getter is going to deal out critical hits.

Fun fact: the next scenario has a victory condition that ISN’T “defeat all enemies”! But that is then, and this is now. For the SR point, we need to take out one enemy in a single attack - no Support Attacks. The enemy unit can attack us as many times as it wants beforehand (where we’d Defend or Evade), we just need to completely wipe it out in one shot.

Since we’re fighting on a moon, you might assume our units are fighting on Space terrain. But as long as units can land or fly, the map terrain is treated as Ground or Sky. (Space Australia was weird because our units were grounded without the chance to land, but the enemies were shown as being above the ground, so I don’t know if that was Space terrain or what.)

We land the Black Getter because I seriously do worry about the minor EN consumption that flying would cost. Depending on type, ground Terrain sometimes offers bonuses to a unit’s Defense, Evasion, HP or EN recovery, which you can see by hovering over it. The name of this battleship seems familiar…

Here’s the ugly beauties, called Metal Beasts that Ryoma will waste no time walloping - they don’t look like bunnies up close, that much is for sure. They have no post-movement attack, so if you want to beat them in a timely fashion then you need to end your turn with Ryoma in range. In he gets hit too much, Ryoma knows the Grit Spirit Command to recover 30% HP.

Sortie dialogue:

I’m still kicking! I swear if I make it through this, I’ll force the old man Saotome to confess!

On turn 3 player phase, or if Ryoma can down two of the initial Metal Beasts by himself…

Tch! Calling your buddies for backup, are you? My supplies are running low. I can’t let myself be run down!

Wha-!

The Metal Beasts saved the away team from the Gamaloids, Mori saved Kodai with the gun toss, Akira saved the away team, Ryoma saved Akira, and now we have Ryoma getting saved!

That robot saved me?!

There’s no mistake.

The translators decided to call them Getter Robots instead of Robos, which is decidedly less cool. But since this is Getter Robo Armageddon, at least we won’t be treated to multiple references of “Getter Robot 1/2/3”. (The Black Getter is a modified Getter Robo 1, for reference.)

Hey, you. Whoever you are, if you’re here to help me, then you are my favorite person in the universe.

Uh. Right. (I knew that was a Getter Robo. But what’s it doing here? What is this place? What happened to me?)

Seems like the both of us have gotten caught up in something neither of us really understand. Somehow I doubt the surprises end here.

(The Yamato makes a surprising appearance!)

So those are the mystery robots Tactical mentioned.

There are two of them? I thought there was just one!

They look like the same type at first glance, but then you start seeing the differences. When that happens, it’s the developer, or even the concept that’s become widely-

Enough talking! We need to do something about that monster!

Target that creature first. All units, prepare to fire.

Hey, you. You familiar with that ship?

No, this is the first time I’ve ever seen it.

Well, whatever. If their opponents are those wannabe Invaders too, they’ll probably lend us a hand.

Understood.

Y’know, there’s a reason I don’t get out much. Because crap like this always happens when I do. And it’s always because of the Getter!

(Is he who I think he is?)

Great Mazinger (Tetsuya Tsurugi)
Theme: The Guardian

Special Abilities:

EN Regen (S) (Recovers 10% of maximum EN per turn)

Special Skills:

Potential (Accuracy/Evasion/Critical/Defense rises as HP decreases)

Instinct (At 130 Focus, raises Final Accuracy/Final Evasion/Critical)

Guard (At 130 Focus, damage taken is reduced)

Ace Bonus: Spirit Command “Valor” is changed to “Soul”
Custom Bonus: +50 EN, +300 Armor

Tetsuya has the slight edge over Ryoma in piloting ability and Terrain rankings, and the Great Mazinger is a little more EN-friendly than the Black Getter, but the same concerns apply to both. Tetsuya’s claim to fame in a lot of SRW titles is his Gain Spirit Command; similar to Fortune, it’ll double the Experience gained from Great’s next battle. Higher pilot level means better states, more SP, and new Spirit Commands.

Everyone’s got something different to talk about in their sortie dialogue:

Hmm…

Kodai?

Pay attention, Kodai! We still don’t know what sort of creatures we’re up against!

Yes, sir!

(He’s been acting so strange. Did something happen to him on that ship?)

Inqiury.

Wha-!

By “carelessly”, are you referring to her unsanctioned sortie?

You scared the heck out of me coming out of nowhere like that! I’m gonna have a heart attack one of these days.

We are in the middle of battle. Please respond promptly.

You’re the one who appeared out of thin air just to ask me a question! I don’t have that much time, so you get the short version. Of course leaving without permission is careless, but what’s worse is she ignored Captain Kato’s feelings. I suppose he probably shouldn’t be so overprotective, but when someone cares about you that much, you can’t take their love for granted! Okay, that’s enough chit-chat. These monsters aren’t going to destroy themselves!

Understood.

I’m going back to Earth – to Bernadette no matter what! And I’ll make sure her dreams for the future come true!

I had no idea what was in store for me when I embarked on a 168,000 light-year journey, but I never imagined I would end up fighting monsters like this! What other trials could be in store for me in the future?

There’s no way I can die here! I still have to find out what happened!

Ugh… Even in a mobile suit, I don’t wanna have to touch something so gross! Please, please, please don’t squelch, or squish, or splat goo all over me!

I knew I’d encounter unimaginable situations in a journey of 336,000 light-years, but I never thought I’d experience them in my own Solar System! The only thing larger than the universe is my yearning to know everything about it!

Now that we’ve got our full roster, it’s time to plan out how to obtain the SR Point. First thing we can do is use Yamato subpilot Sanada’s Analyze Spirit Command on one enemy, increasing the damage it takes until the end of the turn.

Then we have to choose one of our units with a highly-damaging attack - the Yamato, the VangRay (upgraded), and both of our new recruits could pull it off.

Finally, we should ensure that our hit is a critical hit, so our attacker should get enough ExC points so they can Smash Hit (and Ignore Size if available). One of the DLC power parts, the ExC Bank, is a consumable that gives out 5 ExC points to the user.

They sure can fight. I can’t believe something like that was created while I was doing time. No matter. Facing down Invaders is my purpose in life! That, and facing down old man Saotome!

The only concerns for this scenario are keeping Ryoma alive before/after our reinforcements show up, and scoring the SR Point. After handling both of those, it’s mission complete!

Confirmed. Hostiles have been neutralized.

I can’t believe those monsters were on Enceladus.

Hmm…

Kodai?

It’s- It’s nothing.

I wonder if Akira’s okay.

But it’s thanks to her that the Tactical team is safe. Surely that deserves to be taken into consideration. Well, what we should be worrying about are those mystery robots.

Hmm…

Thanks. You saved me, showing up when you did. I’m Ryoma Nagare. What name are you stuck with?

(I knew it was him!)

Hey, you still with me?

Got it. Thanks again, Tetsuya. A communication’s coming in from that ship. Seems like they wanna talk to us. We need to figure out exactly what’s going on here. Let’s go.

Right. (Ryoma Nagare, huh? If he’s the Ryoma Nagare I’ve heard of, then there’s only one thing I have to do.)

Lieutenants Kodai and Mori return to the wreckage of the battleship Yukikaze. It – and the weapon Mori tossed to Kodai during the previous battle – both belonged to the late Mamoru Kodai, brother of the lieutenant.

After being falsely arrested, he was released in order to fight against technorganic aliens and the very man he was accused of killing. This is the story of Getter Robo pilot Ryoma Nagare, but this story is unfamiliar to the crew of the Yamato – in fact, this is the first time the Federation has ever fought against the Invaders that Ryoma mentioned. Executive Officer Sanada raises an interesting theory:

You have come here from another Earth, one in a universe parallel to ours.

What sort of bull is that?

Great Mazinger pilot Testuya Tsurugi cannot collaborate any parts of Ryoma’s story – it seems like he’s caught a case of plot-convenient amnesia…

Next Update:

The Yamato strikes at the Gamillan base on Pluto.
A new victory condition appears!
But we’re still going to defeat all the enemies for fun and profit.[/details]

casanova_coeurl · July 20, 2017, 3:34am

[details=Scenario 6 - Dusk on Pluto (click to view)]

No new Power Parts, unfortunately. Usually the game is good about handing out one or two per scenario, but not today.

We’ve got a balanced mix of real robots and super robots now, so now would be a good point to do any upgrading or assigning Power Parts for the next handful of scenarios. I’ve mentioned previously, but branching storyline paths (later on) may prevent you from using certain units on those paths, so be careful with spending too much on any one unit.

The remaining Intermission submenus will be unlocked eventually, but until then we can start jumping straight into scenarios.

Super robot pilots Ryoma and Tetsuya voluntarily join the Aircraft Squad. Ryoma is questioned about his home universe - a universe whose Earth has had prior run-ins with the Invaders. After the first wave of victories, Ryoma was put under arrest for three years. He was accused of murdering the head researcher on Getter Energy, Professor Saotome. But when the Invaders returned, Ryoma’s piloting skills were needed once more. A deuteron missile was fired and Ryoma ended up caught in the blast, which could explain his dimension-hopping.

For her actions in saving the away team on Enceladus, Ensign Akira gets promoted to the Aircraft Squad.

The Yamato approaches Pluto in an attempt to drive the Gamillans from their solar system once and for all - the M2 Operation has begun! But the enemy base on Pluto are more than ready for them. The planet is surrounded by satellite-mirrors, used by the reflective satellite cannon to strike the Yamato from unpredictable angles! The Yamato plumets towards one of Pluto’s terraformed oceans…

Commander Shultz of the Pluto base is so sure of his victory that he reports to the Gamillan homeworld, directly reporting to Supreme Leader Ghale Dessler himself.

But it’s too soon to write off the Yamato. Submerged in the ocean, a plan to counterattack has been formed. The mobile weapons have been deployed to take out the enemy base…

(Arriving on the base’s front lawn… the Gamillans should have terraformed grass on Pluto, then they could have an actual front lawn!)

The Terrons dare attack us!

That infernal ship deployed its units?

But how?

The Yamato must still be operational! Prepare the reflective satellite cannon at once! Let’s give them a worthy opponent.

Understood!

We have already reported victory to the Supreme Leader! The Yamato must be defeated at all costs!

We’ll pay them back in kind for what they did to our ship!

Keep your wits about you. Intercepting forces are on their way from the base!

What’s that?

There’s some familiar mobile suits mixed in with the Gamillan forces…

Those are mobile suits from the Jupiter Empire!

Did the Gamillans commandeer them?

There’s no honor in swinging from one side to the other when the balance of power shifts!

Which means, what, exactly?

This isn’t a coincidence. They’re allied with Gamillas!

So that’s how it is. They’re Earthlings who will throw Earth away to the highest bidder.

Which means-

We’re not gonna hold anything back!

I guess there’s no other way. We have to take down both Gamillas and the Jupiter Empire! Chitose, don’t forget, you’ve got other orders!

I know! It’s up to you now, Nine-Nine. The fate of the Yamato is in your hands!

…

An unknown SR Point condition? And the same old Victory condition?!? Fear not, for conditions can change and be revealed as the battle progresses.

Cosmo Zero (Susumu Kodai)
Theme: Yamato Descends

No Special Abilities

Special Skills:

Potential (Accuracy/Evasion/Critical/Defense rises as HP decreases)
Support Attack (can attack after an adjacent ally – damage is capped at 50% strength)
Dash (+Move)
Protection (Increases the effects of Defending and Evading)

The Yamato isn’t available, but we’ve been given Kodai flying around in the Cosmo Zero. It’s a very nice fighter plane, but it’s no robot, so try to keep it out of the enemy’s range and especially try not to let it steal any EXP/kills from your other units.

The Jupiter Empire also has a new unit to show off as part of its alliance with the Gamillans. The Gangrijo is a mobile armor - like a mobile suit, but armor-ier. Thankfully it doesn’t have a Shield like the Baterra units do.

The enemy force is stationed neatly centered at the front of the base, whereas our units start in the southeastern corner of the map. Try to keep your units close together as you navigate northwards around the spikes and towers, lest the enemies go after any stragglers (or the Cosmo Zero). Sortie dialogue:

(Commander Okita has put the mobile units in charge of the Yamato’s fate. I’ll do everything in my power to protect this ship! I won’t let them down. Not the Yamato, not my brother!)

Attacking someone else’s planet for no reason makes these jerks no different from the Invaders! Come at me! I’ll make every last one of you regret even looking at the Earth!

(Here goes! Until I can take down my true enemy, there’s no way I’m getting dusted! I’m going to survive and complete my mission of bringing Ryoma Nagare back!)

(I can’t believe the Jupiter Empire joined forces with the Gamillans! Has the distance from Earth made them forget their humanity? Or did they ally with Gamillans out of spite?)

(Could Crux Dogatie’s grudge against the Earth still be alive and well in the Jupiter Empire?)

If we destroy the Pluto Base, then there won’t be any more planet bombs falling to Earth! Dad, Mom, Yu, I promise, I won’t let you down!

If we crush them here, they can’t fire any more planet bombs at Earth. Don’t you worry, everyone. We’re going to blast them into nothing!

(The planet bombs ended countless lives and transformed the Earth into a planet on the brink of death. We won’t lose to you, Gamillas! We’re going to Iscandar, and to hope!)

At the start of the fourth turn, or when we down enough enemies…

Confirmed! The Yamato is approaching!

Is the reflection satellite cannon ready?

The energy charge will finish shortly!

Perfect! Load the reflection satellite cannon!

Gotcha!

Yamato, come in! We’ve located the enemy weapon! I’m sending you the coordinates! The enemy is charging it up. Now’s your chance! Hurry!

Victory is about patience, not about rushing in guns blazing. Too bad you won’t survive long enough to learn from your mistake, Yamato! The reflection satellite cannon will see to that!

Charging complete! Counting down!

This isn’t good, Kodai! The energy levels are rising!

Nanbu, hurry!

Here it comes!

(Shots are fired at the base from beneath the water in the southern portion of the map!)

Th-the reflective satellite cannon platform has sustained damage! The energy current has flipped!

No!

We did it!

Can’t be anything left of the base after that blast.

Leave it to Commander Okita to set up the main cannon to a timed fuse to detonate at short range.

Kodai, here comes the Yamato!

Roger that. Everyone, I’m leaving the front line up to you!

Yes, sir! Let’s end this!

That damn Yamato!

Commander, it’s too dangerous to stay here! You must retreat!

I will do no such thing!

You won’t have a chance to regain your honor if you die!

Augh!

We did it, Kodai!

Well done, Kodai. But the fight is far from over.

Yes, sir. Now they’ll finally get a taste of Earth’s new power!

Ships are taking off from the base! Too many to count!

Seven, Mori. There are seven ships. Count them!

It appears the enemy ships are abandoning the base and retreating.

That must be their flagship! Full speed ahead! Mobile units, to the front lines! We will destroy the enemy flagship and scourge the Gamillans from the Solar System!

Yes, sir!

(As the Yamato advances, one of the enemy ships rushes out in front.)

What are you doing, Jarletora?

We will be your shield. You must get to safety! All ships, with me! We must hold the front lines until Commander Shultz’s Le Chevalier withdraws!

Jarletora-

Commander, you must take this chance that Jarletora is giving you.

Le Chevalier will withdraw! Switching to Geshu Tam navigation!

Officer Sanada, calculate the flagship’s withdrawl course!

Analysis completed. Relaying coordinates now!

A number of squares on the western edge of the map have been lit up.

I’m not letting you slip away that easy! You’re going to pay for the lives you’ve ruined!

Commence attack! Target the flagship!

The rules have changed! We have two new Victory conditions, to blow up both Commander Shultz’s ship and that of his subordinate, Jarletora. Surprisingly, letting Shultz escape (by reaching those white squares on the west side) does not count as a Defeat condition, but it will prevent you from scoring the SR Point.

What the game doesn’t make very clear is that, if we defeat Jarletora first, then the scenario ends and we wouldn’t score the SR Point.

As Shultz makes a beeline for the exit, his entourage moves southwards to engage the Earth forces. Make sure to blow them up first for EXP/money/TaCP before taking out Shultz. The Yamato gets sortie dialogue for attacking any ship other than the Le Chevalier:

We will end the strife in our Solar System before turning towards Iscandar! All units, remember that! Iscandar is the light at the end of this dark tunnel!

Yes, sir! (The wave motion engine core that my brother and his friends protected led to the Yamato’s creation. We’ll keep the Yamato alive and save the Earth from total destruction!)

Jaletora’s battleship will be dead-set on attacking the Yamato It would take several hits from the Yamato to defeat him (which, remember, is a bad thing) so to err on the side of caution, you can have the Yamato Defend or Evade instead of counterattacking

Do not give them an inch! We must stop the Terron ship and save Commander Shultz!

(They’re fighting just so their flagship can escape. Now I know what it feels like to be on the other side.)

The Le Chevalier is the beefiest unit we’ll be encountering for quite a while. As per the general strategy, focus your attacks on the boss and let the other enemies die to counterattacks - just make sure that your units have enough health and Spirit Commands to survive the Le Chevalier’s counterattacks. And don’t forget about Sanada’s Analyze, which we went over last scenario, to maximize the damage dealt.

Target the enemy flagship!

All units take aim!

(Why? Why do these Terrons not give up after all the damage they’ve suffered? Zaltzians will die before surrendering. Do these Terrons have the same determination?)

We score the SR Point, and it’s mission complete!

No! Le Chevalier isn’t going to make it!

I won’t let that happen!

The enemy ship is heading straight for us!

All units fire at will! Stop that ship!

All units, fire!

(Jarletora’s ship explodes.)

Jarletora!

Full speed ahead!

I will not let any of your sacrifices be in vain, Jarletora. I swear it!

(The Le Chevalier escapes.)

The enemy flagship is withdrawing and preparing to warp.

I see. (That commander gave his life so the flagship could escape. Just like Mamoru Kodai. Our enemy is more like us than we suspected.)

Commander?

The Gamillan Pluto Base is finished. Earth need no longer fear the threat of planet bombs.

We did it, Kodai!

Yeah, we did. (We did it, Mamoru.)

Now we can focus on getting to Iscandar.

It’s 168,000 light-years one way, which means this is a 336,000 light-year round-trip.

And the Gamillans won’t get in our way again, judging from the way they tucked tail and ran.

(From now on, I’m going to fight for Earth, not for revenge. As part of the Yamato, I’ll make sure the Earth’s future is brighter than its past.)

Word of the Pluto Base’s destruction and Shultz’s retreat has reached the Supreme Leader…

…and that’s all, apparently!

Next Update:

A DLC prequel mission featuring Tobia!
Also featuring - the greatest Federation pilot of all time[/details]

casanova_coeurl · July 27, 2017, 1:46am

[details=Bonus Scenario - A Life’s Vow (click to view)]

We obtained the following Power Parts from the last scenario:

Chobham Armor (+500 HP, +100 Armor)

After completing Scenario 6, we’ve unlocked two new DLC missions, one focusing on Tobia and another focusing on Ryoma. We’ll be starting with Tobia’s. Let’s take a look!

A potentionally-romantic moment between Tobia and Bernadette is interrupted when Chitose shows up on the Yamato’s observation deck. The topic of past regrets comes up in conversation - Chitose is sad that she wasn’t able to say goodbye to the lab staff back on Earth. Tobia decides to tell Chitose a story of his own regret - during the Crossbone Vanguard’s cleanup operations following the Jupiter War…

The cleanup operations are off to a good start.

Sorry, Tobia! Shouldn’t have asked you to cover our escape!

No worries! You, Yona and the others need to get out of the sector, old man!

But what’ll happen to yo-

I’ll catch up! Bernadette’ll be fine, too!

Roger that! Don’t die, kid!

Wasn’t planning on it.

(The old man hangs up on the call.)

The damned Jupiter Empire! Trying to slide in while the Gamillans hit Earth! Alright, then! The Federation Forces can’t make it, so you’ll have to dance with the Crossbone Vanguard! Me and the Skull Heart are gonna finish what Kincade and Captain Ronah started! (Just you wait, Bernadette! I’m gonna make it back to you!)

Another day in space, another wave of Jupiter Empire soldiers to take on. Tobia is all by his lonesome, and because it’s a DLC mission he has no upgrades/Power Parts to fall back on. Also, since this is technically a prequel scenario to the main game, the X-1 doesn’t have the Beam Zanza attack learned in Scenario 3. Don’t go immediately spending all of Tobia’s SP; it’s better to save it so he can Guts his unit back to full health as needed.

(More and more Imperials around Earth… Crux Dogatie is dead, but it doesn’t mean the fighting’s over…)

Although, when the second turn rolls around…

Allied reinforcements? Could it be…

…an F91! That’s an Earth Federation model!

Y-yeah!

I thought so! No other reason you’d be fighting the Empire! My squad was in the Jupiter War. I helped cover your butt when you attacked that transport.

(The Empire takes potshots at the Federation pilot, hereby named Freddy for convenience.)

Whoa?!

You need to watch out! Pretty sure they know you’re the enemy!

I sure as hell hope so! Nothing I wanted more than to square off against them! I’ll cover you! Give’em another taste of hell!

Thank you! But still! Be careful!

Let’s do this! Too late to slow down now!

Freddy here is in another mass-produced F91 mobile suit. Compared to Kincade, Freddy lacks Hit & Run but has one level each of Support Attack and Support Defend.

More impressively, Freddy has five different Spirit Commands at a point in the game where our pilots would only have three at max. Those of note include Guts (full heal for self), Trust (3000 HP heal for an ally), and Iron Wall (all damage dealt to the user is reduced by 75% for one entire turn).

With our roster of units literally doubled, the soldier and the space pirate make quick work of the Empire soldiers. Sortie dialogue:

Space Pirates! The protectors of life! Here! Somebody up there likes me! Time to turn it up!

(And there are people left who still want to… Alright! I’m gonna keep fighting the only way I know how!)

After the Jupiter Empire forces are wiped out…

You Space Pirates sure are something. I seem to recall that Gundam saving us in the Jupiter War.

Yeah. But I wasn’t the one piloting it.

You weren’t?

But the Skull Heart was their pride and joy. I’m carrying out their legacy.

Well… if what I saw was any indication, you couldn’t be more right for the job.

…so are you out here by yourself?

Er… You could say that…

Say that again?

Wait just a minute! You heard me! I said “kind of”!

How can you be “kind of” a deserter?

We were in Earth orbit. Standard patrol duty, you know? And then the Gamillans attacked. I’m the only one who made it out alive.

Oh…

Good thing I know how to navigate. Mars was the only home I ever knew. So I decided to head back.

You were born on Mars?

The “red eyes” thing was also mentioned in a prior scenario, referring to Ensign Akira.

My family’s already long gone, though…

So why would you go back?

We encountered Jovian forces while we were on duty. Managed to intercept their communications. Seems like they have a squad acting on Mars.

Did you say Mars?!

Yeah… The Empire’s gonna hit Earth again while it’s still reeling. And they’re gonna use Mars as their front line.

That would explain why there were so damned many of them around Earth…

I passed the message to the higher-ups, but I don’t think Command’s gonna mobilize.

Yeah… So it’s up to me. And the rest of my company got crushed. The survivors from Earth made their way to Mars. And Mars is home. I’m working alone. I might not be able to do much, but like hell I’m gonna let the Empire get away with this.

Mars, huh…

Heads up! Something’s coming!

Gamillans!

Damn it all! They’re here, too?!

(Freddy moves to intercept.)

What do you think you’re doing?!

What do you think?! I’m catching them! Mars is important, but I’m not just gonna let them go!

Okay!

I can handle this alone!

What? You think I’m just gonna stand aside?

…Guess you wouldn’t. Don’t think any Earthling would. Alright then! They wanted to mess with Earth, we’re gonna hit’em back hard!

That’s what I like to here, soldier!

Hope you were expecting reinforcements! Luckily there’s only one battleship to deal with, and the Melanca will go down even easier than the Jupiter Empire mobile suits. Remember to use your Extra Actions (Direct Attack and Smash Hit) to really wallop the battleship. If you’re worried about your units’ HP, you could always have them retreat south until Freddy has enough SP for Guts/Trust, and then have them push back forwards.

Sortie dialogue:

Bring it on, Gamillans! Who the hell knows why you’re here, but you’re gonna find out what it means to mess with Earth! I don’t care if I’m the last man standing. I’m not throwing in the towel! I was brought into this world for a reason! And I’m gonna keep my promise!

(Okay, Gamillans… I could just be farting into a nebula, for all I know… but I’m still gonna try to do something!)

Though the odds were stacked, the enemies have been driven away. Mission complete!

That wasn’t exactly an easy win…

Watch out! We’ve got more incomming!

Spoke too soon.

It’s a whole fleet of ships!

They’re firing! Take evasive maneuvers!

(Freddy gets hit!)

Gah!

Hey!

You gotta be kidding me… Dying in a place like this…

We need to get out of here! Follow my lead!

No… no. I’m staying.

What are you saying?!

So I’m gonna stay here. Provide a distraction.

But what if-

They knocked out my thrusters. If we run, I’ll just hold you back. Now go! It’s every soldier’s duty to protect civilians!

You’re serious…

The Earth has a serious need for people. Everyone left needs to fight. Don’t throw your life away. Not when I need you to do me a favor…

Yes, sir…

Now go. Get out of here while they’re still after me.

Yeah. Same here. you’ve got a job to do.

Yes, sir!

(Tobia escapes.)

Here we go… (Wait… I never even got his name… Well… He didn’t get mine, either… Do it, Mr. Skull Heart… Mars is counting on you…)

Fade to black…

It feels as though a weight has been lifted from Tobia’s shoulders as he tells his tale. Everyone reaffirms their commitments to the journey ahead, and to not forget about the brave souls lost along the way…

(You and those like you. You’ll be coming with us in spirit.)

Next Update:

Reused maps!
More than two people talking to each other!
The Invaders return, because it gets dull battling the same two factions all the time![/details]

casanova_coeurl · August 3, 2017, 5:15am

Bonus Scenario - A Fight Between Men (click to view)

We obtained the following Power Parts from the last scenario:

Multisensor (+20 Sight)

Force Reactor (+10 starting Focus)

Soldier’s Medallion (+30 maximum Focus)

Onwards to the second of our post-Scenario-6 DLC missions. It’s completely different from the last one, except for fighting in a space-like environment… and an F91… and mild whispers of bromance… but at least this one has super robots!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0NUwdTa4vg&width=690&height=380&rel=0

While they have been successful so far in coordinating both the Yamato and its mobile weapon detachment, Commander Okita and Lieutenant Kodai discuss concerns about Ryoma Nagare’s insubordinative behaviour, and how to address it.

Lieutenant Kodai is assigned to lead an investigative/teamwork-building mission to investigate the remains of the recently-captured Pluto base; he brings Ryoma, Tetsuya & Kincade along for the ride…

We’re back at the Pluto base map from Scenario 6. Technically the order of events story-wise is something like:

Scenario 6 -> A Fight Between Men -> A Life’s Vow -> Scenario 7

…but this the order they had the DLC scenarios listed in the menu, and I’m a stickler for menu numbering.

The base is completely gone. Not exactly something to investigate…

The Federation will take care of any detailed work. Gamillan Tech and the like. Our job here is to survey and secure the area.

They called us? To do this?

Not they. I and the Commander. Is there something you want to say?

Uh…

You’re talking like I don’t know that.

We’re not going anywhere. We can’t. You let us on your ship. We’ll do whatever we need to.

Give us an order, sir. Let’s get this done.

Alright, then. Everyone of you is to go to the point I designate and collect data.

Roger that.

Keep it up, sir.

Er… sure.

(Honestly, I wish I could ask you to do this instead of me… But no. I’m the tactical officer. This is my job to do. I could have Kato take care of the Aircraft Squad, but it won’t work unless I can command the mobiles…)

Data gathered, sir. What’s the next order?

Move to the next point.

Roger that.

(I’m not sure about the amnesia thing, but maybe you could keep him under control… But no. I couldn’t even call myself a leader, pulling something like that. I’ll have to handle Ryoma myself.)

…Gah. I thought they had specialists for this stuff.

No griping while you work, Mr. Nagare. Give us one of those and it would bring everyone down.

But c’mon. Fish have to swim, right? Our job’s to fight the enemy. I don’t know why the hell they’d group us together.

Honestly-

Heads up! Energy signature coming from below!

Six Metal Beasts appear at the southern side of the map. You might notice that we’ll have a reverse situation of Scenario 6; instead of starting south and moving towards the north, we’ll be starting north and moving towards the south.

That’s the monster we met on Enceladus!

Then why the heck is it on Pluto?!

I fought the same kind of Invader. They captured a lot of hardware. They’re tough. Some of the cells that were on the Yamato grew here, probably.

How could it live through that?!

(Ryoma starts charging towards the Invaders.)

Ryoma! Wait! I haven’t given the order to attack!

They’re the enemy! I’m not waiting to get hit first!

I said-

Ah…

Ryoma is pretty individualistic. Gets him into a lot of fights.

Nothing we can do, sir.

…Fine, then. But you’ll still have to follow orders.

…Not now. Not here.

Ryoma!

(I’m going to crush them! Me! It’s what I do!)

No exciting victory conditions, just Ryoma working out some stress and the others trailing behind him.

And I do mean trailing behind him! That red blip in the top-right corner is the Great Mazinger, who’s going to need to play catch up to join with the rest of the squad. I’d recommend to spend his free ExC on Boost Dash (+2 Move) and lessen the journey.

The same rules apply to the Metal Beasts as the last time we fought them - with no post-movement attacks, they’ll either attack anything in range or move until they are in range. The same rules also apply to the Cosmo Zero as it did in Scenario 6 - it’s a frail little spacecraft that we don’t want getting hit. Don’t end your turn with the Cosmo Zero in range of any enemies!

Sortie dialogue:

(It’s not working… He just won’t listen… I guess I’m going to have to keep him on a long leash…)

We were able to keep it together when we captured the base… But it might take a while until we can actually work as a team…)

(What’s going on with you, Ryoma? I… I’ve never seen him like this before…)

(Hayato, Musashi, old man Saotome… look at what fighting the Invaders did to us… I’m tired of losing everybody! From here on, I fight alone!

At the start of our third turn…

Red alert, people! They’re coming again!

Leave them to me!

Ryoma!

(Ryoma goes off to confront the two new enemies…)

Do you know how many lives you’ve ruined?!

Oh, no…

Stop!

(…when another bunny hops right in to Ryoma’s blind spot!)

There’s more?!

Tsk! We need to be smart about this!

Ryoma!

(Kodai makes the save for Ryoma!)

Gah!

You’re a moron! Your machine can’t take that!

I need to do this!

You…

I’m your commander! Your lives are in my hands! And my first priority is to get you all back alive!

…Sorry.

Er…

You wouldn’t have had to if I didn’t go off like that.

Ah…

(I get it now… Ryoma values the team. Comrades. He went in headlong to keep us out of danger…)

That’ll be enough, you two. These… things don’t know the first thing about us.

Yes! And if they’re not holding back, then neither are we!

Awaiting your orders.

We keep together and we can take them out in no time.

That’s what I like to hear! I want every one of you ready and covering each others’ blind spots when we hit them back!

You hear that, Invaders? No way in hell you’re stopping us from leaving!

These are the only enemy reinforcements in the mission, but the prior cutscene places the Cosmo Zero dangerously close to those enemies; be sure to move it to safety, and top off the Black Getter’s HP with Spirit Commands.

New emotional revelations means new sortie dialogue:

(Their lives are in my hands. No one’s going to follow me if I can’t prove I’m taking this seriously. Alright, Commander Okita. Guess you had one last lesson before we left home.)

(Guess the tactical officer was able to make something out of this ragtag bunch. We can do this! You want a fight? You’ve got one!

(He was seriously worried. It’s how he used to be. I know what I have to do now! I need to get him back to his world!)

(Three years in the clink must’ve made me softer than I thought… Scared of losing people? So what? You fight! And you fight with them!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f74BDLhjVIQ&width=690&height=380&rel=0

Once all these space bunnies are space dust, it’s mission complete!

We actually did it…

We’re going to have to burn the remains. We don’t want them coming back.

Thank you, Ryoma.

If that’s for following orders, then forget it. I did the only thing there was to do.

That’s not what he was thanking you for. You put your life on the line for your teammates. Just like he would have himself.

I-I don’t know what the hell you’re-

I learned something about you today. Here’s to being on the team, Ryoma.

Y-you’re skeezing me out, man!

Keep pretending if you want.

That about does it for this job. Back to the Yamato.

Sure thing, Susumu.

(Nothing to worry about. Give it some time and his new friends will have him all sorted out… And I’ll do what I have to do…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ulvPpPnv3c&width=690&height=380&rel=0

Ryoma recieves some light ribbing from Tobia and Chitose over his positive change in attitude, whereas the Aircraft Squad take note of increased confidence displayed by Lieutenant Kodai. The Yamato is finally prepared to leave Pluto behind and continue their journey…

Next Update:

The Yamato finally departs the solar system en route to Iscandar.
Commander Shultz launches a desparate attack!
A timely arrival by the envoys from Jupiter…