Over The Time Flow

I’ve always wanted to do a SRW screenshot let’s play, having read the LPArchive Alpha Gaiden let’s play during my formative years, and the more i’ve thought about it, the more i think Tumblr’s format might actually be conducive for an attempt!

With SRW R being untranslated, I will be translating the plot. For the most part though, this won’t be an exhaustive line by line translation except for particularly impactful lines or exchanges. Think less Tobias Grant’s Alpha Gaiden Let’s Play, and more Brunom1’s LPs.

Much like the LPs I'm taking inspiration from, I'll also be doing pilot and unit analysis as I acquire them, where I’ll briefly cover their lore/backstory, and then appraise them in the context of SRW R itself.

On my blog’s sidebar, you can click START to read the whole blog in chronological order so you can follow along from the beginning, and ABOUT to hear some more about my reasons for doing this.

On update days, I'll schedule my posts to start from 1PM PST and post once every 10 minutes until i’m out of content for that day. I can’t promise anything as consistent as posting every day, especially not once my summer break from uni is through, but I'll do my best to at least not go longer than a full week without an update day. I’ll do my best to make announcement posts in advance to let people know when an update day is coming up!

Posts that have translated content in them will be tagged with “#translation”, so if you’re only here for the plot translation/summary, you can filter for that specifically. Posts dedicated to analyzing pilots/units will have the “#rollcall” tag; posts where i explain SRW R’s (or the SRW franchise’s) system mechanics in-depth will be tagged “#mechanics”; if i have any thoughts i’d like to share on a plot point that deviates from its source, or how they adapted a scene or episode, i might make a post that’s just my thoughts on it, and it’ll be tagged “#srwramblings” so you can filter it out if you don’t want to see them. Finally, if i need to make any sort of announcement, be it to say in advance that such and such day will be an update day, or that i’ll need to take a break, or anything of the sort, i’ll tag it with “#announcements”.

Of course, the funnest part of doing a screenshot LP (and of doing it on Tumblr!) is the prospect of audience participation! And here’s the first of many opportunities to participate, and perhaps the most fun one:

The final stage of this game allows you to deploy 14 units (besides the main character, who will be deployed by default). As such, I'd like to leave it up to the audience as to who will be in our endgame squad!

Simply follow along and send in a request for someone when we meet a character who you really like (be it because you like them from their source material, or because you like what you see of them in-game), alongside their machine, if applicable (the characters who can switch machines are, as a general rule, Universal Century pilots, After War pilots, and Mazinger pilots, plus two specific characters from Nadesico who arrive fairly late) by clicking the ASK button on the sidebar. If you’re a very impatient person, you can also just send in a request ahead of time if you know the character is in the game or if you just happen to like a character like Amuro, Kamille or Koji, who you just know will likely be in any given SRW game without even asking, but if you do so, put a spoiler on the character you’re requesting somehow (such as by running it through rot13) so that i can respond to it, confirm to you the character will be in the roster, and then unscramble the character’s name on the list when they get formally introduced.

Do note that some characters won’t stick with you the whole way through, but if they truly don’t stick with you to the end in any shape or form, I'll point it out when I do their character analysis, so that nobody gets TOO excited about them.

If you send a character request through the ASK button, make sure not to do it anonymously, as I don't want to risk anybody double dipping. One character per person, please!

I don’t know how much (if any!) attention this LP will get, so i have no clue if i’ll have a full 14-character roster loaded by like chapter 5 or if i’ll get to the final stage with like 3 units in tow, but if against all odds this blows up and our roster caps out, you can still ask for a specific unit you want to see more of and i’ll do my best to show them off if only for a stage or two!

With all that out of the way, here’s the roster as it stands:

1. Judau - Full Armor ZZ Gundam (by @shoudesuka-mechadork)

2. Kamille - Mass-Produced v Gundam (by @tearsoftime0086)

3. Nxvgb - Uvtu Zbovyvgl Oynpx Fnenan (by @baldiosenjoyer) (spoilered)

4. Qbzba - Tbq Thaqnz (by @silentally) (spoilered)

5. Urreb - Thaqnz Jvat Mreb Phfgbz (by @mattman324) (spoilered)

6. Tnv Qnvtbhwv - Nrfgvinyvf (by @xgameoverx) (spoilered)

7. Garrod - Thaqnz Qbhoyr K (by @fire-bomber) (spoilered)

8. Arb Trggre Grnz - Fuva Trggre Ebob (by @accept-the-multiverse) (spoilered)

9. Sbhe - Mrgn Thaqnz (by @dayswhenibelieved) (spoilered)

10. Xvat fvoyvatf - Grknf Znpx (by anonymous)  (spoilered)

11.

12.

13.

14.

Koji Kabuto

"Mazinger Z is a god! It won't just break down over something like this!"

Source Material: Mazinger Z Age: 16 Hobby: Motorcycling Voice Actor: Hiroya Ishimaru Character Designer: Go Nagai

A young man who was burdened with enough power to become a god or a devil, Koji Kabuto is a cocky yet ultimately good-natured kid.

When the wicked Dr. Hell marched upon Japan with his army of ancient Mycenaean Mechabeasts, the tremors caused a cave in within Koji's grandpa's secret underground lab. With his final breath, he told Koji to wield the Mazinger Z's unmatched power to change the world...

After many tough encounters against Dr. Hell, his minions, and their Mechabeast Army, Koji and the Mazinger came out victorious... or so it seemed. From within the Earth, the Mycenaean Empire merely laid dormant, and awakened not too long after Koji's final battle with Dr. Hell, they were also intent on world domination.

Though Koji bravely fought them back even when clearly outmatched, he and the other members of the Photonic Power Labs crew only barely made it through thanks to the intervention of Tetsuya Tsurugi and his top-secret successor to the Mazinger, created by Koji's own (once assumed dead) father; the Great Mazinger.

Now, Koji, Tetsuya, and their respective teammates work together to thwart the ambitions of the heartless Mycenaeans.

High Melee, VERY high Defense, and a Potential skill that can reach even the max level 9. Koji is one hell of a defensive behemoth, and his Spirit Command learnset matches that. Not much else to add.

You can swap him (and all the other Mazinger pilots) around to other machines, but there's hardly much point in doing so when the side cast's machines are so bad. I suppose you could put Koji in the Great Mazinger in case you really really liked Grendizer vs Great Mazinger.

Fun Fact: Koji was originally to have a scarf, but Kamen Rider came out and became explosively popular around the time Mazinger would come out, and Nagai decided to cut it so as to not look like he was just riding the trend.

We were robbed.

Mazinger Z

Source Material: Mazinger Z Height: 18 meters Energy Source: Photonic Energy Real World Designer: Go Nagai

The sky-soaring fortress of steel that grants its pilot the power to become a god or a devil! The mechanical devil god itself! Mazinger Z!

Designed by Koji's grandfather, it both grants Koji the power to shape the world and burdens him with the tremendous task of controlling its power.

A mainstay of Super Robot Wars, with a nearly perfect track record.

High-ish Armor, decent HP. It's not unfitting for Koji, but it's hard to say it truly lives up to his stats. On the attacking front, it's decent as well, but has the usual issue that Mazinger has in a lot of games with Great and no Mazinkaiser; Great has better finishers on top of having the Great Booster, a one-use only finisher that serves as a proper nuke.

If only Mazinger got its own high damage one-use finishing move... Alas, that is but a dream. Unless...?

Sayaka Yumi

"Don't you know an angry girl is MUCH scarier than an angry guy? Huh? C'MERE!!"

Source Material: Mazinger Z Age: 16 Voice Actress: Minori Matsushima (among others, but she's the one who voices her in SRW) Character Designer: Go Nagai

Daughter of Professor Yumi of the Photonic Power Labs, pilot of the Aphrodite A and Diana A, and Koji's rival/love interest/comedic foil.

As she's rather short-tempered, Koji often picks on her by saying crazy misogynistic stuff. From how he acts around other women in the show, it seems like it really is just to pick on Sayaka. In any case, Sayaka rarely chooses to be the bigger man and instead beats the everliving shit out of Koji. Kids anime in the 70s was not here to give you healthy relationship role models, it was here to make you watch Koji and Sayaka throw furniture at each other, scratch and hit each other, and make the rest of the cast visibly worried.

This relationship might have been a bit more palatable if Sayaka ever got a single W against a mechabeast, but she's below Boss in that regard. Still, she does get her own mini-arc later in the series where Koji apologizes to her for a lot of his past deeds, which is surprisingly nice for a show of its age. She still continues to job afterwards.

In SRW, Toei Koji and Toei Sayaka's love-hate dynamic is usually very toned down if at all present, which is an understandable approach, even if it makes her less distinct than other versions of Sayaka.

No way around it, Sayaka is terrible. Awful stats and absolutely nothing good for her to pilot. That's right, you can't even fix her by shoving her in the Mazinger or the Great, because if her other stats are terrible, her Melee is ABYSMAL.

At level 40 she does learn one of the best support Spirit Commands in the game, but that'll be a LONG while of dragging Diana A around the battlefield to Repair to slowly crank up those levels.

Diana A

Source Material: Mazinger Z Height: 16 meters Energy Source: Photonic Energy

After the Aphrodite A gets destroyed by Harpia π7, Diana A rises from the ashes! Even Koji, who once advocated for phasing out Aphrodite A altogether, ended up being in support of the Diana A's construction after seeing how hurt Sayaka was to lose Aphrodite.

Born from Sayaka's determination to keep on fighting, Diana A will never die! (but it WILL endlessly job)

Decent Armor, but pathetically low HP makes Diana hardly fit for even its Repairbot role. As a Super (even if only nominally), it also has no Mobility to speak of. To make matters worse, it's got a Movement Range of 5.

If it has any upsides, it's that it's a version of Diana A that actually has its Ranged-attribute attack be its strongest move, to go with Sayaka's higher Ranged stat (even if it's technically only tied with the Melee-attribute Scarlet Beam).

Even the Methuss is a better pick. Don't bother unless the Diana A episode moved you so much it made you cry. Which i wouldn't judge you for. It's rather earnest and truly makes you feel for Sayaka's pl- huh? N-no, i didn't cry at it. Shut up.

Boss

"If it means I can buy time for even a few of the kids, I don't mind getting chopped into pieces. And if i die... tell Kabuto he was my best friend in the whole world."

Source Material: Mazinger Z Real Name: Not Even The Author Knows Age: 17 Character Designer: Go Nagai

Delinquent with a heart of gold, Boss is the mysteriously-named gang leader in Koji's town. Though initially they fought over Sayaka's affections, they would eventually become closer than even brothers.

Between the line quoted above, Boss' constant dreams about being saved from the clutches of the heartless Tetsuya by Koji in Great Mazinger, and following Koji to bumfuck nowhere, Japan, to fight literal aliens in Grendizer, Toei Boss is likely the incarnation of Boss that is most fanatically dedicated to Koji.

He's often followed by his two incompetent lackeys, Nuke and Mucha, but most SRW games featuring Toei Mazinger cut them for one reason or another.

Statwise, Boss is... alright, all things considered. He's completely outclassed by Koji and Tetsuya both, but he's still a few degrees of magnitude better than Sayaka.

Of note though is that his Spirit learnset is very underwhelming. He starts out with Daunt, letting him lower enemies' morale and helping with boss slaying, but other than that, he doesn't get much of interest.

Not really much of a point to using him, unless you hate Tetsuya for some reason like i do but still want the Mazinger combo moves.

Fun Fact: Not even the author knows his real name!

Boss Borot

Source Material: Mazinger Z Height: 12 meters (20m in Great Mazinger, inexplicably) Energy Source: High-Octane Gasoline Real World Designer: Go Nagai

Dan-da-daaaan!!! Lovable lug and friend to children all over the world, the Boss Borot is here! It's made out of scrap, it's a miracle it even moves, it's falling apart at every seam, and yet it somehow jobs less than any of the girl robots. Thanks, 70s Toei!

Well, you can't complain much because the Borot is such a perfect design.

Originally designed by the (then) trio of brilliant scientists from the Photonic Labs, who were kidnapped coerced convinced to make this thing at Boss and Sayaka's request. Since they made it in secrecy in a dumpster, this is the best they could come up with.

Boss is always coming up with convoluted plans to make the Borot fly... it rarely works.

It's bad, even for Borot standards. 5 movement, Boss has no sub-pilots, all of its moves are 1-range, until it gets upgraded with a 1-3 range move (which is also its only option to attack flying foes). It doesn't even have high HP to make use of Boss' Self-Destruct Command and its Repair Cost of 10.

Making matters even worse, it is completely outclassed by later Resupply machines. Diana A might be outclassed by the Methuss in terms of Repairing, but at the end of the day they're both pretty meh. You get actually decent Resupply-capable machines in this game.

Do not bother.

Fun Fact: In Mazinger Z VS The Great General of Darkness, Boss Borot is the only Photonic Power Labs machine to successfully down a Battlebeast... though it did destroy itself in the process.

Also, sometimes this thing is fucking sentient. Eva-01, eat your heart out.

Edwin apologizes for keeping the crowd waiting; he then reminds us all of the unprecedented crisis facing the Earth as of now, but then hypes the crowd up by saying that it is nothing to fear, as long as our steel heroes are here to protect us!

"The steel maiden, Diana A, and Sayaka Yumi!"

"The fullmetal goddess, Venus A, and Jun Honoo!"

Edwin then works in some audience participation!

"Next up is everybody's favorite, the king of laughter! What's the name of Boss' wacky robot?"

The kids all shout "Boss Borot!!", and then, as if summoned,

Boss: "Dun dun duuuuun!!! Thank you for waiting, good boys & girls of the world! Boss Borot has arrived!"

Sayaka and Jun can't help but notice his enthusiasm, and Sayaka has to remind Boss not to get too carried away, or he might make the Borot fall over!

"Finally, the robots of justice who protect the world from the wicked Mycenaean Empire! The sky-soaring fortress of steel, and the hero of the skies!! Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger!!!"

Koji: "Guys, those Mycenaean stooges won't get their way as long as i'm around!"

Edwin tries to introduce Tetsuya as well, and the crowd IS excited to have him, but... he's a bit too awkward to know what to say in a situation like this, even with Koji nudging him.

Edwin goes into scheming mode, whispering to himself about how swimmingly the plan has gone so far, and how he's going to turn all these civilians into Soldiers, but...

Great General of Darkness: "A parade, huh? I'll show you all what happens when you side with the Science Fortress Institute!"

Edwin freaks out over the unexpected appearance of the Mycenaeans edwin my brother this was about as unexpected as finding a fork in a kitchen what were you thinking, as the Mazinger Team gets to work on helping the citizens evacuate the premises. But as Tetsuya protects a little girl...

The girl manages to get rescued by the GEAR crew, but Tetsuya gets hit once more!

Staying true to the show but also subverting the expectations of Great Mazinger fans in the audience, Tetsuya is out of commission, but he did not pass out like he does every episode! Rather, the Great Mazinger simply can't move. Yet again, Banpresto shows masterful knowledge of the source material.

He'll stay here at 10 HP, unable to move, but if an enemy comes close enough he can actually attack them with no issues. You're forced to assume that the Great must have specifically gotten hit in the legs or something.

In her signature motorcycle, Vega rides out to try and help even the odds. She explains all the civilians are now safe, and that she isn't their only reinforcement!

That's us!

The Great General is frustrated at having even more of us to deal with, but it's no matter; he'll rout us all the same. And Kouji says that's our line!

Neo Getter Robo:

HP: 5000 -> 5250 EN: 160 -> 176 Mobility: 70 -> 73 Armor: 1050 -> 1102 Weapons: 0 -> 1

Nadesico:

HP: 7800 -> 8190 EN: 240 -> 264 Armor: 900 -> 945

Aestivalis (Akito):

EN: 100 -> 120 Mobility: 100 -> 105

Gekiganger 3:

HP: 3300 -> 3580 EN: 100 -> 120 Armor: 900 -> 940

As it turns out, GEAR's HQ is situated below an amusement park, and a really fancy one too; if he didn't work here, Ginga definitely couldn't get in just with his allowance. Hokuto says he's exaggerating, but regardless, seeing a child worry about money makes Reika and Hikaru muse about all the children who can't afford to come to amusement parks. Kirakuni steps in to brighten the mood, saying that that's exactly the ideals this park was founded on; so that children would never forget to play and dream... though it doesnt sound very convincing when ginga was just complaining about it being prohibitely expensive

Mizuho, meanwhile, is taking in the sights. You see, she's never been to an amusement park; the colony she grew up on was rather... modest. Megumi stops to think about it, and in the first place, it's rather rare for colonies to have amusement parks at all. and we all know what happened to texas colony

Tonya wonders if that means the poor thing has never gone on an amusement park date, only to find out Mizuho has never gone on a date, period.

Beauty: "Huh!? I don't believe this. Aren't you 18? And you've never been on a date?" Mizuho: "N-no..."

Minato: "I'm appalled... RAUL!" Raul: "Y-yes!?" Minato: "You mean you haven't taken your girlfriend out even once!?" Raul: "What's going on here!? We're not even dating!" Beauty: "Dating or not, when you're hanging out with such a cutie, hitting on her is the polite thing to do!"

Strongarmed into feeling conscious of one another, the two can't help but feel awkward... until Kirakuni swoops in to save the day once more, gifting them a full day free couple's pass to the park! Still awkward, but even more unwilling to let a gift go to waste (even if they didn't ask for it), they reluctantly set out on the arranged date.

Witz is frustrated that it took all that work to get Raul to ask Mizuho out, as he feels a man ought to be able to do that on his own, but Tonya thinks all's well that ends well, especially when it comes to such inexperienced lovebirds.

Speaking of lovebirds, Captain Misumaru gets right to work on asking Kirakuni if there's any couple's passes remaining. It'd be a real waste to not get to spend this opportunity on a wonderful amusement park date with her beloved Akito! Regardless of his own wishes, of course!

Not too far away, yet very far-removed from all this heart-pounding romantic action, Raj is deep in thought, staring at a poster. Something about a "Mazinger Parade"? That's right, the Photonic Power Labs and the Science Fortress Lab are collaborating to have a little parade with their respective Mazinger teams. Most would be excited to see the Mazingers up close, or to meet celebrities like Koji or Tetsuya, but we all know Raj well enough by now to be able to tell that what he really wants is a peek at the functioning of Photonic Energy. Beauty wonders aloud why he thinks they'd show it off at an event aimed at the general public, but Raj either doesn't hear her or chooses to ignore her.

Go, meanwhile, is more befuddled by the concept of the parade in the first place. With the current state of affairs in... well, the entire Earth Sphere, is this really the time? But Kirakuni posits that it's exactly because of the state of affairs that this is important. Sure enough, at least the public seems to agree, as everything's sold out already... but Go just chalks that up to most people having more free time than common sense.

Speaking of more free time than common sense, Sho barges in; Go has been skipping training! He gets an earful and is promptly dragged away by his ear like he's Brock or something.

In the middle of all this... liveliness, Banjo has a sour expression. Hokuto asks him if anything's wrong, but he just asks Kirakuni for details on some of the people staffing the event. In particular, the master of ceremonies will be Edwin, a magician who works for the company that facilitated the parade in the first place.

Director Shibuya holds a video call with Kenzo Kabuto, the man in charge of the Science Fortress. It seems like this parade is also an excuse to transfer the Mazinger pilots into GEAR's forces, which is pretty smart; raise public morale and at the same time disguise your tactical maneuvers. Not bad!

Meanwhile, deep underground, at the heart of the Mycenae Empire, The Great General of Darkness (above) curses Tetsuya and the Great Mazinger, taking it as a personal insult that they'd dare hold a parade while in battle with his great empire. But his superior, the Emperor of Darkness, tells him to look at things more rationally. A parade is a great opportunity; with all the civilians around, the Great Mazinger is basically handing them chances to catch it with its guard down. Now properly motivated, the General sets off with his Mycenaean Combat Beasts and some refurbished Mechabeasts stolen from the late Dr. Hell, who once terrorized Japan until he was struck down by Koji Kabuto's Mazinger Z.

Boy: "Dad, is THE Great Mazinger really coming?" Girl: "I want to see the Venus A!"

In a completely trustworthy tone, the magician Edwin gets excited about making all these children's dreams come true... and his own.

Watching from afar, Banjo says that sure enough, it really is Edwin. Garrison muses that Banjo must be feeling nostalgic...

Backstage, Edwin talks to his true master; Koros, the Meganoid who is the de facto second in command. She commends him for his devilish plan; should all go correctly, he'll have many children to turn into meganoid soldiers, and maybe even get a chance at stealing a Mazinger for them to study. But he has to be careful; Banjo Haran, the Meganoids' greatest foe, is back on Earth. Edwin talks big about easily making short work of him, and wonders how they should execute him once he's caught, but Koros seems uninterested in the conversation; such things can be discussed when (and IF) Banjo's properly captured...

Back to the lovebirds' little impromptu date, they're looking out at an observatory, seeing the horizon line. Not being used to the Earth, this is actually Raul's first time seeing it. He thinks he's been to Earth before, but if he did, he was too young to remember much.

They bond a bit over not being used to the Earth, with Mizuho bringing up that when she was little, she visited once and the ocean made her feel sick just from the smell! Apparently it's a rather common occurrence due to how sanitized the air on the colonies is. Mizuho opens up that, for a long time, she felt a bit of prejudice against the Earthborn, but hanging out with so many of them since the time travelling incident, she's come to realize they're just like her. Raul can relate to this somewhat; he's been really taken aback by how steadfast everyone here is in their convictions. They all face down terrible odds, but they continue to strive to protect the world around them... This really inspires Mizuho, who gets all fired up all of a sudden; she wants to be able to tackle her future like that, too! Raul's a bit surprised to see her so motivated all on her own, but it seems he's happy for her, as they walk off to ride the ferris wheel next.

On their way back from the amusement park, they run into Yurika, alongside Akito's remains. She excitedly asks if the pair tried the Mach Coaster Twister 9, stressing how unmatched the feeling of reaching Mach speeds in the flesh is. Akito, with whatever strength remains in him, tries his best to express that... it wasn't as fun for him.

Akito: "People... weren't made... to reach mach speeds... urgh..."

Needless to say, Raul and Mizuho decide not to ride the Mach Coaster Twister 9.

Banjo: "..." Kirakuni: "Oh, Banjo. Everything good? Planning on giving someone that bouquet?" Banjo: "Sadly, the bouquet's recipient is... long dead. Kirakuni, cancel the parade right now." Kirakuni: "Wh-what are you saying? It only just began!"

Ginga Izumo

"The universe doesn't need no 'king'!"

Source Material: GEAR Fighter Dendoh Age: 11 Birthday: May 5th Height: 145 cm Hobbies: Watching anime Voice Actress: Youko Mitsuoka Character Designer: Hirokazu Hisayuki

A little boy who enjoys practicing karate at his mother's dojo, playing sports, watching anime, and idol bands... until one day, through a series of convoluted events, he finds himself alongside a classmate he can't stand in the cockpit of a mysterious robot! A story as old a time.

As 11-yos often do, the two very quickly conciliate their differences and become friends.

His dad is often travelling around the world, but he doesn't really miss him, because he tends to bring the customs of wherever he last went along whenever he comes to visit, which tends to cause a lot of embarrassment for Ginga...

Compared to Hokuto, Ginga has better Melee, Defense and Skill. All around, both of them have fairly good stats, but defensively they're not so impressive.

Hokuto Kusanagi

"This isn't some sports match! We can't just say 'oh well, i lost!' and go home!!"

Source Material: GEAR Fighter Dendoh Age: 11 Birthday: July 7th Height: 147 cm Hobbies: Watching anime, playing billiards and football, building plastic models Voice Actress: Naomi Shindou Character Designer: Hirokazu Hisayuki

A timid boy who enjoys spending time with his parents, with his computer, with plastic models, and most of all, with his beloved dog. One day, the Galfa Empire attacks his town, and in the commotion, he ends up in the cockpit of the Dendoh alongside a classmate he can't stand!

As 11-yos often do, the two very quickly conciliate their differences and become friends.

Lately, his duties as a Dendoh pilot have been getting in the way of his personal life. He's no Peter Parker, but he finds himself having less time to spend with his dad, and his mom seems so distant recently...

Compared to Ginga, Hokuto has better Ranged, Accuracy and Evasion. They're both fairly competent in terms of statline, but even though i like Hokuto more, it's kind of a fact that Ginga's a better pilot in a vaccuum. Still, you'll be shifting between them many times a stage if you're deploying them anyway.

GEAR Fighter Dendoh

Source Material: Gear Fighter Dendoh Height: 24.5 meters Power Source: double a batteries 2 Hyper Dendoh Batteries Real World Designer: Jun'ichi Akutsu

A mysterious robot that can only be controlled when both Gear Commanders (in essence, control units) light up, which only happens when Dendoh itself judges the pilots to be worthy. The Gear Commanders allow the pilots to catch "Data Weapons", large bioelectrical cryptids who become weapons for the Dendoh, powering it up.

In other words, it's the closest SRW will ever have to a "summoner" type character, which (combined with how great the show is) really endears me to this thing.

We get the Dendoh with the Unicorn Drill already acquired, and shifting to it will swap the pilot to Hokuto. Unicorn Drill grants us Fire Wall, a decent barrier ability, and most importantly, having a Data Weapon grants the Dendoh the ability to use the Final Attack, a move that deals more damage the more EN the Dendoh has remaining, but that will always leave it with only 10 EN remaining. As of right now, we have no way of refilling Dendoh's EN without putting it back in the ship (which will RAPIDLY drain the pilots' Will, especially in R), and all of its moves spend at least a little bit of EN, and most spend quite a bit. As such, the Dendoh is a potentially VERY powerful unit, but it requires wise utilization, and i find it to be one of the most fun and rewarding units to use in the game.

Both forms are clearly meant to be Super Robots, but have fairly unimpressive HP and Armor. Unicorn Drill's Fire Wall will prove very useful to us in the future.

Vega

"Rushing in blindly out of rage is the same as admitting defeat."

Source Material: GEAR Fighter Dendoh Age: ??? Birthday: ??? Voice Actress: Kotono Mitsuishi Character Designer: Hirokazu Hisayuki

The mysterious second in command at GEAR HQ. She finds herself tasked with taking care of the Dendoh's young pilots, and she's quite adept at her job. She's extensively trained in CQC, and can fight beyond the limits of a normal human, demonstrating superhuman abilities at multiple points.

For whatever reason, she sometimes finds herself uncomfortable around Hokuto.

You would be excused if you thought she was a support unit, but make no mistake, Vega is a real robot pilot geared to be dealing damage through and through. Her stats are all quite decent, and her Spirit learnset does not disappoint either.

Valkyrie

Source Material: Gear Fighter Dendoh Real World Designer: Jun'ichi Akutsu

Vega's specialized combat bike. It's loaded with missiles and various lightweight CQC weapons that make use of Vega's fantastical skillset. So long as they're on the ground, Vega can stand up even against Mobile Suits, Mechabeasts and the like.

It can also hover above water, although "hover" may be an incorrect way of putting it; rather, it's capable of driving atop water.

It's no powerhouse, but this thing can actually put in some work. It's nigh impossible to hit (especially with upgrades to its Mobility), and while it'll never hit quite as hard as a dedicated combat unit, it can hit hard enough thanks to Vega's stats.

The true draw of this thing, however, is that it shares upgrades 1 to 1 with another unit we'll get much later, and that other unit can be piloted by other characters. If you really want to, you can pump upgrades into this machine and get two competent machines to decently upgraded levels for the cost of one.

Banjo Haran

"For this world and its people, Daitarn 3 will crush the ambitions of the Meganoids! If you don't fear the brilliance of the sun itself, bring it on!!"

Source Material: Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3 Age: 17/18 Voice Actor: Hirotaka Suzuoki Character Designer: Norio Shioyama

One cool customer, Banjo Haran is one of if not the richest man on Earth, and he dedicates all of his fortune and free time torwards a single goal; eradicating the Meganoids who took his family from him. Alongside his wacky team, he'll go to any lengths necessary to keep the world safe and crush their wicked ambitions with the Daitarn 3.

SRW tends to adapt his coolheaded side and his hot-blooded, hateful side that shows whenever he fights Meganoids, but one big complaint i've always had is that they never adapt his more comedic side, which is strange, as watching the actual show, he's full on Jiron Amos levels of Tomino comedic protagonist. SRW Banjo feels like an entirely different entity from anime Banjo, being written almost like he's super robot Batman, and with his riches being often used as a plot device to explain where the team is getting its funding from. I don't like it very much, but i didn't like Daitarn 3 all that much either, so it's not that big of a deal to me. For what it's worth, R's is probably my favorite Banjo i've seen in SRW so far.

Even if i'm liable to bitch about Banjo's writing in SRW, there's no way you could get me to complain about the gameplay side of things. Absolutely monstrous Melee stat, high Defense, surprisingly decent Accuracy, and while his Spirit learnset isn't too impressive just yet, take a look at that maximum SP pool. Most of everyone else who isn't a support unit is hovering around 80-90 max SP, and he's already barrelled past into 120+. Banjo is a machine that eats bosses.

Fun Fact: Terada, longtime producer of SRW games, stated in Umasugi Wave #822 that despite knowing Banjo is meant to be 17 to 18, he ends up writing him as a late-20s man. Even when he tries to write him more age-appropriately, it doesn't feel right, and he thinks it's because of the influence of how Suzuoki always played the character in SRW.

Daitarn 3

Source Material: Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3 Height: 100 meters Energy Source: Solar power Real World Designer: Kunio Okawara

Originally a prototype Megaborg (Megaborgs being the giant forms that Meganoid commanders are capable of transforming into), Banjo stole it when his mother helped him escape Mars during the initial Meganoid insurrection. Now Banjo uses it to fight against the Meganoids, beating them at their own game.

The Daitarn 3 is a perfect fit for Banjo, Tanky and hits like a truck. It has a few issues, namely that its post-movement options all come with one or another caveat (small range, high EN cost, the like), but at the very least movement issues can be solved by changing into the Daifighter.

The Daitank is completely worthless as per usual SRW fare.

Yurika Misumaru

"You can't tell people fighting on the frontlines, people who don't know if they'll even return alive, that they don't have the right to know anything!"

Source Material: Martian Successor Nadesico Age: 20 Height: 166 cm Hobbies: Jigsaw puzzles, singing Favorite Food: Anything sweet Voice Actress: Houko Kuwashima Character Designer: Keiji Gotoh

Yurika Misumaru is the seemingly airheaded captain of the Nadesico. Between her difficulties adhering to social norms and her fervent affections for Akito, it's easy to think that's all there is to her, but in truth, she's a combat genius, and passed military academy with frightening scores. When everyone's back is to the wall, she's liable to make up for her lack of experience with her tactical gifts to create miracles.

Much like with Noin, her stats do not reflect her canonical skills, being painfully middling even for battleship captain standards. SRW R hates to see a girlboss winning.

Her spirit commands are fairly decent, however, with a lot of fringe support utility that you won't find in many other learnsets, which is especially handy to have on a unit that's gonna be forcibly deployed most of the time.

Fun Fact: She has a near photographic memory, and seems to have a knack for linguistics.

Nadesico

Source Material: Martian Successor Nadesico Length: 300 meters Power Source: 2 Phase Shift Engines, 4 Nuclear Pulse Engines Real World Designer: Rei Nakahara

A civilian battleship designed by Nergal which far outclassed anything the Earth military had in their possession at the time. This fact, coupled with the fact that it was heading for Mars for a seemingly suicidal rescue mission while the Earth Sphere was embroiled in the bloody Lizard War created a lot of enmity between Nergal and the military, leading to a lot of the conflicts early into the story.

It's the Nadesico B if it had missiles (meaning it's not completely EN dependent). I don't know what you want me to say here, it certainly is a battleship.

...If i'm gonna be a bit more charitable, it is fairly funny that when you think about it, this thing is a straight upgrade over the B, which is meant to be a successor to this thing.

Fun Fact: The Nadesico is an amalgamation of quite possibly the three most iconic space battleships in japanese sci-fi nerd culture at the time the show came out; its large, flat upper hull is reminiscent of Star Trek's Enterprise, the protuding "legs" are a homage to Mobile Suit Gundam's White Base, and the Gravity Cannon is obviously evocative of the Yamato's Wave Motion Gun, to say nothing of how the two names combined form Yamato Nadeshiko, a name emblematic of the idealized "japanese beauty".

Akito Tenkawa

"I finally watched the last episode of Gekiganger V."

Source Material: Martian Successor Nadesico Age: 18 Height: 175 cm Favorite Food: Earth cuisine Voice Actor: Yuuji Ueda Character Designer: Keiji Gotoh

A cook who felt completely aimless in life. He lost his previous life on Mars, he lost his job due to his PTSD from his experiences with the Jovian Lizards' assaults on Mars, and through a series of convoluted circumstances, he ended up landing a cooking job on the Nadesico... only to be further roped into being a pilot as well.

Throughout it all, the few things anchoring him were Gai, Gekiganger, and Yurika. His struggles to balance these influences on him with his dreams, ideals and values are the crux of the story of Nadesico. He loses sight of himself multiple times, but in the end, he manages to come out of it with a better understanding of both himself and the things he holds dear.

He pilots the pink Aestivalis unit.

Akito and Gai are very much a set. Akito has a more Real-oriented spirit learnset, better Evasion and worse Defense, but better Ranged... sadly, since the aforementioned Double Gekigan Flare is gonna consistently be his best move, it's easy to consider Akito to be a simple add-on to Gai, and he doesn't really feel like a protagonist for much of the game.

Even so, as the game progresses, he'll get a few ways to differentiate his playstyle, and by the end, both him and Gai will be a lot more interesting... though ultimately, you'll still realistically need Gai (who can actually draw out the full power of the DGF thanks to his higher Melee stat) if you want to use Akito to his fullest. It's easy to joke then that Gai is the real protagonist of Nadesico in this game, but in my opinion, we haven't yet encountered the character who truly takes up the mantle of Nadesico protagonist in SRW R...

Ryoko Subaru

"Did i just find it...? My own evening star..."

Source Material: Martian Successor Nadesico Age: 18 Height: 165 cm Hobbies: Basketball, motorcycles Voice Actress: Chisa Yokoyama Character Designer: Keiji Gotoh

Daughter of a military man, Ryoko is a confident pilot with the skills to back it up, but she struggles with social situations, and can find it hard to act formal.

She's the leader of the trio consisting of her, Hikaru and Izumi (often called the Buttercup trio, as the Aestivalis is named after the Adonis aestivalis, a member of the buttercup family).

She pilots the red Aestivalis unit.

she's also really cute

Gameplaywise, Ryoko is like a midway point between Akito and Gai. Her Melee and Ranged stats are perfectly balanced, and her defensive stats are on par with Akito's, but she has the upper hand in the Skill department. The biggest issue with her though is that much like Akito and Gai have their combination move, she and the other two girls have a combination move... which primarily uses the Ranged stat. As such, you'd really want for her to have higher Ranged, rather than the balanced loadout she has here, which seems to be an attempt to make her better on her own than the other two, but just isn't impactful enough when Aestis are so underwhelming without their combination partners.

Still, she's far from a bad pilot; you just wouldn't really want to deploy her without her two squadmates.

Fun Fact: This is less of a "factual" one and more an experience report, but. I went with her route in the first Nadesico Sega Saturn game because of course i did, which has a mechanic where you can take the girls out on dates to the Nadesico's holodeck and live out a little romantic fantasy scenario. But for some reason, Ryoko seems to have glitched for me, and every single time that she initiated a date, without fail, she'd pick the castaway scenario, over and over and over again.

maybe she just really liked The Blue Lagoon

Hikaru Amano

"I learned the hard way that hobbies and romance don't mix..."

Source Material: Martian Successor Nadesico Age: 18 Height: 152 cm Favorite Food: Pizza crust Voice Actress: Shiho Kikuchi Character Designer: Keiji Gotoh

A quirky girl who's really into anime and manga, being a fan of Gekiganger herself (though never really talking about it much with Akito nor Gai). She's a doujinshi artist and writer (remember, doujinshi here just means fanwork), who plans to break into professionally making manga.

She easily falls for 2D men, is a bit of a fujoshi, and seems to have gone through a bad breakup not too long before the show began.

She pilots the Yellow Aestivalis unit.

In terms of raw stats, Hikaru's a really good Aesti pilot. Her spirit commands, while not amazing, are also more than serviceable. If i had a complaint, it's that like Ryoko, she really needs the other two to function, and even moreso than Ryoko, as her second strongest move, the Distortion Punch, is Melee-based. But if you're deploying all three, she's rather powerful.

Izumi Maki

"I'm a woman who only causes misfortune..."

Source Material: Martian Successor Nadesico Age: 18 Height: 177 cm Favorite Food: Botamochi, inari sushi Hobby: Bad puns Voice Actress: Miki Nagasawa Character Designer: Keiji Gotoh

A patented Weird Girl, she's a gloomy-looking young woman of few words. Usually, she only ever speaks up to make a terrible pun related to something that was just said, but she's not just gloomy-looking; she seems to have had quite the unlucky past, though she doesn't outwardly dwell on it very often.

She pilots the Turquoise Aestivalis unit.

Much like with Hikaru, Izumi is clearly meant to be deployed as a set with the other two. Only real notable difference to point out here is that Izumi has slightly better offensive stats and slightly worse defensive ones than Ryoko.

Fun fact: The second Sega Saturn Nadesico game (The Blank of 3 Years) reveals that Izumi enjoys... dressing in a ninja costume and jumping around in the woods in the middle of the night. Just for fun.

yeah sure why not

Aestivalis

Source: Martian Successor Nadesico Height: 8 meters Power Source: Gravity Wave Antenna, backup generator Real World Designer: Mika Akitaka

A modular machine made by Nergal, made to work in conjunction with its line of battleships. Thanks to cooperation between the machine and its mothership, the weight of a dedicated generator doesn't need to be taken into account, and Aestivalis units are capable of formidable versatility thanks to their various frames.

If you're coming from other games, you basically get the gist of how Aestis work. Pretty good survivability, pretty underwhelming firepower unless they can fire off their combination moves.

Of note, however, is the Artillery Frame, which i feel is particularly strong in this game; though its Mobility and Movement Range are just as bad as always, and it has no post-movement attacks, it manages to make up for it with decent firepower, and perhaps more importantly, there are a lot of maps in this game where you can get away with turtling on base tiles. It's also a tempting way to use Hikaru and Izumi's high Ranged stats without having to deploy all three of them, but don't get too used to that; you won't actually get to keep these to the end of the game. Not as they are right now, anyway.

Another thing of note is the lack of a Ground Frame; as a result, against land-based opponents, Aestis will really struggle to deal damage unless you're using the Artillery frames.

Fun fact: In flower language, the Adonis aestivalis can stand for bittersweet or unforgettable memories.