Saturday, July 23, 2011

Super Robot Wars Z2 Hakai Hen Review


The current best SRW on portable platforms.

Last week i managed to finish the first playthrough of the game already despite my PSP was barely working anymore. I would say this is the best current SRW in PSP and NDS overall as gameplay is very good while it doesn't have disastrous loadtime like MX. SRW Z2 is also much easier compared to Z as the maps cakewalk if you play the game in certain way. However before playing this game i would recommend anyone to play SRW Z first since Z2 serve as the sequel of Z and you will neither understand or appreciate the Zeuth casts that appear in this game.


There is only one main character in this game and his name is Crowe Burst a former pilot for a squad called Firebug and currently a mercenary. Just like the other SRW Z main character, he represent a Zodiac which is Libra. In the beginning of the game he is shown to inherit his father's debt in the sum of 100 million G and he become the test pilot for Brasta to pay off his debt. His character probably represent something related with luck as he had bad fortunes with money while he has unbelievable survival rate.


SRW Z2 takes place a few while after the event of SRW Z where the universe that Crowe lives in are suddenly infested with monsters called Dimensional beasts or Jigenjuu. You will expect these guys show up really often throughout the game and you will find they are really annoying especially the one that i show above. The Z2 universe takes the setting from the new series for this game such as Gundam 00, Code Geass, Gurren Lagann and etc. The Z2 casts form a group called ZEXIS which attempt to solve the problems caused by the appearance of Dimensional monsters. In this game there are plenty of route splits throughout the game and mainly the casts are usually split into 3 groups. While the casts in each group are not fixed i will classify the casts to groups they usually belong to.
  • Real Robot group which the story mainly takes place in Japan/Area 11 which are mainly urban area. The casts in this route are from these series: Code Geass, Daiguard, Gundam Wing, Votoms
  • Real & Super Robot group which  the missions mainly take place in space, the series in this route are: Gundam 00, Macross Frontier, Godmars, Dancougar and Dancougar Nova
  • Super Robotgroup: The maps are usually in the wilderness and included casts are: Trider G7, Gurren Lagann, Mazinger Z, Getter Robo and Eureka 7
The Zeuth casts are spread all over the route depending on their affinites and sometimes whenever there are 2 route splits only the casts in one route is split to the 2 routes. I would strongly suggest to stick with one group only in a playthrough for a route split which make you life easier for not using unupgraded units. Personally i took the Real & Super robot group since my favorite Zeuth casts back in SRW Z are in this route.

The story for Z2 mostly use Gurren Lagann, Code Geass and Gundam 00 which become the main focus of each route splits. Since this game is only the first half of the series, the debut series used only half of their story such as first season for Gundam 00 and Code Geass and the Spiral king arc for Gurren lagann. As for Votoms so far the Z2 covered the story from Pailsen's file until Last Red Shoulder timeline.



There are several drastic changes from SRW Z. First of all the platoon system is removed from this game which make each pilot have 6 seishins instead of 5, for some units that have more than 3 pilotsthe seishin pool for the supporting pilot is reduced into 4. The removal of the platoon system is my greatest disappointment with this game other than the change of the Seiyuu for some character(especially Kabuto Kouji and Ryoma Nagare). This game also remove the bazaar system considering number of total stages are 50 only, instead they have Suborder feature which allow you to use your benched pilot for gathering money or gaining PP which reduce the redundancy slightly. The consumable parts in this game can be reused for next stage which really nice and there are some new pilot skills added and one of them is pretty broken since it allow a unit to move again after it kills an enemy(similar system with G Generation).



Brasta is the only original mecha that you can use in this game. Brasta is a mecha designed specially to combat the Dimensional Monsters. While this guy doesn't have any upgrade unit in this game, it gets an additional finisher and you can choose the combat orientation of this guy whether to be ranged or melee oriented and this affect the animation for the last 2 attack of this guy. Personally i really like this guy as well mainly due to its Gun which has multiple mode from Grenade Launcher, Laser Bayonet, Net shooter to Sniper Rifle.


The Zeuth cast appear in this game due to dimensional disturbance caused by Gaioh's resurrection and joined with the Zexis in the middle of the game. Some of the previous cast didn't appear such as the Dynamic Pro team and the Eureka 7 as the Z2 has different versions already. Due to the plot where the Zeuth Casts lost some of their power due to being warped, some of the units lost their best attack. However some of the Zeuth Cast also get new attack as temporary replacement such as Solar Aquarion with its Ippatsu Gyakuten Punch and Strike Freedom got a team attack with Infinite Justice. The Zeuth Casts doesn't play big roles in the story though their interactions with the Zexis casts are pretty interesting.


The final boss in this guy is Gaioh who is the tyrant who become the source of the Dimensional monsters which he convert people into those monsters. He is pretty easy since he had only half of the HP for usual SRW bosses which make killing him in one turn is really easy. Though expect you won't be able to dodge any of his attack without Flash or Sense seishin as he got really high accuracy like Gym Ghingnam.


The main bad guy in this game is actually this guy called Aim rather than Gaioh since he schemes all the trouble in Z2 including the resurrection of Gaioh. Aim also happen to be another Sphere Holder which makes it 4 already in Z series. He represent Aries holding the title of Black Sheep of lie with his mecha Arietys(which doesn't resemble with a Sheep at all). Aim is quite interesting guy as he serve as the troll in this game trolling Crowe all the time. Seemingly he is killed by Asakim in the stage before the final one to claim his sphere but there is a possibility for him to reappear in next game.


Another main villain in this game is Shioney and for some reason she is really popular in Pixiv. Shioney is unlucky to appear in wrong place wrong time which makes her involved with the baddies. She is the ruler of a small nation called Limonesia which was destroyed due to Gaioh's resurrection. She decided to work with Aim since he promised her to rebuild her nation if she join for his cause. One possible reason that i can think of why she is popular is because she play Damsel in Distress role though no White Knight on a horse save her.



This is the status for my first playthrough which the original character still become the Ace pilot.  Some of the mecha such as Orguss and Hyaku Shiki doesn't seems to be good in this game as there are no any platoon in this game.I can recommend some of the mech to use though this game is easy enough to let you use any of the mech and still find no problem in finishing the game as long as you balance the proportion of Super Robot and Real Robot.

  •  Solar Aquarion: This guy still rocks even with the Taiyou ken unusable in this game. Probabkly you will find this guy really shine when you are in several playthrough already since the Element system rely on the pilot's stats
  • Gundam DX: While there is no G Falcon which makes this guy to wait for 4 turns to charge its satelite cannon, its Full Upgrade Bonus reduce one turn for the recharge and accompanied with the skill that allow second action, this guy become pretty deadly.
  • Godmars: His attack moves are really boring but hits really hard if you get the FUB for this guy you can transform Gaia into Godmars instantly.
  • Gundam Exia: Setsuna is one of the few pilot who gets the skill of act again naturally and Exia is pretty strong for a Real Robot and with his Ace Bonusm he become the bane for Gundam 00's enemies. Also some of the stages pretty much demand you to upgrade this guy to survive the stage.
  • Gawain: Lelouch is not great fighter but his command skill can decide whether you can get the Skill point in a stage or not.
  • Scopedogs: This guy might seems to be really weak however Chirico is one of the best pilot in this game and when you upgrade this unit you will find this guy is really awesome. When it has low hitpoints, Chirico triggered one of his skill which boost the Critical rate significantly while it already have really high critical rate.

Currently i am  doing 2nd playthrough for this game and probably i will be taking the Area 11 route and i will do another 3rd playthrough considering there are stuffs that are carried over to the Saisei hen. Hopefully the platoon system will return in the sequel or at least make the chain attack is available. Another thing that i look forward is Final Obari special which will be really awesome and probably there are some rooms for new cast as well. Just a final recommend i would strongly suggest to play SRW Z first before moving into this game if you have access for it.

2 comments:

  1. The reason the Seiyuus for some of the series have changed is because in the case of Shin Mazinger, most of the original cast from the 70's or other series either aren't around anymore or didn't want to do another Mazinger series. Another thing is that you mustn't know that there's another secret original unit you can get but you have to do some things to get her. She's badass at that. Here's how: http://akurasu.net/wiki/Super_Robot_Wars/Z2/Secrets#Marguerite_.28Stage_49.29

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  2. @Thirano i am already aware of that but i got attached with the old seiyuus already since i played couple of SRW which had them the role of the character.

    I didn't say Marguerite as the original character since you can only choose Crowe as the original pilot just like Rand and Setsuko in SRW Z.

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