Super Robot Wars A Portable

Hardest SRW that i played to date.

Finally i have finished all of my unfinished SRW in the past and at the same time i completed all of the available SRW on PSP. SRW A Portable is the port version of the SRW games which i recall to be the first one in GBA and had no relationship with Alpha series whatsoever. This game happens to reuse lots of animation from the recent SRW during that time like Alpha 3 and MX but it still have quite interesting stuff in it.

In this game you could choose one of two protagonists which probably you find familiar with if you played SRW OG2 in GBA. There are 4 mechas that you could choose to use as starting mech and the only difference of Axel and Lamia is that they got one Super Robot exclusive for each of them. There are no upgrade for the mech in this game but you will unlock the finisher of the mech when your pilot level reach 20. I used Axel in my first playthrough with Ashsaber though i should have picked Soulgain since it is his canon mecha.

The reason why i said this game is the hardest SRW that i have played so far despite having only 39 stages which is pretty short for non OG SRW. Expect each stage will take twice as longer compared to other SRW you have ever played due to abyssmal dodge rate of the enemy where big opponent like Psyco Gundam can dodge your real robot attack like a fly and it is guaranteed that your Super Robot will barely hit anything without lock-on seishin . You will probably rely on team attacks or EWACs alot which probably you will need at least bunch of them in your group. You also barely got any money to upgrade in this game and i would recommend to focus the upgrade for 10 of your units only.

Unlike most SRW games, A Portable concludes most series rather fast where almost half of the series included finished its story already by the half of the chapter especially the Gundam series. You will fight Shadow Mirror as the original enemy in this game and their plot is pretty much the same with their settings in OG2. The background of the protagonist is  still the same like Axel being Lemon's lover and Lamia is one of the Lemon's creation except some of the character does not appear such as Echidna or Wodan.

Probably one of the most interesting stuff that i found in this game is that A portable had the 2nd biggest Gundam casts in SRW i have ever played where Alpha 3 still hold the first position. You will find the UC gundams cover from OYW until the CCA( Amuro and Char age pretty fast for sure) and even feature 08th unit which is kinda rare in SRW. My favorite part of this game is the fact that you could recruit Master Asia into your team which Domon had tearful reunion with him and he is really awesome as well.

The only unique feature in this game is the skill parts which are dispensable just like in SRW W. This is the only way to increase your pilot stats since there is no PP system in this game which really sucks. The difference with the one in W is that you could upgrade your pilots's stats and there are some exclusive pilot skill parts in this game.

The final boss in this game is no other than Vindel Mauser, the leader of Shadow Mirror piloting Zweizergain. He is not that hard but the only catch is that you have to finish him in 10 turns and if you didn't upgrade your unit well probably you will have hard time against him.

Just like other SRW i will also make some recommendations for units to use in this game.

• Dragonar Team: These guys are one of the more solid Real Robot cast since D2 and D3 are able to resupply and D-1 hits pretty hard when you have Falguenn tagged along
• ZZ gundam: What makes this guy special is that Judau able to use post movement MAP attack as his Ace skill which is really helpful
• EZ-8: well the unit sucks but Shiro Amada is one of the better pilot since he got great selection of Seishins and His Ace Skill made the cost of Love seishin to be 45 only which is an awesome bargain.
• Shin Getter One: Just like his incarnations in other SRW this guy meant to be a boss killer though Stoner Sunshine is abit costly in this game.
• Dynamic Pro Team: These guys still have great defense as always and they also still retain their Final Dynamic Special from MX
• God Gundam: One of the best gundam in this game since he got plenty of combination attack such as Double Burning Finger or Shuffle Doumei Ken, make sure give him flight unit since he can't melee aerial unit without it.
• Master Gundam: Arguably the best unit in this game which is really worth to sacrifice other secrets since he has awesome combination attack with God Gundam and they are really hotblooded.
• Daimos: One of the better Nagahama Trilogy unit as it hits hard and probably deflect most of attacks due to his high skill. Too bad no Final Nagahama Special in this game.

If this game had better gameplay i would have enjoyed it fully since it has pretty awesome content. You won't lose much if you didn't play the game except some Gundam contents since you could play SRW OG2 for original story. Currently i am doing 2nd run with Soulgain which i suppose to take already and Axel is quite hilarious with his Rocket Soul Punch.