Super Robot Wars J Thoughts

Mediocre series with awesome Originals.

As i managed to cleared all of my 4 planned playthrough for the game, this marks my 10th SRW series that i have finished and it is time for me to write the article about it. SRW J is probably the last SRW released for GBA by Banpresto back in Japan where they move onto NDS afterward. What makes this series to be particular is that it received fan translation around end of year 2010 which makes it more accessible for non Japanese speaking SRW fans. Overall i find the game to be rather lacking in all departments compared to SRW series that i have finished before due to myself being too pampered with graphic and sound quality of the recent SRWs.

SRW J featured 12 series which is abit less for SRW title, with debut title of Tekkaman Blade and FMP and technically Gundam Seed. SRW J mainly use Gundam Seed, Nadesico, Layzner and Tekkaman Blade plot while Zeorymer and FMP plot are also frequently used in the first half of the game. This game use Pilot Points that is acquired as character levels up to increase status point only and i believe this is the first SRW that have Skill parts as equippable items instead of consumables.

SRW J features 2 Original characters which serve as main protagonist of the game. The male one is Toya Shun who is an ordinary high school student who caught up in the mid of battle which his story is about the revelation of his destiny and his answer for it. The other protagonist is Calvina Coulange, a Professional Pilot who was a sole survivor of an incident in moon factory where her story in the game revolves around Love and Revenge.

While Toya starts as whiny brat since he is amalgamation of several main protagonist of the other mecha series in the game which includeMasato, Kira and Akito, personally i find his playthrough is more fun compared to Calvina. This is because Toya's characterization continues until the end of the game as he becomes the most badass character while Calvina's motive for Revenge in the game is not strong enough and i find her characterization ends too early to keep her plot interesting.

There also 3 original female characters which serve as Subpilots as the main character obtain the original mech due to their appearance. The character design of these original characters pretty much mirrors Powerpuff Girl for some unknown reason. Each Subpilots have different finishers for the upgrade unit and they are also the possible romantic interest of the Male protagonist depending on the actions in the game.

 With 2 Original Main Character, SRW J also offer 4 Original Units with their respective units. In my 4 playthrough i started in this order: Coustwell, Granteed, Belzellute and finally Vorlent which is the secret unit and i for each playthrough i used Calvina then Toya in repeated pattern twice. The reason why i decided to play 4 playthroughs is in order to use Raftclans which is my most favorite unit but i have to admit that Granteed is the strongest out of 4 originals being the most destructive of the 4 originals.

The J in SRW J refers to Judgement which are passed by the original enemies in this game which is an Alien Race called the Fury. The Fury is an ancient Alien Race that have exist long time ago and move to Earth due to their loss in war with other Alien Race.They claim to be the progenitor of the Human race and their leader thinks that they deserve to pass Judgement to Humanity. The Fury possess technology that enable them to stop time which plays central plot for them as the player's original mecha possess technology that is capable to cancel them since they are really tough opponent otherwise. The main villain is the leader of the Fury Warrior known as Gu Landon who is embittered with the loss of their race and become insane Megalomaniac who tries to eradicate humanity inorder to. While they don't appear that much in the game i think the Furies will be good material for OG verse since their settings can be used along with Balmarians in which serve as the Fury's Adversary. Though due to its powerlevel i think the Final boss of SRW J would only fit as a Midboss.

 If you plan to play SRW J i would suggest to play it before getting into SRW W. This is because SRW W share the same engine with SRW J and whatever the cast from SRW W that are in SRW J will have exactly 100% same animation and this is why i had hard times getting into SRW J. However the thing that prevents me from really enjoying the game is the absurd amount of the enemies which seems to be endless and most of the time you spend is to get rid of them while the plot barely progress at all.

 This is the killcount result from my 4 playthroughs, the only that i cheated is the trigger for Great Zeorymer since did the opposite route for its flag. It seems the kill count is abit less since i tried every character to get significant amount of kill counts and Calvina had plenty of killcounts as well. While the game is not that difficult here are my unit recommendations for the game.

• MazinKaiser: Just like any SRW installment where Kouji get Mazinkaiser, he is really strong and even can be considered as Overpowered since it simply hits really hard while taking really little damage.
• Zeorymer: Definitely the strongest unit in the game even without getting Great Zeorymer since it possess both powerful finisher and MAP attack just like in MX
• Nadesico: Probably SRW J is the only SRW that i have played that have battleship as solid unit considering Archangel even got like 6 or 7 seishin pool for a battleship. But for Nadesico it is really tough as it possess distortion field and good MAP attack.
• Tekkaman Blade: Really powerful for small units with its VOLTEKKKA nuff said.
• Dancougar: Glass Cannon just like always but 5 seishin pools can never go wrong.
• Layzner: One of the more solid Real Robot while it doesn't hit hard it possess decent MAP attack
• Freedom/Justice w/ METEOR: Perfect Gruntkillers with its non collateral MAP attack.
• Tekkaman Rapier: While you get her abit late she have rather useful MAP attack.

The main key thing in SRW J for unit selection is whether the units possess MAP attack or not since you will expect waves of enemy reinforcements to appear in every stage annoying you to no end.

While i am bit disappointed playing SRW J, i did really like the Original characters and Units which i believe will be great addition for OGverse. The first thing i would love to see from the SRW J original cast if they ever appear again is the updated version of the BGM considering the GBA version of the BGM is not great enough. if you do multiple Toya's playthrough, i suggest to get Al Van's ending since it seems abit better compared to the normal ending. I also would like to see Kotobukiya releasing Raftclans kit someday but i doubt it will happen anytime soon in 3 years though Raftclans did have some garage kits for them. With SRW J finished i can continue to my 2nd run of Alpha 3 which i have neglected for a year lol.