Super Robot Wars Alpha 2 thoughts

Shooting Star cut through the night!

Recently i have been reconnecting lots of things back from the past and Super Robot Wars is one of them. It has been like 4 years since i finished my 3rd Playthrough of Alpha 3 which i soon began my first playthrough of Alpha 2. As for my first playthrough i picked Ibis as the Original protagonist and over the past 2 months i have been marathoning Alpha 2 with her as the lead. Long story short even though i have finished Alpha 3 thrice already, Alpha 2 is still very solid experience of SRW for me and with this another SRW game added to my completed list.

 It was rather strange to go through Alpha series in backward direction considering each iteration gets better than the previous ones but nevertheless it doesn't prevent me to enjoy Alpha 2 to the fullest. Playing Alpha 2 after completing Alpha 3 feels like fighting with the old comrades again considering 80% of Alpha 2 Casts made it to Final iteration of Alpha series. Alpha 2 is the first SRW in Alpha series that use platoon system which continued to Alpha 3. Mechanics wise the platoon system are pretty much the same but since Alpha 2 is a prequel game it doesn't have couple of mechanics from Alpha 3. For me two of the main issues for Alpha 2 is you can't skip Animations midway and unable to select multiple seishins in one go which is still acceptable and even it got fixed afterward. Unfortunately Alpha 2 didn't have Full Upgrade Bonus as well so no need to crank your Super Robot's mobility and focus more on the weapon.

Alpha 2 is also the debut for Gaogaigar, Brain Powerd and Crossbone which unfortunately only GGG made it to Alpha 3. GGG as expected are got very powerful main unit while Brain Powerd and Crossbone are rather mediocre when it comes to firepower. In exchange Brain Powerd units are very good defensive support unit since they provide very good Barrier while Crossbone Gundams are one of the most agile unit ingame though they may need more ALL attacks next time they appear and also make Death Gale Squad Mobility lesser since i hate them alot for being overglorified scrubs especially the brat piloting the red unit.

• Alpha 2 Ibis Storyline

In Alpha 2 Ibis starts with Altairlion which was mediocre Real Robot unit that only shines once you properly upgrade it and weapon wise its ALL attacks is really terrible and Ibis statline is not that bright either. But once Sleigh joined things get better as Hyperlion is quite decent unit and while the ALL attacks is still lacking, at least it got okay MAP weapons which will rack plenty of kill with "Soul" seishin.

 Character-wise TD team is probably based on Gunbuster as Ibis is based on Noriko which are more noticable in OG timeline where Noriko's Onee-san character is split into two with Tsugumi play as the softer side while Sleigh is the Onee-san's meaner side whereas Filio is kinda like pretty boy version of Coach. While Hyperlion is probably Real Robot version of Gunbuster with a slight touch of Macross due to Missile Spam and the individual unit probably influenced from Macross as well especially from Plus.

•  Alpha 2 Char

In terms of difficulty Alpha 2 is quite easy since it got SP Regen and i literally give it to everyone and make the game quite a breeze. However the final boss in Alpha 2 is no pushover though, In terms of damage dealing Gan Eden was not that bad it is just that it is really tough as nail with the Barrier and her Guard+Prevail combo. In order to fight her effectively you need 直撃 seishin buffed for your main fighter or else the fight can drag quite a long time painfully.

That was my last party arrangement and Killcounts. At first Ibis was outpaced by Daitarn 3 in Kill counts due to lack of ALL attack but once i got Hyperlion she quickly racked up the kill counts with her MAP attack+Soul Seishin. And as expected Wing Gundam and ZZ quickly racked up kills as well since they got MAP attacks and possibly will even rack more in my next playthrough if i team them up with pilots that got 覚醒 Seishin. Out of the team my top 3 damage dealers are Daitarn 3, Shin Getter and Gaogaigar and probably Gaiking would be the top contender if i properly upgrade him in the next playthrough.

If you do your first playthrough of Alpha 2, couple of my suggestions are:

• If possible put all flying units in a single squad since a single unit will always ground the whole squad even if the other 3 is flying one. Mid Air squads are very important in Alpha 2 since the game got plenty of Aquatic Maps
• Each Squad if possible need 加速(Accel) Seishin especially the slow moving Super Robots to get those hard hitting units into the fray ASAP
• For your Super Robot Units it would be good if you put a unit from Brain Powerd if you got spare space since they give really good barrier bonus.

 For me Alpha 2 is very enjoyable experience even though the flaws could have been fixed which would make the experience even better. The series got some of the best moments from SRW series as a whole and simply to say without Alpha 2 we will never see the epic conclusion of the Alpha Saga which is Alpha 3. I think Alpha series is still the best overall SRW Timeline as plenty of epic stuffs occured in this timeline and it would be a long time before Alpha Numbers get surpassed by other SRW team since Z  series lost its chance to surpass Alpha even though it has such a great Kickstart. As for now i will be doing my second Alpha 2 playthrough with Arado since i am big fan of Wildwurger after all though probably i will do Sanger's as well considering he seems to be the best interaction partner with Irui.