The Let's Play Archive

Super Robot Wars W

by Brunom1

Part 152: Post-mission 42 Intermission (Includes Unit Analysis #18 - "Blonde" Edition) and Mission 43 - Prologue

Ah, that was a good mission. We got a whole bunch of new folks, so let’s get this intermission going.
As always, your top aces:



Gai is getting veeeery close to Kazuma – the closest he’s ever been, I think.


BP Upgrades:


Athrun is a REALLY good attacker, like Kira, but with a Melee focus.
His Justice Gundam does have a decent bit of ranged attacks, mind, so he’ll boost mainly Melee, Shooting and add spread the rest among Evasion and Accuracy.



Dearka, however, is all about ranged attacks.
Don’t even worry about close-combat, just give him Shooting, Evasion and Accuracy.



Oh? Seems we picked up an extra passenger while escaping Orb.
Dead follows the standard Tekkaman build, focusing on Shooting, a bit of Melee, Evasion and Accuracy.

One thing to note: Dead takes upgrades after Blade, so he's already quite powerful.



Cagalli uses the Strike Rouge which can work for all kinds of combat.
However, for now, I’m gonna focus on Shooting, with a wee bit of Melee, Evasion and Accuracy.


Skill Parts:


As I said last mission, Kira absolutely needs this Hit & Away; I also give him Multicombo+1 because no one else needs it.



No one else has a big need for this either, so Tetsuya takes the Prevail+1.



Being a physical attacker with MASSIVE Skill, Athrun will make good use of Counter.



Finally, Kazuma still has dibs on all BP+2.


Unit Upgrades:


We’ll give the Archangel enough of a boost on HP, EN, Armor, Weapons and Substitute for it to carry its weight on the field.





The original Strike can pass it’s upgrades to the Strike Rouge but that’s only in New Game+, when previous upgrades carry-on.
As such, they both take three points in EN, Mobilty and Weapons (the Rouge takes two in weapons, mind).



Believe it or not but Saburouta IS an event deployment for the next mission: to make sure that he will not be complete dead weight, I give him a boost in EN, Mobilty and weapons.



The last bit of cash boosts Yumi’s EN and Weapons (her Double Reactor Voltekka needs to get stronger!).


Unit Parts:


I never tried stacking a Barrier on top of a Laminated Armor, so we’re gonna give that a try.
To boost Accuracy by 20%, the Archangel also takes a Multi Lock-on System.



Golion replaces it’s old and busted Cobham Armor with a shiny Super Alloy Z.



Athrun’s Justice takes a Booster and Pierrot’s Mask for more movement and crit ratio.



Heero takes an EN Chip and High Spec Radar for extra attack range.



For lack of a better option, Dearka’s Buster Gundam takes the Servo Motor and Flight Unit.



Kouji replaces its old Large Generator with a Power Extender, gaining 50 EN.



Finally, Kira takes a Solar Panel to gain 10% EN Regeneration.


Before we end this, let’s take a look at some of our new additions.
Mind you, I went over Dead and Dearka when they were enemies, so let’s focus on Muu and Cagalli.





The Strike is a very reliable Gundam, though, as expected, it’s easily overshadowed by our bigger powerhouses.
Its main draw is its flexibility, in that it can do a good job on any situation you want and both Muu and Cagalli are competent pilots, that can pull their weight – Muu seems more ranged-oriented while Cagalli is an all-around attacker.







The Strike can change frames to either be a flying, fast, mook destroyer with the Aile Pack, an up-close attacker with the Sword Strike Pack or a strong sniper (with a small-ish MAP attack) with the Launcher Strike Pack.

None of its attacks are particularly powerful but they are not Sol-Tekkaman-level; mind you, the Sword Strike doesn’t lose that much range when switching from the Aile pack, so if you can work with being grounded and loss of movement range, it could work better.





As for Pilot Skills, both Muu and Cagalli are quite similar to each other:


Mind you, their Spirit Commands do vary a bit. First group is Cagalli’s, second is Muu’s:

Conclusion: Meh. The Strike is one of those sad cases of decent units that fail to stand out amongst the crowd.
They are very above average but, most likely, you will not have room for either of them in your team unless you really like either the pilots or the units.

Word of the wise: if you decide to use either the Sword or Launcher Strike, put either a Flight Unit or something to boost its movement because it NEEDS it to compensate for either short range or lack of post-movement attacks.


By the way, I won’t go over the Justice as both it and Athrun are very similar to Kira but with more Melee-oriented attacks (the combined attack is great for Kira, mind, as it gives him a powerful post-movement weapon).

Now, let’s move on:





Sinclyne, chafing under the leadership of the Sol Lords and the Scribes of Knowledge, calls Daddy-O to ask for how long he needs to work for these people.
Dai Bazaal says it's only until Golion is defeated and then they’ll call it quits.
The Scribes were noted in the Galra's ancient scriptures as a terrible enemy, and it's clear the Sol Lords' plans to revive the Trinary system will harm their homeworld... but Dai Bazaal isn't worried so long as he wins in the end.
Sinclyne furiously demands to know when the emperor of the Galra became such a coward, but Dai Bazaal tells him to shut up until he's defeated Golion.
After his father hangs up, Sinclyne fumes that the once-glorious old man has gotten old indeed; Honerva, who Sinclyne knows was sent to keep an eye on him, tells him not to be so hasty, and to wait for the right chance to strike.



Sinclyne wants to know why the Sol Lords fear Golion so much as to enlist his people's help in defeating it, and asks Honerva to tell him everything her long study of the galaxy's cultures has taught her.
She smiles wryly at Sinclyne's much- belated interest in study, and it begins to occur to the prince that Golion might be able to actually solve his Sol Lord problem for him.



Kazuma logs that our people have left Orb, ill-repaired and under-provisioned.
Orb was, for all intents and purposes, destroyed by Uzumi's hand, and with the UN’s Executive Branch in disarray there's nothing Rose can do to help us either – obviously, the military isn't on your side, either.

It should be noted, if you've done the SEED secret, you get a new addition to the team: Nicol! It turns out that both him and Tolle, while heavily injured, survived their units' destruction and were healing in Orb.

Seeing Athrun deciding to fight for humanity as a whole, Nicol was inspired to pilot the Blitz Gundam once more to help us save everyone - Natural and Coordinators.


Making matters worse, Siegel Klein, who Rose had hoped to negotiate with, has been deposed by Patrick Zala.
At least we've got a bunch of new teammates, including the newly revitalized D-Boy, Tomoru and Tekkaman Dead, whom we rescued on our way out of Orb; Neo-Wärter is wounded but isn’t finished yet and there's a lot world that still needs saving.



David is extremely glad to see Dead still alive.
Despite his injuries from Lance, he managed to find our people as we were escaping and get rescued; David’s happiness is such that it leads most of the rest of your people to conclude that he's "switched teams" in the wake of his disappointment with Aki.
Ryouko’s greatest fear is that Hikaru somehow get wind of this and write it into some kind of yaoi doujin, and that it somehow finds its way to Mihiro to pollute her mind; the boundary between friendship and love is indeed paper-thin for some, but for Yumi and D-Boy, it's more like the distance between Earth and Mars.
Yumi brightly points out that they've got Boson Jump to fix that now...



D-Boy needs some rest after the whole Blaster incident - no wonder since he was moving at such blinding speed that our people could barely see him.
As he does so, he thanks Freeman for keeping his promise.
Tomoru is pretty worried about him, but Kazuma and Gai know that D-Boy isn't about to die now – his courage is so great, that it’ll keep death at bay until his mission is fulfilled.
Freeman explains to Tomoru that the mirth our people keep spreading is the way they can endure the massive burdens they bear: human one and all; it's that human heart thing which Orgun sought, after all.
Freeman sends Tomoru to the hangar to see Michi(who needs him to run checks on Orgun’s Solid Armor), pondering how this man has precisely the same life data as the original Orgun; could he, due to their past encounters, have instinctively sensed the gravity of D-Boy’s current situation?



The Serpent Tail are preparing to split off again, Gai saying that no mercenary would be willing to keep fighting without a contract.
More to the point, something is bothering him and he wants to check it out; he tells Lowe to call on him whenever he needs him, still feeling indebted for Lowe's help with the Blue Frame (not that it bothered Lowe, who was glad to work on such a great mech).
Kazahana tells Kisato not to let a certain bespectacled girl beat her for Lowe's affections in her absence.



Meanwhile, Athrun tells Dearka that he considers himself no longer on the side of Plant or of the Feds, but of the human world as a whole.
He asks what Dearka plans to do but, before he can think about it, Miriallia tells him to get his sorry behind back to Plant if he's going to just hang around.
She does manage to thank him for saving the Archangel on her way back to the bridge, however, and it's pretty clear to Duo what's really keeping Dearka around.
He takes quite a bit of ribbing for his affection for Miriallia (as IF he would be interested in a Natural woman!), but he adds that he just doesn't feel like throwing his lot in with his war-crazed countrymen anymore; Dearka will definitely fight on our team, so long as it suits him.



Before Gai leaves, he's got one question for Muu La Flaga: his father's name.
Muu responds that it was Al Da Flaga, which makes Gai start mumbling about how he thought as much…



Heero has a word for Kira as well, as he watches and waits for Cagalli to get over her father's death.
He tells Kira that someone is after Cagalli's life, though he won't divulge whether that someone has anything to do with the attempts to destroy Lowe and his Red Frame; what he will say is that his former companion's actions have a certain logic to them, enough to keep Relena among them by her own will.
That says plenty about this somebody, and Heero just hopes that Relena makes her decision soon, before it's too late.



Meanwhile, Fahra gets a most unexpected thing: a message directed to her, using Altean encryption. The message is not from Raibul or a Jovian fan, though, it's from Sinclyne!
He claims he wants to sue for peace with our people... "in the best interests of peace in the universe".





As we arrive at the meeting point, Fahra says the reason we came here is because Sinclyne said he wanted to give us information on the Sol Lords and The Database; he admits it’s true but says he wants to give it in person.
Fahra agrees, and the Golion heads aboard his ship.
This is obviously a trap, but Ruri recounts the old proverb that to capture a tiger's cub, you must enter the tiger's den.



This is Sinclyne's first face-to-face encounter with Fahra in a very long time, and he notes that her voice sounds somewhat different.
She refuses to face him directly, and he observes that her coy act makes her that much more appealing; Suzuishi tells him to cut the crap and get straight to the point, which makes Honerva chide him for his hastiness.
Of course, the rest of the Golion team would love to slaughter Honerva in revenge of Shirogane, but they've got to endure until we get the information we need.



Sinclyne will offer the information, as promised, but Kogane wants something else: he wants to know the connection between Golion and the Sol Lords that attacked Altea.
He figures it must also have some connection with the The Database or they wouldn’t bother trying to help the Galra destroy it; Sinclyne praises Kogane's awareness of Golion's link to all that.
From what Honerva has gathered, the galaxy can be broadly divided into three ultra-ancient civilizations; one of them sired the Altean, Galran and Trinary systems - the "Leo Culture", as the Replijin-Mamoru once called it.



Guess it's no wonder that so many of the resulting mecha have lion motifs, they were probably all built by the Leo Culture and inherited by their successors.
It also explains why the Blue Lion reacted to Mamoru in the past and why the Sol Lords are attacking Golion: as a part of the same culture, there's a good chance that Golion incorporates some specific counter to their might.
The one possible flaw in the theory is the fact that the Trinary System was located nowhere near the Altea and Galra Systems, but the remaining commonalities are too strong to ignore.



Sinclyne continues, saying that the second culture gave rise to the Scribes of Knowledge, which you call The Database.
Galran records indicate that The Database has been active for over ten millennia, few in number but incredibly wide in radius; Kogane finds it odd that they’ve been following their data-collecting mission for that long but it’s not only their mission - it is the only way of life they know.





Before Sinclyne can elaborate, the Radam attack.
He tells the Golion team they needn't sortie, though: he plans to put their mech to much better use fighting off the Sol Lords...

Well, that didn’t take very long. Golion, Blade and Saburouta are event deployments, while Kazuma has his protagonist-priority, which leaves you guys with 13 slots for voting time.

Here are the options:
Lowe is set to the Power Loader and both Strikes are set to the Aile Pack – if you wish for them to use a specific frame, make sure to point it out.

Voting will remain open until Friday afternoon.

See you all then!