The Let's Play Archive

Super Robot Wars W

by Brunom1

Part 174: Post-mission 47 Intermission (Includes Unit Analysis #21 - "Furball of doom and Mercenary Sidekick" Edition) and Mission 48 - Prologue

Whew, that was a long mission. Still, if you’ve played SRW games before, you get used to them cranking up the length of missions when you get this close to the end-game.
We’ve a few things to do on the intermission but, first, your top aces:



Oooh, a tie for 1st place after I spammed so much of Valguard’s MAP. I believe this hasn’t happened before.


Skill Parts:


As you know, Break Morale Limit raises the morale cap to 170 which is HUGE for any of our attackers.
Since Kazuma already has it, I was forced to choose between Kouji and Gai – I chose Gai.


Unit Upgrades:


Last mission showed me that Golion needs to get beefier, so he takes a point in HP, EN and Armor.



Same for the Dragon Bros.



Volfogg is also lagging a bit behind, so he gets some love in the form of EN, Mobility and Weapons.



Finally, Gaofighgar gets more invincible with HP and Armor boosts.


Unit Parts:


We got a Super Alloy Z from Kusakabe, so that replaces Shin Getters Hybrid Armor.



Golion also dumps his Great Generator for a Power Extender, gaining 50 EN.

Now, let’s take this time to look at a couple of new units:





You probably haven’t noticed but Elijah DID upgrade his GINN a bit before he joined us.
It’s probably as powerful as you can get from a Mass Produced Zaft unit which is a shame as Elijah is quite a competent pilot.

With Coordinator boosting his status, Elijah can hold his own on any situation, be it long or close-range.



His attacks cover their ground pretty nicely and, though they do lack in power (expected), most of the attacks are ammo-based, making them good for mook-hunting.
Do keep in mind, that his strongest attack, Buster Sword, still costs 30 EN.



It’s pretty clear that Elijah is set to make Gai Murakumo be more awesome, as shown by his Skills:
Also, here are his spirit commands:
Conclusion: Elijah is pretty much Duo of SEED Astray – he’s reliable enough that you can deploy him without worrying much (plus, he takes upgrades from the Red Frame) but he certainly isn’t strong enough to be at the head of the pack.

Keeping him near Gai Murakumo is a good move as they’ll both benefit from friendship bonuses and Elijah can assist Gai as he snipes.




Now, we get to our furry harbinger of doom.
Bonta-kun certainly is an odd unit and using it can be slightly dangerous, due to the broken size modifiers.
The most obvious things to note are that it has minuscule HP (it IS a mascot suit) and defenses but makes up for it with MASSIVE Mobility (the highest base value of any unit in the game).

Bonta-Kun’s stats and Skills are shared with Sousuke, of course, and he carries the same favoritism towards Shooting over Meleeing.



His attacks have decent range, just like Arbalest and the power is around the same.
The bigger issue is that, unlike Arbalest, Bonta-kun has no Lamda Driver to boost the damage – it also should be noted that nearly all of the attacks are ammo-based (the Mass Produced attack only has three shots), so keep an eye out when using them.



Bonta-kun’s Spirit commands have changed from what they were before the time-skip:
Aye, it’s an impressive list but, keep in mind, unless you really boost Sousuke’s SP and/or SP Consumption, he won’t be spamming those last three spirits before he’s running empty.

Conclusion: Bonta-Kun is very interesting and would be nigh untouchable if he had his SS size working.
Still, untouchable as he may be, his low ammo reserves and average power put him in an awkward spot at the end-game and, on long missions with tough enemies, he’ll either need to hang back and conserve his shots or you’ll need to do something to replenish his stock.

Pound-for-pound, I’d have to give a recommendation to put Sousuke in the Arbalest when we’re at the final missions.

Now, let’s move to the prologue:




On his log, Kazuma relates that Yurika and Lacus are now back on Earth thanks to Lapis’ taxi service.
Kusakabe, not surprisingly, is being held by the UN’s Executive Branch while the Martian Successor mess gets sorted out.
Such luminaries from the old Jupiter Union as Admiral Fukube will be keeping an eye on things, so there's little to fear on that score.
Rather, he’s more worried about how we’re supposed to pursue The Database; unlike our previous enemies, who limited their operations to either Earth or nearby colonies/planets, The Dabase is known to operate on an interstellar scale and could be hiding Kaname and Tessa anywhere.
It certainly feels like looking for a needle in a haystack and all hope would seem lost if not for a clue from a most unexpected source...



That would be the mysterious "Mister Silver", who's sent word that The Database are hanging out on Jupiter.
This makes good strategic sense as the planet is far away from the colonies and most of the Earth government had their eyes fixed on Mars for a long time – there has been no activity detected on Jupiter since the Primevals.
Kurz wonders if this really is legit but given the paucity of people with any info at all about The Database it isn't likely to be disinformation.

Whoever Mister Silver is, he's got access to ultra-long-range comm gear to be able to reach us all the way here (something that very few organizations on Earth possess) - and a proven track record in that his info led Sousuke to Kaname and Tessa back in Orb.
In any event, with no other leads, Renée and Tetsuya agree that we don’t have much to lose if we were to check this out.



Gai waxes nostalgic, thinking about their last jaunt to Jupiter and the fight with Z-Master.
Kaidou and Fahra raise a disturbing point, though: considering that it’s The Database that we’re dealing here, there’s a very real possibility that they are still trying to unlock the secrets of THE POWER.
If that’s the case, we've got another huge reason to head to Jupiter and fast.



As Kouji promises Sousuke that we’ll rescue both Tessa and Kaname, Sayaka wonders why Aria and Applicant bothered to capture them considering that, previously, they only cared to gather objects.
Leo figures that while they did want to gather an object on Mars, the Boson Jump unit, they were also interested in the Black Technology that’s locked away in the Whispered’s mind.
Kouji worries about the means The Database might apply to extract said information and Leo, also worried, says we should still have a window of opportunity since they were abducted recently but we need to act fast.



This will also mean facing Kazuma's counterpart Aria, and the man who made her. Omoikane is 97% sure that Applicant is Bless, which raises the very interesting question how Bless would come to be with The Database after the Holy Valentine Light incident.
Gai wonders if it could be a Replijin of Bless but, considering that it’d be an exact copy of the captain, he would certainly try to either escape or contact us.
It’s possible that, like Mamoru and J's Replijin, he may be under some sort of mind control.
Our people respect Bless's command abilities enough that they're pretty certain they can't win if they have to fight him head on and can't break this theoretical mind control.
About the best we can come up with is relieving Kazuma and Mihiro of the responsibility of directly confronting their father and fight him in their stead, should matters come to that.



At The Database hideout, Sinclyne pays his father, the once great, former-emperor Dai Bazarl, a visit.
Dai Bazarl says that he’s still Sinclyne’s father and the emperor, and he won’t tolerate this disrespectful attitude; Sinclyne isn’t here to antagonize the destitute old man, though, merely to give a chance for Dai Bazarl to put his power to use for the Galran Empire.
He's got a new model of Mega Black Beastman, suitable for the former emperor to destroy both Golion and Neo-Wärter.
Dai Bazarl asks what would happen should he refuse to head to the front lines: Sinclyne will, as per Galran law, have him executed on the spot for disobeying orders.



Dai Bazarl does refuse and, when Sinclyne tries to kill him, he counters the sword thrust with a massive blow from his blue fists.
Observing that his son's swordsmanship still needs some work, he then agrees to pilot the damn mech.
After all, the repeated failures to take down Golion ultimately reflect on him, the true emperor, and he means to atone for that today - it's high time that his son learns just how fearsome his father really is...


Alright, this will be quite the long mission and a whole lot is happening as evidenced by the large amount of event units: Kazuma, Re-Home, Archangel, Golion and Gaofighgar are launching.

Our deployment space decreases as a result, so let’s get to Voting time!

You guys have 13 slots to choose from the units below:

Yeah, I’ve perma-benched Saburouta, Sayaka and Jun – they never get in and aren’t worth the effort, even with the Mazinger (Lori and Loru are great supporters,though, and Boss is…Boss).

Voting will remain open until Wednesday.

See you all then!