The Let's Play Archive

Super Robot Wars W

by Brunom1

Part 45: Post-Mission 11 Intermission and Unit Analysis #7 ("Bible-Sized" Edition)

Welcome to the post-route split activities, folks. Like I said in the previous mission, I’m keeping the North America Route because it gave a whole lot more cash.
With Blade back, our top aces are back to their usual format:



Blade’s time off has given Kazuma the opportunity to get dangerously close to the nº 1 spot. He just might get there because I’m gonna be giving him some attention as his levels are lagging behind.


BP Upgrades:









All the Nadesico Aestis follow the same attack necessities.
Ryouko, Izumi, Hikaru and Akito all get a heavy boost to Melee (which affects the Distortion Field and both Sword attacks), a bit less in Shooting and some extra points in Evasion.



Akatsuki, being a jerk without Focus and friends to get bonuses from, needs a bigger push in Evasion and a bit in Accuracy.
Melee gets 5 points and Shooting gets the spare 2.



Yurika follows the staple ship captain build. Getting 7 points in Shooting, 4 in Defense and 3 in Accuracy.



Ryouma is all about being a glass cannon, so I give him 7 points to increase his absurd Melee stat, 4 points in Evasion (which would probably not amount to much since it’s abysmal) and the spare 2 go to Accuracy.



Hayato gets a 6 points to his Melee, 5 points to his Evasion and the last 2 go to Accuracy.



Benkei isn’t really meant to dodge, even though it’s the Getter. He gets 7 points in Melee, 4 in Defense and 2 in Accuracy.



Kouji follows the Gai (Shishioh) school of piloting.
Melee goes up by 7, Defense and Accuracy by 3.



Sayaka gets 6 points in Defense, 3 in Shooting, 3 in Accuracy.



Boss, for all the good that’ll do him, gets 4 points in Melee, 6 in Defense and 2 in Accuracy.



Blade returns with 5 points to spend. 2 go into Melee, 3 go into Shooting.



Quatre gets 2 points into Melee, 1 into Evasion.



Finally, Bless gets 2 more points in Shooting and 1 in Defense.



Unit Upgrades:



The biggest portion of our cash will be spent on our new supers. Starting off, Shin Getter gets a boost of 3 points to Mobility, EN and 1 point to Weapons.



Mazinkaiser gets a boost of 2 points for everything except Mobility and 1 point in weapons.



Akito will make do with the scraps, getting 1 point in EN (I won’t raise this much due the Nadesico’s Gravity Beam but just enough so he won’t run out during Enemy Phases) and 2 points in Mobility.



Skill Parts:



Mihiro gets the +5 SP. The sooner we get her able to cast multiple Cheers, the better.



Gai keeps hogging the Infights, reaching L3. I might start sharing these with Kouji or Ryouma…maybe. What do you guys think?



Unit Parts:



Shin Getter is our biggest energy hog, so he gets the Large Generator (大型ジェネレーター) for a 50 EN boost.



Kazuma gets the Learning OS (学習型ＯＳ), boosting his crit rate by 10%.



Now! We had a very large number of units joining us over the route split; let’s have a look at them, starting with the Nadesico:





The Nadesico is a good-ish ship, though it’s not as broken as it was in J (all of the ship’s operators had spirit commands).
Yurika’s stats are less than stellar, especially on her defenses, and the ship’s armor is not all that but the Distortion Field is there to cover that (Negates incoming damage when below a threshold based on it's type: Gravity-based = 2500, Beam-based = 1500; all damage received is also reduced by 1000 – 10 EN per use).

It’s weapons are long-ish range if not as powerful as the Valstorks – inbetween the missiles and Gravity Blast, you’ll need to choose if you want a weak, ammo based attack, or a stronger attack that drains a decent bit of EN.

Nevertheless, this ship is a necessity if you’re planning on using the Aestis, lest they run out of gas after 1 turn.

It’s really at home fighting in space where it can regenerate its EN with its Gravity Antennae at the start of each turn but it’s got a large enough pool to go through atmospheric missions without running low.


Yurika and Ruri are the only pilots on the ship that have Spirit Commands. Here are Yurika’s:

Now, for Ruri’s spirit commands:

Yurika doesn’t have much in terms of Pilot Skills. She only has the basics, really:

Conclusion: You could do a whole lot worse than the Nadesico, especially in space. It’ll be auto-deployed for a long while so you don’t need to worry about it if you want to use the Aestis.
Try to keep all the Nadesico folks close together so they all get usage of their friendship/love bonuses (not Akatsuki, though - screw him).



Next up, are the Aestivalis. Mind you, they’re all the same right now, so I’ll only go over Akito’s:





The Aestis are good reals but they leave a bit to be desired come the later parts of the game.
Nevertheless, they are very versatile right now. Their Flight Frame is the most appropriate for atmosphere-based missions, giving them an A in Air and more Mobility/Movement; the 0-Gravity Frame is it’s space counterpart but it boosts HP and armor.

There’s also the Gunner Frame which I don’t particulary like because it’s SLOW. Still, it has the only MAP attack the Aestis could use and its reach is good but I prefer high movement to long reach.

The Aestis are tailored towards teamwork. They all have, at least, friendship bonuses with each other (except Akatsuki; no one likes him) and you’d do well to deploy them as a group.
Losing Gai Daigoji actually puts Akito in a tough spot because the girls all have combination attacks with each other and Gekigan Flare, by itself, isn’t all that powerful.

The Aestis have some safeguards in the form of Sword Cut and Shoot Down; also, like the Nadesico, all Aestis have a Distortion Field which makes them more durable than other reals but they will run out of EN really quick, so keep them inside the Nadesico’s Gravity Beam range.

Also, all Aestivalis pilot have the IFS Pilot skill which gives them a bit more strength: Melee, Ranged, Defense and Skill stats increase by 2 every 10 Will. Evade and Hit stats increase by 3 at 110, 130, 150 and 170 Will, and by 2 at 120, 140 and 160 Will.

Apart from IFS, here are the other Pilot Skills and Spirit Commands:

Akito’s Skills:
Akito’s Spirits:
Ryouko’s Skills:
Ryouko’s Spirits:
Hikaru’s Skills:
Hikaru’s Spirits:
Izumi’s Skills:
Izumi’s Spirits:
Akatsuki’s Skills:
Akatsuki's Spirits:

Conclusion: The Aestis can be good if you build them up a bit. They won’t be “top tier” amongst the most powerful Real Robots but they can pull their weight, especially if you deploy them as a group. If you want a reliable single unit, Akito can work but if you want more power, you’re better off deploying all “Three Angels” girls.

If you’re an Akatsuki fan, you’re kinda screwed because he is, by a mile, the worst one. Akito has a Love Relationship bonus from Yurika, boosting his damage; the girls have their combined attack and friendship bonus. Akatsuki has neither and isn’t the best pilot.


With all that Space-Opera nonsense out of the way, let’s get into Super Robot Town! First off, is Shin Getter (Unit drawings taken from Tobias Grant’s LP of SRW Alpha Gaiden. Sadly, it was the only place where I could find actual pictures instead of models):




Yes, this song is needed. I need to play this at least once when dealing with Shin Getter!

Getter Robo is one of the staples of SRW, appearing in nearly every single one of them since the beginning. Shin Getter is a powerhouse but, like all Getters, it requires care when using.
Shin Getter comes in 3 variations: Shin Getter 1 (for air/boss combat), Shin Getter 2 (for ground/mook combat) and Shin Getter 3 (for water). These terrain limitations should be noted because a Getter unit will be good in one terrain and bad at all others (space is a freebie, though).

All of the Getter units excel in melee combat but also like to really chug through their EN (especially Shin Getter 1) and while it does have Open Get (when over 130 morale, 30% chance to evade an attack – mitigated by Skill stat) to add some survivability, I find that it never activates when you actually need it.



Shin Getter 1 is one of the strongest Super Robots in this game but it’s also one with the weakest defenses; its low-for-a-super armor, paired with Ryouma’s abysmal Defense stat (on par with Akito’s) makes it a necessity to upgrade his mobility as much as possible.

Also, it should be noted that Shin Getter 1 also has HUGE morale requirements for its strongest attacks so Ryouma will need to be killing some mooks before going for the bosses (this problem is lessened by the fact that Benkei learns Spirit, mind). He gets a big attack penalty when going against Ground/Water-based enemies.



Hayato’s Shin Getter 2 is the weakest of the 3 but also the dodgiest. His Evade stat is high and he’ll learn Focus soon enough, meaning he’s the ideal form to clear mooks (though his Shin Getter Vision applies the Accuracy Down effect and can be useful against bosses).
His range isn’t the best but Getter has always been a close-combat unit. Do note that he’s HORRIBLE against Air-based mechs so Ryouma will need to deal with those.

Addendum: I forgot to mention that Shin Getter 2 is one of the only (or maybe the only one?) units that can dig underground. When underground, your movement is restricted to flatlands (I.e. no going under mountains or buildings and you lose movement range) but you cannot be attacked by enemies.



Benkei’s Shin Getter 3 is the odd one of the bunch. He’s tailored for water combat which are rare in this game. It’s by far the bulkiest of the bunch and can actually take quite a bit of punishment (not on Mazinkaiser level but still…).

Banpresto did give him more love than usual, though, seeing as how his range is greater than Hayato’s and how he’s actually the least limited, terrain-wise, of the Getter units (he’s awful against Air-units but he’s good at everything else); if Getter is in a tough spot against accurate enemies and can’t get a heal, switching to Getter 3 and using Iron Wall could prove a lifesaver.

Here are the spirit commands and skills of the three pilots:


Ryouma’s Skills:
Ryouma’s Spirits:
Hayato’s Skills:
Hayato’s Spirits:
Benkei’s Skills:
Benkei’s Spirits:

Conclusion: Shin Getter should be an easy choice in nearly any SRW game and this is especially true in W.
It’s in the top 5 strongest Super Robots in the game and its presence will benefit other robots in the future; it’ll be expensive, though, as it’ll need upgrades on everything but, after enough cash is dumped, you’ll have a powerhouse that’ll dodge reliably against mooks and destroy a bosses health with ease.

Three sets of spirit commands in one unit is just the icing on the cake.


Finally, let’s get the entire Mazinkaiser group out of the way because if this gets any longer my hands are going to turn to ash:




This is also necessary for nostalgia’s sake.



We’ll start off with the big one. Kouji could be considered the granddad of Super Robot shows (Tetsujin falls inbetween the two groups, so shush!) and he’s ALWAYS reliable. Even when he’s stuck in the Mazinger, he’s still “top tier” and the Mazinkaiser is superior in every way.

Kouji’s defense stat is huge and, paired with the Mazinkaiser’s insane armor, it just might be the most resilient unit in the game (it also has sword cut as an added bonus).
However, it’s not an immovable wall: the Mazinkaiser is nearly on par with Shin Getter in damage output with Kouji’s high melee stat, powerful weapons (it also has utility weapons like Rust Tornado, to reduce the enemy’s armor by 30%) and the ever wonderful Mazin Power, increasing the damage done by 25%.

Do keep in mind that the Mazinkaiser likes to blow through its EN (not as quickly as Shin Getter 1, though), it’s a bit slow on movement and it’s not all that good against airborne units.
Those issues are just minor problems on the side of an awesome unit; there’s a spot for Kaiser in all groups unless you’re purposefully gimping yourself.





Sayaka and Boss are the two supporters you get right now and they’re both equally competent (not outstanding, though…).

Sayaka has a crapton of SP to spend and long-range attacks, making her a good support attacker but her defenses and flexibility are rather weak.

Boss has nearly no support attack capabilities and his mech is, bar none, the weakest one in all SRW games that he’s shown in. Nevertheless, that’s mitigated by some positive points: Boss Borot has 3 pilots (Boss, Nuke and Mucha) and they all have a wide range of useful spirits; also, the reason Boss Borot is so weak is that it was made with junkyard scraps – this results in its repair cost being a measly 10 bucks.

Sayaka’s Aphrodite A has a Repair module, Boss Borot has a Repair and Ressuply Module.

Here are the Skills and Spirits for the Mazinkaiser pilots:

Kouji’s Skills:
Kouji’s Spirits:
Sayaka’s Skills:
Sayaka’s Spirits:
Boss’ Skills:
Boss’ Spirits:
Mucha’s Spirits:
Nuke’s Spirits:


Conclusion: Like Shin Getter, Mazinkaiser is a unit that will plow through the game. It’s powerful, resilient and Kouji’s a great pilot.
Tetsuya isn’t here to give him access to all those wonderful combined attacks but it’s still more than capable of holding its own; use it and love it.

Boss and Sayaka both work as supporters, it’s just a matter if you want a full SP-based supporter or someone that can also deal a wee bit of damage; both will probably get outclassed as better supporters come along but, until then, they are both equally good.



Whew, that’s all there is to it. Next time, our group joins back together and our first mission is a lot…weirder than expected.

See you all then!