The Let's Play Archive

Super Robot Wars W

by Brunom1

Part 89: Post-mission 24 Intermission and Mission 25 - Prologue

Welp, that’s one more finale taken care of; still, our work goes on and we need to see what happened to the J-Ark’s before tossing some crazy Martian tech into Jupiter’s ocean.

While the travel goes on, here are your top aces:



Compared to Mission 23, this one had very few enemies; as such, the numbers haven’t changed much but Bless is still breathing down his son’s neck. For the 3rd place, Blade and Gai (Shishioh) are still tied.



Before we start, a Propellant Tank is sold for extra cash.


BP Upgrades:


Tsukumo has joined us as per Genpachirou’s orders and he comes loaded with points. Nearly all his attacks are ranged (save for his Gekigan Punch), so I give him 4 points in Melee, 12 in Shooting, 6 in Defense and 3 in Skill (to boost the rate of Boson Jumping).



Since the Nadesico was always an event unit at the start of the game, this is Gai’s first intermission. His Aesti is built more like Akito’s, with a heavier focus on melee-range attacks (though he still has his Rifle).
He never learns Focus and with that in mind, I give him 10 points in Melee, 6 in Shooting (probably all that I’ll give him), 4 in Evasion and 4 in Accuracy.



Next up, Tetsuya adds 3 points to Melee, 2 in Defense.



Mike Takes 3 points in Shooting, 2 in Evasion.
I’ll probably stop boosting Evasion here, this should be more than enough for the rest of the game when paired with Focus and Hero.



Finally, Akito adds 3 points in Melee, 1 in Evasion.


Skill Parts:


As usual, Kazuma takes the BP+1.



Ryouma takes the Infight+1, taking his total to Level 3.



Shihomi takes the SP+5 for extra Iron Walls and Bless casts.



Finally, Sousuke takes Gunfight+1.


Unit Upgrades:


I spend a wee bit of cash to get Tsukumo a little bit more combat-ready (even though he’s already quite good). Nevertheless, he takes 2 points in HP, one in EN and 2 in Armor.



Gaogaigar has an extra point of Armor.



Valhawk/Valstork get one extra point in EN and Armor.



Blade gains some extra Mobility.



While Shin-Getter takes EN along with that Mobility boost.



Mazinkaiser adds a point to his HP, EN and Armor (maxing this stat out).



Not a whole lot of cash remains, so Golion takes an extra point in EN and Armor.



The last 3000 bucks are used to give Akito a point in EN.


Unit Parts:


Akito will make very good use of this new Apogee Motor (Movement+1, Mobility+5).





Gai Daigouji, meanwhile, will take both the Booster (Movement+1) and Servo Motor (Mobility +5), to be able to both keep up with Akito’s new speed and compensate for his lack of Focus.



Rairyuu takes the Large Generator since both his and Gekiryuujin’s attacks cost some large amounts of EN (that is, compared to his total EN pool).


Normally, I’d have to do an Analysis on our newest arrivals but I find it unnecessary this time (yay!). Tsukumo has already been covered on Mission 22 (Moon route) and Gai’s Aestivalis is a carbon copy of Akito’s.

That being said, here’s a quick overview of Gai’s stats as a pilot:



Gai finds himself right in the middle of the pack of Nadesico pilots; If I had to position him, I’d place him as the 3rd best pilot behind Akito and Ryouko.

His main “issue” is that he seems to have confused his roles, as his stats seem built more for a Super Robot than for an Aesti (which is understandable considering his Gekiganger obsession).

However, stat imbalance is less of a problem for Nadesico characters because of the big boost they get from the IFS skill – this guarantees that they’ll reach good scaling provided the morale is high enough.


Here are Gai’s Spirit Commands:
And here are his many pilot skills:

Conclusion: You’ll find that Gai Daigouji is at his most vulnerable when his morale is down, especially due to the fact that he never, ever learns Focus – this makes it a necessity for him to make use of his Friendship Bonuses and Command Auras.
You’ll also find that most of his Safeguards come in the form of Pilot Skills that he will never use because his Skill stat is ABYSMAL (even with IFS running, it’ll still be bad) so he needs to get as dodgy as possible to survive.


With that done, let’s move on to the next prologue:




It's New Year's Day, 100 years after the founding of the new calendar.
Despite their reservations about the Federation chronology, the Jovians have opted to spend the day with our people hanging out around Mars.
In fact, the successful coup d'etat has put them in a mood to celebrate with a massive Geki Ganger-themed party before we all head off to Jupiter.



Lest we forget, there's still the matter of the derelict J-Ark, whose sole passenger Kaidou seems almost recovered enough to tell us what happened.
Whatever is waiting at Jupiter, Kazuma vows to have his journal Geki Gan In!



Kaidou explains that the Primevals, less than half their former strength due to Wärter’s efforts, had retreated to Jupiter in search of a greater power source with which to Mechanize the Earth: THE POWER.
In order to prevent them from acquiring it, J and Kaidou followed them; however, they underestimated the strength of the remaining Primevals, who were more than a match for the J-Ark.
A group of Galra also showed up, probably the massive fleet Sinclyne mentioned, and the J-Ark was caught in the cross-fire.
Soldato J offered himself up as a decoy to let the J-Ark escape and here we are about to enter the same hot-zone: we need to head to Jupiter not only to drop the Boson Jump Unit but also to repel both enemy forces – the prospect of fighting both the Primevals and Galra fleet at the same time is rather intimidating, though.
Akiyama has had all the civilian colony ships near Jupiter evacuate to the relative safety of the asteroid belt so, at least, they’re safe.



As the deliberations continue, Mikoto suddenly starts to feel faint - though she quickly waves it off.
She mentions that all this fighting hasn’t left her a lot of time to rest but insists that she’ll keep going – as a member of Wärter, she has a duty to fulfill.
Mamoru then asks if Kaidou wants to send a message to his "mother" back on Earth, who is no doubt worried sick, but Kaidou tells Mamoru that he's a sorry being.
Kaidou, knowing full well he's not of the Earth, has elected to live a life loved by no one, so that there is no one to mourn his passing...



Volfogg has just finished repairing Tomoro’s systems, who thanks him (Volfogg says that it’s not necessary to thank him, as he’s only doing his job.
Regardless, Tomoro knows him as a member of Wärter and promises to remember Volfogg’s name.
D-Boy shows up, wanting to ask Tomoro about any useful information about the Radam or Eviluders; Tomoro remembers him as a rebel Radam Tekkaman and D-Boy is curious about the connection between both aliens – his Radam memories say the Eviluders feel a great hate for the Radam but he doesn’t know why.
Tomoro falls silent.



Back in the Valstork’s mess hall, Leo and his son Gai muse over actually getting to see Jupiter close up.
Gai's mother was part of the colony expedition five years ago, several decades in the making, but her ship Jupiros-5 never returned from its mission.
The Jovians have said that her ship went down in the oceans of Jupiter itself and Leo remembers that Gai became an astronaut in the first place to have a chance to find her in Jupiter.
Of course, he had to give up that dream when Galeon accidentally ran into his shuttle; Leo apologizes for putting Gai in this mess but there’s no problem: Gai is really proud of all that his parents have done.



Kazuma is watching this father/son moment is finds himself getting a bit emotional
Bless thinks they both have a ways to go before they’re close like Leo and Gai but Noin thinks Kazuma has been growing properly, as evidenced by the fact that he cleared all of her and Mao’s training.
Of course, Kazuma isn’t feeling all that pumped since they made sure to let him know that this only means they’ll have to think of a NEW training regimen.
D-Boy and the others tell him not to worry, though: he'll be a full-fledged Spaceman by the time he returns to Earth... and not many of those can say they've been to Jupiter and back.



Duo figures Kazuma is slowly growing into a proper adult but that makes him wonder: isn’t it about time for Bless come clean about his past? For instances, how the legend of the Hawkeye came to be.
Bless hesitates but Milly and Ryouma also want to hear about how Bless first met Freeman and Taiga.
Mao is also interested in hearing about his past, wanting to learn how he came about to develop his judgment-making and leadership skills.
It’ll be a while before we get to Jupiter, so Noin figures it’s a good chance for Bless to answer their questions; Mihiro quickly leaves to call everyone to hear this and Kazuma will get Ines to help set the whole thing up!



Bless begs his son to wait but Kazuma quotes the old Trailer proverb that "Show the enemy no mercy when he gives you an opening, so that even outlaws might tremble."









Ruri and Yurika welcome everyone to today’s episode, happily announcing the very special occasion in which Captain Bless has agreed to answer questions from the audience!
This is the Mazinger team’s first time witnessing the “show” and both Tetsuya and Kouji figure Duo and Quatre weren’t exaggerating at how absurd this whole thing is; Boss is rather happy, though, asking “Big Sis Ruri” to give them her “V” sign – she begrudgingly does so.
Yurika welcomes a very tense Bless on stage, who struggles to even give a simply “good afternoon”.
Freeman prods him about wearing such a constipated face and Hyuuma says that he’s not on trial and asks him to relax a bit – Bless can’t even believe they’re still trying hanging onto their grudge until now.
Regardless, Taiga tells Bless that everyone is eagerly awaiting to hear the amazing tales of his younger, adventurous days.



The first question, from a Preventer soldier pennamed the "Nameless Clown", concerns why Bless is hauling around a load of Tulip Crystals, supposedly Nergal's exclusive research province.
Akane also wanted to know about this, as they often see those crystals falling around the Valstork’s cargo hold.
Bless doesn’t want to answer, but with Ruri's permission, Freeman and Taiga do.



Bless, the noted Trailer, was a space pirate in former life.
As everyone’s jaw drops, Freeman clarifies that he was a fake space pirate: he actually used that as a pretext to penetrate and then blow wide open a criminal syndicate.
Apparently Bless was quite the handful to deal with, and he utterly hates to be reminded of that hellish time of his life; parenthetically, it was Rose who was in charge of the whole police action and Taiga and Freeman were Bless’ handlers.
It seems that the Bless, of Martian birth, figured the Tulip Crystals he was carrying for the pirates were some sort of treasure and tried to sell them off to Earth; Erina is baffled that he would sell off valuable Tulip Crystals but Bless protests that they were just lying around, and sold quite well as good luck pendants – proving to Horis that his financial acumen was sharp even then but, really, he was just trying not to starve back then.
These current crystals are remnants of the time when Bless's travels to Earth got interrupted midway.



The next question comes in from penname "Sergeant Silent #1" from Mithril, the second quiet man among our teammates to chime in.
It concerns the nickname "Hawkeye" and Bless says it’s obviously due to his famously piercing insight and his level head; Duo quickly calls him out, saying that no one here believes that story.
Leo and Freeman understand why Bless would want THAT kept a secret, as the story could ruin his reputation if it got out; Lady Une is surprised that it’s something on that level and Hyuuma confirms – he couldn’t even believe it when he first heard the whole story.
Ruri agrees to spare Bless from answering this one but, in return, he’ll have to answer the next question – no questions asked.



Bunny Yurika picks one from "Danger-loving Girl" from the Space Knights (a.k.a Aki - Noal notes that Bless isn't the only one getting roasted at this little shindig): why did Bless seem to know who the mysterious Aria is?
Bless tries to call mulligan on this one too but Ruri asks if he’s already trying to break the rule that he accepted? Tsukumo yells that a man who backs out on a promise is no man at all and Minato agrees, telling Bless to get to it.



Bless yells that he IS a man and decides to reveal it all: Aria is Kazuma’s other name!
Kazuma quickly yelps a loud “what the hell” but Shihomi promises to give the full details; apparently Aria was the name reserved for Kazuma had he been born a girl.
This ought to confirm the theory that Aria was Bless's secret love child, but Taiga is adamant that that couldn't be.
Before Hyuuma or Taiga can explain why, Bless interrupts that they’re almost at Jupiter which means recreation time is over!
He commands everyone to move to their positions RIGHT NOW.



This is one of his two thousand special techniques, "Reversed Grudge", at work, and means we won't be getting any more out of him today.
Beyond just the amusement factor of Bless's colorful past, Fahra finds herself a little jealous of the bond he and his son Kazuma share; after all, her own father perished when she was still a very little girl – regardless, she’s not sad as she has a new family among the members of Wärter.



And then there's D-Boy, down to one sibling and the memory of his father's wish to take out the Radam.
Gai agrees, even if we do take care of the Primevals and Galra at Jupiter, it won’t mean the end of our fight as, at least, there’ll still be the Radam left on Earth.
Gai reminds him not to get himself killed as their fight is far from over.
Inwardly, D-Boy thinks that he couldn’t get any info on the Eviluders from Tomoro and figures his only option now is to get the information out of their peers: the Galra or the Primevals.



Mission 25 - The Battle for Jupiter! Ultra-Gravity Arm





At the Galra fleet near Jupiter, Honerva reports that everything in ready, and tells Sinclyne that it's up to his leadership skills now.
Sinclyne doesn't like her implication, reminding her who is the Crown Prince of the Galra; regardless, she says they can't deny the prowess of our team, especially Go-Lion and its possible link to the ancient culture they've been chasing.





Sinclyne has had enough of her sass and tells her that today will be the day where he’ll triumphantly return to the Empire along with Golion’s head.
He even plans to add Fahra to his harem and laughs out loud at his mental image…right as our guys arrive.



Quite a whole lot of event units and that leaves us with less available room than usual and this calls for voting time!.
With All GGG units, Blade and Golion already deployed (and Kazuma’s usual spot), that leaves you with 9 slots.

Be sure to bold our your votes. Here are the options:
Voting will remain open until Wednesday; as before, it’d be nice to get a new page by then, as it'd stop this one from growing any larger with images.


See you all then!