The Let's Play Archive

Super Robot Wars Z

by Brunom1, Dr. Pepper, Caphi

Part 8: Mission 3 (Rand) - Law-Breaking Saviors - Part 2

Now, I can go over OverSkill proper: as Yassaba said, each Overman contains an OverSkill and they’re all awful to deal with.
In the Rushrod’s case, whenever its pilot is over 130 morale, he will auto-cast Zeal (this unit can move twice) at the start of every turn and gains a bonus to its mobility (10 + OverSense Level times 2, which adds to 16 in Yassaba’s case) – not pleasant at all, right?

For King Gainer, his OverSkill adds a bonus to the unit’s mobility and accuracy (10 + Oversense Level) while also giving a flat 30% chance to outright dodge any incoming attack (Double Image effect).



Rand’s a bit too far to help against the other enemies but he can still take out Geraba.



: Hey, you! The Cru-
: Keep talking smack like that and you’re gonna get more than just my Big Dismantling!
: Cram it! I've got my Galapagos today! No way I’m gonna lose with its raw power!
: Heh...well, that’s actually some machine. I reckon it IS worthy of a dismantling!
: I-I knew it! You ARE The Crusher!!














Boom.



Geraba’s sure that Hola’s going to give him a pummeling for losing again.
He yells out to THE CRUSHER and BLAZING MOBILE SUIT PILOT that he’ll pay them back for this!
After he leaves, Rand’s once again very annoyed that Geraba made use of all this mess to call him that name again. Garrod suggests he forget about it for now as Geraba’s surely going to come after them again.
A pissed off Rand promises that, when he does, he’ll really dismantle him down to scrap (inwardly, Garrod figures that attitude is why he’s got that name…).

Now, our next target is Hola’s group but let’s take a look at the new additions to the team:


Walker Galia (Jiron Amos/Chil)
Pilot Skills:
Jiron:
Chil:
Spirit Commands:
Jiron:
Chil:
Squad Leader Bonus – Jiron:The entire squad gains the effect of Battle Spirit
Squad Leader Bonus – Chil: +20% to money and experience

Jiron’s Voice Actor: Shinya Ohtaki (other known works: Corbett in Tekkaman Blade, Blue Jet in Machine Robo and many others)
Chil’s Voice Actress: Tarako Isono (other known works: Momoko Sakura in Chibi Maruko-chan, Taruruuto in Magical Taruruuto-kun shows/movies, and some others.)

Jiron is notoriously resilient as shown by his high Prevail and Guts; Xabungle mechs aren’t exactly “top tier” stuff but Jiron is as good as it gets.
He’s got range, good power and decent-ish accuracy (though, Walker Machines are, as expected, terrible against anything that isn’t on ground – you can fix that with some parts, though) and that lovely Boost spirit commands makes sure that, if you don’t care to deploy him as a leader, he’s got a safe spot as a squadmate.
Either way you choose, Jiron can do his job nicely (not enough to give him a spot as a top unit but well enough).



Xabungle (Rag Uralo)
Pilot Skills:
Spirit Commands:
Squad Leader Bonus:+20% damage when counterattacking (this is NOT referring to the Counter skill – it means when it’s an enemy’s turn and it has attacked her)
Rag’s Voice Actress: Saeko Shimazu (other known works: Four Murasame in Zeta Gundam, Emily in Baldios, Kodachi Kuno in Ranma ½ and several others)

Xabungle was Jiron’s original mech and, as such, it’s pretty much Walker Galia but with less of everything; it does have the positive point of being LOADED with ammo-based attacks and they have good stats – the problem is that Rag isn’t a good enough pilot to be leader material (Jiron is better than her on everything).
Xabungle can work well enough as a mook destroyer but it’s got no business being anything other than a squaddie when you’re deeper into the game (Rag’s accelerate also pushes her towards that).



Trad-11 (Burume/Dyke)
Pilot Skills:
Burume:
Dyke:
Spirit Commands:
Burume:
Dyke:
Features:

Squad Leader Bonus – Burume:+1 Range to all non-MAP, non-point blank attacks
Squad Leader Bonus – Dyke:-30% damage taken when Support Defending

Burume’s Voice Actor: Toshio Furukawa (other known works: Piccolo in Dragon Ball, Kai Shiden in Mobile Suit Gundam, Shin in Fist of the North Star and many others)[/u]
Dyke’s Voice Actor: Keisuke Yamashita(other known works: Adler Koch in SRW OGs, Dan Araiso in the original Raideen and several others)[/u]

Burume and Dyke are another pair of squadmates – an attacker and a defender, respectively (neither are all that good, though).
Build them accordingly and get them out of those horrible Trad’s as soon as possible and you might just get some use out of them.




Iron Gear (Elchi Cargo, Cotsett Memuma, Fatman Big)
Pilot Skills:
Elchi:
Fatman (no, you can’t have him pilot the Iron Gear):
Spirit Commands:
Elchi:
Cotsett:
Fatman:
Squad Leader Bonus - Elchi: +20% money earned for all adjacent squads

Elchi’s voice actress: Mari Yokoo (other known works: Tekkaman Sword in Tekkaman Blade, Julia Asuka in Layzner and many others.)
Fatman’s voice actor: Banjou Ginga (other known works: Liquid Snake/Ocelot/Major Zero in Metal Gear Solid, Gihren Zabi in Mobile Suit Gundam, Jean Paul Rochina in VOTOMS and many, MANY other roles).
Cotsett’s voice actor: Shingo Hiromori (other known works: Astonaige Medoz in several UC Gundam series, Beecha Oleg in ZZ Gundam and several other roles)

The Iron Gear’s a pretty cool ship – it’s our first 2L sized unit which begs a small tangent into Size Modifiers.
Each units have different sizes, ranging from S (Overmen, for instance), M (Gundam X is one of those), L (that’s Gunleon) all the way to 2L; sizes have a gameplay effect, though, in that they can affect a unit’s accuracy, evasion and the damage it deals and takes.
There’s a whole mess of a formula that calculates it but the short version is this: if it’s a small unit versus a bigger one, the smaller will deal less damage but will have an easier time hitting and dodging its enemy and vice versa (this effect increases proportionally to the size difference).

Back to the Iron Gear, it has two forms to choose: Landship and Walker Machine. The Landship has less attacking options (its attacks are all pre-movement, too) but it has longer attacking and movement range, while the Walker Machine drops a lot of movement range in exchange for higher power and two post-movement attacks.
It’s going to have a hard time hitting stuff in here due to the size different but if you get around that (say, with Strike or Rand casting Attune), you’ll see that it can deal some pretty damage; do keep in mind that its armor is APPALLING for a ship (Gunleon, right out of the box, has way more) and that high HP count won't keep it safe very long if it gets swarmed.



Dyke needs something easy to take out with those Trads and this Caprico will suffice.



: Bah…Why do I have to pilot a Trad-11…?!
: Complaining won't help, you know. Let’s just do our job and get enough cash and Blue Stones to buy a new machine.
: Fine, fine! Sorry but you guys are our meal ticket!


















Now, if he weren’t in this POS machine, it would’ve been a kill.







Burume takes care of the rest, while also moving out of the crossfire; following that, Gain moves in position to eventually snipe at Yassaba, while also taking out one of the new Dogozzos.



Time for the Iron Gear to strut its stuff.



: Cotsett! Full speed ahead! Fire all weapons!
: Hold on a sec, girl! We’re gonna go bankrupt if we fight like that!
: Well, dealing with that is the crew's job!
: …
: And don’t you just stand there doing nothing – man the guns!!














Aah…just a bit short.
It should also be noted that the Iron Gear takes FOREVER to slowly walk all the way up to the enemy.



Rag, you’re up!


I never had much use for Rag but I kinda regret that now – listening to this BGM while uploading it has made me realize how good it is.

: Alright…time to teach these Siberian folk a lesson!
: These Sandrats ain’t got a problem with snow, ya know!






Attagirl.



Nothing else in range, so we might as well have Jiron say hello to Hola.



: It’s been too long, Hola! How’ve you been?
: Can’t you see, melonhead?! My life has gone down the crapper ever since I lost to you!
: I was an instigator of the Innocents…and now, that beat-up landship is all I have left!
: Don’t blame us! It’s your own fault that things turned out like this!
: Shut up! I’ve had enough of you! Starting today, I’ll be the main character!
: Our show ended ages ago! Jeez, you’re greedy!




















Alright, I guess that works.




Gainer moves over to draw Yassaba closer and, in the meantime, he takes a potshot at Hola.



Enemy Phase!



The last Dogozzo decides to gun for Rag but she’s more than capable of hitting him from that range.


















There’s actually a slide whistle when Xabungle runs offscreen to grab its weapons.




Hola is still after Jiron and, while I could’ve risked taking him out now, I wanted to show off some attacks so I just have him dodge this.




Same deal with Yassaba but Gainer does a wee bit of extra damage.



Player Phase!



First one to go will be Hola and, considering Rag will soon be demoted to a squaddie, I’ll show off Xabungle Full Power right now.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5dZ1BRYubU
Boom!



Hola can only complain that, even after he moves to Siberia, he still runs into “melonhead”.
After he explodes, Jiron is sure that Hola is too tough to die just yet.



Only Yassba’s left, so let’s have Gain weaken him a wee bit.



: Here you are at last, Yassaba Jin!
: Black Southern Cross! You’re as resourceful as they say if you can pull an Exodus of this size.
: But even if you’ve got these helpers, I will still crush the lot of you!
: Well, kudos to your professional zeal…! Shame that it’s all for the Siberian Rail's self-centered agenda!
: That’s why I’m doing this Exodus!
















Ow!



Normally, I would have Gainer do this but I want to show off Jiron’s strongest attack.
Since Walker Machines are crap against airborne targets, Rand lends him a hand with an Attune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijsx5knVdxA


Yassaba leaves a Cobham Armor (チョバムアーマー) behind.



Jiron’s level up also boosts his Prevail to L4!


As requested by Wounded Land, I've added a video for the Trad's melee attack against a flying enemy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvH5Oeg8BaE
At least that's one positive point for them.



Yassaba is still up to keep fighting but Gainer seems to not be feeling too good.
Gain figures it’s the strain of using his OverSkill too much and Yassaba sees this chance to finish him off.







Gain is keeping watch, though, and stops him in his tracks with some well-timed shots.
With that, Yassaba has no choice but to retreat, vowing to remember this humiliation.



After things calm down, Sara asks if Gainer’s OK but he’s more worried about her.
She’s fine, though, thanks to his protection – Garrod notices that things between them are doing much better now.
Regardless, Gauli thanks Jiron and the others as we wouldn’t have won without them. Jiron says the only wanted to help and Rag figures this should’ve been enough to get them to hire the Sandrats.
Sara figures they could be new members of the Gauli Squad and calls for a three cheers for this victory!



Gainer is a bit confused at all this Yapan-style chest-pounding, complaining that something this old fashioned is undignified for Sara! It’s uncivilized! Vulgar! Brutish!
Sara shushes him, saying that this is how the squad rolls.



Nearby, a “hidden” Adette notices our distraction and takes this opening to fulfill her mission.


Location: Iron Gear – Bridge



Gain and Elchi get straight to business, with the Iron Gear being able to easily tow Yapan’s Ceiling to its destination.
Gain’s a bit surprised that such a beautiful girl is the landship’s captain, making Elchi swoon and annoying Cotsett, who figures they’re not going to get a head start on haggling a big reward with that attitude. Gain and Elchi quickly introduce themselves, and he thanks the Sandrats for taking this job.
Cotsett is very thankful, too, as they were in pretty dire straights before finding this job; he also introduces himself but Gain is wondering: who is Rand talking to over there…?


: …
: …
: !
: !
: …I reckon it’s a tie today.
: What are you doing, Darling?! And you, too, Fatman!
: Heh…that’s just how we say "hi" to each other.

Either way, Elchi vetoes further muscle-flexing and “Heat Smiles”, and won’t stand that kind of uncultured nonsense - especially out of her own bodyguard.
She and Cotsett explain to Gain that they’ve been sailing in this Landship ever since she inherited it from her father, leading to them becoming the focal point of the anti-Innocent war.
And when war grips the land, mechanics like the Beater Services will naturally get sucked in too, which is how they first met Elchi and the others – helping them fix some things and fighting with them in a few places.
With introductions out of the way, Gain heads off for a little errand...



Gainer, meanwhile, has been hauled to sick bay after collapsing the moment he left his cockpit – he’s being watched over by Dr. Medic (no, really).
Medic figures it was exhaustion derived of using its machine – he figures it must put a large strain on the pilot – but it’s nothing he can’t fix.
Ana and Sara are here, too, quite worried about him. Bello asks what Gainer plans on doing and he wants to stick around to help the Exodus until his debt to Gain is repaid.
This debt, as he tells Gain when he walks in, is Gain saving his life back in the prison and, as Rand points out, Gain also saved his life again in today's battle.
Gainer is quite adamant that he's leaving once he somehow settles accounts, and Gain is looking forward to what Gainer can do with his mech.



Jiron says he’ll also be helping and Gainer recognizes him as “that melonhead with the walker machine”.
He quickly apologizes, saying how he never got his name but Rag says it is fine for him to call it as he sees it. Jiron and the other Sandrats properly introduce themselves.
Ana is especially impressed at Chil: a full-fledged Sandrat at the same age as her and they hit it off.
Rand is glad to see that Jiron and company are as happy and healthy as the last time he saw them. Jiron is quite grateful to Rand for summoning their aid, lest their financial troubles make starvation a real possibility.
With that done, the crowd stampedes off to take a full tour of their mobile city, leaving Sara and Gainer alone (with Medic).



After some hesitation, Sara apologizes for saying all that stuff without understanding about Gainer's parents.
Regardless, she’s thankful that he came to help her today and figures those Breaker folk would be a fun group to hang out with – she drags Gainer off the infirmary to run after them and relax a bit.