Part 14: Take Off!! Getter Robo!

Nothing new joined last chapter, so let's dive right into the next one.



This is the effect of the E-Carbon Armor: 500 HP and 100 Armor. Most armor parts bump both of those stats. Let's leave it on Nova for now (parts can be freely equipped and removed between missions).



At UNHQ in New York, a friendly pair of scientists Stinger and Coen are blasting a Professor Saotome's presentation as just a stunt designed to gather publicity and sponsors.

Well, Saotome was right about there being "aliens" - not the Gishin, which we know about because of Zuul's announcement, but what he calls Invaders, creatures that came to Earth riding meteors and were mutated to a large size by space radiation. Even so, Coen claims that there are only a few Invaders out there.



This man is Count Dermaille (?), the head of the Romfeller Foundation (which you may or may not remember is a rival to Axion), and the secret head of the AEU. He reminds the two scientists that they still can't predict where and when the Invaders will pop out and attack. Prince Schneizel of Britannia guesses that he wants to try to point the Invaders at the Union or the Federation.



Brian Steggmeyer, Britannia's Prime Minister, declares that Britannia will not move to aid countries outside its jurisdiction that come under attack from the Invaders, or for that matter Damons or Image. Britannia calls itself international enforcers, but they're busy with their own affairs right now. Treize Kushrinada knows what he means - Area 11 is a powder keg thanks to the rebellions and the Colony Gundams.



At last we see Elgan Roddick's face, as Brian tries to pin the responsibility on him and his Peacekeeping Council. Dermaille seconds that motion, and the eyes of the entire room are on Roddick. He replies evenly that the Peacekeeping Council's policy is to act in the interests of world peace and security, regardless of the individal powers' interests. Schneizel and Treize immediately pick up on the subtext - Roddick is amassing power and force that follows no nation, and if he obtains and chooses to use that power, he could turn the world over singlehandedly.



Not too far away, Professor Saotome is full of rage at a UN staffed by idiots that put their own greed and political gain over the defense of all humanity.



A young lady named Shioni Regis interrupts. Saotome is surprised to learn that she's actually the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the small but up-and-coming Republic of Limonasia. She wants to hear about the Invaders from the Professor's own mouth.

According to him, the Invaders are the enemy of not only all life on Earth, but in the whole universe. He's calling for all the powers of the world to join together to fight the Invaders, and if they won't, maybe the world would be better off destroyed before the Invaders even make it here, if that's what it would take to unite it to fight them.



Back at Dragon's Hive, our "heroes" are discussing the Japan path split and all the stuff that's been going on - Mechabeasts, Heterodynes, and even real live aliens. Aoi wonders if Celestial Being would fight monsters for world peace. Tieria says that Veda has been keeping an eye on Dr. Hell for years, but even his illicit funding and smuggling doesn't account for suddenly being armed with Mechabeasts. (A Mazinger clue from Celestial Being? Where did this come from?)

Sakuya makes a dig: "Guess even Veda doesn't know everything," prompting Tieria to blow up (as much as Tieria ever does, I guess), inform Team D that the only reason he's not fighting them is because of Veda's orders, and then storms out.



In a turnaround from Crowe's thoughts about the suspicion within the Crushers, this time he's the one to assure the doubtful Meisters and Team D that Setsuna and Tieria are professionals and won't let their feelings get in the way of the mission. It's good to see that putting aside Setsuna's well-known issues and Tieria's stick-in-the-mud-ness, Crowe gets along pretty well with CB.

Anyway, then they talk about the Area 11 branch some more. Actually, it's a very good story we'll be playing through, so in case anyone hasn't seen it, I'll wait to tell it until we actually get to the chapter they're talking about. But it ends in everyone echoing Saotome's sentiments: that even when humanity is in danger from literal monsters and aliens, governments are still trying to gain power and wealth for themselves.



Seimi enters claiming Sakuya has been asking for her. Sakuya says it's something important and wants to talk about it alone. He'll be waiting for her in the hangar, leaving the rest of the pilots all a-titter.



In the hangar, sentimental music and stereotypical confession dialogue is playing, but you've probably figured out how this scene ends.



He wants her to add a kickass super move to the Nova Rhino, which currently turns into a useless weight when it becomes part of Dancouga Nova. She gets mad and tries to molest him.


Chapter 7: Take Off!! Getter Robo!
(CB Route)



It's the World Liberation Front again. Looks like this is where they do their trading for all those Axios and Genocidrons. This isn't interrupting a battle between two powers, just knocking down some douchebag terrorists.



Despite everything, Sakuya is ready to pull out his new move as soon as the Nova combines.



No SR Point yet.



The board is fairly straightforward.



What the hell? The WLF has Tieren Infantry and Helions now.



For once, Setsuna doesn't rush ahead. Tieria can't attack because he's slow.







Lockon takes next.



This is Dynames' shield.





Update: Crowe is now level 10 and still only has one Spirit.




Some other attacks happen.



Tierens are fairly tough.



Turn over.





Sniping Dynames. Ha ha ha.






During the enemy phase, Setsuna takes some unlucky hits.



Let's just clear all of these guys out as quickly as possible.





Lockon and Tieria start.



I'm not burning through Focuses yet because I suspect I'll be needing the SP once the SR Point comes up.





Although it does result in some damage.



Aoi in particular has the HP to absorb some punishment, plus it'll all go away when she changes to Dancouga Nova.




And Eagle does have okay dodge.



Allelujah dodges pretty much everything. No complaints there.



Setsuna can start Focusing. He needs it, and hey, he's got four turns of it.



Finishing off this last unit before we move on to the Genocidron...




But as soon as it dies, we come under fire!



All the WLF forces are taken out by the assault.



What the hell are those?



They continue attacking. We can't retreat because there's a city behind us. Guess there's no option but to wipe them out! Tieria is having some doubts, but the rest of the team is up for a fight, so I guess he'll have to stay. (As always, Crowe is hoping for some valuable combat data.)



We now have an SR Point: clean up all the Invaders within three turns of now.



Only Setsuna has a move left.



The Invader only has one attack, and it's fairly accurate.



We want Setsuna to hang back a little so he doesn't get swarmed, and so the distance decreases the enemy accuracy a little.




I can't get over the fact that the engine really is emitting sparkles.





Invaders are ugly.



End turn.



Looks like some of them are ignoring Setsuna. That's nice of them.

Fighting mysterious monsters is a very Super Robot thing to do.
I think we're better at this than messing with wars.
If you guys want to play the hero, we'd better win this.
Well, duh! I plan to win no matter who or what we're fighting!



You're not Damons and you're not Image. What the hell are you?
One weird thing after another. What's the matter with the world nowadays?



They're a bit more powerful than the army robots we've seen up until now, but their true danger isn't clear quite yet.



Setsuna is still safe.




Many of the Invaders are not going to attack this turn, only try to close in.



But several of them do attack, even hitting, and...



Oh, right! The Invaders' tentacle attacks drain energy from any robot they deal damage to.





Halfway through the phase, a Dimension Shock occurs, and a pack of Damons appears.



Simultaneously, the team catches reading of three jets approaching the zone.



As they come within range, they combine into a single cloaked robot! With a hearty "CHAAAANGE GETTAAAAH ONE!"



The robot is Getter Robo, and its pilots demand we stand down. The Invaders are Getter's job.



The lose condition is now the destruction of Getter alone. The good news is that for the SR Point, I still only have to take out the Invaders, not the Damons.



Oh right, it's still the enemy's turn. I guess, let's see what Getter Robo can do.

Fine place for you Invaders to be!
It's our job to crush them with Getter!
Don't underestimate them. Make sure you destroy them completely.
That's just how I like it! Burn 'em until there's not a speck left!







Nice. The Invaders are shapeshifting blobs - the ground ones transform into flying ones when attacking flying enemies, and vice versa.







Getter Robo counterattacks with its "Spiral Getter Beam." (Watch Getter Robo Armageddon. It's good.)



And now back to our show.



It's back to three-way time as the Damons start attacking the Invaders.




And taking them out. The Damons know how to pick their battles - they seem to be targeting wounded Invaders.

Anyway, let's meet the new robot. Fun factoid: when Crowe was talking to the Crushers about this route, one of the things he said was that reports vary on whether Celestial Being was travelling with one new robot or three. So maybe I should say let's meet the three new robots. Get comfortable.


Getter-2 (Hayato Jin, Musashi Tomoe, Ryoma Nagare)
Skills
Prevail L3
Predict
Counter L6
Spirits
(Hayato)
Mercy
Alert
(Musashi)
Guts
(Ryoma)
Vigor
Strike
Traits
Getter Vision
Transform
Weapons
Drill Missile (4 Ammo, Pierce Barriers)
Drill Storm (10 EN)
Drill Arm (30 EN, Pierce Barriers)
Ace Bonus: Trigger rate of Getter Vision-like traits increased by +20%.

I'm saving Getter 1.

Hayato favors speed and finesse over brute force. His Getter-2 is a swift runner, and its Getter Vision trait kicks in at 130 Will (it's a common number, so get used to it) and cancels all incoming attacks a flat 50% of the time, make that 70% with his Ace Bonus. Also, check out that drill.

Getter-2 has another, hidden almost-unique feature. On land maps, it can burrow underground. This lets it ignore some terrain and be completely untargetable by enemies until it surfaces again.

Its main weaknesses are its low running time and inability to hit flying enemies effectively.

Oh yeah, and the Mercy Spirit only works if an enemy has a lower Skill than the user, but makes sure that enemy survives an attack with 10 HP if it works. It's occasionally useful.


Getter-3 (Musashi Tomoe, Ryoma Nagare, Hayato Jin)
Skills
Prevail L8
Will+ (Damage)
Defensive Support L1
Spirits
(Musashi)
Guts
(Ryoma)
Vigor
Strike
(Hayato)
Mercy
Alert
Traits
Transform
Weapons
Machine Cannon (8 Ammo)
Getter Arm (10 EN)
Getter Missile (4 Ammo)
Avalanche-Roars-Down-The-Mountain (40 EN, 110 Will)
Ace Bonus: The "Spirit" Spirit is replaced by "Drive."

Getter Robo is legitimately three robots in one. It's a single unit with three forms, but unlike a normal transformer like Wing Gundam or Gundam Kyrios, each form of Getter Robo has its own main pilot who uses his own skills while sharing the Spirit pools of the other two.

Where Getter-2 was an unhittable speed demon, Getter-3 is an immovable wall. It's supposed to be the aquatic Getter but screw that. Musashi's outrageous natural Prevail and ability to gain Will by taking hits, plus the machine's naturally high armor (not Mazinger high, but oh well), make it seriously hard to kill. Its Defensive Support is a little hard to trigger, though, considering that it's landbound.

Spirits: Atlus did a great job on SRWOG, but who named a Spirit command Spirit? Anyway, Spirit raises a pilot's Will by 10 points, but for Getter, that applies to all pilots on the machine. Musashi's Ace Bonus (the only one among the Getter team to be useful outside Musashi's Getter Robo) upgrades it to Drive, which raises the pilots' will by 30 points instead, at the same SP cost as Spirit. With enough ranks in SP Up - 760 PP's worth should do the trick - Musashi can make the entire Getter Team start every chapter at 130+ Will before you can say "Getter Change!" with no one's SP pool the wiser.

Getter-3 is slow as hell, has range and anti-air issues, and runs out of ammo fairly quickly, especially on the counter.


Getter-1 (Ryoma Nagare, Hayato Jin, Musashi Tomoe)
Skills
Prevail L7
Break Will Limit
Will+ (Destroy)
Spirits
(Ryoma)
Vigor
Strike
(Hayato)
Mercy
Alert
(Musashi)
Guts
Traits
Transform
Weapons
Tomahawk Boomerang (4 Ammo)
Getter Machine Gun (6 Ammo)
Getter Tomahawk (10 EN)
Spiral Getter Beam (30 EN)
Getter Beam (50 EN)
Ace Bonus: Deals 1.3x damage above 150 Will.

You like burning through EN, right?

Getter-1 is the main Getter form, and you'd think it would be a balance between Getter-2's speed and Getter-3's defense. Well, you'd be wrong. Getter-1's job is doing damage. Lots and lots of damage.

Ryoma is the first pilot we've seen (I think?) to have the Break Will Limit skill, which lets him, ah, break Will limits. Normally Will caps out at 150; the skill raises that cap to 170. (Another fun factoid: in the Restoration chapter of this game, Ryoma's Ace Bonus triggers at 170 Will.)



Anyway, it's the second of three turns to exterminate the Invaders, and the field is a little chaotic.



Oh, um, Invaders don't have only one attack. I just rarely see them use the other one.



Setsuna opens up a spot...




so that Tieria can move in and stand ready with his Defensive Support in case something does threaten to hit his weakened Exia. The Invader's attacks do both HP and EN damage, and Exia likes its EN.



Allelujah weakens another Invader.




Again: like Godmars, Dancouga Nova comes in fresh no matter how beat up and drained the Eagle is.

Hey, there's something new on the weapons display. Did Dancouga Nova get a new weapon?
Miss Seimi built it last night! It's called the Boost Nova Knuckle!
Is that what all that was about?
Well, I sure paid for it.
A new weapon? We'll have to give it a spin.
Let me pull the trigger! I'll give it a good solid yell!



But it only has two shots. I guess it's a good way to avoid having to fire the Cannon all the time.



Using Accelerate, Aoi charges in to back up Ryoma.





Damn it, Energy drain!



At level 8, Sakuya learns Invincible.



Hayato will take point for the Getter Team. EN is precious for the super robots right now, and Drill Storm will burn it slower than the Spiral Getter Beam.



With just a few turns on the clock, he may as well burn SP on Alert to take a couple less energy-sucking hits.







Getter-2 is an oldschool drill-wielding robot. Don't expect Getter to follow physics; its machines shapeshift like nobody's business and it generates weapons out of nowhere.




Lockon's Haro can barely cast Focus once, but this is probably a good time for it.



Crowe chews through enemies as always.



The last action of the turn goes to Setsuna.



Time for countering.



The Invaders have a hard time hitting Tieria between his Block and the Virtue's shield.



Some of the Invaders are ignoring me to actively go attack the Damons. Assholes.





Enemy phases are often boring...





Oh yeah, I guess this is the Invader's non-tentacle attack.



Hayato is having issues, but it's okay; if he can survive the turn, Musashi's Guts will patch the Getter right back up.






Also, Invaders explode into eyes and guts.



Invader turn over, I guess. The Damons take one out for me.





Damons attacking.



Damons charging.



My turn, finally.



There's only one Invader left. I guess I should go take out some Damons before I put it out of its misery.





Offensive Supports are good.




Especially Crowe's.





I mean, he doesn't really need his kill count driven up, but who cares?



Haven't seen these guys for a while. Dealing with Damons is my job.
Let's roll, partner. This is your time to shine!



tl;dr they all die.

Anyway, since it's the end of the chapter (I hope?), I can't not show off Getter Robo's signature and currently most powerful attack.

It's oldschool, but very effective.



Invaders exterminated! There was a Damon I didn't get to, but it left.



Crowe again notices that the Damons are getting stronger compared to the data he already has on them.



Meanwhile, Celestial Being is glaring at the Getter Team.



Ryoma is ready for a faceoff, but Hayato reminds him that Saotome wouldn't like it if they picked a fight with Celestial Being. See, the Getter Team has a message to Celestial Being from Saotome: "Use the Getter to destroy the world."



They take the Getter Team back to Dragon's Hive, where Tanaka says his mysterious superior has given them the go-ahead. Veda, likewise, has approved the teamup. The Getter pilots don't care much to take on the world themselves, but it's the Professor's orders.

Team D demands that Tanaka explain why Dragon's Hive approached the Getter Team. But that explanation will have to start with Professor Saotome himself. His area of research is "Getter Rays," a mysterious form of cosmic radiation that powers the Getter Robo.

Saotome became a recluse during the course of his Getter radiation research, but soon discovered that the Earth was in peril from the Invaders. They came from space out of nowhere and attacked the Earth for reasons no one can explain. They are ruthless and can't be communicated with, so humanity can only fight them to survive. This reminds everyone, of course, of the Damons and Image, also mysterious and inscrutable monsters that attack at random.

Anyway, Saotome brought his findings to the UN, but was thrown out as a quack - even his fellow scientists refuted him. The UN will admit the existence of the Invaders, but only as a phenomenon of sorts, not a legitimate enemy. So they've dumped the whole matter on the International Peacekeeping Council, which is really just a construct of lip service.

And so, the Professor went and picked (and kidnapped) some strong-willed men to pilot the Getter Robo. It sounds a lot like Team D, they guess, but piloting Getter Robo is right up these crazy assholes' alley. Well, it's good to enjoy your work.

At the same time, Dragon's Hive got wind of Saotome's findings and contacted him, and Saotome agreed to lend them his robot and fighters. Not only to fight the Invaders, but to "destroy the world." By that, they mean to cause something enormous that will force the nations to wake up and realize what's at stake. Celestial Being sounded like a good vector to make that happen, so Saotome sent his super robot to help.

The Meisters are actually on board with this. At least, Lockon and Allelujah kind of see the reasoning. Tieria is still sticking to his line that "if Veda allows it, I will obey." The bottom line of all this is that like Dancouga and Crowe, Getter Robo is now operating under Celestial Being's orders. Even so, Saotome's plan sounds nuts and his selected pilots sound even more so. The world may be on the verge of a storm, but so is Celestial Being itself if it keeps teaming up with crazy people.



See you next chapter.