SRW:J - Beaten
To all of you who said this was an easy game? Oh how right you were. As it was, complex spirit abuse was not necessary, nor was the copious amount of Spirit restoring items I was given. As it was, reals spent most of the game effectively untouchable, and when they weren't, they were covered by supports and distortion fields, so it's not like they took damage anyways. The boss, besides having some cute tricks, still only had an effective HP of 300k, if that. And his 10k infinite swarm mooks were being taken out by counters, stray maps, and attacks that couldn't be directed at the boss. Oddly, the extra unit I got for the last fight was utterly useless, in that it's damage could not keep up with the party mainstays, and it joined at 100 Will while the rest of the party was kicking around 145 by that point.
Anyways, final party.
Shockingly, the favourite series picks turned out the best. So I'll cover them first.
Belzelute Brigandi - Actually pretty glad I chose this one. It's damage isn't all that great, in fact it's downright horrible, but it filled a niche I needed. Crowd control + sniper. It ended up with a great map attack that, while not Psy-Buster, was still pretty effective when it could come into play and the final ranges were up to 13 paired with Hit&Away and Orgon Cloud. Great fun in the second to last map where the enemies just wanted to sit in their little formations so I could blast them. Only real flaw with this unit is that between Katia and Kelvena there was no Strike, only Love. This meant that she got one (in the last level it became two with help) rounds of ignoring Double Images.
Mazinkaiser - Up above I noted that the Brigandi had a notable flaw. Mazinkaiser... well, it also has it's flaw, but it's just that it only has one item slot. Well, the EN reliance and the costs of everything is also up there, but using an ENGigachip to drop the costs by 30% finished that. As it is, this thing tanks well enough to keep up at endgame, can drop enemy hit rates to 40% when properly supported, and can combo for five digit damage through most barriers, before Valour. Or just use it's best attack for almost as much damage. Easily the core of my super robot attack force, and the bane of bosses. Likely my MVP, if only because it didn't need combo attacks, it just really liked them.
The Nadesco - Great sniper, and unlike most battleships, does damage worth noting. Having the ability to give it Hit&Away to use with the Y-Unit (both regular and Map) just added to the fun. And while it never could dodge things, the four item slots made it easy to slap on things like an Organic Bit (HP Regen S) or Armour, or whatever else I felt was needed. Toss in five strong Spirit pools for what is easily the best battleship I've ever seen in one of these things.
The Aesti Valis' - What's that? These aren't supposed to be good? While the units above were better individual units, the Aesti's ended up being pretty damn good all on their own merits. Akito and Gai managed to be terrors when they finally got reunited, and with Soul instead of Valour, they managed to be almost as strong against bosses as the Mazingers. The Girls kept up as well, but because they had three of them to launch group attacks with. Their big flaw is that they are frail against lategame bosses, and only three of them have surefire take a hit abilities. (Ryoko and Akito pack Alert, while Gai has Invincible. The other two need to Focus, and possibly pray) However, they have defense supports to spare, and OHKO damage gets dropped to 3 or 4 hits to kill after being halved and distorted. Not to mention, their big advantage is that unlike every other unit in the game, once they have the morale, they can spam their best stuff on everything. Also, no love for what's his nuts.
Great Mazinger - Merely alright as a unit, it'd be nothing special and likely dropped if it didn't pair up with Mazinkaiser of the absurd. But yeah, doesn't dodge as much, can't tank as well, doesn't deal as much damage, and the only thing it makes up for this with is a second item slot. Ended up giving it a large Barrier and EN Regen S, but still a lesser unit.
God Gundam - Managed to get over it's early flaws, and it's attack power was almost MKaiser level. Ended up with Nobel and Raising Gundam as filler just because I liked the combos (nothing quite like tango-ing moon generals to death). Ended up with no speed boosters but a good range booster at the end, so it also ended up notable to me as this slow unit that could reach, and hurt, a lot of things if given the chance. Kinda like the complete opposite of Layzner. Also notable in that it's the only unit not on my favourites list that I'd stick up in top tier.
Final Dancougar - Hey, look, the last non filler member of my team. Generally didn't like it as much as the units stated above, and there were other things that worked almost as well. But it managed to pretty much always be available, and could always pull its weight, so it got the job. Stepped up a bit once I felt I could spam the high end stuff a bit more, but the low end sword attack and just punching things also got the job done.
Bonta-Kun - Scrubby unit, but MVP of battle animations. And hey, who doesn't want to beat up moon men with machine gun toting hamsters?
Final Battle Filler
Archangel - Forced to use it, less useful in every category than the Nadesco.
Nobel Gundam - Combos well with the God Gundam, and holds it's weight.
Raising Gundam - Less carrying of own weight, but comes with healing and combos. And the Mazingers love their healing.
Freedom Gundam - Yeah, decided to pull out Kira near the end. Needed more upgrades.
Layzner Mk.2 - Mobile and good for triggering support attacks. Sadly, my one casualty in the final battle.
Other Notables Who I Liked But Dropped
Tekkaman Blade - You disappeared for too long man. Maybe next time.
Zeorymer - Mostly because next playthrough will be the aim for Zeorymer Mk.2 playthrough.
Bloody Kaiser - I got a better healer who also came with a shiny combo attack.
And... that seems to be it. Generally a fun game, especially the way combos have stepped up as a mechanic. The map attacks being less available also seem to encourage the use of combos. Script also looks like it could be interesting, but I won't be touching this game again until the English patch is complete so, that's something for the future.
