K Eternal has Lacus with stats worth a fucking damn, passable weaponry, actual durability, Bless (a rarity on K) and the added benefit of SEED hax. It's actually pretty good.
EDIT: And both Repair and Resupply off -that- durability doesn't hurt either.
Don't forget that K is a squad game so repair+resupply meant double regen for the Eternal itself, which is insanely helpful.
Just finished stage 25 on J English replay. The Puzzle Robo stages are a lot more enjoyable now that I don't have to consult a faq to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do, nor do I have to look up the less commonly used spirits like Assail and Direct Hit/Break to see if they're the key to solving a stage. The temptation to just scroll down a bit in the faq and see the solution was just too strong.
I've got all the new units that I didn't use on my last two runs but intend to on this file now, so I'll give my thoughts on them before their upgrades. I'll skip the recurring stuff because I don't think you need me to tell you that a heavily upgraded Nadesico/Mazinkaiser/Tekkaman Blade/etc. destroys worlds, or mediocre units like Layzner or Strike Gundam are actually good if they're carrying over a weapon FUB and tons of BP in offensive stats.
Coustwell: Really boring. It's not objectively bad the way that, say, Shining Gundam is bad, but it's got nothing really going for it and the attack animations are pretty repetitive so they get old fast. I'm just putting up with this so I can get Raftclans if I ever feel like going for playthrough #4.
Great Mazinger: The armor's not much worse than Mazinkaiser's, so it can tank hits well, but the weapons are just awful before Mazin Power kicks in, and really only acceptable then. Not much more than combo attack fodder for Mazinkaiser... except that Kaiser in a third run has so much offense it doesn't care at all about combo attacks, especially ones with range restrictions.
Dragon Gundam: Best initial dodger in the Shuffle Alliance, and the only one with better than 5 move. Really bland though, only two attacks right now and you rarely use Dragon Fire. I'm sick of seeing Fei-Long Flag already.
Gundam Rose: Long range MAP attack and Bless mean it's probably the best of the non-Domon Shuffles this early on. The Butler attack is also hilarious, one of the best attack animations in the game. 5 base move really bites, though.
Bolt Gundam: It had some durability issues at first due to Guard's high price and low HP for a tank, but then I stuck a barrier part on it and it's been doing fine. 5 move still sucks, though.
Gundam Maxter: Having neither Focus nor Guard is a real durability issue; Wall+evasion can only go so far. The extra BP from the early playthroughs (not that G Gundam characters get much, due to how pathsplits work in this game) probably helped him out more than the other 3 combined though, so he's been okay on surviving so far. At least he's got the second best set of weapons after Rose, both in power and interesting animations. 5 move still blows, though.
Also, in hindsight using full Shuffle Alliance + Mazinger team (minus the useless fembots) + Coustwell in a single playthrough wasn't the best idea I had, because the melee to range ratio is absurdly skewed right now. I'm actually having trouble figuring out what to do with +10 range skill chips, and I'm only halfway through the game.
