SDGGGW -
So, Stage EX V... it makes me a sad person. For a start you only get to take in one group when every other stage in the game allows two. There are three gun platforms with MAP attacks that each have ????? HP (roughly 150k) which is the first time anything in the game has gotten so high (previous high as far as I remember was around 60k, 95% of things are below 30k). You need to destroy all of them for the break, which I managed to do around 2/3 of the way into the stage... then it brings them all back and you have to destroy them all again for the next break. Remembering that they have MAP attacks and you are now situated all amongst them instead of aways off as you started the map. A fine game of soldiers that is.
The Gundam Copies that are the main focus of the level are jacked up on stats but fair. They're also kind of dense and didn't seem to use MAP attacks when available and so on. The final copy, however... 80 thousand HP, stats jacked up even higher, a barrier that reduces several sorts of damage and immunes MAP attacks, a full set of character abilities - all of which are maxed, when no enemy previously in the game has had any ability over level 1 - these abilities include one which negates all of your characters' abilities, one which allows it to make Supercriticals while not in Ultrahigh Tension...
It fires its big gun, which is a beam weapon, at Mark. Mark is currently in Crossbone Gundam X1 Full Cloth, which has a Beam Shield, an I-Field, Antibeam Coating, all of which reduce/immune Beam damage, and a Full Armour System which reduces damage in general. IT GOES THROUGH WITH SEEMINGLY NO REDUCTION.
So! I gave up on that stage for the moment. Vaguely considering getting a Destroy since Photon Reflectors immune all beams whatsoever no questions asked in my experience, but it's also possible that his Nihil also negates unit abilities in addition to character abilities, which would certainly explain poor X1FC.
Currently I only have Turn-A (Empowered), Powered Wadom, and Turn-X left to get (leaving aside the question-markèd units in the 00 section). Looks like I'll replay some earlier stages and get those, and then consider my next goal from there. Assuming you can replay earlier stages, since I haven't tried yet.
Various thoughts on units and such-
Neue Ziel is spectacularly fearsome, which is an impression I've never really gotten from its appearances in SRW. A shame that it is restricted to space, although the majority of levels are space anyway. It's arguably better than the Neue Ziel II despite the hefty HP gap due to having a nice set of missiles which the II doesn't, although missiles drop off sharply in the EX stages anyway due to the increased enemy defence.
Just noticed that I'm also missing a custom GM Quell (presumably it is a Quell, but they could have mixed the order up again). The custom unit system has to be one of the more worthless functions in the game. OH MAN if I put Char '79 in a Gelgoog he will use it as a Char Custom Gelgoog with slightly increased stats! WHY THE HECK AM I WASTING A SLOT ON A GELGOOG? Very occassionally they will get new attacks, like the Live Zaku Warrior which gets a MAP 'attack' that raises unit tension. By a miniature amount. And you need to have Meer piloting it for it to exist. And Meer fails at life. No. Further, I put Amuro '93 in the Zeta Plus and it became the Amuro Custom Zeta Plus out of it, but for some reason this doesn't count as actually 'having' it for the purposes of the profile gallery and you need to use Amuro '87 WHAT
Zeta Gundam is immune to funnel attacks! That came in handy a couple of times. But it's not a particularly good unit.
F91 is, I believe, the first unit on the list that changes once it gets into Ultrahigh Tension. In this case it change to F91 Overheat Mode... however it doesn't seem to get afterimage from this (aside from a small effect while it's moving), it just get access to several different weapons than in Regular Mode. Why exactly can't F91 use its VSBRs unless it's overheating? Madness. Still, F91 gets off easy compared to some others.
Burning Gundam, similarly, goes into Hyper Mode once it hits Ultrahigh Tension. Burning Gundam, similarly, gets access to new weapons in Hyper Mode that it doesn't have in Regular Mode (more believable here however). Burning Gundam, unsimilarly, EATS TENSION WITH THESE WEAPONS. So directly after using them you get punted out of Hyper Mode. SPECTACULARRRRRRRRR
Thoroughly unlike SRW, Master Gundam only managed to hit Hyper Mode one time which was when the game forced it into being Hyper Mode permanently. Every other time I fought it it languished at low tension due to how the system works. Glee.
Virgos, urgh. Planet Defensers appear to be able to completely immune any weapon which isn't melee or remote-controlled. And they'll almost always use them on defence if they're being attacked by a weapon they're effective against. Extremely minor positive side is that you can have a support group with one unit using a weapon that's going to fail and everyone else using working weapons, and they'll throw up the defensers instead of attacking back or defending through a different method.
Turn-A Empowered's MAP Moonlight Butterfly. Completely drains the energy of every unit on the map (except people immune to MAP attacks and so on). It is hilarious. Especially if you have all your units in your warships and consequently not counting as 'on the map'. It needs to be in SRW (to be fair I haven't played any SRWs with Turn-A so it may well be).
Stargazer is in the game, but the only characters from Stargazer in the game are the villains? What is the meaning of this inanery.
I was not completely impressed to find that there is a Phoenix Gundam Powered in the game that doesn't show up in the profile list that I found completely by accident. Now I am vaguely paranoid that there are other things secreted away.
Current Team -
Albion/Zenon (GG) et al [Devil Gundam (Final)/Amuro '79, Crossbone Gundam X1 Full Cloth/Mark (GG) [Gundam Aquarius/Lanalowe (GG), Gundam Nataku/Eris (GG), Gundam Heavyarms Custom/Aina], Verde Buster/Kou [Providence Gundam/Char '79, Burning Gundam/Alfreda (GG), Palace Athene/Shirou]]
Ra Cailum/Bright '87 et al [Psycolo Gundam/Camille, Strike Freedom Gundam/Amuro '93 [V2 Assault Gundam/Usso, Wadom/Luke (GG)], Infinite Justice Gundam/Athrun '73 [Destiny Gundam/Lunamaria, Turn-A Gundam/Judau, Freedom Gundam/Sibbuk]]
