SRW@2 - Beaten! Man, Xer was right about Ganeden. She is mildly dangerous! ... until she runs out of EN, which takes less than a turn with the godly 50 EN cost on Follow The Sun, which she loves spamming whenever she can. Then, she turns into a 500k HP punching bag. Pretty sad.
Anyhow, typical SRW goodness with sexy squad system makes for a happy Snow. The system itself is great, and character balance, -for once-, turned out really well. I was using practically everybody by the end, and there was a sort of niche for practically everybody as well. Some better than others, but even the fodder has a reason to exist. Which is nice. The polish issues on the system were slightly annoying, though (a unit is removed from a squad when it dies in battle, forcing you to manually put it back in? You're forced to deploy event units as a lone squad that can't be modified? Fail). Those bring the game down some. However, it's still pretty enjoyable. Fun SRPG gameplay with a sexy deployment system that's surprisingly different from your average SRPG, which shakes things up nicely. I think it's a low 8/10? Around that area.
Unit evaluations! Divided by squad leaders, fodder comment only if I care enough about the rest of the squad.
Kusuha/Bullet (Chokijin) - Broken. Broken. Brooooooooooooooooooooooken. Kusuha's starter mech, the Ryujinki, is a friggin' endgame machine that they hand to you as a starter. Good bases, good sniping, good Ps, good finisher, solid durability - no real flaws to speak of, and Kusuha is a fine pilot. Then, she gets the Ryukooh and Bullet in the midgame and suddenly she turns into a monster with an overkill power finisher, a wonderful ALL and a second pilot! Then, her special skillset gives her freaking 45 SP Love, and Bullet gets all the PP Kusuha collected before he joined, and... yeeeeeeeeeah. Just insane.
Kouji (Mazinkaiser) - Mazinger Z was eeeeeeeeeh, but was worth keeping for Kouji's development, since he's an utterly badass pilot. Very basic unit: Kouji squad leader, Sayaka for HP regen fodder, Boss for EN Regen fodder and Brain Powerd fodder with Accel for mobility and Chakra Shield. Worked well, if not terribly impressive for most of the game. Then, suddenly it's Mazinkaiser and Kouji makes thing EXPLODE with that 1-3 5000 base P ALL off Kouji's insane melee and Mazin Power. Oh, and absolutely never dies. You can say a lot of stuff about Mazinger Z, but durable (partly thanks to Kouji's badass leader bonus) it is. Then, when Mazinkaiser, with its brilliant Armor/HP combo, kicks in, you can kiss the idea of killing it ever goodbye. I think Ganeden was lucky that she could even 10HKO Mazinkaiser by then.
Shingo (Goshogun) - Interesting niche. Sniper Super Robot with three pilots, solid weaponry and mostly averagish Super Robot stats. Fun to play with, and it's a rare niche to boot, but Goshogun became really badass when it got GoFlasher Special. That attack+the equipment glitch makes for fun times. Insanely long-ranged ALL with three S Ranks and nearly 5k base power for the sexy.
Kincaid (Crossbone Gundam 1) - I'm a complete pirate mech fangirl. Kincaid is a really interesting pilot in that he's your typical solid high-tier Newtype pilot... only he specializes in melee. Seriously, his melee stat is Kouji-level good. But very few Real mechs have anything resembling acceptable melee attacks. X1... caaaaaaaaaaan have those, but it's weird. Without the cape, it utterly sucks at most offense-related things, but has a nice finisher. With the cape, it's actually great at random-busting, but the finisher is not there. It at least has nice mobility stats either way, though. Then, in the lategame, the X1 gets Screw Whip and suddenly capeless X1 is feasible. I went overboard, though. Maxing the X1's weaponry gave me a death machine that was only outdamaged by Kusuha, and that Haro turned him into an utter mobility god. For his squad, I had Puru and Voltes V for ALL/Zeal abuse, helping both the lack of ALLs in the X1 and essentially tripling his offense for one turn. Not bad.
Amuro (Hi-Nu Gundam) - FIN FUNNEL DESTROYS WORLDS. Until Amuro got it, though, he madly hopped through various mechs so he could keep up. With his absolutely insane stats, Amuro can salvage nearly any machine, and brings up decentish ones as well, though, so this wasn't a problem. However, the Hi-Nu made everything worthwhile. Fin Funnel was serviceable against bosses, and, against randoms, it just made things explode. Spammable 4200 base power ALLs with S Ranks (105 Will? You're -kidding-.) just rule. Oh, and gamebest practical evasion to boot. Man, Amuro, you're a beast.
Gai Shishio (Star GaoGaiGar) - Picked up lategame, too. Was always a serviceable, but unspecial cannon until Star GaoGaiGar kicked in, then it became one of my best offensive dynamos. Not much to say.
Kazuya (Daimos) - Awesome Super type. Kazuya is a very good pilot, with good SP, nice skills and above par melee. The Daimos itself is an oddity, being premier twink bait (it can both tank and dodge competently, which is great) with awesome Ps and very competent finishers, but lacking in ALLs. To fix this, I set Trowa of the two long-range ALLs as my secondary leader, and it worked wonders, making the Daimos squad one of my most versatile. Kazuya's offense was always a boon, and I can't say no to free 2-4 3300 base P attacks for randombusting. When Viletta became available, I slapped her in the unit and Kazuya turned downright immortal. Fun stuff.
Haman (Qubeley) - Mostly grunt-slaying with surprisingly high-powered gruntkilling offense due to her squad leader bonus. Noin hype incarnate does fun things in this squad. I set Combattler V as a secondary leader for when I wanted boss offense, since the Qubeley's not geared toward boss-killing at all. Not bad.
Judau (Full Armor ZZ Gundam) - Very versatile. Judau is a solid pilot, but the ZZ Gundam makes him. 2-4 P ALL with solid power and an actual finisher to work off really kick ass, and the ZZ Gundam's stats stopped sucking in @2. When he got the Hi-Mega Cannon Full Power and FAZZ, things just went ballistic. Kicking ass at both gruntslaying and bossmurdering is very valuable. Also never, ever died. >_>
Yuu and Hime (Nelly Brain and Hime Brain) - Spam Chakra Extension all day, never get hit, spam Bless and Cheer, repeat. Simplistic, but goddamn if it wasn't retardedly effective. Chakra Extension is sick and wrong, and a 5k base ALL, even if a combo, should never be this easily available nor as early as it was.
Vera (Mother Vanguard) - EVASION GOD BATTLESHIP MOTHERFUCK YES. The weaponry isn't too special, although spammable long-range ALL off Vera's Ranged stat works very nicely. Ultimate randomslaying battleship that destroys worlds, always very solid otherwise. Also, overkill accuracy. What the fuck, battleships hitting and dodging.
Bright (Ra Kallium) - Nukes things. Dead. Doesn't do a lot else! But it's damned good at nuking. And that's good enough.
Kamille (Nu Gundam HWS) - Randombuster. High-quality one, too! Kinda underwhelmed against bosses in the end, though. And dear god, the Zeta Gundam drags him down until the HWS.
Banjo (Daitarn 3) - Yum, boss-killing and a good P. Also, gobs of durability with 10k BASE HP and solid defensive stats and skills. Great slugger, but lacking in ALLs.
Heero (Zero Wing Custom) - SPAM TWIN BUSTER RIFLE FOR GREAT JUSTICE, ZERO CUSTOM. What a freaking badass ALL, it alone made Heero my Top Ace. Not all that much other than good stats besides that! But Twin Buster Rifle destroys worlds. So evil.
Tetsuya (Great Mazinger) - Limited boss-killing, but very good against grunts and durable. Used his squad more for the fodder I had in it (Jun has Hope!) than himself. >_>
Ryouma (Shin Getter) - Man, for a unit I actually found notable, figures that I would forget to list it. Anyhow, you know how brokenly good at damage a Getter can be when you have the other two pilots (who, by a quirk of the machine, can buy PP skills) pumped up on SP Regen and SP Up? And when you have a Hope whore (Miwa) in their squad? Yeah. The offense is absolutely nuts and the Shin Getter 1 actually deals well with randoms, unlike AG Shin Getter, whose ass felt horrendously frail with very little to mitigate that. In @2, the squad system works wonders to make it a lot more durable, and it feels like its defensive stats are better, too. Was one of my top-three offensive mechs in @2. Very satisfying.
Koh (GP-03 Dendrobium) - Um, wow. Versatile mech. Koh is an oddity, though: his base stats are pretty damned badass, and his spirit set is fine, but his pilot skills are utter trash. Doesn't even get Newtype levels. Granted, this works for the GP-03, since nothing ever runs off NT for it. So, I have an evasive 8000 HP mech with a strong high-range ALL and a solid melee finisher, who carries a bunch of support fodder for general utility purposes (Elle made a fine Bless/Cheer whore, and she also got Daunt). Nothing overwhelming, but certainly worked for what it was.
Anyhow, that was that. Notable fodder units were the Purus: Zeal+awesome stats made them great secondary leaders, and invaluable squad fodder as well. All Resupply fodder units were nice, too, and Gundam Wing Katoki for Noin hype incarnate. Yes. Fun stuff.
