Super Robot Wars is a series that has been around for a while. Despite that, I have never even touched one, but an anime crossover tactical RPG sounds so me. So with the latest release, Super Robot Wars Y, I wanted to give it a try!
The first thing I will touch on is the story, as there is a lot. It starts off with Lelouch from Code Geass getting killed. All hell breaks loose, and the character you chose goes into battle. Quickly they are helped by a Gunam mech, and boom, the tone for the game is under way.
The biggest issue with the story for me is it’s a lot of visual novel-style scenes with a lot of text. After many dozens of hours of playing, I was slowly checking in and out of the story as it went. Now if someone likes long visual novels, they may get a kick out of this. Me, I wanted to get to the tactical battles, and so I was skim reading at the best of times. The good news is there are easy ways to skip dialogue, so if you do get bored of it you can skip a lot of it.
What I was here for was the battles, and they delivered. The game is that classic grid based tactic that’s so damn fun to play. You move your units around and choose a weapon to hit your opponent with. When your opponents hit you, you get to decide if you want to try evading, blocking, or hitting them back at the same time. Hitting them back can result in you taking way too much damage, so you have to balance these decisions.
When an attack happens, it cuts away for an animation where both characters do their thing. These are cool and detailed but can get long quickly. Again, fortunately, they make skipping an option. So you get to enjoy them the first few times, then you have the option to speed them up, and if you’re like me, eventually you skip ’em.
If you are a longtime anime fan, there will be heaps of awesome here. The vast majority, I don’t remotely know. I enjoyed the Code Geass stuff, I enjoyed the Gundam stuff, I went crazy for Godzilla, and the rest went well over my head. When it comes to content, if you’re loving it, there are so many battles to enjoy here. The main missions alone are dozens of hours of content on their own. Then there are the massive doses of side missions, and you can be occupied for months.
Super Robot Wars Y is a fantastic pickup if you’re itching for some grid-based tactical JRPG action. It’s not overly complicated but has some depth. It has heaps of flair, and is plain fun to pick up and jam.
It may not be the most revolutionary game, but it's fun. There is nothing wrong with a game that is just fun!
