From the Play Asia weekly sale I finally picked up my first Super Robot Wars game. It’s kinda amazing to see that you can now own this franchise in English given its history.
Super Robot Wars V is a strategy tactical role-playing game developed by B. B. Studio (who worked on Digimon World sequels and also the infamous Gundam: Crossfire/Target in Sight) and published by Bandai Namco. It was released in Japan on February 2017 for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.
Super Robot Wars is a collaboration between multiple anime and manga franchises who fit the genre of science fiction mecha. The biggest contributor to the franchise has been the Mobile Suit Gundam series, but over time we also see the appearances of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Macross, Code Geass, Gurren Lagann and many more. Due to these franchises, that essentially means licensing hell. But somehow in the eighth generation of consoles, licensing for Bandai Namco hasn’t been that much of a concern now as we saw more and more anime-themed games get brought over to the west like J-Stars Victory Vs.
Super Robot Wars V marks the second title in the franchise to be localised into English, but V (which is short for Voyage) is the first in terms of the main installments. OG The Moon Dwellers was the first overall, however, that was reportedly not well received in terms of the translation (nowhere near as bad as Sword Art Online was on the Vita from what I have heard). The English release of V was released in Asian territories only, but it came out at the same month as the Japanese release.
The series and franchises included in this installment are as follows:
- The Brave Express Might Gaine
- Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon
- Full Metal Panic! franchise:
- Full Metal Panic!
- Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
- Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid
- Full Metal Panic! (Original Novel Version)
- Go Nagai’s Mecha franchises:
- Getter Robo Armageddon
- Mazinger Edition Z: The Impact!
- Shin Mazinger ZERO vs. Great General of Darkness
- Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3
- Invincible Super Man Zambot 3
- Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture – Prince of Darkness
- Mobile Suit Gundam franchise:
- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
- Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash
- Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam
- Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: Skull Heart
- Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: Steel Seven
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer
- Mobile Suit Gundam UC
- Rebuild of Evangelion franchise:
- Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
- Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
- Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo
- Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (Star Blazers 2199)
The Super Robot Wars franchise can take a lot of hours to finish, but there’s plenty of fun fan service for those who love these titles. The gameplay uses a mix of the designs you recognise from their respective series but during the combat, they will look chibi like (kinda like the SD Gundam series). The story is split into different scenarios with an intro, battle scene and outro. In between the scenarios you will then be able to update your units by either upgrading, reassigning or building new skills.
PlayStation 4 Specs:
Version: Asia
Exclusive: No (also on PlayStation Vita)
Local Players: 1
Online Players: 0
HDD Space: 7.51 GB (with Patch 1.03 applied)
PlayStation Vita Remote Play Support: Yes
Trophy Support: Yes
The English physical copy is available to own through Play Asia on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.
The Normanic Vault 
Leave a comment