Super Robot Wars 30

So, Lelouch, Char, Amuro and Ryoma enter in a spaceship…

Sometime ago I did write blog post about SD Gundam G Generations Crossrays , where I talked about as a sign of “things to come”, since until that moment, this kind of game from Bandai Namco, often did not get a full western release, specially for PC (Steam)

Also, after that game release (17 November 2019) we also would get Super Robot War 30 (27 October 2021), some other games were also released on Steam (I think), but sadly, many of them are region locked, including Idolmaster Starlit Stage, which despite my hopes, still eludes me with is region lock. But on the good side, this very year, we got Super Robot War Y (27 August 2025)!

So, since I plan to play SRW Y, I decided to finish SRW 30 first, so I could also write about, however, this end taking a lot of more time that I expected…

Now for context, this is the first SRW game I have played, so apologies if I miss something.

So what is SRW anyway? In a nutshell, is a SRPG series, a very long one, dating way back to 1991, featuring a lot of games (and in a lot of spin-offs) with some limited continuity between each. It major feature is the crossover nature, where Mechs from all kinds of anime will show up.

More than this, what makes SRW fascinating is that while crossover aren’t a new thin per see, it often executed in a fair degree of diplomatic distance between said involved IPs, often in form of a dream, some unique event, where everything return to its status quo at it end and mostly can be just a reference for its own sake.

But not in SRW, what you have is a very chaotic and creative energy that you often only see in fanfic (I mean this in the most endearing way possible), where someone really spend a lot of time thinking what would happen, let say, if Char and Lelouch could have a moment together, but even more. Is about seeing these characters from disparate series, interacting in many ways, where their stories can take wild paths (instead of just following their canon) and even the canon fate of certain character can be avoided, rival scan become allies and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

This is no small task, one can imagine how hard it was to get the people behind featured series to agree, even allowing to that level of playfulness. I don’t if it have something to do with the nature of getting this to work or to avoid spoilers, but on Steam (in consoles too), you can’t take screenshots, after a certain point. And all screenshots will appear with credits on them… I had to use FRAPS to take screenshots beyond that…. I could have used Nvidia App, but that thing lately refuses to work. Meaning that I also had to convert the BMPs to JPG… but moving on….

In the case of SRW 30, what you have around twenty-two series (not counting DLCs), to just many it is, excuse as I put a list of all of them, with their airings or release date (source — https://akurasu.net/wiki/Super_Robot_Wars/30/Series_List )

• Super Electronic Robot Combattler V (1979)
• Mobile Suit Gundam (1979)
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985)
• Z-MSG (Zeta Mobile Suit Gundam Variations)
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (1988)
• M-MSG (Mobile Suit Variations)
• Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (1993)
• Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative (2018)
• Heavy Metal L-Gaim (1984)
• Brave Police J-Decker (1994)
• King of Braves: GaoGaiGar FINAL(2000)
• GaoGaiGar vs Betternan (2016)
• Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion III: Glorification (2019)
• Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection (2019)
• Getter Robot Armaggedon (1998)
• Mazinger Z: Infinity (2017/2018)
• Mazinkaiser Infinitism
• Magic Knight Rayearth (1994)
• GUNxSWORD (2005)
• Majestic Prince (2013)
• Knight’s & Magic (2017)
• SSSS. Gridman (2018)

Which is split in two groups, several of them, are sharing a world and hanging together for a long while, meaning what you have is world where not only the events of series such as Combattler V, Gundam (from original series, to Z, Char’s Counterattack, V, NT), Mazinger, Getter Robo, The Brave series (J-Decker, GaoGaoiGar Final and vs Betterman), Majestic Prince and Code Geass (up to recompilation movies and Re;ssurection), Magic Knight Rayearthand more ALL HAPPENED OR IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN (so there is a layer of the work of getting all those plots and timelines to meet up), so some of those character already have been hanging around for a while when the game start.

Add to this chaos, you have, a ton of people of other series joining in, often coming from another dimensions or world of something else, so you add to them, such as SSSS. Gridman, Knight & Magic, L-Gaim and this when most DLC is added. Here is one more list (actually three… I will use the same source above, and also post because it is a useful reference, I will later describe in more detail how this work, because it is quite confusing)

DLC 1:

• Super Electromagnetic Robot Voltes V (1977)
• Sakura Wars (1997)
• Sakura Wars 3: Paris is Burning? (2001)
• Sakura Wars : So Long, My Love (2005)
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack — Beltorchika’s Children (1998)
• Super Robot Wars OG

DLC 2:

• Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans (2015)
• ULTRAMAN (Anime) (2019)
• Super Robot Wars OG

DLC 3 (which is called Expansion Pack)

• Majestic Prince: Genetic Awakening (2016)
• SHINKALION the Movie (2019)
• Getter Robo Devolution: The Last 3 Minutes of the Universe (2019)
• Armored Trooper: VOTOMS (1984)
• Super Beast Machine God Dancouga (1985)
• Super Robot Wars OG

Now some of you may notice, the repeated Super Robot War OG, and wonder what is, those are essentially Bandai Namco original characters which appear in previous entries. Now for most PC (Steam) player, which this entry can be their first, have no idea how those guys are (even if the game have enciclopedia telling how and where they come from).

So a lot of the game fun will come from seeing this huge cast of character interacting with other, often making fun, having a moment or just trying to help each other, this often take the form of dialogue which plays as you use your units plus some unique missions and scenes. It that all said, It don’t always work very well, due to the structure and how missions work, and will talk more about this later, often series interactions feel constrained, as often one series will only interact with one or other two, but again more of this later.

Story

The setup, liked I said above, is a world, where all the plots of a ton of series happened, now faces a new danger, as mysterious portal open up, bringing new enemies, such as Zagato (Rayearth), Posaydal (L-Gaim) and more but also your new allies., while old enemies also show up, from the Zanscare Empire(Gundam V) to Neo Zeon (Gundam), Wulgaru (Majestic Prince), plus enemies from Mazinger and Getter Robo and others.

Your character, which you create and name, is dragged in the conflict, by jumping in a mysterious Mech, the Hucklebein and joining the crew of an experimental spaceship called Dreisstrager where he meet Captain Mitsuba and the crew. From there, you go to investigate what is behind these portals, while reuniting all allies you can.

So again, what you have is a world, where not just, for example, Amuro (Gundam) and Ryoma (Getter Robo) and Koji (Mazinger) and other not only known each other, but also Hiraku from Rayearth apparently was childhood friend with the Yuta from J-Decker or like I said way above, when Lelouch and Char have a long talk about their own struggles.

Even the newcomers (the allies coming from the portals) are quickly hanging with the rest of the cast like old friends, like when the Combattler V and Voltes V gang meet up and almost pick up a fight or when some characters try to teach the cast of Iron-Blooded Orphans how to read. Seeing Ernie from Knight’ s & Magic is fanning over every Mech he sees. Or witness Van from GUNxSWORD being able to handle the cakes with too much sugar, which Kei (Majestic Prince) makes.

Sometimes, it goes beyond just character interactions, their plots kind merge, like when the character from Gundam and Majestic Prince reveal, that in this world, the MJP project (From Majestic Prince) is tied to Cyber-Newtypes from Gundam.

This is when the story really shines and a lot of the humor will show up. From genuine funny moment or really absurd situations, such as when everybody is trying to talk or at least have one line, leading to hilarious long conversations, it is kind of a thing you only would see in a game with such absurd huge cast of characters and willing to let the play.

Even some villains, like Zoltan (Gundam NT), which in their own shows never got much spotlight, xB get one and a bit more development as antagonist, with many unique (and fun) line you can see when battle him.

Your character, while a bit blank slate, also hang with the cast too, and it does work pretty well, either joining in their antics, praising them when they got the Ace status and more, acting as a glue, while trying to deal with it own past.

But like I said, due to the main quest structure some interactions fill limited or contained, per example, save some lines, the GUNxSWORD gang mostly hangs and interact with the Code Geass gang, the Knight’s & Magic crew often interact most with the Rayearth crew. Some series, specially the ones coming from DLC (except maybe the Iron-Blooded Orphan and Sakura Wars characters) or the secret units, fell left of the spotlight with little to no interactions, the OG characters, feel, again for first time PC player, kind just there, you have no idea how those guys are.

Main Quest

This maybe a bit hard for me to explain, having not playing other game from the series, because it is different from the usual for the series. Once you create your character, you will select the campaign initial branch, which could be either Earth or Space, in each one you do get certain units temporary exclusive to it (you will get the option to get those units you missed). Because once done, the branching story merges and remain merged, save the ending.

Now the way the story unfold is as follows, you got Key Missions, which move the story and Optional Missions, which often give you new units and pilots or some other stuff. Beyond this two you got, Front Missions (which you can use to grind exp and other stuff) and Relic Missions (which give you special stuff), Onboard Missions (which are often tied to a unit or pilot) and Onboard Challenges (which are unique missions, that give you special rewards). You are sort free to do the missions in the order you wish, however….

Where things get weird, is that there is a sort of limit you have until an “Emergency” happen, when you need to complete a Key mission at that instant. There is often no warning when it about to happen, often might mess up with you trying to unlock Units or Pilots, since it can cause these missions to vanish (but not always).

This limit appears to be triggered by Optional, Front and Relic missions, but not Onboard, but you might don’t know this, and I only figured this by the time I was writing this.

But there are more layers, often missions, might feature prerequisites which can be previous missions or have a unit reach a certain score (the total number of defeated enemies in all missions so far), which at least are fairly clear.

Then, there are the “Secrets” some Mech, Pilots and Supports, Upgrades and the True Ending feature some special conditions to unlock, this ones… they can a bit of mess, sure the idea is that they were secrets, and some boil down Units reaching a certain score or make sure the units for certain show defeat their enemies in some maps. But others could have conditions which involve doing things in a very specific order in a map, doing several things over several maps as each step give you points where if you reach a certain value (all hidden) the conditions could be satisfied. It is not impossible to miss Units in this way, unless you check a guide, as some missions could even be gone after certain point of the story.

This all result in a campaign which can feel awkward to play and might require checking a flow guide, but also make the story all over the place as you can miss scenes and between the already mentioned cases of character interactions begin somewhat limited can hurt the game main charm while feeling too long.

In terms of pacing and overall difficult is mostly fine… to the point that you might never feel the need to go in Front or Relic missions, since most of the time, enemies themselves aren’t that hard most of the time, often feeling more like sponges which can take a lot of damage.

Until the Extra campaign, which was added for free sometime later and act as final post-game content, this one does feature even enemies which way too many HP and missions which can be pretty brutal, to make it worst, when you start it, you will no longer have access to Front and Relic missions, which are until that point your main source for getting resources and leveling up, leaving you only with the Onboard missions, which can do the trick if you didn’t exhaust them before that.

I say that because that was happened to me, I thought that have finished the main story, I was safe to go to the post-game, I was not totally wrong… but some maps feel like a slog, the enemy would have absurd amount of HP and my Units almost didn’t cause damage to it. So I had to use a lot of Onboard missions I didn’t use before to level up.

Units

Between missions, you will be able to customize a lot of your Units, and now I am aware that I am keeping throwing the word like Unit, Mech and Pilots a lot, so to make it clear, a Unit is composed of the Mech and the Pilot, but some pilots might have more than one Mech, while some Mech, like Combattler V can have several pilots as the same time, while sometimes, a Unit is both Pilot and Mech at the same time, such in the case of Gridman and Ultraman.

Beside Mech and their Pilots you also get Warships, such as the Dreisstrager, but also the other from the many shows, such as the White Ark (Gundam),Goldinion (Majestic Prince), ships can have several “Pilots” at the same time.

You can enhance the basic attributes of each Mech or Warship, setup Add-ons and can add and improve the Skills of each of the Pilots, in some cases you can even change who will pilot certain Mechs. I feel this is most limited to Pilots and Mechs from Gundam, Code Geass, L-Gaim and Mazinger, and there isn’t much reason to do this, also trying to figure how good or bad a mech is a bit hard in the long run and the spare ones you get are likely limited anyway.

Still, I did it, changing Katejila and Chronicle (both from Gundam V) Mechs, as I felt their make felt limited in special attacks and I wish to experiment with this option anyway, so I give them some spare ones from Amuro and Kamille,

You also have Support, which are essentially special power which you can use during battle, you can bring a number of them in battle and each one features both an active power, such as healing and a passive one. The Support system is how the game add even more character in the game, as often the rest of the cast of the feature show will appear as support.

However, I found out, that most time, you almost don’t use them very much, save the ones which heal, but still, their passives can be useful, and they often might have their own dialogue in certain scenes, even if limited to a handful of lines.

Battles

As a typical SRPG if features a classic turn based battles, it does work well, each Mech was his own special attacks (with it’s own unique animations and dialogue), there is an element of keeping an eye for Energy (used by your weapons), SP (for special skills) and Morale (which you gain by defeating enemies, sometimes character gain power up reaching certain morale levels and some weapons require a certain amount of them to be used).

The series biggest charm is seeing the unique animations and music when Units use their weapons or special attacks, but more than this often they have unique dialogues for certain situations or when facing certain enemies.

The main problem is most maps are fairly bland, terrain most times don’t appear to matter at all or have little impact, enemy unit position is most time just scattered around the map, energy management often don’t matter much and overall all mission boil down to defeat all enemies as often nothing happen during missions, save few maps where something happen, such as new enemies show up.

Meaning that most time, what you will do is rush your units toward the enemy and hope between attacks and counter-attacks to end the scenario quickly, this sometimes can make the game feel repetitive.

Conclusion

At the end of the day SRW 30 is a fun and chaotic game, hampered by an awkward campaign structure that might be too long, as many maps feel repetitive, that can sometimes weakens the game own strength, as the charming interactions can feel constrained at times and the overall plot can be a bit over all over the place.

Despite this, the way SRWperform it crossover still much more interesting that the usual, since is actually see those involved interact in all kinds of ways, either in new storys as witnessing some else story (which often unfold in different ways).

Also, it is a great way to know new series to watch, because I sort ended watching Getter Robo, Majestic Prince and L-Gaim because of it.

Would I recommend it? Yes, however with SRW Y, which I haven’t chance to play, it a bit trick to say, might depend on which shows you enjoy, also it might appear on a sale in a good price.

So About the DLCs:

Much I like I did when talking about SD G Gundam Generations Crossrays, I will explain how the DLC for this game work.

So, much like I said way above, you have to main DLC 1 and DLC 2, which beside their feature series, they also add Onboard and Area Missions.

Now, the Season Pass, include both of them, plus some minor stuff. The season pass is included in the Deluxe and Ultimate Editions.

But you might ask, what about that DLC 3? That one, only come in the Expansion pack, which added a lot of Area and Onboard Missions and the featured series, plus an extra difficult level and some special maps. The Expansion pack, however is not included in the Deluxe or Ultimate Editions.