lynxara

Some more Neo information has surfaced regarding movement rules for flying units. What I'm hearing is that while flying units can maneuver around obstacles more easily, they can not maneuver around non-allied units. This means that a very large flying unit could be easily "pinned down" by even small ground units that were deployed strategically. This part of movement is almost exactly how Sunrise World War worked, although that game still used a tile system.

Some digging has revealed who this mysterious "Red Company" is that owns part of the Wataru rights-- the same company apparently co-owns the rights to Sega's Sakura Taisen games. Obviously I don't really know the rights situation here, but I recall one of the Wataru games was a pack-in for the old TG-16 (Americanized into "Keith Courage" over here). If there is a rights situation keeping Wataru out of SRW, it probably involves some company having paid a lot of money for Wataru video game rights that have yet to run out. Remember that the main reason why Takara sits on rights for SRW properties is because it publishes its own games (through owning interests in Tomy and I believe Atlus Japan).

Some new SRW Neo scans are out and they seem to confirm the new system that the game is debuting. It's nothing like Parts or Capturing from GC... instead, it seems to pretty much be Phantom Brave's free movement system.

(Minus the ally-chucking, of course.)

http://img1.a9vg.com/200907/01/1246416397730.jpg
http://img1.a9vg.com/200907/01/1246416414826.jpg

Other new features:

• Map is full 3D and can be rotated a true 360 degrees, so are the map representations of units.


• Weaker attacks will only be seen as map animations using the 3D models, traditional attack videos will only be made for major attacks and finishers.


• In addition to obstructing movement for non-flying enemies, map obstacles are now going to obstruct certain attacks as well. A weapon that fires in an arc might shoot over an obstacle but other attacks might be blocked.


• Unit size will affect movement-- a small unit can squeeze through enemies and small gaps better than large units


• Unit size will also affect attack range, though-- small units will have less range on average than larger units.

So basically Neo is completely reconstructing the traditional approach to SRW gameplay balance. It may play even less like a traditional SRW game than even squad-based games like Z.

So, rumor has it that SRW series producer Terada appeared on Sunrise's radio show on the 21st to discuss the Sunrise inclusions for SRW Neo.

Apparently the Japanese blogosphere is really pissed off about the lack of Wataru in the first SRW to acknowledge SD robots so Terada addressed the issue where the hell Wataru is in Neo. Allegedly he said that when the game was conceived Wataru was supposed to be in the series roster, probably instead of NG Knight, but that there were many problems with locking down the rights. Fans in the US are theorizing that this has to do with Wataru being partially produced by a firm called RED Company that might be sitting on the rights Takara-style. NG Knight was probably used instead because it's really just Wataru but slightly more sarcastic.

Also from the show: apparently Banpresto has access to all of the original Sunrise production materials for Daiteioh and Sunrise is going to supervise the inclusion. So everything established about Daiteioh in Neo is going to be approved by Sunrise and considered officially canonical, from attack names to the general flow of the plot to the character quirks. While I expect this to mean Daiteioh gets a disproportionate amount of screen time, it's still going to be a treat for Eldran fans.

A final note of interest regarding Terada's approach for Neo is that he's promising a new and as-yet-unrevealed game system that is part of why the robots are in 3D for this game, and he's also promising that the game will be primarily emphasizing the style of early 90's anime whenever possible. Apparently Neo will have a different OP/ED group than the usual JAM Project, instead using singer Misato Aki, and both songs are promising to be "in 90's style." Should be interesting-- this is not a period of mecha show production SRW has tackled before so it will at least be different.

So! This week Famitsu scans surfaced for the next entry in the Super Robot Wars series. Called SRW Neo, it's heading to Wii and using 3D graphics like its predecessor, SRWGC. While GC was a solidly mediocre game loaded with some really ill-considered gameplay decisions, Neo is looking quite a bit more interesting just in terms of its daring series selection. Over half the series roster is new debuts and the overall game roster features no traditional Real Robot series. Here's what we're looking at:

Mazinger Z (returning from SRWK)
Great Mazinger (returning from SRWK?)
Jushin Liger*
True Getter Robo*
Sengoku Majin GoShogun (returning from SRW alpha 3)
NG Knight Lamune & 40*
Ginga Senpuu Braiger (returning from SRWGC)
Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh (returning from SRWGC)
Genki Bakuhatsu Ganbarugar*
"Hot-Blooded Strongest" Gozaurer*
Kanzen Shouri Daiteioh*
Iron Leaguer*
Mobile Fighter G Gundam (returning from SRW Advance Portable)
Lord of Lords Ryu Knight*

* = new to SRW

This is a really auspicious cast list for a new SRW. With well over half the series as new debuts, we're guaranteed not to see a lot of plots retread from older games. The new debuts are also primarily from a genre that SRW hasn't dealt with before, which more or less guarantees that Banpresto is going to have to write with a new approach to the material. Neo's theme seems to be addressing the gigantic Super Robot boom of the early 90's, when tons of kiddie Super Robot shows entered production again and a lot of pretty whimsical takes on the genre also hit big with older audiences.

What I find interesting here is that most of the culprits that kicked off the Super Robot revival aren't present in the game's roster. Specifically, there's no Wataru, the show that lead to the boom of "SD original robot" shows, and there's no Exkizer. Obviously Exkizer is probably out due to Takara still being stupid about rights to the non-GaoGaiGar Yuusha series, so instead we get the entire highly Yuusha-like Eldran series that ran concurrently included in Neo instead. This is a bit of a bummer since I like Yuusha quite a bit more than the Eldrans, but it'll still be fun to play an SRW totally overrun with cute little kid pilots.

Neo's roster includes representatives for pretty much every major entry in the early 90's "SD Robot" genre and getting Ryu Knight and Iron Leaguer into the same game is pretty impressive. The inclusion of NG Knight Lamune & 40 is a bit confusing since I've seen a bit of that series and it's really just a poor man's Wataru. The art style is a little harder-edged and the humor a bit dirtier but otherwise it mines the same premise and just executes it in a way that's quite a bit less memorable. I can't think of why Banpresto would want to use NG Knight Lamune & 40 in this game instead of Wataru... short of two possible situations.

1) Wataru's merchandising rights are somehow tied up with a non-Bandai company in a way that makes the show impossible to use. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me for the company in question to be Takara, otherwise I think it would've shown up in the first Yuusha crossover game that somehow found time to work in freaking VOTOMS. As I'm not a huge toy collector or anything I have pretty much no idea what the details of this situation would be, only that it's possible for this sort of thing to happen.

2) Banpresto has the rights to Wataru but doesn't want to "waste" the show's debut by cramming it into a 3D "B-Team" project full of really similar properties. Instead they want to save it for a game where its debut can be one of the main drivers of the storyline. If this is the case then we could see the next mainline SRW (or so) featuring Wataru very prominently as a debuting series.

Anyway, it's nice to see SRW moving forward and doing something different. Now, here's to hoping that Neo is more fun to play than GC. If the game is even basically MX-quality then I will be well-satisfied with it.

I am a writer who loves clicking around on the internet. Naturally, this means that not only am I severely nearsighted, but in a very bizarre way in which my left eye is an order of magnitude crappier than my right eye. It's nearly two full powers weaker in terms of prescription strength and also has an astigmatism!

So I'm going through all the steps to get it worked out and to get a nice comfortable contact lens subscription, which may involve figuring out if a lens for my crappy left eye actually exists, and it's funny. Now that I know my left eye is crappy, suddenly I'm finding it really distracting when I'm reading on my laptop, which I run in a higher resolution than my desktop where I usually work. I'll be glad if the new contacts can come in before E3, where I'd prefer not to be feeling the weird urge to squint my left eye constantly all the time.

I can't complain, though. I like my new optometrist a LOT more than the guy I used to see, who I now suspect gave me lousy prescriptions for years. And, really, you can do a lot worse in the realm of personal health problems than "one really amusingly lousy eye." One day when I'm wealthier or just have more money to throw around I could probably just LASIK the damn thing if I really got sick of it.

Oh, look, Massively blogged my story.

Time for the pimp strut.

"So, tell me, what's the deal with Hachiko? What's his story about?"

"Oh, well he's this dog who... you know, actually, he's basically Fry's dog."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he had a famous master who died in battle, and Hachiko waited faithfully for him so long he turned to stone."

"Oh, man, he is Fry's dog. ... why isn't there a statue of Fry's dog in New York?"

Other adventures:

- Bought Super Robot Taisen OGs and OGG for 500 yen each. That's $10 USD. Lawl.
- Spent 6,000 yen on one of the limited-edition mail-order-only Ryujinki figures. That's about $61 US. Lawl.
- Actually, I noticed all the B-Team SRWs (Impact, MX, OGs, OGG) had fallen to 500 yen while alpha 2 and alpha 3 still held their value really well (1650 for a2 and 2400 for a3). Used copies of Z on sale went for about 2750 but were part of a special promotion of some sort that I didn't understand.
- We couldn't find used copies of SRWW at all at that particular Book-Off, so I don't know if that means it's really popular or really... unpopular?
- I notice in Japan that generally you have stores that only sell used stuff or only sell new stuff. I have yet to see something like GameStop that sells both.
- Mandarake stocks the Game Center CX DVDs with old Famicom games and not with DVDs. :D The set is only about 4000 yen there so I'm thinking of getting it. (Usually it's closer to 6,000 and over even used online.)
- Copies of Game Center CX2 for DS are everywhere-- I'm so tempted...
- Saw Tokyo Tower and a lot of the shrines in the area. Gave money to the Inari Shrines in Hachimon's Shrine. (I figured I should work on my Hermit S.Link)
- Yes, the fox shrines look exactly like they do in Persona 4. Yee. :D
- Riding the subway is terribly interesting-- there's Nintendo ads for everything, everywhere, while Sony only advertises the new PSP colors.

Waiting on breakfast at kouaidou's place. Such fun!

SRWK's official site is live, and this one has the best gallery of original art I've seen in awhile. There's no way I'm not using the OL-type partner with the glasses and probably the smarts all the time.

You know.

Gundam SEED's Evidence-01 in SRWK really needs to turn out to be a long-dead whale Zoid.

The Final Crisis hardcover isn't going to collect the Superman Beyond, Submit, or Last Rights issues, without which the story is essentially not coherent. There are three consecutive issues where the plot primarily spins out of events of those Morrison-written spinoffs that are not going to be coherent if you're doing a straight read of the issues.

(There's also a bit in FC#7 that is tangential to Legion of Three Worlds, but I don't think it passes the incoherence test-- though you'd need to explain how Superman had time to save the universe from Mandrakk once and then go on a little jaunt into the future.)

My thought: Final Crisis really, really should've been produced in the twelve-issue maxi-series format, or at the very least given eight to ten issues. At the very least, less time should've been spent on the plodding build-up in early issues (which lead mostly to minor payoffs), and more pages devoted to major payoffs like Mandrakk, Tattoed Man's redemption, Batman's decision to use a gun, the Miracle Machine, what the Monitors are really about, etc.

I think most dissatisfaction with the ending now stems from it being a) hard to understand if you haven't read all of the Morrison tie-ins, which DC editorial refused to promote seriously; and b) an ending to a story other than the one told by the first two issues. The Final Crisis themes that issue 7 addresses doesn't really begin until issue 3, which I felt marked a significant tone and pace change from the earlier stuff.

Everybody else writing superhero comics needs to either step up or go home.

This is how you do it. If the story had given any idea it would be this rad at the start, I'm sure no one ever would've complained about it.

My one complaint is more of a regret: we didn't get to see J.G. Jones draw Captain Carrot or the Sunshine Superman.

( Embedded video behind the cut )

Now, that is just a parody vid and mostly it is a cute and funny one, but I think the point stands: if you're making a Gundam series and it's that easy for a fan to come up with so many shots that are fundamentally identical to GaoGaiGar shots, you're missing the point of the franchise to some extent. If 00 stood on its own as not-Gundam but really good at whatever else it was trying to be, this would be a less significant criticism, but most of 00's marketing has been desperately promising more hard sci-fi elements and a grittier tone that the show itself persistently fails to deliver.

What usually keeps me from getting too deeply into the portable SRWs-- even ones with particularly nice features, like D, J, and W-- is that they insist on having very old-fashioned single-unit gameplay. The core games have been using systems that let you control small squads of mecha as single units for awhile now, and that's just completely better to me. Z's Tri-System is tops, but even the old alpha 2/3 squads are better than dinking around with roughly 15 of the game's 70-some units deployed.

K has just become immeasurably more interesting to me, as early fan-trans of the Famitsu scans announcing it talk about the game supporting a "partner" system-- probably something like the Twin System from OGs, which was about the only redeeming gameplay feature that one had. Twin System would be particularly good given K's line-up-- you could parter the two Gaikings or the two Jeegs, for instance.

It's less good for the SEED line than the Tri-System or four-man squads, but if it's anything like the W adaptation, I expect SEED and GSD to take a significant backseat role to Stargazer. SEED's already been adapted in full twice, and the Z adaptation of GSD is masterful-- there's no reason to even try to do either plot again, save as fodder for fleshing out Stargazer.

EDIT: Interesting thing I'm hearing-- apparently the K interview reveals that most of the K lineup are series that were considered for Z but passed over for whatever reason. So in typical portable SRW fashion, this is pretty much going to be a B-team game about B-team series.

With an actual announcement of a new SRW pending, that means it's time for the fake hoax scans to float around. This one, nicked from SRW Hot News, has a far superior sense of humor than most.

( Six shitty series shall fuse into one! )

Incidentally, the "six shitty series!!" the ad is poking fun at most aggressively are Gundam F91, V Gundam, Wings of Rean, Daikengo, Gaiking Legend of Daiku Maryu, and SD Gundam Force. While all are pretty inarguably shitty, F91 and V have been featured in plenty of SRWs, Daikengo and Wings of Rean are just a matter of time, SD Gundam Force isn't actually that implausible, and Legend of Daiku Maryu...

Well, the actual SRWX series selection has been leaked. Also the game's title corrected, to SRWK. As I guessed, it's a DS title. Keep an eye out for certain shitty series here...

( Cross Fight, Cross Fight! )

Well, it seems I have joined Facebook. My profile is sad and lonely right now, so if it happens someone else on ye olde flist is on Facebook, please add me so that I may have confidence in my profile.

Sunrise is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year with a really interesting splash page at their main website.

I recognize all the series involved, but I'm a huge dork.

EDIT: I'm hearing that some of the wallpaper art linked at the page is new, generally created by a show's original character designer or other artist. I haven't seen any of these pieces before, so I bet that's true.

Next issue of Famitsu is going to be announcing the new Super Robot Taisen, called Super Robot Taisen X.

Early prediction: for Nintendo DS, sequel to SRTW.

I kind of wonder what's going to happen when SRT finally runs out of letters? Will we end up having to play Super Robot Taisen Turn-P? Super Robot Taisen BB1A?

Anyway, yeah, I'm still playing through Z, although I ran out of time and energy for diaries. I'm roughly at mission 30, Real route, first cycle, and overall am extremely pleased with the game. The crossover elements of the story are extremely well-handled, possibly the best they've ever been, and the gameplay is fine-tuned. It's not particularly difficult, even on Hard, but the Skill Points definitely do a good job of making you think about how you're using you units, and making you respect the game engine.

Z to some extent, I think, disproves that series selection has a whole lot to do with whether or not an SRT is any good. What determines whether or not SRT is good is, simply, how much effort the developers put into the game. Z is the first game in ages to feature all-new sprites, a wonderfully overhauled new Squad System, much-needed fixes to the Pilot Point system, and original characters who are there to still a story instead of advertise some other product. The game stands on its own and would probably be fun even to someone with little knowledge of the various series involved (though getting all the in-jokes always makes the games more fun).

Well, while the games writing industry is falling down around my ears, I wanted to post to say I'm actually starting a shiny new blogging gig that appears to be going okay!

I'm writing business-y stuff over at Virtual Goods News. It's fun and challenging; I'm doing a lot of interviews and suchlike.

The past hour or so has been totally insane, between the 1up news hitting and some other assorted craziness.