Backloggers #9: One of Many Possible Combinations

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March Mecha Madness Round 3: The Endless Frontier

"Endless Frontier" is a little used term we use here to describe our respective backlogs.  Instead of decreasing in size, it is constantly threatened by the advent of a stream of new releases to ensure that our journey here will be an ongoing one.

Poetic introductions aside, "Endless Frontier" is also short for "Super Robot Wars Original Generations:  Endless Frontier", which is one of the few SRW titles we have seen released stateside.  As a joint collaboration between Banpresto and Monolith Soft (famous for Xenosaga), this game deviates from the standard strategy genre and instead attempts to take the series in a new direction as a full fledged RPG.  Furthermore, in spite of the title, your characters (for the most part) consist of human(oids).  Although the mechs do play a significant part in the plot, they are not what you control front and center, and your characters do not pilot them at all, thus truly making this a unique entry into the series.  It was also because of this that I delayed my purchase of this game (thus sadly missing out on a great soundtrack CD) and almost avoided it altogether.

Doing so would have been a tremendous mistake.

Initially, the screenshots of the game did not impress me.  I didn't care much at all for the character designs.  Despite being called "Original Generations", this game contained none of the Banpresto Originals I have come to enjoy in past SRW installents:  Only vague homages to them.  On the surface, there was little to motivate me to play this game, which I saw as some strange attempt by Banpresto and Monolith Soft to cash in on the popularity of the series by putting together a lackluster RPG.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

While Endless Frontier seemingly holds no connections to the SRW series that many have come to know and enjoy, this is not a bad thing at all.  Though graphically unimpressive in some areas, and extraordinarily linear, the engaging battle system, the amusing character, hilarious dialogue all produce an experience that tries something new with the series, and surprisingly manages to do a good job at it.

As a point of clarification, this game actually disappeared from my backlog back in 2010, and shortly before I began writing for this blog.  However, given the month's theme (and another reason to be discussed later), I thought it was only fitting to write about such a great game. If your interest is piqued, read on:  Even if you're not (heck, especially if you're not) a robot fan.

March Mecha Madness Round 1: Super Robot Wars MX

I have to admit it:  When I first heard the concept of Super Robot Wars (or Super Robot Taisen, if you prefer), it really did not sound all that appealing to me.  All I knew initially about it was that it was some sort of strategy game that involved a bunch of mechs from series that I had never heard of.  Most of the aforementioned series either never made it out of Japan, or made it over here underneath some strange name to appeal to the American masses, while having the core elements of the story butchered (Plus, the graphics presented in combat were of super deformed mecha, which just made it look a bit silly, honestly.

The only reason I had even heard of such an obscure series was that during college, my best friend Nick, was (and still is) quite enamored with the series.  I really can't say enough nice things about Nick here to do him justice, but there's one thing (among many others) that I have to give him credit for:  When he is sharing his current fixation or hobby of attention with you, he's one of the most unobtrusive guys in the world about it.  As he told me about it, I'm sure he knew me well enough to sense my skepticism about it as we talked.  So instead of insisting that I get into the series as much as he did, Nick simply directed me to where I could find a version of the Super Famicon game, Super Robot Wars 4, gave me enough of an explanation of the mechanics of the game to get started, and decided to let me make of it what I would.

I can quit any time I want to.  Really.

There's a good reason (well plenty) that Nick is my best friend:  He knows me very well.  I was hooked to the series quite quickly, for a host of reasons that I will explain later, and over the years, have amassed quite the collection of SRW games (which you will here about in later posts).  Many of them were courtesy of Nick, who, after seeing how much I enjoyed SRW4, told me one day "Hey, keep an eye out on the mail.  I sent you a box with a few games in it".  Let's just say that when Nick says "I sent you some stuff", he's downplaying it a little:

He later apologized for forgetting to pack in that elixir of immortality.

Needless to say, through the courtesy of Nick, other friends, and my own cash, I've accumulated quite the number of SRW games over the years.  Among those games is the subject of the post:  Super Robot Wars MX for the PS2.

So how does it stack up?

MX is an easy game to pass up.  It's independent of the normal, more established SRW storylines.  The original characters are forgettable, many series favorites are either diminished greatly in present, or absent altogether.  Yet inspite of these flaws, Super Robot Wars MX distinguishes itself as being one of the entries into the series with superior dialogue, creative story choices, and manages to integrate the best elements from its predecessors to create an experience that any fan of the series can find something to like about.

This post serves not only as a chronicle of my experience with SRW MX, but it will also give people without any knowledge of the series some framing on how the series works.  Read on to learn more, but be warned:  Dangerous levels of geekery are ahead.