Shout Out / Endless Frontier

Since Endless Frontier is built to house so many references within and beyond Super Robot Wars, here's a list of them.

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Historical Names

• Haken Browning shares the surname of John Moses Browning, the American firearms manufacturer who designed the "Browning Automatic Rifle" (BAR), "the M1911" and the "FN Hi-Power". In all his appearances, Haken is The Gunslinger; taken to its logical conclusion with Haken's father, who is named John Moses.
• Kaguya Nanbu is named after the "Nambu" pistol.
• Thanks to her Egyptian motif, Cleo Gretel is an obvious reference to Cleopatra.
• Anne Sirena and Bonny Maxmad's names are derived from Anne Bonny, an 18th Century Irish Pirate Girl.

Fairy Tales, Folklore and Literature

• "Haken" means "hook" in German and he arrived in the Endless Frontier on a ship called the "Neverland" with a navigational computer called "Tinkerbell". Haken's battleship, the Zeit Krokodil, refers to an aquatic animal that ate, amongst other things, a clock and a ship captain's hand. Got the reference, yet? Even Haken's crew members are Puns on the story's characters: Professor Marion "Sumii" and the man-"tiger Lee Ly". Finally, ""W-Numbers" member W-03 in EXCEED has the Code Name "Pete Pain".
• Kaguya's name is lifted from the same-named Princess Kaguya of the Japanese folk tale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, which is referenced In-Universe.
• Try translating Aschen Brodel's full name into German: per the fairy tale Theme Naming of Endless Frontier, "Aschenbrödel" means "Cinderella"; likewise, if she attacks with her feet, she sometimes yells out "Glass Heel!", a signature item from the story. In fact, throughout Endless Frontier, Haken explicitly calls her Cinderella.
• Neige means "snow" in French; Neige is a princess who throws around exploding apples and encases enemies in glass coffins she blasts through and reflects lasers off mirrors in battle. Sound familiar? To make the reference explicit, every single one of her moves except her "Overdrive" is named after elements of the original story, and her age can be taken as Snow White's age when she reawakens.
• The Orchestral Army's former frontline fortress "Poker Castle" is under the command of "Hum Dum", and the location carries random Mook encounters of playing card soldiers, including a chest in the castle which holds the "Cheshire" armor. Furthermore, Reiji Arisu joins the party here.
• In a call to The Bremen Town Musicians, the first names of Henne Valkyria, Ezel Grenada and Katze Kotolonos are "hen", "donkey" and "cat" in German, respectively, while Kyon Feulion, or "Kuon", is "dog" in Greek.
• When fighting Dorothy Mistral for the first time, she comes along with minions named "Cerebrumless", "Heartless", and "Valorless". The road to her "Esmeralda Castle" is paved with yellow bricks, and in the sequel, she'll occasionally call out her attack as "Return To Home!"
• Rubor Cucullus' castle is named "Abuelita", the Spanish word for "grandmother"; Rubor takes on the appearance of a humanoid wolf.
• Cleo's surname "Gretel", her obsession with sweets and the name of her bakery "Fatty Hansel" comes from another familiar fairy tale written by The Brothers Grimm.
• Of all things, Aledy Naash's name is a reference to "Aladdin"; if that sounds far-fetched, his master Cindy Bird is, likewise, a Pun on "Sinbad".
• Hamelin Silbato is literally based on The Pied Piper of Hamelin; not only does he use a flute, one of his attacks is summoning a stampede of mice martial artists.
• Gerda Miroir is a reference to The Snow Queen: she shares the same name as the female protagonist of the story, her attacks are ice-themed and her duplicating attacks and surname evoke the magic mirror from the fairy tale.
• Hild Brun is clearly based on a Valkyrie, with her name being a rearrangement of "Brunhilde"/"Brünnhilde" from the famous opera epic.

Captain Ersatz and Expy

• Even though Haken has a color-scheme that makes him more of a Sanger Expy, including his storyline of being a W-Numbers human clone of Lemon Browning, Haken carries similar character traits to Kyosuke Nanbu (stoicism, gambling habits/references), a main weapon with a Pile Bunker and leadership qualities. Furthermore, the director for Endless Frontier was also in charge of Impact and Namco × Capcom, where Kyosuke and his earlier Expy Reiji were protagonists.
  • A Lovable Sex Maniac who grows stronger the more women are beside him, a Robot Buddy he won't flirt with, and has an unusual high skill in a Humongous Mecha; is this Haken or Kei Katsuragi?
• Aschen's blatant Expy status to Lamia Loveless is hardly worth mentioning, especially when co-developers Banpresto and Monolith Soft heavily promoted this fact before Endless Frontier was released.
• Aledy is a rare fourth-generation Expy example with Folka Albark, the Expy of Kenshiro, the Expy of Bruce Lee; noted In-Universe by Kouta Azuma during the Sequel.
• Played with Gagun Laos: he looks like W-15 "Wodan Ymir", but only in appearance. Whereas Wodan was able to emote, W-05 has none and Gymnos simply stole the android's body for its use.
• W-06 "Cardia Basirissa" functions as a Call-Back to the similar rivalry between Lamia and W-16 "Echidna Iisaki" in Super Robot Wars Original Generation 2.
• Professor Marion to Doctor Marion Radom, a heroic Fiery Redhead Mad Scientist who provides assistance to the party by helping to reprogram the Gespenst Phantom for Haken to use.
• With the exception of the Jyaki-GUN-Oh, each of the Mini-Mecha in the Endless Frontier games are an Expy to a pre-existing Super Robot Wars Humongous Mecha:
  • Alt Eisen Nacht to the "Alt Eisen Riese", while bearing the name of the one-off "Alt Eisen Nacht" in the beginning scenarios of Original Generation 2 in Original Generations.
  • Ark-On to the "Ialdabaoth"; essentially, the Ark-On's a Palette Swap of Folka's Ialdabaoth, painted black in place of crimson. Like the Ialdabaoth, it also uses Ki Manipulation and Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs.
  • Arkgain to the "Soulgain", complete with Blade Below the Shoulder and Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs.
  • Fee-Kleid to the "Fairlion", another Dance Battler-based mecha with a Blade Below the Shoulder called "Refined Swayer" and a Shoulder Cannon named "Twisted Laser", both references to the Fairlion's respective "Sonic Cutter" and "Vostok Laser". Neige also uses it for her multitarget Overdrive and the attack is called Royal Heart Blaster, with the Combination Attack between the 2 original Fairlions being called Royal Heart Breaker.
  • The Gespenst Phantom is essentially a Composite Character: it uses the black-color scheme of the original Gespenst used by Gilliam Yeager, has larger versions of the Gespenst MK II Type-R's "Slash Ripper" called "Grand Slash Ripper", the same Chest Blaster as the Gespenst Type-S ("Neutron Blaster") and the "Gespenst Kick" from the Gespenst MK II Type-S.
  • Svaiser to the "Thrudgelmir"; however, notice how its BFS and This Is a Drill are reversed for the Svaiser compared to the Thrudgelmir.
  • Weiss Ritter Abend to the "Weiss Ritter" and "Rein Weiss Ritter", but with a technological motif rather than the Rein's Eldritch Abomination Organic Technology visage.
  • The Final Boss of Endless Frontier, the Wahrschein Lichkeit, is basically the "Persoenlichkeit" through and through.

Allusions

• Haken gives a lot of nods to his voice actor's first heroic role, including his charming personality, love of Cowboy motifs, and using guns as a primary weapon. Bonus points for a line of dialogue he uses in The Moon Dwellers.
  Haken: "So this is the nice guy who brings out the whirlwind, right?"
• In both games, there's a slight chance Reiji will shout Rom Stol's "WAIT!" (matte in Japanese) when it's his turn during combat; Kazuhiko Inoue voices Reiji and Rom. Similarly, if Aschen is in the active party with Reiji, after all enemies are defeated, she might ask him "What's your name?" (in English). He'll respond by saying "he has no name to give her", one of Rom's frequent quips.
• When it's her turn during combat, Xiaomu might say the traditional Catchphrase of Ruri Hoshino, "baka baka"; both characters are voiced by Omi Minami.
• In EXCEED, if Xiaomu and Aledy are on the active roster, the former may say "Your hand is burning red!", with the latter following up with "Its loud roar tells me to grasp victory!" when all enemies are defeated. Both lines of dialogue were made famous by Domon Kasshu; he and Aledy are voiced by Tomokazu Seki.
• When summoned by any party member to perform a "Support Attack" in EXCEED, there's a chance Mark Hunter may shout "Yatte yaru ze!", the Catchphrase of Shinobu Fujiwara; both characters are voiced by Kazuki Yao.

Others

• Aschen's Overdrive called "Phantasm Phoenix" is a reference to the "Phantom Phoenix" attack for Lamia's Humongous Mecha "Angelg"; in EXCEED, Aschen's multi-target Overdrive "Gravity Howling" is a nod to "Bloody Howling", the ultimate attack of the "Simurgh Splendid", an Expy of the Angelg.
  • The first part of the animation for her Phantasm Phoenix is a visual reference to the Kim Kaphwan "Desperation Move" Hou'ou Kyaku: both attacks are named after The Phoenix, they start by sliding at the enemy knee-first while trailing with shadows, followed up with an extended kick combo, and finally ending in a somersault kick. Aschen, however, continues her attack with a series of Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs and finishes off with an upward heel shotgun blast.
• One of Aschen's Special Skills in EXCEED is called "Code: Amphisbaena", based on a Greek mythological monster like the lamia. One of the meanings for "amphisbaena" is "both ways" and its appearance is that of a serpentine monster with a head at each end. The attack involves grabbing one enemy and a random object off-screen with her Rocket Punches and slamming them together.
• When using the Jyaki-GUN-Oh, there's a chance Princess Suzuka might yell out "Jyaki-GUN Finger!" Meanwhile, compare some of the Jyaki-GUN-Oh's starting attacks to the Alt Eisen.
• Whenever Dorothy uses her Blow You Away attack, there's a chance she might say "Poppin Typhoon!"
• Look carefully at the environment the party is walking on when entering the Einst's dimension in Endless Frontier. They're actually climbing on the corpse of the defeated "Stern Regisseur" from Original Generation 2.