Video Game / Super Robot Wars BX

Super Robot Wars BX is the second Nintendo 3DS installment in the Super Robot Wars series, released on August 20, 2015.

Series included in BX are (debuting series are rendered in bold):

• Mobile Suit Gundam 00: A Wakening Of The Trailblazer
• Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
• Shin Mazinger Impact! Z Chapter
• Mazinkaiser SKL
  • Mazinkaiser SKL manga^note "Inferno Giga Blaster" is used as one of the Mazinkaiser SKL's attacks
• Macross Frontier
  • The False Songtress
  • The Wings Of Goodbye
• Martian Successor Nadesico
• Aura Battler Dunbine
  • The Tale of Neo Byston Well
  • Aura Battler Dunbine^note A red Zwarth from the same-named PlayStation game appears in BX, first piloted by Zet Light, before it became a production model.
• Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh
• The King of Braves GaoGaiGar
  • The King of Braves GaoGaiGar: Blockaded Numbers^note Featuring the "Silverion Hammer" attack exclusive to this game
• Mobile Suit Gundam AGE^note BX uses the third-generation Story Arc exclusively
• SD Gundam Gaiden
• Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy
• Panzer World Galient
• Giant Gorg

Since its last appearance in Super Robot Wars Destiny, BX marks the return of Universal Century Gundam back to SRW for a Nintendo-handheld system, though like Super Robot Wars UX did with Kouji Kabuto, BX is the first licensed-SRW to exclude Amuro Ray in a game containing the Universal Century.

Notably, this game is the first time the Eldoran Series (represented by Rajin-Oh) and the Brave Series (represented by GaoGaiGar) collaborate for a Super Robot Wars installment. Also, Raijin-Oh makes its first 2D SRW appearance, as it was exclusively on 3D-based installments^note Super Robot Wars GC/XO, Super Robot Wars NEO and Super Robot Wars OE.

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Super Robot Wars BX contains the following tropes:

• Ace Pilot: Asemu Asuno doesn't get the "Soul" Spirit Command, but has the "Super Pilot"^note At 130 Will, increase accuracy, evasion and special evasion rates as Will increase pilot skill instead.
• Actually a Doombot: The Hell King Gordon fought in this game was an illusion created by Viscount Pygman.
• Adapted Out: Because Macross 30 is a Crisis Crossover of the Macross franchise, only its Original Generation and Macross Frontier appear in BX.
• And I Must Scream: When Zounda attacks, part of its animation shows its true form the helpless Mikoto screaming in horror. Made even worse by the painful screech.
• Arc Welding: In the Mycenean flashback scenario, Zeus was aided in his fight by Eldoran in the Raijin-Oh, Zenon in Gorg and Glitter Falsaber.
  • In that same flashback, it turns out that Iron Kaiser was a weapon used by the Mycenae. And later, it is revealed that Kiba is actually one of them.
  • In the backstory, the Axis Shock stopped the war with the Zenteradi before things got too hairy for Earth, and Setsuna and the 00 Raiser assisted Amuro.
  • According to Hilmuka, Gorg and Galient were created to represent the cultural exchange between the Arstians and Manon's people.
• Ascended Extra: The mecha horse/bike SKL-RR from the end of Mazinkaiser SKL makes its playable appearance. Justified since the Versus manga is involved in some capacity.
• Back from the Dead: Kiba is revived by Dr. Schtroheim Heinrich, and works for Dr. Hell out of gratitude.
• Bag of Spilling:
  • Mazinkaiser SKL loses its Wing Cross ability.
  • The Knight Gundam loses his ability to turn into Full Armor Knight Gundam when he and companions get scattered across the BX universe.
  • Shou Zama has to return to the Dunbine after his introductory scenario because the Aura Convertor in the Bilbine is damaged.
  • Leon is in the YF-25 Prophecy instead of the YF-30 Chronos since it broke down during an attempt of Fold Flight.
• Big, Bulky Bomb: Flit Asuno has the "Plasma Driver Missile" at his disposal that comes in two flavors - a regular attack and a MAP version, both limited to a single round, but with an attack power of 9999.
• Big Damn Heroes: The Zwauth, like Tobikage, shows up and helps the heroes when they're in trouble... at least until the Black Knight starts piloting it...
  • As it turns out, it was always being controlled by Neo Black Dragon from SD Gundam Gaiden, making this a rare case of a Big Damn Hero that was always a villain.
• Boring Yet Practical: The Dark Hound is limited in its attack selection, thus its animations are limited, but Asemu's "Super Pilot" ace ability gives it an edge over other mecha.
• Call-Back: "Double Gekigan Fire" is literally the "Double Burning Fire", right down to the poses.
• The Cameo: One intermission scene◊ features the respective Original Generation from W, Super Robot Wars K and Super Robot Wars L in the background.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: After defeating the Iron Kaiser in the prologue, Ryo and Ken go missing. It turns out they were summoned to Byston Well and show up when the Dunbine characters show up on the surface, helping the group out by destroying a portion of the enemy Aura Battlers.
• Chest Blaster: In addition to the "Inferno Blaster", Mazinkaiser SKL gains the Inferno Giga Blaster, a stronger version of it seen at the end of the Mazinkaiser SKL manga.
• Crutch Character: The Delta Plus. It comes with 5 upgrades in all stats, but it leaves unless it is unlocked as a secret.
• Combat Medic: Knight Alex of SD Gundam Gaiden can restore allied units' Hit Points with its unit-specific ability.
• Combination Attack
  • "Dynamic Combination" between Mazinger Z and Mazinkaiser SKL: the latter mounts the former's "Big Bang Punch" and follows it up with a point blank "Thor Hammer Breaker", ending with a full-powered collision between "Koushiryoku Beam" and "Inferno Blaster".
  • "Triple Generation" between Flit Asuno, his son Asemu Asuno and grandson Kio Asuno; Asemu also has "Memory of Eden" with Zeheart Galette.
  • In a first for Nadesico, Akito Tenkawa can use the "Double Gekigan Flare" with Nagare Akatsuki rather than Gai Daigoji. They also retain the other form's combos, and Tsukumo and Genichiro have "Double Gekigan Fire" - which is exactly what it sounds like
  • Gouryujin and Genryujin are a Combination Attack now.
  • The Bilbine and Dunbine/Zwauth combos from the last game have returned, although they have been pilot locked this time, oddly enough. They're joined by a Bilbine/Wryneck combo and Botune combos between the three you get.

• Cue the Sun: Used in the dynamic kill for the combination attack between Gorg and Manon's Guardian, showing off the friendship between Yuu Tagami and Manon.
• Demonic Possession: During the attack on Lost Louran, the spirits of the dead Neo Zeon and Vagan soldiers possess Loni Garvey, causing her to rant about Side 3 and Eden.
  • Also, Zwauth was actually possessed by Satan Gundam.
• Damage Reduction: Gorg comes with both the "Guard" unit ability and its exclusive skill, which reduces damage further by 10%.
• Demoted to Extra
  • The humans in SD Gundam Gaiden with the exception of Knight Hyaku Shiki do not appear. This is because SD Gundam Gaiden's plot starts very near the end - the Gundams (and Knight Hyaku Shiki) were the only ones who were involved in the assault on Sieg Zeon's base.
  • Compared to its appearance in the Third Super Robot Wars Z: Tengoku-hen, Gundam Unicorn units are limited to the titular machine, the Banshee Norn, the Delta Plus, and the Kshatriya, with the Nahel Argama and Garancieres filling in as the battleship. The Norn doesn't have access to its "Armed Armor DE" nor its Combination Attack with the Unicorn from Tengoku-hen. As for Mooks, only the regular Geara Zulu and its Lange Bruno-equipped variant serve as enemies.
  • Macross 30 is a Post-Script Season in BX with only Leon Sakaki and Aisha Blanchette available as its characters in their respective YF-25 Prophecy (later YF-30 Chronos) and VF-17E Excalibur. Mina Forte is a Non-Player Character, Ganneth Modler and Mei Leelong are absent, as are Rod Baltmar and Ushio Todo, with implications they may have died before the end of Macross 30.
• Evil Knockoff: Jaaku Raijin-Oh and Kaokaikar.
• Evil vs. Evil: Neo Zeon and the Vagan.
• Fighting Your Friend: The sub-plot of having to fight the SMS (sans Alto Saotome) from Macross 30 is one of the only things adapted into BX. Since there's no Crisis Crossover from 30, where Sharon Apple is the one who brainwashes them, the SMS are rendered as part of the Marder Army in BX.
• Game-Breaking Bug:
  • The Barrier Penetration Tactician bonus is broken because the enemy side is also affected.
  • The game crashes when the Unicorn Gundam's animations are played in certain scenarios. Keep its animations off during stage 44 or 45, as they occasionally will cause the game to crash.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Your robots start with half HP and half HP/EN in scenario 6 because their repairs aren't complete. This also happens in a few more scenerios, showing that your force is actually wearing out by previous battles.
  • During the scenarios where Megumi and Minato aren't on Nadesico, they are removed from the Gravity Blast Cannon's animation.
  • After a certain scenerio where Setsuna is told that 00 Raiser has too little GN Particle left for TRANS-AM Burst, that Unit Command cannot be used on the map again. Zigzagged, as Setsuna did attempt that when contacting with ELS.
• Guide Dang It!: Unlocking the True Final Boss can be tricky as the specific guidelines to do so are not mentioned in-game. (To get it, you must get every secret character)
  • Loni's survival if you pick the Japanese route after Stage 17 is arguably THE worst offender. It requires shooting down two or more enemies with Banagher on Stage 21, 24, and 26... NONE of which have anything to do with Unicorn's plot. So there's absolutely zero indication in-game that you have to do that.
• Hand Wave: Eldoran creates a copy of the Raijinoh's classroom in the Diva battleship, so they can deploy anywhere. Ironically, for every route split afterwards, the Diva is on the other side of the Raijin-Oh cast. Jin actually notes that, since their classroom is on the Diva, they'd need to go with them (which would would make for a perfect excuse to have their first trip into space)...only to be told that they found a way to move the classroom to the Gran Garan, removing the need to limit Raijin-oh to the Diva (and forcing Jin to postpone his excited first trip).
• Hazy-Feel Turn: In one scenario, Kio attempts to kill Loni in the AMA-X7 Shamblo until Zeheart saves her. She joins the Vagans out of gratitude.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Prior to the start of the game Ranka Lee falls out of an airlock off-screen and is magically rescued by the Vagans, even though this takes place in outer space (the Battle Frontier is on Arst). Ranka essentially becomes a Vagan sympathizer for having been rescued by them, though from their viewpoint if it fits this trope is debatable. Similarly, Wizard Nu from SD Gundam Gaiden works for them - though he never fights your squad in any capacity.
• I Have Your Wife: The SMS are forced to work for Marder's army because they held the Macross Quarter crew captive.
• Interface Spoiler: Even though Bruvictor serves as a midseason upgrade for Youta when Falsaber dies, the fact that upgrades between both units aren't shared makes it clear that Falsaber will return.
• Involuntary Group Split: In the prologue for BX, the 5 SD Gundams are scattered around BX's universe just as they were going to confront Sieg Zeon for the last time. Knight Gundam ends up on New Austral Island, Knight Alex somehow ends up in Arst and joins the resistance there, Fencer Zeta ends up on Industrial 7 and joins the Celestial Being, Warrior ZZ is found by Soldat-J and Arma and stays on the J-Ark with them, while Wizard Nu finds himself on Second Moon and helps the Vagans in a limited capacity.
• Living Bodysuit: Until Neo Black Dragon recovers from his previous loss at the hands of Knight Gundam, his soul possesses the Zwauth and uses it as an avatar.
• The Man Behind the Monsters: The Vagans somehow got a hold of the Vajra Queen and use her to control the Vajra drones.
• Mercy Kill: In a reenactment of Gundam Unicorn, Riddhe Marcenas and Loni tell Banagher Links to destroy the Shamblo during the fight in Lost Louran. Averted when he can't, thus Loni runs off to destroy it herself.
• The Mole: In a twist, Senchou isn't an agent working for the CIA. Instead, he's hired by the Vist Foundation.
• Mythology Gag
  • The Combination Attack used by the AGE-2DH Gundam AGE-2 "Dark Hound" and xvm-fzc Gundam Legilis is called "Memory of Eden", based on the title of the Compilation Movie that focuses on the relationship between Asemu and Zeheart.
  • The sparkling backgrounds that briefly appear in some of the SD Gundam Super Move Portrait Attacks are a reference to the artistic backgrounds seen on character cards for SD Gundams in the Bandai Namco Entertainment SD Gundam Trading Card Game.
  • Having already gone through it himself, Alto encourages Setsuna on the path of understanding, even calling himself his sempai in regards to it. In UX, where both stories were happening concurrently, it was Setsuna who eventually convinces Alto to take this path.
  • In another reversal, as noted above, Ken Kaido and Ryo Magami, upon their story's completion, are revealed to be helping the good guys from Aura Battler Dunbine, whereas in UX, Burn is revealed to be working for SKL villain Garan after the Dunbine finale.
  • Speaking of Ken and Ryo, UX had an amusing an in-character glitch during the fight against Deus Ex Machina, where they wouldn't lose morale like everyone else. During the final battle against the True Final Boss Gispel, they similarly don't suffer a morale drop when everyone else does.
• Nerf:
  • To prevent abuse of the Combining Mecha mechanics in W, ChoRyuJin and GekiRyuJin are permanently combined in BX.
  • To prevent abuse of single tactician like Koumei in UX, tacticians are given highly specific tactical bonuses, and their bonuses gradually increase on the field as you taking kill counts.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands:
  • During the attack on Lost Louran, the Unicorn's "NT-D System" somehow hijacks some of the capabilities from the 00 Raiser using its GN Particles such that Banagher can understand Loni and vice versa.
  • Quantum Burst enables the conversation between Manon and Yuu and somehow unlocks the last coordinates for Laplace.
• Overrated and Underleveled: Flit joins the group at Natora Einus's level, and he somehow has 0 kills, despite his Shell-Shocked Veteran status. If you want to use Flit, don't neglect leveling Einus up during scenarios. After the AGE finale though, access to the ludicrously powerful Plasma Diver Missile MAP enables Flit to kill swarms of enemies at a time, making it easy for him to catch up to everyone else.
  • Falsaber returning should be reason enough to celebrate, but unfortunately as a unit his stats and damage output are balanced around usage in the early stages and unlike Esther in Saisei-hen, he does not get any stat boosts upon return. To be fair you do gain access to using the extremely powerful Glitter Falsaber, but that comes with its own energy-guzzling problems.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: SD Gundams are capable of fighting mecha much bigger then them, to wit Knight Gundam even earns the "Ignore Size Modifier" pilot skill^note No accuracy or damage penalties incurred when attacking a unit of a larger size.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: On top of the original Gundam AGE canon, Flit has also been a part of the early Universal Century conflicts, including the SDF-1 Macross in the back-story of BX.
• Redemption Equals Death: During the GaoGaiGar and Galient finale, Marder sacrifices his life to beat Z-Master. Hy Shaltat will join if he isn't unlocked.
• Secret Character: In a first for the series, you can get all of them in one playthrough. Better check up on what you're getting though, because you need ALL of them unlocked for the Golden Ending.
  • Todd in the Raineck, Burn in the Zwauth, and Tolstol as a subpilot for the Goraon, as well as the Sirbine
  • Manon in his Guardian
  • Hy in his Wingal Zee
  • Dragon Baby as a subpilot for Vassal Knight Gundam
  • Andre in his GN-XIV
  • Marida Cruz in the Kshatriya, as well as the Delta Plus and Loni (non-playable)
  • Seric in the Clanche Custom, Shanalua in the Clanche, Girard in the Thielva, Deen in the Jilsbain, Zeheart in the Gundam Legallis, Fram in the Fawn Forsia, and Leil in the Ghirarga Custom
  • Belzeb in the Great Jaaku Satan
  • Genichiro in the Daimajin, Saburota in the Denjin, and Yapachiro in the Tetsujin, as well as the X Aestavalis
  • J in the King J-der
  • Lorelai in Danau Alpha 1
• Smoke Out: Weaponized by the Carrier Beagle from Giant Gorg with a special smokescreen MAP attack that reduces accuracy and evasion rates of enemies hit by it.
• Spin Attack: BX features an abundance of sword-wielding mecha, many of whom will perform these in their attacks.
• Suddenly Voiced: The Great General of Darkness was previously The Voiceless in Shin Mazinger; in BX, Shōzō Iizuka takes on the role as a reprisal from Mazinkaiser.
• Status Buff
  • Mic Sounders the 13th has "Disc P", which increases allied units' Will.
  • GaoGaiGar with the "Dividing Driver", increasing allied units' terrain ratings to maximum and lowers those of enemies in range by one rank.
• Taste of Power: Alto gets to pilot the YF-29 Durandal as he appears until the Primevals ruin it. Later on, it gets fixed.
  • Similarly, Shou is in Bilbine the first time you see him, but it gets damaged and you lose access to it for a few scenarios (though fortunately, much less than it takes to get the Durandal back)
• Through His Stomach: Akito feeds Girard some of his home cooking, and she loves it. If you want to unlock Girard, Akito needs to be one of people to convince her.
• Trapped in Another World: The ruins on New Austral Island somehow sends the group to Arst, leaving them stranded for a few scenarios.
• Took a Level in Badass: In its previous appearances, the Sirbine is notorious for having one-ranged post-movement attacks; in BX, the Sirbine's "Aura Sword" has an attack range up to five spaces (mirroring a certain other secret Aura Battler's range), making it more versatile.
• The Unfought: The real Dr. Hell is not fought in BX. Instead, the Great General of Darkness kills him when he's summoned by Kiba activating the gravity reactor in the Iron Kaiser.
• Villainous Friendship: When Flit causes a majority of the Vagans and Jovians to defect, Kusakabe wonders if Zanald is going to defect like the other Vagans and Zanald says he's going to continue fighting alongside Kusakabe.
• Villain Team-Up: The Jovians and the Vagans.
  • The Primevals seem to have an alliance with the Jaaku Empire. Both of them are working with Sieg Zeon and Destrook, and after every other Dunbine villain dies, Burn Burnings joins them.
  • The forces of Drake Luft and the Kingdom of Marder
  • Kiba is working for Dr. Hell
• What the Hell, Hero?: Bright Noah calls out Flit for tarnishing the image of the Gundam with his Fantastic Racism towards the Vagans. However, Flit basically created the first Gundam in BX.
• Wolverine Publicity: Played straight with Kouji after getting shafted in UX by Mazinkaiser SKL, but averted a second time in franchise history with Amuro and Universal Century Gundam, though justified given the events of Gundam Unicorn occur after Amuro's final involvement in the Universal Century timeline.
  • Additionally averted with Dancougar Nova and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, who aren't being featured from their constant appearances since L and Scramble Commander 2, respectively. Moreover, played straight with Macross Frontier as BX marks the eighth consecutive SRW (beginning with L) that it has appeared.
    • Mind you, both those games have been out of at least one installment since their "debuts": Dancougar Nova wasn't in OE and SEED Destiny wasn't in NEO.