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Video Game / Super Robot Wars W

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WARNING: Units Not to Scale. Also, yes, that's Voltron... Kind of.

Super Robot Wars W is the first Nintendo DS entry of the Super Robot Wars series.

It is "Space Calendar" (SC) 99. In the previous age, Earth governments formed the "Federated Earth Nation" (FEN) to bring World War III to an end. After putting down the defiant lunar colonies, the Space Calendar was instituted. To alleviate environmental pressures and overpopulation, the FEN began expanding into space, constructing space colonies and asteroid cities, as well as an Orbital Space Ring around the Earth, and the development and terraforming of the Moon and Mars. This was accomplished in a short time, due to quantum leaps in physics and energy research. But repression of those living in the colonies by the FEN ignited a war between multiple factions in space and the Organization of Zodiac, the true leaders of the FEN. This "Revolutionary War" ended in the year 98, with the death of FEN President Treize Khushrenada. From his will, a "New United Nations" was formed, returning power back to the individual states.

But the new Earth Sphere's troubles seems to multiply: Earth is invaded by the Radam, who seized control of the Orbital Ring, and the invaders known as the "Jovian Lizards", who destroyed the Mars Colony. In addition, internal strife, such as the distinction between Coordinators and Naturals, and mechanized terrorism (terrorists in Humongous Mecha) seem to be taking the New United Nations to the breaking point. To make things worse, Dr. Hell has begun mobilizing with his army of Mechanical Beasts, destroying the Getter Robo and putting the Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger out of commission.

To this point, Kotaro Taiga, head of the "Gutsy Geoid Guard", works together with his old partner Heinrich Freeman of the "Space Knights" to face this crisis. To this effect, he has also enlisted the "Preventers" organization, and is attempting to get assistance from "Mithril", "Nergal Heavy Industries" and anyone else who is willing to join the fight. As luck would have it, two Preventer agents happened to have hitched a ride from Blessfield Ardygun, a former Space Pirate and an old Worthy Opponent of Taiga and Freeman's, who has become a "Trailer", a space-bourne Jack-of-All-Trades, and his family. They know from first-hand experience that Blessfield happens to carry some heavy firepower, thus it might be time to turn an old enemy into a new friend...

W uses an engine similar to Super Robot Wars Judgment, and in the case of shared series', many of the same sprites.

Featured series in W include (debuts are highlighted in bold):

Note that with the inclusion of Blade and Orgun, this game is of a slightly smaller scale than other games in the series, with a larger number of units, both friendly and otherwise, in the "SS" (human-sized) scale. There's also a Transhuman undercurrent in W, with many characters being either genetically modified, Cyborgs, or a combination of the two. This is rather important, given the whole Coordinator vs. Natural conflict from Gundam SEED.

Also worth noting is that the series listing was the first time in the history of the franchise that all entries were licensed and distributed in the United States at some point prior to the game's announcement, with some (Gundam Wing, Gundam SEED, and GoLion/Voltron) being very popular in the American market. Indeed, a few (Voltron and Orgun, which was an early and much-liked Central Park Media release) are not well-remembered at all in Japan and seemed to have been included primarily to make W more appealing to an international audience. Despite this, the game was not released in English and no localization plans were ever announced (and given that the game and the Nintendo DS are now solidly at a Retro Gaming age, it's fairly likely it won't ever be released overseas officially, barring a Video Game Remake). Fortunately, a complete English Fan Translation patch was released on February 27th, 2022.

W contains examples of the following:

  • Actor Allusion: Many allusions were made for the fact that Akira Kamiya voiced Prince Sinclyne, despite this game having no voice acting. The others recognized him for having a voice of a hero (and even he boasts that he's got a heroic voice fitting for a conqueror), but the actual heroes were mostly pissed that he's using the heroic voice for unadulterated evil, because a majority of Akira Kamiya's resume are basically heroic figures that have fought off many evils within the crossover series. And naturally, Sinclyne also complimented Ryouma Nagare for having the same fine voice, but Ryouma was pissed instead, because he didn't have the aura of 'condescending sneer' in his voice unlike Sinclyne.
  • Adaptation Amalgamation:
    • The Getter Robo representation in this game combines the characters and Leitmotif of the 1970s Getter Robo G anime with the Shin Getter Robo, the latter taking cues from Getter Robo Armageddon as usual.
    • This game uses the Mazinkaiser OVAs but gives the titular super robot the "Kaiser Nova" attack from its Banpresto-created incarnation.
  • Adaptational Badass: Yumi Francois got used to her Tekkaman power much quicker than in her home series. Originally, she couldn't control her Power Incontinence of her first Reactor Voltekka, causing a lot of friendly fire and only stopped when Aki personally shot her down without killing her; but this resulted Yumi getting suspended from duty, getting chewed out and slapped by Natasha for her recklessness, locking herself up in her room crying; and then getting a proper training to catch up. Here? She used her own Heroic Willpower to stop the Power Incontinence, succeeded, and as a result, Aki was proud of her, and Natasha was not pissed off at her, finally acknowledging her as a full-fledged Tekkaman.
  • Adaptational Early Appearance: Gundam SEED/Astray's storyline doesn't begin properly until the second half the game, but Mu La Flaga and Gai Murakumo both make playable cameos in the first half.
  • Adapted Out:
    • Ryou Shirogane does not appear in this game, so once Takashi bites it, that's the last of the Shirogane family you'll ever see(he does get mentioned in the ending, though). Meanwhile, Sincline goes down fighting the Neue Wärter to the bitter end instead of having someone shove him off the tower in Ryou's place.
    • Due to the reworking of Tekkaman Blade II plot into a Midquel, Natasha's father along with the event he caused (Black September of Prague), are not included in the story, also resulting Noal being Spared by the Adaptation.
  • Age Lift: For the portion of Tekkaman Blade II, Aki stayed in her youthful form instead of growing more adult, and this didn't change her Tekkaman form much.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Zonders, the Eleven Masters of Sol and the Database
  • Ambidextrous Sprite: Like in Judgment, units such as the Duel Gundam Assault Shroud and the Buster Gundam have different sprites as an enemy and ally to match their asymmetrical design. Averted with the Blitz Gundam where it had its sprite mirrored if it is recruited, putting the weapons on the wrong arms.
  • Art Evolution: The increased power and storage space of the Nintendo DS means that W, while sharing roughly the same artstyle as its Game Boy Advance predecessor, is able to incorporate more intricate effects and become less reliant on Stock Footage explosions and recycled beam sprites. They are also numerous "dynamic" kill animations whenever an attack defeats an enemy with practically every major unit having at least 1 with the strongest versions of many of them having 2 or more, whereas Judgement only gave this extra animation to Nadesico Y-Unit, Dancouga, and God Gundam.
  • The Artifact: Despite being the Endless Waltz version, the final attack of the Wing Gundam Zero references an iconic moment from the TV Series (the Wing Zero's destruction of Libra) rather than anything from the movie.
  • Ascended Extra: Gimlet was a weak Starter Villain in his series and a borderline Joke Character. In W, he appears during several scenarios, and the players must fight him three times, each putting up some resistance.
  • Badass Army: Wärter, later "Neue Wärter", both composed of various Badass Crews.
  • Badass Family: The Ardyguns
  • BFG: Wing Gundam Zero's Twin Buster Rifle, Heavyarms Kai's Quad Gatling Guns, Astray Blue Frame's Gatling Gun and "Lohengrin" beam launcher.
  • BFS: Astray Red Frame's 150-meter long "Gerbera Straight", Astray Blue Frame's "Tactical Arms", Valzacard's "Dimension Breaker", using the Arm Arcus as a sword hilt
  • Big Bad: Inference, later Critic on the second playthrough of the game
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Out of the various villains in the game, the Mariemaia Army certainly winds up being the least of a threat. They pop up for only a few stages, are notably the only villain faction to be entirely wiped out prior to the Time Skip, and are ultimately revealed to be an Unwitting Pawn/False Flag Operation used by Blue Cosmos and Amalgam to stir up anti-colony resentment on Earth so as to justify the Bloody Valentine attack.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Aki Kisaragi during the Time Skip, Guy Shishioh, and Tekkaman Blade perform this a lot. This is also the speciality of Tetsuya Tsurugi, who gets a Badass Creed by Tsukumo Shiratori of all people.
  • Bigger Is Better: The Valzacard is roughly the size of the Gunbuster.
  • Boring, but Practical: Any unit with the "Repair" note  and "Resupply" note  modules, in general, but Aki as a Tekkaman lives on this trope. She lacks a "Voltekka" and her weapons' attack power are relatively low and consist of basic strikes. On the other hand, she has two Spirit Command pools (one for herself, the other for her Power Up Mount), a nice Spirit Command list, a mutual "love" bonus with Blade via the Relationship Values game mechanic in W and a powerful, yet cheap Combination Attack with him, alongside having the best raw stats in the game bar none.
    • The Ryu robots handle their ability to combine by sharing all upgrades done to any of them, meaning any cash or skill part investment into them is multiplied fourfold. They each have their own Spirit Command pools that are tracked separately from their combined forms, meaning they have six pools between the four of them. The Ryus also each come with a status effect on their moves that cuts one of the opponent's important stats by halfnote , which can quickly take the wind out of a boss's sails. Together with their wide array of powerful combination attacks with each other, it's very difficult to beat the Ryu brothers for sheer efficiency.
    • Volfogg will see a lot of use simply because his Melting Siren nullifies enemy barriers for the rest of the turn after it's used. The challenge regarding enemies that have some form of a barrier is drastically lowered. His Bunshin Assassination also halves the enemy's accuracy, which like EnRyu halving damage, cripples most bosses.
    • GoLion has a powerful weapon set with long range that's made even longer by its pilots having access to Accel and Assail, is relatively sturdy, has five pilots with large and diverse Spirit Command pools, and its Fire Tornado attack inflicts a status that halves the target's attack power.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Due to the game having Tekkaman Blade II taking place between arcs of the original series, Blade can combine the Voltekka Crush Intrude he used against Dead End with the Blaster Voltekka he had at the end of the first series.
  • Brother–Sister Incest: Hilariously played with the Ryu robots. When Kazuma Ardygun asks whether or not the brothers can combine with the sisters, the four brothers started trying to one-up each other to curry favor with the girls.
  • Butt-Monkey: The Nerima Red Dragon. Everytime they show up, they are inevitably wiped out by whoever they're fighting. Be it Radam beasts, Zonder robos, or even Bonta-kun.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • In the opening scrawl of the game, Kazuma relates his sadness regarding how Pluto was demoted from being a planet. Take a wild guess where you fight the Final Boss.
    • Those explosive earrings Sōsuke Sagara makes for Kaname Chidori? In Full Metal Panic!, they were just a one-off joke; in W, she makes good use of them to escape from her kidnappers on two separate occasions.
  • Clown Car: One of the most extreme cases in SRW. Because of some battleships being reduced to deployable units, such as the Eternal and the J-Ark, it's actually possible to deploy units that are larger than the ships they're being deployed from. This includes swapping them in and out during a scenario, meaning they're actually supposed to be inside.
  • Combining Mecha: Valguard (mecha + battleship) and Valzacard (two mecha + two battleships). Also, the Shin Getter, GoLion, GaoGaiGar and 80% of the GaoGaiGar units
  • Composite Character: A moveset example with Mazinkaiser where it has both the Kaiser Nova and Final Kaiser Blade which are the finishing moves of the Super Robot Wars original and OVA Mazinkaiser respectively. Even newer Super Robot Wars games do not have Mazinkaiser wielding both attacks at the same time.
  • Condescending Compassion: Played for Laughs. Kazuma tells Duo that the crew considers him the best janitor in the early part of the game when the latter complains about all the work he has to help with when aboard the Valstork.
  • Cool Ship: The Valstork.
  • Cuteness Overload: Every time Bonta-kun has pre-fight dialogue with an enemy, they always remark about how adorable it is. Even Rau Le Creuset feels the darkness in his soul lifting.
  • Damsel in Distress: Most spectacularly Kaname, who spends the second half of W being traded around by various enemy factions until you get her back mid-way through the final scenario.
  • A Day in the Limelight: W casts the spotlight of the Cosmic Era on the characters of Gundam SEED Astray, as the game primarily focuses on the characters from the Junk Guild and Serpent Tail. Much of the earlier parts of Gundam SEED plot occurs off-screen.
  • Defrosting Ice Prince: Prince of Darkness-Akito Tenkawa via gameplay. The first time you use "Double Gekigan Flare", he mutters something. The second time, he starts saying stuff hesitantly; by the third, he returns to full-on Hotbloodedness.
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • The Archangel for roughly half of SEED's storyline. W mostly follows Astray instead, so the main SEED cast is usually off following their own storyline alone for the third quarter of the game, save the battle against Andrew Waltfield, where it is shown that Quatre and Seina helped them.
    • Emperor Dai Bazaal barely shows up until it's time to fight him at the end of the GoLion plot, despite being the Big Bad and a regular in his series. To add further injury, his death isn't even the point of the scenario, as Palparepa and Applicant appear after he dies and takes the spotlight. Can be justified in that Dai Bazaal's always been mainly an Orcus on His Throne and his son Sinclyne is the more active villain. Unfortunately, for any players who don't know much about GoLion, Dai Bazaal feels like a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere.
    • In an odd way, Tomoru Shindo get's something like this. The other major characters of the series, Youko, Dr. Kanzuki and Archetype Orgun, along with some of the villains, show up multiple times in the first half of the game. Orgun himself is a major recurring presence, tied closely into the plot of Tekkaman Blade. Meanwhile Tomoru himself doesn't show up until about the last third of the game.
    • Goldymarg used to be a unit in the Alpha subseries. In this game, he only appears when GaoGaiGar is about to do Goldion Hammer/Crusher. This is actually beneficial for the players, because beforehand, Goldion Hammer/Crusher was considered a Combination Attack, so the player is forced to deploy Goldymarg who is otherwise rather lackluster as a unit. Now, they just need to deploy GaoGaiGar and can use the Hammer/Crusher anytime as long as it has enough Energy and Spirit.
  • The Ditz: The game carries over Yumi's earlier messy training before she Took a Level in Badass by having one of her animations to be wiggling her arms almost losing her balance while standing on Hayato's Blue Earth Gamma, kneeling to catch her breath before pointing out at the enemy.
  • Disc-One Nuke: GaoGaiGar units join early and are extremely good for that part of the game, particularly Big Volfogg and the Ryu robots. However, the real nuke is the Mazinkaiser, who joins a bit later, but is a Lightning Bruiser with absurd damage output that puts other units like the Genesic GaoGaiGar to shame. The Kaiser also never diminishes in power nor suffers from The Worf Effect, as it gains access to the most powerful attack in the game.
    • The Valguard for the second half of the game. While most of your team are unavailable after the Time Skip and you're left with mainly new, unupgraded machines, you still have this Battleship-sized, five-pilot, Lightning Bruiser of a mecha, which can steamroll most of the early Part 2 bosses with ease.
  • Duel Boss: D-Boy has to fight a few solo battles against Tekkaman Evil (Chapters 10 and 50 if chosen to fight the Radam on the Moon), Tekkaman Axe (Chapter 21) and Tekkaman Dead (Chapter 39). Kira also has one against Athrun in Chapter 37 if you choose to search for Kaname at Orb.
  • Dying as Yourself: Both Tekkaman Axe and Tekkaman Evil's mugshots show them as humans when they die. Blade himself also gets this when he was apparently annihilated by GENESIS.
    • Gauron of all people gets this treatment, if you can believe that.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: As opposed to the original series where his death was rather abrupt, Shirogane goes out with a bang. First, he covered Fala from a fatal shot from Honeruba. And then, after being sent to the infirmary, knowing that he's going to die soon, he went to pilot the Blue Lion anyway and make it look like he's healthy to inspire morale to the Wärter, piloting the best he could as the subpilot of GoLion until both Honeruba and Baron Ashura are forced to retreat. Only after that did he finally succumb to his wound and pass away.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Mu La Flaga and the Astray cast appear early in W, despite the Gundam SEED plot not starting until the second half. Also, the Radam Tree sequence featuring Yumi Francois, David Krugel and Natasha Pablociva getting swallowed up to become Tekkamen is never seen in Tekkaman Blade II (it was only mentioned).
    • Fuuryu and Rairyu make an appearance some time before even the defeat of EI-01 and even achieve their Symmetrical Docking in Gekiryuujin, though they still don't join the heroes until after the Primevals start appearing.
    • Archetype Orgun shows up several times in the first half of the game, and the player gains control of him during the final battle with the Z-Master. The end of the first half actually kicks off the Orgun plot, with Orgun being destroyed in a Beam-O-War with Inference.
  • 11th-Hour Ranger: Archetype Orgun and King J-Der join the party outright for Part 1's final battle against the Z-Master.
  • 11th-Hour Superpower: The finale of the first half, where all allied units begin the scenario at maximum Will, with all GaoGaiGar units' Will notched up to 250. The Ryu robots in their Gouryujin and Genryujin forms with Archetype Orgun and the King J-Der joining as reinforcements.
    • The Valzacard in the second half of W is only available near the end of the game.
    • Also, the Goldion Crusher, one of the three most powerful attacks in the game as well as the largest MAP area attack, is only available in the final two missions.
  • Enemy Civil War: [[Anime/Mazinkaiser Dr. Hell and Baron Ashura]] collaborate with Honerva and Sadak during the first half of the game, but the Galra commanders have their own agenda. After Sadak is defeated by Wärter at Bardos, he breaks Ashura out of prison - only for Ashura to kill him on the spot, then immediately go on to take out Honerva's craft as well when she tries to escape Bardos when their forces start losing.
  • Enemy Mine, Guest-Star Party Member: At one point, the players ends up controlling Tekkaman Evil who works in tandem with Blade to remove the Zonders, just so the Radam Trees can grow. Another example is Aria Advance, who joins for one scenario in the Arm Arcus (though this is before she reveals herself to be part of the Database), which is by far better than any unit you have access to up to that point. Seina may also count, as she joins for a couple of missions involving the Wing cast (albeit by the time she seems to have done a mild Heel–Face Turn).
  • Evil Versus Evil Versus Evil: The Radam, Evoluders, and Zonders have been fighting each other all across the galaxy. They don't get along with the other baddies, either. Multiple early scenarios and story scenes see the heroes able to come out on top because the villains are too busy scrapping with each other to enact their evil plans.
  • Expy: Gameplay-wise. The Golion and its crew have the exact same role (if not stats) and Spirit Command setup as Combattler V did in Judgement.
    • The 'Val' series of mechs are a clear nod to the SRX team. To whit:
  • Final Boss Preview: Inference appears in the Scientia and blasts the heroes just before the Time Skip. However, the Scientia is actually the second-to-last boss, although Inference does normally pilot the real Final Boss machine.
  • Foreshadowing: Early on in the story, Chidori is experimented on by an Amalgam scientist in an attempt to extract her Whispered knowledge. She ends up spouting a lot of seemingly nonsensical Techno Babble, all of which prove to be important dozens of stages later.
    • Some of the terms she mentioned include IFS, Retrospect, infinite information circuit (better known as G-Stone), Obarium 808 (the material of Orgun's armor), precursor civilization Es, Leo, Gamma Glipheptin (the drug used by Earth Alliance's Boosted Men) and Galeorea Comet. Though that last one is actually a Red Herring, since the protagonists never go to the Sol Masters' universe in this game, and the Galeorea Comet never comes into play.
    • When the Arm Primeval attacked Orbit Base, he was shocked to see that Blessfield was there and immediately retreated to form the Combined Primeval, because he thought Blessfield was Applicant.
    • The Valstork fires its cannons out of an apparatus that very clearly resembles a hand for no real reason, hinting that it has a transformation mechanism stored in it. This isn't elaborated on until near the end of part 1, when Caret uses THE POWER to activate the signal required to form the Valguard by combining it with the Valhawk.
  • Grasp the Sun: Orgun reaches out to the Earth as he dies from the wounds sustained from the explosion when he and the Scientia fired their MAP weapons at each other.
  • Gratuitous English: The Database Mecha-Mooks only say things like [ATTACK], [DAMAGE], and [SUPPORT]. On one occasion Mr. Gates also screams "OH! MY GOD!" (sic) on an open channel.
  • Gratuitous German: Wärter and Neue Wärter; "wärter" means "warden" (and is pronounced with a V sound), specifically the "warden of a lighthouse", and "neue" means "new"
  • Guest-Star Party Member: The first half of the game is absolutely loaded with such characters, with numerous Early Bird Cameos of several ASTRAY and SEED characters and regular appearances by Archetype Orgun. Even casts that are part of the Part 1 roster like Full Metal Panic! and Mazinkaiser make playable appearances but don't actually join the cast until a few stages later. The biggest case of this goes to the crew of Nadesico, who despite being introduced as early as Stage 3 and making several playable appearances afterwards, don't technically join the party until Stage 11, or Stage 14 if you don't take one route split.
  • Henshin Heroes: The Tekkamen and Orgun
  • Herd-Hitting Attack: This instalment has some whoppers. Yumi's "Reactor Voltekka" MAP version hits 41 square grids, while the METEOR units' "Full Burst" hits 43, and both are Friendly Fireproof, unlike most attacks of this type.
  • Hollywood Hacking: In Stage 13, some members of the team, including Kazuma, try to earn some extra cash by helping Aqua Crimson debug a video game that her company is developing. They do this by piloting simulated versions of their robots against simulated versions of Aestivalis and the Nadesico, which are apparently the representation of bugs according to Aqua. It later turned out that she was lying: the Aestivalis represent the Nadesico's defense programs, and the Nadesico is the representation of Omoikane, the Nadesico's AI. The entire job was a scheme to destroy the Nadesico's computer system.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Since the Tekkaman Blade II OVA got refitted into a Midquel, D-Boy also brings Yumi into his old home along with Aki and is able to entrust his dream of future Tekkaman surpassing their sad destiny to Yumi. This became the reason for how she interpreted the 'D' part of his name as 'Dream'. That, and learning some extent of D-Boy's utterly shit past and Aki's years of devotion for it, enabled her to move on from her crush of D-Boy, backing out of the Love Triangle in Aki's favor.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: In mission 9, Relena gets stuffed into the cockpit of Kurz's Arm Slave to keep her safe. Kurz complains that Relena is so nice he can't even think about hitting on her.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: One of the Yonkoma has Relena Peacecraft say that she's going to join the heroes by becoming a Tekkaman. In the last panel she puts on one of Dr. Hell's mook helmets, prompting Heero to respond "No, that's a Tekkamen"note .
  • Inevitable Mutual Betrayal: The [[Anime/Mazinkaiser forces of Bardos]] and the Galra work together some, but they don't exactly keep the fact that they have clashing agendas under wraps.
  • In Name Only: Even though Shin Getter Robo's home series is listed as "Shin Getter Robo (Original Manga Version)", its design is actually the one from Getter Robo Armageddon, and it's piloted by the anime version of the Getter Team. So essentially, it has nothing to do with the Shin Getter manga.
  • In Spite of a Nail: The Blue Cosmos never got their hands on Neutron Jammer Canceller technology in this game, preventing them from attacking the PLANTs with nuclear weapons. However, the O.M.N.I. Enforcer ended up deploying something even more powerful: Fermion particle missiles developed using Black Technology (it's implied that Leonard Testarossa was the one responsible).
  • Irony: Crossed with Call-Back and Ironic Echo. During the Zonuda event, Tetsuya is the one who points out that it's the choice of one's life (Mikoto Utsugi) versus the lives of everyone on Earth. This is ironic when you realize Tetsuya faced the same problem during his first battle after his debut in the Great Mazinger manga.
  • Joke Character: It's possible to beat W with any unit in the game... except Sol Tekkaman Unit-1 and Sol Tekkaman Unit-2. Doing so with these two is possible, but is generally considering difficult and time consuming.
  • Karma Houdini: By the end of the game, pretty much every villain is either reformed or Killed Off for Real, including Dr. Hell, whose death was ambiguous in his original series. The sole exception is Leonard Testarossa, since the FMP storyline in the game ends after The Second Raid.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Anyone from GaoGaiGar eventually becomes one of these, thanks to their exclusive Brave skill, effectively Newtype on steroids that increases evasion, accuracy, armor and even critical rate.
  • Killed Off for Real: Shirogane/Sven, Papillion (both versions of her), Bernard and Leo Shishioh. (although he dies during the events of GaoGaiGar FINAL rather than the end of the TV series) Blessfield also died long before the start of the game due to time shenanigans.
  • Killer Rabbit, Lethal Joke Character: Bonta-Kun
  • MacGuffin Delivery Service: More than once does Wärter defeat an enemy or retrieves an artifact only for the Database to immediately swoop in and steal it away for themselves.
  • Magikarp Power: Mic Sounders the 13th begins with only "Disc P" and "Disc M" as his attacks until midway through the Primevals segment of the GaoGaiGar plot, where he gains MAP versions of both attacks, plus the powerful "Disc X" and its respective MAP attack, the "Solitary Wave". Post-Time Skip, mic gains "Disc F", his most powerful attack.
    • Just like Judgment, Sousuke and the ARX-7 Arbalest is an Ace Custom of his team's mecha with middling weapon range, evasion, and low armor alongside relatively low attack power, especially compared to the powerhouse Super Robots in Wärter. The addition of a Nerfed "Lambda Drive" increased its durability and attack power into a level that is simply par of the course for Real Robots, which is made even worse since its strongest attack, while cheap on EN cost, is a Combination Attack that forces you to deploy rather mediocre units alongside the Arbalest. However, upgrade its weaponry and defenses a bit, while placing on ammo-enhancing equippable parts, and you get a unit that can spam its strongest non-Combination Attack, with nice durability and evasion. It helps that the Arbalest has an extremely versatile weapon set.
  • Mêlée à Trois: Several missions have the heroes facing two villainous groups that are also at odds with each other (represented by red and yellow units). Played with as sometimes the second villain group doesn't act from the beginning, only popping up after the player has dealt with the other villain first.
  • Mid-Season Twist: The last scenario before the Time Skip, as you'd expect. All the GGG robots went out of commission fighting the Zonuda Robot, Tekkaman Blade is presumed dead, Miyuki "Tekkaman Rapier" Aiba is Killed Off for Real if you don't meet the requirements to recruit her, Orgun is dead, Blessfield is rendered missing-in-action, and the protagonists fail to prevent the Bloody Valentine incident, which led to war between Earth and the PLANT.
  • Mythology Gag: In a confrontation with the Arm Primeval, Kogane will declare that Golion is the Defender of the Universe.
  • Nerf:
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Because Akane Ardygun is a huge fan of Uppo-Kun, EI-13 nearly gets retconned from existence. Unfortunately, Sousuke shows up in his Bonta-Kun outfit and causes trouble, which results in the creation of EI-13, anyways.
    • The reveal that George Glenn gave the Jovians his Gekiganger collection, effectively starting the conflict between them and Earth. Whoops.
  • No-Sell: All Database units have an ability that makes them immune to Status Effects, with the exception of the Valarm when Applicant pulls his Heel–Face Turn.
  • Obviously Evil: This is Blessfield and Kazuma's opinion of Honeruba when they first meet her. They pretty much unilaterally decide to commit Earth to war with the Galra Empire on the spot because of it.
  • Older Than They Look: Gai Daigoji looks much younger post-Time Skip.
  • Only I Can Make It Go: The Gundam SEED units you can purchase in New Game+ are this - All SEED pilots can pilot the GINN High Maneuver, the 105 Dagger and the Sword Calamity as all three were piloted by Naturals, but only Coordinators can pilot the CGUE DEEP Arms and only Mu and Prayer can pilot the Gunbarrel Dagger.
  • Original Generation: The Ardygun family and the Database
  • Overrated and Underleveled: Akito Tenkawa, which especially stands out considering he's the protagonist of his series. In the first half his stats and machine aren't that special and the Ryoko/Hikaru/Izumi trio are much more useful with their Team Attacks. He'd be better in Part 2... except that he isn't usable until the last two missions of the game.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Many units that stop upgrading in the first part will be this by stronger units in the second half. A particularly notable example are the Gundam SEED units (other than Freedom and Justice), which are overshadowed by the Astrays thanks to their not-so-notable performance and late arrival, and the Aestivalises, which are solid units as a whole but are relatively worse in terms of mobility, when compared to something like the Tekkamen.
    • During the "Reactor Voltekka" event of Tekkaman Blade II, David lampshades the fact that a Reactor Voltekka given to Natasha means he's destined to be put in this position.
  • Paper Fan of Doom: Kaname's paper fan is an actual equippable part in the game note .
  • Plot-Relevant Age-Up: In the six month Time Skip, Science Officer Ruri Hoshino transforms into her older self: Captain Ruri Hoshino of the Nadesico B battleship. Lampshaded, then Handwaved as "puberty".
    • Just like in the original, Yurika comments that everyone looks older after she wakes up. Ryoko handwaves it by saying that it's because they're worried about her
  • Post-Script Season: The Getter Team are shown as post-Getter Robo G and using the Shin Getter Robo, instead.
  • Powered Armor: Tekkamen, Birdmen and the Sol Tekkamen suits. Bonta-Kun might count, as well
  • Power Gives You Wings: The Valzacard grows glowing energy wings during some of its attacks, as does the Sapientia.
  • Power of Rock: Mic Sounders turns out to be one of the best support characters in the game, especially after his upgrade gives him an area of effect Will boost.
  • Powers as Programs: The Database
  • Ramming Always Works: In the first half of the game, it's just the Valhawk's "Heat Edge Exploder", GaoGaiGar's "Hell and Heaven" and the Aestavelis who follow this trope, but in the second half, they're joined by King J-Der's "J-Quath", Mazinkaiser's "Kaiser Nova", Shin Getter Robo's "Shin Shine Spark", GaoFighGar's "Hell and Heaven" and Genesic GaoGaiGar's "Genesic Hell and Heaven".
  • Robeast: Mechanical Beasts, Zonders and the trope namer
  • Recurring Extra: Kaname's class takes good advantage of the expansion W gives with lots of field trips (even to the Moon!), usually arriving shortly before a battle breaks out there.
  • Recycled Soundtrack: The music for Gundam SEED Astray and X Astray comes from SD Gundam G Generation, much like Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam in Super Robot Wars Alpha 2.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Surprisingly, the game does this to Tekkaman Evil; rather than dying after waking up from Radam control, Blade's younger brother says his thanks by transforming back into a Tekkaman and blocks off a horde of Radam beasts alone, allowing Blade to confront Tekkaman Omega at cost of his life.
  • Respawning Enemies: As usual for SRW, many scenarios feature multiple waves of enemy reinforcements. One of the Mazinkaiser scenarios has infinite respawns, as does the second-to-last GaoGaiGar scenario (though the enemies who respawn are Eviluders) and the final scenario. The concluding mission of the Endless Waltz storyline appears to have endless reinforcements, but they stop after fourteen waves.
  • Rocket Punch: (Genesic) GaoGaiGar's "Broken Magnum", GaoFighGar's "Broken Phantom", Aestavelis' "Wire Fist", GoLion's "Hundred Ton Punch", Mazinkaiser's "Turbo Smasher"
  • Sixth Ranger: Though he politely declines an official invitation (complete with Lampshade Hanging), Guy plays this role with the GoLion crew a number of times.
  • Spanner in the Works: Tetsuya. The Mycene Empire did not expect Tetsuya to be such a massive threat to their plans to defeat Kouji and the Mazinkaiser. As a result, he manages to foil their plans by being a distraction to Ankoku Daishogun, who respects Tetsuya for his outstanding performance.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: A lot of people, particularly the cast of Gundam SEED, but subverted with Leo, who survives his canon death only to be killed by Palparepa during the events of GaoGaiGar FINAL.
    • Gai Daigoji, who survives to go through the events of Prince of Darkness: he even gets a character redesign and an Aestivalis Custom! However, he does not receive an updated Super Move Portrait Attack until he and Akito unlock their Aestivalis Custom's version of the Double Gekigan Flare. Only then will his new cut-in appear, but exclusively for that attack.
    • It's possible to save Tekkaman Rapier, though doing so requires you to bust your ass when fighting Tekkaman Evil in his "Blaster" mode within a set number of turns, and prevents you from recruiting Canard and the Hyperion Gundam.
    • Tsukumo survives the events of his death and forms a family with Haruka Minato and Yukina Shiratori.
    • Given the beginning of GoLion, the Earth itself. In fact, after meeting the princess and acquiring the GoLion, the team takes advantage of this and heads straight back to find allies.
    • Since the events of Tekkaman Blade II is refitted into a Midquel, Noal ends up staying to the end instead of being killed off for no reason.
    • Balzac also ends up being spared from his canon death, with Bernard, a non-playable character from the same series who was also spared from his earlier canon death, taking his place in performing a Heroic Sacrifice to take down Tekkaman Sword.
  • Super Mode: "Blaster" mode, "Mazin Power", "ZERO System", "SEED Mode", and "Lambda Drive"
  • Superpower Lottery: An odd example regarding Yumi. The reason she got the "Reactor Voltekka" is due to some form of programming malfunction, when it was supposed to be given to Natasha. As a result, Yumi becomes the most powerful Tekkaman of the team.
  • Super Title Sixty Four Advance: Makes more sense when you realize the Japanese use the letter "W" as a short-hand for "Double", or in this case, "Dual Screen".
  • Taking the Bullet: Gai Daigodji has a habit of not dying from this in the game.
  • Theme Music Power-Up:
    • In the Final Mazinkaizer mission, where Kouji gets the Kaiser Scrander, the music overrides to "Mazin Kenzan".
    • When the Jovians switch sides and help Warter fight off the Galra, Ruri invokes this by playing "Lets Go Gekiganger 3" during the battle, giving everyone the extra dose of hot-bloodedness they need to save the day. Sousuke and Heero try to resist this, as they must be The Stoic, but only Heero really succeeds.
    • It's played straight again in the very next chapter, where GaoGaiGar, King J-Der and the GGG robots(and the rest of Warter) get POWER-ed up and start tearing into the Machine Primevals and Galra as the music changes to "Saikyo Yusha Robo Gundan", just as it did in the series.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: One of the Astray Red Frame's attacks involves tossing its 150-meter long Gerbera Straight.
  • Time Skip: A period of six months, at which point the plots of Gundam SEED, Detonator Orgun and the sequels kick in.
  • Transforming Mecha: Valhawk, Taurus and the Birdmen, which are transformable Powered Armor.
  • Training from Hell: In lieu of making him go to school with Kouji and Ryoma, Kazama gets to spend his days in the tender care of Mao and Noin.
  • The Usual Adversaries: Any mission that doesn't start with you fighting the Radam has an even chance of getting crashed by them later. To a lesser extent, the Evoluders, particularly towards the end of the game.
  • Villain Team-Up: Dr. Hell + Galra Empire, Amalgam + Mariemaia Army + Blue Cosmos, ZAFT + Martian Successors + Amalgam, Database + Galra Empire + Eleven Masters of Sol
  • Wave-Motion Gun: Wing Gundam Zero's Twin Buster Rifle, Nadesico's "Gravity Blast", Nadesico B's "Phase Transition Cannons", Archangel's "Lohengrin Positron Cannon", Valstork's "Dual Proton Cannons", the Tekkamen's Voltekkas, and Orgun's "P.E.C. Cannon"
  • Weirdness Magnet: Mamoru Amami, Hana Hatsuno and Kaname; the latter lampshades this by noting that every time she runs into Mamoru and Hana, something bad happens. This is right before the EI-01 (Pasdar) tries to turn half the population of Tokyo into Zonders and the Radam trying to turn the other half into Tekkamen.
  • The World Is Always Doomed: The only thing that seems to keep the world going out early on is the fact that 80% of the villains don't like each other at all. Justified more strongly than usual: several of extraterrestrial armies aren't in the Earth Sphere to fight humanity - they're here to fight each other, and the hapless Earth caught between them is just grist for the mill.
  • We ARE Struggling Together: The New United Nations. The Secretariat, led by Big Good Rose Approval, is responsible for backing the Wärter and genuinely tries to make the world a better place. However, the Security Council, which is in charge of the deployment of O.M.N.I. Enforcer, is mostly controlled by Blue Cosmos and is far more interested in wiping out the Coordinators by any means necessary.
  • Worthy Opponent: Tetsuya is one to Ankoku Daishogun, just like the classic series.
  • You Wanna Get Sued?: Upon seeing Lowe use the "Thunder Ball" energy attack (due to an accident with the Astray Red Frame's power distribution), Gai Daigoji is about to call it the "Shining Finger", until Saburota Takasugi stops him mid-sentence. Doubles as an Actor Allusion, as Saburota is voiced by Shin-ichiro Miki, voice actor for Ryusei Datenote , and Gai is voiced by Tomokazu Seki, Domon Kasshu.

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