/v/ - Video Games

>>16784535

>Although, I hear that there ISN'T even a canon to the series

you heard fucking wrong. There is a multiverse. Every Gilliam Jaeger is the same dimension-hopping badass from Hero Senki

that said, the sub-series tend to stand alone and the metaplot tends to only come up when Dark Brain is seeking the twelve keys to the multiverse (he's the antagonist of Great Battle, the series which SRW itself spun off of, and OG Gaiden)

>Should I just pick up Compact and use that as my entry into the series?

you might want to consider one of the ones in English

original series:

SRW1 (GB, PS3 (jap only)) is basically a unit tactics game with minimal story. Recruit apparently sentient robots and kill GirGilGan from one of the Mazinger movies

SRW2 (NES) and 3 (SNES) is where the series found its footing. 2 holds that the heroes fought GirGilGan at some point in the past, semi-canonizing 1

SRWEX (SNES) takes place between 3 and 4, and tells the midpoint of Masoukishin (convenient since Masoukishin has something of a timeskip there)

SRW4 (SNES) isn't in English just yet but AGTP (like it or not, they're the ones doing these) recently finished the script so it should be out soonish

Masoukishin - The Lord of Elemental (SNES) is the first fully OCdonutsteel game, featuring the storyline of Masaki's Cybaster and the other Elemental Lords in La Gias

alpha series:

only Alpha Gaiden is playable in english at this time. Picks up 6 months after the end of Alpha 1 and thus just after the end of episode 5 of Gunbuster

you can blame Harmony Gold for killing what would have otherwise been an all-hands-on-deck official translation and localization of the Alpha series

GBA series (sort of):

A Portable (actually for PSP) is fucking great but very challenging as SRW titles go. Have fun pursuing the Nadesico, stopping colony drops and shit

J (GBA) has rather amazing graphics for the GBA. On the easy side but you might find yourself dying to unforeseen situations the first time through (Domon suddenly spawns next to Devil Gundam and must survive but he's getting a beatdown because you didn't know to cover him. Like that). Features BrainPowerd (with perfect animations for the Brains compared to Alpha 2's), Tekkaman Blade (fuck yeah) and is the only appearance Zeorymer in the series. Also the best way to experience Gundam SEED (you know, so you don't have to watch SEED)

original generations:

Original Generation 1 & 2 (GBA) tell the plot of SRW2 and 3 with copyright friendly donutsteels, notably the ATX team from Compact 2, the SRX team (originally from Shin), and numerous OCs from Alpha. Also Masoukishin because Cybaster's cool enough to be in everything

other OG titles have been translated as well, including The Moon Dwellers for PS4 (tells the story of J with OCs)

misc:

PlayAsia's been providing English language copies of many of the recent games. I wouldn't necessarily say they're the best entry to the series, but they too are options

I'm sure I've forgotten one or another but yeah

>>16784560

I assume Endless Frontier is omitted due to playing nothing like the series is generally known for, but it might be worth mentioning that EXCEED has seen a public beta release of its English patch (full this time, not just menu) for testing purposes. Going off the gbatemp thread, it sounds like they're aiming to have all the mistakes found corrected by the end of March for a proper release.

Just pick up Moon Dwellers, V, X, or T.

You can pick up V, X and T on Switch and all of those on PS4.

All of them have an Asian English release or English options. SRW games are usually self contained, except the Original Generation games.

>>16784555

>>16784560

>>16784575

>>16784652

I wasn't planning on playing the translated version.

Also a word about SRWOG, they are a smidgen harder than recent SRW games.

>>16784676

The translated ones are actually some of the better ones.

If you want to play any play F and F Final (if you want the only good WinkySoft games), MX, all of the Alpha games, the OG Saga PS2 games, PS2 Z, W and UX. You can try out Neo for the Wii if you're bored since it's 3D and uses circle maps like Makai Kingdom/Phantom Brave instead of a grid. Everything else is average to mediocre, WinkySoft games were never very good. The Masou Kishin games are a ripoff of Dunbine/Escaflowne.

>>16784676

Oh good, then you can play OGs

>>16784575

actually I omitted it because it simply slipped my mind. But yes, being an atypical RPG instead of a strategy/tactics game like the bulk of the series kind of makes it not an appropriate entry point

It'd be like trying to introduce someone to Phantasy Star with PS Adventure or the PS2 character spinoffs

>>16785155

SRW has multiple spinoffs though, a couple of RTS games and some shitty throwaway beat-em-up belt scrollers on the PS1 and PS2.