Super Robot Wars Y Review – A Loving Tribute to Mecha Anime

Super Robot Wars Y Review

Super Robot Wars Y is the latest grid turn-based strategy RPG from the Super Robot Wars franchise, a massive crossover between every mecha show for the last several decades. This title has no connection to previous Super Robot Wars games. It does, however, have a deep connection to a lot of giant robot anime.

In a world where almost every major mecha show in the last forty years happened back to back, the galaxy is far from peaceful. Fourteen-year-old Echika discovers the city her father left her is actually the flying fortress A. Advent. Just in time, too, as a mysterious faction of AI puppets is going after it and her.

Together with a mysterious NINJA assassin bodyguard and a plethora of crossover characters, Echika must chart a new path forward. A. Advent harbors a powerful new energy source that could change humanity’s future.

However, nobody said unbridled evolution was necessarily going to be a good thing. And as the shadows of the unstoppable Getter Emperor and the equally unstoppable Godzilla close in, only one thing is certain. This fight is going to be awesome.

Mecha, Mecha, Everywhere

Super Robot Wars Y dares to ask the question: what if Getter Robo teamed up with a bunch of Gundams and Dynazenon to fight kaiju? If you liked pitting all your action figures against each other as a kid, you’ll enjoy that premise. And while the strategy RPG gameplay is generally well-designed and decently challenging, the presentation is the main appeal.

There are four difficulty modes available, from Casual to Expert. Newcomers to Super Robot Wars are recommended to play on Casual. However, if you want more of a challenge, the game will show no mercy. You can also pick between a male and female protagonist, each of which has different dialog and a different mecha.

You progress through the game by completing missions around the world. New missions can be unlocked by completing old ones or meeting specific conditions. Some of them are mutually exclusive. Accomplish specific goals to unlock a variety of secrets, from extra cameos to power-ups to early recruits. Combat is a little spreadsheet heavy, but it’s still doable even if you’re not good at math.

Out of battle, you strengthen your mecha and pilots in Customization. Otherwise, the game consists of various turn-based battles on varying sizes of maps, where you control robots to beat up other robots. During battle, you command your units to move, attack, and invoke various Spirits for bonuses. Using Spirits costs SP, a resource that slowly grows over time.

Attacked units will immediately counter in the same turn. This means that if multiple enemies attack a single character, that character will have the ability to take revenge on each. You can also switch up your strategy by commanding characters to defend or evade instead of counterattacking.

Super Robot Wars Y is a Joyous Celebration of the Mecha Genre

Super Robot Wars Y is a game made by mecha fans, for mecha fans. This means it has an absolutely fantastic soundtrack designed to get the blood pumping. I lingered on the title screen just to hear the opening song. Each character has their own theme and the attack animations feel ripped directly from the source material. It really does feel like playing an anime, especially with Japanese voice actors screaming their hearts out.

I would love to say that Super Robot Wars Y is a good-looking game. The attack animations are stellar, the character and mecha designs are great, and the sound design is lovely. The models are a bit small and fuzzy on the maps, but I can live with that. Unfortunately, the UI is terrible, especially on the pre-battle screen.

I have no idea who okayed this design. It’s visually unappealing, confusing to read, and generally underwhelming. And it doesn’t even update its predictions when you add bonuses. The rest of the game’s presentation is dripping with love and care. This sticks out like a sore thumb.

Fortunately, the original mechs and enemies look pretty good, the character art is solid, and there are no bad attack animations. Add in a surprisingly deep RPG system and you have a recipe for a good time. As long as you can roll with the crossover-heavy nature of the game, anyway.

Rule of Cool

Super Robot Wars Y is, more than anything else, cool. This works in its favor and against it at the same time. This game strikes a nice balance between strategic robot combat and story. Half the fun is seeing various anime characters bounce off each other. However, if you don’t know who those characters are, you should keep a wiki open while playing.

The game has a surprisingly good story, but it’ll be cooler if you understand who Heero Yuy is and why it’s a big deal that he’s chasing Chang Wufei. You don’t need to know who was in previous games, but it’ll be cooler to play as Takuma Nagare if you’ve also played as his dad Ryoma. And the game opens with major spoilers for several franchises, because it’s cool to watch the finale of Code Geass even without context.

What I’m saying is, playing this game is definitely not a substitute for watching or reading the titles featured. If you don’t know who these characters are, you’ll get very confused, very fast. However, this game is a very good argument for why you should should get caught up on fifty years of giant robot shows.

All in all, Super Robot Wars Y is a game that loves giant robots, and if you give it a chance, you’ll probably end up loving them too. And getting a bunch of new anime for your watchlist.

***Switch code provided by the publisher***