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Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier (DS) Review by Peter Also joining the party is Suzuka, Kaguya’s friend and flat chested oni princess. She fights by controlling her own mech, the Jyaki-GUN-Oh, by dancing. Also appearing are Reiji Arisu and Xiaomu, the main characters from Monolith’s Namco X Capcom crossover game (the pair were actually based off SRW’s Kyosuke and Excellen). And then there’s fan favorite KOS-MOS, the battle android from Xenosaga. Here she appears in her version 4 design from Episode III. Along with the heroes are also a colorful cast of support and boss characters. Coming from various worlds, they all have unique designs and quirks. Conversations between the characters are full of snide remarks and innuendo. You can tell that Atlus had a lot of fun with the English localization. Kaguya is referred to by every slang word for breasts that you can think of. There are some real killer lines here, and if you can stomach the mature content, many laughs are to be had. The story has many ties to the other OG games (namely OG2), so, unfortunately, if you aren’t familiar with those games, you may be a little lost. It’s not that bad, and stands alone for the most part, but I definitely recommend playing the other games. You won’t regret it. Game play Once you enter a battle is where it changes. It plays like Namco X Capcom. When it is a character’s turn they can use items, use spirits (kind of like magic spells), or attack. What I found nice is that using an item or casting a spirit didn’t end the turn. Each action will consume a character’s COM gauge. Said character can continue doing actions so long as there is COM left (half of your COM refills at the start of each turn). When attacking, characters move into one on one combat. Pressing the A button begins an attack pattern set beforehand. Pressing A again will start the next preset attack pattern (with a maximum of 5). This is the key to the game play. Attacks will send enemies into the air. The goal is to keep them in the air as long as possible. Doing so will increase the likelihood of a critical hit. Finding the right timing to end one attack and begin another, ensuring that the enemy stays airborne, is where all the fun is. If another of your characters is next in line, you can switch characters on the fly, allowing them to continue the attack chain. Four characters fight in the battles, while other characters remain in the back. You can also call these characters into battle to perform support attacks. The game records the maximum number of consecutive hits and the total damage dealt, prompting the player to try and top themselves. Timing is everything. This system constantly holds your attention, so not even weak random encounters are boring. As you deal damage, take damage, use support attacks, and call in other characters, the Frontier Gauge fills up. Once it does, your characters can perform their special attacks using the Y button for high amounts of damage. The Gauge is communal, though, so only one character can use it before it needs to be refilled. These attacks are especially handy during boss fights. And I’ll tell you, there are a lot of boss fights. Every dungeon has two or three of them, and you’ll fight each twice, minimum, throughout the game. Sometimes they’ll team up with other bosses, too. This is where keeping enemies airborne is imperative. If an enemy touches the ground, there is a chance that they will perform the dreaded Forced Evasion. They will become unaffected by your attacks, your character’s turn will end, and there’s a chance the enemy will counter attack. All enemies have the potential to do this, but it’s far more likely to happen during a boss fight. In terms of difficulty, it can range from decent to pretty easy. Once you get your timing down, you’ll have no problems dispatching most enemies. Some bosses hit pretty hard, but so long as you’re stocked with items, you won’t have problems. It might just become slightly annoying. Some character skills contribute to the easiness. For example, Kaguya starts with the Love spirit. It heals your entire party to 100% HP and only costs 80 SP. Later on when Kaguya has 800 SP, using it has almost no consequence. Suzuka also has the Cheer spirit, making you gain 1.5x experience. This helps with leveling. Some say that Haken makes things even easier with his Rampage Specter attack, but I never used Haken in the front row after I got KOS-MOS, so I can’t say. Despite being a DS game, Endless Frontier does not use the touch screen at all. Graphics Conversations outside of battle are portrayed with full sized portraits of the characters. They all have a wide variety of facial and body expressions, adding another dimension to the witty dialogue. The character designs are great. From the mermen to the cat girls, each species have their unique traits, and each character looks different on top of that. Both the male and female designs are bright and attractive, which is a great asset to a game like this whose selling point is the hot girls. Highest praise goes to character and mecha designer Kazue Saito. Audio Conclusion Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars |