Need to admit first and foremost
that I have never played a single Super Robot Taisen game. The series has been
around for several years, dating back to the original Game Boy. For me the
desire to play the games was always based upon my infatuation with the giant
robots created by Go Nagai. He created Mazinger Z and Getter Robo which had a
short run in America years ago as Tranzor Z and Starvengers. Once I saw a game
with those characters I knew one day I would need to set aside some time to
actually play the games. Unfortunately the series has only had a limited run in
the US with two GBA games being released a few years ago.
Now with the release of Endless
Frontier I figured it was about time for me to get my feet wet with the Super
Robot Taisen series. This time with Endless Frontier the game is more of a
traditional Japanese Role Play Game (JRPG). Previously most of the games in the
series were strategy games that I got burned out on years ago. You get the
typical anime-inspired graphic style with plenty of cut scenes to see the
majority of the characters in the game. Yet the one area that I wanted to see
the most of, the Super Robots, really takes a back seat the regular characters
in the game.
The story is based upon the
mysterious Cross Gates that connect several worlds together. As people started
using the Cross Gates to see the other worlds it soon brought about fighting and
ultimately war between the worlds that lasted for years. Now it has been a
several years since the war and the connected worlds are still having problems
adjusting to the peace. You play the role of Haken Browning, a bounty hunter
from the world of Lost Herencia. During a mission Haken and his android robot
Aschen uncover Kaguya, a princess from the world of Kagura Amahara, which soon
puts Haken on a journey crossing over to the other worlds connected by the Cross
Gates.
The actual storyline and game
progression isn’t a genre busting experience. Instead the game follows a very
typical path that we’ve come to expect in JRPGs. You will run into random combat
that will always pop up when don’t want it to. You will spend several minutes
exploring a “dungeon” and solving simple puzzles as you finally make your way to
the boss. You will have to level up frequently in order to take out the bosses
you’ll encounter in the game. You will also have a storyline that almost tries
to cross the boundary of the Teen ranking it was given with some suggested
material that younger gamers probably shouldn’t be reading.
Even with the rather typical
storyline and game progression the gameplay does try to keep the game lively
with the combat. In this game, though, the combat is very heavy on you
controlling the timing of the battles. You start combat by pressing the A button
but once you start an attack you can keep pressing A to keep chaining your
attacks together. You have a certain number of Acts that you can use during a
characters combat phase which allows you to chain the attacks. If you forget to
keep pressing A your character will stop attacking and wait for you to press A
again or press another button for other options. You also have several different
skills (type of attacks) that you will earn and can assign to your characters.
You can swap those skills out to try to find the best chain of attacks that
works for your characters.
The battle system also includes
Combo Attacks, Support Skills and an Overdrive attack. The Combo Attacks allow
you to have another character jump in and continue a chain attack of the current
character. Support Skills are similar to the combo attacks since it allows
characters in the back row to jump in and assist with combat. All of the combat
allows a special gauge, called the Frontier Gauge, to fill up. Once the Frontier
Gauge is filled up you can perform an Overdrive attack that unleashes an
extremely powerful chain of attacks. The game will even reward you by giving
you extra experience points if you take out the last enemy with an Overdrive
attack.
If it wasn’t for the battle system
Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier would be a hard sell except to the
most hardcore of anime/JRPG gamers. The game itself plays similar to almost any
other JRPG released over the last twenty years. You walk around a dungeon, solve
some puzzles and then fight a boss. You then move to the next city to find out
where you need to go next and then repeat. Not saying this formula is a bad
thing since it still can provide an enjoyable experience, especially for gamers
new to the genre. For gamers that love the gameplay of a JRPG and know what to
expect from the genre then this is a worthy game to your collection. However,
even with a fantastic battle system, the rest of game probably isn’t enough to
win over an audience of gamers worn out by the genre.
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Review Scoring Details for Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier |
Gameplay: 7.0
Think of it this way: No matter how good the battle system is, it can’t change
the fact that the rest is a rather run-of-the-mill kind of game.
Graphics: 8.3
Great anime style graphics for the cut scenes between the characters. The battle
graphics are top notch as well with tons of action once you start chaining
attacks. However the top down view graphics barely look better than an very
early 16-bit game.
Sound: 8.0
Typical anime style soundtrack we’ve heard before in other games. However the
game does contain voice acting with the original Japanese voice actors which
works great in keeping the tone of the game faithful to the original Japanese
version.
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
As long as you pace yourself in the game and make sure to level up as much as
possible you shouldn’t have trouble. However if you try to rush through the game
you probably will have challenges during the boss encounters.
Concept: 7.0
If it wasn’t for the battle system the game would have a hard time standing out
from the rest of the crowded JRPG games on the DS. However one cool feature is
the ability to unlock bonus items if you do have the GBA versions of Super Robot
Taisen. Just make sure to put the cartridges in the DS GBA slot when you turn
the game on.
Overall: 7.8
Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier is the game that tries to reinvent
the wheel yet loses a wheel in the process. The battle system does make the
combat more interesting than just pressing a button and watching the combat
unfold for several minutes. It doesn’t give you full control like an action RPG
but it comes close enough to offer an exciting alternative to the standard RPG
combat. If the rest of the game offered the same type of excitement and
innovation Endless Frontier could have been one of the best DS RPG games
released recently.
