{"id":47496,"date":"2025-09-06T15:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T15:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/47496\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T15:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T15:16:09","slug":"super-robot-wars-y-plays-just-like-a-kids-giant-robo-fanfiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/47496\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Robot Wars Y plays just like a kid\u2019s giant robo fanfiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was 16 years old, I wrote my first fanfiction. It was a crossover fic where the cast from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy gave the anime dog demon Inuyasha a makeover. It was stupid and poorly written, and yet, to this very day, I remember it fondly. This is exactly what it\u2019s like playing Super Robot Wars Y \u2014 an exceedingly silly, nonsensical plot featuring characters that have no business speaking to each other all, stitched together by tactical robot action. It rules.<\/p>\n

Super Robot Wars Y was released on Nintendo Switch 2 and Steam on August 29th. For this blog, I played the demo that covers the game\u2019s first chapter with progress carrying over to the full game. It is the latest entry in a series of robot strategy games that spans back to the NES days, but this recent game is only one of a handful of English releases. Super Robot Wars takes all the robots from your favorite mecha series \u2014 Getter Robo, Mazinger Z, Gundam, and more \u2014 and mashes them together in a big ol\u2019 strategy RPG toybox.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s excellent for the Universal Century-loving, Knightmare Frame-driving girlies such as myself, but absolute hell on studios who have to navigate complex licensing agreements<\/a> with anime distributors and production companies once you get outside Japan.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis hand of mine glows with an awesome power. Its burning grip tells me to defeat you!\u201d Yeah, I just pulled that from memory. Image: Bandai Namco<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only been through the dedication of fan translators that Super Robot Wars has maintained a robust English-speaking fandom. And it\u2019s apparently big enough that Bandai Namco has decided it\u2019s worth it to give these games worldwide releases, starting with Super Robot Wars 30 in 2021 and now Super Robot Wars Y.<\/p>\n

This game is, to use the technical term, goofy as shit. You play as an original character, a mecha-piloting soldier sent to protect a young girl who\u2019s found herself in charge of a giant city that\u2019s also a floating battleship. (If you\u2019re familiar with the original Mobile Suit Gundam\u2019s White Base, it\u2019s that but with a city on it.) From there, it gets really silly. The utterly charming thing about Super Robot Wars Y is it makes an earnest, full-throated attempt to incorporate every component series\u2019 plot and most important moments into a singular coherent story.<\/p>\n

When Domon Kasshu (Mobile Fighter G Gundam) shows up, everyone gushes over him because he\u2019s the pilot who won the 13th Gundam Fight. They also gush over him because he\u2019s the guy who gave the most \u201cromantic love confession ever,\u201d and if you\u2019ve watched G Gundam, you\u2019ll know what they\u2019re talking about. And if you don\u2019t, the game includes a robust encyclopedia of characters, organizations, and events to get you up to speed. But I\u2019ve found I don\u2019t care when I don\u2019t know someone or something.<\/p>\n

This game is, to use the technical term, goofy as shit.<\/p>\n

In one fight where I was overwhelmed by mecha-kaiju, four teenagers with attitude climbed into four different mechs that then fused into one. Did I know those kids or care about them? No. Why? Because their giant mech \u2014 which I\u2019m told is called a Dynazenon \u2014 transformed again into a giant, flame-spouting mecha dragon. Who cares about teenagers when you\u2019ve got giant robot dragons?<\/p>\n

Characters with similar motivations and goals are gathered on one side of the conflict and their opponents on the other, leading to legendary team-ups that were once only possible eight pages deep into an AO3 fanfic search. I cannot express how much the sentence \u201cLelouch vi Britannia mounted an all-out assault on Char Aznable\u201d breaks my brain in half. But I can definitively say it was also the moment I bought all the way into this game.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then Heero showed up in Wing Zero, and then Domon Kasshu showed up, and then\u2026\u201d Image: Bandai Namco<\/p>\n

The other reason I\u2019m sold is the combat. I\u2019ve been searching for a tactical action RPG. The last couple I\u2019ve played, Fire Emblem Engage<\/a> and Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, left me cold with a bland story and uninteresting combat, respectively.<\/p>\n

Super Robot Wars Y has adequately scratched my itch. It works like any other tactical RPG: send units out on missions to destroy enemy mechs on a gridded battlefield. Each pilot has a suite of abilities you can swap out and improve, the same way you can upgrade mechs by changing out their parts and enhancing them.<\/p>\n

Since this was a demo of the game\u2019s first chapter, combat was relatively simplistic. But I can see that the upgrade systems offer depth to explore beyond that. You also get abilities called \u201cspirits\u201d that grant you temporary stat bonuses or let you dodge attacks, and support characters who also grant temporary combat boons, so you can build your team to your liking. There\u2019s also something called the \u201cSacred Tri-Directional Galaxy Memory,\u201d which is basically a skill tree that rewards picking a dedicated path with massive, team-wide bonuses.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a part of me that wanted to caveat all the praise I have for Super Robot Wars Y with \u201cas childish as it sounds,\u201d but that\u2019s not really fair. Even from the little bit I\u2019ve played, the enjoyment I get out of Super Robot Wars Y is real, and not strictly because the combat scratched an itch or the batshit story provided a rousing good time. It reminds me of the fun I had writing fanfiction as a kid, and I hope, as the game goes on, that feeling continues.<\/p>\n

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