Thread by @dramata1

Time for some talk about The First Super Robot Wars Alpha.

Alpha 1 was published by Banpresto in May 2000. It was their first non-Winkysoft developed flagship SRW title.

A full Dreamcast remake was released in August 2001 featuring all 3D models. (As an aside, this remake was a precursor to SRW GC/XO in many ways.)

Alpha 1 marked the end of one era and the beginning of another. It was when the franchise started doing fancier animations and cut-ins, and for what I believe was the first time, it made all those animations optional and skippable.

This game and OG1 for GBA were how I first cut my teeth on SRW as a franchise. My viewpoint was probably more than a little skewed by playing the Dreamcast version to completion before giving the PS1 version a deeper look.

Some would call Alpha 1's gameplay unbalanced or unrefined, but I find it to be very endearing and rewarding. A lot of people make the mistake of looking at its individual weapon-based upgrades system and immediately wanting money cheats—that's not the least bit necessary.

Please enjoy Alpha 1's PS1 version opening. (And pour one out for the poor Zakus harmed in the making of this film)

Now enjoy the Alpha for Dreamcast opening. (More Zakus, Doms, and Gelgoogs were harmed in the making of this film)

Much like F before it, Alpha 1 has a set of 8 fully realized OCs, each with their own design, personality, and voice sets.

Brooklyn "Bullet" Luckfield: Serious and righteous
Yuuki "Yu" Geghnan: Calm and rational
Ryoto Hikawa: Timid and kind
Tasuku Shinguji: Upbeat and laid-back

A lot of the personality details in these descriptions later went on to get used in OG, such as Tasuku being awful at physical exercise. (Which is why he started out as a maintenance crew tech, because he flunked the physical portion of the piloting aptitude test)

Rio Meilong: Serious and righteous
Leona Garstein: Calm and rational
Kusuha Mizuha: Timid and kind (okay maybe not ALL of these aspects made it to OG...)
Ricarla "Carla" Borgnine: Upbeat and laid-back

You can freely rename people and swap "personalities" (voice sets), as well as changing birthdates and blood types. Using Terada's birthday of November 11, blood type B, gives you a set of insanely good spirits, but they're all super expensive and unusable for most of the game.

You get the option of choosing either "Super" or "Real" type for your OC. This will start you on one of two early game routes with a set of 7 separate starting stages, plus other later stages (and robot upgrades) unique to that route.

Your options basically boil down to:
Super: Start with a Grungust Type-2, get the Grungust eaten by RyuKoOh, Eater of Grungusts, and keep RyuKoOh instead
Real: Start with a Hückebein Mk. II, upgrade it to a Hückebein Mk. III, then get the most powerful Gunner to ever exist in SRW

For this Twitter run, I'm going Real. The Super route has been covered to exhaustion in MNeidengard's Gamefaqs story guide, and all other things equal, the Hückebein is the better starting machine by far.

I'll make polls to pick one male and one female OC and check it after dinner. VA list included FWIW, not that I'm going to be recording much audio.

Bullet: Toshihiko Seki
Yu: Mitsuaki Madono
Ryoto: Yumiko Kobayashi
Tasuku: Kappei Yamaguchi

Rio: Rio Natsuki
Leona: Yui Sakakibara
Kusuha: Mikako Takahashi
Carla: Rica Matsumoto

Minor correction: Bullet is Tomokazu Sugita. I should not have gotten that one wrong, lol. It was one of his early roles before he hit the Anime Big Time, IIRC.

The results are in: Bullet and Leona it is. Since I'm running Real and that's what Leona's skills are oriented toward, I'm going to make Leona my main. Bullet will be her love interest.

(Shoutouts to the like 3 people who gave my personal favorite OC, Rio, their pity votes)

Leona Garstein
Birthday: 11/30
Blood Type: A

Description: A rational and calm person who is also proud and spirited. The daughter of a prestigious military line, she seems capable in every way, but she's hopelessly bad at cooking.

Brooklyn "Bullet" Luckfield
Birthday: 5/5
Blood Type: O

Description: A straightforward boy with a strong sense of duty. His righteous personality and willingness to take everything seriously make him trusted by those around him. His main flaw is his short fuse.

I forgot that the archetype you pick has a designated counterpart, so we're going with a Tasuku hastily reskinned as Bullet. Congrats Bullet, you're now voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi.

Alpha dumps you right into a Gunbuster encounter at the start, complete with kanji salad lines that make early Japanese learners cry. Get used to those, Alpha loves them.

It's New Common Era 186, February 14, 7:45 AM, in the sector of Raioh, the 10th planet of the solar system.

The Federation Special Space Force SDF Fleet #0 Flagship Exelion has encountered a swarm of unidentified enemies there. The rest of the fleet and most of their Machine Weapon teams have already been wiped out. Tashiro can't believe how badly they're losing, with all of their EOT.

Ohta doesn't think these things are Aerogators or giant aliens. He thinks they're the ones that sunk the Luxion 7 years ago. The XO says they should retreat. Tashiro says it's out of the question—If they flee now, the aliens will be able to track them to Earth.

So, it's us against an unidentified alien swarm. "Us" = the Excelion plus three Machine Weapons manned by Noriko, Kazumi, and Jung.

Fittingly, Noriko's starting spirits are Gain (Hard work) and Vigor (Guts). Kazumi and Jung have a more usable spirit list than hers, but Noriko has something special that they don't: The Guts skill. I think only three people in the game get it—Noriko, Ryusei, and Isamu.

The Machine Weapons' attack options are a wee bit anemic. We can manage okay against the space monster soldiers, though.

We each take out a soldier, even with Noriko's lack of morale gain skills.

Next turn we get a gravity quake warning. Space monster reinforcements? No. For some reason, the Aerogators are joining the fray. Tashiro muses that the SDF-1 Macross is our only means left of resisting them, then orders the ship's degeneracy generator to critical. Fadeout.

It's time for a really long ass plot dump intro scroll. I'm going to translate the whole thing and post it on Pastebin so that I'm not cluttering up the feed too much. I can see why they started with an in-media-res prologue before this thing.

pastebin.com/hnUWWhwd

Stage 1 starts with Leona and Bullet piloting a Tausendfüssler transport ship (later used in OG) in space. Before we get to them, though, let's admire this map of the local space around Earth. We've got colonies, Solomon, A Baoa Qu, the moon, Luna II, and Anaheim Electronics.

More thoughts before I dive into plot: That whole intro scroll? That covered A LOT. That's because Alpha is the last of the era of games with fully integrated plotlines that all take place in a single dimension/setting (that happens to include La Gias and Byston Well, shut up).

I mean the Alpha series as a whole. Alpha Gaiden does time shenanigans, but none of the games go into extradimensional plots at all the way subsequent SRW series and titles do. No Time-Space Oscillation Bomb, no Three Worlds, etc.

https://twitter.com/InteractiveKos/status/1207139200316923904

The OC transport is approaching Side 7, being piloted by Leona and Bullet. They signed on with Mao Industries to be PT test pilots, but Leona still finds it odd that they'd be made formal pilots and put in charge of a transport with just 1 year of training under their belts.

After mulling on it, Leona decides to check on the cargo. Bullet heard rumors about what they were carrying—The Vanishing Trooper. The Personal Trooper (PT) designated R, loaded with mystery tech, the epicenter of ominous incidents. R? Leona confirms it's RTX-010.

Bullet heard that when Technetium Base got wiped off the map, it was because unit 1's Black Hole Engine went out of control—Never mind, Leona's tired of listening to him ramble about rumors. She's going to the hangar to check it out for herself.

As Leona leaves, Bullet quirks his eyebrows. Why is Minovsky particle density in the area reaching combat levels?

A more modern game would have a built-in quick reference guide for terms like this one, but those weren't a thing in the PS1 era. Minovsky particles are the superscience that UC Gundam tech is built around.
technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp…

In the hangar, Leona confirms they're carrying the Hückebein unit 2. Why would Mao task two cadets in training all alone with carrying such valuable cargo, sending it to the DC, not the military? And why is the cockpit hatch open now when Leona checked it before takeoff?

Her questions are cut short when the Tausendfüssler gets rocked by an explosion. She gets comm static when trying to contact Bullet, so she opts to try the Hückebein Mk-II's comms instead... and finds the mech on and idling when she gets in. Did it turn on by itself?

The static's still bad when she gets through to Bullet. All she can make out is: "Mobile suit... transport... get out..."

Episode 1: Vanishing Trooper

The Hückebein Mk-II makes it to the field, but Leona's frightened that there's still no response from Bullet on the transport. Enemy MSes show up being led by Yazan in a Gaplant.

Yazan is impressed that the Hückebein held up through the attack on the transport. It might even be the better of the Mk-IIs. No wonder Jamaikan wants it. When Leona demands an explanation, he realizes it's manned and tells the troops to capture it, with or without the pilot.

Leona starts frantically searching for this thing's manual, but then somehow knowledge of its controls comes flowing into her mind, as though it's teaching her itself. I get the option of reviewing controls and choose not to. I'm good, thanks.

The Hückebein Mk-II's strongest starting weapon is its Chakram Shooter. It's got a Gravity Wall. Leona herself has Bullseye for a spirit and the Concentrate skill, which makes spirits cheaper for her, plus Telekinetic L4.

Wait, what's that 1 in the lower left of Leona's status?

That's my skill point tally. I'll stick to modern conventions and call them SR points here. I earned 1 point for skipping the manual overview. The game doesn't tell you when you gain or lose them (yes, you can lose them). You can check totals here or in your save file.

On turn 2, the Argama shows up, tracking signs of Titans activity. Quattro recognizes Leona's mech as a Hückebein type that likely uses EOT and suggests backing her up. Henken is fully on board with keeping EOT firmly out of the hands of the Titans.

Quattro gets on comms and tells Leona to clear out if her mech is damaged (it isn't). Leona wants to know why he'd fight the Titans if he's also Feddie.

Quattro: ...How about I share some combat tips instead?

He lectures me about ranges and getting in close for better odds.

Here's our backup. Lookit the little Argama, it's so cute!!!

When I said the Chakram Shooter was the Hückebein's main weapon, that wasn't to insult the mech. Once I get the 1 kill necessary to hit 105 morale to unlock it, it can one-shot all of these Marasais on the map.

Leona has a short-but-sweet encounter with Yazan, whose Gaplant's megaparticle beams can't even breach her Gravity Wall. Have I mentioned this is a really good starting mech? The backup wasn't even necessary to easily clear the stage solo.

On board the Argama, they verify Leona is an employee of Mao Industries on the moon. She was taking the transport from the moon to Earth when it came under attack.

Blex verifies that 2 years ago, the unit 1 wiped out Technetium Base on the moon when it went out of control. Henken's heard the story, and heard that there were only 3 survivors. Why would Mao send one to Earth during a time of conflict, unescorted? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Leona asks what this group's deal is and why they were fighting the Titans. They explain that the Titans are an anti-Zeon group on paper, but in practice they're a brutal secret police established by brass in the Federation government that have an Earth supremacist agenda.

The AEUG adds that the Titans don't have many friends in space, and speculates that someone at Mao could have tipped off the Titans. Leona wonders if they were sent out alone to ensure the cargo fell into Titans hands, but Blex rules that out—CEO Ring Mao is not a fan of them.

The AEUG, Blex explains, is the Anti-Earth Union Group, an organization formed to resist the Federation Government and the Titans' oppression of Spacenoids.

Leona's given a choice of going back to the moon quietly or joining them in their fight. She'll be stuck with them a while anyway since they're out on operation now.

They didn't find any other survivors when they checked the transport, which leaves Leona devastated.

Leona quietly agrees to stick with them for a while. Blex promises to release her safely once they're done with their next op. Now then, it's time to take the Argama to Green Noa 2 in Side 7.

Let's take a look at the intermission screen.

One of early Alpha's old relics is the Limit stat seen at the bottom of the mech upgrade screen. Sometimes your mech can't keep up with your pilot's hit/dodge stats and you have to raise Limit to compensate. It's a non-issue ATM.

Like early OG, Alpha applies upgrades on a per-weapon basis, rather than across-the-board. Unlike early OG, there are no interchangeable weapons. There are hidden unlockables for upgrading certain weapons. We'll see those way later.

For now we're going to sit on our money. Money is extremely scarce in early Alpha, but it's ultimately an unnecessary resource for the first half or so of the game anyway, in light of how many introductory forced deploys you'll be seeing. No-upgrade full SR point runs are doable.

Leona's still beating herself up for failing to save Bullet. If only she'd piloted the Hückebein better...! But she snaps out of her funk as they approach Green Noa 2 and asks for a reminder of what their purpose in going there was.

The AEUG got a tip the Titans were overhauling a base there, and they're going to verify for themselves. Quattro warns Henken to shut his mouth before releasing Leona becomes a non-starter, and he suggests Leona leave the bridge. No, Leona says, she wants in.

Quattro tries to dissuade her, assuring her that they're not desperate enough to be in trouble without her help. But Leona insists she wants revenge against the Titans that killed Bullet. Quattro says revenge is something that will destroy her.

Blex and Henken both override him and allow Leona to take the field, but afterward, Henken remarks in chagrin that Quattro is using him like one of his own men. Unlike Zeon and the Zabis, they feel obligated to use the Red Comet for the good of all humanity, not just Spacenoids.

In Green Noa 2, Kamille is visiting the spaceport to see a special guest currently docked there—The White Base, mothership of the 13th Autonomous Squadron, key players in the One Year War.

Lieutenant Jerid of the Titans overhears Fa calling Kamille's name and makes fun of it. Kamille gets pissed and decks the space-SS officer. Jerid orders him held down, ignores Emma's entreaties to stop, then gives Kamille "a man's treatment" and kicks him, then has him arrested.

Episode 2: The Black Gundam begins here. This arrest happened to take place right before a Gundam Mk-II field test, as Quattro infiltrates on foot. He's getting a sensation akin to Amuro Ray or Lalah Sune, then he spots a silhouette he quickly IDs as a Gundam.

Leona helpfully adds some exposition. That's the MS piloted by Amuro Ray in the OYW, right? Thanks, Leona. Is he in the Titans? Nah, he's seen as a threat to people who only view Newtypes as tools of war, so he's imprisoned somewhere on Earth.

A "Newtype" is a term for a Gundam pilot with heightened awareness, something akin to empathy and/or precognition. There's a whole lot of words associated with Newtype Theory as the next stage of human evolution in Gundam, but for our purposes, it's basically Force Awareness.

Anyway, Jerid's digging this new Gundam Mk-II. It's leagues beyond their usual GM Quel model. He and Kakricon each have one, leaving the third unmanned. Quattro can spot an opportunity a mile away. Leona's mission is to swipe that Gundam and get it out undamaged.

Kakricon's shocked that the Vanishing Trooper would show up in this colony, but Jerid's ready to put their Gundam Mk-IIs into an impromptu live combat exercise. Kakricon's unsure about live combat in a colony, but Jerid says they have to bring those guerrillas to their knees.

My skill point is to get to the Gundam in 2 turns. Since I start like 6 spaces away from it, this is easily done. Bright's taking charge at base and yelling at the panicking officers to evacuate civvies and noncombatant personnel. "But without orders from Captain Bask..."

Bright browbeats Emma into getting things done without orders from Bask, then spots the random civvie on base and yells at him to get the hell out of there. Kamille spots the empty Gundam Mk-II and gets a better idea. Good thing he swiped his dad (the developer)'s data on it.

Kamille gets on comms and tells Quattro he's not an enemy, and he's ready to prove it by running straight up to Kakricon and attacking. Quattro says grats, you're in, now let's get the hell out of here.

My favorite part of this stage is that they start you with Kamille's Gundam Mk-II standing right next to the other two with no way to tell them apart at a glance other than manually selecting each one. This is before the era of red and blue highlights and other IFF distinctions.

This stage presents us with our first terrain bonuses. You get huge bonuses to hit and defense by standing on buildings, and wouldn't you know it? Every building has a handy outlet for you to plug yourself into to regenerate EN (energy) each turn you're on one.

Pictured: Level 8 Jerid Mesa on regular terrain, attacking Level 2 Kamille standing on top of a building. The difference can be a game-changer, especially when using new and unupgraded units with unleveled pilots.

Back in Green Noa 2, talking forehead Jamaikan Dunnigan is on a call with Cima Garahau, who is eating this whole development up. She tells them to bring the remaining two Gundams to the rendezvous point along with the frame for the Unit 4.

The civilian losses in the colony are unknown, and the damage will take months to fix. Perfect, Bask says, just use this as an excuse to kick the civilians out. Bright storms in demanding an explanation of why they'd expose a civilian colony to this kind of risk and gets punched.

Jamaikan gives Bright new orders: They're overhauling Green Noa 2 into Gryps 2, a military base. Bright's in charge of taking some of its civilians onto the White Base and ferrying them to the moon.

Back on the Argama, introductions are made all around, but instead of that, let's take a moment to appreciate this office background, arguably the most dedicated veteran background in the SRW franchise. I'm pretty sure this old workhorse sticks around even up through T.

Astonaige's been checking out the Hückebein, an important step for them considering the whole "Vanishing Trooper" incident. It's got the frame of a Hückebein, but the innards are mostly Gespenst Mk-II parts. It uses a fusion reactor instead of a Black Hole Engine, too.

Does that mean it's just a regular PT? Far from it. It's got a Gravicon System that lets it control gravity, which is how it generates its Gravity Wall. There's no way current tech could make one small enough to fit, so it's got to be EOT (Extra Over Technology, alien tech).

The rule of thumb Leona's heard in rumors is that any serial number with R in it utilizes unknown technology. Astonaige rules that out, since the RX-78 Gundam, for all of its goofy weapon loadout, never used alien tech to his knowledge.

One last note he adds is that the Hückebein has a brainwave control system slightly akin to psycommu. It has a single brainwave pattern registered in its databanks, and only that brainwave can control it. Leona was registered as its pilot in advance, in other words.

The Argama's getting a distress signal from the EFF Assault Landing Ship White Base, which is under attack by unidentifiable enemies. Leona's got a bad feeling about this, so I choose to have her stay on the bench and see how this plays out. +1 SR point for that.

Episode 3: Rescue the White Base starts with the White Base under attack by unidentified enemies led by Paptimus Scirocco taking his shiny new Messala out for a test spin. Could the Titans have set Bright up for a space assassination? Whatever the case, the Argama has a job here.

In the days before cap ships had bridge operator subpilots, all you get is the captain's spirit set. All Henken's got is Vigor. Ouch. Bright's not much better off, he gets Vigor and Trust. Sleggar's alive because the finale of the OYW was cut short by aliens, as you'll recall.

Oh, I forgot a pilot with Guts. Sleggar's got it, so I'm gonna send him in and roll the dice.

I somehow luck out and land a pot shot on Scirocco without any savescumming, but more importantly, he lands a shot on Sleggar, knocking him immediately under 25% health and causing Guts to kick in. This will drastically raise his hit, dodge, and crit rates while at low HP.

Unfortunately, my getting any damage on Scirocco spooks him into leaving. He wouldn't want to get pulled any further in by the Earth's gravity. That just leaves a bunch of grunts for Sleggar to crit and one-shot.

After the stage, Bright agrees to join the AEUG and start fighting the Titans in earnest. Fa is among the civilian evacuees on the White Base, and she tells Kamille that his parents have been taken into custody by the Titans. End of stage.

Quattro doesn't like how passive the Titans are being, so the AEUG plans to strike them and see what shakes out. Quattro gets a report from a Zeon agent from Granada on the moon verifying the Titans aren't headed there. Would they go to Earth? That wouldn't make sense.

They also have photos of nuclear pulses firing in the Asteroid Belt. Axis is making a return to Earth, with the Zabis at the helm (because they're not dead). The Delaz Fleet is also mobilizing. How do the Titans know, and why stop them on Earth instead of in space?

Quattro asks to hear what the progress with the Psycho-Frame is. It's been furnished to Anaheim's materials division with development already begun on a concept to utilize it. Does it have a name yet? Yeah. The Nu Gundam. Hopefully that will get -him- back on the field.

The three posts above are just a small sample of some of the hyper-compression done for various plotlines to mash them together in this game. Without going into an extensive Gundam plotline lecture for the unfamiliar, take my word for it that it's A Lot.

The Argama's getting a shipment of supplies, including the Hyaku Shiki, a byproduct of Project Zeta, an ongoing project to build a third-generation transforming Gundam. Astonaige offers to let Kamille sit in on the project meetings to share his hands-on experience and opinions.

Quattro asks Kamille and Leona what they want to do, moving forward. Kamille wants in the AEUG to avoid more victims of the Titans. Leona wants in because she feels that piloting the Hückebein is important somehow, and she wants to find out who set her up to be used like this.

Bright's taking over the Argama. He wants all MS maintenance done in 30 minutes so they can launch an attack on the Titans, but first, they come across two ships in space.

Episode 4: The Gundam Called the Reaper

Right off the bat, these two ships are suspicious. One is an Alexandria-class Titans cruiser, and the other is an old Zanzibar-class Zeon cruiser. No signs of combat between them. It's a sure bet now that the Titans and Zeon are in cahoots somehow.

A quick convo between Bask and Cima is telling. Cima leaves Bask and the Titans to handle clean-up of the AEUG, since her job is to occupy Australia and South Atalia Island. Minovsky particle density is too high for the Argama to pursue the Zanzibar when it goes to descend.

The Alexandria fields a Titans MS team. As part of that team, Emma's wondering what the hell she's doing with a group that's confiscating entire colonies and making backroom deals with Zeon.

For this battle, I'm going to send Leona and Kamille up front and let everybody else take a back seat. Leona's got a kill count to rack up, and Kamille has another job to do here.

Loading units on the boat is generally my go-to strat for modern SRWs, but older ones like this give units a steep -10 morale penalty when they dock in a warship after launching. Morale makes an enormous difference in this game, so you have to decide if you want to take that hit.

If you bring Kamille up next to Emma, you'll get a new command, Persuade. The game doesn't hint at this at all.

Kamille demands that Emma disarm and surrender if she doesn't want to fight. She agrees immediately. That was an easy recruitment.

On turn 3, when we've got matters well in hand and are almost done mopping up the MS team, a new contender shows up and approaches the Alexandria. Duo's ready to start his mission, and that means getting the AEUG to trust him. Nobody has the Deathscythe in their databanks.

Duo's not controllable in this mission, so I want to destroy the Alexandria before he can steal my money and XP.

I almost forgot, the Gundam Mk-II has a scattering bazooka MAP weapon in this game. The range is kinda finicky and hard to use, though.

lol, ok, I'm not worried about Duo destroying the Alexandria anymore. He goes up and attacks it for 300 damage.

Duo's awful attacks end up doing more harm than good by driving up Bask's morale to the point that nobody outside of Leona and Kamille can hit him for more than 10 damage. Several rounds of attrition later, we whittle him down to the point of retreat.

On the Argama, they verify that Duo's got a sponsorship from Anaheim Electronics. Bright decides to let the mystery kid and his non-military Gundam stick around. Duo insists on doing all maintenance work himself.

Emma doesn't have much info to share on the Titans/Zeon connection. Kamille vouches for her as trustworthy, so Quattro lets her stay, but assigns Reccoa to watch her for a while. I got +1 SR point for recruiting her, by the way.

Duo's recording a mission log. Successfully infiltrated the Argama. Identified person suspected of being Char Aznable. Proceeding as planned.

Torres's default portrait looks equal parts harried and startled. Anyway, calculations are in. The Alexandria's making descent over Federation HQ at Jaburo in South America. The Zanzibar's bound for the Pacific. The Argama sets a course for Earth to nip this in the bud.

The Argama can't handle this alone, but Bright knows there are people in the Federation opposed to the Titans. Duo's skeptical of relying on Earthnoids for anything Spacenoid-related.

Emma: Not everyone on Earth is bad, you know.
Duo: I guess not. If the Titans had more good people like you in their top brass, the Bunch 30 Incident never would've happened.
Emma's confused. Wasn't there a revolt there? No, Duo says, that was a colony gassing.

Emma's horrified. How could anyone do such a thing? Easy, Quattro says—People don't know the pain of others if they don't personally get blood on their hands. The Federation sees people who adapt to space as a threat and they don't want power going to potential Newtypes.

Quattro starts to go into a long derail about Newtypes and human understanding (Alpha loooves classic Newtype Theory). Thankully, Leona forestalls it by reminding them we have a Zeon invasion to deal with. Right, then.

Just as we're setting a course to pursue the Zanzibar to the Pacific, we spot another ship going on an Earth descent course. No IFF, but they have a good idea of who it is. To battle stations!

Episode 5: The Ghost of Zeon

It's another Zanzibar, this one manned by some old enemies from the OYW 7 years ago. To them, the Argama looks like the Federation's Trojan Horse, so it must be the AEUG's flagship. Checks out to me.

The Argama's plan is to hold out for 7 minutes and make reentry. Duo's amused that the Reaper is now slaying Zeon ghosts.

Suddenly, the Black Tristars launch a Jet Stream Attack on Leona. In this game's engine, it's just 3 regular attacks.

I was hoping all three would hit and give me 3 free morale, but no such luck. Leona dodged the diffusion beam and parried the heat saber.

Quattro says to leave the Zanzibar alone, but I get an SR point for taking it out in 6 turns. I'm not sure I'm prepped for it, but I'll try.

On enemy turn 1, Quattro gets an encrypted transmission from M'Quve. "Your Earth Sphere recon assignment is over. Return to Axis forthwith, Haman Karn awaits you." Quattro refuses. This is no time for humans to fight amongst themselves. That makes him a traitor to M'Quve.

Sadly, this is the best I manage by turn 6 when I send Leona up to deal with the Zanzibar by herself. Without the 11/11 B skill set or some upgrades, this SR point isn't very feasible, so I take back what I said about no-upgrade full skill point runs being totally doable.

The battle threw the Argama's descent off-course over Tokyo, Japan. Quattro wonders if the Titans won't brand us as traitors, but Bright says Secretary Oka of the Far East Branch is no friend to the Titans. That, and the Far East has a special position of neutrality.

Why does it get to be neutral? Because Japan is home to a metric shitton of superscience facilities and powerful humanoid mobile weapons: Super Robots. NOBODY wants to mess with Japan.

Dissatisfied with settling for less, I go back and re-do the stage. This time I ignore the MS team and just rush the Zanzibar with all my main hitters, leaving Robert, Apolly, and Reccoa to use human shield tactics to guard the Argama from the Black Tristars. Shoutouts to Guts.

Much better. Full SR points so far, with no upgrades.

We make landfall over Tokyo, where we can't get through to the Far East Branch due to signal interference. Before we can make contact with anybody, an interception team gets sent to meet us.

Episode 6: Showdown at the Far East Base

Duo decides to jump the gun and strike first. Bright yells at him to stand down, but he reminds us he's not in our chain of command. Leona gets a choice to stop him or not, and I choose to launch and stop him.

Leona launches and tells Duo not to make enemies of the Far East.

Duo: You trust people so easily. You must've had a nice upbringing. Where I was raised, people who did that ended up dead.

Leona says if he resolves everything through fighting, he's no better than the Titans.

The Argama finally gets comms online, but an odd assortment of enemies shows up: Kikaiju and Neo Zeon MSes. Mashymre is working in league with Count Brocken, you know, as you do. Haman's orders, apparently.

Everybody sorties to deal with this mess together.

Let's take a moment to appreciate one of the forgotten relics of this era: The Self-Destruct spirit command. For the low, low price of 1 SP, you get a countdown (interruptable at any time with the X button), then your mech blows up and does its max HP in damage to adjacent units.

In effect, what this command does is ensure that all five Wing pilots only get 5 usable spirit commands instead of everybody else's 6.

In this Super-Real route merger stage, we finally get access to an early assortment of Super Robots, like Boss Borot from the days before games tried to make it usable. Mazinger Z is good on ground but has attacks with Bs in the air. I send in Getter 2 for ground enemies.

Boss Borot also gets Self-Destruct, but it's arguably less bad in this case because Boss Borot's status as a "joke" unit means it only costs 10 credits to repair if it gets destroyed.

Oh yeah, this was also before the days when they made every attack cost something. Mazinger Z has a free Rocket Punch. I'll be making heavy use of that this stage.

The stage itself, despite its large size, is pretty relaxing with no SR point requirements.

Pictured: A common sight for early game Mazinger Z. Koji's starting spirit is a full heal, but he won't be needing it for a very long time. Castle of Iron indeed.

Mazin Power kicks in at 130 morale, giving him an enormous damage boost.

Secretary Oka's reception is even warmer than they could've hoped for. They were hoping to just get overlooked, but instead, Oka offers them on-base maintenance and intel gathering to the extent of his ability. He takes his job defending the Earth seriously. (He's also a ninja)

Koji almost gets on the wrong foot by commenting on Kamille's name, and Emma warns him before he gets decked. But hey, Koji says, it beats Boss, who doesn't even HAVE a real name—Boss interjects that yes he does, dammit. Well, what is it? Oh hey look, a Gundam.

Oka's a commander in Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V, which will come up later. Here's the best image I could find including him on GIS.

https://twitter.com/anonanonsqaured/status/1207858640809533440

Why would two organizations as hostile as the Titans and Zeon suddenly crawl into bed together? The answer lies on South Atalia Island, where the ASS-1 is kept. What's Ei-Ess-Ess? Alien Star Ship. The thing that crashed there. Here's some people saying it on-screen.

Like OG, in NCE 179 a meteor came crashing to Earth. Unlike OG, the "meteor" was actually an alien space battleship, completely unmanned. It's been 7 years since then, which Earth spent recovering from the OYW. They're still woefully unprepared to face aliens.

Knowledge of this spaceship is highly classified, but the superscience institutes across Japan have been privy to it, which is why they've developed so many super robots lately. The Titans and Zeon both want Earth unified to face aliens, but on their own terms.

In general, the ASS-1 and EOT in general are huge game-changers that can shift the balance of power dramatically worldwide, which is why the Titans/Zeon want it. Leona's Hückebein also utilizes EOT.

I keep going back to this, but shoutouts to @flightofcrimson for producing better screenshots of Secretary Oka, Ninja Extraordinaire. This is the quality content this thread needs.

https://twitter.com/flightofcrimson/status/1208033449212121088

Anyway, Oka assures people that there's a neutral Federation special force established there called the SDF, whose sole purpose is to oppose groups that want to hog all the EOT to themselves—IE, Zeon or the BF Group.

The SDF was established 4 years ago. Bright's confused, that was when the Federation Forces were undergoing massive restructuring. They wouldn't have had the leeway to form a special forces unit. He's right. It was the DC that established them in reality.

This spooked-looking Feddie officer interrupts the talk of power struggles to alert us to unconfirmed objects over the Miura Peninsula, 10 of them. What are they? Classified, but they're what the Far East Base was built to fight. They're headed for the Nambara Connection.

At the Nambara Connection, four guys have been assembled and issued some questionable uniforms. Dr. Nambara greets them with his granddaughter Chizuru, also in uniform.

He's summoned them to show them the Super Electromagnetic Robot Com-Battler V (yes there's a hyphen), a new mech built for them to pilot and defend the Earth.

Welcome to Super Robot Country, ladies and gentlemen.

Episode 7: Let's Combine!

True to classic TV show form, the stage starts with us faffing about in the individual component fighters to fight the Campbellian Forces. Alpha was probably the last SRW series to include pilotable components, and the game contrives excuses to use them surprisingly often.

After a couple of rounds of barely dinging the enemies, they want to combine.

Juzo: Couldn't we have just gone out already combined?
Ropet: Nobody's-supposed-to-point-that-out.

The plot excuse is that their brainwaves aren't all in synch, so more Battle Machine combat ensues.

Next turn, the Argama shows up, and I get my sortie screen. You get 11 units to sortie, but only 5 of them are worth fielding against flying enemies, so I'm sparing everybody else a quick trip back to the boat.

On the Com-Battler side of the map, I've actually gotten most of the initial enemies cleaned up. It helps that they pushed Hyoma to low HP, causing Potential to kick in. It's an only-slightly-lesser version of Guts, so he's now untouchable and way more crit-prone.

With reinforcements here, the Com-Battler pilots are finally on the same page and ready to combine and show what they're made of. Their brainwaves are in synch. COMBINE OK. LET'S COMBINE!

The rest of the stage is pretty straightforward. The enemy leader Garuda has Potential as well, which means my mobile suits aren't gonna do anything to him at low HP. Luckily I've got two and a half super robots to deal with that now. (I count Mazinger as half due to a B vs air)

After the battle, Dr. Nambara asks Bright to take on the Com-Battler Team. They need experience, and they're civilians so they're not subject to the Titans' chain of command. The Connection has its own defenses, and Com-Battler's not the only super electromagnetic robot in town.

While everybody's getting acquainted, the group gives a quick but helpful tutorial lecture on terrain ranks and how one should plan around them when deciding who fights what. Koji's clenching his jaw. If only Mazinger could fly like Com-Battler and Getter...

They get a call from Oka asking if they could head to Tokyo Bay, where DC Japan is situated. Its director, Dr. Shu Shirakawa, has requested to study the Hückebein. Since the DC is knee-deep in EOT, they could be a huge potential boon. Sure, we'll go.

My buddy @TheMajinZenki helpfully provided me with an image of that Com-Battler V revelation scene form the show.

Duo's logging key info in the hangar. Kamille recognizes what he's using as a personal satellite commlink. Huh, that's interesting. Duo quickly changes the subject to their next destination.

They're headed for Tokyo Bay Floating City, an artificial island built in the middle of Tokyo Bay with science facilities, residences, and an amusement park. It's considered a new tourist attraction. It later goes on to become G Island City in Alpha 2.

The gang's about to head out to Yokohama Chinatown. There's a fireworks display tonight, and they're clear to go as long as they're back before the Argama reaches DC Japan. I choose to have Leona go with them, netting me another easy SR point.

In Yokohama, the first thing you hear is the sound of gunshots ringing out. Two Experts of Justice are fleeing a ship with a scientist in tow. Why is the BF Group targeting this scientist?

Before her abduction, Dr. Eri Anzai was on dispatch with an investigative team to look into new ruins discovered in Shandong, China, where they discovered what appeared to be ancient Chinese weapons. Big ones, beyond even her imagination as a super-archeeology specialist.

They'll have time for a debriefing later. Their pursuit is still after them. But as they flee through town, they run straight into the Argama's shore leave team. The ground starts shaking, and a robot emerges. Is it a local attraction? Duo recognizes it as a BF Group robot.

Episode 8: Scramble! Its Name Is Giant Robo

Q-Boss, a BF Group agent, tells Dr. Anzai to come along quietly. Ginrei's ready to go to her last resort, but Tetsugyu stops her. As they're trying to flee, a voice coms on their comms, telling them to run.

As the giant robot pursues them over a bridge, something slams it back. Music cues up. Loud pounding noises and shaking. Q-Boss freaks out.

QB: No... G-GIANT ROBO?!
Daisaku: Punch, Robo!

One guess what Giant Robo does.

There's a lot of things I love about this stage. For one thing, the Ishinryu Akatsuki has only range 1 attacks. Giant Robo's got weak non-Punch options at default morale, but it doesn't matter at range 1. GR also has a B in the air, so we land it where it has an A on the ground.

Q-Boss has a spirit list that includes Self-Destruct. Too bad bosses never use spirits in this game unless scripted to. Daisaku has Potential, which will serve him well if he ever starts actually taking damage.

While GR is pounding the Ishinryu Akatsuki into paste, Ivan's patting himself on the back for baiting it out. They don't actually need Dr. Anzai for analysis of the excavated weapons; Dr. Hell's on hand for that. Alberto thinks Dr. Hell's too treacherous to work with, personally.

Alberto asks Ivan if they have countermeasures. That's why Ivan snuck into the Saotome Lab and stole blueprints for a new Getter. They've also got Grungust and Hückebein data from hacking DC Japan's systems. Even Shu Shirakawa would never detect BF's hacking pros, surely.

Alberto's not entirely convinced, but he's going to continue his own investigation of Nerv. Ivan's free to deal with GR as he sees fit. Everything for Big Fire! Ivan summons Uranus and more robots. Enough robots to push Daisaku to 130 morale before fighting Uranus, actually...

On turn 3, allied reinforcements show up, not that they're needed at all. "Uh, guys? Is it just me or is there somebody hanging from the side of that robot's face?"

I have my allies warm the bench while Giant Robo continues to solo the stage. Finally, I hit 130 morale, getting me access to its strongest attack, the full-strength punch. It's around this morale point that GR basically stops taking damage as well.

This is one of Alpha 1's big showcase robots, right here. The detail work is just gorgeous.

Feeding everything to Daisaku and saving Uranus for last gets him just enough XP to learn Spirit when the stage ends, solving many of his morale constraint issues right out the gate.

I recall the Dreamcast version of this stage having an entire in-game rendered cutscene devoted to GR's appearance, but I don't have an easy way to cross-reference it with my setup. If anyone wants to record that (or its appearance here), I'll glady link it in this thread.

Afterward, the robot flies off toward the Far East Branch, and Bright lets it go. Koji and Hayato happen to be passingly familiar with the story of Dr. Kusama, who got abducted and forced to develop GR for the BF Group before disappearing with it. That makes Daisaku his son.

They're about to arrive at DC Japan for real this time, and Dr. Shirakawa has asked to have a private meeting with Leona in his office when they get there.

Leona asks if Bright's handing the Hückebein over to the DC. Yes, that's where it was originally meant to go. He wants her to think over her offer to help the AEUG again. Revenge isn't healthy for you. He gently adds that they would value her help, with or without the Hückebein.

Here's the man of the hour, Dr. Shu Shirakawa. He heads up DC Japan, and he also serves as an observer on Project SRX, an anti-alien weaponry development project being jointly run by Mao Industries and the DC. Leona's Hückebein Mk-II was developed as part of this project.

You know, I had a long 15-tweet chain written out here, but I've thought better of it. I'm just going to translate this whole intermission and post it on Pastebin. There's a whole lot of OC plot going on and I'd rather not gloss over it.

There we go, done with that. Here's all the machinations going on at DC Japan. In summary, Shu and Kirk lie through their teeth to Leona, and she knows it, but she can't go against them. (Bullet got renamed to Tasuku in the Pastebin, sorry.)

pastebin.com/emAtTYia

This is Kirk Hamill, the head developer of the Hückebein series. He looks and talks like an 80s anime villain, which makes it even better that he's ultimately completely benign.

This is the stage where Alpha starts leaning heavily into legacy OCs from previous games, like Trusty Shu here. Alpha gets very OC-heavy in its main storyline, to both its benefit and detriment. It can be fun, or it can be confusing baggage from a newcomer's standpoint.

No, actually - Alpha Gaiden swings hard back in the other direction and mostly yields the plot to the series du jour in its very different setting. OCs exist in the game and the capstone villains are still OCs, but there's no central protag like Leona.

https://twitter.com/anonanonsqaured/status/1208280349765185536

No update yet today, but in that dialogue yesterday, Kirk offhandedly mentioned the term ブーステッド・ヒューマン (Boosted Human), and I've been trying to puzzle out what it is. It just occurred to me belatedly that it's probably a literal translation of 強化人間 (Cyber Newtype).