Super Robot Wars Alpha 3

[Comet]

Right. After forgetting about it for a long time, I'm going to try playing this game and see where it gets me. All my favourite mecha shows are in it!

Having played Alpha Gaiden, I know the mechanics fairly well. What I don't know, however, is moonspeak Japanese.

I'd like to have at least some idea of what is going on with the story as I play. With that in mind, I come to you with a question:

What are the best FAQs, walkthroughs or translation documents out there for this game? What did you guys use when playing?
I'm thinking about using Cobray Gordon as my main character, since the Werkbau looks like the coolest mech of the lot (yes, MegaTen fan speaking). Any character is OK in the long run, though, if there are proper walkthroughs only for certain characters or somesuch.

So, help me out here. How can I play this game without feeling completely lost? Alpha Gaiden is just not enough for me. I need more Macross and Evangelion, damnit :smallbiggrin:

[Cubey]

Gamefaqs have great walkthroughs: both general FAQs to figure out what are mission objectives/battle masteries/secrets, and Neidengaard's (possible typos) walkthrough that actually has story and dialogue summary! The only bad side of the latter is that he always writes his summary for one protagonist alone, in this case Kusuha. It's not so bad in Alpha 3, where there are only like 3-4 character-specific missions anyway. Compare to Z, where non-moonspeak proficient players who choose Setsuko and not Rand have to guess the plot for ~50% of the game.

[UglyPanda]

When I played W & K, I found that I was having a lot of fun even though I had no clue whatsoever what was going on. However, those were two of the easier games in the whole series without any skill points, and I mostly beat them through attrition.

I highly suggest you keep your computer on or carry a print out with a quick list of translations, at least until you can remember which characters mean what Seishin or menu command.

This site (http://akurasu.net/wiki/index.php?title=Super_Robot_Wars) has a bunch of info scattered around. The characters for menus (http://akurasu.net/wiki/index.php?title=Super_Robot_Wars/W/Menus) and spirits (http://akurasu.net/wiki/index.php?title=Super_Robot_Wars/W/Spirit_Commands) remain mostly the same throughout the series, fortunately.

[Prime32]

When I played W & K, I found that I was having a lot of fun even though I had no clue whatsoever what was going on. However, those were two of the easier games in the whole series without any skill points, and I mostly beat them through attrition.@3 is supposed to be much easier than @Gaiden from what I've heard.

[UglyPanda]

It's not the difficulty that's the problem, it's not knowing what the heck is going on. But players can usually get the hang of it within a few missions, so it's not really a big deal.

[Hunter Noventa]

@3 is supposed to be much easier than @Gaiden from what I've heard.

Easier than @Gaiden? I'm going to have a ball with it then.

[Cubey]

Alpha 3 is the second easiest SRW title I played. But it doesn't make it any less fun - its scale is epic and assorted mecha selection is fun, even if not all of them get screentime or plot importance, due to it being the final part of a trilogy (+ Gaiden) and all. If you're not a fan of space missions, beware - like 75% of this game is in space environment.

In case anyone's curious, the easiest SRW I played was W. And just like with Alpha 3, lack of difficulty didn't stand in the way of me having a great time.

[Comet]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I ended up going with Cobray anyway, but apparently there wasn't that much plot-critical information in the first two missions that were unique to that guy. I'm up to mission 4 now and keeping up with the gist of the story seems to be easier than I thought. Again, thanks for the tips on that.

The one thing that surprised me the most is a pretty simple: they added a fast forward button to the animations. It's such an obvious feature yet I haven't seen it in any other game of this genre. It's also way cool. :smallcool:

[Terraoblivion]

Cubey is wrong. While there are less character specific missions than in Z, there are still around 12 or so. Also the game is much easier than @G, or Z for that matter, in fact it is on the lower limit of what difficulty i like to bother with and i tend to be much more forgiving of low difficulty than high difficulty. Still, it is a fun game, though there are too many lame, 70s supers for my taste.

[Prime32]

Still, it is a fun game, though there are too many lame, 70s supers for my taste.
Compare:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epzpW5SCZzE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZH-4oybhNU

[Terraoblivion]

Can't. Youtube is the one site i have found that simply, flat-out refuses to work here.

[Tengu_temp]

It's the comparison between the old and new Gaiking. Cubey has shown the latter to you before, Terra.