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Discussion / Ranking characters by in-game use: obscura edition
« on: November 05, 2015, 07:12:42 PM »
TL;DR this is kind of like Meeple's topic, except that I'm going to focus entirely on games which have low playership in the DL and thus would never go in Meeple's topic. Because of this, unlike Meeple's topic, I'll generally post my own ratings from the get-go since it's entirely possible a game I cover might not get any attention from anyone else.
Really this is more for discussion than generating rankings over time like in Meeple's topic since the sample sizes won't really be large enough anyway.
So, I will start with... a big cast, actually.
Super Robot Wars Judgment! But since the cast is so big, I'm going to do something different: rather than rate each unit or pilot individually, I'm going to give a single collective rating for all the robots/pilots in a given series, in the context of "how good is this series as a favored pick." Given that SRW J makes you pick three series as "favorites," this is perhaps actually a bit relevant.
However, for the sake of clarity: I am not rating the battleships with their series, because they're always forced.
Banpresto Originals: 6/10. Not counting the secret, unlockable 4th playthrough and beyond only original mecha, but all of the initial three are still quite good. It's difficult to say which of the three is best or worst, as all of them have unique advantages and disadvantages relative to each other. In any case, the OC is a forced deployment on a fair number of stages, and I can't think of any reason you wouldn't want to deploy them when given the option. All three of the subpilots are good, too, for different reasons; I generally think Melua is the best one due to the +1 movement and the fantastic pool of support seishins, but Katia is probably better than her overall if you're running Bellzelute, and Festenia is situationally useful for stages where you face FMP or Tekkaman bosses due to Strike. So why the low score? Because at the end of the day, you're using up one of your three favored series picks on a single mech that is really still very good without the extra upgrades and doesn't need the help.
Martian Successor Nadesico: 7/10. The battleship is really amazing, of course, but it's not included in this rating. Outside of the battleship, all you get from Nadesico is a whole bunch of Aestivalis units. Aestivalis units basically owe all of their usability long-term to their combination attacks. Akatsuki has no combination attacks, and a really poor seishin pool to boot, so he's generally just trash and never worth using when not forced. Akito has a good endgame if you unlock Gai (especially if Gai benefits from the bug which benefits him if unlocked on a first playthrough), but if you don't, he's only barely better than Akatsuki. For most of the game, the Ryoko/Izumi/Hikaru trio are the stars of the cast as such, and they're very usable - the Gravity Wave Antenna eliminates most of the drawbacks of heavy combination attack spamming due to the EN refill. So overall, this is not a bad favored series pick. In short, you get three consistently fairly good units (though they have to be used together), two inconsistently fairly good units (one of whom is secret-dependent), and one unambiguously bad unit. And the battleship of course, which doesn't need the help and is not included in this rating (if I did, it would push it up a point, so hey).
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: 5/10. Kira and later Cagalli are really the only vaguely usable units from Gundam SEED for 3/4 of the game, honestly. And both of them are generally among your poorer units overall for most of that 3/4. In the last 3/4 you do get to pick up Athrun, Dearka, and the Eternal; Eternal is probably the best endgame supply/repair unit, due to its battleship stats (I don't count it as a battleship, though, given that it does consume a deployment slot). Kira and Athrun are excellent units endgame with the Meteor packs, but they only get six stages with them and they don't really need the help of extra upgrades with mechs like that. Overall I think this is probably one of the worse favored series picks as such; it'd be better if midgame Kira/the Strike Gundam weren't so relatively weak and the Skygraspers weren't worse than Blue Earth (although I guess Skygrasper with Sword pack is an interesting niche). Ultimately, you have two great endgame combat units (one of whom is lackluster for most of the game before the end and one of whom doesn't exist for most of the game), one of the best endgame support units (who doesn't exist for most of the game), two mediocre combat units (who don't exist for most of the game), one fairly lackluster combat unit, and one more unit who plot-dies before endgame and is generally the worst unit in the cast when he's around. Meh.
Mobile Fighter G Gundam: 7/10. In a lot of ways, this pick is "Nadesico plus," as the units share Nadesico's trait of being all somewhat lackluster when taken alone but heavily improved by combination attacks. The Gundam Fighters are, individually, probably slightly better than the Aestivalis pilots despite having some significant durability issues. They suffer from having 5 move, though. Like Aestivalises, they live and die by their combination attacks. The G Gundam cast are overall improved notably more by their combinations than Nadesico's pilots are, but they also have to wait until 2/3 of the way through the game for them. I feel this is really kind of a binary pick; more than likely, you're either going to be filling half your deployment slots with the entire G Gundam cast to abuse all the combination attacks, or you won't be using any of them at all save for maybe Domon. If you ARE going to use the whole cast, then this is an excellent favored series pick. If you're not, I probably wouldn't bother.
Brain Powered: 8/10. See G Gundam/Nadesico, except that all the units are individually quite decent on their own. You get a whopping ten units out of this pick and all of them are at least halfway decent (Yuu and Hime are probably worth using even without being a favored pick). The units themselves are all basically identical to one another, they all have combination attacks with other Brain Powered pilots in pairs, they all have damage shields and afterimage, and they have relatively high damage for SRW J reals. Probably one of the best favored series picks, objectively speaking, even if the units are all really samey.
Blue Comet SPT Layzner: 5/10. As a favored series pick, Layzner has most of the same problems as Gundam SEED, but magnified. It has fewer units in general, and only one is really a good combat unit individually. Layzner does get a combination attack with Baybull and Buldy if you use all three, but Layzner is a good (not great) unit without the combination, and the two of them are lackluster without it and have a hard time keeping up with Layzner's movement rate. This pick is basically giving you one decent combat unit and two or three mediocre support units. There are worse picks, probably?
Full Metal Panic: 6/10. Most of what I said about Layzner applies here, except that Kurz and Mao are better than Baybull and Buldy. So you get one amazing combat unit (Sosuke) and two okay ones (Kurz and Mao). This pick does go a long way in making Bonta-kun more usable...
Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V: 4/10. Single-robot pick that isn't as good as Banpresto Original (and it still doesn't really need the help).
Mazinkaiser: 8/10. A pick that's good despite the relatively small unit count. Favored series takes Mazinkaiser and Great Mazinger from "really good" to "broken" (as their armor upgrades are normally capped at 5, not the usual 10), and Boss Borot (which is pretty good in this game if given a Flight Unit) also benefits greatly. If you're going to favor a small unit count series, this one is a much better choice than Gundam SEED or Layzner or FMP.
Super Beast Machine God Dancougar: 3.5/10. Single-robot pick that isn't as good as Banpresto Original (and it still doesn't really need the help). Slightly worse than Voltes overall due to the high Will requirements for everything.
Space Knight Tekkaman Blade: 5/10. Effectively a single-robot pick, since the only other worthwhile unit is deep lategame, the Sol Tekkamen are so bad, and Blue Earth is a support unit that probably won't see much combat. Blue Earth is a really good support unit though, so you could do worse.
Super Electromagnetic Robot Combattler V: 4/10. Single-robot pick that isn't as good as Banpresto Original (and it still doesn't really need the help. Very slightly worse than Voltes.
Hades Project Zeorymer: 5/10. Single-robot pick that isn't as good as Banpresto Original (and it still doesn't really need the help). Although if you unlock Great Zeorymer, then it's better than Banpresto Original for the last 1/4 of the game, so....
Really this is more for discussion than generating rankings over time like in Meeple's topic since the sample sizes won't really be large enough anyway.
So, I will start with... a big cast, actually.
Super Robot Wars Judgment! But since the cast is so big, I'm going to do something different: rather than rate each unit or pilot individually, I'm going to give a single collective rating for all the robots/pilots in a given series, in the context of "how good is this series as a favored pick." Given that SRW J makes you pick three series as "favorites," this is perhaps actually a bit relevant.
However, for the sake of clarity: I am not rating the battleships with their series, because they're always forced.
Banpresto Originals: 6/10. Not counting the secret, unlockable 4th playthrough and beyond only original mecha, but all of the initial three are still quite good. It's difficult to say which of the three is best or worst, as all of them have unique advantages and disadvantages relative to each other. In any case, the OC is a forced deployment on a fair number of stages, and I can't think of any reason you wouldn't want to deploy them when given the option. All three of the subpilots are good, too, for different reasons; I generally think Melua is the best one due to the +1 movement and the fantastic pool of support seishins, but Katia is probably better than her overall if you're running Bellzelute, and Festenia is situationally useful for stages where you face FMP or Tekkaman bosses due to Strike. So why the low score? Because at the end of the day, you're using up one of your three favored series picks on a single mech that is really still very good without the extra upgrades and doesn't need the help.
Martian Successor Nadesico: 7/10. The battleship is really amazing, of course, but it's not included in this rating. Outside of the battleship, all you get from Nadesico is a whole bunch of Aestivalis units. Aestivalis units basically owe all of their usability long-term to their combination attacks. Akatsuki has no combination attacks, and a really poor seishin pool to boot, so he's generally just trash and never worth using when not forced. Akito has a good endgame if you unlock Gai (especially if Gai benefits from the bug which benefits him if unlocked on a first playthrough), but if you don't, he's only barely better than Akatsuki. For most of the game, the Ryoko/Izumi/Hikaru trio are the stars of the cast as such, and they're very usable - the Gravity Wave Antenna eliminates most of the drawbacks of heavy combination attack spamming due to the EN refill. So overall, this is not a bad favored series pick. In short, you get three consistently fairly good units (though they have to be used together), two inconsistently fairly good units (one of whom is secret-dependent), and one unambiguously bad unit. And the battleship of course, which doesn't need the help and is not included in this rating (if I did, it would push it up a point, so hey).
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: 5/10. Kira and later Cagalli are really the only vaguely usable units from Gundam SEED for 3/4 of the game, honestly. And both of them are generally among your poorer units overall for most of that 3/4. In the last 3/4 you do get to pick up Athrun, Dearka, and the Eternal; Eternal is probably the best endgame supply/repair unit, due to its battleship stats (I don't count it as a battleship, though, given that it does consume a deployment slot). Kira and Athrun are excellent units endgame with the Meteor packs, but they only get six stages with them and they don't really need the help of extra upgrades with mechs like that. Overall I think this is probably one of the worse favored series picks as such; it'd be better if midgame Kira/the Strike Gundam weren't so relatively weak and the Skygraspers weren't worse than Blue Earth (although I guess Skygrasper with Sword pack is an interesting niche). Ultimately, you have two great endgame combat units (one of whom is lackluster for most of the game before the end and one of whom doesn't exist for most of the game), one of the best endgame support units (who doesn't exist for most of the game), two mediocre combat units (who don't exist for most of the game), one fairly lackluster combat unit, and one more unit who plot-dies before endgame and is generally the worst unit in the cast when he's around. Meh.
Mobile Fighter G Gundam: 7/10. In a lot of ways, this pick is "Nadesico plus," as the units share Nadesico's trait of being all somewhat lackluster when taken alone but heavily improved by combination attacks. The Gundam Fighters are, individually, probably slightly better than the Aestivalis pilots despite having some significant durability issues. They suffer from having 5 move, though. Like Aestivalises, they live and die by their combination attacks. The G Gundam cast are overall improved notably more by their combinations than Nadesico's pilots are, but they also have to wait until 2/3 of the way through the game for them. I feel this is really kind of a binary pick; more than likely, you're either going to be filling half your deployment slots with the entire G Gundam cast to abuse all the combination attacks, or you won't be using any of them at all save for maybe Domon. If you ARE going to use the whole cast, then this is an excellent favored series pick. If you're not, I probably wouldn't bother.
Brain Powered: 8/10. See G Gundam/Nadesico, except that all the units are individually quite decent on their own. You get a whopping ten units out of this pick and all of them are at least halfway decent (Yuu and Hime are probably worth using even without being a favored pick). The units themselves are all basically identical to one another, they all have combination attacks with other Brain Powered pilots in pairs, they all have damage shields and afterimage, and they have relatively high damage for SRW J reals. Probably one of the best favored series picks, objectively speaking, even if the units are all really samey.
Blue Comet SPT Layzner: 5/10. As a favored series pick, Layzner has most of the same problems as Gundam SEED, but magnified. It has fewer units in general, and only one is really a good combat unit individually. Layzner does get a combination attack with Baybull and Buldy if you use all three, but Layzner is a good (not great) unit without the combination, and the two of them are lackluster without it and have a hard time keeping up with Layzner's movement rate. This pick is basically giving you one decent combat unit and two or three mediocre support units. There are worse picks, probably?
Full Metal Panic: 6/10. Most of what I said about Layzner applies here, except that Kurz and Mao are better than Baybull and Buldy. So you get one amazing combat unit (Sosuke) and two okay ones (Kurz and Mao). This pick does go a long way in making Bonta-kun more usable...
Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V: 4/10. Single-robot pick that isn't as good as Banpresto Original (and it still doesn't really need the help).
Mazinkaiser: 8/10. A pick that's good despite the relatively small unit count. Favored series takes Mazinkaiser and Great Mazinger from "really good" to "broken" (as their armor upgrades are normally capped at 5, not the usual 10), and Boss Borot (which is pretty good in this game if given a Flight Unit) also benefits greatly. If you're going to favor a small unit count series, this one is a much better choice than Gundam SEED or Layzner or FMP.
Super Beast Machine God Dancougar: 3.5/10. Single-robot pick that isn't as good as Banpresto Original (and it still doesn't really need the help). Slightly worse than Voltes overall due to the high Will requirements for everything.
Space Knight Tekkaman Blade: 5/10. Effectively a single-robot pick, since the only other worthwhile unit is deep lategame, the Sol Tekkamen are so bad, and Blue Earth is a support unit that probably won't see much combat. Blue Earth is a really good support unit though, so you could do worse.
Super Electromagnetic Robot Combattler V: 4/10. Single-robot pick that isn't as good as Banpresto Original (and it still doesn't really need the help. Very slightly worse than Voltes.
Hades Project Zeorymer: 5/10. Single-robot pick that isn't as good as Banpresto Original (and it still doesn't really need the help). Although if you unlock Great Zeorymer, then it's better than Banpresto Original for the last 1/4 of the game, so....