The Virgola is a fictional machine designed as a video game original for the crossover mecha game Super Robot Taisen Z (Super Robot Wars Z). By “original,” we mean that it does not appear in any anime. So far, this includes Original Generations anime seasons 1 and 2.

The Setting

The Virgola is first presented as a series of three prototypes being flight tested to gather data for eventual adoption as the Earth Federation’s next generation mass-produced humanoid weapons system.

SRW Z is not only a cross-over of mecha, but of dimensions. Consequently, this Earth Federation is merely the one in which Mobile Suit Gundam Z: A New Translation (i.e. the three-part movie version) takes place. During an AEUG attack on a lunar base, the only force deploying fast enough to respond is Glory Star, the test pilot group responsible for testing the Virgola units. However, time and space bend and warp, and the members of Glory Star are warped into another world… where finally, a “Dimension Bomb” (from the sci fi series Orguss) leads to a strange new world mixing many worlds at once…

The Virgola

Full Height: 19.8m

Full Weight: (Reference) 51.4 metric tons for Unit 1

Power Supply: Minovsky Reactor + “Sphere”

Armor Composition: Unknown

Mechanical Designer: Mika Akitaka

Mysteriously, the Virgola itself was as astonishingly general purpose machine. Amuro Ray calls it a “Shoe-Fitter” in that it will suit the style of any pilot at any skill level, while providing a high level of offensive power through the use of its primary weapon, the Gunnery Carver (above, right side).

In the original test machines, the three Gunnery Carvers were used for firing high velocity slugs (“Straight Turret”), blunt physical attacks, and three entirely distinct modes of special attack unique to each unit: a “Jack Carver” (a giant jackknife), a “Barley Scythe” functioning as a beam weapon that reaps the harvest, and a “Ray Straight Turret” beam attack capable of straight line mass destruction. In addition, each unit carried a “Ray Pistol,” a hand-held beam weapon used only for rapid fire assault purposes or as an emergency weapon.

This reinforced the Virgola offensively, but was of no assistance defensively. While enjoying broadly high specifications, the Virgola was not equipped with either a shield or a sword for use in close combat, and its armor was not especially resistant to enemy attack. As such, the Virgola units could be one-shotted by a powerful enough attack…

Glory Star

Stepping back from the setting, Glory Star’s concept was mixing military trappings with a college sports team. As such, the uniforms look like dress uniforms (we never see any representations of spacesuits for any member, though we should not take this as meaning they don’t exist but rather as a style decision by the developers). Numerous battle phrases are like cheer phrases motivating the team on to victory. Pride, in particular, is a theme. For that matter, the name just begs these comparisons.

Go, Glory Star! Go! – Denzel Hammer

The members are Denzel Hammer, a veteran squad leader and instructor with a gift for gunnery, originally piloting Unit 1; Toby Watson, a usually happy-go-lucky pilot whose attitude screams “jock” but with a hard, serious edge in the midst of battle, specializing in melee with Unit 2’s Barley Scythe; and Setsuko Ohara, a relative greenhorn whose lunar base sortie was her first actual combat. While having an extra affinity for gunnery, her future is wide open, and she is one of the most player-customizable pilots in Super Robot Wars gaming history.

Left to Right: Toby, Setsuko, Denzel

Tragedy and Awakening

Just before the Dimension Bomb sends a number of worlds smashing together and fusing into one strange Earth, the mysterious Asakim Dowen appears and murders Denzel, who had swapped machines with Setsuko due to damage to her Unit 3 (which the veteran could handle better than she could).

Following a time when she was blown into Paradigm City (of “The Big O“), Setsuko recovers her own (quite bitter) memories and travels across the world, searching for Toby. At the end of her journey, she finds Toby – in pursuit of Asakim. Joining together, they fail to deal a decisive blow – apparently something Toby has failed at a number of times while on Asakim’s tail. Together, the two pledge to continue Glory Star, no longer as paid members of a formal military, but helping those who strive to put the world right (which by now has long included the AEUG people, since the Titans are, well, jerks!).

Of course, they also pledge to avenge Denzel (a.k.a. “Chief”).

Instead, Asakim lures the two away from the main force (which by default becomes named “Zeuth”) and even though reinforcements appear on both sides, Asakim fakes his own defeat only to turn around and wreck both remaining Virgolas, slaying Toby and instilling fear and terror into Setsuko with a physical beating in the flesh, until a “savior” named Raven arrives to save Setsuko… for now.

And so, Setsuko is alone.

Setsuko Ohara

Setsuko is young, well-meaning, very earnest and sincere… and is left with deep emotional scars after Toby’s death, which came a short while after Setsuko had finally shared her budding romantic feelings for him. He was fond of Setsuko as well, in a way that wasn’t quite as, well, teacher-student as with Denzel before his own death.

Virgola Unit 1, having already incorporated the remnants of Unit 3’s Gunnery Carver, was now infused with Toby’s Barley Scythe and his combat data. This Virgola Kai (Improved Virogla) could accommodate a 20% increase in pilot skill from Setsuko before maxing out. Thus, the onus was on her to break through the “wall” as she followed the half of Zeuth that allied itself with PLANT (in the Seed Destiny plot), which was then allied with the Diana Counter (from Turn A Gundam), which proved to be only one Moonrace (lunar dwellers) faction, and the Super Robot forces with less of a problem with military methods of operation and devoted to fighting alien threats.

Thus, there would be no lack of hard, bitter fighting for Setsuko. Slowly, she improved, but when it was time to test her spirit against Asakim and his succubus-like minion Xine, Setsuko broke down, her spirit still filled with fear. Yet mysteriously, Toby Watson – not dead?… – appeared to save her from being finished off by Xine, before disappearing again to pursue the enemy.

Finally, she answered the call to face her personal demons alone, and while Raven returned to support her against an assault in force by Xine (using AI-controlled machines to back her up), the entire Zeuth detachment showed up to provide support. Knowing she was not alone, Setsuko found new reserves of strength and Xine was once again driven off.

While stopped at a base belonging to Chimera, Raven’s force (part of their “enemy” the Earth Federation, but secretly aiding Zeuth and claiming to be dedicated to improving the world), a truly mad (as well as ugly) scientist belonging to Chimera offers to overhaul the Virgola. Setsuko ignores entreaties to turn the skirt-chasing geezer’s offer down and wants to become stronger however she can.

The resulting Virgola Glory was, externally, simply fitted with a wing system that allowed non-transforming flight in an atmosphere and overall improved agility. Armed with this unit, Setsuko once again answered a call to do battle with her personal demons, this time from “Toby.” But mysteries remained.

As the scientist explained to Zeuth’s members, such as Amuro and other interested pilots with high technical aptitudes, the Virgola in and of itself was nothing special… but the Gunnery Carver was, with parts that were “black boxed” and could not be externally analyzed. Furthermore, and this was the big mystery, the Virgola was over-specced to the point of being able to handle 200% of its own internal reactor’s power output.

What was the mystery of the Gunnery Carver? How could its secrets be accessed? Perhaps by something that could not be compelled by science, such as reacting to a human emotion? Love, perhaps? This was dismissed at the time, but in short order, these questions would be partially answered… in the worst possible way.

The Valkyrie of Sadness

Setsuko after Toby’s death. “For today only… let me cry…”

While the Virgola’s maneuverability had been greatly improved, the heartened Setsuko underwent a breakdown in the Gunnery Carver, rendering it inoperable. Forced to rely on the Ray Pistol, Setsuko engaged the mysterious black crow machines that seemed to work with Asakim everywhere, along with a mysterious ally of Asakim, Rand the Wandering Mechanic, and his construction machine colored, giant wrench using, super robot style Gunleon.

Even though the Virgola dealt with the crows entirely adequately with only the Ray Pistol, the Gunleon and its pilot, Rand, had great reserves of strength, and enormous power. The Virgola was nearly destroyed in a single blow. On the verge of death, Toby once again emerged to knock back the Gunleon. Finally, both turned to face the Gunleon together…

…and “Toby” shot Setsuko’s machine in the back.

The mysterious powers at Asakim’s command allowed him to temporarily borrow the illusion of Toby, down to his voice and tiny mannerisms, to fool Setsuko… and to truly crush her spirit once and for all, for that was the path that rested between him and his objective.

And so, “it” happened.

The Sphere

The central part of the Gunnery Carver was a second power source, but what called to it was not love, but sadness – true, soul-crushing sadness. Setsuko had found the depth of despair, and now, the Sphere awoke.

The Gunnery Carver lost its false shell and took on its true form, the Nautilus Carver, a weapon that seemed to pulse with its own life force, with a “barrel” that resembled a nautical creature.

Doing great damage to Asakim’s machine with her new power, the emotionally shattered Setsuko learned to turn her despair against her enemy, and strike hard.

Forgive the horrid resolution; it was hard to find a pic. – J

Setsuko would continue to pilot what would now be known as the Virgola Glory until the end of the game, though it later underwent a later evolution as the further betrayal of Raven – secretly one of Asakim’s comrades – further sent Setsuko into the depths of despair, beginning a process of transformation of her body. First, loss of taste; then, temporary blindness… but her sight returned, and she was able to continue fighting until the conclusion.

The Virgola Glory

Aside from the wings, the Virgola Glory gains special weapons from the Nautilus Carver:

– A straight line MAP weapon (that is, affecting a bunch of squares in a row) with two “ammunition” shots. That is, once clearing the relatively low morale requirements, she can fire the MAP weapon twice and not suffer any depletion of her machine’s “Energy” reserves, but will then be unable to fire the weapon until resupply or, more likely, until the stage ends, you go through intermission, and sortie for the next battle.

– A “Nautilus Carver” Attack that combines the blunt strike, Barley Scythe, and Jack Carver style attacks into a single high powered attack that will penetrate any “barrier”.

– An improved Ray Straight Turret style attack that has the best and most satisfying attack animations on Setsuko’s side. It’s long ranged, it hits hard, and it leaves stardust behind. It is called, “The Glory Star“! I consider it completely worthy of the name.

Character & Mecha In Game Terms

As mentioned earlier, Setsuko is one of the most customizable characters in SRW history.

In actual gaming terms, she receives all of the “pilot points” (which can be used to purchase skills or raise parameters of pilots) that Denzel and Toby received until the moment of their deaths. Thus, she truly does inherit the spirit of Glory Star. How you use that advantage is up to you.

For fully half the game, Setsuko is, put bluntly, a below average pilot in an above average machine. In particular, her “Skill” rating – which governs critical hits, how easily others critical or use special skills against you, etc. – is low. She is adequate, and handles her weapons well, but she is nothing special.

After her personal awakening, she gains a bonus to all of her parameters across the board. This still doesn’t make her an Amuro Ray, but it’s a start.

Remember, her main characteristic is that she gets a huge load of Pilot Points earlier than other people. She can use whatever high end skills you prefer to purchase with all this at a much earlier stage than others. Later, she just piles on, because, well, the MAP weapon combined with her The Glory Star attack and a high overall attack ability means she’s wiping stuff out left and right, earning more Pilot Points in the process.

Personal Quirks

Setsuko’s default tendencies are as follows:

• Heavy support attacker. Her “native” Support Attack skill rises to level 4, meaning she can follow up one unit’s attack with her own up to four times in a row, provided she is adjacent and not ineligible for some reason (can’t support an air attacker from the ground). This is her only true “starting” skill.
• Unlocked: SP Regen. This means, once she awakens, she is one of the precious few characters in the game to restore ten “Seishin Points” (often called Spirit Points, at any rate, what’s used for in-battle power-ups that are unique to every pilot) at the start of every Player Phase (player turn). This is a huge help over the course of a long battle…
• Platoon Leader Bonus: +10% Damage With All Shooting Attacks. This is just gravy, but still, it comes up. This means The Glory Star, the MAP weapon, and the bread and butter Straight Turret attacks will get a +10% to damage until the end of the game.

Another thing anyone wanting to use her might want to think about is, the Virgola is not inherently high defense, but Setsuko has a higher Defense stat than typical “real robot” pilots (i.e. Gundam series pilots). While any sane player is using special equipment to combat the Virgola’s defensive deficiencies – barriers, armor enhancements, maneuverability enhancements, plus my favorite, throwing money at the problem and upgrading – it’s not a complete package.

While I tend to prioritize skills that help me destroy the enemy faster and easier, at least early to mid game, giving Setsuko the skill that boosts defense, accuracy, and critical hit rates the closer your mecha’s HP get to 0 may not be a waste of time at all. Take the attitude that, in this game, you will get hit; it’s just a matter of time, and how bad the enemy wants it. And barriers aren’t foolproof; Tri attacks (squad team-ups) and weapons like the Nautilus Carver itself (though that’s yours…) will breach a barrier and go straight to HP damage.

But oh well. The bottom line is, early on, the extra pilot points are an offset for Setsuko being raw; later, there are few truly bad choices. You stock her up on whatever skills make sense for you. I’ve tried lots, such as giving her an S rating in Air and giving her a Minovsky Craft to boost the Virgola’s own rating to S, meaning it’s better than C, B, or A. That makes her take less hits too. Combined with the SP Regen and Seishin skills like Concentrate, you won’t be hit much like that, either.

And That’s A Wrap.

Some may wonder why I bothered to do this. Well, basically… I wanted to, and things flow a lot easier when I’m writing about something I personally like. That’s kind of why, even though the blog stats say Gundam 00 still brings people in, it’s hard to write about that because I was never a fanboy, just a viewer. Really loved the visuals, and the machines were pretty good, but I hated the humans ^^ Relatively speaking.

Setsuko, though, I like, on a gut level and many others. I like a lot of main character candidates, but this one is the antithesis of spouting taunts at the enemy and laughing at the opponent’s demise. (You know, like Asakim…) No, she’s doing this because she cares, and because she doesn’t want other people to have to go through the suffering she has.

More importantly, she becomes able to back it up – and in force, becoming a true Valkyrie avenging the souls of the dead, cutting a path through the battlefield, laying waste to those who deeply and richly deserve wasting.

By the way, Setsuko is a nice girl, fundamentally, and that’s not something you can teach. It runs deep. I find myself plenty willing to cheer her on.

By the way, Rand is the other potential main character, and their roles flip somewhat if you play him instead. He’s actually awesome. Rough around the edges to say the least, but even though he goes through his own challenges, he forces a more positive experience… and his machine is just a lot less likely to blow up than the Virgola. So there.

Nonetheless, Setsuko’s devastating in late games, and that’s how I like it. – J

Savvy followers of mecha anime have long been aware that “bad guy” machinery is often built to be more interesting, both conceptually and visually, than the protagonist side’s machines. This trend did not invent itself. In many ways, it was begun back in the original Gundam series with the lowly Zaku.

Suspiciously close to the pronunciation of zako (雑魚）、Japanese for “small fry” (a term very frequently used in video gaming to describe anything not in the “boss” category; i.e. normal, regular enemies), the Zaku is the first, and most prolific, of the robotic behemoths called Mobile Suits (as opposed to Normal Suits, the Gundam series term for spacesuits) faced by the protagonists in the original series, Mobile Suit Gundam.

The Zaku is the Republic of Zeon’s first, and primary, mass-produced Mobile Suit during the conflict known after the fact as “The One Year War.” (Acronym: OYW) Having a mere one thirtieth of the on-paper production capacity of the Earth Federation, which dominated not only Earth but the vast majority of space colonies at the start of Mobile Suit Gundam (Acronym: MSG), what Zeon needed was not a single super-weapon, but a mass produce-able general purpose weapon that could dominate space combat. The “MS-06” Zaku is the 6th generation of development, though the first to see mass production.

Mobile Suits broadly share certain fundamental traits, so this applies to the Zaku as well as more advanced suits that came later:

• Computerized, automated balancing using the arms and legs as counterweights to assist maneuvering thrusters, i.e. verniers, to rapidly turn, and then stabilize, the Mobile Suit, giving it turn-on-a-dime capability (as well as “jinking” capability)
• A “main camera” housed in the head (the Zaku’s is the ubiquitous mono eye visible on the “face”)
• Secondary external cameras that endeavor to give a pilot a good view of what is around him
• Computer interpretation of pilot input, translating this input into physical actions by the mobile suit

This last part requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewer, rendering this firmly science fiction rather than pure speculative science. The idea that a Mobile Suit can move in human-like movements, however clumsy they may be shown as, is a stretch that we need to process to be able to just sit back and enjoy the show. That’s how it is.

The Zaku’s Characteristics

Beyond these basic features, the MS-06 Zaku has distinguishing characteristics that stand out even after 30 years of animation history.Technically, it’s the MS-06 Zaku II, because an earlier model that saw very limited mass production, the MS-05 Zaku I, existed and was combat ready, but only in extremely crude terms, and was markedly inferior in all respects. Any Mobile Suit might be considered better than none, but still.

Green Coloration

Zakus are green. That’s the way it’s always been; that’s the way it always will be. This holds true for just about everything but ace models with personal color schemes, such as the legendary One Year War ace Char Aznable, chief antagonist as regards the main protagonist of the series, 15 year old youth Amuro Ray.

Notwithstanding this, the basic model of every major variation is some sort of green. Minor variations, such as versions tuned for desert warfare (complete with desert camouflage), come in colors deemed appropriate to their purpose.

High Reliability

Considering that we are talking about futuristic machines here, the Zaku II is absolutely retro in concept. While it does employ a miniaturized fusion reactor made possible by Mobile Suit Gundam’s Minovsky Particle -based super-science, actual limb mobility is through hydraulic power, as basic and low tech as you can get. Thrust is provided by the use of super-heating a fixed supply of propellant; that is, gas that isn’t actually burning when it exits the thrusters. As you might imagine, this is far more effective and dramatic in space than on Earth, where limited rocket boosting and physical walking renders the Zaku II overwhelmingly earthbound.

Ease of Use

While it would be an exaggeration to say that anyone can pilot a Zaku, it’s like this: a normal pilot can put it through an incredible amount of abuse without breaking the machine. The Zaku may not be the thickest skinned machine when it’s being shot, but short of flying it into the side of a ship, you’re probably not going to total one through piloting alone.

This ease of use and low degree of sensitivity makes the Zaku an ideal training platform. Amazingly, even years after the One Year War, the victorious Earth Federation employed Zakus as “Red Team” units for training purposes, as seen in Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. Not only did this create an unmistakable “enemy feel,” it was cheap; the Zaku is easy to maintain (relative to giant robots!) and hey, a few refurbished models beat having to manufacture your own stuff to get plastered by paint rounds.

Ballistic Weaponry

Here we get into the heart of the Zaku’s charm.

The Zaku, being essentially a giant infantryman, uses good, old fashioned bullets for its best known weapon, the Zaku Machine Gun, so named because its reliability and ubiquity was so great that it was employed by non-Zaku suits (particularly transitional prototypes).This is essentially a robot version of a Tommy Gun, the drum-fed .50 caliber machine gun used in the Prohibition era by Al Capone’s gangsters.

For the uninitiated, a machinegun fires bullets, i.e. slugs; inert metal rounds. A cannon, no matter the type, fires explosive rounds.

Zaku II’s typically employ bazookas for heavy work; these were used for attacking warships as well as early attempts to destroy the Federation’s Gundam mobile suit, which had special armor that simply was not being defeated by machine gun rounds.

Both weapons were employed in space and on Earth (or inside air-filled colonies) indiscriminately.

Zaku type mobile suits tend to have at least some kind of variation of the Heat Hawk, a tomahawk with an edge that is superheated via the nuclear reactor’s power a moment before being employed in actual combat. It’s crude, and no Zaku will ever be accused of practicing swordsmanship, but that’s part of the point: all the pilot has to do is hack and chop and this reliable, brute force weapon will chew through normal armor like a hot knife through butter.

Structural Strength

The Zaku is not a light machine. As a consequence, it is vastly over-engineered for structural strength (which is not the same as thick armor). The Zaku can accommodate extra-heavy backpacks, heavy weapons, and so forth, with no trouble at all. One might think of it almost like a pack mule, but it was a combat machine, so using it for mere transportation of supplies would be silly.

Numerous Variations

One of the biggest reasons for the lasting impression the Zaku made is the sheer number and weight of variations. Many of these were promoted as toy variations, with ace models receiving custom color schemes complete with pictures and biographies of their ace pilots, who existed completely outside of the original animated show, but who live on in video games such as G Generation Spirits.

The basic mass-produced model was the MS-06 Zaku II F-Type, which was the main model used for space combat early in the war. An even earlier C-Type had been used as a nuclear bazooka carrier during the first days of the war, when a huge amount of humanity’s population (most of which was in space colonies) died in the crossfire between Zeonic forces and very much not picky Federation Navy forces. This type introduced the distinctive “shoulder spike” look, used for ramming, and the opposite, limited shoulder shield, providing some extra protection.

The J-Type was customized for ground surface warfare, and consequently, boosting through an air-filled environment. While the F-Type could do this, it wasn’t very good at it, and the J-Type – equipped with leg-mounted missiles and using tank cannons as alternatives to bazookas – became the face of the months of grinding ground warfare.

The High Mobility Test Types (there are different flavors) were essentially the F-Type with souped up thrusters and verniers. These preceded later non-Zaku mobile suits but, in good hands, these machines performed exceptionally in the skirmishes against Federation forces that dominated space combat until the Federation blitzkrieg that ended the war.

Numerous types of Zaku had commander type variations, which consisted of tuning up the machine, which was not externally obvious, and adding a vertical fin to the forehead, which absolutely was obvious and provided a simple measure of who you should be following in a confused combat situation.

A very wide number of minor variations exist, such as for desert warfare, camera reconnaissance, underwater use, and so on. These exist because of the aforementioned virtues of the Zaku: such a fundamentally sound and rugged design that you could do these things and not lose basic functionality.

A Deep Influence On Mecha

Even though there have been numerous Gundam series, movies, OAV’s, and so on and so forth, Gundams can only be used to their full potential by ace pilots with exceptionally rare levels of talent.

To the contrary, anyone can picture himself in a Zaku, and a Zaku, in the right hands, is plenty powerful enough to do a lot of damage. Consequently, the Zaku is a more approachable concept that is easier for people to actually imagine themselves in (provided they were born in a dark science fiction future).

The Zaku is really the start of the idea of grunt mecha, i.e. mecha used by “grunts,” infantrymen fighting in the proverbial or literal trench warfare that dominates real warfighting. This is the concept, and the implementation thereof, that provides the realistic, gritty “war” feel to Mobile Suit Gundam, where even the lowliest machine is piloted by a human being, meaning that every victory comes with an extension of the terrible casualty rolls of war.

So, in many senses, the Zaku is where the gritty, realistic trend began. To this day, the Zaku is a standard by which all other grunt mecha are compared. Is it cool? Is it gritty? Does it have the right feel? Always, we look back to the Zaku and ask, is it like that? Is it distinct, but with its own feel that measures up?

In those senses, these are big, mechanical shoes to fill. – J

Known as スーパーロボット大戦 or Super Robot Taisen in Japanese, this franchise goes back to rather ancient gaming times and continues haltingly into the modern era.

What The Heck Is A Super Robot?

For Americans and other non-Japanese, let me explain this in terms that should be easy to understand.

Voltron. Super Robot.

In other words, not realistic.

So, this creates the issue of what is a so-called real robot? (This is Japanese loan word slang, as will quickly become obvious.)

Veritech. Real Robot.

As in, a realistic robot, not a “real world” robot!

This is Super Robot 101.

Western gamers shorten this to the acronym SRW, and to save time and ease reading, I will do so as well.

For the Japanese anime aware, yes, I am WELL AWARE that the above are “GoLion” and “Valkyrie Fighter” in the Japanese versions. Who do you think I am?… But to explain to the uninitiated, such departures are necessary.

Crossover Mecha Gaming

All but extremely limited and rare offshoots of these games are turn-based strategy games involving statistical formulas and player strategy as one army faces off against one (or more) opposing armies. Rather than purely men (and women), these battles are fought with mecha, which is Japanese jargon for a machine (from: mechanical).

In other words, they include what one would identify as a robot specifically (something with humanoid features) as well as things which are not traditional robots, but which nonetheless fit within the context of “robot wars.”

The single great defining feature of the series, however, is that it is an anime crossover game series. By crossover, I mean that the games draw upon characters (and mecha) from a diverse cross-section of mecha anime, ranging from the realistic (i.e. Gundam) to the apocalyptic and incredible (i.e. Evangelion).

Essentially, I eat these games for breakfast.

SRW games are one most challenging type of games in existence for he (or she) who wishes to read Japanese natively. The dialog ranges from the ridiculous, to the insanely colloquial, to the extremely technical, including specialized military jargon. Through it all, the language is peppered with loan words.

Well, it took me a long time to get up to the speed required for them, but it is nonetheless one way I keep my unconventional reading and listening skills sharp.

Recognize any...?

Super-Deformed Mecha

As you can see from the picture, mecha in the “super deformed” style is basically… big head, squished body, which creates a “deformed” body style.

Originally, the use of SD (Super-Deformed) mecha was because the primitive systems SRW games were on had to be this way to fit within memory constraints. Later, it became an issue of economics: studios like Sunrise (creator of Gundam and many other franchises) license SD likenesses of its properties at half the price of full size versions (or so I have heard).

Thus, by using SD models, the creator (Banpresto, derived from Bandai, the toy company behemoth) can unleash a massive army of mecha, and their associated characters, upon a large niche gaming market.

North America: Original Generations Only

Thanks to licensing hell from so many varied properties, the legal challenges of bringing these games to North America have scared everyone off from even trying, except for one.

Original Generations uses the Banpresto “original” (i.e. not appearing in an outside created anime) characters, which means Banpresto owns all the rights, which means, no licensing hell. However, only the Nintendo Gameboy series versions (mainly for the dual screen version, or NDS) have been brought to America. A PS2 version mashing together Original Generation 1 & 2 was released in Japan.

I own that game, and it’s not bad.

Anyway, we can no longer say that originals haven’t appeared in anime. That’s what the Original Generations anime, seasons 1 and 2, are all about, based on the first and second games, respectively.

The image at the top of this article is a Gespenst, one of the oldest “original” mecha used in the SRW series.

A Massive Source Of Dialog

Besides the encyclopedic data in the games themselves (and I’m not kidding – there’s an in-game mecha and character encyclopedia in every console version dating years back), there’s a huge amount of in-game dialog, particularly during battle animations where the results of the statistical foolery play out before your eyes with background music (BGM, BGM’s) playing and voice actors (seiyuu) speaking these lines as they appear at the bottom of the screen. In ancient console versions, and all portable ones, this written text is all you get, but for console versions – including ports – you get voice, too.

The sheer entertainment value of this is incredible, even if the general technology level of these games is at the lower end of the scale in general.

Cultural Value

Essentially, SRW is a gateway drug to more mecha anime, and introduced me, personally, and quite a lot of gamers to anime which they have not seen before, but would like to (largely as a result of seeing the content in these games).

Blogging Value

The reason I write these words is so that, in the future, I can simply link back to this post and people can get an explanation of what the broader subject is when I discuss, oh, “and in SRW Z, this unit is great to use) or something like that.

Put bluntly, I am capable of an embarrassingly large degree of highly detailed babble about things arising in this game series, and relating to anime appearing in these games, that I wanted to give people some kind of heads up about it.

At any rate, there’s an incredible amount of non-traditional language education that can be derived from my gaming, and rapid-fire reading, experience gleaned from these games, and that has value to me as a blogger.

So there.

A Sniper’s Dream Come True

For people who have not actually watched Gundam 00, this post may show you things you have not seen before. Really, I wanted to resume showing the background of the Gundam 00 Movie, not so much in terms of plot, which you could skip 98% of and still grasp the movie, but in terms of mecha, which are the real reason to watch a mecha show.

I know, I know, it’s supposed to be human drama, but when you make machines that have humanoid characteristics, they become de facto characters as well. Let’s not deny that they’re a big part of the attraction.

Recap: Technological Foundation

All Gundams in Gundam 00 are based around a super-particle that the series calls GN Particles, with no actual breakdown of what “GN” stands for. Keep this in mind when reading the rest of this article.

The Gundams of the “protagonist” organization Celestial Being use what are known as “solar furnaces” for engines, miraculous even for the futuristic setting, being nearly perpetual energy machines. These GN Drives have effectively unlimited operating time, but are limited in how much energy they can generate at any one moment. This provides the foundation for the Gundams’ astonishing abilities and weaponry.

Concept

As the first headline suggests, Dynames was designed for sniping. However, this is not quite its only function; it serves as a highly mobile sniper/ sharpshooter. The combination of relatively high agility and great accuracy and power in its ranged weapons creates the need for what passes for a co-pilot.

“Haro”

This cute looking talking robot was originally part of the first Mobile Suit Gundam as a hand-built toy created by the main character, a teenager with high mechanical aptitude. (As with many old mecha anime (and despite the show’s overall introduction of a highly “realistic” style), the main character was the son of the lead designer of the Gundam itself.) In later incarnations of the franchise, Haro units appeared at various times as well.

Only in one previous anime, Gundam V (“Victory”), did a fully intelligent AI-based Haro serve as a co-pilot for an early teen main character. Here, the pilot is the decidedly young adult Lockon Stratos (a codename).

With this setup, Haro acts as the co-pilot, but in reality, handles virtually everything except actual shooting. This includes evasive action, sensor search, emergency SOS, and so on and so forth.

Cockpit of Gundam Dynames. Lineart from mahq.net

Weapons

GN Beam Sabers

Although not favored by the design concept, this suit is equipped with two GN Beam Sabers (originally explained here) for last-ditch melee defense. As the chosen pilot is not a close combat specialist by any stretch, even pistols (see below) are preferred to this unless truly desperate.

GN Beam Pistols

Dynames is equipped with a pair of GN Pistols, firing high velocity GN particles with great rate of fire and accuracy. Lockon and Haro combine to create a combat style of high speed evasion combined with pinpoint shots at close range, though things like strafing can be done to hold the enemy at a distance.

GN Missiles

The front skirt armor and both knees contain launchers for GN Missiles, which are ideally used against large targets or groups of enemies. Thus, Dynames has a means of delivering heavy firepower that the Exia cannot match, as one example.

GN Sniper Rifle

This is the main weapon of Gundam Dynames.

To put it briefly, the GN Sniper Rifle is a high energy, long range, extremely accurate sniper rifle. However, the GN Drive used by Dynames provides so much energy that the sniper rifle can be fired multiple times in close succession. This makes Dynames more resistant to “rushing” tactics.

Given time to shoot, the power and accuracy of this rifle is more than sufficient to annihilate whole squads in short order. In addition, the energy blasts are so rich with particles that atmospheric dissipation of energy beams is less of a factor, resulting in much longer effective range than most blasts would have.

The rifle can be stabilized by a bipod, taking advantage of the mobile suit’s humanoid design, but is usually attached to a rotatable right shoulder dock (which allows Dynames to switch to other weapons without losing the rifle). An optional scope may be attached above the barrel, in addition to the head’s custom external optics to further enhance reliability in targeting.

Who could multitask with this? That's why there's Haro.

A custom control system within the cockpit is used to make firing the rifle as similar to firing a “real” rifle as possible, allowing a human’s acquired sharpshooting skills to be fully translated through the suit to the final shot.

Super Substratospheric Altitude Gun

This is a special weapon system, essentially a SuperSized GM Sniper Rifle with obscene weight and bulk, that is meant for one task: sniping orbital targets from the surface of the Earth. This, combined with holographic camouflage that hides the suit before the critical moment, allows Dynames to receive an order, equip the weapon, aim, and blast a satellite from the ground.

Aside from that single purpose, it is not very practical, but it is powerful. It’s the sort of idea that gets put into a show just because it’s cool.

It is, too.

Conclusion: In The Right Hands…

In the hands of a born sniper with well-honed skills, this would be an incredibly deadly weapon of battle. Given that exactly such a person did pilot it, this was an incredibly effective tactical weapon.

Of course, it lacked any truly special defensive system – something addressed in a later version – and always retained a vulnerability in melee combat, but only a select few pilots (with the right machine) would be capable of exploiting this weakness.

Being specialized is not a bad thing. Used properly and wisely, this high performance machine played its role very, very well indeed.

Stuck in the wrong tactical situation, it would not fare well at all.