Super Robot Wars 30

There are two reasons why I cannot recommend this game and if you don't think they apply to you, grab it on sale and give it a go. My first problem is initially the plotting and pacing isn't too bad until it hits a point where it tries to weave so many disparate worlds and universes together that it starts feeling like bad fan fiction. I feel like that is part of the charm but it didn't work for me. Mixing fantasy, real robot and magic robot settings and characters together eventually muddied everything to a point where my eyes started glazing over. There is a lot of story here wrapped around every mission that, as things progress and each world becomes more entangled, the fan fiction gets more and more noticeable. Near the end, the pacing changes and the game rushes to tie all the loose ends together so now you have these disparate storylines, worlds and characters mashed together in a way that isn't satisfying. Similar themes and story beats present in different series also start becoming repetitive when mixed together. The power of friendship overcoming adversary is fine in one show/game but going through the fifth story beat in a row where a bad guy is defeated because of it, it gets old really fast. This wouldn't be so bad if the gameplay felt good and fresh throughout but it also follows a pattern of feeling repetitive. On the outset it is fine but there is a point early on where you pretty much have your party and your tactics sorted out. You're given a large choice of characters and mechs to choose from but you're probably only going to use the same 10-15 your most familiar with or a fan of and there's very little that happens to impact the gameplay in meaningful ways. You can purchase upgrades with currencies you earn after each mission that affect individual units/pilots or everyone as a whole but there comes a point where you feel those less or you've chosen all you felt necessary and are just spending points to spend points. Once you find your groove 15-20 hours in, your stuck in it without any threat for the rest of the game. The difficulty becomes a numbers game in the end. The bosses just have more health and do more damage than the fodder. There's very little done to challenge the status quo so what tactics worked for you earlier on will be just as effectively in the late game. Music is good but the music I do recognize is a lesser version than the original. It's a notch or two below the original so not quite MIDI style. The animations for attacks are good but get repetitive, you'll spend most of the game with them off. Overall, not a bad game but not really that good either. In the process of bringing so many franchises, characters and stories together to create something unforgettable, the end result is a bland gameplay, a gordion knot of a story and something entirely forgettable.