Game Review: Super Robot Wars Z2 Hakai Hen

A series that started back in 1991 with the first game being for the Game Boy and has since released numerous games for various console and handheld devices. The main feature of the Super Robot Wars franchise is that each games story features a crossover of various mecha anime, manga and video games to make a combined plot.

The game I am reviewing today is Super Robot Wars Z2 Hakai Hen (Destruction Chapter) for the PlayStation Portable which is a sequel to Super Robot Wars Z which came out in 2008 for the PlayStation 2. This game features a huge number of popular recent titles such as Code Geass, Shin Mazinger, Macross Frontier, and Gurren Lagann. In addition to that they feature some of the older popular series such as VOTOMS, Godmars, and Dancouga. At first I played this game because it featured a few series I knew. But after finishing the game I came to like a few other series that I never knew about.

The story of the game is set a few years after the events of SRW Z occurring in an alternate world which is torn between Three Nations. The Advanced European Union (AEU), Human Reform League (HRL) and Britannia-Union. The world has two moons and two Japans. One which is known as Area 11. From time to time there are dimension quakes where Dimension Armed MONster(called DAMON) appear and cause havoc. The main plot is focused on Gurren Lagann, Code Geass, and Gundam 00.

The gameplay is like a strategy RPG where you move around your units around the map and defeat enemy units. The units in the game are divided into two categories. Super robots which have high HP and strong attacks but are slow and always get hit and real robots with high avoidability and movement ranges but have low health and weaker attacks. Different units have different roles besides attacking like having units for healing and units for recovering energy and warships where units can be placed inside to recover HP and EN.

For the graphics the game has fluid attack animations. Though the sprites are super deformed, the animations are well done and the attacks resemble how they originally looked in the units series. There are also pilot/mecha cut-ins which look very cool. Like in SRW Z the units attacks also have different animation depending on whether the enemy unit is in the air, ground, or underwater and whether the move defeats the enemy. I can see that the SRW team has put in a lot of effort into this game despite the limitations of the PSP.

Then comes the music. The music are instrumental remixes of the series opening or OST. It features songs like Gurren Laganns’s opening song sorairo days to one of Code Geass’s OST Elegant Force. I really liked Sorairo Days, Heats, Honoo no Sadame and Just Communication.

This game has 50 missions excluding route splits while less than other SRW games is still quite a lot. This game covers the events of most series till the halfway point of their story arcs and there is a sequal called Super Robot Wars Z2 Saisei Hen (Regeneration Chapter). The game is relatively easy and the story is interesting even if you don’t understand what they are talking about. A must have for any mecha fan.

Score: 8.5