Sleepyhead Symphony (Day 308)

As of this writing, I have not yet finished Alpha Gaiden, but I am on the final part of the final mission. The game's definitely not making it easy on me. I have encountered few mission in strategy RPGs that have put me through so much. I'm reminded of SRW Original Generation and of course Front Mission 4, which took me years to complete due to the game's glacial pace.

I fully expect to finish this tonight, but for the moment, I'm playing some League of Legends with some friends. I thought I'd take some time to discuss my final roster like I did for Super Robot Wars J. 

From top row, left to right: Cenia in Nors Rei, Marbet in White Ark, Diana/Milan in Soleil, Mari in Blugar, Jinguji in Blugar, Kamille in Zeta Gundam, Jamil in Gundam X, Garrod/Tifa in Gundam Double X, Yang Long in Granveil, Masaki in Cybuster, Zechs in Tallgeese, Trowa in Gundam Heavyarms Custom, Caris in Vertigo, Judau in ZZ Gundam, Usso in V2 Assault Buster Gundam, Heero in Wing Gundam Zero Custom, Banjou in Daitarn 3, and Loran in ∀Gundam

All of these units fall into certain categories in my strategy. We have our skirmishers, tanks, and damage dealers, as well as our medics. Unlike Super Robot Wars J, I really mixed it up when it came to which anime series' characters I used. In a lot of cases, I only used one character from a certain anime, although I did use as many as three. In Super Robot Wars J, you only had access to Gundams from two different series. In Alpha Gaiden, there's something like eight different series to choose from. As a result, my final team was very Gundam-heavy. I'll start with them.

Kamille Bidan in Powered-Up Zeta Gundam (Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam)

Kamille was likely my strongest character for large portions of the game, likely due in no small part to the huge number of upgrades and parts I sent his way. There has to be something else at play there, though, because his evasion in particular became staggeringly high at a certain point of the game. After his upgrade in mission 39, his combat capabilities shot through the roof and he was regularly doing 9000 damage to some enemies without any boosts. I'm also currently watching the series he's from!

Judau Ashta in ZZ Gundam (Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ)

As the protagonist of the series directly following Zeta Gundam, you'd expect him to be a real powerhouse as well. Unfortunately, I've had mixed results from him. His Spirit Command setup is strong, especially since he has Soul, the x2.5 damage ability, but his Gundam's skillset leaves something to be desired. Although ZZ Gundam has an incredibly strong map attack, it suffers from friendly fire, a con that Cybuster's far superior Cy-Flash does not share. ZZ Gundam is highly evasive, however, and very mobile in flight mode. I'm suddenly wishing now that I'd switched Judau to a different Gundam. This is something I easily could have done but never thought to do.

Usso Ewin in V2 Assault Buster Gundam (Mobile Suit Victory Gundam)

I don't know much about the series he's from at all other than the fact it takes place during the Universal Century timeline established by the original series and the two Zeta series. Usso is a 13-year old kid who apparently has the traditional series robot Haro as his co-pilot. I'm not sure if it's the same one as from the original series, but it must have been important to the plot in this case. Usso is one of my less powerful characters, but he's solid all the same. I think I mostly kept him out of loyalty to my Gundam-centric squad.

Marbet Fingerhut in White Ark (Mobile Suit Victory Gundam)

Marbet, on the other hand, has been with me since the very beginning. She has been my primary repairer/resupplier for the entire game. Her craft is decently evasive but also quite tanky, a fantastic combination for a support unit. She also has access to Rouse, one of the best late game Spirit Commands. It allows you to beef up your units so they have access to their more powerful abilities earlier in the mission. I had three units in my final roster that could use this ability.

Heero Yuy in Wing Gundam Zero Custom (Mobile Suit Gundam Wing)

This was the character that was most recognizable to me the first time I played this game. It's been many years since I watched Gundam Wing, but I still remember the characters pretty well. Wing Zero had access to some really powerful map attacks, but like ZZ Gundam, friendly fire was an issue. Unlike ZZ Gundam, ZZ Gundam has a decently strong single target attack in Twin Buster Rifle, so it was generally more versatile. Heero unfortunately does not have the Alert Spirit Command, so he was sometimes useless against bosses that could one-shot him.

Trowa Barton in Gundam Heavyarms Custom (Mobile Suit Gundam Wing)

If I could do the game over again (and it's possible I will at some point), I would probably not use Trowa. Although he has access to a decent variety of powerful attacks in Heavyarms, he has terrible mobility and isn't very durable. His most powerful attack also has only 3 ammo, making it mandatory for a Resupplier to travel closely behind him at all times.

Zechs Marquise in Tallgeese (Mobile Suit Gundam Wing)

I would also most likely not use Zechs again, at least not in my final squad. He was very powerful for a large portion of the game, but was eventually outscaled as my other characters received upgrades to their units and I acquired more powerful characters. His ultimate attack, Mega Cannon, is decently strong, but it chips away at his Energy pretty quickly.

I'm going to go ahead and save the rest of the roster for tomorrow, because this is getting ridiculously long.