Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier
Score: 75% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Atlus Developer: Monolith Soft Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 Genre: RPG
Graphics & Sound: I couldn't come up with a more perplexing game than Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier if I tried. The story is confusing, the battle system takes a long time to understand and a lot is thrown at the player in a short time. Oddly enough, these problems don't matter as much when you get to the bare bones gameplay. Endless Frontier looks better during battles than it does during exploration, a trait that is indicative of the entire experience. In-battle, characters are huge and fluidly animated. As they cycle through combos, characters show off a variety of different attack types that flow seamlessly from one to another. Animations become even more intricate during special attacks. It gets to the point where you want to use as many specials as possible just to see them in motion. The rest of the visuals aren't as impressive. The overworld map looks like a throwback to SNES era RPGs. Everything is flat and made up for a few look-a-like tile sets. If the battle animations weren't so impressive, I would probably be a little more forgiving of the overworld areas, but that isn't the case. The game comes packaged with a sampler soundtrack, and if it weren't for the CD, I don't think I would have appreciated the Endless Frontier's soundtrack as much. The soundtrack offers a variety of tracks, some of which are remixes of themes from previous games in the series. All of the Japanese voice tracks are left intact, which should make purists happy. However, voices only play during battles, so non-Japanese speaking fans have nothing to worry about.
Gameplay: Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier is a side-story to the Super Robot Wars series that, due to numerous copyright issues, has seen limited release in North America. The obvious plus side is that newcomers can jump into the series and without nearly twenty years of back-story to catch up on. At the same time, Endless Frontier is still steeped enough in back-story that you're presented with large blocks to background exposition... and that's before the main characters are introduced. Endless Frontier focuses on Haken Browning, a bounty hunter from Lost Herencia, one of several worlds connected by Cross Gates. Originally, the Cross Gates were a source of problems, leading to war between worlds. After the dust cleared, an uneasy peace settled in, giving rise to bounty hunters like Haken who search for refugees and artifacts that slip through the Cross Gates. During an expedition to a crashed ship, Haken and his robot sidekick, Aschen, meet Kaguya, a princess from another world who is on the run. Although mesmerized by Kaguya's "assets," Haken decides to bring the wayward princess back to her world only to find himself pulled into a Cross Gate jumping adventure. Although the story gets better as layers of exposition are slowly stripped away, it still makes little sense. Given the game's penchant for lampooning JRPG (Japanese RPG) formulas, I'm tempted to think that the opaque storytelling is intentional. However, I'm not sure this is the case. Either way, it gets you where you need to go and even throws in a few jokes. Take note that, even though Endless Frontier is rated "T," it takes every opportunity it can to try and push the rating's boundaries. It isn't excessive, but expect suggestive material. Gameplay plays out like other traditional JRPGs. You follow a linear path through the storyline, moving from dungeon to dungeon solving puzzles, earning experience and defeating bosses. The experience is bland almost to a fault, which will make the game a hard sell for all but the most hardcore JRPG fans.
Difficulty: Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier is as traditional as JRPGs can get. Level grinding isn't necessary for the first third of the game or so, but later on, you'll spend just as much time hunting down random encounters to level up your characters as you do trying to push the story forward. It's tedious, which again will probably make the game a hard sell (unless you really love grinding, in which case you'll love Endless Frontier's end game). If you pace yourself throughout the game and make reasonable judgments on what areas you can and can't handle, Endless Frontier shouldn't pose too many problems. This said, there are still bosses that are able to take you down in a hit or two. Learning the mechanics of battle poses a few problems early in the game. Tutorials are delivered via block text and make actions seem more complicated than they are. Though it looks menu-based, combat is action-oriented. You can have up to eight members in you party, four on the frontline and four on the backline. Frontline characters are your main attackers, while backline enemies act as support. The idea is to keep enemies in the air as long as possible using combo and tag attacks. The longer an enemy is in the air, the more damage it will receive. The text misleading and makes it sound like you're button-mashing, but you're not. Instead, you're timing button presses with the animations in an attempt to wring the most damage out of an enemy. Mashing the buttons works, but you'll lose some valuable COM (combo energy) in the process.
Game Mechanics: During a character's turn, pressing (A) begins a basic attack chain. Characters can string together basic attacks as long as they have COM available. Other attack types are eventually assigned to other buttons, allowing you to string them into powerful combos. As tempting as it is to just lock in your most powerful attacks, they drain more COM than normal ones. The trick is to find a good balance between the two in order to maximize an enemy's airtime. When an enemy is in the air, you can "tag" another character into battle with the D-pad. Pressing (Left) calls in a support character, while (Right) calls in another frontline character. Calling a character into a combo essentially begins their turn. This keeps the damage tab running and also fills up the Frontier Gauge, which allows one character to pull off a powerful Overdrive attack. Characters can also use Spirit (magic) and Special Skills to further enhance the amount of damaged dealt to an enemy. I've said this numerous times already, but it bears repeating, Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier is a hard sell. The exploration elements are threadbare and tedious, while the story makes little sense. If the combat system weren't so deep and enjoyable, I would probably write Endless Frontier off as something you can skip. While not recommended for every RPG fan, Endless Frontier is enjoyable if you don't mind a little mundane mixed in with your fun.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
Crimson Gem Saga Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp