Any fan of the huge-mech mishmash strategy game series Super Robot Wars will tell you that most of the series is quite formulaic and was basically perfected by the PS2 days. While there have been differences throughout the years, Super Robot Wars X keeps one of the recent major changes which I wouldn’t mind becoming the standard – the TacP system.

First added in the previous game, Super Robot Wars V, the TacP system gives pilot customization a twist by unifying the currency used to get new skills. In previous games, getting certain pilots (mainly side characters) to usable levels would have taken a consumingly-long time, thanks to each character having their own amount of skill points that only go up by 10 each kill. What the TacP system does is allow players to play at a normal pace without worrying about getting a certain amount of kills with a particular character who’s halfway across the map, as the total pool of points is now shared universally.

Furthermore, Super Robot War’s skills now work off a skill tree system, where new skills have to be unlocked before being able to purchase more powerful versions or more useful ones. Skills can be bought multiple times and even leveled up on characters, and there are options to buy stat upgrades as well that go up in multiples of five. In essence, this system lets me raise characters such as Seabook Arno in the Gundam F91 to near-broken levels if I want to.

Of course, Super Robot Wars is a team game with a focus on crossover shenanigans, so you shouldn’t really over-invest in one character and solo the game, especially with SR Points (extra goals that earn you extra cash) at stake. However, the TacP system allows for flexibility in giving favoritism to at least several characters.

Super Robot Wars X also has a Magic Customize system in place, where team-wide benefits can be unlocked Grade after Grade. This includes things such as increasing the amount of SP pilots gain every turn, the amount of TacP defeating enemies give you (I recommend this option, especially if trying to reach the secret ending split), and more. I find that some of the later options have been toned down since Super Robot Wars V, but it’s still wise to invest in these despite the massive amount of points needed.

While the Magic Customize options are very helpful in the long run, I still put unlocking the entire skill tree in this game as the first priority, as highly-sought skills such as Energy Save and Hit & Run are locked behind some of the later options. This paid off as minimal robot upgrades could easily get me some of the easier stages, while later on in the game running out of energy is a very real problem.

Still, just the fact I don’t need to drip feed kills to certain characters on a mass scale is a very welcome improvement that unifies some of the more tedious elements in previous games. It adds another element of strategy to character customization to an otherwise consistent, long-running franchise.

Super Robot Wars X is now available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in English via the Southeast Asia region version of the game.