Super Robot Wars T’s Awesome Mecha Action Shown in New Screenshots; Comments from Producers

Iyane Agossah December 19, 2018 4:12 PM EST

Famitsu revealed new screenshots for Super Robot Wars T, showing Rayearth's Umi, G Gundam's Allenby, Gun X Sword's Ray and more.

This week’s issue of Famitsu Magazine had screenshots for Super Robot Wars T, showing new characters and mecha units, including fan favorite Umi from Rayearth. As always, you can find these below, but keep in mind Bandai Namco should publish direct-feed versions of these same screenshots a few days from now.

Moreover, the magazine also included comments from producers Takanobu Terada and Shouhei Mogami. Here are the most interesting tidbits:

Super Robot Wars T is coming to Switch along with PS4 because it’s a very popular console and allows players to play the game both at home and on the go.

A lot of the series included in T are series many fans wanted, both in and outside Japan. This time, they put in even more consideration towards fan’s answers in the polls asking which series you’d like to see. G Gundam and GaoGaiGar are in because it’s been a very long time since they last appeared, and because of their popularity outside Japan. Getter Robo: Armageddon, Might Gaine, Top wo Nerae!, Gun x Sword and Martian Successor Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness are also among the most requested series in polls by non-japanese fans.

As they do surveys and polls, they also know that the majority of Super Robot Wars players are men. They hope that Rayearth’s female fans will play Super Robot Wars T, and they’d like more women to play Super Robot Wars in general. They’re also trying to appeal to multiple generations. Captain Harlock is for people into anime for a very long while, then you’ve got Rayearth for people the generation below, Cowboy Bebop for the generation a bit below, and then Expelled from Paradise is for younger people.

They decided the series in the new mobile game, Super Robot Wars DD, at the same time as the series in Super Robot Wars T, and made it so both games have attractive series while avoiding redundancy.

As usual, the stories of the series included will be rewritten to fit together. This is especially the case here as some series included have the Earth already in ruins in their story. The previous game, Super Robot Wars X, was set in another world, so for T, they decided to go back to the how things are usually, with a classic setting featuring Earth.

Producer Terada said that when writing a Super Robot Wars game’s story, they basically have two methods. Either they decide on how the story will go overall, pick the series, and then write the story in detail. Or they pick most of the series and then write everything later. For Super Robot Wars T, they went with the second method.

Super Robot Wars T will have some new gameplay system(s) compared to previous games, they’ll reveal them later.

Fans greatly appreciated the “movie cut-ins” in Super Robot Wars X, so they included even more cut-ins like that in T. These are the cut-ins you often find in X’s strongest attacks. These animations go much beyond an animated portrait of the pilot, and are closely similar to anime, with lots of movements, different points of views and camera changes, etc. Many of the strongest attacks in T will have cut-ins like that. The animation team struggled a lot to create satisfying animations.

The game will have some “what if” stories that are only possible in Super Robot Wars, like the meeting between Dunbine‘s Shoh and Dunbine OVA’s Shion, who is supposed to be his reincarnation.

They put in a Gespesnst as a “special guest unit” as they already put in a Huckebein + a Grungust in V, and Cybaster, Masaki and his cats in X. The Gespenst is one of the first Original mecha they created for the series, and it first appeared in Super Robot Wars 4, part of the first saga in the series. However the Gespenst in T will be piloted by a brand new Original character. So they thought it’ll be cool to see the newest character they created pilot one of the oldest mecha they created.

Moreover, this week’s issue of Famitsu Magazine also features its traditional end of the year corner, the “Game developers’ aspirations for next year”. In it, Producer Terada said that he’s hard at work and need to be “tough” to be sure the Super Robot Wars series’ games are developed without issues. The series will have 3 games in 2019: Super Robot Wars T, the new mobile game Super Robot Wars DD, and the already released and ongoing mobile game Super Robot Wars Cross-Omega. As for what Terada-san is looking forward to in 2019, he’s awaiting the releases of Ace Combat 7, Left Alive, and the final Yamato 2202 movie. He’s also looking forward to the climaxes of the three big Tokusatsu series’s latest shows: Ultraman R/B, Kamen Rider Zi-O and Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger. Lastly, he enjoys camping so he’d like to go camping in 2019.

Super Robot Wars T will launch for PS4 and Switch in Japan on March 20. The Southeast Asia version of the game with English subtitles will release the same day. A new version of the first trailer that now includes the release date was published as well. In Japan, the game will also receive a limited edition containing 35 different songs. The Edit BGM function, which allows you to use any MP3 file, will however only be included in the PS4 version. Producer Terada also said on the latest stream that the game’s Original characters should be revealed in January, which means the second trailer should be released then as well.