Super Robot Taisen 3

[GutsAndCasca]

I just got this game in the mail. And I have absolutely no clue at all whatsoever as to what is happening in this game. I don't understand what the menus say. I'm lost. I don't even know what other animes these robots come from. Can someone please help me out here? Please?

And can you tell me also what the commands are in the menus in the game? (during the battles) <--edited

Edited August 15, 2006 by GutsAndCasca

[JB0]

3 or Alpha 3?

One's an SNES game, the other's PS2.

If you mean the SNES one, I'd recommend emulating it and using Gideon's translation patch.

http://agtp.romhack.net/srw3.html

I'm actually surprised that Alpha 3 lacks any menu translations at GameFAQs.

The Robot Series Guide is still useful for working out what franchises are in the game, though.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/game/926291.html

[GutsAndCasca]

It's the PS2 game. Neat graphics. No idea what's going on.

[Keith]

I just picked this up a month & a half ago. It looks intimidating at first, but the best thing I can reccomend is to just jump in. If worse comes to worse, you'll get blown up, and start the stage over again. Play with things, and the menu's will become very clear.

Definately check gamefaqs, there are some helpful translations & scenario synpsis there. And as soon as I finish the game, I'm going to read them all before my next play-through

But here's what I've learned from playing around (I'm on scenario 52 or 53, nearly the end of the game).

When in an actual battle scenario, there are two different menu's you can bring up. The first being when you put your curser over a unit, you bring up your units battle settings menu, and when you place the curser over an empty space, you bring up a more general settings menu.

The two most important things in the general settings menu being the very top, and the very bottom option. The very bottom option is your static save (the one you'll go back to when selecting "continue" from the main menu when starting the game), and the top option is for when you have fully moved your units & whatnot for your turn, it ends your turn & starts the enemy's turn to attack you. Make sure you don't mix them up, as you can royally bone a campaign that way. Other options that are available in this menu are you general audio & game settings, a rundown of what your objectives are for that particular stage (which is entirely in Japanese, but you can usually tell from that screen how many turns you have to achieve your goal), one that shows the current status of your entire group such as HP (Hit points, the main green bar), EN (Energy points, or how much energy you have left for attacks), & SP (Seishin points I believe, akin to spells in an RPG, with various effects such as boosting defence, targetting accuracy, evasion, healing, etc), and the rest I don't quite remember right now, but aren't terribly useful most of the time.

The Battle settings menu is more detailed, and you'll use it very often.

-The top option selects how many spaces your unit will move (which is also determined by the terrain you're on, the top of units you have in that particular group, what transformation they're currently in, whether they're flying types or what not). Choose this option last, as once you finalize your move, you either have to attack or stay stationary for that partuclar turn. If you select it, and select as pace, it will give you two options, the first is to choose an attack, and the second is to stay there & not attack. If only one option pops up, you're too far away from an enemy unit to attack, and will stay in your selected spot.

-The second option is for attacking without moving, and selecting a target from those close-enough to you too attack. Mind you attacks themselves are highly dependant on how much energy you currently have left, how close you are to an enemy, and where you specifically are in regards to an enemy (some require you to be close, some require you to be far, some reguire you to be in an exact spot). Things in this menu are very easy to decipher, as it's almost all numbers based, and the types of attacks are abbreviated in enlgih (well, romanji I suppose, but that's neither here nor there). Attacks that are listed as "all" will obviously attack every member of the enemies party. Attacks listed as "MAP" will attack within a specified radious on the map (note some will hurt friendly units on the map, so be carefull when choosing this). And the lower you go down the menu, the stronger the attack is (and the more energy it consumes). Also make sure to keep an eye on the top of the attack selection menu, as some attacks can combine multiple units (like say all 3 Eva's, or Freedom & Justice Gundam's), and the top will show how many units are included with pictures of them. Note that once you select an attack & a target, a Vs screen will come up. This is a very important screen, When attacking the enemy, the basic set of options here are simple, as it turns the battle animations on or off. When being attacked, you can select the second option down to select an available counter attack (1) choose to stand & take an attack, but brace for defense (2) or attempt to avaid the attack & (but not retaliate). Note, that those specfici options are only available when being attacked). In this very same screen, if you tap left or right on the crosspad (or stick), the part that says "on" (or off if you turn off the battle animations) will now show green text that says Offense & Defense. If you move the curser down above those, you'll see the units on opposing sides will show percentages. Depending on whether it's your turn, or the enemies turn, determines who's offense & who's defense. What those percentage numbers mean, are your chances of hitting (the numbers on your side) or being hit (the numbers on the enemies side). When it's your turn, you can alter these numbers easily enough by using the seishin (spells or what not). When you're being attacked, the only influence you can have over those numbers are the options I listed above, with selecting an attack, bracing, or dodging. Obviously if your chances oaf attack are 100%, you'll get an absolute hit, or if your enemies chances of attack are 4%, you can pretty safely assume they'll miss you.

-The next option usually involves transforming a unit, combining two units together to make a larger one, or dropping a units excess hardware (like the GPO3's mobile armor). This option can vary in placement depending on who you're selecting, and whether you even have transformable/alterable members in your party. If you don't, then that option won't appear. The same goes for whether you have equipped/usable items.

-The option after that I think gives you access to all of the spells in your entire attacking group, at least the ones who haven't moved for that turn yet.

-The second from the buttom option is your spells (I hate calling it that, but that's pretty much what it is) menu. Best thing I reccomend is to save before you use any of them, and play with them to see what they do. Though I think Gamefaq's has a rundown of all of them for this game, including translations for the Japanese text. But basically, each pilot has a variety of different spells avaiable to them, and you get more as you gain experience levels. Also note that some spells only affect specific turns, some (such as defense or evasion) only work until you've had to defend against or evade a direct hit attack, some (such as healing) can be used on any unit in your whole party, and that there are usually two different types of the same thing. Such as an individual healing spell that only does partial, or a more expensive one that will fully heal an entire party. There are also ones that boost your attack strength, and that raise your abilities (depending on your pilot, and or story progression). Note that some robots have multiple pilots, and those that do you can hit R2/L2 to switch between pilots, as they usually have different available spells. Also note that you can select a spell with the Square button, which will highlight it green. In doing this, you can select multiple spells at a time (not all spells can be used this way, as some have specific effects that need to be done individually), which will save you time on casting, as you can cast many at once.

-The last option general status information.

Also, if you have your curser over one of your units, hitting triangle will tranform the lead robot (if they're transformable, and pressing square will cycle through them to switch the leader. The lead unit will have the most powerful attack, and the secondary one will lead the others in a weaker attack before your main attack (depending on various factors at least.

The play mechanics are pretty easy once you get used to the menu's, and are very intuitive if you're used to playing turn-based RPG's.

Now once you've completed a scenario, there's usually a bit of story (hold circle & R1 to speed through text if you don't want to sit through it). After that will be your inbetween stage menu (blue background). Initially, you don't need to worry about things such as assigning different units & groups, but later on things get detailed here. The top group is entirely for assinging robots to groups. The first option I haven't played with, I think it's for auto assinging, which I don't reccomend, as it's not as fun. The second is for manually putting robots in groups (which is dependant on how expansive that particular robot is). Pay attnetion to how many bars each robot taeks up. Whle you can have a maximum of 4 per group, if you try to play too many strong or large (ones with many bars) robots per group, it'll fill up much faster. If it says OV in the bar, that means you're over your cost limit, and will have to take a unit out. BTW, the first optoin in the assign bar (rectanular black box with 3-4 rows of Japanese characters, the first being the top on the left side) is for choosing a robot, the one right below it is for unchoosing a robot. The rest.....hell if I know The 3rd option in the top set of options is for assigning a pilot to another robot. Some robots are switchable with various pilots (usually depending on being from teh same/similar show). Though some can only be used with their main hero pilot.

-The next group is for status (as it obviously says status). I haven't found much use for this.

-I think the next one is customize, where you can use your PP (pilot points?) to upgrade your pilots in various fields (option 1), your mecha in various fields (option 2), and your attacks in various fields (option 3). The points assigned for use with pilots are individual per pilot. The points assigned for use with robots are for "all" robots, if you use them all up on one for that turn, you have to wait until you earn more d uring your next scenario.

-The next one is Parts. Here you can assign various items to robots for status upgraddes (see Gamefaq's for a rundown on what each does), which is option number one. Option number 2 lets you alter the configuration of certain robots. Like sasy switching the Strike Gundam's various packs, or choosing whether or not Freedom & Justice will take their meteor units into an initial battle (this option depends on robots currently in your party having features that can be changed here).

-The last are he final options. I forget what the first one does. The second one is for saving (these saves are between stage saves that you can access by choosing "load" on the main menu), and the 3rd option starts up the next story segment & scenario (so make sure you're done before choosing it).

The next thing that will happen is some more story. It's a good idea to not be too hasty with clicking here, as sometimes you'll have to choose between story path options here (see the story synopsis on gamefaqs for help in knowing which route goes with which part of the story). Early in the game, the next thing to happen will be immediately jumping into the battlefield. Later, it will take you to a very similar menu as the one inbetween the stories, but this one has a red background instead of a blue one. The major difference is that you can "not" save here. What this menu does, is based on your current story path, you may have a different group of robots available, and this one lets you make any final unit groupings before your battle. The very buttom option now will take you to a list of units that you can take into battle. Depending on how many battleships you have with you, I think depends on how many units in your party you can take into battle. Selecting units will turn the bar next to them green, and when you're maxed out, a small menu will pop up (pick the middle option), and you'll see the battlefield with numbers over your units. Here you can choose the placement of your units, then hit start to go into the actual battle. Sometimes you'll also have to choose which battle ships you want to take into battle as well.

The game really isn't "that" complicated, and I'd picked up most of this stuff within a couple hours of playing. Just keep messing around, and if worse comes to worse, you'll just start the scenario over again. Hopefully these descriptions have been helpful, but definately check out gamefaqs as well, as the story synpopsis faq is invaluable.

The only problem I've had in playing this game, is the urge to check out shows I haven't seen before (Getter Robo & Gao Gai Gar for instance.

There are also some fun features in the options menu from the main start menu, such as pilot pictures (as you unlock them), the show themes used in the game (again as you unlock them), a bunch of show information in Japanese, and a timeline map of your progress (which also has sidestory missions as you unlock them)

[GutsAndCasca]

Thank you Keith! Much appreciation!!!!

[Keith]

Thank you Keith! Much appreciation!!!!

425933[/snapback]

No problem. I definately reccomend sticking with the Macross themed routes, as there's a great stage done in a Macross Plus Meets Macross 7 style.

Also, I forgot to mention that occasionally flashing white squares will pop up on the battlefield. Those are tied into various objectives. Sometimes a specific character has to land on them. Sometimes they'll be in a line that you either have to lure the enemy across, or prevent them from crossing.