Super Robot Wars Y is a celebration of the history of giant robots, bringing countless mecha and pilots together across time to fight back against a galactic force of enemies in tactical RPG grid-based combat. The battle animations are bombastic and eye-catching, but is the gameplay enough to make you not just look up cutscenes and let that be it?
Super Robot Wars Y
Developer: Bandai Namco Forge Digitals, Inc.
Price: $59.99
Platform: Steam, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch
MonsterVine was supplied with a PS5 code for review
Super Robot Wars is a series that has had its share of spin-offs and entries, with its first entry in 1991 in Japan and occasional appearances in the United States. It’s always been on my radar, as I am a noted enthusiast of giant robots and associated media. However, I’ve made do by watching the occasional cutscene compilation on YouTube over the years. The occasional stateside entries just never lined up with me needing a new game to play, so I never did. I spent many years happily enjoying the Super Robot Wars franchise from a distance, so you can imagine I was pretty excited when the opportunity to review Super Robot Wars Y came up.
Now, after putting in a good bit of hours into Super Robot Wars Y, I find myself wondering if my time was better spent just keeping my distance and appreciating it from there. It’s not bad by any means, but the actual Tactical RPG gameplay, story, and presentation all feel a bit lacking. The story is a hodgepodge of tropes loosely brought together by a nearly indescribable main thread that just serves as an excuse to bring in some of your favorite characters. You get a few Original Characters (Do Not Steal), and they are slowly joined up by characters from franchises like Gundam, Getter Robo, or SSSS.Dynazeon.
Generally, Super Robot Wars Y has you fighting various grunt units and maybe a few more recognizable enemies from these giant robot series, and they throw out some pathetic little attacks that make your crazy ones only feel more powerful. When you initiate an attack, you are treated to some genuinely impressive animations for your team that faithfully recreate some very iconic special attacks and moments from animation or manga. The more “main” characters tend to have more attacks or some kind of power-up ability that lets them access even more attacks. I honestly think most of my enjoyment came from watching these or discovering new characters to add to my team, so I could see what cool moves they had.
On another positive note, bringing these various franchises together reveals aspects I’ve never encountered before, and I now have some old OVAs and anime to explore, as some of these mecha designs are truly impressive and I have never even heard of them before. I’d say the thing that stands out the most about the gameplay that makes it anything but bog-standard is the focus on having a capital ship that is generally one of the losing conditions if it loses all of its HP. Just like in many space-faring giant robot properties, this ship is a place where characters can refuel or re-arm their mecha in the middle of battle and launch back out ready to fight again.
Super Robot Wars Y Has Bombastic Mecha Battles
You can upgrade your robots and train pilots to enhance their strength or acquire new skills. There is also a system with equipping parts that will grant special bonuses to characters; all of these combined is how you get stronger, along with leveling up the traditional way with experience points from fighting in battles. Again, nothing really stands out too much, but it’s not quite being offensive either. I thought the menus felt a little more like a mobile game layout, but thankfully, Super Robot Wars Y does pack in some rocking music with its original tracks and iconic themes for characters and series represented in the game.
The problem is that even the coolest looking attack animation starts to feel less impressive the 10th time you’ve done it in a couple of matches, and then you just start to skip them for the sake of saving time. Once you’ve gotten to that point, you are just watching little sprites move around with no attack animations and nothing particularly engaging left at that point besides just a love for the game. I know the story certainly wasn’t keeping me there.
The Final Word
Your mileage with Super Robot Wars Y will depend on your expectations. If you are coming into this expecting a robust Tactical RPG with an epic story that will be on your mind for weeks after rolling credits, you might not find what you are looking for here. But if you are like me, and see some of your favorite giant robots show up with their theme song blaring, shooting off their iconic moves, you can get a bit more mileage out of this title. I found myself in a tug of war between being subjective and objective with this game, and landed somewhere around the middle. This isn’t a TRPG for everyone, but some of you might get hit just right to have a new obsession.
MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average
