Title: Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier
Price: $34.99
System(s): DS
Release Date: April 29, 2009
Publisher (Developer): Atlus (Monolith Soft)
ESRB Rating: “Teen” for Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Partial Nudity and Suggestive Themes
Pros: Funny script and translation, interesting active battle system, lots of characters (and a cameo or two) and it connects with the Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation and Original Generation 2 GBA games.
Cons: Perhaps too much fan-service? Looks more like a GBA game than a DS game.
Overall Score: Two thumbs up, 93/100, A-, * * * * out of 5
As a female gamer, I expected to be somewhat offended and turned off by Endless Frontier. After all, look at the characters. I’m not into this particular kind of fan service, and I haven’t played any of the Game Boy Advance Super Robot Taisen: Original Saga games.
However, when I saw my friend fighting battles in the game, I couldn’t resist giving Endless Frontier a try. So, I borrowed his copy and set off to see what the game is all about.
A game made for the fans.
Endless Frontier‘s story spans the multiverse, but begins with Haken Browning and his assistant/bodyguard/sidekick Aschen Brodel investigating decaying ship ruins in the Lost Herencia wastelands. There, they come across Kaguya Nanbu, a princess from the world of Kagura Amahara who’s on her coming-of-age pilgrimage. The three decide to join together to continue to explore the ship.
Soon Haken, Aschen, Kaguya and a cast of other characters end up having to travel through and to many different worlds through the Cross Gates, trying to find out who is behind a crystal plague that is being unleashed on all the worlds. The fate of the multiverse is on their shoulders.
Endless Frontier is a cleverly written RPG where you need skills to succeed.
Let’s face it, Endless Frontier is filled with endless fanservice. All the female characters look alike below the neck. There had to be something to keep people who weren’t interested in images of obscenely well-endowed women playing, and that is the battle system and the writing.
Playing Endless Frontier eventually requires a bit of skill, due to the unique battle system. It isn’t your typical RPG, where you pick an action, then you watch your character perform. It allows for a more active approach. When a character’s turn comes up, you can unleash devastating combo attacks on a selected enemy as long as your fighter has enough energy. This is done by pressing the A button at the best moments. If done correctly, combos with over 15 hits can become the norm. You can also bring in backrow characters to pile on. It can be quite entertaining.
It can occasionally grow tiring. After you’ve encountered about 10 random battles in an area, you almost wish there was some sort of auto-pilot to handle those attacks.
Then, there’s the writing. Yes, it’s innuendo-laden, but it’s also quite clever and funny. It makes fun of the fact that every single woman has the same proportions. It occasionally pokes at RPG stereotypes. It even mocks the supposed lady-killer hero Haken Browning. The writing also gives the eye candy characters personality, an unexpected treat.
Another unexpected gem from Atlus.
If you’re offended by women with unnatural proportions and all sorts of suggestive themes, then avoid Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier. You wouldn’t enjoy yourself. If you’re an RPG fan who enjoys clever writing and interesting battle mechanics, it may be worth a try. It has a surprisingly good story, innovative battles and can be absolutely hilarious.
I didn’t expect to enjoy Endless Frontier as much as I did. It ended up being a bit of a guilty pleasure. I’m not sure if I’m going to go and purchase my own copy, but I’m sure I’d borrow my friend’s again.
***MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS*** (I don't think i've given any but just in case)
Just a small comment that is good to know, If you haven't played Super robot wars Taisen 1 and 2 you will miss a lot of references. First thing to Know is that the 2 main characters of SRT share family names with Haken and Kaguya and the second thing is that their desings aer inspired by Kyosuke nanbu and Excellen Browning (not very obvious but when I introduce next reference you qill eralise it) Then later you will meet Reiji and Xiaomu, these are the main characters of a game called Namco X capcom wich was a strategy RPG wich had a similar battle system (in wich you set up attacks and needed to time them properly) And as Monolith software said before these 2 were designed to look like Kyosuke and Excellen (pretty much same personalities AND very similar clothing/looks) Also Reiji and xiaomu are the only characters who can equip the ATX gear (wich was the anme of the team Kyosuke and Excellen were working for in SRT)
To add to the references the Gespenst(black phantom) Alteisen(Nacht) Weissritter(Abend) were the machine piloted by Kyosuke and excellen in the SRT games (and in a scene I'm pretty sure I saw one more interesting robot that might be a boss later, but I wont name it to avoid spoiling)(also their theme songs are ''time to come'' for the Black phantom, ''Platinum Lucifer'' for Abend, and ''Beowulf'' for Nacht wich are the theme songs for each main characters in SRT. Aschen share a desing with Lamia loveless from SRT 2(this character is a green haired robot girl wich codename is W17) AND they both have the same theme song ''ash to ash''. Also Aschen's ultimate attack is called Phantom phoenix(I dont know why the english version of the game called it phantasm phoenix when it wasn't in the japanese version) just like the ultimate attack of Lamia's robot (angelg).
well I think I've named the most important stuff, now that you read these, start thining about playing SRT 1&2 (second one is the best out of the 2) either on the GBA or try the japanese only remake on the PS2 OGS. (also, if you can try Namco X capcom do so, its worth it)
aha!!
very good……
but……i dont know…do you know?