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My copy will arrive tomorrow. I haven't managed to scrounge up any co-writers so chances are no Walkthrough FAQ will be made. Old habits do die hard though.

exgo's links work fine but you have to copy and paste them.

I decided I'm going with Bullet for my first playthrough. I consider it choosing in Bullet's favor and not Kusuha's... and seeing that Shin Koryuoh is in fact in the game thanks to exgo further reinforced that. If I have a sudden moment of indecision before my character choice then Selena is still a possibility though.

Kusuha and Bullet also get Dancougar first... so that also heavily swayed my decision.

So I've had Dancougar for one stage and Shinobu is my top ace with 40 kills, Dancougar's stats are 72% upgraded, and its attacks are 20% upgraded. EN Save is so going to be Shinobu's first purchased skill, but that is only 19PP away after it basically trashed the entire last stage single handedly.

Oh yeah, and it is so much fun to just freaking play and enjoy the game and not have to write everything down.

My copy entered the state today, and entered the city at 1:00. With any luck, I can be playing Alpha 3 as early as tonight.

I hath decided.........first playthrough, thy name is Touma.

From what I hear, his Squad Leader ability matches Zengar's. We all know how Zengar mopped the floor in Alpha 2. I'll use Touma to make the first playthrough easier. With whatever replay goodies I get, I can take the harder route following.

............okay. I just want GaoGaiGar and Soldat-J sooner. Is that so wrong?

Anyways, the order will probably be Touma/Selena/Quovey/Kusuha............the temptation to play Kusuha's route does exist.......playing as Kusuha teaches you that Grungust parts can be used to fix or make anything.

..........we need a 4koma about that. I bet Excellen (Though totally absent in the Alphaverse) could think of a whole buncha goofy things.

The foul smell of misfortune............how I know it well..........

Week's been hell.............Alpha 3 is my shiney golden pinpoint of hope. I hop on down to the post office, retrieving my parcel just before it was to have another attempted delivery. I go home. I open the package. I gaze in awe at all the robots crammed on the front of the box. I work my swap disc magic, but the game does not load. Instead, I get a shakey little noise from my PS2, which usually means a game isn't going to run. Out of frustration, I smack it a few times on the side, and get a bit jumpy when the Banpresto Logo suddenly appears. I don't question what I did. I just know I did..........something. Anyways, on to the intro!

I stare in wonder, for what must have been five minutes (How long WAS the intro? I was too dazzled to notice........though I DID notice a distinct lack of UC MS during the intro...........but with everything else going on, who cares?). I didn't think Genesic Hell and Heaven would be as intimidating in SD form. Anyways, I finish the intro (Probably not gonna watch every time before playing), select Start, and load up Touma's route.

We go through the whole UC thingy..........Amuro and Co. at the gate........witnessing Exelion's triumphant return. We go off to GGG Headquarters. Gai, Chief Taiga, Hyuuma, Mikoto.........y'know. The gang's all here. Their all around, getting ready for the events in FINAL (Y'all remember how we made Pasdar go s'plode in the last game). Anyways, we go off and find Touma making a delivery to Minaki. Now, as I hear it, Touma's story is getting recruited for RaiOh because nobody better is around. However, this was not my case.

As Scenario 1 begins, I recieve three squads. GaoGaiGar, Goldymarg, and the Brothers Robots (HyoRyu/EnRyu). I take a second to look around the field and see the enemy straight ahead of me. HyoRyu and EnRyu are in range, so I decide to let them earn their keep by making the first move. HyoRyu is leading, and I see that Freezing Gun is now an (S)(P) weapon. NICE. I proceed to attack, having EnRyu support with PLA measures, when all of a sudden.............the game freezes up on me, making the shakey noise from before.

I dunno what's wrong..........I used the same settings as Alpha 2, and that ran fine. I'mma try a few other things with the Swap Discs before I give up and spring for a Japanese Region system.........or if anybody has a thought they want to project, I'd be happy to hear it.

I've had a bit more time to get familiar with the game now. Here's a little rundown on what I've learned. Mind you, the following will discuss mechanics rather than story material. It's not really spoiling the story, but if you wanna find out for yourself, you may wanna stop. I'll probably go into describing a few attacks.............so you have been warned.

Touma - Squad Leader Skill is Melee Damage +10 Percent. Let me tell you.........Touma seems to need this to keep up with the rest of the team. His stats are a bit below average (He's nearly 20 lower than Tetsuya in Melee), but his Melee and Shooter are a bit more balanced than on most pilots. Why he has a balance between the two is beyond me, since RaiOh only has melee weapons.......and only three to boot.

Which brings us to RaiOh. Three weapons, but it only has access to two in the first level. However, the weapons are pretty well balanced. An almost perfect balance of range, power, and EN cost, though Lightning Fall does have an ammo restriction of 3, but makes up for it by being an ALL weapon. The System LIOH (Lead Innovation Organic Harmony) increases overall performance, through Accuracy, Critical Rate, and boosts Melee by 20. An interesting accessory to an interesting machine. However, it's hardly worthy of being a Dynamic General Guardian........perhaps I'm missing something.

Also, the GameFaqs users were right. It DOES have a Zeorymer feel to it.

Now, for some of the regulars.

Hiroshi.........some of you remember how cool Jeeg was in Alpha 2, but was sorely restricted in his capabilities, simply because he was an S unit. Things are different now. Jeeg's Squad Leader skill allows him to bypass the damage penalty for size differences, allowing him to plow through enemies just as easily, if not a little better than most other Super Robots............seriously. Jeeg's been striking criticals left and right. Finally, and this came as something of an amusing surprise to me, if Jeeg's body is destroyed, the "Jeeg Head" from Alpha 2 will take over, just as the ReGZ works. While Jeeg Head is an SS Unit, which means freakin' insane dodge rates, you may want to move him next to Big Shooter and perform a Build Up to get Hiroshi back to fighting status............because Jeeg Beam and a Headbutt just isn't going to cut it against Haniwa Geijin.

Mazingers got GREAT new Mazinpower footage. Great got a new BGM, and Z starts with Daisharin Rocket Punch (THANK YOU Alpha 2 story!). Guess I'll have to wait for Kaiser a bit longer............oh. Right. Boss gets Borot Pressure Punch. A little more incentive to use one of Master Nagai's best ideas ever.

Shin Getter..........replaced with Getter G............I don't understand the Japanese language, so I don't know why they did it, but I'm sure they've got their reasons. Quite frankly, it's worth it. Getter Dragon got an ALL weapon, range 1-4, and to put icing on the cake, IT'S OPEN GATE FORMATION! Nerdgasm!

GaoGaiGar............so far, we know who's who. However, Mic Sounders is part of the team now. Cute little punch attack.......or ROCK ON, MIC! While he wasn't too formidable at first, once he gained his song ability and Sound attacks, he proved pretty handy against the Zondar robos............I'll probably bunch him in the with the Sound Force.

Renais was also a welcome sight. Too bad she was only a part of the Sisters Rescue Team. I've heard she can become a sub on J-Ark. Probably gonna try for that, since that Regenerating Armor was pretty effective. On the subject of J, Gai wasn't all that happy when he realized who Soldat was ("Cyborg.........Gai." Dead giveaway, if that outfit wasn't enough).

Dancougar......seems a little lesser than it's GC appearance.......still, it's a welcome addition to the lineup. However, with Dancougar, Raideen, Gunbuster, and Ideon along, I'm afraid I won't see the Nagahama Romantic Special for a while. Too many new robots (To me anyway. I've never used Gunbister, EVA, or Ideon before) to bump the required robots out of my old lineup.

Which brings us to the new MS on campus, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. As we all know, the military complement of the protagonists in SEED was less than sufficent. As with all other Gundam series, the heroes (Using that as a relative term in corrupt military organizations) are forced to make do with bare minimum until at LEAST halfway through the series. In this case though, we get it much better than the Archangel crew did in the anime.

Strike Gundam.....comes with three packs, with Aile Strike being the default pack. You can change packs through the Parts option to use Aile Strike, Sword Strike, Launcher Strike, or even the basic Strike loadout. I find myself fond of the Sword pack. While Kira's main strong point is his Shooting stat, the Beam Boomerang has a range of 1-4 and the Rocket Anchor has a range of 2-5. Both cost nothing to use, and the (B) attribute of the Boomerang and Anti-Ship Sword allow Kira to easily match MS outfitted with Phase Shift Armor. On a side note, Phase Shift armor nullifies 2000 points of non-beam based damage. This made stopping Athrun, Yzak, Dearka, and Nicol a bit harder than I would have liked it to have been. My first time meeting them only saw me armed with two units capable of using Beam weapons (Strike and Archangel. The rest of my complement was totally made of Super Robots, but that WASN'T by choice). It is to be noted that SEED units are monsters.

Kira, kick a** as he does, does not compare to the abusable factor of Mu La Flaga. Finally joining the team, his Moebius Zero has been using it's Quad Wire Barrels to destroy MS and Megaroot squads left and right with no problem at all. It's easily placed him in Ace slot number three on the Intermission (Gai is second, Touma is first........though Jeeg held spot 1 for a good long while during the first few stages). I can see myself using Mu for a good long while........unless......

Moving on, we've got Balmar comin' out the wazoo this time. Most notable of the team so far is the head of Balmar's Doban family, Baran Doban. Taking a one on one with Touma, he displays power, pride.......and a BGM that rivals Trombe in badassness and override power. His mech reminds me of the Hao Gundam and Bolt Gundam (Both from G-Gundam) crossed together. A powerful design for a likable fellow. He seems to be the type who enjoys a good spar, and it reflects in his expressions. I gotta say, it's guys like this that you wanna recruit at any price. Ware koso wa! Ware koso wa! Baran Doban! Thats gonna be a popular one for a while.

I've yet to visit the ol' Shop O' Skills. Since my PP reserves are overflowing, I think Touma's getting Guard. While RaiOh does have good speed, it's suffering from taking quite a bit of damage when hit by the usual Super Robot grunts. This really DOES feel like it's taking place right after the last war (Which it is, of course).

I wanna wait until I get DaiRaiOh before investing in E-Save or B-Save. If DaiRaiOh has an ammo dependant final (And at least one or two other weapons that are ammo based), I may wanna spring for the extra blows. E-Save would be a waste right now. Touma's two EN dependant attacks only cost 5 and 10 to use, respectively. As for the last slot, I'm thinking Counter, but once again, it's totally dependant on DaiRaiOh's abilities. While I've seen pics and such, I don't have the complete assesment.

Update on G's front. Spoilers..........yadda yadda.

Along in the early thirties.........with the split, my VO's are split among two squads, Temjin and Fey-Yen in one, and Aphardm ("The Hatter" if you prefer) going solo in the other (This guy doesn't need much help in the way of kicking a**......and I just gotta hear that dialogue). Temjin is one badass little guy.......before the split, I saw his final attack tearing through Phase Shift, doing in excess of 10k damage to Aegis. Temjin's final isn't beam based, so this made me a pretty happy camper. Since I like using Fei Yen's ALL weapons, I've given her Morale + Evade to make the use of them easier. You know, it's the first time I've EVER bought a Morale + skill. This whole "No-SP Recovery Buy" thing is a lot of fun. Makes skill selection more involved.

Now, when I started, I told myself I'd wait for Skull Squadron to be available. Passing up Isamu and Guld (HUGE mistake if you play the first Real split), I found myself getting a wee bit impatient for my prefered Macross Units. I decide to pop Millia under Gamlin's wing. Spent a bit on Gamlin's Valkrie, but now that Skull Squadron has FINALLY shown up (Just need Gunbuster, and the gang'll all be here), will Gamlin get the shaft?...........nah. Roy and Hikaru can pop under Gamlin's wing for a while..........unless Max decides to get into his Valkrie to kick some a**. He's been making over seven million tons of steel dodge like crazy. Since Exedor has A/A/B/A terrain ratings, I'm guessing he'll take over as Captain later on, while Max jumps into the Sturmvogel. Max is SO getting on the field when that happens.

Y'know, this game reminds me of why I want Macross 7 to have few appearances in SRW.......Protodevlin...........namely Gravil. Pain in the a** space monster.........ah, your mother was Godzilla (Which brings up a whole new discussion in itself).

Yuusha Oh..........I'm a bit disappointed "Let's Final Fusion" isn't a selectable theme here. Still, GaoFighGar is a welcome addition to the team. Against the Protodevlin (And my desire not to waste money on Basara's Valkrie) I need all the extra force I can manage. I love these new Broken Phantom and Hell and Heaven bits. Makes using old units worthwhile.

Also, quite some time ago, Touma got a fourth and final attack for RaiOh, the Rising Meteor. With a REAL final in tow, Touma's gradually becoming a better pilot.

System LIOH got removed though. Seems Touma went berserk from it back in Scenario 10 or so, and the system was too much for him to handle. I don't mind the loss, but I hope I get it back sometime soon..........maybe on DaiRaiOh..........Touma HAS gotten a bit stronger.

On the subject of originals, fans of Arblade will be happy. It's back, complete with G-Revolver, Blade Tonfa, and an ALL weapon to put GM II Cannons to shame.

"ARBLADE BEAAAAM!" - Ryusei Date