Another Century's Episode

Another Century's Episode or "A.C.E." is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover Mecha Game series made by a combination of Banpresto (most famous for the Super Robot Wars games) and From Software (makers of the Armored Core series and Metal Wolf Chaos). Simply put, think of A.C.E. as Super Robot Wars, but played in the style of Armored Core.

Much like Super Robot Wars, the story in each game in the series is a mashup of multiple Humongous Mecha series (mostly of the Real Robot variety), and revolves around a piece of Applied Phlebotinum which happens to fall into the hands of an Original Generation character.

The games are lauded for managing to keep (nearly) each and every playable mecha completely true to their counterparts without sacrificing gameplay or fun in the process.

The five games in the series are:


 * Another Century's Episode - The one that started it all. However, it's not officially counted as part of the series' timeline. Notable for the fact the two playable Original Generation units, the Gespenst and the Cloud Breaker (from the X Box game Murakumo, also by From Software), don't have pilots acknowledged by the storyline.
 * Series debuted - Aura Battler Dunbine, Martian Successor Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness, Blue Comet SPT Layzner, Brain Powerd, New Mobile Report Gundam Wing, Metal Armor Dragonar, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Heavy Metal L-Gaim, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.


 * Another Century's Episode 2 - A Continuity Reboot of the story and features the series' first true Original Generation characters "Tak Kepford" and "Marina Carson". Storyline centers around the failing UCE government, which not only has to deal with uprisings from the Giganos Empire, Delaz Fleet, the Reclaimers and the Jovian Lizards, but also has to contend with the otherworldly advances of the Drake Army, Grados/Glados, Poseidal, and ultimately, the Zentraedi fleet.
 * Returning series - Dunbine, Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness, Layzner, Brain Powerd, Dragonar, L-Gaim, Char's Counterattack
 * Series debuted - Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Martian Successor Nadesico, New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, The Wings of Rean


 * Another Century's Episode 3: The Final - Continues and finishes the continuity from the previous game. Storyline centers around the "Baldona Drive", a device allowing travel between an Alternate Universe and threatens to destroy both "Earth A" (the one in A.C.E.2) and its counterpart "Earth B". Notable for the fact that while A.C.E.2 brought in G Gundam, The Final decided to be more blatant about letting super robots in on the action.
 * Returning series - Dunbine, Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness, Brain Powerd, Dragonar, Char's Counterattack, Macross, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, G Gundam, Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, The Wings Of Rean
 * Series debuted - Getter Robo Armageddon, Overman King Gainer, Psalm of Planets Eureka Seven, After War Gundam X, Macross Plus, Turn a Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Mobile Suit Gundam


 * Another Century's Episode: R - The fourth game in the series (and the first for the PlayStation 3), R sees characters from a myriad of anime worlds get caught in a mysterious "black sphere" and dumped in a parallel universe on the distant, ruined Planet Eria. Word of God confirmed it's an Obvious Beta, since R will be used as a testbed for the new hardware, alongside revamping the franchise. To that end, each series is limited to its "essential core characters" as playables, with visuals and gameplay being the primary focus rather than the massive cast list of the previous game.
 * Returning series - Zeta Gundam, Char's Counterattack, Overman King Gainer
 * Series debuted - Super Dimension Century Orguss, Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, Full Metal Panic!, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2, Genesis of Aquarion, Macross Zero, Macross Frontier, Super Robot Wars Original Generation.


 * Another Century's Episode Portable - Released in early 2011, this Play Station Portable installment is viewed as an Author's Saving Throw against the failed elements of R, as seen by the return of the classic control scheme. However, the game does not have an overall plotline, instead simply being something like a Mission Pack Sequel.
 * Returning series - Layzner, Brain Powerd, Overman King Gainer, Dunbine, The Wings Of Rean, Code Geass R2, Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness, L-Gaim, Dragonar, Zeta Gundam, Char's Counterattack, Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, Gundam X, Turn A Gundam, Gundam SEED Destiny, Macross Plus, Macross Frontier
 * Series debuted - Mobile Suit Gundam 00, VS Knight Lamune & 40 Fire, Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers

Tropes found within the games which are separate from/contrary to the series the characters and mecha originated from include:


 * Ace Custom (Pun not intended) - Belkt's black/red Gun Ark, the "Blood Ark"
 * Actor Existence Limbo - Hirotaka Suzuoki, who voiced Bright Noah, died between 2 and The Final; all of Bright's lines in the latter are taken from the first game
 * Adaptation Distillation
 * AI Is a Crapshoot - According to the backstory of R,.
 * Applied Phlebotinum - The "E2" energy source in the first two games, specific types of DNA in the second two
 * Attack Drone
 * In the first two games, funnels are this, but they come with an immense caveat: once launched, they remain in play, firing at whatever you're locked on to at the moment for a set time, upon which they experience Critical Existence Failure. Unlike other weapons, they cannot be reloaded.
 * 3 has funnels, as well, and the original mecha "Ixblau" has a Mecha Expansion Pack that gives it its own set of attack drones. Here, said drones return to you and recharge once they've spent an amount of time in the field, but they can also be destroyed by enemy fire...and you still can't restock them.
 * Awesome but Impractical - Master Gundam in 3; on one hand, you get to control Badass Cool Old Guy Master Asia and the machine can go into two successive super modes...on the other hand, most of its attacks either require a bit of startup time, aren't exactly effective against moving targets (which is just about everything in the game), or both.
 * There's some The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard with this one because, when the AI uses the Master Gundam, it's hell to fight.
 * Back-to-Back Badasses - Kamille Bidan, Quattro Bagina and Amuro Ray do this with Shinn Asuka, Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala in R. And it is awesome
 * Battleship Raid - The battle against Reinen's submarine in 2
 * Big Damn Heroes - All over the place. In fact, the sole purpose Gundam Wing characters seem to exist in the latter two games is pulling these off. On the other hand...
 * Boss Rush - Two secret levels in the latter two games are devoted to this
 * Bottomless Magazines - Played with in R: a mecha's main weapons (its primary ranged, melee and shield, if applicable) have infinite ammo, but everything else runs on "Tension", which you gain by attacking, taking damage, and from some support abilities, such as Zero's Geass
 * Bragging Rights Reward - Arguably one of the things making the games so much fun is doing everything, completing every hidden mission, saving up billions upon billions of points, all for the sake of unlocking new mecha to play with, despite the fact you don't actually need them to finish the game, and in actuality, you probably won't obtain until your third or fourth playthrough
 * Breather Level - Subverted in 2, where a back-to-back set make up the game's final two levels
 * Also subverted earlier in the same game, where the player must play through two back-to-back levels: one involving an Escort Mission, the other involving a boss battle, who you must face with damage carried over from the last mission
 * Call a Hit Point a Smeerp - Hit points in all three games is referred to as "AP" or "Armor Points", as a reflection of Armored Core's system
 * Calling Your Attacks - Domon Kasshu and Master Asia do this the most (indeed, the first time per stage that they activate their Limit Break attacks results in the action pausing while they do their famous battle chants); the Aestivalis pilots do this in 2 (only Hikaru Amano retains the habit in 3); and the Getter Team makes great use of their Hot-Blooded-ness for it
 * Also of note (usually only calling one attack out of many) are Kaine Wakaba (DRAGONAR SANMAI OROSHI!), Gainer Sanga (OVERHEAT!), Renton Thurston and Eureka (CUT-BACK DROP TURN!), Gym Ghingnham (GEKKOU CHOU DE ARUUUU!); and Cham Fau (HISSATSU! HYPER AURAGIRI!)
 * The Cameo - Near the end of R, the head of Season sics on you.
 * The Captain - Bright Noa in A.C.E., Eiphar Synapse in 2, Ruri Hoshino in 3, and both Autumn-Four and Jeffery Wilder in R.
 * Cast From Hit Points - The "Guardian Attack" in 2. The most notable thing about it is you can cause yourself a Critical Existence Failure if you use it while low on AP.
 * R's support abilities are also this, whenever the player commands a unit to perform the action. This can get a little annoying, as it's the only way to perform a Combination Attack.
 * Cloning Blues / Evil Twin - in 3
 * The Blood Ark in 3 is the Evil Counterpart to 2's Gun Ark
 * Character Level - Subversion: mecha gain levels instead of the pilots
 * Charged Attack
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome - Gai Daigoji in 3. Despite surviving to the very end of the second game, he's nowhere in sight in the third and no explanation of what happened to him is given. Perhaps it would have been awkward for him to be in the same game as Shin Getter, considering that he's a fan of a certain Getter Robo Expy...
 * Ditto to Tak, The Hero of 2. In The Final, Love Interest Marina turns up as a playable character in Tak's mecha, and the dialog before the final stage has her implying that there's someone important to her to come back to, but it's never said where he is or why he's not here himself.
 * Combos
 * Combination Attack - A large part of the gameplay in the latter two games revolves around filling up a "Friend Gauge" to facilitate having all three mechs in your squad unload on a single enemy, with any nearby mooks getting caught in the crossfire. There's even an entire strategy revolving around creating squads of specific mechs to unleash stronger combos
 * Continuity Reboot - 2 completely rejects the canon of the first
 * Continuity Nod - The Ark series from 2 is powered by E2 from the first game; R includes a reference to from 3.
 * Crapsack World / After the End - "Earth B" in 3, thanks to it being the home of Eureka Seven, Gundam X, Overman King Gainer and Getter Robo Armageddon
 * Debut Queue - In R, the player picks a series to start with and experiences a couple of missions purely from its source material before the "black sphere" teleports them to Eria. Shortly thereafter, they meet about half the cast; over the course of the next two or three stages, they meet the other half, which necessitates a lot of introductions and Exposition (so newcomers know what an Exodus, Britannian and Miclone are)
 * Defrosting Ice Queen - Marina, as shown in flashbacks about her and Tak's past in 2
 * Demoted to Extra - Isn't it sad, Burning? Noin? Sara? Shiratori? Tohdoh? And those are just the characters who at least got speaking roles.
 * R has quite a bit of this, since the "black sphere" means that we see brief snippets of events in every series' home world before only the select few playables get pulled away.
 * In a larger sense, Gundam Wing. In the original ACE it played a large role in the overall plot, complete with Romefeller Foundation HQ serving as the headquarters of the UCE. In 2, the characters are mainly there to play Big Damn Heroes, without even enacting Endless Waltz's plot (Wu Fei still rebels, but without the larger backstory of the Mariemaia Rebellion it looks more like he's throwing a temper tantrum). The Final takes it even further by only having Heero appear or even be mentioned out of the entire cast.
 * Determinator - Tak's a pro at this
 * Desperation Attack - Several mechs in 3 have this in the form of a Super Mode
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? - 3's final boss is
 * And if you're playing as the God Gundam, Master Gundam or Alstroemeia, you literally get to punch him out
 * Difficulty Levels - "Rookie", "Pilot", "Veteran", and "ACE"
 * 3 adds in True A.C.E.
 * Downer Ending - The first game: . However, the narration gives a Hope Spot,
 * Dual Boss - Used quite often. Just to name a few:
 * Todd Guiness and Jeryl Coochibi are often paired with their spiritual successors/expies Johnathan Glenn and Quincy Issa respectively, to show how similar they are
 * After Todd's Killed Off for Real, Johnathan then hooks up with Dunbine's own Black Knight, who himself swaps partners and teams with Jeryl after Johnathan and Quincy are absorbed by Orphan
 * Akito Tenkawa and Gai Daigouji attempt to keep you from preventing the Nadesico's departure to Mars in an amusing Let's You and Him Fight situation
 * The members of Dragonar's Quirky Miniboss Squad love attacking you in pairs. In the final battle against them after two of their members are Killed Off for Real, the remaining ones become a rare example of a "Trio Boss"
 * Another Trio Boss shows up in the form of Layzner's Lu Cain, Gostello and Getey all teaming up to stomp you when you storm their tower
 * Depending on what path you take, you'll either wind up facing the combined might of the Frost Brothers once or twice
 * Charles and Ray Beams also attack in a pair, and their speed and the tendency of one to hit you while you're locked on to the other makes them really frustrating to deal with
 * Dragonar's Meio Plato teams up with the Big Bad of The Prince of Darkness for one of these
 * Cynthia Lane and Artham Boone pop up twice for this kind of fight. Cynthia then gets a playmate in the form of That One Boss and fellow Yandere Anemone...
 * 3 plays this one to the very end, as in the second-to-last level, you're faced with Gyunei Guss and Quess Paraya, piloting a Elite Mook and Lightning Bruiser-class mecha. When you're done with them, you find out they're just part of a Boss Rush, and now Char Aznable is coming at you in his Sazabi...
 * The Boss Rush levels effectively live off this trope. It's at its very, very worst in 2 when the Neue Ziel (already That One Boss on its own) gains a dream-team partner in the Sazabi
 * Early-Bird Cameo - The custom Gespensts used by Kai, Katina and Russel in The Second Super Robot Wars Original Generation made their debut in ACE Portable.
 * Escort Mission - Quite a few, but the most frustrating is the final Eureka Seven mission in 3, due to being surrounded on all sides by infinitely respawning Corallians who can literally start taking chunks out of the Gekko
 * Until you realize the large Coralians on the far sides of the map are Mook Makers
 * Evolving Attack - Melee combos in 2 evolve as you pour points into upgrading them. Combination Attacks in 3 evolve based on the amount of experience each mech participating has
 * Facial Markings - Hard to see when he has his helmet on, but Tak has a rather intricate pattern on the right side of his face
 * Falling Into the Cockpit - Subverted: Barrel's practically dragged into the Ixblau's cockpit and made to fight by co-pilot Fei
 * Fan Service - A tiny bit of the regular kind in the later ones, (being an anime crossover, after all) even though you only see the characters a bit, but Code Geass fans may get a kick out of
 * Fix Fic - The series goes about happily preventing the deaths of popular characters who die in their original series, a la SRW
 * Forced Tutorial - Every single time you play through 2's story mode
 * Freudian Excuse - Belkt wants to cause a double Earthshattering Kaboom because of daddy issues.
 * Generation Ships -
 * Genre Shift - By the way each game represents the story: the first seems to be realistic mecha simulation, similar to Armored Core, with an anime setting. The only face the player will see during a mission is his operator and the avatar character is a nondescript pilot. 2 shifts toward anime and less of realism, with the player actually seeing the protagonist during cutscenes. Tak's solid with personality and a background story. Still, aside from a few flashbacks and mission briefings, the player will never see Tak interact with other characters outside of battles (they use voicemail to contact him personally), and there are various reports which the player can read to learn about events beyond his scope. The Final slides even more towards an anime feeling, with Barrel actually talking to his fellow pilots before their sorties and everything is represented through dialogue
 * Hannibal Lecture - Before fighting the Big Bad  in R, the heroes are treated to a long speech on the rationale behind everything that has transpired,  . He then goes on to portray his actions as an act of mercy, but, naturally, the heroes just don't at all buy into it
 * Heroic Sacrifice - Marina's whole reason for being in 2 seems to be to attempt these for the sake of Tak, but he insists it would NOT make him happy
 * Hey, It's That Voice! - The Original Generation characters:
 * 2: Daisuke Kishio as Tak and Naomi Shindo as Marina
 * The Final: Daisuke Namikawa as Barrel and, Mie Sonozaki as Fei
 * R: Miyuki Sawashiro as Autumn with Cure Peach and Cure Passion as the evil girls.
 * High Altitude Battle - The fact there are so many of these is the reason units who, while unable to fly in their original series, have no problem doing so here
 * Subverted somewhat in R: when the heroes proceed to ascend towards space, Arm Slaves, Mobile Suits from Universal Century and Cosmic Era universes, Overmen and the Earth Federation Army robots break off from the party to storm an orbital elevator as a diversionary attack, rather than sitting out on actions (as most of them cannot leave planetary atmospheres under their own power, much less defend their capital ships along the way). That, and the elevator can catapult them into space to link up with the rest of the party if they do slip past local enemy defenses.
 * Idle Animation - Certain mechs in 3, but only on the ground. The Turn a Gundam will rotate its head 180 degrees for a few seconds, then sit down and somehow pull out a clothesline which it will hang between its hands
 * Units from Overman King Gainer will break into the infamous "Monkey Dance" performed during the series' Dancing Theme.
 * Ignored Expert - Albert Reinen, who predicted an alien invasion and tried to sell the Federation on his defense system. They dismissed him, but several years later the Zentraedi come calling...
 * It's Up to You
 * Jack of All Stats - Several mobile suits from Universal Century, especially the GP01
 * Jedi Truth - Recall Author's Saving Throw: it turns out Terada was just referring to characters, resulting in a large number of secret units being downgrades (for example, Crossbone X-1, Sousuke Sagara's M9 Gernsback, and the original Lancelot and Guren MK II), apparently because they weren't willing to expand beyond the "core characters", despite the surprising number of peripheral characters who get full voice acting AND their mecha worked into the game
 * Joke Character - Marina's Feather Ark in 2, the RX-78-2 Gundam and the Gatchko in 3
 * The Gespenst MK II M in the original game isn't quite a joke character, but is hands-down the weakest machine in the game, thus treated as such by the fan community; beating the game with an stock Gespenst is considered the "ironman" challenge
 * The RX-78-2 is more a Lethal Joke Character, considering it's hideously overpowered to the point of Game Breaker: while it shoots slow for most weapons and has insanely long reload times, the damage is absolutely insane to the point where even bosses go down in a few well-placed shots
 * Bonta-kun in R.
 * Bonta-kun is a god compared to Luca Angeloni's RVF-25. Absolutely pitiful damage from its primary ranged weapon, an almost nonexistent melee combo string, and its only Tension ability being to futz with enemy missiles make for a difficult time fighting just about anything. It gains some useful skills in its "Super" configuration, but said configuration is only available for five levels at the tail end of the game, one of which is the Scrappy Level.
 * Kill Sat - The Guardian System for the Gun Ark and Buster Ark in 2
 * Latex Space Suit
 * Loading Screen - R runs a unique tutorial during the hard drive installation to keep the player busy
 * The Man Behind the Man
 * Mask Power - Belkt, during the first half of The Final
 * Meaningful Name - Autumn-Four's mecha is named "Alpheart" because it's the heart of the Ark-Alpha
 * Mecha Expansion Pack - Subverted in 2, wherein the Gun-Ark receives various weapon upgrades that don't alter its appearance in any way
 * Played totally straight in 3, with the Ixblau given four expansion packs: Blade, G-force, Heavy, and Telekinesis.
 * Mook Maker - Just about every enemy ship and/or base
 * More Dakka - Several mechs shoot A LOT of stuff, but the Heavyarms in 1 and 2, and the Alteisen Reise in R take the cake.
 * Mundane Made Awesome - In R: Arm Slave Units cannot fly (And thus, cannot use the boost gauge), but Arbalest can go to pretty much any enemy you want it to using only its knife, and it has a handy dodge roll which can be abused to gain speed.
 * Then when you get to the space stages the Arm Slaves gain flight (Presumably due to the lack of gravity), they also gain the ability to boost without using any sort of visible booster.
 * Name's the Same - Shinn Asuka and Shin Kudo in R. Lampshaded.
 * No Export for You
 * Oh Crap: While there are many times, being a cross-over series, in ACE:R, any Armored Core player will be terrified to see Nineball Seraph appear as a cameo boss battle. Can also diverge into This Is Gonna Suck when the fight actually begins.
 * Only Six Faces - Meta-example: Barrel and Fei strongly resemble the male protagonist and Elizabeth from Persona3
 * That's because they share the same character designer, Shigenori Soejima
 * Ordinary High School Student - Barrel
 * Original Generation - Tak Kepford, Marina Carson and the Ark series from 2; Barrel Orland, Fei Roshande, Belkt and the Ixblau from 3; Autumn-Four, Ark-Alpha, Alpheart and Season from R.
 * Overly-Long Fighting Animation - Strange for the type of game, but Cybuster's specials are completely overdone in R to insane levels, espcialy Cosmo Nova.
 * Personality Chip -
 * Post Script Season - Gundam SEED Destiny is already over by the time R starts; the first stage has Shinn, Kira and Athrun Zala facing off against an unknown enemy using Earth Alliance mobile suits
 * Power Creep, Power Seep - All over the place, with the most glaring example being the Shin Getter Robo in The Final. The Super Robot capable of cutting stars in half in its home series is FAR outclassed by the likes of Kira "Jesus" Yamato and Heero
 * Justified since the Shin Dragon isn't there to pump up its energy and the machine got trashed a few times, anyways
 * Precision-Guided Boomerang - Deathscythe Hell and Sandrock are the original perpetrators, since whenever they throw their weapons, they come right back, then 3 went and made weapons of that sort, able to lock-on to and destroy tens of enemies all at once
 * Preorder Bonus - R has Amuro's custom Zeta Gundam, originally seen in the IMAX film Green Divers and later in Gundam Evolve
 * To be more specific, everyone can unlock it. The pre-order code just let you get it earlier than normal.
 * Redemption Equals Death - Part of the reason Marina's so eager to go the whole Heroic Sacrifice route in 2, but
 * The Remnant - Meio Plato's Ex-Giganos group in 3, brought about due to prodding from Neo-Zeon and the Martian Successors
 * Ridiculously Human Robot -
 * The Rival - When Mikael Blanc introduces himself as a sniper, Kurz Weber cheerfully remarks "I guess that makes you my rival," which Mikael cheerfully confirms.
 * Sadistic Choice - The climax of the original game, thanks to
 * Saving the World - The first two games
 * Save Both Worlds - 3
 * Scoring Points - To wit the points can be used in exchange for upgrades and new mecha
 * Scrolling Text - Done in order to get the exposition out in The Final
 * Secret Character - Half the fun is collecting them all
 * Self-Made Orphan -
 * Set Swords to Stun- Mostly only on bosses
 * Something Only They Would Say - In R, Zero's attempt to convince Suzaku Kururugi to join up with the "Irregulars" rather than Season includes a thinly-veiled reference to their mutual past (saying they mustn't repeat their past mistake of ignoring the situation to focus on each other), which confirms to Suzaku this Zero is indeed Lelouch.
 * Sorting Algorithm of Evil
 * Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness
 * Super Prototype - The Gun Arks and Buster Ark in 2 and the Ixblau in The Final
 * Sword of Plot Advancement - Tak obtaining access to the Guardian System in 2 and Barrel learning in 3
 * Talking to Himself
 * Yazan Gable, Tapp Oceano, and Mirao Kyao in the first game, with the latter two making a return appearance in 2.
 * Barrel  in 3.
 * Ryusei and Kurz Weber (Shinichiro Miki), Zero and Luca Angelloni (Jun Fukuyama), Kira, Gino Weinberg and Brera Sterne (Soichiro Hoshi), and Shinn and Shin (Kenichi Suzumura) in R. The latter's actually Lampshaded, (along with Name's the Same) by Alto.
 * Theme Naming - The villainous organization in R is named "Season" and its members include Spring One, Summer One, Autumn One and Winter One. Our protagonist, however, is Autumn Four
 * Each Season member also have huge bases called Plants: Spring has the Sea Plant, Summer has the Geo Plant, and Autumn the Sky Plant. Winter, however, uses the.
 * There Can Be Only One - The planned route of development for Tak's Gun-Ark and Marina's Buster-Ark is they become more powerful by fighting each other and will reach their full potential when one destroys the other, which will give the survivor enough power to blow away the Zentraedi fleet. Tak chooses to eschew this reasoning, opting instead to bring Marina around to his side and working together with everyone to bring down the Zentraedi. It works
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill - The Cybuster's Ranbu No Tachi, Akaskic Buster and ESPECIALLY Cosmo Nova attacks are INSANE in R, to the point where you wonder if these animations are instead for some new Super Robot Wars game. Cosmo Nova is pretty much guaranteed to hit For Massive Damage
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works
 * Timed Mission - Quite a few in the series
 * Title Drop - R's plot heavily involves "System A.C.E.". In fact, it's . In the epilogue, Autumn  . However, this could be what System A.C.E. was intended for, in the first place...
 * Took a Level In Badass - In the first game, the Gespenst MK II M is almost useless. Say hello to its Mid-Season Upgrade in Portable, all three of them.
 * Turns Red - Done in the latter two, primarily by antagonists from Aura Battler Dunbine / The Wings of Rean, who grow to gigantic proportions. Belkt's Grave Ark does this by purging its extra armor
 * A literal example in R, as, for whatever reason, every mech turns red when using a Limit Break (and yes, they do call it that).
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change - The "Swift Chase" segments introduced in R, which turn the game into a Rail Shooter with fairly bad targeting.
 * Updated Rerelease - The "Special Vocal Version" of 2 includes versions of each series' Anime Theme Song with lyrics intact (the original was strictly instrumental)
 * Urban Legend of Zelda - It's astonishing how many people like to spread rumors the A.C.E. Original Generation will one day appear in the Super Robot Wars Original Generation sub-series
 * Considering SRW brought in characters from Hero Senki and Great Battle, and A.C.E. is pretty much just SRW run through the Armored Core filter, this isn't as far out as it seems.
 * Now there's a bit of reciprocity, if not, complete Irony: SRW's own Original Generation are part of R's lineup.
 * And now the Geshpenst models from Portable are appearing in Original Generations 2, so it's not really an Urban Legend anymore.
 * Villain Team-Up - Usually ends with both sides double-crossing each other
 * 2: Delaz Fleet teams up with Giganos to rebel against the UCE's supposed tyranny, The Reclaimers ally with the Drake Army, who are interested in Orphan's power and Grados (or Glados) and Poseidal partner up in order to chase the goals of their respective leaders: Lu Cain wants to Take Over the World, while Giwaza seeks to gather superweapons like the Devil Gundam and Buster Ark.
 * 3: Neo-Zeon convinces the Martian Successors and Ex-Giganos groups to rise up in a mass rebellion against The Federation of Earth A. In Earth B, the Siberian Railroad and Tower State Militia are established as groups working under the United New Earth Federation. In both worlds, we have Antibody Coralians causing widespread destruction in conjunction with the Invaders..
 * R: Several villains, including Yazan and his wingmen, the Death Gale Team, the Knights of the Round, Nora and Ivanov, the 33rd Marine Squadron, and members of Chiram and the Siberian Railroad get pulled into the "black sphere" along with the heroes and end up siding with Season.
 * The War Sequence - Done at least once every game
 * The World Is Always Doomed
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair - Other than all the included series, the originals in R have some wild colors. Autumn plays it the straightest, though, with light-blue hair.
 * You Killed My Father - The major reason why  is so pissed off at the UCE in 2 is that they were responsible for killing off his father, Albert Reinen. So he decides that not only will he throw a monkey wrench in the UCE's plans by aiding their enemies via timely interruptions, but he'll also be the one to wipe out the Zentraedi through the Ark Project's There Can Be Only One development cycle
 * The World Is Always Doomed
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair - Other than all the included series, the originals in R have some wild colors. Autumn plays it the straightest, though, with light-blue hair.
 * You Killed My Father - The major reason why  is so pissed off at the UCE in 2 is that they were responsible for killing off his father, Albert Reinen. So he decides that not only will he throw a monkey wrench in the UCE's plans by aiding their enemies via timely interruptions, but he'll also be the one to wipe out the Zentraedi through the Ark Project's There Can Be Only One development cycle