Super Robot Wars K

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Super Robot Wars K is the second DS-based handheld Super Robot Wars, which more or less reuses the engine from Super Robot Wars W, with some new additions and some rather unorthodox new series as well. Once again, it has no Universal Century Gundam, no Getter Robo (again), and no Mazinger except for the original, which will either upset the traditionalists or make the people desperate for new blood happy.

Featured series (with debuts in bold):

Tropes used in Super Robot Wars K include:
  • Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder (One of the game's secrets involves saving Stellar Loussier from her fated death. At the end of the series proper, Shinn Asuka and Lunamaria Hawke is the canon pairing. Awkward...)
  • Action Girl (Plenty as usual, but Cagalli Yula Atha's gets this status back at long last. Her first mission involves her taking on the Festum single-handedly in an outdated machine and kicking their asses)
  • Awesome but Impractical (Gaiking the Great is a beast in combat but its attacks drain almost too much energy to be worth it, not to mention you have to combine three Super Robots that are perfectly good on their own to form it)
    • Awesome Yet Practical once you learn that you can attack with Raiking and Vuking BEFORE combining them into The Great, who then unleashes one of it's insanely powerful attacks on the opponent. And, right after that, you can use one of your energy-replendishing units to completely fill The Great's energy tank and, thanks to the way combining units work in this game, you also replendish Rai's and Vul's energy tanks, allowing you to separate the Great and do it all over again.
  • Bag of Holding (More like "Pouch of Holding", but King Gainer's leg pouch becomes this in its animations. What makes it strange is that King Gainer pulls its Chain Gun from its pouch everytime it attacks, despite having a physical Chain Gun holstered on its back at the start of the series proper)
    • It's more Hyperspace Arsenal: one of King Gainer's many abilities is pulling stuff from the 4th dimension. Yes, it didn't pull a second chain gun from its pouch, but from thin air
  • Big Bad (Lu Cobol)
  • Big Bad Wannabe (Verinee might not be as severe as Wilheim von Juergen, but being one of the earlier original villains to be killed by Gil-Barg instead of Mist and his allies puts her here)
    • Gil himself falls in this trap in the same scenario no less, when he attempts to run off to fight another day, but the Dangaioh team kills him with the newly-unlocked Final Psychic Wave. So much for badass points, huh, Gil?
  • Big Damn Heroes (This is what the Minerva is reduced to after the SEED Destiny storyline finishes)
  • Bittersweet Ending (For a good portion of the cast: the Virtual-On team have their memories of the entire game erased as per MARZ protocol, the Fafner pilots are still slowly being turned into Festum, the Yapan Exodus is still fending off attacks from the London IMA (despite Exodus being finally legalized in their world) and the Daikyu-Maryuu leaves the Earth to find a new home for the people of Darius (with the Dangaioh team taking Daiya's place).)
  • Boring but Practical (Dann of Thursday's slashing attack. While seem mundane at first, it has ignore barrier attribute and being combo attack. And while 2 grids range is short, it is effected by part that increase weapon range.)
  • The Cameo (Touya Shun appears in the arcade scene before mission 8.)
  • Character Exaggeration (Dick becomes the latest character to have a personal character trait expanded upon and/or humorously exaggerated in an SRW. The trait in question is his nickname of Daiya, "Mr. Gaiking". He calls Gou "Mr. Godannar" and Van gets the nickname, "Mr. Gun X Sword". The "Gun" part refers to Wendy Garret and her revolver, not Van's rivalry with Ray Lundgren)
    • Speaking of Daiya, he falls victim to this as well, with his habit of mispronouncing names: right after everyone has been warped to Darius for the first time, Daiya formally introduces himself to Ruuji and Le Mi. Within seconds, he mistakenly calls them Reiji and Mami, respectively. Ruuji simply gives his name again, but Le Mi is furious at Daiya's mistake
  • Combining Mecha (Dangaioh, Godannar, Gaiking The Great, Solvrias Regina and Solvrias Rex)
  • Demoted to Extra (Many characters from Godannar only appear in intermission scenes; their respective mecha don't even appear at all)
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? (Forget the final bosses: every single one of the Festum count as Cosmic Horrors. In the series, Fafner machines were required to even have a chance at killing them. Probably the most prominent Power Creep, Power Seep for mooks in a while)
  • Earthshattering Kaboom (Lu Cobol destroyed two worlds before ending up in the current one)]
  • Enemy Mine (In a rare case, very, very few of the enemy groups actively work together for long periods of time. Most alliances between enemy groups in this game are very short-lived. The only recurring one is Gil-Barg, and considering how often he makes life miserable for his allies, you have to wonder why they keep helping him)
    • For the record, the Edax do try to reason with other enemy groups at multiple points in the game. Sometimes, they gain temporary alliances with other groups (such as one with Emperor Jin's forces), while other times the enemy groups (such as the Jama Empire and The Claw) blow off the Edax outright
    • Also, in a certain stage, Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala suggest they join forces to combat the Blue Cosmos in Berlin. ZAFT HQ responds by ordering their team to destroy the Archangel...
  • Even Evil Has Standards (Invoked by Gainer who, after seeing the destruction of Berlin at the hands of the Destroy Gundam, comments that even at its worst, the Siberian Railroad never even came close to the Blue Cosmos' acts of depravity)
  • Fastball Special (Take El Dora Soul, a dyed-in-the-wool Super Robot, toss in (literally) the Dann of Thursday, which can turn into an enormous sword mid-air, and this is what you get)
  • Fix Fic (While limited for combat unlockables, some NPCs can be saved, such as Tsubaki, where she returns with Kazuki and company to continue as Mission Control, since Soushi's infection prevents him from doing so after defeating the Festum, and Moukaku. Other unlockable cast members series will not be so fortunate if you did not meet requirements. Meer Campbell becomes captain of the Minerva and is allowed to officially become Lacus Clyne's figurehead by Lacus herself)
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus (The portrait cut-ins for Dahlia of Wednesday's strongest attack are of its pilot Fasalina wearing...ah...very suggestive facial expressions)
    • In the final Jeeg level, when Kenji Mitsurugi goes berserk over Tsubaki and Kyou's supposed death, Kanon Memphis is one of the heroes who tries to calm him down. Her character portrait will always be the one where she pilots the Mark Drei, even if you get the Fafner secrets and you don't have Kanon in the Mark Drei
  • Glass Cannon (The Godannar machines hurt like hell when they get up to speed. Unfortunately, they're very easy to hit and have ridiculously thin armor. The SEED Destiny Gundams, King Gainer and the Jeegs are similarly not as robust, but hit like trucks)
  • Gratuitous English (Sergeant Hatter)
  • Guide Dang It (As usual for an SRW, knowledge of the component series is critical to getting secrets. Destroying the Diablo of Monday with the Dann, for example, is self-explanatory...if you've seen Gun X Sword)
    • Even then, Gun X Sword throws one of the weirdest curveballs ever with its secret: To recruit Michael and Fasalina, you have to use Van to kill all of the boss characters from said series and then kill The Claw before taking down the aforementioned secret pilots. Except, you have to make Priscilla have a battle encounter with Carossa to complete the process on the stage where you kill Woo. Why? The only possible connection comes from a single line of dialogue from the original series where Priscilla express grief over Carossa and Melissa's deaths. That's it. You have no heads-up about this part and it is easy to miss without a guide to help.
    • Fafner takes this to insane levels. It's an all-or-nothing secret with multiple route splits, kill requirements and in-mission decisions you have to get exactly right. Oh, and the first step? Relies on upgrading Mark Elf so that Mark Sechs will inherit the upgrades and have attacks which, with Save Scumming, might be enough to kill the Festum. Good luck figuring that out on your own.
  • Heroic Sacrifice (Soushi essentially sacrifices himself to defeat Ru Cobol)
  • Karmic Death (Gil Berg from Dangaioh finally gets it, after being a Karma Houdini in the series proper)
  • Lord British Postulate (The Gustadio (Lu Cobol's first mech) retreats once you reduce it to 50% of its HP. It's actually possible, through very, very careful manipulations of Spirit Commands, attack damage levels and a Rust Hurricane to destroy it)
  • Mighty Glacier (The El Dora Soul can turn into this if properly upgraded)
  • Mythology Gag (Rey's DRAGOON attack features him striking a pose similar to Rau's from Super Robot Wars Judgment and Super Robot Wars W.
  • Not So Different (Cynthia Lane tells Proist she used to be like her as a pre-battle dialogue)
  • Number of the Beast (Interestingly, the Edax machine that either Sheldia's sister or Angelica's father will pilot is exactly 66.6 meters tall. Once the pilot is free, the robot becomes sentient)
  • Original Generation (Mist Rex, Angelica Shaltir, Sheldia Rouge, Lu Cobol and the Edax)
  • Perspective Flip (As the cover might tell you, you see the entire SEED Destiny plot solely from Kira's side. Even the Attract Mode has Shinn on the enemy side! Since most of the show's plot is skipped over, and you get Shinn and Lunamaria immediately afterwards (Destiny's plot begins on scenario 14A and ends on scenario 19), most, if any, complaints aren't all that vocal.
  • Petting Zoo People (Elite Mook Verinee and her troops all pilot wolf-like mecha)
  • Plagiarism (One of the themes against the Edax generals had a familiar echo to Magus' boss battle music from Chrono Trigger...in fact, it wasn't just a coincidence: it sounded practically the same. Suffice to say, it didn't end well for the composer)
    • One of the battle map themes is a shameless ripoff of "For The Savior" from Lufia II, just with some reverb and a mildly tweaked tempo
    • It got so bad that Banpresto and Bandai Namco openly apologized for the plagiarism to their fans.
  • Plot Hole (There are quite a number of them laden throughout the game's backstory that almost steer into Fridge Logic territory. For the most part, a lot of the holes originate with backstory conflicts. For instance, the War of the Titans (the backstory conflict of Godannar), is explained in such a way that it gives the impression that Godannar's entire cast should be 40 years older than they actually are. This is because of the connection to the sealing of the Jama Empire, as the sealing took place about a decade before the War of the Titans, which itself was supposed to be 50 years prior to the start of Koutetsushin Jeeg. Either the script writer got lazy or did not do proper checking to see if there would be conflicts in the history.)
  • Post Script Season (The Dangaioh plot essentially runs with the idea that Mia and everyone managed to destroy Captain Garimoth and the Bunker and Gil Berg's attempts at getting revenge on them for it.)
    • Mazinger Z also has completed by the time K starts.
  • Power Gives You Wings (Destiny Gundam and Saudade of Sunday, for its stronger attacks)
  • Put on a Bus (The majority of SEED Destiny's plot and characters, the non-Dannar Base pilots, most of the one-shot villains from Gun X Sword, including Joe Lutz and Hayeta, who are in fact somewhat important to said series' storyline)
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad (Gazin, Velanee and Ispeil)
  • Robeast (Haniwa Genjins and the Memetic Beasts)
  • Rocket Punch (Mazinger Z's, of course, but be prepared to find Dangaioh, Gaiking and the Jeegs throw in a few of their own)
  • Secret Character
    • Gaia Gundam/Stella Loussier, Legend Gundam/Ray Za Burrel and the GOUF Ignited/Heine Westenfluss from SEED Destiny
    • Blade Gainer/Ken from Godannar
    • Bio-Ptera/Felme from Zoids Genesis
    • Saudade of Sunday/Michael Garret and the Dahlia of Wednesday/Fasalina from Gun X Sword
    • Mark Sechs/Shouko Hazama, Mark Vier/Kouyou Kusagai, Mark Funf/Mamoru Kodate, Mark Drei (alternate weapons version)/Sakura Kaname, and Mark Ein/Michio Hino from Fafner
  • Something We Forgot: Despite being on the game's cover art, Gaiking's axe never appears in the game.
  • Ship Sinking (For what's probably the first time ever in Super Robot Wars, a CANON ship - from Overman King Gainer - gets torpedoed: the game unties the strangling red string around Adette and Gauli's necks and keeps Adette and Yassaba together)
  • Shout-Out (The overture of the fourth movement of Antonín Dvořák's Ninth Symphony in E minor is played as a reference to Daiya Tsuwabuki's voice actor, who also had this music playing for him when he defeated the Big Bad in one arcs of the One Piece anime)
    • Not exactly: the music was also used for Proist
    • Also the Eldora Five's "El Inferno Y Cielo" is basically a blatant lookalike of Hell And Heaven. Designed for this game only, too
  • Shut UP, Hannibal (Mist and the heroes completely reject Gilbert Durandal's Destiny Plan and the rationale behind it, pointing out its hypocrisy)

Durandal: Is it so wrong of me to cause pain for one moment, so that I can create a world where pain does not exist? Does that justify you trying to ostracize the Destiny Plan?
Mist: It IS... and yes, it DOES!

  • Space Is Noisy (RainbowJerk's Paracries causes a horrible sound, unbearable to those who hear it. While it can't be used against targets inside water, it can be used just fine in space. It doesn't even has a damage penalty. Huh...)
    • Most likely because, despite call Paracries in game and anime, the attack is actually jamming beam (call Rainbow Beam in model kits).
  • Spell My Name with an "S" (Most of the Original Generation characters, notably Ru/Lu Cobol)
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill - Regret Buster, not only does Solvlius Rex punch the shit out of the enemy, it launches it into space, fires a beam at it, rides inside the beam, tears a hole inside the enemy (Most likely to the atomic level or another dimension based on the structure) and destroys it from the inside out.
  • The Virus (Insania Virus from Godannar)
    • Story-wise, the fact that Kouji Tetsuya can be sortied in scenarios and not be infected with the virus, despite being injured and benched for a good amount of Godannar's plot, raises questions. Likewise, despite the Insania Virus specifically targetting hotblooded male pilots, no other pilots in the playable roster are seemingly affected by it. Hopefully, Banpresto sorts this problem out the next time Godannar reappears
  • Transforming Mecha (Murasame Liger and Solvrias Rex/Regina, to name a few)
  • Unstable Equilibrium (The ace bonus in this game graints +10 to all starts for each 100 kills a pilot has, up to +100 for 999 kills. This can very easily transform an already powerful character like Van into an unstoppable One-Man Army, especially since the game's imbalanced multicombo system allows a single character to rack up kills really quickly.)
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