Super Robot Wars J

Super Robot Wars J is the final installment of the Super Robot Wars series for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, featuring vastly improved visuals, game mechanics and an all-new storyline dealing with the invasion of the lunar Fury. The player, as usual, can choose between a male or a female Player Character, each with his or her own unique storyline that ties in with the new imposing menace.

Judgment is also the first Super Robot Wars title to generate considerable controversy not unheard of in the franchise prior. The game was announced a mere weeks after following the release of Super Robot Wars Alpha 3. Secondly, Judgment broke fabled tradition by excluding Universal Century Gundam and Getter Robo, which disappointed some of the veterans of the series (to date, only Mazinger has appeared in every non-original SRW). Finally, the inclusion of Tekkaman Blade was seen as a violation by some, as the series uses Powered Armor rather than Humongous Mecha (fans, however, note this demonstrates Banpresto's willingness to expand upon the definition of "robot" for the franchise).

A translation patch has been released by the Romhacking Aerie. It is available here

Series featured in this game (Bold indicates debuting entries):

Tropes used in Super Robot Wars J include:

A God Am I: The Big Bad, Gu-Langdon Goetz.
- Also, Shapiro Keats. At least until Sara shoots him
All Your Powers Combined: Great Zeorymer posseses the strongest attacks of all 7 enemy Hakkeshu mecha. In the case of Breist of Fire and Gallowin of Water, this is their Combination Attack Twin Lords, which Great Zeorymer performs by cloning itself.
Ambidextrous Sprite: Averted. It doesn't matter for most units, as most units don't change sides and most of the rest of the game's cast are symmetrical, but it still manages to avert it: Several Gundam units (Gundam Rose and Bolt Gundam from G Gundam and Buster Gundam and Duel Gundam AS from Gundam Seed) have asymmetrical designs, and when they appear as enemies, their sprites are edited to not be ambidexterous.
Arc Welding/ Meta Origin: Like most SRW games, it ties together the rather disparate stories of the various different shows involved. For instance, the Human Aliens from SPT Layzner and Voltes V are descendants of the ancient Martian civilization from Martian Successor Nadesico (who are presumably descended from space explorers of the advanced Mycenae civilization or contemporaries of them) and the truly alien enemies such as Orphan & the Radam are presumably members of the alien alliance the Furies fled to Earth in order to escape.
Ascended Extra: Out of the Gundam Fighters' support crews (not including Rain), only George's butler Raymond makes it in. As a new attack for Gundam Rose, no less. To top it off, his Butler Gundam gets a map sprite.
- The original Shuffle Alliance make their only cameo appearance in the entire Super Robot Wars franchise to date in this game, as well. Sadly, this trope is subverted as they are not playable.
- Even though Tetsuya has a relatively small role in Mazinkaiser, he is the only supporting character in the game who has dialogue lines with bosses outside his parent series. On the other hand, he is so awesome that it's understandable that all bosses wanted to have a word with him.
- Gai Daigoji, if you get him back.
Ascended Fanboy: In addition to Gai and Akito, Koji Kabuto is also a Gekiganger 3 fan. If you take the Nadesico/Layzner route after Stage 43, the special Gekiganger flm created by the Jovians turns almost everyone else into a fan. Even Domon Kasshu is overcome with emotion.
- On the very same stage, we find out that Daijoro is an aspiring manga artist.
Ax Crazy: Ja-Mu Dalbi, after his promotion to full Knight; Gosterro from Layzner also counts.
- There is another reason listed in the supplemental material for Ja-Mu's behavior: Larselium can have very adverse effects on the body, particularly on the glands that produce adrenaline and endorphins. While Al-Van, Fu-Lu and Gu-Landon have had proper training, Jua-Mu is promoted so fast he doesn't have enough time to adequately adjust his body to higher levels of Larselium found in the Raftclans. In short, Jua-Mu is on both a severe adrenaline high and an extreme pleasure high while piloting his Raftclans that's slowly destroying his brain from the inside.
- Touya/Calvina also speculates that Ja-Mu may have received brain damage from when he was caught up in the explosion of Al-Van's Raftclans.
  - And, considering the crazy amounts of Larselium Gu-Landon's huffing in the final battle, his Villainous Breakdown becomes much more understandable.
Beach Episode: Which kinda loses its point as it's rendered all in text...
Big Damn Heroes: Alan Igor and Schwarz Bruder do this, but J's top Crowning Moment of Awesome comes when the party is running from the failed peace negotiations, Gai Daigoji makes an epic entrance on the scene and starts talking about things THAT ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE!(Even while speaking in Gekiganger.) If you meet the requirements for getting him back anyway.
- There is also one by the protagonists during the Full Metal Panic! part of the gameplay. Sousuke, Chidori, Koji and Sayaka are stranded behind the enemy lines and about to get discovered by the enemy when Mao and Kurtz appear soon followed by a whole team of robots. Chidori being amazed at the number of robots is an icing on the cake.
Broken Bird: Calvina. She gets better.
Bullying a Dragon: Colbert tries to nuke Orphan, which, with help from the heroes, sends the missiles through the Vital Net directly to his position.
But for Me It Was Tuesday: If you attack Ru-Kain with Akito in one stage, he'll pull this on the deaths of Akito's martian parents. Akito doesn't appreciate this.
Character Development: For many characters, especially for the chosen protagonist, and for Gai Daigouji, if you get him.
Charles Atlas Superpower: Master Asia can take out several anti-aircraft batteries on the Archangel with his bare hands like it was nothing. And then leap through the air over to the Nadesico and do the exact same thing. Then again, it IS The Undefeated of the East we are talking about here.
Cloudcuckoolander: Izumi is this. HARD. She regularly smashes the fourth wall to tiny bits, makes references to anything she can and has dialogue that would fit right into a Dragon Quest game.
Cuteness Proximity: Bonta-kun is so cute, he makes all the villains mellow out the moment they fight him.

Crueset: What is this? The darkness in my heart is disappearing!

Curse Cut Short: Translation patch specific, at one point Melissa Mao calls Kurz a 'motherf-' only for him to cut her off. And she was on the way on quoting Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction...
- Domon cuts Allenby off when she starts to call Azrael a "blonde, racist, son of a--"
Deus Sex Machina: It may not have been intentional, but Orgone energy? It makes you wonder exactly what they do to fuel their mechs...
- The root "Org" means impulse. It could act in a way similar to Spiral Energy based off of willpower; as at a higher Morale/Will the user is able to utilize the full extent of Orgone energy inside the units.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? (The 7 Hakkeshu of the Hau Dragon and Great Zeorymer, The Devil Gundam, Tekkaman Omega, Prince Ru-Kain's Zakarl, Baron Maximillian's Hyper Baronz and Gu-Langdon's Zui Gaiden fused with the Fury mothership)
Fake Balance : The three Original Generation mechs are supposed to be balanced, with Belzelute as a light, dodgy sniper and Coustwell as the somewhat heavier melee counterpart. Granteed, on the other hand, is supposed to be the tanker with balanced weapons on both ends. However, thanks to the AI's tendency to attack units with lower dodge rates, Granteed and its overwhelming armor rating makes it better than the other two. As a bonus, it is L size from the start, giving attack and defense bonuses, and has weapons so powerful that its second strongest attack is stronger than the strongest attack of the other OG, not to mention good reach that makes it the best sniper, tanker, and melee attacker out of all the three.
- The actual balance comes in with how your character gets different Seishin spells depending on whether they're piloting a Super (Granteed) or Real Robot (the others). On a first playthrough, only Super Robot pilot version of Touya gets the 'Accelerate' spell, and that still doesn't quite compensate for Granteed's movement of 5. When it finally arrives on the front line (or within range of it), then it's the best of the three and solidifies its position as Top-tier Super, but not before.
Fiery Redhead: Other than Hime, we also have Festenia Muse.
Fix Fic: Gai Daigouji, Miyuki "Tekkaman Rapier" Aiba and Balzack, Ahmos Gale and Alberto Null Julia Asuka can survive. Asagi, Juri and Mayura of ORB also survive (but other SEED characters aren't so lucky...), Rolly and Roll and Alan don't die. However, Ru-Kain does bite it, while Kusakabe FINALLY dies and the tragic events of Prince Of Darkness are averted.
Flat What: The general reactions the non Martian Successor Nadesico folks have to viewing the "How and Why of the Nadsico" bits in game.
Glass Cannon: The G Gundam units hit hard thanks to their pilots' stats, but their dodge rate and armor are terrible. The exceptions are Dragon Gundam, since it has Double Image and an attack that decrease the target's attack, and Bolt Gundam, which is more of a Mighty Glacier. Rising Gundam and Nobel Gundam are also an exception too.
Guest Star Party Member: Natarle Badgiruel, Tolle Koenig, Kuzzey Buskirk, Mu La Flaga, and the Tuatha de Danann. Tekkaman Rapier, Balzak Azimov and Gai Daigoji also count if you don't save them.
- Welcome Back, Traitor: Akatsuki Nagare.
Handsome Lech: Kurz Weber hits on the female bosses when attacking them.
Henshin Hero: We're not sure why the Tekkamen are in a game about giant robots, but we're not complaining.
Hot-Blooded: One of the pilots mentions pretty much all the characters are.
Hypocritical Humor: Occasionally, Argo will espouse that only newbies give speeches in battle. Given where he comes from...
- To be fair, he never joins in.
Infinity Plus One Robot: Great Zeorymer
Jiggle Physics: Melua, Festenia, Calvina and Katia's breasts in the final attacks, and Touya's Anime Hair.
Joke Character: Despite being a secret unit, Bonta-kun is quite terrible. Of course, most people unlock him anyway because he has one of the best themes in the game.
- It should be noted that it shares the same stat growths as the Arbalest, and the only real reason why its not as useful is the lower attack and HP totals, not to mention the lack of Lamda Driver. It does have a crazy high evasion rate, can be buffed to be fairly decent if not outstanding (carrying 4 option parts to the Arbalest's 2), and has the benefit of inspiring some absurdly funny comments from the villains who fight it. The Grenade Launcher is also a 2-6 range weapon, whereas the Arbalest caps at range 4, so there's that too
Karmic Death: Finally, Haruki Kusakabe gets what he deserves!
Kick the Son of a Bitch: Rau Le Crueset for killing Haruki Kusakabe
Killed Off for Real: Mu La Flaga. Not even the way in which you saved him in Alpha 3 can save him.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Muruta Azrael tells Akatsuki Nagare that having IFS nanomachines makes him no better than the coordinators. Both traits have the same effect on pilot performance.
Lethal Joke Character: Believe it or not, Boss Borot. With 4 part slots and 3 pilots with a great seishin list, he's an absolute monster when upgraded. Just make sure to slap a Flight Pack on him.
- And like most SRW games that have Boss Borot as a playable unit if it gets blown up in battle it only costs a mere 10 game money for a fix up even if it used it's Self destruct attack.
- Don't forget that Boss Borot is capable of repairing in this game on top of its usual resupplying job, plus it has really good weaponry that is extremely cheap to upgrade. It's essentially a Swiss Army Mech Glass Cannon in a game with lots of options for upgrading durability.
- What makes Boss Borot even better is that, unlike his previous counterparts, he actually has attacks that can attack air opponents. Granted, Super Robot Wars Advance, Super Robot Wars Reversal and Super Robot Wars Destiny granted Boss the Borot Pressure Punch, but in A it was a secret upgrade, in R, it was a Mid-Season Upgrade and D gave it to you from the start, but you had much better units then.
Magikarp Power: The G Gundam units are Glass Cannons, but their pilots have super robot levels in Prevail. If their defenses are upgraded enough that they can take a couple hits, they can become hard to stop. They also get major improvements in scenario 33, when Domon gets the God Gundam and the rest of the Shuffle Alliance get their Super Modes and team-up attacks.
- The :Vorlent may seem like an underwhelming unit with only three unimpressive attacks, especially considering its requirement (beating the game three times, each with a different Original Generation robot.) However, it is later replaced with the Raftclans, a Game Breaker.
- Layzner too. At first, it's a Fragile Speedster, but after it receives V-max it becomes a Lightning Bruiser.
Manly Tears: Kouji and Hyoma's reaction to the aftermath of Master Asia's death.
- Touya, too, if you chose him as your main character.
Marathon Level: The attack on Hell Island pits you against several waves of high HP bosses and Elite Mooks, including Gauron, who is invulnerable to all but the strongest and most expensive attacks.
Nami Tamaki Castaway, the theme song of the game.
- Not an actual in-game theme song: it was only used for promotional purposes
Nuke'Em The Earth Alliance's solution to every problem. It eventually comes back to bite them in the ass. HARD.
- And of course this is Burrstone of the Mountain's specialty.
Redemption Demotion: Utterly averted when the Big Bad's Dragon undergoes a Heel Face Turn in the final scenario and fights on your side. His machine still has the same 50,000 HP it had when you fought him previously, and he deploys with full Morale/Will, allowing him to use the same destructive moves he used on you. Furthermore, Gale and Julia have the same stats they had as bosses when they join you.
- Played straight in the same game with Jonathan and Quincy, whose Baronz' are more powerful than all but the Nelly Brain, but are nowhere near the 60K HP they exhibited as bosses. They keep their evil-sounding

themes, though.

Post Script Season: For Combattler V, as the Campbellians have either been defeated before the game starts or they simply don't exist in this universe. For the most part, Combattler is treated as a part of the Voltes V plotline (though they have separate slots in the favorites system).
Put on a Bus: The entire "Devil Colony" arc from G Gundam, as its plot comes to a halt upon Master Asia's death.
- Also on the bus are Prime Minister Wong (who was involved in the TV series' final arc that the final G-Gundam storyline battle is based on) and Urube Ishikawa (whose role of manipulating Domon is partially done by Azrael).
- The Muge Zorbados Empire is not in this game. Shapiro has instead defected to the Gradosians.
Secret Character
- Either Gale or Julia
- Miyuki aka "Tekkaman Rapier" and Balzack can have their deaths averted
- Gai Daigouji comes back from the dead
- Great Zeorymer
- Vorlent/Raftclans after beating the game three times, once with each of the original three
Shout-Out: The animation for Gundam Maxter's Burning Punch ends with a Shoryureppa.
- Other Chibodee-related shout outs include references to boxers Mike Tyson and Mohammad Ali. Heck, he even references Ali's catch-phrase:

Chibodee: You wanna see me sting like a bee? Sit tight. That's comin' next.

- When using his chain attack, Boss will sometimes yell "Get over here!"
- Masato's evil half Masaki uses one of Iori's move quotes.

Masaki: Cry, scream, and then die!

Shut UP, Hannibal: A lot of them, but especially frequent in Stage 49. To wit:
- Akito vs Ru-Kain:

Akito: Why would a man such as yourself ally himself with Kusakabe?
Ru-Kain: What Kusakabe affirms is right. Justice is power, and power is justice. This is the meaning of being conquered by your betters.
Akito: There is no way this can be called justice, neither in Gekiganger nor anywhere else!

- Gai vs Kusakabe

Kusakabe: Justice isn't something that can be just spoken of. It must be made real by destroying evil ones such as yourself.
Gai: Huhuhuu... Actually, Jovian general, you got it all wrong. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you win or lose. What does matter is what you believe inside of yourself. A justice like yours, founded of deceit and betrayal, isn't worth a damn!

- Gai also gives a version this to Akatsuki when he starts talking about how there is no justice and bashes how idealistic the heroes are.
- Kira Yamato vs Rau Le Crueset

Crueset: You're a mistake, boy! You're something that should never have existed! It is time that you disappear forever!
Kira: That's my line! If you hate the world so much that you want everyone to die, then the only way is for you to be destroyed!

Shut Up, Kirk: In one of the earlier scenarios, Karla of Layzner summarily orders the heroes to be silent, as "monkeys" like them have no right to even question the "clearly superior" Gradosians. The heroes aren't impressed.
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Played with. Although the crew of the Arch Angel are extremely cynical, they do make sound tactical judgement and treat everything as War Is Hell. On the other hand, while everyone else are ridiculously idealistic and would likely make decisions that could get everyone killed, are always morally right. Makes perfect sense when you look at the cast.
Spell My Name With The Heavens: The translation patch calls Zeorymer "Zeorymer of the Skies," compared to the more-liked "of the Heavens." Will be fixed in a future release.
Suicidal Overconfidence: Other than the featured series, this game is notorious for the AI's preference for attacking mechs with low dodge rates. This tends to result in super robots and battleships hogging all the kills.
The Battle Didn't Count If you manage to defeat Smug Snake Ru-Kain in scenario 30 (difficult but doable), it turns out you haven't even managed to dent his Zakarl: he just regenerates his HP and laughs in your face.
The Obi-Wan: Gai to Touya and Akito.
The World Is Always Doomed: The Mikene Empire is attacking in full force, Orphan is about to exit the atmosphere, and Genesis is about to burn the Earth to a crisp. Yeah, nothing alarming about it.
Token Evil Teammate: Akatsuki Nagare is kind of a jerk. Masaki Kihara is kind of a monster. Fortunately, only one of them sticks around.
Took a Level in Badass: Touya, Akito, Kira, and most awesomely, Gai Daigoji.
This Cannot Be!: Jonathan and Quincy, all the time, especially if they're taken down when piloting their Baronz. Also, Ru Kain and Shapiro Keats murmur this as they die.
- And let's not forget Jya-Mu, who dies in his insanity screaming that he can't be defeated over and over
Villain Team-Up: The Jovian Lizards, the Grados Empire and Shapiro Keats have joined forces. Gauron works for Dr. Hell and the Hau Dragon. Muruta Azrael and Gen. Colbert have the same goals. The trope gets subverted when Master Asia tricks Duke Bergan into facing the heroes underprepared.
We Can Rule Together: Dr. Hell pulls this on the heroes once they've beaten all his forces. Our heroes reject the offer right away and tell him to shut up.
What the Hell, Hero?: After the Arch Angel uses Lacus Clyne as a human shield, almost everyone whom had joined the group (and Toya, if you play his route) up to that point are royally pissed, to the point that the Arch Angel crew were worried that they would abandon them. Just about the only character who takes the other side is Akatsuki Nagare.
Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Ruri recommends this after Master Asia makes his first appearance.

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