Super Robot Wars Original Generation

Rock Alright! We'll fly higher than anyone in this eternal sky!

One fine day in Japan, the Super Robot Wars division of Banpresto pondered the following: "Hey, our Humongous Mecha Mega Crossover franchise has developed quite the roster of original characters. What say we, instead of paying out the license fees for Gundam, Macross, Mazinger Z and Getter Robo and the like for this year's game, just build it around our in-house characters and robots instead?"

"Sure Why Not"

Thus was born Super Robot Wars Original Generation (OG1), released for the Game Boy Advance. Featuring a couple dozen original pilots created from Super Robot Wars Alpha and prior (but strangely no Masou Kishin entries aside from Masaki Andoh, Lune Zoldark and Shu Shirakawa, although that's all the first Alpha title ever offers), its plot involves the Divine Crusaders War from Super Robot Wars 2 and the initial stages of the Balmar War in Super Robot Wars Alpha, but without all those other distractions provided by the Angels, Zentraedi, Uchuu Kaiju/STMC, and so forth (the United Colony Corps plays the role of The Duchy of Zeon). But wait, you ask: "didn't Alpha have all sorts of corrupt politicians and enemy pilots to impede our heroes Banpresto hasn't made expys of yet?" Well, yes, and they exist now - a good third or so of the Original Generation cast is comprised of these sorts of people (and a couple of the heroes, even) created just for this timeline.

Nearly three years and several mainline SRW games later, Banpresto wheeled out Super Robot Wars Original Generation 2 (OG2) for the Game Boy Advance, which makes the cast EVEN BIGGER with new additions from the interim games. This time around, the plot finishes the part of the Mid-Season Upgrade of the first Alpha game, the Machinery Children of Alpha Gaiden, as well as part of Arado Balanga's story and a prologue of Ibis Douglas' story from Alpha 2, but the primary focus of the story is the Einst of Super Robot Wars Compact 2/Impact, the Shadow-Mirror of Super Robot Wars Advance, and the Inspectors of Super Robot Wars 3. The game also introduces an original plot, combining part of Arado's tale with the story of a character introduced in OG1, as Tyke Bomb ex-students of a harsh training school.

But even THAT wasn't enough, so just before their absorption into Namco Bandai, Banpresto combined both GBA games into a Video Game Remake for the PlayStation 2 called Super Robot Wars OG: Original Generations (OGs) and gave it all the bells and whistles of a full console-sized SRW, plus 7 missions spanning six months between the original games AND an "OG2.5 Unified Wisdom" scenario based on the semi-sequel OVA - both of which introduce EVEN MORE "Banpresto Originals" and sets the stage for Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden (OG Gaiden), a Gaiden Game sequel expanding on the "2.5" missions into an entire story by combining them with the plots of Super Robot Wars Compact 3, Super Robot Wars Reversal and a few characters from Banpresto's earlier The Great Battle series on the Super Famicom. Like the previous games, it also forms a prologue to Super Robot Wars MX.

Oh, and then there's the Gaiden Game spin-off Super Robot Wars OG Saga. The first game, Endless Frontier for the Nintendo DS, is a different beast entirely, since it's a conventional Eastern RPG rather than a Turn-Based Strategy like all of the above, featuring expys upon expys (sometimes, OF expys), an Action Command-based combat system revolving around massive juggling combos (among other things), and KOS-MOS and T-ELOS. For those who played Namco X Capcom, they get to see Reiji Arisu and Xiaomu again; for those who haven't, well... now they have. It takes place in a group of connected worlds called the Endless Frontier, with the lives of the inhabitants shaped by the events of OG2. It's followed by a sequel Endless Frontier EXCEED, which itself has ties to the ending of OG Gaiden, as well as incorporating a couple of characters from the main series. The third OG Saga game is Masou Kishin: Lord of Elemental, a remake of Super Robot Wars Gaiden (technically the first all-original SRW) that (re)incorporates its story into Original Generation canon.

The series has gone full-circle with three Animated Adaptations: a three-part OVA whose events were rolled into OG Gaiden, "Divine Wars", a re-telling of the first game, and "The Inspector", which covers the second game. There is also a manga adaptation: "Record of ATX", which goes through the first game from Kyosuke's point of view.

As of August 2011, nearly 7 years after OG2 was released on the Gameboy Advance, the TRUE non-Gaiden Game, non-remake sequel has been announced. Entitled The Second Super Robot Wars Original Generation, it will be the first SRW to be released on the Play Station 3. According to initial scans, the story will expand the Alpha 2 plotlines of Kusuha Mizuha's and Ibis' into Original Generation, as well as concluding the MX saga. In addition, Joshua Radcliffe and Cliana Rimskaya of Super Robot Wars Destiny, Ariel Org and Duvan Org of Real Robot Regiment and Ing Egret from the Alpha 2 side-story manga Lost Children, and a brand new character (currently enemy), a black haired, black leotard-wearing woman named Aamara, piloting a custom Huckebein, will be the new entrants into the series. From a mecha standpoint, they finally included RyuKoOh and KoRyuOh's brother machines JakuBuOh and BuJakuOh, although who are piloting them remain a mystery. Additionally, the game cover features the RaiOh from Alpha 3, yet a villainous AI-controlled Super Prototype appears, whose objective is the destruction of the other Dynamic General Guardian super robots. Its name? The JinRai.

See here for the massive character sheet on all the originals.

Tropes used in Super Robot Wars Original Generation include:
  • Absent Aliens: All life originated on Earth, even the Einsts, which also inverts the Ancient Astronauts trope.
  • The Ace: Aside from characters given a notification for achieving a certain amount of kills, becoming "aces", characters from the elite Aggressors unit have been in combat longer than the rest of the cast.
    • Moreover, in-universe, they're the ones who created mecha combat.
  • Adaptation Decay: Both Divine Wars and The Inspector, to an extent; ultimately, much of this stems from the fact the format of an animated TV series forces the writers of the show to squeeze all of the content from a 40+ level game (which features many more when you take into account the game's multiple routes) rife with dialogue and action sequences into twenty-six twenty-two minute episodes, frequently resulting in many key events and fights being hurried along or cut out of the plot altogether.
  • Another Century's Episode: The mass-produced Gespenst MK II in the first installment, the ART-1, Alt Eisen Reise and Cybuster in the fourth game "R" and the Gespenst MK II Custom in the latest "Portable".
  • Art Evolution: This [dead link] is the Huckebein in Super Robot Wars 4; compare it to the current version [dead link] .
  • Ascended Extra: Hagane Bridge Bunny Azuki Sawa from The Inspector, who was originally a nameless female operator in the games. The production staff has stated that when the next Original Generation game is released, she will be in it.
  • Ascended Fanboy: No less than three of them. Each get to live their dreams and Took a Level in Badass. Ryusei, though, is practically the patron saint of this trope.
  • Badass: Most characters, whether heroic or villainous, adhere to this trope, though SANGER ZONVOLT, THE SWORD THAT SMITES EVIL! greatly personifies it, being Banpresto's walking embodiment of it. To wit:
    • Badass Abnormal: Kyosuke's luck is just NOT normal and lampshaded CONSTANTLY, while Excellen's a Half-Human Hybrid.
    • Badass Adorable: Take everyone from Little Miss Badass and add in Kusuha Mizuha.
    • Badass Army: We've got the Earth Federation Army (the Player Characters), the Shura, the Divine Crusaders led by Bian Zoldark, the United Colony Corps led by Maier V. Branstein and the Shadow-Mirror.
    • Badass Bookworm: Shu must have a Ph.D in asskicking (well, in addition to his ACTUAL Ph.D in Applied Phlebotinum), and Ryoto Hikawa's Shinji Ikari with Kira Yamato smarts and Kamille Bidan's balls.
    • Badass Crew: The collective forces of the Hagane and Hiryu Custom pilots are this. To a smaller extent, the ATX Team/SRX Team/Octo Squad/Aggressors.
    • Badass Family: Epitomized by the Bransteins.
    • Badass Grandpa: Daitetsu Minase and Rishu Togo.
    • Badass Labcoat: Shu and Bian. Lemon Browning also counts, seeing as she's willing to take on Badass Abnormal Excellen with little more than a customized Ashsaber.
    • Badass Mustache: Kai Kitamura, who doubles as poster man for the trope below. Axel Almer lacks a 'stache, but he puts it on his "Mustache Man" Soulgain, both who are very much Badasses.
    • Badass Normal: Kai, Katina Tarask (also a Glass Cannon), Russel Bagman and anyone who's last name contains "Stein" (they're just THAT GOOD...really, their badassery is powered by pure skill).
      • Well, Leona Garstein's a Psychodriver, but that's just gravy. She'd still kick ungodly amounts of ass even without it.
      • It's worth noting Elzam von Branstein frequently pilots mecha designed for use by aforementioned Psychodrivers...but he's not one. In fact, he pilots these mecha far better than they do, despite being unable to use half of their features.
      • Well, being a former Aggressor helps matters; he's just an experienced pilot with years of training and combat under his belt.
      • Gilliam Yeager's also able to fight like the rest of them, being in the intelligence division and having been the very first Gespenst pilot and perhaps the very creator of that line of machines.
        • Gilliam may or may not have created the first Gespenst, but he did create the XN Geist, which is a borderline Eldritch Abomination in the shape of a mech back in Hero Senki, and the Gespenst are attempts to duplicate the thing.
      • On the mecha side, the Gespenst of any variation, is a somewhat outdated mecha, but it kicks too much ass to be disposed of completely; some consider it a mech for the Badass Normal.
    • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Arado is a pathetic pilot in the story, despite being from The School. This is a side effect of being conditioned to fight with a partner; he surprises the hell out of everybody whenever Seolla Schweizer winds up getting threatened.
    • Four-Star Badass: Maier and Bian are the leaders of their respective militaries, and not only fought you to the death, they planned for you to do this as part of their mutual Xanatos Gambit! Bonus points to Maier for facing certain death courtesy of BURNING ALIVE in atmospheric re-entry, and doing so with a hell of a lot of dignity.
      • Van Vat Tran and Vindel Mauser are colonels, but since they're the leaders of their respective forces, they count, and Van has a totally inspiring Heel Face Turn, convincing the loyal half of the Neo Divine Crusaders to become your allies for the rest of the game, and Vindel goes down like a total Badass sooner or later, doing an evil inversion of Bian fighting you to the death. It takes a combined badassery of Lamia Loveless and Gilliam to take him down!
      • The Inspectors are the generals of their own army, and each is pretty badass, albeit being the biggest Bunny Ears Lawyer Quirky Miniboss Squad in the history of SRW the world.
    • Little Miss Badass: Latooni Subota, Einst Alfimi and Shine Hausen are the flagship of this trope.
      • Token Mini-Moe: Latooni, on the Hagane team AND for entire team, later. Shine also counts after getting her own unit.
    • Heartbroken Badass: Both Elzam and his brother Raidiese F. Branstein, for perfectly understandable reasons. Leona, by extension, and Aya Kobayashi to an extent, by the end of OG1.
    • Pregnant Badass: Garnet Sandi was revealed OG1's ending to be expecting kids, and since the sequel takes place six months later, she was about three months.
      • Technically a subversion, since Garnet and her husband Giado Venerdi officially retired from active duty.
    • Took a Level in Badass: Look no further than Kusuha, Shine, and the AscendedFanboys.
      • Let's just say all playable (and even some non-playable) characters are Badass in their own right...well, with the exception of Lee Linjun.
  • Beach Episode: Present in both games for no reason other than Fan Service. Then the ending credits of The Inspector is one itself. Notably absent are Lune Zoldark, Lefina Einfield, Katina, Radha Byraban, Rio Mei Long, and Ibis Douglas. Strangely, Ouka Nagisa is present.
    • Well, they added Ibis, and Ricarla now. Also Zengar and Elzam Ratsel in Loin Cloth.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Say hello to Wilhelm von Juergen, who debuts in the OVA and gets carried over to OGs. This scientist-turned-emo switched his ODE System to do an Assimilation Plot and along the way, through pure luck, captured and rendered Lamia totally helpless. While he's downed easily in the OVA, the game takes it to notoriety by "killing" Lamia through a cheap shot, only for Juergen to be One Hit Killed by Duminuss, after the party batters him down. Juergen's practically the God of this trope.
  • Big Eater: Arado, who can make the Neo DC go bankrupt with his "Three servings, please! No, five!", though it's partially implied Aya and Ibis follow this, too.
  • Boring but Practical: Fully upgraded Machine Guns. They're quite powerful, have decent range and are usable after moving, have a ton of ammo, cheap to upgrade, and their damage isn't degraded in water.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: This tends to recur with disturbing frequency throughout the span of the storyline. Among those who went through brainwashing of some manner at some point are Tempest Hawker, Shine, Tenzan Nakajima (though he was already pretty crazy to begin with), Kusuha, Tenzan again, and Levi Torah in OG1, while Seolla, Ouka, and Excellen get hit with this in the sequel. OGs retools Ingram Prisken's plotline to make it so that he was suffering from this, to an extent, as well. Then in OG Gaiden, Lamia, Kouta Azuma's sister Shouko, and Fernando Albark of Compact 3 get to join in on the fun.
  • Breakout Character: Kyosuke isn't the canon protagonist in OG1, but he becomes popular enough to warrant his Compact 2/Impact story to take center stage for the sequel.
    • A minor example: Azuki, the new Hagane bridge bunny from The Inspectors anime is apparently somewhat popular. Thus far, she's had more lines than her crewmate Eita Nadaka (who has been with the franchise ever since his debut in the first game) and even managed to make it into the show's second ending instead of him. Isn't it sad, Eita?
  • Bridge Bunnies: Already a standout since the first game, being only nameless NPCs that aren't faceless with OGs giving two portraits for them. The Inspector anime highlights them as cute girls that can easily be mistaken as supporting characters.[1] At this point, they're the main reason fans do worry about the Shirogane.
    • Eita, Eun Hyojin and Azuki play this trope straight.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: Let's be blunt: EVERY allied character, and a fair majority of the baddies are weird, which DOESN'T detract from their asskicking abilities.
    • Don't forget the Inspectors...hoo boy, they take "Lighthearted Aliens" and run with it.
      • They don't just run with it; they even don't sprint with it: oh no, they stick it in the Astelion or Cybuster (the two fastest mecha available), install as many Mega-Boosters will fit, and then use the Accel Spirit Command to cross about three-quarters of the entire battle grid in a single combat round.
  • Canon Discontinuity: The second half of Kyosuke's route in OG1. Something of an odd case, because even though OG2 follows Ryusei's entire route, Kyosuke's OG1 second half drops tons of Foreshadowing as to the plot of the second, and lets us know somewhat more of just how much a Magnificent Bastard Ingram really is.
  • Canon Immigrant: Elzam Ratsel Feinschmecker, TWICE: introduced in OG1, then ported to Alpha 2 under his Paper-Thin Disguise, then ported BACK to OG2...all to the refrain of Trombe!
    • The Second Original Generations introduces Ing, the last of the Machinery Children, piloting the "Ashe", built from various EXbein parts (the EXbein being the Huckebein Expy from the The Inspector).
    • With a bit of Early-Bird Cameo, the custom Gespensts revealed for Kai, Katina and Russel first appeared in Another Century's Episode Portable.
    • Thrudgelmir's two new attacks in OGs, the Drill Inferno and Star-Cleaving Sword, are derived from a Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden manga that depicts the battle between him and the Alpha Numbers.[2]
  • Can't Hold His Liquor: Tetsuya Onodera, but this comes as a surprise when Sanger's the other one.
  • Captain Ersatz: Hagane to Uchuu Senkan Yamato, Hiryu Kai to the Nadesico and Kurogane to Gotengo.
    • Randgrith/Landgrief is Fang of the Sun Dougram as drawn by Daisei Fujii instead of Kunio Okawara.
    • Grungust is really the Daitarn 3 with a touch of Great Mazinger.
    • The three main SRX mecha are riffs on three of the Gundam saga's most iconic mecha: R-1 is the Zeta Gundam, R-2 Powered is the Guncannon and R-3 Powered is the Dendrobium Orchis with Nu Gundam's Attack Drones.
    • The Wildraubtier and the Project Terrestrial Dream mecha have a distinct resemblance to a Variable Fighter and the Schutzwald is another Guncannon clone.
    • The Valsion Custom, being far larger than the typical grunt mech and using an interface that warps the pilot's mind, is an obvious stand-in for the Psycho Gundam.
    • The Huckebein series are, obviously, Gundams by another name. Taken up a notch with the Mark II-M, a faceless mass-production type in the style of the GM series.
    • Gespensts, being stoutly built mass-production units rolled out before most other mechs in the series and get tons of variant units whose default color is green fit the Zaku role.
    • The Lion series, meanwhile, are similar to Gundam Wing's OZ mechs, not only in their names, but in that they're highly streamlined, expendable mechs fielded by a shadowy faction that rises up against the government lead by a grandiose, morally ambiguous visionary and their three most common units fill similar roles (expendable cannon fodder: Lion/Leo; heavy artillery: Barrellion/Tragos; high speed fliers: Guarlion/Taurus).
  • Char Clone: Elzam.
  • Closing Credits: See Beach Episode, but episode 17 of The Inspector breaks from tradition, featuring a softer, more romantic song accompanying clips of Kyosuke and Excellen from earlier episodes because this is the point where Excellen's abducted by the Einst.
  • Combination Attack
  • Cool Old Guy: Captain Daitetsu and the original Aggressors, consisting of Sanger, Elzam, Kai and Gilliam. Master Rishu's older than the rest, and this man taught Sanger how to be Badass. Oh, and he can deflect bullets with his Sword Cane.
  • Damsel in Distress: At least one in every game, but Kusuha stands out, in heavy contrast to her complete (but still gentle) Action Girl self in the Alpha series. To sum it up, it won't be complete if Kusuha doesn't get kidnapped in any way, even when she's not the main Damsel in Distress (she was this in OG1, then Excellen takes the mantle for the sequel, which later gets passed to Lamia in OG Gaiden. Kusuha always find her way to get kidnapped amongst those times).
    • Though this is subverted in the GBA OG2: Kusuha was NEVER kidnapped there. Then the bonus missions from OG2 portion of OGs comes along...
    • Not to mention all three get Brainwashed in the kidnappings, and with Alpha 2's story looming, we'll probably see Brooklyn "Bullet" Luckfield's time to be the Brainwashed James Bondage. Is it any wonder why the ATX Team is so prone to become such bait for the villains?
    • But considering once they rescue all of them and are still usable and kick major butt, they're more like Badasses In Distress...except maybe Shine (who eventually Took a Level in Badass to rectify her situation).
  • Deconstruction: Believe it or not OG1 did this to Super Robots: instead of ultimate machines that run on willpower alone, all supers are treated as considerably stronger Real Robots that run on feasible Earth technology and dynamics. This is later reconstructed in the sequel, with the introduction of the Choukijin. It isn't until the appearance of Fighter Roar and his Compatible Kaiser that we get classic Super Robot.
  • Derivative Works: Includes, but limited to:
    • The Anime of the Game
      • Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Animation, a three-episode OVA that used to be a sequel to OG2. Partially incorporated into OG Gaiden.
      • Super Robot Wars: Original Generation: Divine Wars; no joke. A re-telling of events depicted in Ryusei's OG1 route, with significant changes to the narrative that it might be considered Adaptation Decay (the absence of Huckebeins being a prime example). Still, minor elements in this anime has been added into continuity.
      • Super Robot Wars: Original Generation: The Inspectors, the sequel to Divine Wars and an adaptation of OG2, with the characters of Advance and Compact 2/Impact headlining the cast.
    • Audio Adaptation
      • Sound Cinema, a drama CD created as a companion title to the OVA. This side-story involves an attack on the Tesla-Leicht Institute by agents in support of the OVA's Big Bad.
      • Two drama CDs bundled with the Endless Frontier games: the first tells of a brief, but significant back-story to the Shadow-Mirror, to which an I Knew It! is confirmed for one of the Endless Frontier characters, while the second follows three characters from the main series and how they wind up in the EXCEED sequel.
    • Manga Adaptation
      • Record of ATX, a side-story manga complement to Divine Wars, but tells of the events from Kyosuke's perspective (or rather, his OG1 route).
      • OG Chronicles, a set of side-stories throughout the games primarily to display the on-goings of other characters and events that happened between the games. A few of the stories and characters have been incorporated into canon.
      • RyuKoOh Denki, a story supposedly set centuries before Original Generation regarding the Choukijin and various ancestors of the present day cast. Is used as a frequent Mythology Gag throughout the main series. Will be re-released in 2011 under the "OG Saga" heading.
  • Determinator: Axel's king of this trope, while most of the other villains are pretty dedicated to "taking you down like Han Solo", and the good guys when sufficiently pissed.
    • Kyosuke proves to be a match to Axel in terms of shear determination. Naturally, they're also rivals.
    • The in-game Resolve Spirit Command, which allows pilots to ignore negative status effects like being "Webbed" for that turn, assuming they aren't "Stunned", which prevents them from doing anything.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: Kusuha and Bullet may be Alpha's recurring stars, but the other six Alpha originals get a fair share of the spotlight here.
    • Likewise, the Alpha 2 and MX protagonists get their backstories expanded exclusively for Original Generation.
  • Dreadlock Rasta: Why Giado Venerdi has a Jamaican accent in the localization.
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: Kai: he makes Masaki stand perfectly still for an hour, and forces Arado to balance three buckets of water for combat idiocy. Katina follows this, as well.
    • Both doubles with Sergeant Rock, because no one minds their tendencies to do so (although in Katina's case, this might simply be due to everyone being just a little scared of her).
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Cobray Gordon of Alpha 3 in OGs, the MX originals and Touma Kanou of Alpha 3 in OG Gaiden.
  • Easter Egg: You might never think of swapping mecha for Excellen and Kyosuke, or putting Arado in the Wild Falken, but it can be worth it just for the special lines.
  • Exiled From Continuity: The notably absent Huckebeins in the Animated Adaptations. See entry for more details.
  • Exposition: Tons of it, largely of characters in enemy factions discussing matters that helps the player understand some of the things going on, or to give them a reason to really hate some of them. Smarter players will be able to figure out quite a bit, due to loads of dropped hints. If you're very lucky, your fingers won't drop off.
  • Expy: While some characters share characteristics of many protagonists of licensed shows, the originals themselves get expies of their own for licensed shows, with Signum referencing Lamia being the best example.
    • Or that Reiji and Xiaomu mentioned above? They've been expies of Kyosuke and Excellen of Compact 2/Impact much longer than any other expy. Not to mention, out of 4 original characters for Endless Frontier, 3 of them are expies of Kyosuke, Excellen and Lamia...and some bits of Sanger.
    • To note, however, Folka Albark of Compact 3 wasn't originally an Expy of anyone. Come OGs and OG Gaiden, he's tailored to be an Expy of Kenshiro. Likewise, most of the other Shura generals give off Toki, Raoh (including his Ken-Oh persona) and Jyuza of the Clouds vibes (even Koku-Oh!). Folka gets his own expy in Endless Frontier EXCEED.
  • Face Heel Turn: Can't have an SRW without one or two of these...
  • Fallen Hero: Tempest Hawker's the only Aggressor who pulls a genuine Face Heel Turn to evil, all due to losing his wife and daughter in the Hope Incident.
  • Gag Boobs: Much has been made of Arado's drawing attention to Seolla's chest in order to break her brainwashing, but Endless Frontier is probably king (or, "queen", maybe?) of this trope and lampshading thereof - so much that 4chan's /m/ has long known it as "Oppai Saga: Endless Tits" or any of a dozen such variations.
  • Game Mod: A rather notable one under the radar for a while before being discovered by 4chan's /m/ board: it heavily modifies OG2. Titled "Super Robot Wars Original Generation 2 Ver. A", the game explores what would have happened if Axel had gotten amnesia and joined the good guys. Notable deviations from canon include:

Bullet starting in a Gespenst MK II Type-S.
Gilliam's Gespenst having a Gespenst Kick (despite not being a MK II Type-S) and having Hero Senki as its theme song.
Kai, Russel, and Katina's Gespensts coming equipped with a few extra weapons.
Magnificent Bitch Mitsuko Isurugi fighting in the Angelg, only to get killed for her troubles.
Lamia filling in as an antagonist in place of Axel with the Vaisaga.
Ouka surviving the events of the Earth Cradle and using a modified Ashsaber that emulates the Rapiecage to help her allies.
The Final Boss not being the Einst, but Beowulf and the Gespenst MK III.

    • There is also another. This hack adds the units: Wildschwein, Wild Raubtier, Grungust Type 0, Grungust Custom, Granzon, Excellence S, Excellence C, and Jaohm in addition to 2 new pilots. Latooni's, and Katina's OGs themes are in this along with music from SRW Advance, Hero Senki, and Lord of Elemental. Also Sanger can have Gate of Magus as a pilot theme.
  • Genre Savvy: Kirk Hamill installs a special system in the Huckebein MK III that can output immense amounts of power when desperately needed. If that isn't Genre Savvy...
  • Got Me Doing It: Kyosuke has a tendency to use gambling metaphors before and during battles. It catches on with other members of the ATX Team and their allies, a phenomenon Excellen lampshades as "Kyosuke disease".
    • Hell, Ryusei's otakuness and tendency to Calling Your Attacks has rubbed off on Latooni a lot by the sequel.
    • It's gotten to a point the developers decided nearly every allied character's required to do this when performing the Gespenst Kick in the Gespenst Type-S. See for yourselfhere.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Languages
  • Guide Dang It: You can earn some major bonuses, including a couple of Disc One Nukes, by completing certain levels in certain ways. It's not so bad when the condition is "Get X kills with a certain character", but there are others: finishing the intro level for Sanger's Dygenguard without scoring any kills with the machine results in a bonus, for example. The worst, though, is probably found in OG2: in one scenario, the Hiryu Custom and three allied units are attacked by the Inspectors, complete with their endgame-boss stats. The objective is to simply escape, but if players stick around and start abusing the White Star's insane terrain bonuses to defeat them, it results in getting some of the best weapons and parts in the game fifteen scenarios in.
  • Half-Identical Twins: Raul/Fiona Gureden of Reversal gets turned into this rather than Road Cone-ing either choice.
  • Harder Than Hard: Aside from earning "Battle Masteries" to increase the overall game difficulty, an additional EX-Hard mode upon completion lets players face tougher enemies on a second run, with restricted or outright locked options for upgrading units and pilots.
  • Hero's Journey: Ryusei's storyline conforms fairly well with the Campbellian archetype.
  • Hot-Blooded: Overloaded, especially when a character's inside the Gespenst MK II Type-S.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: The Inspectors describe the Earthlings as this, as well as the Einst)
    • Though the Inspectors (well, most of them) are a bunch of arrogant hypocrites.
  • Humans Are Special: "Earthlings are a combative species that can master alien technology in a short time"...huh.
  • Humongous Combining and/or Transforming Real and Super Robots
  • I Know Mortal Kombat: Ryusei and Tenzan are recruited through a video game like the protagonist of The Last Starfighter. While Ryusei's just a bit of a newbie at piloting real robots for a while, Tenzan continues to think war is a game, even babbling about "Continuing" and "Level Grinding" to conquer the world when shot down.
  • Jerkass: Lee, also Axel, before his Noble Demon rewrite in OGs. The Machinery Children are also a bunch of unrepentant Jerkasses.
  • Lethal Chef: Primarily Leona: aside from porridge, everything else she makes is a level five biohazard. Kusuha's "health drinks" are more of a Gargle Blaster, though: they taste terrible and can knock out a charging rhino, but they work...when you regain consciousness. It even subdues Ingram.
    • Gecko tails and viper fangs; just some of the ingredients in her health drinks.
    • A subversion exists: Elzam's a damn good chef, and can consume Kusuha's health drink, and says it's GOOD; he can even list out all the ingredients used. Arado thinks so too, but he doesn't have taste buds. Lamia's knocked out cold by it, but feels great, afterwards. Speaking of Elzam, some of his dishes are hinted to taste good, unless you know what some of it is made from...then it gets way less appetizing.
  • Like Cannot Cut Like: Zanger's Colossal Blade and his Evil Twin's.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters
  • Love Redeems: How they Retcon Folka's Heel Face Turn: what the hell is this "Holy Deathmatch" again?
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The game is basically Super Robot Wars crossed over with itself.
  • Me Love You Long Time: Evidenced in the American Bullet and the Japanese Kusuha, as well the German Elzam and his late wife Cattleya Fujiwara (though according to his backstory, Elzam's around a quarter Japanese). Interestingly, this trope's also inversed, with the very Japanese Kyosuke, Masaki and Tasuku Shinguji paired up with the American Excellen, Norwegian Lune and German Leona, respectively (not that you can really tell....
  • Minmaxer's Delight: The SP Regen and Attacker traits are very nearly obligatory for all characters.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Undoubtedly Excellen, although Garnet could very well be the other, until she's Put on a Bus. Ricarla "Carla" Borgnine tries to invoke this in OG2, but is vastly overshadowed by Seolla.
    • Just those aren't enough: Aya, Lamia, Kusuha and Lune fulfill their fair share of this trope, as well. So will Aqua Centrum once the MX storyline rolls in. Hell, even Cliana Rimskaya fit in with her Seolla-sized breasts, short skirt and sleeveless outfit.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Katina's bull-seeing-red nature nearly causes this a few times in OG1. A bright bitchslap from Russel late-game seems to cure her of most of it.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: SEVERAL times in OG1, but sometimes justified: many of things the villains do to further their own ends end up being HUGELY beneficial to the Hagane and Hiryu Custom crews more then the perpetrators of said plots.
  • No Fourth Wall: At least in the localization, the Inspectors are prone to Breaking the Fourth Wall. When you beat them in a supposedly unbeatable scenario, one of the Inspectors stays silent at the predicament, then asks the gamer, "What, you want me to say anything? OK, OK. Good job". OGs adds this further in one of the "Save-Quit" dialogues, where Gilliam asks the same thing and ends up promoting Hero Senki, the game where he made his first debut. In fact, the whole Save-Quit dialogues are full of Fourth Wall breaking dialogues (including Shu lying about "saving more times will make the game more difficult!")
  • Original Generation: Trope Namer and possibly the codifying example in fiction, due to its sheer numbers.
  • Pettanko: Poor Ibis.
  • Playboy Bunny: Excellen and Garnet dress up once for the male crew's viewing pleasure. Hell, it even becomes a plot point in OG2.
  • The Power of Love: And what a power! Event-driven scenarios with Battle Couples arguably uses this to extremes.
    • In-game, the Love Spirit Command's likely the most powerful available. While it uses most of the pilot's Spirit Points, it gives them all the "major" commands at a heavily discounted cost compared to if you used each individually.
  • Psycho for Hire: Archibald, though the Machinery Children act like this, as they're "hired out" at one point for the Neo DC and the Shadow-Mirror to use, yet are STILL Ax Crazy Tyke Bomb Jerkass kids.
    • Can you really blame them? They are clones of Arado, and fit the Evil Counterpart motif.
  • Ramming Always Works: The Kurogane battleship, justified as it has a DRILL attached to its bow, not only making it a viable attack, it gives Tetsuya his Crowning Moment of Awesome in OG2.
    • The bog-standard/last-ditch melee attack used by some Gespensts is basically a mecha-sized shoulder charge. There's also the enhanced ramming Sonic Breaker attacks used by the Guarlions, Calions, Fairlions, Astelion and so on.
  • Recursive Canon: At the end of Divine Wars Ryusei buys a Gespenst model kit.
  • Relationship Values: Played straight with the gameplay: characters placed adjacent to characters they are friends with, rivals or show a degree of affection (even if it's not reciprocated) get accuracy, evasion and damage bonuses during battles.
  • Retcon: OGs, being in and of itself a Video Game Remake of the GBA games, naturally does this. To wit:
    • Units from OG1 are still playable in OG2, then carried over to OG Gaiden.
    • Several characters originally Killed Off for Real manage to stick around.
    • Axel turning from a bonafide Jerkass in OG2 to a proper Noble Demon in OGs...eventually earning himself an awesome Heel Face Turn in OG Gaiden.
  • Ridiculously Human Robot: The latest batch of W-Series androids, but Lamia's undisputed ruler of this trope.
  • Rule of Cool: The games practically run on this.
  • Self-Deprecation: Tetsuya, by counter-ramming the Shirogane, whilst commanding the Kurogane. Lee basically claims his army, etc. etc. was better and is wondering why he lost. Tetsuya cuts in with "And you lost to ME!" - Lee always treated Tetsuya as "second best", and for Lee, "second best" isn't good enough.
  • Shipper on Deck: Excellen can detect the signs of love in the atmosphere, even at one part per million. Irmgard Kazahara gets a few chances to play with this trope, too.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Pretty much Lamia's part in 2.5 Unified Wisdom (which is all you get if you only play OGs), before getting into the proper story told in OG Gaiden.
  • Shout-Out: TONS.
    • In The Inspector, the two pilots of Aguila's mech (Sol Gravilion) are Touga and Eiji with different hair colors.
      • One of Gravion's bunnies also appears in the same role in an episode.
    • The "one more hit" lines in The Inspector animated are obviously a shout out to the gameplay, where after doing numerous powerful attacks, the player still finds himself needing to execute one more attack to finish off the opposing unit. The finale lampshades it some more when the heroes split into smaller groups, where each team gangs up on an Einst doppelganger.
  • Smug Snake: Though one would expect the villains to play this trope straight (Siebel Mistel comes to mind), Original Generation throws in a few from the heroes' Federation, namely Kenneth Garret and Graien Grassman.
    • Kenneth & Graien are not particularly heroic themselves, though.
    • Not to mention Mizal Touval.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: Fernando, Alion and Maysis do not die this time around.
  • Spoiler Opening: The opening credits for The Inspectors introduce numerous new characters before their actual appearance and spoil some stuff that could easily have been saved for surprises, namely Arado, Seolla, Mai Kobayashi and Alfimi. Plus, the fact that Ratsel is Elzam and "Real Men Ride Each Other". Perhaps justified, as people most likely to watch the show are the ones who've already played the game.
  • Stealth Mentor: Man, does OG love this trope; practically every villain in OG1 follows this, most notably Sanger, Elzam, Ingram and the entire DC (though most of them don't know it).
  • Stepford Smiler: Mitsuko Isurugi from OG2 is the queen of this. Pretty much every time she's seen, she's wearing an expression that is only Technically a Smile which doesn't move or waver in the slightest, even in the anime. Plus, she speaks in a quiet, gentle manner while making deals to sell weapons to every single faction involved in a given conflict, caring about nothing but her "business chances".
  • Super Move Portrait Attack: Banpresto claimed the number of pilot cut-ins in OGs before release was one of the largest ever assembled...and they delivered, since even the most basic attacks necessitated cut-ins.
  • Theme Naming: The "classes" at the School are named after metals, such as Bronzo (bronze), Aurum (gold), and Latooni (brass).
  • This Is a Drill: The Kurogane is about ninety percent drill. The remainder? Pure awesome.
    • The second game gives the Grungust Type 3 a Drill-tipped Rocket Punch.
  • Title Drop: In the first game, Ryusei claims that Operation SRW stands for Super Robot War.
  • Troperiffic: Not unique to this sub-series, but unlike the rest of the franchise, it doesn't have the excuse of being a crossover between the Trope Maker themselves. Still, is that any reason not to use as many as humanly possible?
  • Ubermensch: Vindel sure sounds like one, what with the endless war and peace breeds complacency thing.
  • Ultimate Universe: It's mostly a distillation of previous SRW continuities, without all the crossover elements.
  • Verbal Tic: Lamia Loveless starts out with one when she first appears as a result of damage to her speech equipment. This is rendered as either a stutter in OG2 or Blind Idiot Translation.
  • Weapon of Choice: Reals can be mounted with a limited number of extra weapons used all around by other reals.
  • You Bastard: Light example: in the first game, all the things that Tenzan says he'll do are examples of what the Player can do within the games mechanics. Including the use of deliberatly dieing so as to start a mission over, with your levels gained up to the point you died carried over, thus 'grinding'.
  • You Will Be Assimilated: What the Aerogaters intended to do in OG1.
  • Zerg Rush: Mostly averted, as the enemy ratio's fairly reasonable, but at least one level in OG2 is pretty much this trope incarnate.
    • This is basically the only Einst tactic: it's even commented on by most of the characters.
  1. ↑ The fact one of them looks awfully familiar to one of the Gravion Bridge Bunnies doesn't help
  2. ↑ The Drill Inferno is based off of him headbutting Mazinger Z, and the Star-Cleaving Blade is a physical weapon rather than an energy blade, which allows the Super Robots to do a team Blade Catch, holding it in place so Heero can destroy it with pinpoint-accurate Twin Buster Rifle shots
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