It’s impressive (yet saddens me) how an entire franchise can span 30 years and remain largely unknown on the Western front, but SRW 30 seeks to alleviate this with the first ever English release on Steam. Not the full English release on current gen consoles that we would like, but the Asian version has English language selection so it’s very playable. Still, this marks a significant step forward in the franchise. I hope that a release will one day occur that I don’t need to order from another region to enjoy this amalgation of mechanical harmony.

SRW 30 is a strategy RPG in which you mobilize your mechs on a grid, balancing different attacks to overwhelm your opponents before they do so to you. Each unit varies in strength and ability, and the same for Pilots as well. Fans of mecha anime series will gush over the sheer magnitude of inclusions here, and even though I don’t understand the language without the subtitles, I understand cool robots bashing each other, so it’s still very awesome to play. Attacks play out like those flashy battles you see in animes, and many attacks retain their signature charm from their respective sources. You get various currencies to upgrade mechs, pilots, and a new passive bonus system called AOS. It can be cumbersome at first, but very rewarding after you learn how to work everything in sync. Also a departure from the recent iterations is a world map that allows flexibility and much needed freedom with missions.

The slow paced gameplay may not be to everyone’s liking, but for those that like to fine tune units, customize their squads and loadouts as well has achieve synchronization between their units, this game can offer huge replayability as they are designed to be be played more than once. Graphically speaking, there isn’t much of an improvement from its predecessor, but the graphics aren’t the highlight for a niche product like this. It’s gameplay and the mechs, and there’s plenty of both. My enjoyment of Gundam brought me to the series with SRW X, and I’ve stuck around for the releases since. This franchise is a must for lovers of anime mecha and SRPGs, and so far this seems to be the most user-friendly iteration with plenty of explanations and tutorials.

Stay tuned for the full GamerDad Review!