Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier Reviewed

Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier for the Nintendo DS. Developer: Monolith Soft, Publisher Atlus

Reviewed by SeanNOLA
In most forms of media, be it film, television, poetry or sculpture, it is easy to find a wealth of self-reference and parody.  With video games, however, we find ourselves celebrating these occasional 4th-wall deconstructivists for their rare ingenuity among an endless sea of titles that take themselves far too seriously.  This is the case in with Super Robot Taisen Original Generations Saga : Endless Frontier.  The 432nd Super Robot Wars game (by my count), and the 3rd entry into the Original Generations sub-series follows all of the irritating tropes that plague traditional Japanese RPGs, but does so in an irreverently campy and charming way.

The story follows Haken Browning, a cowboy captain of a clan of pirates, and his sidekick Ashen, a busty, emotionless android who is replaced by a scantily-clad airhead whenever she enters her powerful “overdrive” mode.  During their travels, they befriend a harem of cartoonishly bosomed anime stereotypes.  From the cat girl to the aggressive princess, the cast is all here.  Once everyone is assembled, they set out to discover the mysterious purpose behind the magical crystals that have been taking over their world.  

The overarching story is tremendously generic, and plays out as if it were pulled directly from some Internet fan fiction.  The pot of gold lies in the writers’ awareness of just how vanilla the plot was, and adjusted the characters’ personalities accordingly.  Haken spends more time concerned with his travelling companions’ bust sizes rather than the forgettable task at hand, and the other characters give performances that are even more over the top than your average JRPG (which is saying something).  The crucial flaw in the game’s parody is that the localization feels unfinished.  Although all the text dialogue is well translated and localized, the voice dialogue remains untouched by English hands.  This becomes irritating, as the characters will converse with one another before and after every battle, and it feels as though the player is missing out on a big chunk of the story.  

Endless Frontier‘s mechanics are fairly solid and deceptively addicting.  The over world is standard JRPG fair: traverse the world map with Pokémon-inspired sprites and confront a random encounter every 10 steps, but the battle system is actually a great deal of fun.  The visuals match Haken’s predisposition with his party’s bodies, forgoing fancy graphics on the over world in favor of nice, hand drawn sprites for battles and dialogue sequences when they can be properly oogled.  Fans of previous Super Robot games will find themselves feeling like a fish out of water, as the developers, Monolith, have replaced the traditional strategic game play of previous Super Robot games with the flashier, combat-oriented battle system they engineered for NamcoXCapcom.  Attacks are dealt simply by pressing the A button and watching as a combo is carried out.  At any time during a combo, you can press the A button again to initiate another attack or have a partner attack for you, but the timing is key, as factors such as how high in the air or how many hits have been received greatly affect the amount of damage done.  The system is fast-paced and fun, which makes those random encounters bearable, however the lack of a proper tutorial makes it difficult to get into for new-comers.

If you are an unwavering fan of Japanese RPGs, then you really should be playing this game.  Be warned that the sophomoric humor can be groan-worthy, and is definitely not for everyone, but old fans that have found themselves jaded by the tidal wave of regurgitated trope games might take a look.  Endless Frontier may be the breath of fresh air they have been looking for.

About Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

40 comments

  1. Man, the reviews on this site rock! Congrats SeanNOLA for making it to the big time.

  2. Whats this business about unlockables with a game in the GBA slot?

  3. boobs and bots? what not to love about this game?

  4. PartyinmyPants

    Is this going for $30, I assume?

  5. Are boob implants big in Japan? Just curious cause they seem to have an obsession with large breasts.

  6. NOLA, great job. You seem to write in Deagle’s and Tide’s wordy but enjoyable style.

    You should change the name to ‘three smart dudes write and think about games’.

  7. Cool looking graphics; if only I could stomach RPGs.

  8. Looks cool, I will pick this up eventually.

  9. Id like to be a “Front Attacker” on that anime girl 😉

  10. A game with cartoon girls with big boobs, how original.

  11. So the combat uses one button but its complex. I don’t understand.

  12. A $19.99 game for me. DS RPGs just cant compare to the console epics.

  13. $35. But I did find it for $28 shipped.

  14. Why have I not heard of the Super Robot Wars series?

  15. Good review. How the length of the game?

  16. No mention of Xenogears mechs=fail.

  17. Will, how could they? Blue Dragon was on multiple disks. Thats a shit-ton of data, that the DS cant handle.

    Just take DS games for what they are.

  18. If you own either of the Original Saga games for Game Boy Advance, you can pop it in the GBA slot and get an exclusive item at the start of the game. From what I understand, you can only get one, so there is no bonus for having all three games. I couldn’t try it, because I could not find a copy of the GBA games.

  19. Don’t feel bad I didn’t before this review either.

  20. The series has been around for eons in Japan, but only the 3 Original Saga games have made it to the US. Each game has a collection of Mecha from various Bandai-owned or sponsored titles, such as Gundam and Evangalion, but due to those properties being licensed by so many different companies in the west, making a profit on these games would be impossible. The OG games take out the licensed robots in favor of creating new IP to circumvent the problem (although Endless Saga includes 2 characters from NamcoXCapcom as well as KOS-MOS from Xenosaga). Hope that clears things up!

  21. So this is out already?

  22. The Gay Dracula

    Tigers with little red hats are full of win.

  23. Who publisher these and on what platforms. I’m going to go looking!

  24. Nathan Woodcock

    it sounds like it’s about the timing.

  25. thanks you kind sir.

  26. Great review!

  27. Seems like a decent JRPG.

  28. Care to share?

  29. I ordered this from Amazon, and just got it today. I cant wait to get home. perfect timing.

  30. Damn this game looks weird.

  31. Makes me want to dive back into Xenogears.

  32. $35? That blows!

  33. Nice review. Cant wait for a price drop.

  34. Sounds wonderfully weird.

  35. …and thats exactly what I’m going to do!

  36. Last Starfighter

    I picked this up last week. I need more time to play it beyond the daily commute and toilet time.

  37. Looks very fun and a game I’d like but $35 is too much for me right now. There’s a bunch of $20 360 and DS games I need to catch up on first.

  38. Cowboy Pirate? Not bad FATlus, not bad.

  39. Sounds like a good buy, this review sold me.