Friday, June 4, 2010

Super Robot Spirit

Not many people understand what it means for me to be able to play Super Robot Wars Alpha and Alpha Gaiden.

I grew up poor. Am still not rich, but I now have the means to play Super Robot Wars - the ultimate computer game.

I first played Super Robot Wars 2, in 1998. I was in UM, and college was boring. I didn't hate it, because at least, I didn't have to watch my ass like in high school.

ALL the girls wanted to fuck the rich kids, which showed me how whore-like they are. I was not cool. I've never been cool. Some MCKK old dudes in college want to include me in their activities, because they see me as some sort of 'King of the Nerds' or some shit. I don't know. I was never a nerd. Just weird.

I come from SDAR, and SDARians, we never have any high ambitions. If we do, we immediately quash it with our laziness and disunity.

So the only thing available to me was Super Robot Wars 2.

I learned Japanese in high school - was very lazy, so I didn't get very good - and I spent all available time watching anime and researching them. So much so, that my final year thesis was an artificial intelligence system designed to teach anime literature.

So. SUper Robot Wars 2. On a fucking Gameboy. It was the cause of me failing a subject - organic chemistry - lengthening my matriculation by one semester.

By the year 2000 or thereabouts, I was asked to stay off-college, as all colleges in UM made way for girls. So I stayed at Pantai Hillpark. That was when I got my hands on Super Robot Wars Alpha - the best-selling PS1 game on Japan. OF ALL TIME.

After understanding the 'spirit commands' as well as normal kanji for move, attack, launch, heal, resupply and stats, I played that game for 10 years now.

I must have played it forwards and backwards over 20 times now. And yet, and yet, it was only this year that I managed to unlock the secret to SRX - FOUR ROBOT COMBINATION!

This unlocked the greatest attack in the game - an HTB blast that deals 7500 HP damage, which could go up to over 60,000 damage. In one attack, it even dealt over 150,000 damage to HP. One move kill, indeed.

After 10 years of playing. A FUCKING DECADE.

And yet no one can appreciate this accomplishment. I sacrificed time and even my formal education, for Super Robot Wars. I got all the songs. I read up on the series and the characters. Whenever possible, I bought the ORIGINAL DVDs of the cartoons.

To do what I have accomplished, would mean attaining the level of Super God Robot Master Custom Kai.

Alpha Gaiden was all about tactics and positioning. Using my triple motivate combo, I can get the ki-ryoku of eight robots and up to 40 pilots to a maximum of 150 - on the SECOND TURN! And if I use up ALL Donkey Buns and Window of Opportunity spirit command, it would have been on the FIRST turn.

None of you understands this, right? No one knows how difficult it was to calculate how to defeat Meigas, reducing her 71% HP in one strike plus one Assist robot.

No one understands my plans of upgrading speed - not movement - for ALL robots during the upgrade process.

Or why, using Map Weapons, I positioned certain robots in certain ways. Or the countless hours I spent making sure that the Option Parts were paired to the right robots, ensuring that at least, the slowest robot could move a minimum of 7 spaces. Plus Minovsky Drive, they can fly, too, rendering all terrain penalties void.

Why I never, EVER - until the final stage - use the top-ranked robots to fight - always using the second tier ones.

In the end, it's all a matter of positioning and timing. Knowing the limitations and strengths of all your robots.

Oh well. I'm gonna go play Yu-Gi-Oh now.