Super Robots=Super Fun! If only Atlus and Banpresto could bring more iterations of this great series to the US.
In OG you take the role of one of two main characters, and progress through a story of political upheaval, civil war, and alien invasion. Through out the game you gain many diverse units of both the Super Robot and Real Robot types, and many interesting pilots with distinct stories and personalities. And it is up to you to decide which units to use and which pilots will control them. You will command your forces through battle after battle fighting more and more powerful foes, until you ultimately save Earth from certain doom. Would you expect anything less from an anime inspired strategy RPG featuring giant robots?
The gameplay in OG and indeed most of the SRT franchise is standard strategy RPG fare for the most part. You gain new pilots and units regularly, and you have the ability to upgrade them any way you wish using cash and points earned in battle. Battle is turn based and takes place on a two dimensional grid featuring many different types of terrain like; plains, roads, military complexes, water, space, etc... These terrain types have different effects on units that are on them, most beam weapons cannot fire under water for example. So on any given mission you will tune your units, choose which units to send into battle and attempt to destroy and/or defend against all enemy units in the stage. And some of the battles get VERY intense, this is by no means an easy game, but it is not a cheap one either. Your enemies do have strategies, though they are simple ones, and you had better have a strategy also or you will find your units in smoking pieces before you know it. The combat model in OG is pretty deep, you have to take into account terrain, range, ammunition, support from other units, your pilots' special abilities(similar to magic spells), combination attacks, defense, etc... If you like your combat fast and furious startegy RPGs are probably not for you, but if you are more tactical minded you will find yourself right at home in SRT.
This is a fantastic GBA game but it is over 5 years old, so there are not as many graphical bells and whistles as there are in later games. That said the visuals are great. The battle animations are dynamic and all of the sprites look good.
Sound is another area where games like this one show their age a little bit. It sounds great overall, but there is not much variety to the sound or music.
ANY SRT GAME IS A GREAT VALUE! I say this because strategy games for the most part have an inherent replay value that is not found in some other genres. This is because they are usually more customizable than other types of games, and hence you can have a different experience each time you play. Also this game features two distinct story paths, and rewards you for multiple play throughs with more secret units, weapons, and a new game plus mode where you get all of the cash and points you accumulated in previous play throughs right at the beginning(you have to complete both story paths). So if you like strategy RPGs you will be spending MANY hours playing OG if you get it, there fore it is a great value.
SRT is my favorite of all of the Japanese game franchises I have been exposed to here in Japan. I even went as far as to purchase many of the Japanese iterations of the series, which I will play with the help of the great translations found here on gamespot, and on gamefaqs. Playing them may even help me with my Japanese. It really is a shame that more of these games have not made it to the US and probably never will. Here's hoping that Banpresto and Atlus put together more OG games which can bring more giant robot strategy combat to the US.