Tear Jerker / Super Robot Wars 30

WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.

• With how much extra work Akane puts into making several Ghoulgilas on top of a Devadadan as opposed to just 1 kaiju per fight like in the original source, it becomes kinda sad for those who know what happens to her in the anime. Despite all the extra effort she is putting in to making kaiju, Alexis is just using her, and ultimately disposes of her by turning her into a battery to power himself up.
  • This is made worse by the mission "Mother's Awakening", which features the debut of Anonymous, a Kaiju born of the deepest depths of Akane's hate and despair. In canon, just creating it lead to her burning out entirely from emotional drain. Here, Alexis has her create four of them.
• One of the defeat quotes given by generic Zanscare Soldiers is "Please don't send me to the guillotine!" Similar to Super Robot Wars X, it's established that the protagonists aren't killing their enemies unless it was completely unavoidable (and usually only to people who had it coming). Unfortunately, 30 makes sure to remind you that no matter what mercy is shown, the Zanscare Empire will not tolerate failure.
• The mission introducing Build Tiger and Shadow-Maru is quite rough. The Build Team find themselves unable to combine into Build Tiger and become depressed by their failures. Even more, Shadow-Maru is hunting down his old friend Kagerou, who is desperately trying to keep his memories intact and not be reformatted. Not helping things for poor Kagerou is Akane trying to manipulate him and Ken Shinjo, the creator of the Brave Police-type Super-AI, using him to further his goals of claiming Super-AI don't need emotions and turning him into a shrieking lunatic. Kagerou is able to fight the obedience chip and inspire the Build Team to transform into Build Tiger at long last and be able to die as himself as our heroes are forced to cut him down.
• Completing Ryoma's recruitment mission goes straight to providing the monstrous Shin Getter Dragon. However, there is a price to getting such a powerful unit so early. Hayato and Benkei are out of commission and need to recuperate, so Ryoma pilots the machine solo with Shin Getter Dragon missing a good chunk of its abilities. While Ryoma is still is as Hot-Blooded as ever, there are some sobering moments in battle cutscenes where he mentions missing his companions.
• Amuro's life hasn't ever been great, but by virtue of this game's inclusion of Narrative and his unexpected survival of the Axis Shock, we're given another dive into his suffering. For starters, Amuro comments on how he had always felt a heavy guilt over being the Federation's "Subject Zero" Newtype in the One Year War, as he believes his performance and fame played a big part in the Newtype and Cyber-Newtype experiments that were carried on down the line. He regrets how he was unable to do anything about it despite the number of circumstances stopping him from doing so.
  • Later on, we discover the reasons he doesn't have his Nu Gundam at disposal, nor at full power once he finally receives it: First being the Federation's ban on Psycho-technology following the Axis Shock and the Laplace's Box Incident, naturally, but then it turns out that the Nu Gundam was stolen alongside the Zeta by the Zanscare to research their tech and forward the development of the Angel Halo. And while the Zeta's Biosensor remained intact, the Nu's Psychoframe was stripped down out of fear of it overloading again and for use in the Angel Halo itself. Upon learning this, though in separate occasions, Amuro is clearly distressed.
• Recruiting Kamille leads the team to find that after his mind-frying during the climax of his battle with Scirocco, Kamille's been brought and 'treated' at a specific location: The Augusta Newtype Labs, the same place where experiments and indoctrinations on Newtypes and Cyber-Newtypes are commonly carried out (Rosamia, Marida Cruz and Rita being three of its most well-known subjects) and Newtype-oriented Mobile Suits and weapons were constantly being developed prior to the opening of Laplace's Box. When Amuro finally finds him alongside Fa, he's not only panicking from the occurring battle outside, but the sight of Amuro (whom he believed to have died in the Axis Shock), his Newtype sensitivity and the still fragile state of mind causes him to nearly mentally fry himself yet again by allowing all of the accumulated psychic readings and the haunting souls from the lab to enter and overload him. It takes Amuro and Fa's constant calls - as well as the sensing of Jona's pressure (which he skins to a bird struggling for survival) - to bring him back to a relative state of normalcy. Even so, the following events make it clear he's not entirely recuperated.
• Ryoma and Koji's confronting Char over his actions in the game's version of Char's Counterattack that took place in the backstory. Both are clearly angered by Char still being alive and how he nearly wiped out humanity on Earth, feeling quite betrayed as they were allies during the Gryps War and more importantly how it lead to Amuro's death as well. Though the latter turns up alive very quickly enough, it goes to show how close Ryoma and Koji are to Amuro much like in T and how disappointed they are in Char as a whole over what he did. And if Kamille is recruited after, his first reaction upon meeting his former mentor is yell his full name and deck him in the face, feeling betrayed that Char would stoop so low after Kamille's mental breakdown.
• After the battle recruiting Cephiro's Magic Knights, should Masaki be recruited prior, he and the protagonist have a small dialogue discussing isekai adventures, and how it's not exactly how the stories goes. When Masaki says that he has 'an idea of what they're in for', he speaks from experience from the first half of the first Masou Kishin game- a nasty little foreshadowing of the plot of Rayearth, and how it affects the protagonists.
  • Leading off the above, The season one finale of Rayearth is as tear jerking as it was in Super Robot Wars T. If Masaki is in the party and he fights Zagato, he actually begs Zagato to tell him what is happening, even offering to help. Of course, Emeraude's real plight isn't something he can help with, so Zagato sadly refuses to elaborate. Even sadder is that Ogami and Kusuha have an idea of why Zagato is fighting so determinedly and he still refuses to let them help.
  • With the DLC, if Gemini and Shinjiro were recruited beforehand, then after the battle ends the two confess that the Sakura Wars characters realized from the start the truth about Zagato's motives and Emeraude's true reasons for summoning the Magic Knights, but couldn't bring themselves to tell anyone else. Ogami sadly admits that even if they did, it likely wouldn't have changed much. It's implied that the Newtypes were able to sense what was going on as well.
• The ending of "The Lion Revived -PHOENIX-" hits Sudden Downer Ending here. GGG is saved from the Conquering King's thrall and back on Earth. Everything should be great, right? Sadly things go From Bad to Worse: a mysterious explosion caused by the prototype Galeoran Pliers causes Sakura to be shunted into a wormhole, the Silverion Crusher is too badly damaged to be used again and the other Super AI have their cores too damaged and can't be awoken until they can be repaired.
• Deckerd's defeat and kidnapping is plenty troubling as it is in canon with Yuta helplessly watching as Deckard is trashed before being kidnapped by Victim. But the real kicker here is that even Ernie, one of the biggest mecha otaku in the Dreikruez, grimly acknowleges that the staple Dying to Be Replaced trope of many Merchandise-Driven mecha shows to showcase a new robot cannot mitigate the sorrow of losing a dear friend like Deckerd.
  • Next to that, there's also a reminder that this event is the next mandatory event after the deaths of Zagato and Emeraude. And in context of this game, Hikaru has been entrusted by her best friend/schoolmate, Yuta's sister Kurumi, to take good care of Yuta in her absence. Seeing all those trauma hammered on Yuta right after she got hers and she couldn't do anything to protect either Yuta or Deckerd just made Hikaru feel so powerless that she's reduced to tearfully saying that she's so sorry.
  • Hyoma is also noticeably affected by the event, as it reminds him all too well of the tragic fate of his old rival Garuda.
  • Hyoma gets hit with another one at the end of the Dreikreuz's fight with Eva as he stumbles upon the last Black Chieftain loyal to them escorting Eva and Neuber to their self-imposed permanent Cryo-Sleep and has a surprisingly somber discussion where Hyoma offers to let him join up only for the Black Chieftain to spurn it in favor of watching over Eva and Neuber's "grave" until he runs out of fuel, lamenting that it would have been nice to work for Yuta if only he hadn't been so evil. He also requests a name other than the generic model type he is from Hyoma, resulting in him being named "Garu" in honor of Garuda.
    "Garu": Hang in there Dreikreuz... Don't lose to any of those other losers. Guess...I'll get some shuteye too... Maybe dream about my mom or somethin'...
• No matter the route, Caruleum's apparent fate in the ending is a sad affair.
  • In the normal ending, Caruleum is cut down by Magister for having turned against him, mere moments after learning he's actually Magister's clone. Az/Edge and the rest of the party are suitably horrified as poor Caruleum dies in the throes of a Heroic BSoD from the revelation.
  • In the IF ending where he is recruited, Caruleum is also defeated by Magister for his Heel–Face Turn. However, Caruleum gets a chance to make his death count by destroying Magister's fake earth and cutting off his regeneration. He spends his final moments hoping for the victory of the Dreikruez, and thanking them for giving him the chance to find his own truth.
  • The IF ending where Caruleum isn't recruited manages to be even worse than either of the above. Caruleum manages to survive the battle with Magister, only to then take control of Magister's mech and force Dreikreuz to kill him, both to prove that they have the strength to forge a new future for the planet he's grown to love, and to permanently remove all traces of the Quaestors from the universe. After the battle ends and everyone realizes Caruleum's true motives, after returning to Earth Hikaru is devastated, and while Van remains stoic as he solemnly commends Caruleum for sticking to the choice he made to the very end, its clear that he's not happy about how things ended either.
    • Eventually subverted as he is revealed to be still alive in the Expansion. Regardless how he died before.
• In the Golden Ending, as everyone says their goodbyes, we see Tekkadan being sent off back to their world. As they do, Kamille inwardly prays that they don’t die. Unless McGillis learned the right lessons and Orga understands what the Dreikruez were, they just might have gone back to their Downer Ending.