Super Robot Wars 4 is the sequel to
Super Robot Wars 3. The visuals are MUCH better, with the game engine refined to the point that every succeeding SRW uses it as a template, story writing is actually pretty good and additional gameplay mechanics introduced (parts system, manually deciding whether to counterattack during enemy turns) would stick around for future releases to ease game difficulty. As it stands,
4 is a very good game in its own right.
Unfortunately, it's considered an
Obvious Beta by Banpresto, who thought they could do way better, and considering the
Updated Rerelease version for the
Sega Saturn and
Playstation called
F/
F Final is a greatly expanded version of
4 with an enhanced plot, game engine and new
mecha series added (but at cost of some previous series being removed), it appears to be true. Also got remade into
4 Scramble on the
PlayStation, but that's been
retconned by
F/
F Final, so no worries there.
The game concerns the "Guest" invasion by the Zuvorg Alliance, and marks the end of the "
Classic Timeline".
In an unexpected twist, the entire plot of the game is adapted into the Second Super Robot Wars Original Generation.
Tropes common to this game below
- Anachronism Stew: At best, 4 is set only three months after 3, but Hathaway Noah, the son of Bright Noah, is All Grown Up! and playable. No one else seems to have aged that much to make this plausible, which just makes it very, very odd.
- Art Evolution: 4 is the first game to feature robots looking remarkably well-drawn with a more modern and less "cartoony" look, depsite it being Super-Deformed as per formula. Future games simply refined on this aspect even further.
- Canon Immigrant: Go Nagai was asked by Banpresto to create an exclusive Mazinger Z Mid-Season Upgrade for Kouji Kabuto. Mazinkaiser made its debut in F Final, and Nagai eventually gave it its own series.
- Continuity Cameo, Continuity Nod: If you've been following Hero Senki: Project Olympus, you'd recognize Gilliam Yeager, having made his debut SRW appearance, albeit a cameo, in 4. This includes the Gespenst, which is based off of Gilliam's machine, the XN Geist from the same game.
- Eleventh Hour Superpower: The ability for all of your units to be upgraded an extra 5 notches gained ten scenarios before the end of the game.
- Final Boss: Three of them for F Final - Shapiro Keats, Paptimus Scirocco and Kaworu Nagisa
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: In one incredibly iconic scene for the SRW fandom, Shinji Ikari gets "Bright Slapped" by Bright himself F. The scene plays word for word as if Shinji is Amuro Ray during the One Year War.
- Of course, Shinji's father isn't exactly known for his parenting skills.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The Fifth Angel shows up during the tail end of the game during the Earth route in a battle between the Evangelion pilots and the Mikene Empire, annihilating the latter's forces before turning on the heroes.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Treize Kushrenada and Zechs Marquise try to stop Scirocco with this at the end of the Divine Crusaders route in F Final; unfortunately, they fail. Jerid Messa does this to stop Shapiro in the Guest-Poseidal route.
- Jerid will only do this if Treize dies before doing the self-destruction himself, otherwise he ends up as a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere that you need to beat.
- Nintendo Hard: 3 was harder than this, but 4 features even more enemies with the Beam Absorb ability that completely nullifies beam-based attacks. This made it an annoyance for early gamers sticking mostly with Gundams, who are affably religious beam weapon users.
- F and F Final are actually quite manageable as long are you're not fighting original or L-Gaim units.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Although it's still a fairly crappy unit overall, the GP-01 is very, very useful for extended battles with Aura Battlers because it's got decent accuracy and a lot of ammo for its vulcans. Even though there are better units for taking down one or two Aura Battlers, they usually run out of ammo too quickly.
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