Video Game / Super Robot Wars Gaiden

"With the world began a war that will only end with the world, and not before: that of man against nature, mind against nature, freedom against fate. History is nothing but the story of this endless struggle."

— Jules Michelet Introduction à l'histoire universelle, from the prologue of the game.

Super Robot Wars Gaiden (subtitled as Masou Kishin: The Lord of Elemental) is the first Original Generation game EVER. That said, it was released on the Super Famicom in 1996, featuring some of the best 16-bit visuals ever, mecha drawn to scale (the first SRW to avert the Super-Deformed formula), and had a storyline that made Super Robot Wars 4 look like Fan Fiction. Suffice to say, this is the best Super Robot Wars installment on the console.

The story of The Lord of Elemental tells solely on the origins of the entire Masou Kishin cast, and the genesis of the long feud between Masaki Andoh and Shu Shirakawa. The plot is split into two parts: "Part 1" occurs prior to the events of Super Robot Wars 2, while "Part 2" takes place following the end of Super Robot Wars 4. Also, this was the first SRW that could have been released for localization, but it's rather racy, risque dialogue sadly made this a No Export for You. It's also the first SRW to incorporate voice acting, the first to use an angle view of the scenario map at 45° (commonly seen in all SRWs post-The Lord of Elemental) and the only series where a unit's elevation and the direction it is facing at the end of its turn are important for combat calculations.

An Updated Re-release of The Lord of Elemental for the Nintendo DS was released in 2010, under the heading Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Masou Kishin - The Lord of Elemental, linking the game up with the rest of the Super Robot Wars: Original Generation series. A PlayStation Portable sequel entitled Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Masou Kishin II - Revelation of Evil God was released on January 12, 2012. To mark the 15th anniversary of the Masou Kishin series, a new Updated Re-release of The Lord of Elemental was bundled with Revelation of Evil God, complete with enhanced visuals and extended voice acting.

Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Masou Kishin III - Pride of Justice was released on August 22, 2013 in a simultaneous PlayStation 3 and Play Station Vita launch and is the sequel to Revelation of Evil God. Finally, in May 2014, Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Masou Kishin F - Coffin of the End was announced for the PlayStation 3, and is the final installment to the Masou Kishin series.

Take note that although characters from the main Original Generation continuity do appear in La Gias via the Super Robot Wars EX scenarios of the Second Original Generation, they are not considered part of the Masou Kishin series.

Additionally, a Fan Translation of The Lord of Elemental on the Super Famicom has been released, allowing an English language experience for the beginning of Masaki's tale.

Chronological Releases:

• Super Robot Taisen Gaiden: Masou Kishin - The Lord of Elemental (received remake under Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Masou Kishin - The Lord of Elemental)
• Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Masou Kishin II - Revelation of Evil God
• Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Masou Kishin III - Pride of Justice
• Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Masou Kishin F - Coffin of the End

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Tropes common to the Masou Kishin series are:

• Alternate Company Equivalent: After cutting their deal with Banpresto, developer WinkySoft released Seireiki Rayblade, which is very similar to The Lord of Elemental and full of Captain Ersatzs.
  • Coffin of the End turns this into a full circle as it features Rayblade as one of the controllable units.
• Background Music Override: For its time, averted in the original game; after you exit the battle scene, the music will revert back to the map theme instead of continuing to play in the map, making the awesome battle themes looked underused and cut out a lot. Further remakes like in the DS version and PSP version puts the feature back similarly to other Super Robot Wars games, and the translation patch goes an extra mile to add an option to let the battle music continue instead of playing back the map music in the Super Famicom version.
• Bag of Spilling: Several units from Part 1 lose their upgrades after the Time Skip to Part 2.
• Beneath the Earth: La Gias; however, it's implied the subterranean world is simply a separate, magical dimension rather than being set in the Earth's core.
• The Cameo: Ryusei Date appears in the DS rerelease when Masaki recalls the events in Original Generation between Part 1 and 2, more specifically the part at the beginning of the first game where he confronts Shu for the first time at Antarctica.
• Cerebus Syndrome: In the beginning of Part 1, everything was more or less a lighthearted Super Robot show with Masaki learning the ropes about living in La Gias and being a respected pilot... until Shu declares his defection to Shiva Volkruss, then serious shits start happening one by one: Zeoroot is killed by Shu. Lubikka appeared and not only caused grief to Tytti and killed Ricardo, his reappearance caused a stir within the Langran senators that were against calling surface dwellers, and the debate from within is used by the Volkruss cult and Shutedonias Alliance to blow up Langran and killed a lot of people... and Masaki was helpless to stop all those.
• Code Name: Each Elemental Lord (Masou Kishin)/Elemental Machine (Masouki) is given one to protect their true names. This is in order to better shield them from magic.
• Combination Attack: Revelation Of Evil God gives some of these as attack options among the Heralds and their allies, such as Masaki-Lune Zoldark, Hwang Yang Long-Tytti Noorbuck and Mio Sasuga-Presia Zenosakis. Unfortuately, Pride of Justice removes these, but gives them to minor characters, such as the Sandriff twins and between Gido, Simone Culian and Rebecca Turner.
• Copy Protection: The DS rerelease has A LOT of intentional bugs should the player use a pirated copy. First, the game may not run at all. Get past that, then Mooks start One Hit Killing allied units; get past that, then Shu will always One-Hit Kill units when he's required to lower Hit Points to critical; get past that...well, the game may finally run normally, except the music and everything is in 16-bit quality rather than what the DS offers.
  • Subverted when players STILL found a way around, as these bugs are only triggered when the game detects it's being played on an R4 cartridge (used to store ROMS). It's incapable of detecting it if played on an emulator, thus the bugs never occur.
• Downer Beginning, Wham Episode: Promotional materials reveal Coffin of the End begins with La Gias in near ruins and all the Elemental Lords are missing. Of the four Heralds, only Tytti is present, and is relegated to using an Elemental Machine. Shu, on the other hand, is a new battleship captain, as the same force that has devastated La Gias has rendered the Neo Granzon inoperable.
• Downer Ending: Part 1 ends with the Kingdom of Langran nearly destroyed, King Alzarl and one of the Heralds, Ricardo Silvera, are dead and the supposed "culprit" Shu leaves to the surface world to help Bian Zoldark with his impending revolution. Masaki leaves La Gias in pursuit of his nemesis, leaving Langran exposed to enemy occupation from opposing nations, although Yang Long and Tytti stayed behind to defend the place and at least succeeded in a degree, since it's still standing for the events at Super Robot Wars EX, which would open up a new can of problems.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: The original pilot of the Diablo, Maddok, is dead after Part 1; the player only finds out about this in Part 2. Like Ricardo, it is because in EX, Mio starts out in the vacant Diablo. The Second Original Generation makes a reference that he died fighting in defense of Langran.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Actually a rectangular relation: Earth beats Water, which beats Fire, which beats Wind, which beats Earth. Fire-Earth and Wind-Water are neutral to each other.
• Foregone Conclusion: The Downer Ending of Part 1 had already been known, since the games in the "Classic Timeline" revealed this ahead before the release of The Lord of Elemental.
• Gaiden Game: On the face of it, Part 1 effectively serves as the canon prequel to the Classic Timeline, Super Robot Wars Alpha and Original Generation games. Since Shu is defeated and killed in all these continuities, once he comes Back from the Dead to rebel against Shiva Volkruss, it sets up the events of Part 2.
• Foreshadowing: Zash's sister Remia have been mentioned by Kirkus in his dying breath, way before they even thought of making a sequel to this sub-series.
  • The final boss of Coffin of the End falls into the Cross Gate which connects to Earth.
• Hidden Depths: What was lacking in EX in personality and development is improved here, though it largely concerns Masaki and Shu, who were mostly enigmatic during their run in the Classic Timeline. When it's included as part of "OG Saga", further refining is made.
  • The Lord of Elemental Part 1: Back-story for Tytti, including her tragic love life with Ricardo, while hinting at relations between Yang Long and Saphine Grace.
  • The Lord of Elemental Part 2: Further explores Masaki's primary Love Interest Wendy Rasm Iknart (including the Love Triangle involving Lune), along with the repercussions of Shu's resurrection from EX.
  • Revelation of Evil God: Mio taking more responsibility as Ricardo's replacement, Presia's dark secret regarding her immortality and the culmination of the Yang Long-Saphine relationship by introducing Yang Long's Love Interest Elshine Grace. Additionally, the concept of "Full Possession", a one-time event in Part 1, is elaborated.
  • Pride of Justice: Elaborates further on the other Elemental Lords' Possession skills, by giving Yang Long an event where he unlocks his own Full Possession. Elan Zenosakis, an enigmatic enemy introduced in Revelation of Evil God also receives a much better fleshing by getting his own route, his own sympathetic group of followers and Full Possession. In another route, Tytti gets a revisit of her tragic love life and her resolve to ensure it doesn't end tragically becomes the key to unlock her Full Possession. The last route is dedicated to flesh out Fang Zan Bisias, one of Masaki's rivals in La Gias, by delving into his past. Oh and Mio unlocks her own Full Possession on the way.
• Mad Scientist: Zet Laas Blakio
• The Magic Goes Away: At the end of Coffin of the End, all of the prana in the world has vanished and Cybuster isn't as fast as it used to be.
• Magitek: All Humongous Mecha manufactured in La Gias are powered by prana
• Multinational Team: Nearly every surface dweller caters to a different nation or area - Japan (Masaki, Mio), China (Yang Long), Finland (Tytti), Brazil (Ricardo), Scandinavia^note Likely Iceland or Norway (Lune), France (Simone), Russia (Gennacy Ivanov Kozireh), United States (Rebecca), the Middle East (Ahmed Hamdi), Thailand (Tian), an unnamed African country (Damascus).
• Multiple Endings: Every game has branches and more than two endings to achieve with the exception of Coffin of the Final.
• Nintendo Hard: Pride of Justice by a longshot (though it's mostly the first 15 scenarios or so). It's so bad that players in Japan returned the game out of frustration.
  • This was apparently intentional: Winkysoft admitted to inflating enemy HP and damage numbers to make the game harder than it was supposed to be, in order to force players to purchase the Downloadable Content scenarios, which hands powerful, rare equippable parts and large amounts of credits upon completion.
• Original Generation: Although not the Trope Namer, it's the Ur-Example in the video game medium.
• Red Baron: "Sword Saint" Shumel Heul
• Red Herring: Ever since this game, the prophecy of the demons that will invade La Gias has been told. Many people would think it's Volkruss, the evil God... but no. It's the Giants and the Kadoam Hakam, who only reared its head at Coffin of the End
• Shout-Out
  • In the Nintendo DS rerelease, eventually◊ Tytti declares lies that she's 17 years old...
  Saphine Grace: "Oi oi..."
  • In Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden, if Mio performs the Zamzeed's "Chou Shin Dou Ken", there's a chance her battle dialogue is this.
  Mio: "ATATATATATATATATATATATA!!!!! You're already dead...JUST KIDDING!"
  • In Revelation of Evil God, one of Ricardo's first lessons is to teach Mio how to throw a proper punch. The Zamzeed's new "Chou Dokyu Shin Dou Ken" attack looks similar to Raoh's "Defiant Fist To Heaven" pose.
  • Some of Mio's intermission dialogue in the Second Original Generation makes references to a "talking, well-made robot cat", wondering where its pocket is. Later, she'll ask whether "palm tress will fall over or the pool slides open" and reference Gaia Savers, another Banpresto-developed Massively Multiplayer Crossover as "The Hero's Greatest Strategies guys".
  • If the player upgrade's the Zamzeed while he's around until it has the Chou Shin Dou Ken, Ricardo's battle cry would be "ORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!!"
  • Lune sharing the same voice actor as Allenby may be a loose one to Mobile Fighter G Gundam, seeing as that series and the Lune's Valsione are powered by very similar systems.
• The Unexpected: Players suspected Amara from the Second Original Generation wasn't Killed Off for Real, on account of No Body Left Behind. The majority assumed the character would reappear in an Orignal Generation sequel, but no one suspected a jump into the Masou Kishin plot via Coffin of the End.
• Updated Re-release: For the DS. The majority of the plot is kept, with only a few changes made to mesh it better with Original Generation continuity.
  • Compilation Re-release: The Playstation Portable rerelease, bundled with Revelation of Evil God
• Video Game Caring Potential: From Revelation of Evil God onwards, if characters are healed by an allied character in a unit with the "Repair" ability, they will thank them.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Beginning with Revelation of Evil God, if the player uses a MAP Weapon that has no Friendly Fireproof and hits an allied unit (e.g: Granveil's "Megiddo Flame", Gaddeath's "Kelvin Blizzard" or Zamzeed's "Resonance Quake"), said unit's pilot will complain about being hit with friendly fire.
  • A minor terrorist in the first part of Masou Kishin, named Gaspar, delivers one to Masaki when he started killing his allies, both of them having cases of Retirony, hammering down to Masaki that War Is Hell and despite being marked as terrorists, these Shutedonians were Punch Clock Villains that had their own lives.

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