YMMV / Super Robot Wars L

• Anticlimax Boss: While Big Gold is a Fragile Speedster, unlike some Mooks, the party has exceptionally easy means to bypass her high evasion stats (such as the "Strike" Spirit Command^note Gain 100% accuracy for one turn). Cue Big Gold being taken down with about four strong attacks, whereas other bosses take twice as much.
• Awesome Music:
  • New remixes of "Last Impression" and "Triangular" are just some of the examples. The in-game rendition of "Kitei no Tsurugi" is generally said to be much better than the actual song, although "Proud" takes this up a notch; its rendition in L doesn't disappoint.
  • "Aimo", "Lion", and "Northern Cross", "Tori No Uta", remade versions of "Fire Wars", "Mazin Kenzan" and "Ignited"; it's safe to say there's a ton of great music in L, so much that some fans complained about the quality of the same tracks heard in the Second Super Robot Wars Z duology and compare it to this game's version.
• Demonic Spiders: Regulus Alpha; these units come with Hit Points worthy of a mini-boss, a barrier, potent short-ranged attacks and a tendency to make good use of their "Support Defense"^note Pilot can provide defensive support to an adjacent ally and "Combo Attack"^note Pilot can attack both units in a partner squad; at higher levels, target additional squads pilot abilities. Some of the levels in the game are positively swarming with them
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Let's put it this way - if any flaws of L is mentioned, it's likely the fact that Yuunagi Graife is more interesting than Ichitaka, and should've been the protagonist of the game, or at the very least, a selectable protagonist.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "SRW Lazy", a derogatory moniker used after the game's announcement due to the number of rehashed series from previous Nintendo DS SRWs and several "Filler" series. Of course, this is before players discover returning series receive tweaked and/or brand new animations to match their return.
  • "SRW Lesbians", due to the various shows featuring them in L.
• Funny Moments: Misato Katsuragi's car, of all things, gets a map sprite cameo in the first Rebuild of Evangelion scenario.
• Game-Breaker: See entries here
• Harsher in Hindsight: When this game came out everyone was annoyed that Rebuild 2.0's ending was cut, with the fans complaining they wanted badass god powered Shinji. Then 3.0 came out revealing that god powered Shinji is a bad thing, and the near 3rd Impact wasn't something that could be easily written off. People suspect the staff had advance notice on this.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Stella and Sting's conversation if the Stella secret was obtained. After defeating Sting in the Destroy Gundam, Stella calls out to him and Sting goes back to normal for a brief moment and is happy that Stella's block word "die" no longer affects her and that she is now a normal girl. Stella pleads Sting to live but he resigns himself to his fate and does not want to leave Auel alone in the afterlife.
  • Shinn's dialogue with Rey during the Battle of Messiah, after learning that he is a clone of Rau Le Creuset:
  Rey: Shinn...if only you joined us...
  Shinn: Rey! You cared about me, was that because of who you once was?
  Rey: ......
  Shinn: That's not true, is it? You did that of your own will, didn't you?
  Rey: It was...
  Shinn: To me, you're not some Rau Le Creuset! You are Rey Za Burrel, my...friend!
  Rey: ...! Shinn...but my...my destiny!
  Shinn: Come then, Rey! If you're bounded by your destiny...then I'll cleave it for you!
  • The dialogue between Heero and Rey also count:
  Heero: You're not following orders, but fighting for the one that you want to protect. However... What can you gain at the end of this battle?
  Rey: I am less than human, and I can only live a miserable existence like this. To protect Gil, I'm willing to give my life.
  Heero: I was once just a killing machine that only knows how to follow orders. Suppressing my feelings and telling myself that life is cheap. However, human life is not cheap! Whether it's my life, or yours!
• Hilarious in Hindsight: When Dearka and Yzak get their Duel and Buster Gundam back, Heine comments how they are pretty much antiques compared to the newer Mobile Suits, given that the ZAKU Warrior's exceed the basic performance of the GAT-X suits. In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, Yzak and Dearka get upgraded versions of the Duel and Buster respectively that use the ZAKU Warrior's cockpit controls and even equipped with METEOR units. Even with all these upgrades, Yzak still considers the machines "ancient" given that they were designed after the Duel and Buster.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Players will feel this when using Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger, particularly Mazinger Z which has not had its sprites changed since Super Robot Wars Judgment on the Game Boy Advance. Great Mazinger got an overhaul in its animations but its Thunder Break and Breast Burn attack still uses the assets from Judgment. It does not help Mazinger Z's case where it joins in Stage 2 while Mazinkaiser does not join until Stage 31. As for Great Mazinger, the "True" Great Mazinger has its sprites completely changed for the Nintendo DS where the re-used GBA assets are replaced with modernized animations.
• Magnificent Bastard: Gilbert Durandal, Grace O'Connor and Proist
• Moment of Awesome: At the end of the penultimate, the Big Bad tries to wipe LOTUS out by shooting them with a BFG from the moon. How do our heroes survive? By having the Rushbird absorb all the energy and transfer it to the Straybird, who uses it to create an "Imaginary Road" large enough to teleport everyone directly to the moon.
  • Shinn Asuka delivering the kill shot on Lord Djibril.
  • The Evas protecting Linebarrel and the other Machinas from the gravity waves using their A.T. Fields, allowing them to activate the Final Phase.
  • Nagumo Ichitaka teaming up with Daiya Tsuwabuki to destroy Proist and her Chou Maryu Dvorak in Scenario 24.
  • The final Macross Frontier scenario, with the background music shuffling every turn, ending with a long Combination Attack.
• Never Live It Down: Averted; it seems the developers, at least, finally forgave Lunamaria Hawke for missing that shuttle for the umpteenth time in Massive Multiplayer Crossovers. Her base accuracy is on par with most of the other Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny characters and her "Strike" Spirit Command doesn't cost more than usual and is unlocked early.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Continuing the trend from K, the cast of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny is now MUCH more likable.
    • The Archangel team covers the Minerva team while they escape from Orb instead of attacking both sides like in the show.
    • Kira helps Shinn save Stella in Berlin instead of killing her, resulting in a drastically different version of Operation Angel Down.
    • Albeit she doesn't get as much focus as she did in K, Cagalli still becomes more proactive here, fighting together with Kira in the Strike Rouge and joining forces with the heroes to find Djibril without bringing Orb down together with him. And once again, while she canonically gives the Akatsuki to Mu, there is nothing stopping the player from giving it back to her.
    • Shinn received quite a bit of Character Development throughout the story, and ultimately decided to reject the Destiny Plan and stay with the heroes instead of being turned into Durandal's pawn by Rey. The same applies to the Minerva crew as a whole, as they also reject it, with Luna and Talia in particular getting to explain their reasons. Rey is the only character to ever be faced as an enemy, and he can be brought back afterwards anyway.
    • Rey pulls a Shut Up, Kirk! when Kira gave him the speech that broke him in the show, but is ultimately talked down by Shinn, his best friend, who convinced him that he is not Rau Le Creuset, but Rey Za Burrel, his best friend.
    • Following the example from K, Heine and Meer are Spared by the Adaptation and given extra Character Development. Heine in particular joins early and gets lots of interactions with the heroes.
    • Even Durandal, the Big Bad of the series, is ultimately convinced by the heroes that humanity is capable of deciding its own future, and even pulled a Heroic Sacrifice by ramming the Messiah fortress into the moon, helping the heroes reach Big Gold and Neos Gold.
  • Mechanics wise, the "Partner Battle" system is re-balanced and re-tooled than its use from Super Robot Wars K, offering the ability to switch partners on the battlefield and extra options for defensive and offensive actions, while removing increased Will gains and reducing the ability to destroy everything via the "Combo Attack" pilot skill for solo units.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The series staple of equipable parts to further tune units is removed in favor of bonuses from the "Partner Battle" system, forcing players to use the system. Even though the majority hated the system in K, despite it being fixed in L, some players still wanted parts.
  • The system also makes it a nuisance in that players are required to set up partner units to see allied units on the deployment list before the start of a scenario, even if the player is planning on sending some out as solo units. Further complications arise if players forget what their previous match-ups with allied units were, especially when new units enter the party or route splits occur.
  • Moreover, if a unit is story-mandatory for a scenario, it can no longer be deployed with a partner and has to be re-assigned a partner to be used in the next scenario, as if freshly recruited. Players HAVE to check the partner setup screen after every single scenario because of that.
  • Realistic or not, disabling "Dynamic Kills" until in-game events on bosses irked some players. Some bosses, like those from the Jama Kingdom, don't even get a Dynamic Kill animation.
• Tear Jerker: Sting's death is probably one of the saddest moments in the entire game if you unlocked Stella. Unlike in the show, he survives the destruction of his machine at Heaven's Base and pilots another Destroy Gundam during the attack on Requiem. If Stella is present, she calls out to Sting, begging him to stop fighting. But Sting already had his memories wiped at that point, and no longer even remembers Stella. After his Destroy Gundam is downed, Sting finally comes back to his senses. Stella begs him not to die, and Sting, hearing that she said her own block word without going into a panic, realizes that she has overcome her mental programming, and dies content knowing that she can go on to live a normal life as an ordinary girl.
  • Made even sadder when you consider that his final words in Super Robot Wars K were him wishing for everything to burn, including himself for not being able to protect Stella and Auel.
• That One Level: Scenario 30 of the Space Route, where the player must survive 9 turns against never-ending waves of Vajra while ensuring no Vajra unit reaches the building where Ranka Lee is in. Here's hoping the player has enough patience and/or tolerance for this scenario, especially if they didn't upgrade particular units with them. Even with Brera Stern flying off to one corner of the map and parking there to fight the Mooks by himself, it's still going to be a nightmare getting through this scenario due to the large area the player must protect against the Vajra from.
  • Scenario 35 features That One Duel Boss between Iczer-1 and Iczer-2 as the rest of the party fight wave after wave of respawning Mooks, then Big Gold and Moon Will arrive, both with question-marked Hit Points (actually six-figures) and a bunch of tough reinforcements, with four copies of Neos Gold as backup. If this is players' first playthrough and they didn't cherry-pick the strongest min-maxed units nor brought along long-ranged units, prepare for a Marathon Level with three Marathon Boss fights in it, taking roughly several hours to beat.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Four Heavenly Kings from Iczer-3 are all reduced to Cutscene Bosses, which is an extremely strange design choice, considering that leaves Iczer-3 with only three bosses from her series: Atros, Iczer-2 (which she shares with her sis, Iczer-1), and Neos Gold.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: It's disappointing to see how L treats the debut of Rebuild of Evangelion. The only playable characters from this series are the classic trio of Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Shikinami, with Mari being reduced to two cameos, and the plot ends at the halfway point of the second movie, meaning the only thing in this game that wasn't in the television series already is the seventh Angel. This leaves fans feeling the game sacrifices a lot of beloved things from the original without giving enough new stuff to justify doing so.
• Unexpected Character: The pink hippo from Gaiking appears as one of Ishigami's many, many tests. Unlike the one from the show however, this one isn't a hallucination.

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