Perhaps the single most successful and best-known Salvaged Story is the Super Robot Wars series; they quite often take series that are seen as "good but flawed", such as Neon Genesis Evangelion or Zeta Gundam, and then proceed to "correct" what the fandom (and sometimes the professional critics) identify as narrative problems in the individual stories when making the Massive Multiplayer Crossover plots for the games. Other times they simply provide the "best" scenario possible from ambiguous works, prevent tragic character deaths, and give a more optimistic Adaptational Alternate Ending to series that originally had a Downer Ending.
- Examples include having Shinji become a much more mature, rational person due to more human contact or fixing some of the issues with Gundam SEED Destiny (though to the chagrin of Director Mitsuo Fukuda), or Amuro and Char surviving their final showdown in Char's Counterattack.
- Super Robot Wars Z deserves special mention, as the first game fixes the massive Broken Base that is Gundam SEED Destiny by having everyone involved act more intelligently and treats both Kira and Shinn's sides as equally good and heroic. Then Z2 Saisei-hen went and fixed Code Geass by letting the player decide whether or not to betray Lelouch, and thus ultimately prevent Zero Requiem from happening
. On the other hand, Z2 Hakai-hen doesn't let the player prevent the "big three" plotline deaths of Kamina, the original Lockon Stratos, and Euphemia li Britannia. The latter ultimately shows up, alive and well, as Suzaku mopes post-FLEIJA explosion. - Its takes on Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ typically does a good job of evening out the odd tone and pacing spikes the actual show suffered, and as a result of its Massively Multiplayer Crossover nature, allows the ZZ cast to interact with the 0079 and Zeta casts like Tomino & crew originally intended. Moreover, for those moments where levity is appropriate, SRW provides the ZZ kids with entire casts of other shows to bounce off of, rather than just each other. The overall effect is tremendously impactful on ZZ's narrative, and ZZ was typically held up as the example of "the Gundam show SRW fixed" before SRW Z came along with its sweeping changes to SEED Destiny.
- Another anime that was often considered fixed by the series, aside from SEED Destiny, is Martian Successor Nadesico Prince of Darkness movie, which was widely considered a Franchise Killer and being an incomplete story. When the movie gets into Super Robot Wars, you can always expect the story to continue 'as intended', Akito and Yurika finally get freed from the hell they were suddenly put into and earn themselves their happy end as a loving couple with Akito making efforts to move past his Darker and Edgier persona. The Karma Houdini Warranty treatment on certain villains as noted below are also applied all the time.
- Downplayed with Shin Mazinger in Super Robot Wars V, as it was still a modern classic and the go-to rep for SRW before being replaced by Infinity from Super Robot Wars T onwards, but this still applies as a Great-hen was planned but was never released, leaving the show on a cliffhanger. The game solves this through a bit of clever Arc Welding with Shin Mazinger Zero and Getter Robo Armageddon by having it possess Koji after Baron Ashura’s revelation before he manages to take control of ZERO using his will and the help of Getter Rays, as well as giving Tetsuya a Mid-Season Upgrade in the form of Mazin Emperor G, an original unit made for this game to keep up with ZERO's level of power in the lore, as well as giving Tetsuya a lot more time to develop as far back as the very early game. The story then ties all the loose ends with one final battle with the Emperor of Darkness from Great Mazinger as a revived final form of Hades, brought by the Great General of Darkness sacrificing himself to revive Hades.
- Keep in mind, at least at first, the whole nature of this trope was for balance reasons, as being too faithful to each series' storyline will definitely cause to end the game with very few characters, especially from series who normally ends with very dark or bittersweet conclusions, but later this become one of the most striking features of the whole franchise.
- On the other hand, the franchise has gone to the opposite direction and they also outright killed characters who are supposed to survive at the end of their series, normally villains who didn't get what they deserve in their original series like The Frost Bros., Haruki Kusakabe and Katejina Loos (through she is portrayed much more sympathetically in most media she appears in and considering what became of her in her own series, death would be a mercy for Katejina). Kamina's death was entirely justified by the fact that his death has a significant impact on the characters and the storyline rather than the insignificant and pointless deaths like those featured in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.
- Super Robot Wars 3: Minor instance of this - if Kamille Bidan defeats Paptimus Scirroco in their final battle, Scirroco will do his usual Mind Rape on Kamille a la Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. However, the instant Kamille hears the voice of Four Murasame, he snaps right out of it.
- Super Robot Wars Advance: In this title where Martian Successor Nadesico debuts, the game gives one about the fate of Gai Daigoji, success or failure still leads to a fix. If you fulfill the requirements, Gai simply survives the story. If you didn't, Gai dies Taking the Bullet meant for Nadesico, meaning that rather than given a sudden, undignified death, he gets to die like a hero, just like in Gekiganger 3.
- Amongst other things, the Super Robot Wars Alpha series fixes the many tragedies of the various Universal Century Gundam series and averts the endings of Ideon and The End of Evangelion. However, the Ideon "Be Invoked" can still be triggered by accessing the bad ending route in Alpha 3.
- Super Robot Wars Compact: Most characters, due to Heel–Face Turn; also, South Burning and Lalah Sune survive their canonical deaths, while none of the Downer Endings from any of the series occur.
- At one point, Super Robot Wars Destiny follows the plot of Megazone 23 Parts I and II (putting the "Trash" gang on a bus), until Eve sends the entire Megazone to another dimension to keep ADAM from destroying everything. Destiny also allows the player to gain back Kinryu, who was Killed Off for Real in the TV series. In addition, Junko Jenko and Odelo do not die in Destiny; however, Oliver Inoue does still die, albeit through a different manner than in the series.
- Super Robot Wars Judgment: Gai, Miyuki "Tekkaman Rapier" Aiba and Balzack Azimov, Ahmos Gale and Alberto Null Julia Asuka can survive. Asagi, Juri and Mayura of Orb also survive (but other Gundam SEED characters aren't so lucky...), Rolly and Roll and Alan don't die. However, Ru-Kain does bite it, while Haruki Kusakabe FINALLY dies and the tragic events of Prince Of Darkness are averted.
- Super Robot Wars UX: This refers mostly to the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 movie's story. During the story Mr. Bushido can be saved from dying in combat. Setsuna does not join ELS meaning he will not be separated from the people he loves for five decades.
- Char Aznable deserves a special mention regarding this as being Char not only one of the most popular characters of the whole Gundam franchise, but also one of the most influential of all anime history, how much of his fate is handled compared with how he ends in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack when he and Amuro dies during the final battle varies depending of the game:
- In the classical continuity, Char lives because the events of the movie never happens and he still sticks with his Quattro's persona from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
- The Alpha continuity is the only one when follows the movie continuity and Char finally bites the dust for real, while for obvious reasons Amuro lives. And even then, the reason why he pulled the movie's actions can count as a fix: Rather than the reasoning being 'all of the sudden', Alpha Gaiden gave him a solid reason why he pulled his actions in the movie: after seeing the Black History where mankind continued to gleefully commit mistakes, Char became disillusioned and thought the Axis drop was the only solution to fix it.
- The Z continuity has an interesting twist of the events of the movie, due of the inclusion of Full Frontal: not only Char survives, but also he has a change of heart as well, and the events of the movie are now carried by Full Frontal instead, so the players are now being able to get rid of him without guilt. In a way, Char's change of heart might be something of a 'fix' from how he ended up in the Alpha continuity. Char witnessed the Black History containing his alternate self doing the Axis Drop, but instead of ending up disillusioned, he became so scared with that vision that he swore to never sink to that kind of low. One Superdickery stint later, and turns out he kept his word.
- Super Robot Wars V pulls another twist on this: Unlike previous games, Char is already dead, and not only Full Frontal had a change of heart, but also Jerid Mesa and even Yazan Gable, the latter is an Ax-Crazy psycho with no redeemable features whatsoever.
- In the Advance continuity: Char never moved past his Quattro persona, but the Axis Drop event became the final stage of the game, except this time it was done by Vindel Mauser and the Shadow Mirrors. Char as Quattro is present in stopping it with the other heroes and when asked why he wouldn't do what he did in the movie, Char's reply was simply "I'm just Quattro Bajeena. That's all."
- Similarly in T continuity, Char never planned the Axis Drop and was convinced to join the T3 quicker than expected. Still, The Claw used Axis anyway to execute his Time of Happiness plot, and Ame Presbund pins the blame of Axis-dropping to T3, strengthened with the fact that both Char and Haman Karn were amongst the group so it gave the accusations some credibilities since people thought 'That's what Char would've done'. Naturally, Char isn't amused.
- Super Robot Wars 30 takes this an interesting route: in this continuity, Char's already pulled it off, but he and Amuro survived and were put into hiding. However, Char realizes what he did was a really stupid thing and he feels that the ghost of the Red Comet needs to put laid to rest, reclaiming his Quattro Bajeena identity and trying to force Zeon remnants and Zoltan Akkanen to stop.
- Super Robot Wars X:
- Buddy Complex: Due to being cancelled, the original series had their second season condensed down into two episodes, resulting in a lot of rushed plot resolutions, character developments, and a rather ambiguous ending about whether or not the time-loop that trapped one of the main characters was finally broken. In-game, it's revealed that Embryo was the cause of the time-loop and had manipulated both sides of the conflict for both experimentation and personal amusement. Neither side are happy about this reveal, with Evgeni promising to come after Embryo once he's done killing the protagonists. The heroes stick around beyond the end of their own story, and are intentionally sent back to their respective timelines with no fear of the time-loop now that Embryo is dead.
- Cross Ange:
- While the X-Cross fleet still need to fight against sudden dragon attacks, they're not as frequent as in V and the protagonists aren't interested in ensuring kills, which the game shows with a bit of Gameplay and Story Integration: in V, defeated dragons explode the same way as any other unit, while in X, they instead retreat when defeated.
- Sylvia's "Rescue Mission" is carried out more properly, and the events that happen in-canon are avoided thanks to Lelouch and Suzaku's actions.
- The attack on Arzenal is changed again. Salamandinay's encounters with Wataru draw her to X-Cross' side long before she would have destroyed it. Instead, Embryo recruits the Diamond Rose Knights by stealth, and has them lead an easily-repulsed assault alongside himself, corrupted dragons, and Atlantean forces.
- After Aura tells her about Embryo, Sylvia’s deep regret causes her to stand up without needing her older sister. After the final battle, she agrees to make amends and they become sisters again.
- Norma’s Anti-Magic does not counter all magic; it only disrupts Dracunium-based magic used by Mana and the Dragons.
- The original series had a Prejudice Aesop but ended in a massive Broken Aesop by having Ange abandon the now-defenseless Mana people to their fate for all the discrimination the Norma endured at their hands. The IF ending fixes this by having Ange return to Misurugi, reconnect with Sylvia into help deal with the remaining unruly citizens, and invites everyone back to the Empire once the dust settles.
- Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water: Though Nadia initially starts off rather preachy and self-righteous towards the others to the point of Suicidal Pacifism, her complaints aren't nearly as common as in the original series, and she stops whining towards her allies about the fighting pretty early into the game, understanding that the difference between the X-Cross and the villains (including Captain Nemo) is that her friends fight not because they want to but because they have to, and villains like Gargoyle make it impossible to live without needing to fight just to survive.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
- Due to Doakdar intentionally summoning the Anti-Spiral, Rossiu doesn't hold Simon to blame or use him as a scapegoat, instead remains resolute that he will find some way to save them as he always does.
- The ending of the original series was reviled by many in the fandom for killing off Nia out of seemingly nowhere at her and Simon's wedding and yanking away happiness from Simon just when everything seemed to be getting better, the usual criticism being that it goes against the optimistic tone and overall message that determination can do anything, even defy the laws of the universe. It gets double-subverted near the end of the Gurren Lagann storyline; at first, things seem to be going the same as before where Nia died due to Critical Existence Failure. Nadia attempts to use her Blue Water to save Nia, but at first all it seems to do is restore Lordgenome (albeit as a bio-computer again). He claims that the Blue Water did have some effect on Nia, but she will still die. But just when everyone's about to resign themselves to this bittersweet ending, Lordgenome then reveals that Nia will in fact die... in about 80 years. Needless to say, everyone was ecstatic, especially Simon.
- Super Robot Wars 30:
- This one happens to the Sakura Wars franchise in a meta-example: Traditionally, the characters from that franchise always try to avoid to fight against normal humans, especially human soldiers, if they can, and the only times they had been forced to do so, like in the second game and in the movie, the characters will always try to avoid fighting them, and they also avoid using lethal force on humans, no matter how evil their human oppponents are. note This problem is sidestepped in the game by just bringing the male lead characters (Ichiro Ogami and Shinjiro Taiga) and their possible couples (Sakura and Erica for Ogami, and Gemini for Taiga), which traditionally are more warlike in their games compared with the rest of their teammates.
