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Super Robot Wars Reversal is a video game for the Game Boy Advance and is part of the Super Robot Wars franchise. Released in 2002, it's the second game for the handheld system, preceded by Super Robot Wars Advance. Like the latter, it was also ported onto mobile phones as part of the Super Robot Wars "i" line.

Series list (Bold indicates debuting entries):

This is the second SRW with a focus on Time Travel, the first being Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden. Depending on the player's choice, the game revolves around either Raul Gureden or Fiona Gureden, pilot of the prototype rescue unit "Excellence", alongside co-workers Raji Montoya and Mizuho Saiki. Equipped with the "Time Flow Engine" into the Excellence, the three ally with the Nadesico B or the Ra Cailum, hoping to promote their machine for funding towards further development. However, a mysterious being named Duminuss wishes to use the Engine for its own purposes. Things take a turn for the worse when Raul/Fiona are accidentally sent to the past during a scuffle with Duminuss, where they have to make a decision to let history flow as it is or attempt to correct the events leading to the present, in order for a better future.


Tropes pertaining to Super Robot Wars Reversal are:

  • Adaptational Early Appearance: Hokushin appears as early as during the TV series timeline as Kusakabe's Dragon, when originally he debuted in Prince of Darkness (he also appeared during the early Bad Future segments of the game)
  • Adaptation Expansion: The Shin Getter Robo of the Shin vs Neo incarnation gets to use the Stoner Sunshine attack, while it never did in the original OVA. It even plays a part in curing Master Asia of Devil Gundam Cells infection.
  • Adapted Out: Akatsuki Nagare and the Seven Mycene Generals are not present in Reversal.
  • Arc Welding:
    • Instead of being an ex-INTERPOL agent, Reika is now a former member of the Preventers. It later turns out that Shinichiro Ikuta is also a member.
    • It turns out that Devil Gundam's debris only managed to turn back into Devil Gundams because they were energized by the Getter Rays that covered the Earth after Musashi's Heroic Sacrifice. Taking advantage of Getter Radiation's ability to accelerate evolution, Duminuss' homunculus bring their Devil Gundams to the Saotome Lab to feed off the Getter Radiation released by Shin Getter's awakening, causing them to evolve to their next forms.
  • A Taste of Power: The prologue stages let you use units like the Nu Gundam and the Black Sarana, you won't be able to use them again until the final stretch of the game.
  • Back from the Dead:
  • Bad Future: Arguably the game starts out in one, and then you go back to the past and prevent things like Char's Counterattack and Nadesico: Prince of Darkness from ever happening.
  • Chest Blaster: Mazinger Z's "Breast Fire", Great Mazinger's "Breast Burn", Shin Getter Robo's "Getter Beam"
  • Combination Attack
  • Combining Mecha: Neo Getter Robo, Shin Getter, Combattler V, Voltes V, Gundam Double X with G-Falcon
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: If you do not fulfill the secrets to get Shin Getter's final attacks (Final Getter Crash and Stoner Sunshine), then Emperor Gore will pop up as a formidable foe for the Round Knights to beat. If you fulfill the secret, however... Shin Getter utterly destroys him in one hit with Final Getter Crash, on full health.
  • Death by Adaptation: Unlike what happened in their home series, the Frost Brothers do not survive their final battle with the heroes.
  • Degraded Boss: The Devil Gundam, with all its 3 forms and the Grand Master Gundam. Justified since they are inferior copies created using the many debris of the Devil Gundam that fell on Earth. None of them had the chance to build up their power like the original did in the show.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: This game is the first and only game where the Gundam X and the Gundam Double X's Satellite Launchers work on a counter system and not with a moon system, meaning one could use the weapons in bright daylight, on the other side of the planet, on Mars...
  • For Want Of A Nail: A rather positive take of the trope. The protagonist got worried about changing the past too much, but eventually decided that they just can't stand the bad events to roll in front of their eyes and decided to Screw Destiny. It was their presence and actions (which the previous past did not have) that eventually sparked changes in their own Bad Future, and when they returned, said future is replaced with a bright future.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: During the battle with Combat Beast Jerunicas, he literally begged Tetsuya and Jun to kill him after finding out about the bomb in his body. His combat dialogue, on the other hand, has him begging Tetsuya and Jun to stop fighting and listen to him. The dialogue writer and the scenario writer must have forgotten to talk to each other.
    • Even though Newtypes from After War Gundam X and Newtypes from the Universal Century series are treated as the same thing in the game's story, they are listed as different abilities in the game's system, and UC characters cannot pilot AW Mobile Suits.
  • Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: Implied in one scenario where Killer the Butcher decides to recreate Galileo's famous gravity experiment using Relena Darlian and an Earth Federation soldier as the dropped objects. No points for guessing which Stoic badass Hitman with a Heart comes sweeping in to save them.
  • Gratuitous English: Courtesy of Jack and Mary King, no less
  • Guns Akimbo: Texas Mack
  • Hope Spot: At the beginning of the game, the setting is pretty much a Crapsack World: Dekim is now Prime Minister of Earth, Gaizok is still around despite the heroic sacrifice of Zambot 3, Akito has turned into the Prince of Darkness, and Char, disillusioned with the state of the Earth, is trying to drop the Axis. Fortunately, the Excellence team, depending on the route split, either helps stop the Fifth Luna Drop and the Axis Drop or helps Akito rescue Yurika. Just as things seem to be improving, however, Duminuss shows up and blows up either the Ra Cailum or the Nadesico, killing everyone on board and starting the actual plot of the game.
  • Idiot Ball: After the Round Knights rescue Professor Goh from a Bozanian base, several members of the team notice that something's wrong with him: Tiffa, the resident Newtype, mentions that she can't sense anything from him while Fa mentions that he refused to go through blood exam and X-ray scan. That must mean the team would immediately figure out that the Professor is a robot impostor, right? Wrong! This is never brought up again until the robot reveals his true nature and sabotages Big Falcon, three stages after. To make matters worse, after this is revealed, the team leaders reassure the others that they couldn't possibly have known.
  • Kick the Dog: The homunculus of Duminuss literally dug Master Asia out of his grave and resurrected him with DG Cells so he can pilot the resurrected Devil Gundams. Considering how the former has always resisted the latter during his home series, to say this is the worst kind of insult to him is an understatement.
    • And it gets worse: they proceeded to treat Master Asia as nothing but a tool, bringing him back again and again just to continue fighting, to the point where he was almost turned into a mindless Zombie Soldier.
  • Magikarp Power: In SRW, there are only two ways to recover energy - the typical method via an allied unit with the "resupply" unit ability or returning to a battleship to recharge. However, near the end of Reversal, if Gear Fighters Dendoh or Ogre defeat the final enemy of their series three times in a row, it will unlock a new form for both machines which completely recharges their energy every turn. Additionally, getting this final form grants Dendoh a new, powerful attack in its base form that can be used for a pittance compared to its other finishers.
  • Mission-Pack Sequel: This game has almost nothing in the way of new mechanics over its Game Boy Advance predecessor, primarily updating stats and formulas to match what other Super Robot Wars games were using at that point. All but four of the series were also present in the previous GBA game.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: It was Duminuss' attack on Excellence that allowed them to travel back in time, alter history, and prevent the Crapsack World seen at the beginning of the game from coming into existence.
  • Permanently Missable Content: In the beginning of the game, you're asked to choose to either join the Nadesico-B or the Ra Cailum. If you join the Nadesico-B, you automatically obtain the Black Salena High Mobility armor later in the game. If you choose the Ra Cailum, you have a chance to obtain the Mass Produced Nu Gundam and the Gundam Mk-III. In this case, getting the Black Salena High Mobility armor is laughable since the Black Salena is already stupidly agile.
  • Post-Script Season: For G Gundam, as the Gundam Fight has already ended and Master Asia is dead.
  • Power of Friendship and Power of Love: A new mechanic introduced in this game involves these tropes. When putting two characters beside each other, there's a chance for a flame or a heart to appear between them granting bonuses for them. Interestingly, the effect incredibly varies between the two. Using Akito, Ryoko and Yurika as an example, putting Ryoko beside Akito gets a small heart between the two and putting Yurika beside Akito gets a big heart between the two. However, if it's Akito being put beside the girls, Akito gets a flame for Ryoko, but reciprocates the heart for Yurika.
  • Redemption Demotion: It's possible to recruit Ogre to the party and this trope is played straight via its stats. However, during a route split, if the player chooses to fight the Brainwashed and Crazy Hokuto using the Ogre, post-battle he returns to the party, yet the Ogre has the same stats it had before as an enemy unit, thereby averting this.
  • Robeast: Slave Beasts, Mechasauruses, Mecha Boosts, Beast Fighters and Warrior Beasts.
  • Rocket Punch: Mazinger Z's "Rocket Punch", Neo Getter-1's "Chain Knuckle", Zambot 3's "Arm Punch" and Great Mazinger's "Atomic Punch" and "Drill Pressure Punch"
  • Rule 63: Variation; Raul and Fiona are essentially the Spear Counterpart and Distaff Counterpart of the same person for Reversal. When they are included in Super Robot Wars Original Generations, they're brought in as Half-Identical Twins.
  • Screw Destiny: What happens in the finale of Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz and Zambot 3. Raul/Fiona suffer a Heroic BSoD and are not involved when the Mariemaia Rebellion is underway (in Raul's case, he is, though half-heartedly). However, when Killer the Butcher appears, Raul/Fiona decide enough's enough and take destiny in his/her own hands.
  • Sequential Boss: Duminuss, Dangel in Scenario 13 of the Nadesico Route and Ankoku Daishogun in Scenario 24
  • Spared By Adaptation:
    • Tsukumo Shiratori survives the events of the TV series with no string attached, unlike in the previous game where his survival was tied to a route. The same thing applies to Gai Daigouji.
    • Thanks to a Pet the Dog moment of Laliar, Heinel and Katherine escape from Earth with their lives.
    • Invoking this trope for the cast of Zambot 3 is a plot point, as the Original Generation characters hear about their deaths in the Bad Future arc and spend a considerable amount of time in the past agonizing over the inevitable deaths of their new friends. However, they ultimately decide to Screw Destiny.
  • Sphere of Destruction: The unlockable "Stoner Sunshine" attack for the Shin Getter
  • Spiritual Successor: A loose example - Reversal and Alpha Gaiden both use Time Travel as a Plot Point, but in opposite directions: Alpha Gaiden takes the characters from the present to a Bad Future, while Reversal starts in a Bad Future and sends its protagonists to the past.
  • Stop Being Stereotypical: Chibodee Crocket, who is slightly less of a steteotypical American than Jack King, tells him to stop acting like that.
    Chibodee: You'll cause misunderstandings about America!
  • Super Mode: Shining Gundam's Super Mode, God Gundam's Meikyou Shisui, Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger's Mazin Power, and the Wing Gundam Zero's ZERO System.
  • Swiss-Army Weapon, Mecha Expansion Pack: The Excellence has the ability to change into a variety of frames suited for different forms of combat and terrain. They include "Cosmodiver" (space), "Striker" (melee), "Gunner" (long-range), "Flyer" (air) and "Diver" (water). The final frame, depending on the chosen protagonist, is the "Lightning" (Raul) and "Eternal" (Fiona). The Aestivalis also have ground assault, aerial, artillery,and space combat frames.
  • That Man Is Dead: A variation of an inversion. If you pick the Ra Cailum route in the beginning, in the ending, you are greeted by a now good Char Aznable... except he never calls himself Char at all. He goes by Casval Rem Deikun (his first name during the happy times before the Zabi family ruined everything). Which means, the name Casval has been brought back from the grave after his stint as Quattro in the main game.
  • This Is a Drill: Neo Getter-2 and Shin Getter-2
  • The Unfought: The Emperor of Darkness.
  • Time Travel
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • Relena Darlian was Flanderized into this. In the show, she was a Badass Pacifist who understands the necessity of fighting to preserve peace. In this game, however, she tried to end the war with Gaizok by negotiating with them. Predictably, the only thing she accomplished was getting the Federation soldiers that accompanied her brutally killed. Rule of thumb, you DO NOT negotiate with someone called Killer The Butcher. Although this was a carryover from the original Zambot 3, where the Jin Family saved a politician from this same manner and the latter became sympathetic to their plight and worked behind the scenes to ensure that the family would no longer be unjustly ostracized (succeeding in the end), but to pick Relena to play this part sounded slightly off for her characterization.
    • Shinichiro Ikuta, who is a pacifist inspired by Relena in this game, did something just as stupid when he tried to sue for peace with the Mycenae Empire. He ended up being turned into a living bomb as part of a scheme to destroy Great Mazinger. Seriously, why did he expect the demonic fireball that literally has the word "Darkness" in its name to keep its word?
  • Wave-Motion Gun: Gundam X and Gundam Double X's Satellite Cannon, Zambot 3's Ion Cannon and Wing Gundam Zero's Twin Buster Rifle.
  • Villain Team-Up: Many villainous alliances are made through the game. Duminuss uses its homunculus to create ties with all of them:

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