Those Unforgettable Days - Getting to Know the Nadesico!

Introduction

When talking about mecha anime, it’s hard to overstate its popularity and impact in Japan. The late 70s and early 80s gave birth to several influential mecha series that fundamentally shaped not only the genre but anime as a whole during that time. Even in the West, series like Code Geass, Voltron, and Neon Genesis Evangelion have become cultural mainstays in many anime communities, remaining popular among fan artists, general anime discussions, and cosplayers to this day. While it might be fun to dive into a deep discussion about my opinions on some of these more well-known series, I instead want to shine a light on a slightly more underrated series from the late 90s. Today, I’m going to talk about a particular series I watched a few years ago that I’ve come to deeply appreciate: a quirky, authentic, and unique hidden gem known as Martian Successor Nadesico!

Steeling the Will to Fight: A Review of Vanguard Bandits (PSX)

Introduction

Robots! There, now that I have your attention, I wanted to briefly talk about a game I enjoy called Vanguard Bandits. It’s a humble game. It’s not Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, or Tactics Ogre, it’s just Vanguard Bandits. I first discovered this game a few years ago, after I first played Popful Mail. I enjoyed Popful Mail a lot and wanted to play through more of the titles that Working Designs had brought over to the West. I had briefly heard some of Vanguard Bandits' OST online and was already into SRPG-type games, so I checked it out. My initial run was quite short, only playing until Chapter 5 before I got distracted with other stuff.

I came back to this game about a year or so later when I was in a Discord server that was for SRPGs. They had monthly events where there’d be two Games of the Month, and anyone who beat any of the two games would be awarded a cool role in the server and bragging rights. It was a fun little event, I wish more servers did stuff like that. Anyway, the two games for that month were Vanguard Bandits and La Pucelle: Tactics.

Since I had already planned on restarting my run of Vanguard Bandits, I saw this as the perfect opportunity. And by the time I beat it, I had really found myself enjoying the game a lot. I didn’t have a blog site back then to really summarize my thoughts, give my opinions, or talk about minor details that I found interesting. So that’s why I’m here today. So, I hope you enjoy it!

Toki wo Koete: A Triple Feature Review of Super Robot Wars 1, 2, and 3 (GB/FC/SFC)

 Introduction

From the outside looking in, the Super Robot Wars series may seem rather intimidating, and well, it is. The series has been ongoing since April 20th, 1991, with 48 entries and 10 spinoffs, and the games have their own respective timelines and lore; some are isolated entries, while others have two or three sequels. I swear, if you want to give yourself an aneurysm, I’d recommend searching up and trying to follow some of the full series timelines that fans post online. And that’s not even mentioning the references and appearances of the individual mecha anime series that appear in these games, some of which are very niche.

That said, as a series that I consider one of my favorites, I wanted to take it upon myself to review the lesser-discussed games that started said series. I see very little discussion of these first three games online, let alone reviews of them, so I prepared a special triple-feature blog post to shed some light on the unique mechanics of these games, talk about their significance to the overall series, and talk about how they laid the groundwork for the series we know and love today!