This isn’t exactly a Super Robot Wars game, but it’s also not exactly not one either x3. It’s a game I learned about from the friend who introduced SRW to me, when they were explaining to me the sort of precursor series to SRW, Compati Heroes. A crossover not between mecha shows but between Gundam, Kamen Rider, and Ultraman (other hallmarks of Japanese TV), Compati Heroes has a wide range of genres and games across various Nintendo systems, and it happens to contain several JRPGs. This JRPG in particular was actually made by WinkySoft, the very devs who headed the first decade or so of SRW games, and has some interesting connective tissue to SRW in certain ways (they even jokingly reference it by name a few times in the later SRW SFC games). As a big SRW fan, it absolutely piqued my interest, to say the least, and I hunted down a ROM of it to play rather than fumble around hoping a physical copy’s save battery still worked. It took me about 34 or so hours to complete the Japanese original version of the game (with virtually no save state use at all, for reasons that will become very apparent very soon).

Hero Senki tells the story of the world of Erupisu, a world of three large continents who do have real names but whose nicknames became so popular that they’re basically the only ones used anymore: The Gundam Continent (a land of mobile suit use), the Rider Continent (a land that developed cyborg tech), and the Ultra Continent (where the Ultra folk live). But peace escapes the world of Erupisu. Terrorist organizations across the world threaten innocent lives more and more each day, and the main governments of the three continents (The EUGO Federation, the Rider Republic, and the Kingdom of Light) create an international counter-terror unit called ZEUS (Z Extraordinary United Space) (Yes, that first letter really is just the letter ‘Z’, not a word) to combat it. These members of ZEUS are your main party of three, Amuro (from original Gundam), Kamen Rider Black (from his titular series), and Ultra Seven (also from his titular series), as they set out on their heroic and odd adventure to bring peace to the land.

Now unlike with Super Robot Wars, where with advice from my friend and just having played so many of them, I have a pretty good familiarity with the series being represented there, neither I nor my friend can say the same with Ultraman or Kamen Rider. We have some familiarity with more modern Kamen Rider series (especially her), but we know heck all about Ultraman outside of the base conceit, so it was really diving into the world of the unknown starting this game. That said, it was still really enjoyable! The humor and writing are very reminiscent of WinkySoft’s SRW games, with lots of cute references and jokes that work well with or without knowledge of the represented series. Even though original Gundam, Kamen Rider Black, and Ultra Seven get main stage, characters from many series of each make some greater or lesser appearances as NPCs or as your constantly rotating (due to plot) 4th party member. Assuming that the way they use Gundam is the same way they use the Kamen Rider and Ultraman licenses, they’re not so much recreating scenarios from the shows they’re from (as SRW so often does), so much as using them as pieces in a wider, weirder fan fiction, and it’s really fun. It’s hardly high art with much to say in terms of its overall themes (or at least much to say all that well), but as far as silly crossover entertainment, I think it does a bang up job of being a silly, fun, and even sometimes dramatic adventure that can be enjoyed even with only passing knowledge of the series at hand.

Mechanically speaking, Hero Senki is a very simple game compared to its contemporaries. Now this isn’t something like the first SFC Knight Gundam Monogatari, where it feels like a glorified Famicom game but made in 16-bit (thankfully), but the mechanical depth at play is nowhere even close to other 1992 SFC releases like Final Fantasy 5, Dragon Quest 5, or SMT1 (or even Knight Gundam Monogatari 2, for that matter). That said, that design approach feels very purposeful and in-line with how WinkySoft usually made their SRW games. Even though the balance might not always be brilliant, the main focus with mechanics is accessibility. They’re going for an experience that most readily brings the crossover fun of the writing to the audience, and in that regard I think they execute really well (even if, as mentioned, the balance is a bit all over the place at times).

As far as what those specific mechanics are, they’re pretty bog standard JRPG in most regards. You have those 3 party members who are more permanent (save for when they get separated for the handful of solo-ish sections in the story), and then the rotating 4th party member. Mobile suits tend to be fast and tanky but not very strong, Kamen Riders are strong but squishy, and Ultras are slow but very health-full and are your attack and healing casters. The main 3 guys have a weapon and an armor (just the one) you can change out as you find or purchase more, but they’re basically just flat upgrades (and your 4th guy’s equipment can’t be changed ever). If one costs more, it’s just better. There’s no status effects or debuffs to worry about with your team, at least. Some enemies can sometimes inflict statuses on you, but even then, they inflict those statuses very infrequently, so while the hold limit on a single kind of item is only 9, that number will rarely be a problem outside of healing items. Each fighter has a special skill that they can use, but they’re so specific and often weak that you’ll rarely use them if ever.

They also have special skills that cost TP (they’re basically spells), and the one weird mechanic the game has is that you can’t heal TP at hospitals, only HP. The only way to regain TP is through very rare (almost) impossible to buy healing items, or just doing attacks in battle, with small amounts regained for normal smacks and 10 times that amount for getting a kill. This makes refilling your TP amount after a boss fight a real pain, but it does mean you can generally grind or explore in most dungeons, but that’s if you’d even care to explore. The game has a weird loot and EXP curve, being generally more stingy and harder at the start and getting more forgiving as you go on, but the very small amount of equipment in the game means there’s almost never anything valuable in treasure chests. They will rarely have an item that will slightly increase a stat permanently, or in the end game you might even find a super good equipment item, but for the most part what you’re finding in chests is really underwhelming.

The dungeon and enemy design themselves are generally pretty good, and it’ll be pretty rare that you really feel unprepared or under-leveled for the challenge at hand with just how tough what you’re fighting is. Bosses are usually quite fairly designed, but their difficulty is honestly all over the place. This isn’t helped by what I think is a willpower mechanic (not unlike their SRW games), where taking more damage in battle will cause bosses to get higher and higher attack and defense as the fight goes on, but then at a certain point those gains just suddenly reset for reasons I really could only barely guess. Willpower as a whole was an entirely inscrutable mechanic for me, so that’s all I can really chalk it up to. The game is overall easy and simple enough that it’s just a shame there’s no auto-fight feature in the battles, as it would’ve been really appreciated for how simple most random encounters are.

The puzzle design is really good too, with things being really well signposted, and the pause menu even having a “conference” button, where your guys will talk about what you’re meant to do next to give you a good kick in the right direction if you’re having trouble or forgot what to do. It’s not full-proof, but I’m pretty impressed that there was only one ever puzzle that I needed to look up the solution to online. These are all story-important puzzles though. This is a game with surprisingly almost zero side content, and I searched high and low but only ever found two tiny things that could be at all described as optional content. This isn’t a problem, per se, and means they could focus more on making a well crafted, linear narrative, and that focus really shows with how generally good the difficulty curve and narrative pacing are. Overall, the game really does feel like it was made with approachability being the core importance of its design, from the linearity to the difficulty of combat to even how there are no save points: You can just save anywhere!

Aesthetically, the game looks about as you’d expect for a 3rd party SFC JRPG of this era. We decidedly don’t look like a glorified Famicom game anymore, and it really looks and feels “next gen” for the time. The battle animations on your characters are pretty elaborate for the time, and there are a really impressive amount of enemy units even taking into consideration all of the recycled stronger versions of guys that just have slightly changed names. The music isn’t super varied (with a whole one battle theme + one more for the final boss), but is overall good. At the end of the day, though, as with WinkySoft’s SRW titles, it’s not hard to see that representation of aspects of the included series was a really serious priority, and damn does its how with the sheer amount of sprite art in this game.

Verdict: Recommended. This is a pretty darn solid game. Other than the rough difficulty and kinda dragging gameplay (with a bit of grinding needed here and there), I really don’t have much I could really complain all that seriously about. The main barrier to a high recommendation here is the nature of the product, as if you’re in the market for a more technical JRPG or have active disinterest in the series being represented in the crossover, you’re probably going to find your time with this pretty darn boring. But if you’re okay with a more simple JRPG and you have an interest in (or just have an open mind for) the crossover silliness, there’s a lot to enjoy with Hero Senki. This is also a game that has a fan translation in English (granted I can’t speak to its quality or lack thereof), so this is one even readers of this who don’t know Japanese can go and enjoy should they so choose ^w^