Are you easily offended by anything Japanese? Is the use of Moonspeak painful to your tender Western ears? Does the phrase "enormously, ludicrously excessive boobage" strike terror into your heart?
How about "fun?"
Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier (or SRTOGS:EF, for all you sports fans) is the latest Namco-Bandai action RPG brought to the states by oddball publisher Atlus. As the most recent entry in Namco's Super Robot Taisen series, does it justify its fourteen-syllable title?
Console: NDS
Release Date: 4/28/09
(NA); 5/29/08
(JPN)
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Banpresto/Monolith Soft
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T
I'll admit that I wasn't sure what to expect when I first picked up SRTOGS (and from here on in, I will be referring to the title as Señor Togs). It looked like your basic hokey JRPG thrown stateside for a couple extra bucks. By the cover alone I could tell that the game had copious amounts of guns, swords, giant robots, and boobs - all staples of any self-respecting title developed in the east.
The only reason I decided to give it a try was because it was made and published by a Namco-Bandai/Monolith/Banpresto/Atlus dream team. The last series Namco and Monolith worked together on was the space-age epic Xenosaga, and I've learned to trust in titles bearing the Atlus badge. And so, after sifting through my games one quiet Saturday, I plugged in dear Señor Togs and began the adventure that I didn't know I wanted.
Haken Browning, poorly-named foundling and wannabe cowboy, is busy in the bustling panhandling industry on the planet of Lost Herencia. He and his busty android partner, Aschen Brodel, spend most of their time somewhere between collecting bounties and cracking lewd jokes. Unfortunately, the life of a homeless hunter isn't all just playful innuendo and big explosions - rumors of a resurrected Personal Trooper known as the Phantom are circulating the worlds. This kamikaze robot, said to appear and disappear through the world-connecting cross gates while leaving mayhem in its wake, has just landed a price on its head. Haken and Aschen have already decided on their plan of action: find it, shoot it, cash it in.
Still not convinced by that "partial nudity/suggestive themes" rating?
Now, if you're a little squeamish at this point, look to the top-left corner of your browser and smash that "back" button before you so much as finish this sentence. Never before have I played a game - least of all on the
DS - that seems to take so much pleasure in its own trashiness. The linear storyline here is completely held aloft by a stream of cracks on the characters' mammaries, which increase in size and scope as you continue.
As you progress from planet to planet, you'll meet a number of new allies - most of which will only add to Haken's sizable arsenal of nicknames. Kaguya Nanbu, otherwise known as Princess Double-D Bombs, joins Haken on her journey to protect her nation of Kagura Amahara from the Phantom. Suzuka-Hime, princess of the demon tribe roaming the same nation, brings her own Personal Trooper and stylized disco dances to the team. Crossovers from other games are also abundant, protagonists and antagonists alike. Midway through the game you'll stumble upon a stasis capsule containing my favorite female WMD - I won't tell you who it is, but let's just say that if her external appearance drops so much as 5%, she may need to be cleaned.
Or, if you don't mind plot spoilers that don't make a lick of sense anyway...look above.
Namco and Monolith decided to ditch the series' trusted turn-based strategy battle system in favor of a more action-friendly one. Your characters will be aligned in either your Front or Back rows - characters in the front may attack enemies head-on, while those in the back can be called in during combos to chain attacks together and deal more damage. In battle, your selected character can perform an attack by pressing A. Depending on how full their COM gauge is, they can continue attacking to form a combo by chaining button presses together. At the end of their attack phase, you can switch straight from their final blow into your next available character's attack with a button press.
And then you...uh...hit A...and, uh...
Mastering battles is basically just a case of mastering the combo timing between each character. However, to deal major damage to the enemy you'll want to keep an eye on your Frontier Gauge - it fills up as you deal or take damage, and it grows exponentially when you use support characters or switch characters mid-combo. When it reaches 100%, you can use a devastating Overdrive Attack. Chaining your standard attacks, supports, and Overdrives will send your destruction level skyrocketing faster than your ladies' armor can shrink to match the action.
Just wait 'til you see Kaguya's.
As far as a sprite-based
DS JRPG goes, the graphics aren't bad. The art style is your basic anime tripe, but the startling number of women that end up on Haken's starship makes it a little easier on the eyes. The characters are extremely colorful, however. Support attacks and Overdrives are filled with bits of gorgeous animation, and keep your eyes peeled during boss fights to see the enemy's Overdrive special, too.
I found most of the background music uninteresting enough to blend away into the din of the game, but it wasn't bad. If you sit and listen to it you might find yourself tapping a finger or a foot along with the beat or bobbing your head to the random guitar wailing that occurs during battles. Suzuka's Overdrive/Trance skill's music caught me off-guard, though - whenever she performs a special move, a disco ball appears above the battlefield as she begins dancing to control her Trooper. I guess the music was pretty good while that was happening. I'm not really sure; I was distracted.
Xiaomu called her Princess Training Bra. Teehee.
Other than the music, the voiceovers during battles are still in their original Japanese state. Maybe that's not your thing - if that's the case, go ahead and turn character voices off.
Señor Togs was one of the more delightful surprises I've had on my
DS lately. An interesting (if not especially deep) storyline, melange of colorful graphics, decent music, and an unending barrage of one-liner boob jokes kept me entertained far longer than the typical JRPG we've become used to. Up for something that's a got a hint of addiction and a vat of perversion? Atlus has your fix.
When Moniker isn't giggling about boob jokes at Friendcodes, he's usually writing new ones on his blog, Boomstick! 
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