The Jegan A-Type's long beam rifle, and some ramblings about the Jegan line.

[MythSearcher]

Well, yes... but how much of the lack of new IP is simply a product of Sunrise having stagnated the genre into submission with decades of form letter Gundam sequels and spinoffs?

It's still proof that you CAN do something like that with the appropriate contracts drawn up... it's just a pain to do.

Well, there are still a lot of shows SRW never used even within the Sunrise archive and they still started using non-robot shows.
They don't even feature other Gundam shows that often, it's like always Amuro Kamille Judah and Seabook for quite a while now.
The mobile game got more but yeah, gacha game.

[Kuruni]

IIRC, one of SRW's biggest problem is how licensing take away huge chunk of their fund. Despite being the best selling title, Alpha barely make any profit back then for that reason (thankfully, it acts as gateway series and lays the foundation of Alpha Gaiden, which is much cheaper to made and thus more profitable). Since the licensing and VA cost keep going up, they have less and less fund to actually polish the games (doesn't help that 2nd OG missed its goal despite being one of the most well-made).

It's also the reason why the games keep lean more and more toward Sunrise's properties, it's just cheaper.

It was problem for long time, but until Nintendo 3DS, they can use portable titles to made some quick bucks. I guess the mobile phone titles fill that role now.

[MythSearcher]

IIRC, one of SRW's biggest problem is how licensing take away huge chunk of their fund. Despite being the best selling title, Alpha barely make any profit back then for that reason (thankfully, it acts as gateway series and lays the foundation of Alpha Gaiden, which is much cheaper to made and thus more profitable). Since the licensing and VA cost keep going up, they have less and less fund to actually polish the games (doesn't help that 2nd OG missed its goal despite being one of the most well-made).

It's also the reason why the games keep lean more and more toward Sunrise's properties, it's just cheaper.

While some of that is reasonable, there's really no reason to keep making new animation for every other new title.
They seem to at most keep the animation for 3 games. And the mobile game animation has some units that were used only in that game and not even reused in SRW30. Since people are saying they like the mobile version better, I doubt the quality is bad either.

[Mafty]

Was part of the reason the "Original Generation" made, because of licensing? If Banpresto made their own units and characters then they would have the ownership over them. This is probably why the anime and OVA's focus only on their own characters and story(which themselves are quite well done).

[Deacon Blues]

All that changed was Sunrise switched from "anything goes" licensing to a more restrictive practice to having standard slates of content that authors could draw on with Sunrise having approvals over anything outside that pre-approved slate of designs. You're making this out to be an exponentially bigger deal than it actually is. This is literally a standard licensing practice used by practically any franchise worth mentioning.

I'm not the one that's making it out to be bigger than it is: the artists are. It's not as cut and dry as you think it is, according to their responses with fans.

[MythSearcher]

Was part of the reason the "Original Generation" made, because of licensing? If Banpresto made their own units and characters then they would have the ownership over them. This is probably why the anime and OVA's focus only on their own characters and story(which themselves are quite well done).

Well, that and also they thought they have enough original robots to have its own title.
The problem is, they don't, especially in the first instalment.
The Gespenst rangers really isn't fun in a SRW. You have very limited choice of robots and even if you are a fan of the series, and I actually like Gespenst, I still think moving a bunch of different coloured Gespenst around with similar moves is boring.
The list of robot types in your team of the 1st OG is just barely the number of titles a regular SRW title has, considering each anime title usually give you at least 3 models(whether you use them or not), you have something about 1/3 of robots you can choose from. Also, anime title robots are usually more popular and famous, while the SRW originals are basically sideline mechs in the SRW games like the sidekick units and not the main hero.
There are exceptions, like Cybuster, but yeah, even if you count Cybuster, Granzon, Huckebein, Gespenst, R-1, Alteisen, Weissritter, Valsione, Grungust, and maybe be lenient and let you count Huckebein Mk-I(no, it doesn't even have Mk-III) as separate main hero units, the list is still falling way short.
A good analogue maybe saying that you try to make a SRW game with just anime OYW Gundam MS. Yes, you get RX-78-2, NT-1, etc. but in the beginning you have to use exclusively RX-79[G]s and GMs with virtually no difference in weapons.
It works for anime, but not in a SRW game.
I guess that is why it was first just a GBA title, since people can accept simpler gaming on a portable device.
The fun thing is, Cybuster's own game is fine because as the title suggests, you expects to only see robots from that series and it is not a story you've seen over and over for a lot of times in previous SRW and they don't have something like the Gespenst Rangers that looks completely like they just did a palette swap.

[Mafty]

I've never played the SRW games ( and that probably won't change because I don't have a Game System and many of the games haven't been exported), but I'll agree that the Anime does a better job at highlighting the mecha (particularly The Inspector with 87 different mecha).

[Kuruni]

IIRC, GBA OG was more or less used to test yhe water. And it proved that while the it work, its sale is noticable lower than licensed series

[MythSearcher]

IIRC, GBA OG was more or less used to test yhe water. And it proved that while the it work, its sale is noticable lower than licensed series

Well, I think at least they think it is a commercial success enough for a sequel.
However, very likely only pretty hardcore fans liked the idea.

I've never played the SRW games ( and that probably won't change because I don't have a Game System and many of the games haven't been exported), but I'll agree that the Anime does a better job at highlighting the mecha (particularly The Inspector with 87 different mecha).

iirc OG series is the earliest titles being ported because it does not have any licensing issues like the other titles.(which is obviously entirely another can of worms because the anime titles have their own licensees overseas.)

[Underrated GM Custom]

I suppose phrasing it as licensing was poor on my part, so I'll clarify. What I should have said were "rights" to the aforementioned items. Unlike the days of yesteryear (think the 80s on into early 90s), you could toss in whatever the heck you wanted into your manga without any sort of care in the world for stepping on creative rights and whatever not. There was a full stop to this when Sunrise was trying to right the ship (something that manga artist Masafumi wrote about for the 20th celebration). So, there are specific copyrights on mobile suits/weapons/insignia/uniforms, with various contractual agreements established that are somewhat "harsher" for certain designs. But, there are also those that fall into a "safe" space for use by artists.

Interesting stuff, is there anywhere I could read Masafumi's piece regarding the 20th celebration?

That being said, SRW is deteriorating FAST.
Most of the shows used boils down to Sunrise shows with only a few that needs licensing from other companies. The quality of the games are dropping pretty quick and you have this strange reduction in combat animation in new games compared to slightly older ones.(SRW30, which is supposed to be the 30th anniversary title had worse animation than some of the VTX version for the same unit.)

Also keep in mind that aside from a few exceptions Bandai-Namco games are known for churning out titles as quickly and cheaply as they can, not unlike EA with Madden or Fifa. I think they did a good job with 30 visually (although I agree with you, it's a waste of resources do redo animations from VXT). SRW parent company isn't going to be that interested in letting a game sit in development longer and accrue costs when they can push out a product and then release another game a year later.

[MythSearcher]

Also keep in mind that aside from a few exceptions Bandai-Namco games are known for churning out titles as quickly and cheaply as they can, not unlike EA with Madden or Fifa. I think they did a good job with 30 visually (although I agree with you, it's a waste of resources do redo animations from VXT). SRW parent company isn't going to be that interested in letting a game sit in development longer and accrue costs when they can push out a product and then release another game a year later.

It may look good on the surface but with a lot of bugs even in the animation.(like skirt armour disappearing on V2AB)
Also, the smoothness of the animation lost to the mobile game for some units as well.
Overall it looks more like an unfinished game than a 30th anniversary title that should be more well made to leave a good impression on fans.

[yazi88]

This is getting off topic, stick to the thread of Jegan beam rifle, not SRW.