Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Saga Endless Frontier (Nintendo DS)

[aruljothi]

Release Date: 04/28/2009
ESRB Rating: Teen
Genre: Adventure
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Banpresto

After finishing Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Saga: Endless Frontier, one accessory item in particular stands out strongly in my memory: The "Cat Ear Unit." The description reads, "An attempt to pander to all you freaks out there." Atlus should've put that on the box instead. Endless Frontier dispenses with anything even resembling dignity from the get-go. It's pretty obvious what the Atlus localization team thought of the story's sexual insanity, because they don't even bother trying to tone it down. Instead, they turn the volume up to eleven, then break off the knob.

The hurricane of undisguised innuendo starts early and never lets up. Endless Frontier's main protagonist, Cowboy wannabe Haken Browning, and his gang of bunny warriors blunder across the countryside, encountering cat-girls, fox-girls and robot-girls, all of whom expose copious amounts of cleavage. Take Haken's android companion Aschen; she has a special code that sends her into overdrive, making her armor "vent" by opening up in strategic locations. It goes on like that for the next 25 hours or so.


But, believe it or not, the fetishistic silliness that pervades Endless Frontier is the game's high point. Atlus has endeavored to make the writing as self-aware as possible, which at least makes the formulaic story amusing, if not particularly interesting. But seeing what the characters will do next holds a certain fascination -- for example, who will be the next to threaten a spanking for "bad behavior?"

Unfortunately, that fascination only goes so far; at some point, the gameplay has to be entertaining too. Endless Frontier has a problem with that. It might be difficult to believe after a trailer that suggests an exciting combination of combat and cleavage, but as veterans of Endless Frontier's cousin Namco x Capcom learned, flashy-looking promos aren't everything.

Endless Frontier looks pretty, but it's one of the dullest RPG slogs I've ever encountered. The battles simply take too long, ordinary encounters and boss fights alike. Unlike many other RPGs, there are hardly any moves that will take out a group of enemies in one hit. "Special skills" are supposed to fill that gap, but they do barely any damage save at very high levels, and even then, some of them cost too much magic to be practical. As a result, strings of ordinary attacks end up being the name of the game, which gets repetitive quite quickly. Watching Reiji break out a lengthy combo the first time around is quite fun. But when it's required for almost every battle? Not so much.