Code Geass Director Misses When Super Robot Wars Was Brutally Difficult

Gorō Taniguchi is a name well-known in the anime sphere as the director of many great mecha anime, including Code Geass and Gun x Sword. But as it turns out, he’s also an avid player of Bandai Namco‘s Super Robot Wars strategy RPG series. During the game’s 35th anniversary interview in Famitsu magazine issue 1961, he reminisced about his love for the series. Two things that stuck out to him, however, were the brutal difficulty in the old entries — and how everyone’s beloved Mazinger Z wasn’t as sturdy as it should be.

“The thing I remember most is how thin Mazinger Z’s armor was (laughs). Winkysoft’s era of Super Robot Wars was really tough,” recalled Taniguchi. The iconic giant robot was dubbed the ‘Castle of Iron’ (kurogane no shiro) in its original 1970s anime opening theme, referring to how Mazinger is basically near-indestructible. But apparently, that nickname was far from the truth in the old games, at least according to Taniguchi’s experience. “In today’s terms, [Mazinger Z] can be thought of as the strongest tank unit, but when it ate an attack, it gets destroyed pretty often,” he added.

Taniguchi fully understood that faithfully recreating Mazinger as an impervious, all-powerful mecha wouldn’t make for balanced gameplay. Still, he initially found seeing his idea of the super robot clash with game mechanics rather weird. “I was like, ‘My Mazinger Z!'” he said with a laugh.

Then there were the bad rolls. Anyone who’s played any strategy game or tactical RPG like Menace probably knows the pain of seeing that 90% hit chance — only for the RNGod to have other, more headache-inducing plans. “Even when there’s only a 10% chance of [your unit] getting hit, the attack keeps hitting you, bang bang. It’s like, ‘Why?’ (laughs),” saying that while the Focus Spirit Command is essential, he can’t always trust the numbers. Taniguchi continued, “Old Super Robot Wars‘ hit probabilities definitely didn’t match the displayed numbers! (laughs).” He also said he has a pretty ‘orthodox’ playstyle, mostly preferring pilots with defensive Spirit Commands such as Wall/Guard, Strike/Bullseye, Disrupt, and Alert/Flash Commands.

That difficulty forced him to play methodically. Taniguchi recalled calculating every enemy’s attack range and how far his units could safely move each turn. Without positioning everyone in a formation that he’s sure his team could reliably survive, he said later scenarios were very difficult to clear. And that instinct carries over even to this day. “Even when I play current Super Robot Wars, I still can’t shake my old habits and always end up advancing cautiously,” he told Famitsu.

Asked whether he’d actually want Super Robot Wars to become that punishing again, Taniguchi surprisingly said yes. “If it’s possible, then I’d like to see something like a Winky Mode difficulty setting (laughs). A hardcore difficulty where you practically have to save with every turn,” he remarked. Still, that doesn’t mean Taniguchi thinks making the series more accessible was a mistake. “Recent Super Robot Wars games’ balance allows more people to enjoy them, it’s the right direction for that case,” he continued. “But I still want to experience the old level of difficulty one more time.”

Taniguchi also gave readers some insight into what happens when an anime series is offered to star in the crossover franchise and given brand-new content. In the case of Code Geass‘ Gekkoei Sui debut appearance for Super Robot Wars 30, he generally prefers letting the developer team do their thing. “Basically, after giving the go-ahead, I try not to intervene too much,” he explained. “However, I do check things, and if it strays too far from the concept we have, I’ll at least talk about it.”

As an anime director, Taniguchi was also particularly impressed by how closely Super Robot Wars can recreate scenes from his works. “The [game’s] animation does a fantastic job of reproducing the source material, I think. The Eldora V animation from Gun x Sword left a huge impression on me; the timing of the animation matches the original broadcast perfectly,” he elaborated.

Winkysoft itself folded on December 1, 2015, with Super Robot Wars F Final for the PlayStation and Saturn being the last entry the studio made. Since then, most SRW entries have been handled by Banpresto’s (now part of Bandai Namco Games) internal development team. For more news and interviews, keep an eye on GameObserver.