Make a Musou – Super Robot Wars Musou

Hello, and welcome to the t article in my new series on The Story Arc: Make a Musou. I love Dynasty Warriors, the number of times I bring it up, and the multiple Musou related articles I’ve written should be proof enough of that. However, I am currently in a Dynasty Warriors drought as I have no interest in Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires, so I thought it was time to flex some creative writing.

But what could I do? When it comes to Dynasty Warriors content you can find whatever you want online already. For the past twenty years, the internet has been filled with character analyses, essays on the storytelling, and gameplay deconstructions. I don’t have much to add when talking about Dynasty Warriors itself. However, there is one question that everyone has had at one point in time: “What if ___ was a Musou game?”

That’s right, it’s time to pretend we’ve gone back to the Tumblr days when imagining your ideal game and talking to people about it wasn’t cringe! I have asked my friends to give me a list of franchises, and I will make a Musou roster out of each and every one of them. Last time I made a Musou roster out of Sega’s critically acclaimed Yakuza franchise. This time though we’re going to be casting a much, much bigger net as we handle one of my favorite crossover franchises.

This week on The Story Arc, we shall be making a Musou roster out of the Super Robot Wars series!

How we’ll be designing the movesets!

Now, we must discuss how Musou Movesets typically work if we are going to create a wide variety of them. If you have already read my pieces on making a Batman Musou, Pokemon Musou, or Sakura Wars Musou, you may skip ahead to when we start talking about how many characters our roster will have. First, let’s go over the basics of each character’s normal attacks. You all likely know how Musou movesets work on a basic level; you string together combos consisting of light attacks and heavy attacks. However, there is a pattern that movesets typically follow that I feel need some explaining.

Pressing light attacks once and then heavy will knock enemies directly in front of you in the air, allowing for a juggle or for you yourself to transition into an attempted combo.

Pressing light attack two times and then a heavy will perform an attack that while not super powerful will hit enemies close to you, generally on your left and right.

Pressing light attacks three times and then heavy will perform an attack that, while not your strongest, will hit a wide range of enemies.

Pressing light attack four times and then a heavy will perform an attack that is either straightforward or will move you slightly forward

Finally, pressing light attack five times, and then triangle will perform an attack that does plenty of damage in a short range, the perfect attack for enemy officers.

These are the foundations of a basic Musou moveset; however, there is more to explain and think of for our roster.

The bar you have been seeing below or next to the health bars in this footage is the Musou gauge. Once it is full, you are able to unleash your most powerful attack: a Musou attack. So we’ll need to think of a Musou for everyone.

Next, we have the trickiest part of our roster, the R1/RB button. The R1/RB button is used as a weapon switch in mainline Dynasty Warriors, but various spin-offs have used it as a button that activates a unique skill or attack for a character. These attacks can span from being very average to something atypical, so thinking about each character’s uniqueness will be hard.

Finally, we’re going to incorporate something that main modern Musous and Musou clones have, skill attacks. Holding down a button will give you an option of activating a skill. Most of these are just buffs like increased attack or speed; however, many Musous gives characters extra moves via skills. As we want to make this hypothetical game seem as appealing as possible, we shall come up with 3 skill attacks for each character.

And that’s everything! 5 Normal combos, a musou attack, a unique skill, and 3 skill attacks for each character. As we go into this, I won’t describe what each and every character’s individual combos will be but rather just how we imagine them playing with a few combo examples. I will mostly focus on describing every Musou, unique, and skill attack we come up with. A fair warning as well that I won’t talk about some characters as much as others, thinking of a variety of different movesets is difficult

With everything about how we will go about this explained, let’s move on.

Our Roster Size

Before we get into picking our characters, we first need to figure out how big the roster could be. While a true dream would be everyone playable, we’re going to have to be realistic with this. Other licensed Musous started with rosters of these sizes

Berserk Musou – 8 characters
Arslan Musou – 16 characters
Dragon Quest Musou – 13 characters + 1 DLC
Touken Ranbu Musou – 15 characters
One Piece Pirate Warriors – 15 characters

Super Robot Wars is a huge franchise that has made its name in having almost every well known mecha anime ever appear in it. Picking a roster size here would normally be difficult as I try to have some logic in my number system. Thankfully I don’t need to think, as Koei in the past has made mecha musous before with the Dynasty Warriors Gundam series. So we’ll be going with the roster size of the first DWG game!

As such we will be going with a roster size of 19 characters! I’m going to be very basic with my roster picks and mostly choose SRW mainstay franchises, my definition of a mainstay being any anime that has been in 8 or more SRW games.

With all of the out of the way, we can finally get into talking about the characters!

Character 1: Mazinger Z (Infinity version)

Now I know that a lot of you are probably confused as to why I specifically used the Infinity version of Mazinger Z and not the original version. Well I try to be realistic with these rosters and SRW hasn’t used the old Toei version Mazinger in a long time but has used Infinity in the two most recent games!

Now how will Mazinger Infinity play in our roster? In the Infinity movie Koji is much more coolheaded than his younger self so I want Mazinger to be one of the more balanced mechs in our roster. Not too fast and not too powerful but not slow or weak either. Mazinger’s light attack will be simple punches as it lugs around the battlefield while it’s heavy combos will all be more iconic parts of Mazinger Z’s arsenal.

For a first heavy combo Koji will use the fist of iron and launch a rocket punch to knock some enemies into the air.

The second heavy combo of Mazinger’s moveset will have it open its arms to its left and right as Koji yells out “Drill missile!” And a large amount of missiles shall launch at enemies in those two directions.

Mazinger’s third heavy combo will be one of the most iconic attacks in mecha history: “BREAST FIRE!” A continuous stream of fire will burst from Mazinger’s chest as Koji spins in a circle, clearing away a large range of enemies.

Next up for a fourth heavy combo Koji will fly forward with the Mazinger’s scrander and dash through several enemies, damaging them all along the way.

As a fifth heavy combo Koji will unleash a rust hurricane directly in front of him, heavily damaging a small number of enemies in an attack that would be devastating to enemy commanders.

Mazinger Z’s musou attack will be the big finisher from the movie: The Hyper Photon Power Rocket Punch! While our Mazinger wouldn’t grow in size like the movie’s version we would hear Lisa yell “Rocket Punch” as Koji unleashes a normal rocket punch that quickly grows in size and becomes larger than Mazinger itself and hurts a large amount of enemies before returning to normal size.

When pressing R1 to activate the Mazinger’s special skill it will raise it’s arms to form the iconic Breast Fire pose and begin to glow white. This is Mazin Power and it will increase your attack for 30 seconds!

We have no shortage of attacks to use for Mazinger’s attack skills. The machine is basically a walking toy commercial after all!

For Mazinger’s first attack skill Koji will aim the mech’s fist forward and launch a rocket cutter that will launch forward and damage several enemies.

As a second skill attack Koji will unleash Mazinger’s Full Volley attack! Drill missiles will launch in all directions as Mazinger unleashes a Breast Fire from its chest as well a a photon beam from its eyes, devastating all in the surrounding area!

Finally as a third attack skill Koji will call a partner who I just couldn’t justify putting on the roster for assistance. The legend itself, Boss Borot! When summoned Boss will wrap his mech’s arms around enemies and pull them all close to Koji so his friend won’t have any issue doing his next light attack combo!

Mazinger was completely expected on this roster, it’s one of SRW’s original trinity after all! So let’s move on now to our second most obvious roster slot.

Character 2: Shin Getter Robo

The second member of the big 3: Getter Robo! More specifically, Shin (真) Getter Robo. Shin Getter Robo is one of the coolest mecha designs in fiction and I don’t think it will ever be topped, something about how evil it looks has always been very striking to me.

Anyway, here’s how the Shin Getter would play in our roster! The Getter’s first pilot Ryoma is a madman, one of the craziest and hotblooded protagonists in anime history. In order to reflect this the Getter will always be moving in its attacks as its wings slide it around the battlefield. Unfortunately I won’t be incorporating the Getter 2 and Getter 3 forms into the main moveset but be patient, they’ll get some time to shine. It’s just the main moveset will only be Ryoma and his scythe.

For his first heavy combo Ryoma will turn his scythe into the Getter Tomahawk and swing it upward to knock enemies into the air before swinging it downward to bounce them off the ground

As a second heavy combo the Shin Getter will grow blades out of its arms and begin the Getter Razor attack. It will begin to dash to the left and right shredding apart any enemies in those directions.

The third heavy combo of the Shin Getter’s moveset shall be the Getter Battle Wing! Ryoma will begin to spin the mech in circles until the only thing visible will be a blue a black cyclone that will spin around and hurt a large area of enemies.

Ryoma’s fourth heavy combo will have him dash the Getter forward at high speeds and unleash a Getter Beam to blow away any enemies in his way.

Finally as a fifth heavy combo the Shin Getter will attack only a single enemy, slicing it twice with is scythe before finishing off the combo with a single stab forward.

There’s really only one thing we could do as the Shin Getter’s Musou attack. There’s an attack in Armageddon so iconic that it’s given its own event stage in every SRW its in. That’s right, I’m talking about the Stoner Sunshine! The Getter will fly into the air and and quickly form a large ball of energy between its hands before throwing it at the ground, causing a massive explosion that will damage an enormous amount of enemies.

When pressing R1 to activate the Getter’s special skill it will gain a faint green glow to represent Getter Rays overflowing within it. For the brief period of time while glow is in effect the Getter will have a speed boost.

Now while I couldn’t include the Getter’s second and third form in the main moveset there’s no reason I wouldn’t be able to here in the attack skills!

For the Getter’s first attack skill Hayato will take charge and the machine will change to Getter-2. As Getter 2 the Getter will fly around in random directions at rapid speed, drilling through enemies before switching back to Getter-1.

As a second attack skill Benkei will take charge of the Getter and change it into Getter-3. Getter-3 will then grab an enemy with its long arms and throw it around as Benkei yells “”Daisentsu Oroshi!!” Before turning back into Getter-1

Finally for a third attack skill the three Getter ships will separate and form Getter-2 once again as Hayato drills forward. They will then once again separate and form Getter-3 as Musashi bangs his fists everywhere before once again returning to Getter-1

I utterly love the Shin Getter and I’m more than happy with it showing up in every SRW game and on this roster. Now let’s talk about the final member of the original trinity.

Character 3 – Nu Gundam

Next on the list we have Amuro Ray in the Nu Gundam. I was conflicted on how to handle the Gundams on this roster as we already have Dynasty Warriors Gundam in the real world. Should I make a new moveset for them or just write down the old one? In the end I decided to just do the latter as the movesets in those games are already perfect. Of course the blueprints for how I design movesets don’t match those exactly so I do have a small bit of work to do here.

For one, how will we handle special skills? In Dynasty Warriors Gundam the R1 button was a dash button and I say we keep that. So every Gundam character in this roster will share a dash as their special skill.

The next is a bit more complicated, Attack Skills. Attack Skills didn’t become Musou standard until long after the last Dynasty Warriors Gundam game so I will need to think of three for each Gundam character on here and make sure that each attack skills I come up with isn’t already an attack in their DWG moveset, so let’s start with Amuros!

For Amuro’s attack skills we will be taking aspects of the Hi-Nu Gundam and inserting them into the Nu Gundam. Such as his first attack skills where Amuro will catch a Hyper Mega Bazooka Launcher and fire a shot directly forward at enemies.

The second attack skill will have Amuro run past some enemies with his beam saber and then stab it backwards at them for massive damage.

The third and final attack skill we’ll be adding onto Amuro’s moveset will have him run up to an enemy and karate chop them like he does at the end of his All Out Attack in SRW!

And we’re done talking about the original trinity! From here on out I’m sure there will be at least a few characters to surprise you, but before we get into that let’s knock away the only villain in our roster.

Character 4 – Sazabi

I was debating whether or not to wait until further down in the roster to begin talking about Char Aznable. On the one hand talking about two Gundam characters in a row isn’t the best structurally, on the other hand though it’s Char Aznable. There was no way he wasn’t going to be on this roster so let’s get him out of the way now.

Like I just explain with Amuro all mechs that were in the Dynasty Warriors Gundam games will not have their movesets edited but I will be adding Attack Skills, so let’s go over what I would add to Char’s moveset!

Thinking up attack skills for Char is difficult because Dynasty Warriors Gundam already covers the few things the Sazabi has been seen doing with its moveset. So I’m going to try to incorporate some other aspects of Char’s role as the leader of Neo Zeon even if they aren’t specifically tied to the Sazabi.

The first attack skill we’ll give to Char will be to have him summon 3 goons in Geara Dogas to fire a few shots at enemies before vanishing

As a second attack skill Char will raise the Sazabi’s arm in the air as if giving a command and out of nowhere small meteorites will fall onto enemies around him.

For a third attack skill some Neo Zeon command ships will launch lasers from off screen and knock enemies closer to Char so he can finish them off.

Char Aznable will be the only playable villain in our roster because while I wanted to only focus on protagonists for this, leaving him off would just feel wrong. Speaking of Char, our next character is very similar to him.

Character 5 – Shinkiro (Code Geass)

It’s an undeniable fact that Code Geass ruled over mecha anime in the mid-2000s, making it one of the most well known anime in the genre. SRW has respected this position and included Code Geass in a majority of games since it aired, so there was no way I couldn’t have a Code Geass character on this roster!

Picking a Code Geass character was hard however. While Lelouch is the most obvious choice SRW has always put more effort into Suzaku’s attacks and animations, so I could have gone with either. In the end though I went with Lelouch and the mech I picked for him was the iconic Shinkiro!

Lelouch is a master tactician so giving him a lot of combos where he runs up and lunges at an enemy wouldn’t make any sense. Instead he’s going to constantly be firing off various projectiles similar to box and arrow users in mainline Dynasty Warriors. We shall also be incorporating attacks from some of Lelouch’s other mechs.

As a first heavy combo Lelouch will have missiles fly up from the ground in front of him as if he set a trap, launching enemies into the air.

The second heavy combo of Lelouch’s moveset will have him fire two missiles to his left and right to knock away enemies in those directions.

Then as a third heavy combo Lelouch will have rocks falls from the sky around him, both Code Geass and SRW frequently have Lelouch make use of rockslides like this.

Lelouch’s fourth heavy combo will have him fire a phase transition cannon straight forward briefly at enemies in front of him.

For a fifth heavy combo the Shinkiro will launch a hook from its knee and bring an enemy towards it before firing a projectile right at its face.

The Shinkiro’s Musou attack will technically be taken from SRW30’s Gekkoei Sui however I personally see no reason the Shinkiro wouldn’t be able to do this. I am of course referring to the Absolute Zero Beam! When activating the Musou a phase transition cannon beam will fire from the Shinkiro’s chest and shoot in various directions in front of Lelouch, mowing down enemies in his path.

When pressing R1 to activate a special skill Lelouch will put a shield around the Shinkiro to cut received damage for a short period of time.

For attack skills we’re going to have Lelouch call in and command some of his allies! As a first attack skill he’ll call in his closest knight Suzaku in the Lancelot Albion! Suzaku will quickly dash in a circle around Lelouch and strike down any enemies in his path.

As a second attack skill Lelouch will call upon C.C. in the Lancelot Frontier. In order to defend Lelouch C.C. will pull out a gun and fire an explosion shot at enemies in front of him.

Finally for a third attack skill Lelouch will call upon Kallen in the Gurren. Once summoned Kallen will dash into one enemy near Lelouch and stick the Gurren’s claw into it before raising the heat and blowing it up!

And that’s Lelouch’s full moveset! He was a bit tricky to get a handle on but I think it turned out well but we just talked about three Real Robots in a row, so let’s get another Super Robot in here!

Character 6 – Final Gaogaigar

The King of Braves himself! Gaogaigar is one of the coolest mechs ever with one of the best theme songs in existence. Both of these factors have led to it being an SRW mainstay and me including it on this roster. For the sake of having an interesting moveset that shows off everything about Gaogaigar we shall be using a mix of Gaogaigar, Genesic Gaogaigar, and Final Gaogaigar attacks.

Gaogaigar will be one of the slower characters on this roster but it will make up for its lack of speed with sheer power and range, because this mech surprisingly has a lot of long reaching attacks in the source material.

Gaogaigar’s first heavy combo shall be the Drill Knee. It will knee enemies in front of it upward into the air where it will be able to continue and juggle them with light attacks.

As a second heavy combo the Gaogaigar shall catch the Goldion Double Hammer in Clacker Mode and begin to have its balls clack to the right and left of it, destroying enemies.

For a third heavy combo Guy will pull out the Gaogaigar’s Dividing Driver and collapse the ground around a wide range of enemies.

The fourth heavy combo of Gaogaigar’s moveset will have Guy shout out “Broken Magnum!” And send a spinning fist flying forward at enemies.

Finally as a fifth heavy attack Gaogaigar will pull out the Bolting Driver and charge forward to stick it into a single enemy.

Gaogaigar’s Musou attack will have Guy catch the Goldion Hammer and slam it down in front of him, any enemy crushed by the hammer or caught by the ensuing explosion of light will take massive damage.

For a special skill when pressing R1 Guy’s flaming hot bravery will manifest physically for a short period of time, adding a fire effect to his attacks that will burn through enemies health.

Gaogaigar’s attack skills will have us pull out the big guns. Attacks that could destroy a boss or end an episode if used correctly. For example as a first attack skill Gaogaigar will push its hands together to use Hell and Heaven before charging forward and unleashing that energy on a large crowd of foes.

The second attack skill of Gaogaigar’s moveset will have Mic assist Gaogaigar from the sky and send down a Solitary Wave to blast away enemies around Gaogaigar.

Finally for Gaogaigar’s third attack skill it will use the Plasma Hold to lock an enemy into place before making them explode.

Gaogaigar was honestly harder to think up a moveset for than you think as most of its attacks in SRW are big 1 minute long animations that wouldn’t really work in a fast paced Musou game. Thankfully our next character was a lot easier to think up.

Character 7 – Gunbuster

One of the coolest and most iconic mecha designs ever, the Gunbuster! The Gunbuster appears a lot less often than many of the other characters on this roster but whenever it is in SRW it leaves a huge impression.

Moveset wise the Gunbuster won’t be making our job easy for us, there’s really only a single fight in the anime where the Gunbuster shows off its full power and while SRW has been willing to make up new attacks for it here and there the lack of source material is our biggest challenge, but we’re going to work with what we have!

To start things off as a first heavy combo the Gunbuster will pick up and throw a crowd of enemies in front of it.

For Gunbuster’s second heavy combo Noriko will pull out two tomahawk and swing them around rapidly, hitting enemies in a short range around the Gunbuster

As a third heavy combo Noriko will raise the Gunbuster’s arms into the air and yell out “HOMING LASER!” And send laser beams flying all around a wide range

Noriko’s fourth heavy combo will have her yell out “BUSTER BEAM!” And a large pink laser will launch out of her forehead at enemies directly in front of her

Finally for the fifth heavy combo of Gunbuster’s moveset Noriko will launch ten buster missiles from her fingertips at a single enemy in front of her, decimating it.

Gunbuster’s musou attack will be not only its most iconic attack but one of the most iconic attacks in anime period: the Super Inazuma Kick! Noriko will launch the Gunbuster into the air kick downward in her iconic pose, once she lands on the ground the impact shall cause a huge explosion and destroy any enemy in range.

When pressing R1 to activate Gunbuster’s special skill electricity will begin to burst from the mech as Noriko bravely screams. For a short period of time Gunbuster’s attacks will have a lightning status effect that will cause damage to spread between enemies that are close to each other.

As a first attack skill we’re going to be using an attack that isn’t actually in the original Gunbuster anime, but SRW has always used for the unit. When activating the attack, Noriko will pull a giant baseball bat out of nowhere and launch a ball of energy at enemies in front of her.

For a second attack skill, Noriko will call in her friend Jung to stab at a few enemies around her before disappearing.

The final attack skill of Gunbuster’s moveset will have Noriko grab a single enemy in front of her and hold it over her head, as she does electricity will overflow in the Gunbuster and the Buster Collider will explode the enemy.

Noriko is joy incarnate and I’m very glad she and Gunbuster made thinking up a moveset easy despite them only really having one fight scene in their OVA. Now that we’ve talked about a few Super Robots in a row let’s cover another Real Robot.

Character 8 – Scopedog

Votoms was one of the coolest additions that the SRW Z sub series added to the roster. I mentioned before that I would consider an SRW mainstay to be an anime that has been in 8 or more games and despite Votoms not debuting in SRW until the 2010s it makes the mark. How? Because Chirico has only sat out two games since Votoms debut in SRW Z2! Votoms is here to stay!

Chirico’s mech the Scopedog is tiny but fast, I imagine it playing similar to characters like Zhu Ran in Dynasty Warriors where every time it fires a shot it will strafe around. Making him a more technical character that you’ll need to get the hang of. All of its light attacks will involve firing bullets around it while the heavy combos will launch heavier weaponry.

The first heavy combo in Chirico’s moveset will have him fire one missile forward which will knock enemies into the air.

Chirico’s third heavy combo will have him spin the Scopedog in a circle while firing missiles to damage enemies in a wide circular radius.

As a fourth heavy combo Chirico will use the Folding Solid Shooter and fire two explosive shots forward at enemies.

For a fifth heavy combo Chirico will extend the Scopedog’s arm and heavily damage an enemy in front of it, an attack that would be devastating to enemy commanders.

The Scopedog’s musou attack will have Chirico use the full force of his artillery on all surrounding enemies. Firing a wide range of missile, normal bullets, and explosive rounds in all directions.

When pressing R1 to activate Chirico’s special skill he will let out a deep breath and weaker enemies around him will be filled with fear and try to run away.

For Chirico’s first attack skill he will use the Scopedog’s claw from SRW30 to stab into an enemy, an attack that would do massive damage to an enemy commander.

Chirico’s second attack skill will have him quickly turn around and fire a shot from a rocket launcher behind him.

As his final attack skill Chirico will open the cockpit of his Scopedog and shoot a single bullet from his pistol, this will somehow be his strongest attack and utterly devastate the health of enemy commanders.

Chirico is the embodiment of cool and I welcome his inclusion as a Super Robot Wars mainstay with open arms. Now let’s cover another returning Gundam character.

Character 9 – Zeta Gundam

The third Gundam mech on our roster, the Zeta Gubdam! The Zeta is one of the most iconic Gundams and has been in SRW since the very beginning so it had a guaranteed spot on our roster.

Like the previous Gundam mechs we covered, I will not be editing Kamille’s Dynasty Warriors Gundam moveset at all but rather will just be adding Attack Skills to it.

For a first attack skill Kamille will swing down a large beam saber on enemies in front of him, decimating them.

As a second attack skill the Zeta’s arm will open and two missile will launch forward at enemies.

Finally as a third attack skill the Zeta will throw a beam saber and then shoot it to cause a small explosion and harm surrounding enemies.

I don’t have much to say about the Zeta as my only role was adding a few obvious attacks onto its moveset, so let’s just move on to someone I have more to say about!

Character 10 – Mazinkaiser

One of Super Robot Wars’ biggest claims to fame was inventing the Mazinkaiser, one of the coolest Mazin in the Mazinger pantheon. Mazinkaiser vanished from the franchise for over a decade but has appeared in two recent games with its original theme song so I find it appropriate to give it a slot on this roster.

I debated with myself for a while if Mazinkaiser’s light attacks would be punching like most of the Super Robots on this roster or if it should use its sword(s). In the end I decided upon punching, it may be cliche but it works.

For Mazinkaiser’s first heavy combo it will blast a rust tornado from its mouth and launch enemies in the air.

As a second heavy combo the Mazinkaiser will throw two Turbo Smasher Punches to its left and right to destroy enemies near it.

Mazinkaiser’s third heavy combo will have it pull out two swords and spin around to slash through a wide range of enemies.

The fourth heavy combo of Mazinkaiser’s moveset will have it fire a Photon Beam from its eyes directly in front of it.

Finally for its fifth heavy combo the Mazinkaiser will pull out one blade and swing it downward directly in front of it.

Mazinkaiser’s musou attack will have it perform the Kaiser Nova! It will perform two punches on an enemy in front of it before raising its fist into the air and cause photon light to burst around it and damage all surrounding enemies.

For Mazinkaiser’s special skill we’re going to reuse the skill we gave to regular Mazinger Z: Mazin Power. When pressing R1 to activate the skill the Mazinkaiser will gain a faint green flow and have doubled attack power for a short window of time.

The first attack skill of Mazinkaiser’s moveset will have it activate its Fire Blaster and burn through enemies in front of it.

As a second attack skill the Mazinkaiser’s scrander will fly off its back and fly in a circle around it, this is the Jet Boomerang, on of Mazinkaiser’s rarer attacks

For its third and final attack skill the Mazinkaiser will fire a giant missile from its body that will explode upon contact with enemies.

Mazinkaiser was the easiest moveset to make on this entire roster and I mean that in the best way, imagining how this thing would play in a Musou has made me want it to become real more than any other character on here.

Character 11 – Dunbine

Among SRW mainstays Dunbine is an unsung hero. Despite how many games it has been in and how one of the most popular SRW original characters rides a mech that is essentially copyright-free Dunbine it rarely gets talked about in the same context as other franchise mainstays.

I for one love Dunbine. The mech’s beetle design is very striking and the theme song is one of the greatest in anime history.

On our hypothetical roster Dunbine will be the undisputed fastest character. This mech is tiny but in the amount of time it takes you to blink it will have attacked you several times. Attack wise we’ll be pulling from all the various Dunbine units featured in SRW for our main Dunbine.

As a first heavy combo the Dunbine will cover its sword with aura power and knock enemies into the air before quickly jumping up after them, allowing the player to do some midair light combos on the enemy.

Dunbine’s second heavy combo will have it quickly dash to its right and left, slashing at enemies to knock them away.

The fourth heavy combo of Dunbine’s moveset will have it propel forward while performing two aura slashes at enemies.

For a fifth heavy combo Dunbine will charge up a Hype Aura Slash and strike it down on the heads of enemies directly in front of it.

Dunbine’s Musou attack will have Show charge forward and stab his mech’s sword into a single enemy and drag them along as he continues to fly forward, eventually dropping them with a massive amount of their HP taken away.

When pressing R1 to activate Dunbine’s special skill wind will begin to surround the fast bug-like mech and for a short period of time Dunbine’s attacks will have a wind status effect that will increase how far back enemies are knocked away.

For its first attack skill Dunbine will appear to be teleporting around as its moving at high speeds and do three slashes in random directions.

As a second attack skill Sho will call in Marvel in the Bilbine and ride on top of her as they charge forward through enemies.

Then for a third attack skill Sho will call in Shion in the Sirbine and the duo will perform two large Hyper Aura Slashes in two different directions.

Dunbine is one of the coolest mecha anime that I have never watched so I am anticipating Dunbine fans to comment that this moveset is bad. So let’s just move on to something I’ve actually watched.

Character 12 – Black Serena

Martian Successor Nadesico is my third favorite anime of all time! Black Serena is Akito’s mech from the movie sequel Prince of Darkness which…I do not like, but it does have a wide variety of attacks and has become an SRW mainstay.

The Black Serena is fast, I would want it to either be the fastest character on our roster or just barely slower than the Dunbine. Most of its attacks will have it hit an enemy and then continue dashing by them.

For its first heavy combo the Black Serena will knock some enemies into the air with its tail and then jump up after them to slam them back to the ground again with its tail.

Then as his third heavy combo Akito will fly the Black Serena in a circle, repeatedly firing his guns to hit any enemies within the circle.

As a fourth heavy combo Akito will activate the Black Serena’s boosters and charge straight forward into enemies, heavily damaging them all.

Akito’s fifth heavy combo will have him charge at and punch an enemy while he lets out a faint “Gekigan Flare”, an attack that will deal devastating damage to an enemy commander

The Black Serena’s Musou attack will have it charge at a single enemy with a great punch that will briefly shed its black armor before the screen flashes white and the armor has reformed.

For the Black Serena’s special skill when pressing R1 a dark aura of revenge will surround Akito, giving his attacks a darkness effect for a short period of time that will instantly kills enemies whose health is below a certain point.

The first of the Black Serena’s three skill attacks will have it turn into its jet form briefly and fly straight forward to knock away enemies before turning back to normal

As a second attack skill the Nadesico itself will appear above the Black Serena and launch a gravity blast to destroy enemies around it.

Finally for a third attack skill the Black Serena will call in Ryoko in her Aestivalis to punch some enemies around him before vanishing.

Akito was the hardest character to think up a moveset for on this roster as the Black Serena has very little screen time in the source material and even SRW has given the mech very little attacks. Our next character however has so so so much material to pull from for attacks.

Character 13 – Eva Unit-01

Now here’s another iconic mech, easily the most famous in our roster. Even people who don’t watch mecha anime often know about Evangelion! Because Eva Unit 1 would be the one mech players would be most likely to use, making it a balanced unit like Mazinger Z would be important. Eva Unit 1 will have some fast attacks, slow attacks, close range attacks, and ranged attacks. A true jack of all trades Unit.

For the Eva’s light attacks Shinji will be desperately panicking and slashing at enemies with the Eva’s claws and for its heavy combos he’ll pull out the various weapons the Eva has!

For his first heavy combo Shinji will pull out a knife and stab it upward at enemies, throwing them into the air.

As a second heavy combo Eva Unit 1 shall wield a sword similar to an attack from SRW Alpha 3 and perform a circular slash, knocking away enemies on its left and right.

For a fourth heavy combo Shinji will pull out a large machine gun and begin to shoot forward at enemies before throwing the gun away.

The fifth heavy combo of Shinji’s moveset will have him knock an enemy on the ground and begin to beat them with the Eva’s fists.

For Shinji’s Musou attack the Eva Unit 01 will pull the Spear of Longinus out of nowhere and throw it forward at high speeds, stabbing through any enemies in the way of this biblical attack.

When pressing R1 to activate Eva Unit-01’s special skill it will roar as if going berserk and for a short period of time Shinji’s attack will be increased but at the cost of his health.

As a first attack skill Shinji a large sniper rifle will fall in front of Shinji and he’ll fire it once at enemies in front of him.

For his second attack skill Shinji will pull out a small gun and begin to run forward whole firing it rapidly.

Finally for a third attack skill the Eva Unit-01 will jump forward at enemies like an animal, heavily damaging those it lands on.

And that is Shinji’s moveset! What can be said about the Evangelion that hasn’t been said before? Honestly nothing so let’s just move on to our next character!

Character 14 – Wing Zero Custom

Next up we have Wing Zero! Gundam Wing is one of the most popular Gundam anime in the west and its placement as an SRW mainstay is undeniable as the only Gundam timeline to appear more than it in these games is the Universal Century.

Like the previous Gundam characters on the list I will not be changing Wing Zero’s Dynasty Warriors Gundam moveset at all but rather adding Attack Skills to it. So let’s get this over with quickly.

Wing Zero’s first attack skill will be very basic, it will ram into an enemy with its beam saber before quickly jumping backwards away from them.

For Wing Zero’s second attack skill Heero will fire one of his beam rifles forward before waiting a second and then firing the second one backwards.

Finally for its third attack skill Wing Zero will fly around in a circle while firing its minigun vulcans rapidly and damage enemies within the circle.

Like the previous Gundam characters I have nothing to really say here, the Wing Zero is cool and was already perfect in DWG.

Character 15 – Combattler V

Combattler V is on this list because it has one of the best golden age mecha theme songs ever. Oh, and also because its appeared in a large amount of SRW games but more importantly the song!

Combattler V makes my job of moveset conceptualizing almost too easy, this thing has more attacks than you can even imagine! For its light attacks I want Combattler to constantly be attacking with the Super Electromagnetic Yo-Yos and for its heavy combos it will either use those Yo-Yos in a particular way or use a different part of its massive arsenal.

As a first heavy combo the Combattler V will raise it’s arms, and thus the Yo-Yos upward to knock some enemies into the air, where they will be able to continue juggling them.

The second heavy combo of Combattler V’s moveset will have it pull out its Twin Lancer and strike to its left and right to destroy enemies in those directions.

Next as a third heavy combo Combattler V will spin it’s Yo-Yos in a circle around it and knock away a large amount of enemies.

Combattler V’s fourth heavy combo will have it bend over and form wheels before dashing around rapidly like a car!

Finally as a fifth heavy combo Combattler V will unleash the V lazer from its head, any enemy hit by this attack will recieve massive damage.

Combattler V’s musou attack will have it rise into the air and activate the Super Electromagnetic Tornado, The mech will spin wildly in random directions For a few seconds, drilling through any enemies unlucky enough to be in its way!

For their special skill when pressing R1 the Combattler team’s Chodenji Yo-Yos will start bursting with electricity and their light attacks will receive a lightning status effect that will spread damage between enemies.

As a first attack skill Combattler V will activate the atomic burner in its arms and launch a stream of fire at enemies directly in front of it.

For a second attack skill Combattler V’s pelvis will open to reveal a large missile that will launch forward, if it hits an enemy it will explode and hurt a large number of enemies.

The third and final attack skill of Combattler V’s moveset will have the Combattler stretch its arms to its left and right and launch Super Electromagnetic Sparks from its fingertips to annihilate enemies in those directions.

Combattler V is one of my favorite pure toy commercial robots and I was so happy it came back in SRW30! The next character on our list will be the last one who I consider an SRW mainstay and unfortunately is the only character on the roster I don’t like personally.

Character 16 – Daitarn 3

The kids have had their turn, now it’s time to talk about professional problem solver Banjo Haran and his mech Daitarn 3!

Daitarn 3 is a large Super Robot so like many of the other Super Robots on our roster it will be slow and powerful and pull out various toy commercial weaponry for its heavy combos while it’s light attacks will mostly involve slashing enemies with the Daitarn Zamba.

The second heavy combo of Daitarn 3’s moveset will have it throw the Daitarn fan to its left only for it to boomerang to the right and attack enemies in both those directions.

For its third heavy combo Daitarn 3 will pull out the Daitarn Hammer (a giant flail) and begin to swing it around in circles, knocking away foes.

As a fourth heavy combo Daitarn 3 will throw the Daitarn Snapper forward at a group of enemies and pull them in closer to it while also damaging them.

Daitarn 3’s fifth heavy combo will be extremely simple. Banjo will run through an enemy while slashing through them with both his Daitarn Zambas before quickly turning around and doing it a second time.

For his Musou attack Banjo will call upon the power of the sun to perform Daitarn 3’s sun attack. Upon activating yellow orbs will begin to fly everywhere and explode with all the heat of the sun itself and destroy enemies.

When pressing R1 to activate Banjo’s special skill the light of the sun will briefly engulf Daitarn 3, giving it’s attacks a light element effect that will make them unblockable for a short period of time.

For a first attack skill Daitarn 3 will pull out the Daitarn javelin and ram it into a group of enemies ahead of his.

As a second attack skill Daitarn 3 will launch a missile out of its leg cannon that will explode upon contact with enemies.

Finally as a third attack skill Daitarn 3 will jump into the air and perform the Daitarn Crash, a powerful kick that will cause an explosion upon hitting the ground and burn any nearby enemies.

Like I said perform I’m not a fan of Banjo or Daitarn 3, but I hope I at least did this moveset justice for the fans he does have! As he is the last SRW mainstay on this roster I had a few friends on what final two mecha anime should be in an SRW Musou, so let’s move onto them!

Character 17 – God Gundam

The final Gundam character on our roster! Like I just said these last two slots were voted on by my friends so Domon and the God Gundam just barely made it onto my roster. However I do think it’s a very good pick for the sake of variety as while it may be another Gundam it’s a mix of a Real Robot and a Super Robot making it feel unique.

Like every other Gundam character in the roster I won’t be changing the God Gundam’s DWG moveset but will just be adding Attack Skills to it. Unlike the other Gundam characters in the roster this was actually quite easy as several of the God Gundam’s techniques were left out of the DWG games.

For its first attack skill the God Gundam will perform the God Slash Typhoon and spin around rapidly with its beam sabers to knock away enemies.

As its second attack skill the God Gundam will perform the God Field Dash and ram forward through any enemies.

Finally as a third attack skill Funsaiki will appear under the God Gundam and run in random directions, knocking away enemies as it does.

Of course one of our final two characters is one I have very little to say about. At least thinking up these attacks was easy, heck there’s a few more God Gundam techniques that aren’t represented in its moveset even with these added! But let’s just move on to our 18th and final anime mech.

Character 18 – Gurren Lagann

For our final character we’re going out with a bang: Gurren Lagann! Specifically Gurren Lagann from when it was piloted by Simon and Viral! There was undeniably a temptation to put Tengan Tonpa Gurren Lagann on this roster but not only would having a universe sized mech in a roster of mechs its supposed to stand side by side with be weird (Which is why SRW games typically restrict it for only one stage) but the normal version of Gurren Lagann just has more attacks for us to pull from. Using it was the only logical move.

Gurren Lagann’s basic light attacks would involve a lot of powerful punches and kicks from Simon and Viral while the heavy combos and attack skill will involve Gurren Lagann’s weaponry such as sunglasses and drills.

For a second heavy combo Gurren Lagann will throw a double sunglasses boomerang that will fly in an arc on its left and right, knocking away enemies in those directions before returning.

As a third heavy combo Gurren Lagann will have thin drills burst from its body in all directions, destroying enemies.

For a fourth heavy combo Gurren Lagann will pull out a drill and run forward, straight through enemies.

Gurren Lagann’s musou attack will be one of the most iconic attacks in anime history: the Giga Drill Break! When activating the Musou Gurren Lagann will launch one enemy into the air before pulling out a giant drill and flying upward at them, completely destroying them.

For a special skill when pressing R1 as Gurren Lagann the debris from the ground that Simon has drilled in the past will surround his drill and for a short period of time his attacks will have an earth status effect that will stun enemies upon attacking them.

While there will be no Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann in our roster we will have Gurren Lagann transform into one of its other forms briefly in its attack skills. That form being Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann! For each attack skill Gurren Lagann will briefly double in size to perform the attack perform quickly shrinking back to normal.

For its first attack skill Gurren Lagann will grow and place its palm on the ground, crushing any foe unlucky enough to be in its path.

As a second attack skill Gurren Lagann will grown and send laser beams of Spiral Energy flying in all directions, blowing up enemies.

Finally as a third attack skill Gurren Lagann will throw it’s Super Galaxy Mega Cutter at one enemy and it will cut through them like a buzzsaw.

And that’s our final anime character on the roster! But wait! I said this roster would be 19 characters big! Who is our final character? Let’s move on to them!

Character 19 – [ORIGINAL PROTAGONIST]

Nearly every Super Robot Wars game has an original protagonist so naturally an SRW Musou game would as well so this slot goes to them! What else do you want me to say? Do you honestly expect me to make up a moveset here for a character who would only exist in my head? I just gave you 14 hypothetical movesets for various mecha across 9,000 words! I’m done for now!

Conclusion

And with that we’re done with this hypothetical Super Robot Wars Musou roster! We’ve covered a wide range of Super Robots as well as Real Robots from a large spread of decades. I think this would be a very pleasing roster. The only faults I have with it are that I couldn’t include any 2010s mecha anime and I think I relied too heavily on characters summoning other characters for several of these movesets.

Thank you once again for reading this far, if you enjoyed what was here please consider checking out the other Musous on my main Make a Musou page