Super Robot Wars - Long-Running Japanese Science Fiction Crossover Franchise

[Zolkar]

I am not sure if anyone here is familiar with the Super Robot Wars (SRW) franchise, but after reading Firebird's Evangelion-Trek crossover here on TrekBBS, I got reminded of this long-running science fiction and tactical role-playing video game series.

Super Robot Wars - Wikipedia

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Gameplay wise, think Fire Emblem but with mecha, giant robots, and spaceships/battleships. Plot/story wise, the games are a crossover between various mecha anime, such as Gundam, Macross (known over here in the West as Robotech), Mazinger, Getter Robo, Evangelion, Beast King GolIon (in the West Voltron) etc. It's like a Japanese Avengers but with mecha/giant-robots series, almost. However, in recent years, Super Robot Wars has expanded to include more general Japanese science fiction series such as Cowboy Bebop, Gun X Sword, Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers in the West), etc.

Now because of all this, it got me thinking, could Star Trek make its way into this franchise? Of course, there's many hurdles. For one, Star Trek is a Western franchise. There has to date not been a Western franchise in the Super Robot Wars franchise. In fact, the series was very much closed off to Westerners for most of its history, as it only began receiving official English language translations in 2017, and even then most Westerners had to use Asian online accounts in order to access the games or import them. This makes things very unfriendly for any Western franchise trying to make its way onto the series list of a Super Robot Wars Game. Incidentally enough, the creator of the Western Mecha series, Megas XLR, has expressed interest in wanting his show to be on Super Robot Wars, but of course this has yet to be substantiated for another reason I will get into.

Even if Super Robot Wars became open to Western franchises, the popularity of said franchise will have to play a big role. Star Wars is a top contender that has been discussed before when I was quite active in Super Robot Wars and mecha related circles, as Star Wars has a decent amount of popularity in Japan. I am not sure about Star Trek's popularity in Japan and how it compares to Star Wars, although I read an article from the 90s that stated 5 million Japanese are fans of the franchise, particularly TOS and TNG. I can't find the article, but it seems Trek has a sizeable enough fanbase in Japan. But I am not sure if this is sizeable enough to work for a crossover with mega popular Japanese franchises like Gundam or Evangelion, which have a very monumental presence in the nation.

Then there is the issue of Paramount even being open to allowing such a collaboration, which would seem quite odd and also be going after a fairly niche audience (fans at the intersection of strategy RPGs, mecha anime, and Star Trek). I don't think this would ever happen in our universe or timeline, but then we can get into the hypotheticals.

Now the question to ask, why would one want this? Why does Trek work well in a Super Robot Wars game? As someone who has been a fan of both franchises from a young age, Super Robot Wars is not just a mecha crossover franchise, but a science fiction storytelling device. Super Robot Wars game often have multiple stage-based scenarios which carry out like chapters or TV episodes. Each stage has a mission objective, a losing condition, and often an extra objective for those who want a challenge, and then also some secret objectives one can carry out if they want secret mecha, ships, weapons, items, etc. Moreover, Super Robot Wars games often have potential to even expand upon the plot of the series involved, or even change the story around. Some series have even had glaring issues be remedied in a Super Robot Wars game. Not to mention epic crossover moments.

A Star Trek inclusion into one of these games would be something, and I think it could be a good means of seeing Star Trek through the lens of a crossover with other science fiction series and how the dynamics of that play out. Each Super Robot Wars game is different, and some franchises blend together better than others. This opens up a lot of possibilities. Moreover, it'd be great to see just more creative games involving Star Trek.

There's more I want to discuss, but I'll leave it here and see what everyone else has to think.

 

[Firebird]

First of all, thanks for checking out EVA-Trek and for the shout-out! Always nice to see someone has discovered my little series.

Unfortunately, the lack of mecha in the Star Trek franchise sorta precludes its involvement with SRW. The smaller one-man ships like the Peregrine-class have possibilities since Cowboy Bebop has equivalent sorts of vessels without any mecha. Buuuuut, those little ships are rarely foregrounded in the series, so they wouldn't have the pop culture cache that something like the Swordfish II has.

Alternatively, the game series has presented some narrative reworking of series I love like Full Metal Panic and Martian Successor Nadesico, so there's always a chance, I suppose.

The question would then become - does the game do a subtle rewrite of one of the Star Trek series to include the presence of mechas? Or, will one of the ships from any of the series accidentally cross over into the myriad series? Or, perhaps vice-versa?

 

[Zolkar]

First of all, thanks for checking out EVA-Trek and for the shout-out! Always nice to see someone has discovered my little series.

Unfortunately, the lack of mecha in the Star Trek franchise sorta precludes its involvement with SRW. The smaller one-man ships like the Peregrine-class have possibilities since Cowboy Bebop has equivalent sorts of vessels without any mecha. Buuuuut, those little ships are rarely foregrounded in the series, so they wouldn't have the pop culture cache that something like the Swordfish II has.

Alternatively, the game series has presented some narrative reworking of series I love like Full Metal Panic and Martian Successor Nadesico, so there's always a chance, I suppose.

The question would then become - does the game do a subtle rewrite of one of the Star Trek series to include the presence of mechas? Or, will one of the ships from any of the series accidentally cross over into the myriad series? Or, perhaps vice-versa?

Thank you for the reply!

So yes that is definitely a concern, that there is a lack of mecha in Star Trek. However, Super Robot Wars in recent years has been quite to open to non-mecha series, as mentioned before. Yamato, for example, is just a single battleship, and played a major role in Super Robot Wars V.

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Moreover, I do have some rough draft of ideas for how this could play out, which I will post in the future.
I may show some demos using RPG Maker. I will also show some potential crossover plots and settings. If anyone else is interested in participating in this brainstorm, they are welcome to do so as well.

I think, for example, the Enterprise could easily serve as a supporting mothership for the various mecha franchises, fighting alongside the Ra Cailum and the Macross. Each of the various important crew members could have their own individual spirits/seishins (magic commands used in the strategy of the game), which can be used to help support the rest of the units on the map. So in essence, it's more the latter of what you suggested.

Spirit Commands

Spirit Commands, also called Seishin (精神, Seishin), are special commands from the Super Robot Wars series. Spirit Commands resemble magic spells in traditional role-playing games. The primary difference is that unlike the spells exhibited in role-playing games such as Final Fantasy, Spirit...

superrobotwars.fandom.com

If anyone wants to pair up a certain Trek character with some spirit commands (max of 6 per character/pilot), they are free to post their ideas.

Another issue I have to bring up is that Star Trek is mostly live action, and that the character designs would have to be translated into the anime or at the very least animated art form. This could be doable, but it does present some issues. I suppose the Lower Decks artstyle could be used to work around this, but there are other options as well.