Super Robot Wars is a long-running series with 48(!) games in its main line of Tactics-based RPGs and a dozen spin-off games. However, only a few of these games have ever been translated into English, and far less officially.
As of writing, there are currently eight Super Robot Wars games that have been released in English officially as commercial releases. In descending order of release, they are:
- Super Robot Wars 30 (2021)
- Super Robot Wars T (2019)
- Super Robot Wars X (2018)
- Super Robot Wars V (2017)
- Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers (2016)
- Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier (2008)
- Super Robot Wars Original Generation 2 (2006)
- Super Robot Wars Original Generation (2006)
The reason for the lack of English releases was that developers Banpresto and Publisher’s BANDAI NAMCO didn’t believe there was a market for the base Super Robot Wars games in the west. In addition, many of the shows, games, and films referenced in the SRW had never been released commercially outside of Japan, so they didn’t believe there was enough familiarity with them to release mainline games.
Instead, in the 2000s, they attempted to penetrate the market with their series of OG or Original Generation games. The OG games do not contain mecha and characters from popular series such as Mobile Suit Gundam, Evangelion, etc. Instead, they feature the so-called Banpresto Originals. They assumed that these original characters would be more popular in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia without lots of background to catch up on.
However, none of the games were particularly commercially successful, and no SRW games were given an English release in almost eight years. However, fans of the series persevered, translating 18 of the games into fan-translation projects. Eventually, Bandai got the message—people wanted these games in English.
Super Robot Wars 30 is the culmination of that fan support. A Super Robot Wars game will get a simultaneous English and Japanese release for the first time ever with SRW 30.
Interested in Super Robot Wars? Check out the Super Robot Wars 30 Series List on Pro Game Guides.
