SRW Z3 systems overview, Tag Battle System, Vita card version

This weeks’ Famitsu has revealed a whole new bunch of systems that we’ll be getting in 3rd Super Robot Wars Z – Jigoku Hen, including a Twin Battle-like squad system.

Tag Battle System

You can organize your units into pairs using the Tag Battle System. Unlike OGS Twin Battle System, you can’t separate or create new tags during missions, however you can switch between the main/sub units. Units which aren’t deployed in a tag formation get 1.5x PP. Motherships are deployed as single units only.

During the map, both tagged units will be displayed on map. When attacking enemy units, you have a choice of either doing a ‘center’ attack or ‘wide’ attack.

Center attack

The center attack concentrates the attacks of your main and sub units onto a single unit in the enemy formation. The hit rate of the main unit will be increased by 20%. It seems the sub unit will used a fixed attack (marked with Assist, and is a P type move). Additionally, there’s a new skill called ‘Covering Attack’ (“援護攻撃”) which can increase the damaged caused.

Wide Attack

In the wide attack, the main and sub will attack the main and sub of the enemy formation respectively. The damage of the sub unit is multiplied by 1.2x in this case.

ALL Attack

A staple of the OGS Twin System as well as the Alpha Squad system. It allows units to attack both units of the enemy formation at once with weapons marked ‘ALL’. When attacking two units instead of a single, the damage is reduced to 75% to each unit.

Tactical Command & Tension Gauge

The Tension Gauge is a new system for each tag unit which unlocks the Tactical Command when the Tension Gauge is full. The tension gauge has two levels and gains a level whenever the main or sub pilot in a tag unit levels up, or when the total kills between the main/sub unit in a tag unit is greater than a multiple of 2.

Once the gauge is full, choosing the Tactical Command gives you four options:

Multi-action – Grants the unit a 2nd turn if they destroy an enemy tag unit (like Continuous Action).

PP Bonus – Next enemy shot down will give double PP.

Z Chip Bonus – Next enemy shot down will give double Z chips.

SP Charge – Restore 15 SP for the main pilots of the main and sub units.

Upon using a Tactical Command, the Tension Gauge resets to 0.

Tactical Combo

By defeating successive enemy units (meaning the entire twin/tag unit) in a row, you get bonuses. Each team defeated increases the damage of all your units by 5%, and money and Z Chips earned by 5%, stacking up to a maximum bonus of 25%. The bonus is lost when the combo chain is broken (you don’t destroy an enemy with the next attack).

The combo gauge can be seen in the lower right corner.

PS Vita Version

It seems that despite original announcements that Z3 would be Digital only on the PS Vita, Tereda and crew have managed to overcome this problem with some fancy compression and can now manage to fit the game onto a card. Here is the boxart for the Vita version:

Notes

Looks like we’re getting the Z2 style 2D maps instead of 3D. Love it or hate it.

Z Chips – this could be referring to money, or a special currency of some kind? Maybe like the Bazaar from Z1.

Interesting screenshot from 2ch as to where Setsuna and Marida got their portraits from: