SRW EX is the fourth SRW game, coming after 3rd SRW. It's more of a side story meant for series beginners. SRW EX is split up into 3 episodes featuring Masaki, Ryune, and Shuu. While stats don't carry over, some choices you make in one episode can affect other episodes. There are about 61 total playable scenarios and you'll go through most of them in a single playthrough due to the game being fairly linear with few route splits. By comparison, a 3rd SRW playthrough has 34-39 out of 58 total scenarios.
SRW EX uses a modified version of the 3rd SRW engine. Like most side games built on a previous games engine, SRW EX doesn't change things up too much, but does make several changes for the better. You can choose individual unit response during enemy turn, but you still can't choose your response per battle. Pilots no longer have a power stat, so damage is mostly increased by weapon upgrades. Robot attacks need pilot skill level in addition to morale level.
You can now move and attack with certain ranged attacks (marked with a P). Certain ranged attacks are still movement limited, though, and some ranged attacks now have dead zones. Just about every robot has a decent melee attack, unlike 3rd SRW where ranged attacks dominated. MAP attacks return in SRW EX and they come in a variety of unusual shapes, sizes, and directions. This makes aiming them a little more interesting. Once you have multiple MAP attackers most of which can cause friendly fire to eachother, it can be tricky to lay down effective coverage without blowing up your allies. Enemies are also more likely to use their MAP attacks on you.
SRW EX was the easiest SRW yet. It includes a tutorial mode and it's a very forgiving game overall. It's likely a reaction to the unforgiving difficulty of 3rd SRW. With the addition of weapon upgrades, upgrading your MAP attacks and EN capacity allows you to make short work of the game. Most scenarios can be completed in 5 or less turns. While there are a few tough spots here and there, they are mostly optional and easy to avoid.
Controls and UI mature a bit further in SRW EX. Most importantly, you can view the percent chance to hit and miss an enemy before committing to the attack, which was a big issue in 3rd SRW. In control improvements, you can switch between allied units with L/R, switch between enemy units in target mode, and Y brings up the overhead map. You can see most of the active seishins on your pilots. Finally, you can now move diagonally with the cursor. There's a bit of lag when navigating the menus due to slowness in fading in or out unreachable terrain when selecting the Move command, which is annoying and unnecessary.
The ISS (interactive scenario system) allows you to import a previous episode save file into a new episode, altering some scenarios and routes. SRW EX is the first SRW with a plot that isn't completely bare bones. It helps that you get to see the perspective of the games events from 3 different characters. It's a little more fleshed out and interesting than the previous "Londo Bell vs DC vs Inspectors" of 3rd SRW.
Graphically, one of the first things you'll notice is the muted palette and magical, fantasy oriented theme. It's not hard to mistake the forest and mountain terrain for a medieval fantasy RPG, not an ideal setting for super powered robots blasting one another. Talking animals, fairies, spirits, and magic powered robots are frequently spotted. Attack animations are still unskippable. Even the MAP attacks have cutscenes. This isn't a big deal on SFC SRWs that can be run on an emulator with a speedup toggle, though.
Overall SRW EX is a good entry for beginners with its mostly easy difficulty, tutorial, and hand holding. There is a partial translation patch available but no full one.
Reviewers experience: Completed with no upgrades, no units destroyed, low turn counts, and no save/load spamming for low chances to hit or dodge. 200 turns total for all 3 episodes.
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