Super Robot Wars F/FF is the final entry to the classic SRW storyline, meant to replace 4th SRW. It's loosely based on the plot of 4th SRW, but is otherwise an almost entirely new game. SRW F and FF have a combined 78-80 scenarios per playthrough and over 100 total scenarios. It was longest continuous SRW campaign at that point and isn't for the fainthearted.
You can again create your own main character, although you have less control over which seishins they can use. The disparity between real and super MCs is quite large, which leads to super MC having a far easier time in F compared to real MC. The affinity mechanic makes its first appearance in SRW F, allowing two pilots who are friends or lovers to gain a stat boost when standing close to one another. While it's undocumented and fairly useless in practice, it shows how SRW continued to progress even in the classic series. Not to be left out, several mechanics from SRW Gaiden reappear in SRW F. This includes EXP for unused seishin points at the end of a mission and EXP for healing. Items are dropped by enemies instead of being hidden on the map, a trend that thankfully continues into modern SRWs.
A couple new seishins are added to mix things up such as Taunt and Dream, while other favorites like Rage have been removed. Formerly exploitable seishins in 4th SRW like Ressurect and Re-Enable are extremely rare and cost far more SP. There aren't nearly as many scenarios that can be finished by killing a single target like in 4th SRW, either.
Newly added series such as Ideon, Gunbuster, Gundam Wing, and Evangelion come with their own unique mechanics and abilities that help to add some much needed variety to the otherwise familiar classic roster. The Evangelion pilots have AT Fields to absorb damage and if Shinji's health is reduced to 0 his Eva will go berserk with a heavy case of the munchies. The Eva series also gets its own ending route, although it's more of a bad ending that skips the final 15 or so scenarios. Ideon is an extreme super robot that can wipe out entire maps with its Ideon Gun, or go berserk and aim at your forces instead. Gunbuster and Gundam Wing are more traditional robots and pilots without much in the way of unique mechanics, but it's still nice to see some new faces and units.
SRW F is one of the most difficult SRW campaigns, especially if you chose a Real pilot main character instead of a Super pilot. You'll frequently find yourself facing high armor, beam shielded L-Gaim, Guest, and Dunbine enemies, often on difficult terrain like forests, bases, and underwater. The two part scenarios where anyone used in the first scenario suffers a morale loss in the second scenario if their morale was over 100 are particularly brutal. In addition, you'll frequently be hounded by extremely powerful Evangelion angels and Guest bosses that are usually only possible to defeat with copious upgrades and lucky hits/critical hits. Sometimes it can get boring or annoying waiting around for these bosses to retreat if you don't feel like defeating them.
SRW FF is the direct sequel to F, allowing you to use your F save data to continue where the last game left off. SRW FF's campaign is significantly easier, with the exception of a few scenarios. Your Gundam pilots will reach double act, learn Spirit seishin, and get some decent robots with funnel attacks. Your super robots in FF are incredibly powerful and make most of the F supers look poor in comparison. Your other pilots learn a wide variety of seishins that make combat much easier. You'll often be fighting in space and not dealing with difficult earth terrain. Once you have full access to Ideon, it can make quick work of the last 10 or so scenarios.
Despite the huge number of scenarios, there is little empty filler. There's usually always some kind of reinforcement, event, retreat, or objective to keep things interesting. Most scenarios usually have multiple reinforcements and events that need to be carefully considered in any kind of efficient playthrough. There are two end game route splits of 10-11 scenarios that are both worth playing through.
4th SRW certainly had its game breaking combinations, and FF is no different. Late in FF, you gain full access to the robot Ideon which has two MAP attacks with infinite range and the maximum possible damage of 9999. On top of that, the Ideon pilots have both Strike and Spirit which guarantees the attack will always land and deal 3x damage. However, in order to use the MAP attacks Ideon needs to get attacked by enemies to raise its Ideon Gauge, and if it gets attacked too many times it will go berserk and start firing its MAP attack at anything it pleases, including your own units. In addition, if Ideon dies or is attacked too many times while berserk, you get an immediate game over.
While it's a double edged sword and requires careful management of the Ideon Gauge, the Ideon Gun can wipe entire maps clean of all enemies due to its enormous radius, infinite range, and extreme damage. The Ideon Sword is just as damaging, but is much more difficult to aim since it only fires in two straight lines instead of a huge cone. While building up the Ideon Gun or Sword isn't nearly as easy as the 4th SRW tactic of spamming Resurrect, Ideon Sword/Gun can still one shot any enemy in the game when combined with a Spirit seishin, final bosses included. Even when using Ideon to its fullest, though, the end game of FF is still more difficult than 4th SRW's endgame as the situation can quickly go bad when using Ideon.
F/FF uses the same engine as Shin, with a near identical UI. Sadly the feature from Shin where you could activate the same seishin across multiple pilots is not in F/FF. Animations are still unskippable so you'll want to use a speedup toggle to avoid sitting through them.
Overall F/FF is a great SRW entry for veterans, although a nightmare for the inexperienced. The only issues are balance between real and super type MC, Ideon being overpowered, and the usual unskippable animations.
Reviewers experience: Completed with no upgrades, no units destroyed, low turn counts, and no save/load spamming for low %. (Space/DC): 401 turns / 79 scenarios = 5.07 avg, (Space/Guest): 403 turns / 78 scenarios = 5.16 avg
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