Well, here we are, at the end of the road. It’s been quite the journey, listing off 30 different songs from the vast catalogue of Super Robot Wars games. It hasn’t always been easy getting each one off, I’ll admit. Life’s a little upended for me nowadays, but I managed to get it done.

Our second-to-last track was one used primarily by a Real Robot. The song of my choice was White Reflection from Gundam Wing Endless Waltz. And now, we wrap it all up with the one track that, for me, stands out above the rest.

Day 30: Track with a special meaning – Trombe! (Elzam’s Theme) – SRW Original Generations

I may have told the story before, but I’ll recount it here again. Way back when, I’d say somewhere between the release of Z3 Tengoku-hen and OG The Moon Dwellers, I was subscribed to a channel whose user went by the name of Alkahest. (Although he called his channel Armature Extension Theater 2000, AET2k for short.) He did a lot of music extension for various video games. He also provided a lot of MP3 files for those extension, and every now and then something a little more out of the ordinary.

I first found his channel when looking for an extension of Kingdom Hearts’ Vector to the Heavens. The video description contained quite a bit of depth about the track in question, along with a pithy sense of humor. Thus did I become a regular on his channel, and from that I went on not only to enjoy songs from video games that I knew, but I also discovered many new favorites, such as Skies of Arcadia and Wild Arms.

However, as time went on, I noticed that a certain video of his kept popping up in my recommended feed. I also noticed that when he would preview his upcoming extensions in the video description, he would always use a lot of gusto when referring to the same track. So one day I decided to finally check out that track.

And as you can no doubt tell, that was an extension of Trombe!, the theme of Elzam van Branstein from Super Robot Wars Original Generations. At the time I knew absolutely nothing of Super Robot Wars. I just knew that I really, really liked the song. From that, I slowly became more acquainted with the OG characters of Super Robot Wars through their personal themes. Sanger Sombold was next, followed by Mai Kobayashi, then Ryusei Date. After that, things sped up to the point where I no longer remember which tracks came when.

And really, what’s not to like about Trombe? I can honestly say that whenever I put this track on for background music, I usually end up listening to it until the end of the loop. The guitar in the intro and bridge, the electronic brass in the chorus, it’s all just so good.

And another thing that makes Trombe special is its use in Super Robot Wars games. Elzam first debuted in the GBA title Super Robot Taisen Original Generation. In that game, he acts as a boss character several times before joining up with your team. And as I explained back on Day 9, certain boss characters will have their own themes play instead of your ally character’s, and Elzam was no exception.

However, due to a bug in the game, after Elzam joined your team, Trombe would continue to play over any other boss theme whenever Elzam entered combat. This even held true for the final boss. Well, Banpresto decided to go the route of making this bug into a feature. In any game that Elzam (or Rätsel Feinschmecker, his thinly-veiled alter-ego) appears in, Trombe continues to, heh, “Override” any other themes. The only exception, I believe, is whenever a JAM Project song is playing. Oh yeah, and that one time in the Alpha series when one of the villains from Goshogun was blaring The Blue Danube from his battleship’s speakers.

So we’ve got an awesome song with a unique way of using it within the Super Robot Wars games. Man, it may have been chance in the end, but I couldn’t have picked a better way of being introduced to Super Robot Wars. Back then I thought that my interest would start and end with the music, as the series appeared to be Japanese exclusive. But I got hooked after playing the few games that did release overseas, and now look. I’ve made AND finished a SRW-themed variation of the 30-Day Music Challenge.

And now, I must bid farewell to this challenge. Daily posting difficulties aside, I’ve really enjoyed talking about so many songs from Super Robot Wars. Looking back, I can see a decent amount of Alkahest’s writing style has made it into my own descriptions. Shame that his channel is no longer up, but he ever happens to see this, just know that I’m grateful for the tunes, the laughs, and the encouragement.

So, what did you think of my choices? Want to tackle this challenge yourself? Want to see me talk more about the music in Super Robot Wars? As always, I’m ready and willing to take requests and feedback you may have. And I’ll see you back on the Regnum Ignis some time down the line, for more Super Robot Wars content. Here’s Gespenst Type-0, signing off.