Another Century's Episode 2 (Challenge Run): Op-03 Novis Noah
To be completely honest, if I weren't limiting myself to piloting each mode for each unit only once, I'd use the Brain Powerd units pretty constantly. They have fantastic single target damage and AOE attacks, they work perfectly in all environments, they have a strong barrier for damage mitigation, and they are really cool looking designs from Mamoru Nagano. Also the Brain Powerd anime is a personal favorite, although I must point out it is not straightforward at all, so a lot of people might get frustrated watching it.
Challenge Rules:
ACE Difficulty
No stat upgrades (units have base stats for the whole game)
Special/Combo upgrades only on units that get Custom Upgrades (like the Dragonar units)
Reuse units/forms only when necessary (chain missions count as one use)
Another Century's Episode 2 is a 2006 follow-up/sequel to the original game, produced by Banpresto and developed by From Software. ACE 2 takes the fanfiction-style crossover narrative of Super Robot Wars and combines it with an arcade shooter style action game, likely inspired by games like Virtual On. Featuring machines and characters from 14 different anime series in addition to original designs, ACE 2 is a solid improvement on the baseline established by the original Another Century's Episode.
