As for what type of bobby servos will do the job I'm not familiar with the other types aside from hi-tec and Futaba. A true robot servo has a built in controller board (not to confuse you) that allows bi-directional communications. R/C servos are usually weaker and do not have feedback capabilities.
It's important to note that depending on how heavy your bot is will determine the strength of servos needed. The heavier the bot the stronger the servo has to be to carry the weight.
You do not need a microcontroller to control the bot. You can use your PC via a serial cable or using a wireless Bluetooth device. The SSC-32 does have an on-board memory chip that can store sequence data but there is no logic built in to the controller to make use of the data. A microcontroller or a PC needs to be used to send commands to the ssc-32 to initiate those commands. The SSC-32ng will work more like the Robonova board that you mentioned earlier, where the mcu is integrated with the servo controller on the same board.
I think to gain a better understanding of how this all comes together, your best bet is to start small and work your way up. This field has endless topics with the amount of stuff that can go into any given project. You can go super simple to mind bending complexity. I'm a super simple kind of guy, just ask some of the other guys on this forum.
