Tag Archives: Strategy

Hades II Review

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Hades was an amazing game that absolutely got me even more hyped for the sequel than I already was. ISee, remember the trailer for the second game coming out during one of the Nintendo Directs and it completely overshadowed all of the other games. That was when I immediately had to order the first game and when it arrived, it turned out to be as good as everyone had always said. So this way I was ready for the sequel which regrettably was not for the PS5 as of yet but the Switch 2 would work out well enough. This game does not leave you lacking for anything.

The game follows a girl named Melinoe who has been trained from young to take down Chronos and to save her family. All of the characters in the underworld from the first game have been enslaved and are in no position to help out. Fortunately the gods are still able to offer some assistance including a few new faces. Although they have their hands busy with Typhon so Melinoe will have to save them as well. She’s certainly going to be busy but with her training, she can win the day!

There are a lot of similarities to the first game of course. The gameplay is an overhead style title where you have to defeat waves and waves of opponents who go after you. You will gain different abilities as you clear each room. If you die, you can get some permanent power ups and try again. This is a rogue title so you are expected to lose multiple times and each run will allow you to get stronger. So don’t give up and just keep on pressing forward.

While the first game was more about getting in close for melee attacks, this one takes a more long ranged approach as most of Melinoe’s attacks are about keeping the enemy at range. I ultimately decided to use her scepter the most. You will have many weapons to choose from but this one suited my playstyle the best. You have your normal attack, power move, and cast. You know you have a good build when they all suit some kind of a purpose.

It may be tempting to throw the first few games on purpose in order to get stronger but I’d advise against it. Sure it’s a good strategy but it just doesn’t feel fun. Give it your best even if it means taking some heavy losses. They are all learning experiences after all and you will quickly become better at the game. One of the big strengths to this title is that basically every action helps you grow in some way. Whether it is fishing or digging up flowers, they can all be traded in for more upgrades. I made sure not to skip a single thing even though I wasn’t aiming for 100% here. You just don’t know what you will miss if you decide to be lazy.

The graphics are really good as always. The illustrations are always really solid and the different effects within the gameplay all look great. The game feels like a 2025 title and I mean that in the best possible way. Meanwhile the soundtrack is great as well. A lot of really good metal tunes and you can always feel like you are fighting for the fates of multiple planets.

There is a ton of replay value here as I already noted. You will have to complete the game many times in order to get the base ending and even from there you still have to max out your relationship status with each character in order to get their respective endings. Throw in how many characters there are and naturally that is a big hurdle. This is a game that will be taking you at least 50 hours minimum. If you aim to just do the main story, well that will still be a rather solid length too.

A tip I would leave here is to focus more on dodging than attacking. As you play through the game you will get a lot of abilities that deal passive damage and you need to be able to survive long enough to take advantage of that. Master the enemy movements and you will be fine. There are also two new mechanics in this game. The first are your moon abilities which essentially work as a final smash. Always try to get the energy blast ones but it is RNG. So if you get a weaker one, no problem. They are all still good to an extent.

There are also the new omega abilities which took me a little while to get used to. Essentially think of them as super attacks which take up some meter but reward you heavily with strong attacks. I was spamming the power special towards the end game because I upgraded a weapon to focus around that ability. When you’re choosing abilities from the gods, really try to style them all around a similar focus. So for example don’t just pick all the ones that sound cool if they are just being redundant.

Only experience and repetition will help you get used to them all. Likewise you have a card deck which you equip to get certain boosts. You can’t equip them all though so that’s where you have to make some tough calls. There are also a bunch of challenges and fire runs which is a massive partn of the game that I didn’t even get around to trying out. That naturally throws in a ton of extra replay value for you as well. It’s a way to spice up the normal story runs and you get great rewards out of them too. This game is just so loaded with content that there are even a bunch of stuff that I haven’t mentioned yet.

Overall, Hades II is a real blast. I love this survivor style of rogue game. I’m still not completely sold on Rogue titles in general but ones with lots of progression like this game always tend to go over well. I want to feel stronger as I’m going through the game and as of yet, no other game has been able to master it quite as well as the Hades series. They are really built different. It’s hard to picture them going back to do a third one, but you can bet that I will be there day 1 if they do. I highly recommend picking this one up as quickly as possible.

Overall 9/10

Shining Force II Review

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You may remember my review for Shining Force I a while back, well I’ve been playing this one ever since and finally completed it. The game is definitely a long one so you get a lot of bang for your buck. I also appreciate that it really followed the template of what a sequel should be. It improved upon all of the weaknesses of the first game like long loading times and making it difficult to swap out party members. Everything has been streamlined quite a lot here which I really appreciate.

The general plot involves a group of devils trying to resurrect the ultimate evil once more. These beings can possess people which makes them rather difficult to stop. The main character’s kingdom is blown up so they are forced to relocate but now they are surrounded by enemies. The King dispatches him to make some alliances and take down the villains along the way but time is not on their side. With every step, he gets closer to danger.

The gameplay is a tactical RPG like the first one. You will have a squad of around 11 fighters and your opponent gets around 30. You have to maneuver around the map in a turn based system to wipe them all out or wipe out the captain of their forces. That means your strategy will often either be about winning slow and methodically or be rushing their king right off the gate. The latter will rarely work to be honest but there are usually a few minions you can skip if you play your cards right. Stay far enough away and you won’t activate their attention.

As you play through the game you will quickly get a feel for which units are strong and which ones are basically just meat shields. Sometimes you will even want to opt for launching into battle with a smaller group as a result. I would just bench the ones who weren’t contributing at all because then there are less turns to go through and that makes the battles go by a lot faster. Sure you could eventually get them strong enough with enough level ups but their growth rate was so bad that it didn’t seem worth it.

Meanwhile like I mentioned before, the game did a great job of really speeding everything up. The turns go by wayyyy faster than in the first game. The menus have also been simplified. You can also revive people with one click when at the priest’s house since it is the default option rather than having to select another option each time. So these were all pretty good quality of life features.

It goes without saying that the graphics here are definitely pretty good. The colors have aged really well and I like all of the various attack animations. It’s clear that the game spared no expense here and that’s really what you like to see as a player. The game did not hold back at all. The soundtrack is also good, although I would say it’s less memorable than some other titles I’ve played. They probably could have had a little more fun with that.

Outside of the battles, the game also has a pretty big hub world with a lot of towns to explore. You’re really rewarded for checking these places out as you can recruit more folks to your army and find rare weapons. The only downside is that the game added random encounters for some reason and these can be annoying since each battle in this game is rather long. You have to try and walk around the encounter zones but there is no way to tell which area will trigger a battle. This felt pretty unnecessary since the game already has a built in exp grinding mechanic with the main character’s teleport ability.

Maybe they just felt it would be easier to level up this way. It’s the only reason I can think of at least. It’s still a rather small detail though. The game’s story will hit you with a lot of different twists and turns as you go through the journey which is also fun. You will really have a hard time guessing exactly how things will turn out. Also if you stay on the credits long enough, you’re rewarded with a boss rush. I’m assuming this is still around on the Switch Online version but after waiting for a while I eventually exited. It’s a cool easter egg for those who wait though.

My main advice here is to make sure to always have the Phoenix in your party. He is by far the best party member and has absolute crazy range. Anytime he would die to a critical hit, I’d have to back up and try again. He is absolutely necessary for winning. Also, you will need to keep in mind that the RNG in the game can really change the flow of battle in an instant. Enemies will randomly hit you twice or paralyze you sometimes or you’ll flat out miss. That means no fight is really a sure thing. I wouldn’t mind if they dialed that down a bit, although of course it’s a lot of fun when it’s your side getting the lucky blows.

Overall, Shining Force II is a pretty fun sequel. I had a good time with it and the game is definitely very well balanced. The wild spawn mechanic may have been unnecessary but at least with rewind you can dodge that most of the time. Without that it would have absolutely been 10x as annoying. I can see why this game has such a strong reputation, it was really well made and I look forward to getting to play the third game someday. What other quality of life updates will they be able to add in there?

Overall 7/10

World Trigger Season 2 Review

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Season 2 of World Trigger starts immediately and I really appreciate that about the show. You never need an episode to get people back into the spirit of things. If they need a review, they can just rewatch the first season again. That’s how I see it at least. As with season 1, season 2 is excellent. The battles, animation, and story are super good. I wish the manga hadn’t had to go on hiatus for so long because it’s clear that this would have been a breakout hit. Dare I say that it may have passed Hunter X Hunter and kept pace with One Piece in popularity? Ah well, it’s all a what if.

The season starts with more aliens deciding to invade the planet. Jin is able to predict their arrival thanks to his side effect and so the government mobilizes all of their forces. With the exception of some B rankers like Osamu and his fellow tournament fighters so this way they would not be distracted. These aliens are from another planet and are aiming to force a fight between Earth and the first enemy so they can get away. Otherwise they are basically given a suicide mission here as Earth would wipe them out. Their main goal is to destroy the big spaceship which would set Earth back at least a year and the heroes have to stop them.

One thing about World Trigger that is quite unique compared to other anime is that Earth gets a whole lot of respect. We aren’t just sitting ducks for the various alien races and can actually hold out own. The biggest invention tat Earth had was the ability to use energy bodies to let its fighters train in life or death situations constantly. This is also handy for the invasions where they can fight with their fake bodies without the risk of death. The automatic bail-out feature ensures a guaranteed survival so it’s as if everyone has two lives.

Around half of the season is for the invasion and usually you’d expect that the second half would falter in comparison but as it is a tournament, that isn’t the case. Those battles are incredibly satisfying as well. They also have a lot of strategy to them and in a way that is really what makes the series stand out. Plenty of big titles have strong action scenes but this one consistently has plans on top of plans. By making the battles a 3 way fight of 4 teammates each, there is always a whole lot going on.

Of course the invasion does have much higher stakes so it would still take the slight win. It’s also nice seeing the most powerful fighters in the verse going at it since generally as good as the students are, they aren’t going to be holding their own against the upperclassmen. Jin himself doesn’t get much action this time but he got to steal the show repeatedly in season 1 so that makes sense. Additionally, his ability to give the Earth time to prepare still makes him the automatic MVP.

Meanwhile in the tournament, there may be times where you feel like the aces could do a little better in the fights but overall the strategies make sense. This is a series where there are power gaps but generally they aren’t crazy. A normal fighter can defeat an elite with the right amount of strategies. The prodigies are able to move a little faster or hit a little harder but it’s not like Superman going up against Green Arrow. So while I can be a bit skeptical when someone like Kuga isn’t shredding 3 ordinary joes, it’s easier to understand than in other titles.

At 12 episodes, the season goes by a lot quicker than the first one which had an incredible amount of episodes. You still feel like a lot of progress is made but of course that’s probably since I love all of the action. The tournament is still ongoing so in that sense it may feel like things haven’t moved a ton but it’s all in how you look at it. I wouldn’t mind if the tournament kept going on for a whole other season.

Now lets look at the characters. First up we have Osamu and he is desperate to look better than last time where he got absolutely crushed. This time he gets to show off what he can do with his new wire traps which are really effective. It was a clever way for him to get around his lack of abilities and he still has the occasional dash to try and crush someone’s shield. While Osamu can be a little too quiet and soft spoken at times, he’s a pretty decent lead. There’s nothing you can do about being weak in this verse as your base trion won’t improve much, so coming up with a smart way around that is a good idea.

Meanwhile Kuga continues to look good as the ace. He has some of the best physical stats in the series and it’s all with a weaker trigger than what he usually had. He is always the power hitter of the group and continues to get more and more adept at using different fighting styles. Technically I would say he has less of a focus here than in other arcs but still makes his presence known at all times.

Chika also gets some good moments with her gun but unfortunately deals with that trauma of hers where she can’t shoot anyone directly. It’s a pretty big issue so hopefully she will be able to bounce back from that soon. Right now it severely limits her and without that, I dare say that Osamu’s group would win every battle with ease. The sheer amount of destructive force that she has is completely through the roof. A few shots would completely bury the whole map.

Hyuse gets his own subplot here as he moves closer to his goal of returning home. Ultimately there won’t be a way for him to do this unless he plays ball and so he prepares to do just that. In the process h has to raise his rank and prepare to join a squad. Anyone who saw season 1 won’t be surprised at his level of ability. The guy can be rather deadpan but is a supremely good fighter and one who knows his limits. That is really what makes him incredibly difficult to defeat. I look forward to him appearing more since that will be real entertaining.

Next up we have Katori Squad. This team is as dysfunctional as it gets and that really ends up hurting them a whole lot. Katori is fun with how aggressive she is and her love of battle. Her skills are definitely considerable but she tends to try doing a little too much on her own and actively ignores the plan. This may work if you have truly unbelievable power but in this kind of setting it’s usually going to be a pretty big L. She is thoroughly embarrassed during the initial match but I give her kudos for trying hard until the end. The teammates are not without fault but she played the biggest role in their defeat.

Rokuro just needed to go about things in a less combative way. I know he was just trying to get his point across but the problem is that he’s really weak. So in this case you had someone strong who was not good at planning and then someone good at planning who wasn’t strong. Sort of like a discount version of Osamu and Kuga. Hopefully they are able to recover from this in the future.

Then we have Kakizaki squad. This team has no real standout fighters and so they try to win with good old fashioned coordination. I would say this team is used to show the limits of that approach. Ultimately you do need an ace if you are going to win. You can have 3 people with the best levels of teamwork ever but if none of them are super skilled, you will eventually lose. Fumika gets props for her quick thinking on how to block Chika’s bullet and force her out of the comfort zone. Meanwhile the other two did well in putting up a consistent fight but they aren’t the most memorable characters. I’d say that’s just a side effect of the team structure.

After that is Ikoma squad. Their leader is not the smartest guy around and just likes being an attacker. So as a result the rest do their best to cover for him. Ikoma can get away with this because he is incredibly skilled. Almost nobody is able to block his sword strike which goes for a very long distance and deals tremendous damage. It’s a technique that few have managed to copy and I like the idea that he just decided to master a pretty basic move that nobody stuck with. I’m not the biggest fan but he did well there.

Mizukami is also good because he has a strong level of confidence that I like to see. Not to say that any of the other teammates don’t have that, but he sticks out a bit more. This team is really good at using multiple shooters and winning the long range battle. It’s an interesting team composition and one that works pretty well. At least they do have an ace although I wouldn’t call this one of the most impressive teams.

Finally we have Oji squad and I really liked these guys. This is a complete strategic team. None of them are aces, but they are all as smart as possible and can still be deceptively skilled. The leader, Oji is definitely the standout character. He tends to be one step ahead of the others and is ready to kill steal at any time. He’s fighting for results, not some misplaced kind of honor. He’s right, in a real battle there are few rules and so he does whatever it takes to win.

Kazuki and Yutaka are also really analytical and work well with Oji. It’s hard to say if they were always like that or Oji helped to mold them into his image. Either way it makes for a team with incredible synergy as well as a solid baseline of skill. I’d like to see more of them in the future. They didn’t have the most unique designs though so I wouldn’t count on a lot more for them, although at the same time the cast is so large that maybe this had to happen. I mainly focused on the big teams for this season but the cast probably has about 100 characters at this point. Coming up with big designs for all of them really has to be a massive challenge.

As for the new aliens, Gatlin is probably my favorite one. He is a supremely good commander who knows how to read a situation and can even handle multiple opponents at once. The fact that he could keep a whole squad on their toes is incredibly impressive and his cannon is also really powerful. He’s a good example of another character who really thinks things through. What makes him rally dangerous is that he’s essentially as strong as an A rank fighter with Osamu’s kind of thinking process.

The rest of the aliens are also pretty solid and each have their own unique personalities. Of course they’re almost all geniuses but this is the kind of series where that’s true of just about everyone. Even the “dumb” characters tend to have above average intelligence which is pretty funny. The aliens have the advantage of being able to call out near endless amounts of foot soldiers while the humans have the advantage of more substantial numbers of real fighters as well as home field advantage.

The animation has been touched up since the first season so you will immediately notice how much flashier it is. The animation is incredibly smooth and the art style works perfectly. It really gets the blood pumping as the characters go at it. The soundtrack is also good with quite a few solid tunes mixed in there. It makes for a powerful combo all the way through.

Overall, World Trigger season 2 is really quite good. That is even an understatement, this is an elite title. I highly recommend it for all anime fans because it’s not every day that you get this level of strategy. It’s one of those things where it is hard to describe this with justice through text alone so you really just need to watch it. I would also say that even if the series never gets a proper ending, the conclusions here are good enough. You still got a great taste of what the concept is all about and of course we do have another season coming up so I’ll be reviewing it at some point. With the tournament still going strong, it’s really a foregone conclusion that season 3 will also be incredible. The writing and strategy ensure that nothing less can happen.

Overall 9/10

Fire Emblem Review

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It’s time to return to the world of Fire Emblem. I had a pretty good time with the first game and I can tell you that this one keeps going on the same level. The gameplay is missing a few quality of life updates that the first one I played had, but this one ultimately wins on the story and characters. You really get attached to the characters by the end and won’t be forgetting this title anytime soon.

The game starts off with a lengthy 10 chapter “tutorial story” where you play as Lyn and save her kingdom from a corrupt guy who tried to poison the King. You then play as Eliwood and get to the meat of the game. A war has suddenly broken out as usually is the case in Fire Emblem titles and a bunch of Kings are being manipulated by the man in the shadows. This has caused a lot of tensions and so they need to shut this group down. Eliwood is assisted by the noble prince Hector, as well as the return of Lyn. Together the three of them are considerably powerful and will meet a lot of other characters along the way to strength their forces. The stakes are high because if a character dies in a match, they die within the story!

That’s a mechanic that is famous in Fire Emblem and rightfully so. It added a whole lot of danger to the game because if you mistimed your action at all then you will end up being in a lot of trouble. Even the strongest of warriors can go down quickly if he walk into a trap and the same is true of the other side. You can bump off a powerful enemy with a “weak” fighter as long as the weapon and range are right. This s a true strategy game in every sense of the word.

Even inside of the levels there is always a constant strategy of protecting your forces vs going on the offensive. If you stay defensive for too long, then the villains will send in reinforcements to destroy you. Of course if you go too aggressive then you will leave your back row fighters vulnerable or will suffer heavy casualties. You don’t know where the reinforcements will come from or when either. It’s like a true war where surprise is always on the table. A single misstep and you are really toast.

Fortunately to make you feel okay even as you have to retry the mission over and over again, the game has a great soundtrack. You will recognize quite a few tunes from Super Smash Bros. I would say this might be the best Fire Emblem soundtrack so far as the tunes are all so good. You can easily bop to the kind of music that is being played here. Meanwhile the graphics are also really good. I loved the attack animations that would appear and the stages are really clear. They put a lot of effort into this one and it looks better than the average GBA title. The art style has aged really well.

One tip I’d give is to make sure you play the final side mission right before the final battle. Turns out that it is a restock mission to let you get new weapons and such. Without that you could find yourself soft locked on the final level. This is one thing that is annoying about the game. There are no shops in between levels anymore. So you have to really find the shops within levels in order to get new equipment or you are going to be in trouble. It’s tough to do this though because it does cost a turn each time and those are usually hard to come across in the story.

You definitely have to pay extra attention to your formations as a result so you don’t waste one of your stronger ones searching for shops. Then investigating homes will sometimes get you extra items and even new characters but they can also be empty so it’s a gamble. In an easier game this would be no problem, but again this game is actually rather difficult. So every action is just time away from your main objective of defeating opponents. Above all else, just remember to protect your healers. They are incredibly useful in this game. Your main fighters may get potions but it’s not the same since they have to use their turn up for that.

Also, don’t underestimate the bosses of each level. These guys can chew through all of your fighter’s health with ease. Sometimes they only need one turn to do the job and they tend to have massive range. At least their are counter strategies. The cheesiest enemy though is the long range red mage because I don’t know what you’re supposed to do about him. He can hit you from anywhere on the map which mind controls you for 3 turns and forces an ally to murder you or get murdered. Without rewinding and constantly changing formations, it just feels like this is a super cheesy “you lose” button that can happen in the last levels. Maybe there is a solution to this but otherwise I thought that was the only time the game wasn’t being a good sport. Ah well, the game is so long so only having one kind of really cheesy villain isn’t so bad I suppose. The final level’s boss rush felt more fair in comparison.

Overall, Fire Emblem is a pretty good game. The story is considerably long and I will also say that the game can be very difficult. Underestimate it at your own risk! All it takes is one well placed move by the villains to destroy one of your pieces. The Nintendo Switch Online allows you to rewind, without that you would really be in a tough predicament. I look forward to Nintendo adding the Gamecube Fire Emblem soon! That’ll be a really fun day but until then this is a title I would wholeheartedly recommend.

Overall 7/10

Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire Review

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It’s time for another tactics title and unfortunately I am here to say that it is definitely not a particularly good one. As with the others that I’ve played recently, it takes away all the fun from the concept. The game goes too far in trying to be as realistic as possible and completely forgets about the fun factor. You always need a good balance in order to succeed here and the game completely forgot about that. It’s a shame since I think this could have really ended up being solid but in the end it definitely did not live up to the potential.

When you begin the game you get to pick which event you want to play through. Big history buffs will recognize the differences but to a casual player it all looks the same. Fun enough and all that but nothing to really hang your hat on. They may as well have only had one level for all the difference it would make. The levels can also be quite long as I managed to survive for well over a decade before dying and that’s considering that I had no clue what to do.

Aside from combat you can also make deals among the men, give them food, barter for items, etc. The game lets you simulate almost every part of a real war from back in the day. You definitely have a lot of control this way and I can definitely see someone getting a kick out of it but the problem is that everything takes so long. This is probably unavoidable for a game of this scale from back in the day but it also means that you wish it was not so intricate.

You want to be able to just rush in and start fighting but of course you are penalized for doing that. It puts you in a really bad position because you are meant to do all of the side parts of the game but in that case it will be forever until you see any real combat. The actual combat is slow enough as it is since you can barely move in each turn. It ends up feeling like a real RNG fest. I know a lot of it comes down to skill as well and I couldn’t figure that out either. So as a result everything ends up going sideways here. Not really the way to go about things.

At the end of the day this feels like a war simulation game but without any real hook. It doesn’t help that the graphics are not particularly good. They’re not awful or anything but they also aren’t testing the limits of the SNES architecture. You’ll forget all about them by the end, same with the soundtrack. It’s just very generic and doesn’t do anything to elevate the experience. At the end of the day it means that this is a game that will not withstand the test of time, not even by a little bit.

Throwing in a true story mode would really help for this kind of thing. Adding that in addition to the simulation mode would have been a really good idea. For starters it would give you a way to really identify with the characters as well as make you want to keep playing. There isn’t much reason to play through otherwise since there are no real cutscenes. You just have to absolutely love the gameplay and it feels like that would be a very limited audience. How many people actually enjoy that kind of thing? Give me a classic 3D beat em up instead any day. Then no matter what happens with my allies and the A.I., I know that I can do in and just start taking names. That’s a way more fun experience.

Overall, This is definitely not a game that you have a whole lot of fun with. It was too ambitious for its own good although even in the modern day I’m not sure how good a remake would be. If it can make things very cinematic then that could work but the key will be ensuring that every part of the game is fun. Counting up the money and distributing among the warriors doesn’t really seem like a good idea if you ask me. It’s just not the proper way to play a game and have a blast. Definitely skip out on this title if you can.

Overall 3/10

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Lord of Darkness Review

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Uh oh, it’s another strategy type game! Lord of Darkness takes thing further than the first game in regards to how realistic they are going with the simulation. You now have to worry about supplies and 7 different kinds of locations in addition to the battles. As a result there is far less gameplay than in the first one. The difficulty of the battles themselves appears to have been lessened but the game itself is just as difficult as always because of all the other factors you have to worry about. The more you have to keep track of everything, the more you will quickly find yourself being absolutely shut down. Ultimately, you’re doomed here.

The game has only 2 scenarios instead of 3 this time but maybe you unlock the third later on. The main goal of the game is really to go in and conquer all of the world. Along the way you will have to fight or ally with other team leaders. Of course the whole quest feels virtually endless with how the other armies keep popping up like whack a moles. Defeat one of them and another 3 come in to take their place. Trust me, it’s not ideal when you like to see your progress going up. I felt the same way for De Blob 2 and Paper Mario: Color Splash. I never like the idea of enemies recapturing different locations that I already got.

The only exception I can think of is Dynasty Warriors since it’s all happening in real time and it’s on the same level. So it doesn’t feel as bad when I lose a piece of land compared to other games where it means a whole lot of back tracking. I would argue that it is a completely different circumstance to be honest. Then this game is also just very complex with how the supplies are handled. You can give orders once a month so you have to be very complete with them. Try addressing as many areas as possible because the wait to the next month will be absolutely brutal. Of course on the other hand this also means that each month will be really time consuming.

The enemies seem to be a lot more relaxed this time around though so I made it through many seasons without being attacked. That also means that the game gets downright boring though. You’ve also got a lot of RNG elements here like floods that come washing in and illnesses that take chunks out of the general populace. Why add RNG to a heavy strategy game like this? The answer might be that it tests your strategic skills in an ever changing environment but it just makes you less invested since your well thought out plans can be done in an instant.

The graphics are okay at best but it’s clear that they were not a big priority here. There’s also not much of a soundtrack at all. I can say that they did put a lot of effort into the gameplay so I’ll give them some props there. It just wasn’t any fun and ultimately that is the most important part of any game. Who is going to play a video game that they don’t think is an absolute blast? It just wouldn’t make sense and so this one just forgot to be super fun. I’m sure strategy fans may get a kick out of this one but it definitely does not have the kind of widespread appeal that you would like to see here.

In terms of quality of life features, the game could definitely stand to label the units. They’re all very easy to mix up. The difference comes down to their weapons and flags. If you really pay attention then you will know what they all represent but having a basic map on screen would be nice. In a more modern adventure you wouldn’t need that since the game would have way more details but in this case it is an absolute necessity. It’s certainly an instance where the game’s technical limitations really came back to bite it.

There’s not a whole lot more to get into with this game. You can activate multiplayer which can make things a little more fun but the sheer chunk of time that it would take up would probably end up hurting quite a bit. With two players that is basically double the amount of time that it would take to clear each game and that’s assuming that one of the other 25 computers doesn’t win. So if you’re going to do a multiplayer battle this is probably not the title to use.

Overall, I would say to avoid this game. Even though it’s free, there just isn’t much fun to be had here. The menus are way too extensive and the gameplay is too limited. I would probably rather read a book about the warring states than play through this one. I can’t say that I find the period too engaging even on a good day but there are ways to make it interesting. Perhaps a modern PS5 remake would prove to be different but in the meantime this is definitely a full on skip.

Overall 2/10

Uncharted Waters: New Horizons Review

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Okay this one is actually a bit more brutal than the Nobunaga’s Ambition title. For starters there is still combat but it’s even slower and the bartering is even more detailed. Well, I’m jumping into this a little out of order so let me slow down here. Lets just say this isn’t like the Uncharted games that you’re used to. No sir, this is a very different experience and unfortunately I can’t exactly say that in a good way. I suppose there is a whole lot of water though.

So the game starts off by letting you choose from a bunch of characters. It probably makes a difference on how the game starts off so I picked the guy who seemed the most well rounded. You start off by talking to a bunch of people to get your starting equipment. Some food, water, men, items, and of course a boat. Now what you gotta do is travel the world and buy/sell items of commerce in order to get things rolling.

This is of course where the game starts to really lose a whole lot of steam. It’s just not a fun kind of gameplay. For starters you have to monitor the going prices on each island. Say Island A sells corn for $5, but island B sells it for $3. You want to go to Island B and buy a lot of it, then go sell to Island A where they really need it. Multiply this by over 20 different items and of course factor in that you need to have enough money to invest in buying more food for your men as well as to buy more material to buy. Amp up the confusion even higher when you have to deal with pirates that are running around.

These fights are hard to win and take a lot of men. If too many die, then you’re going to have to find more at another island which will of course take even more fuel out of your tanks. That’s not good. Did I mention that you can also run into random storms that eat up materials? Bet you didn’t think of that one….and if you die at sea it’s a full game over. There is no save point to go back to. You have to start from scratch. In a way it’s sort of like Digimon World Next Order where the intro is the toughest part as you will lose a few generations on getting the basics going but by the mid game you are really well prepared for what’s next.

Difference is that I don’t have a really enjoyable story and fun graphics to incentivize me to do all of that. No, instead I’m supposed to just enjoy the process and that’s not good enough for me. There is a story here of course as you’re taking someone back to his kingdom, helping a stowaway, etc. There’s also a war going on but none of it is particularly captivating. It doesn’t move you the way that a more interesting story could have. I know there were some technical limitations back in the day but it didn’t stop a lot of other big SNES titles that I’ve played back in the day. No sir, those just kept on trucking through.

The most I can say for the game is that it looks pretty nice. It reminds me of the old Final Fantasy titles. It’s peaceful to be moving around without any wild encounters running around. It feels like a long time since I could just explore the hub world like that so it was really a good change of pace. It even made me think that the game could have been good if it was limited to just the island. Maybe you’re the mayor and you have to take care of folks with a lot of trading. I think that could have actually worked out well but this one was just too ambitious for what it was trying to do. It ultimately was doomed to not be able to succeed this time.

Now just to leave the series some hope, the other way it could work out is if they made this into a big MMORPG. Imagine this scale but all of the people running around are actually real people. It’s why that genre always had a lot of potential. I don’t see myself really getting involved in any of those because honestly that would be extremely time consuming but I do get the appeal. If you are ever going to make a trading game that is actually fun, I don’t see any other way around it. You need to add that social element to the game, it would make you heavily invested. Particularly if there are social guilds and everything since then you don’t want to let your party down.

Overall, Uncharted Waters is not a good video game, I would even go as far as to call it a pretty bad one. I actually think it could be a good educational tool for kids but in that case the gameplay is a bit too difficult. They would need to find some kind of a solid middle ground but ultimately this just isn’t it. This is not the game that will really change things for folks and that may be unfortunate but it’s just the way that it goes. I can see why this game never got all that huge. I like to say that I am a fan of strategy titles but perhaps I’ve been overrating myself in that department. These definitely show that I’m still out of my depths past a certain point. I need some kind of excitement to get me going. Unlike fighting games or platformers, the gameplay alone cannot carry the game.

Overall 2/10

Nobunaga’s Ambition Review

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It’s time to get into the old time strategy games on the SNES. Nobunaga’s Ambition is definitely a game that everybody has heard of but I’m sorry to say that it has not aged well in practice. The gameplay takes too long to get to and there is too much RNG. Hardcore strategy fans will have a kick with this but it is lacking the quality of life features that would make this a winner. You end up watching more than actually participating which is not a good idea. Maybe one of the sequels will do the trick but I have my doubts.

The game starts off very ambitiously as you decide how many players will be participating between 0 and 8. Yes, 0 is an option as you can then watch the war going on. I tried that mode once and watched for about 10 years of in game time but the war just never ends. The world is too large so when one faction gets a lot of land, the others end up capturing some eventually. It’s an eternal war you can say. When you are actually playing the game with 8 people you can prevent that but of course it will still take a while. Playing as one person? Well you’re going to get crushed.

I do appreciate the game allowing you to choose if you want to watch the computer’s turns or not though. I made sure to say no because the game would absolutely take forever if you did that. Each match is a very long experience because of the amount of details put into it and watching all of the 28 countries duke it out would really take forever. When it’s your turn, you can choose to attack a neighboring country, make a deal with them, or flat out bribe their citizens to join your country. I suspect these options don’t really begin working until you have a lot of money and prestige though because I tried on several accounts and it just didn’t work. Even with rewind so I know the chance was 0% there.

As for fighting, well that’s something you can win but without rewind I imagine you would be dying a lot. When the match starts, you position where you will put your men. The kicker? You don’t actually know where the opponent will put their men until the match has actually started. So worst case your king will be immediately surrounded. If that happens then you are really cooked because it’s not just a loss if your king is defeated, it’s an instant game over! It’s quite the harsh punishment.

You also keep all injuries and deaths from the previous rounds. So lets say you start with 100 men and lose about 30 in the first fight. Well, now you will have 70 fighters left for round 2 and that number will only continue to be reduced in each ensuing battle. That’s I guess where the bartering would come in. You can try to buy and sell rice and even order more men but it’ll cost you gold. So in addition to the fights you have to really take all of that into account as well. You’re also surrounded by 2-4 enemies no matter who you pick to play as so you have to hope that they don’t all attack you back to back. If they do then you’re really in trouble.

Sites list the game as 50+ hours and I can definitely see why. I imagine that eventually you will beat enough opponents to really make a name for yourself and improve your reputation but it’s definitely not going to be easy and is going to be a long time. You will have to suffer some losses to give your other forces time to marshal their defenses. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Where some modern quality of life features could have helped would be with the speed of combat and the little cutscenes here and there. If you remove those then everything probably gets to be a whole lot easier.

As far as the graphics go, the game looks quite old. None of the character models are all that descriptive and the game also just throws you right into the fire. If you want a tutorial then you’d best look for that online because you won’t be seeing anything here. No as far as this game goes, you just need to try your best. There’s not much of a soundtrack but I wasn’t really expecting that anyway. This is an old time war game so it’s meant to be very somber.

To me there just isn’t a lot of incentive to playing this. If you want to try and take over the world, I imagine it would be much more fun irl in a dungeons and dragons kind of setup. One of those real rpg games where you play with everyone and just enjoy the game itself. That’s the way to do this kind of game rather than in a video game. Still, this game got enough sequels where it makes sense that a lot of people do have a good time with it. I will also say, it is still better than Harvest Moon for what it’s worth although I can’t see myself playing either game for very long.

Overall, Nobunaga’s Ambition just makes you want to play some Dynasty Warriors. I think that series spoiled me a bit because uniting the world through combat just makes way more sense than this strategy title. If you’re gong to do strategy, then do it in a straight forward way like in Fire Emblem. You keep the strategy fights while also not having to worry about the smaller stuff like supplies, grain, etc. Just focus all the way on the combat. Hey it’s free on the Switch if you have the online though so maybe you ought to give it a shot.

Overall 3/10

DC: Dark Legion Review

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It’s time for the latest DC app game! I gotta say it’s pretty crazy how the last one is completely dead and has no online presence despite being fairly new while this one is already way more popular. It’s not even as fun which is the ultimate irony for me but I am glad that people are having fun. It won’t be sticking around for me on this journey but I do see the potential.

The story begins with the Batman Who Laughs taking over the multiverse. He has destroyed all who opposed him in every timeline. We are finally down to the last timeline where the player, Terry must put a stop to his evil designs. Terry will be working with Earth’s mightiest heroes but when he gets to Earth they are already on the losing side of the battle. Green Arrow, Catwoman, Batman, and Wonder Woman appear to be the last fighters left as Superman vanished recently. Can they find and rescue all of the heroes and villains to unite against this common foe?

The fact that there is a mysterious tower in the middle of the city drawing everyone towards it just like in the last mobile game for DC is a fun coincidence. Still, everything else is very different here. For starters the art style is definitely way more comic book inspired. Everybody looks like their traditional selves this time around. I would also say the art style is just a lot better even if the animation itself may lag behind the former game. I enjoyed the fact that we do have real cutscenes and voice acting here. Yes it may be a bit cheesy to have Superman punching Batman around and the latter surviving but Batman does say he could feel that Superman was fighting the mind control.

Just imagining Batman tanking hits from Superman like that while in an evil state is a bit intense. The Batman Who Laughs is an interesting villain, although I’d need to see more out of him before saying if he is really good or not. He is absolutely crazy without a doubt but that doesn’t automatically mean he is a great character. This guy basically destroyed the multiverse but doesn’t seem to have any goals beyond just trolling. Trolling is in itself fun though so maybe that works, again we just have to see how it goes and I can tell that this is the kind of story that won’t be moving too much.

I played through the first 8 chapters before putting the game down. I don’t actually know how many chapters there are but it seemed like a good batch before writing the review. First up I can say the amount of content that the game has is very impressive. There are at least 10 different modes including story, PVP, missions, guild content, etc. You have a lot going on here and there aren’t really any advertisements. There are constant places asking you to buy items with real currency but you can largely ignore those. The HUD is rather jam packed so it can be tough to maneuver around at first though.

I can always appreciate when a game launches with a lot of content so that was nice to see. It can really make the difference in a title like this. There are about 30 playable characters so far, I unlocked about 8. My best fighter was Black Adam whose attacks are super handy. The gameplay is your standard auto based combat system where the heroes attack on their own and you just click on the supers when ready. You can put that on auto too though and speed everything 2X. I did that since there isn’t much reason to assume direct control most of the time.

The problem is the heavy focus on building. You’re building different parts of the bat cave, new homes, different facilities, etc. Each one takes between 20 seconds to 3 minutes for the opening levels and you can spend in game currency to shorten it but you know that it’s ultimately a trick to waste your resources in the early game. I built and upgraded over 50 things before I stopped and I can tell you that it is repetitive. You can only build one thing at a time unless you spend real money and this needed a quality of life update badly. Something to really make the whole experience smoother. There is just too much clicking over and over again.

If you really like building then you will love this game. Otherwise I don’t see the combat being important enough to keep you interested. The gameplay style could stand to be a lot more interesting since as it stands every character is pretty interchangeable. It also takes too long to get to the point of things as the tutorial itself takes around 1-2 hours to complete. It’s not even like the concepts are that hard, the game just explains things very slowly.

Overall, I like the direction the game is going in and it does look to be an interesting playthrough. It’s just going with the classic drip feed approach and you will need to be committed to the game for a very long time in order to pull this off. To me the game just isn’t interesting enough for that. That’s the nature of mobile games though. Put it this way, with an actual ending and if this was a console game I would play it through to the end. The game itself is good but when it comes to mobile you really have to pick and choose your battles since they are basically endless until the servers give way. So I’ll be curious to see how many people stick with this one but for me at least? This was the end of the road.

Overall 7/10

Godzilla Battle Line Review

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It’s time to jump into the next Godzilla app game but I’m afraid to say that this one is not very good. It’s one of those app games that is a clear cash grab from start to finish. Nothing about the game is very enjoyable to me. It was just missing the key elements to make this a high quality title like fast paced gameplay, quality fights, etc. In the end the strategy styled gameplay just didn’t have anything on the console Godzilla games and this one would have been better off with a connect the dots gameplay style like Fruits Mania. At least that gameplay style is always guaranteed to be off the walls hype. I generally play over 100 levels of that gameplay style real quick.

Okay so this is similar to Digimon Championship in that you don’t control the Kaiju themselves. You throw them onto the field and then they move towards the enemy. Along the way you can drop them some assistance, items, and such. These will be the difference between victory and defeat so definitely pay very close attention here. If you make the wrong call then that could be it for you. That’s about it, I mean I’m over simplifying this by quite a lot but that’s about the size of it. It all comes down to who has the better strategy and monster team.

I can say that the cast of Kaiju in the game is pretty impressive though. You’ve got numerous different Godzillas running around and pretty much every Kaiju you can think of. The game didn’t feel too greedy in terms of what you need to pay for but granted, they tend to all seem that way at first. I would probably have to stick with this game much longer to see if that is really true or not. The gameplay just wasn’t fun enough to hold me.

So okay, what’s the problem with the gameplay? Well because I can’t control the Kaiju, it feels more like I’m just watching the A.I. attack each other. It’s not interactive enough for me. It’s like watching computers playing against each other in a game, it may be interesting for a minute but for the whole game? No shottttt, that’s just not my cup of tea. What I need is to be doing something. Let me assume direct control of the Kaiju so I could go over there and take the enemy down. I would pull it off even if my opponent had a higher power level or something like that. You’re missing the human touch with this kind of setup.

The graphics aren’t bad at least. It’s not really something to write home about but the chibi character models are good and I liked the explosion effects. As a whole it really doesn’t look super bad or anything but of course it does completely look like a mobile game the instant you lay your eyes on this one. There is really no escaping that fact, that’s for sure. The soundtrack is completely forgettable. You won’t remember the tunes by the end, it’s definitely not the kind of game to sneak in some kind of lyrical song or big metal tune.

At least I can say that the replay value is basically infinite. You can keep on playing until you are the number 1 ranked player in the world or something like that. It is definitely a tough road to the top but if you keep on practicing then anything is achievable. The fact that the game is still going means that at least some people are still playing here and after taking a quick look online I see a lot of positive reviews for it. Granted, the people who are searching up videos for the game are probably fans first and foremost so that makes a lot of sense. They would be more likely to enjoy the game and so I hope their community is able to stay strong. This may not be a game that I was particularly interested in but the plus side is that it helps to continue keeping the Godzilla brand nice and strong. I’m still waiting for that big Godzilla vs Kong game which is supposed to be coming out in early September. Hopefully that one is a lot more fun.

Overall, Godzilla Battle Line is lacking way too much in the actual battling. You’re not fighting here and I know that this is a strategy game but even then I need to be doing something. If I have my hands empty for so long it just doesn’t feel like I’m really playing a game at all. If you’re going to pull off a strategy game like this I dare say that the levels have to be shorter or you have to find some way to make the player more engaged. The original Godzilla mobile game was also strategy oriented but it was a lot more fun as you planned out your resources. That was interactive and high stakes. This game couldn’t quite match up to that no matter how hard it tried.

Overall 3/10