03-20-2013, 09:37 PM
Pokemon Conquest
A game of redundancy and identity crisis lays before you. This game is stuck between a Japanese strategy game and a Jrpg designed to be accessible to children. This inherently is where the problem lies. The pokemon defy Nobunaga's Ambition, the game Conquest is based on, while breaking consistency in strength and defeating the purpose of striving for excellence. If I dare so explain,
Pokemon Conquest is a turn based strategy game centered around "the hero of Ransei", the player, and their attempts to unite all of "Ransei", or copy paste Japan shaped like THE POKEMON GOD, in an open world turn based top view battlefield. Gameplay is reminiscent of other tactics games, Final Fantasy tactics coming to mind, but it lacks the variety in character that you get from tactics. I don't mean character depth, though there isn't a two dimensional character in the game, I mean actual play-wise abilities. Each Pokemon get ONE move. ONE move, is all you get and it is solely dependent on the Pokemon, so your Shinx starts out as a melee character and ends being a Luxray lightning artillery unit, so if you want a CQC strategy, you're done it there. This game does represent Pokemon rather well however in its unfortunate aspects, grinding. The initial mission of uniting Pokepan are sectioned off in the same mission by different areas of the continent. The game will not let you progress within it until you've killed everybody. Then, you will encounter stronger kingdoms and wait a few in-game months while your eevee bulks up.
You don't have this problem when you actually get to select your own mission AFTER BEATING THE GAME, so you eventually do get to employ more land grabbing tactics than scorched earth policies, but that is a long way ahead. What is interesting about post-story Ransei is that not much of it makes sense. For a string of missions, you play as the different female leaders of Ransei, and a girly man, taking over each other's kingdoms in a land grab Mrs. Universe style apparently. Of course, now you get to enjoy the basic strategy that comes with games in this territory, mining and throwing money at the park to make it grow. No, I am not kidding. You unlock banks post-game. Now you're waiting turns so that you can give the kid's a swingset so Tyranitar infect the playground. Sure, you get stronger pokemon quickly, but all the Pokemon you get carry over anyway, and that leads to the main problem with Pokemon Conquest. Your Garchomp ain't got a stick to wave at that piplup! Everything is reset, all work lost, whenever you complete a conquest, and remeasured to the next one you select. The game doesn't level with you, you devolve with it. Those difficult conditions you were fulfilling to get Mewtwo are now meaningless because you did well, and won, not that it matters as the game's multiplayer is local download play anyway.
Though, I have to give the game some credit.
As frustrating as it is, I do enjoy it. I like the game, maybe not as much as Ogre, or Final Fantasy Tactics, but it has its charm when you recruit someone you had before and can push, and I cannot deny that it is simple enough that the game will work as a good introductory series to tactics and strategy games. It is relatively small though manages to stretch itself out for a while, mostly from grinding, and if you're like me, you'll enjoy a scenario or six. It just gets old quickly because the only major changes between scenarios are basic objectives and characters. You always see the same venues, always attack the same kingdoms, always fight on the same arenas. It just gets, well... dry. As much as I have railed against this game, it is good, not as good as other tactics games out there, but if you want to try out a tactics game and don't mind a slower pace learning environment, this is an excellent game for you. Though if you get it, make sure a good friend of yours does as well, or you'll be bored blind before you can say "I'll remember your face" (a really creepy thing generic soldiers say if you don't recruit them)
A game of redundancy and identity crisis lays before you. This game is stuck between a Japanese strategy game and a Jrpg designed to be accessible to children. This inherently is where the problem lies. The pokemon defy Nobunaga's Ambition, the game Conquest is based on, while breaking consistency in strength and defeating the purpose of striving for excellence. If I dare so explain,
Pokemon Conquest is a turn based strategy game centered around "the hero of Ransei", the player, and their attempts to unite all of "Ransei", or copy paste Japan shaped like THE POKEMON GOD, in an open world turn based top view battlefield. Gameplay is reminiscent of other tactics games, Final Fantasy tactics coming to mind, but it lacks the variety in character that you get from tactics. I don't mean character depth, though there isn't a two dimensional character in the game, I mean actual play-wise abilities. Each Pokemon get ONE move. ONE move, is all you get and it is solely dependent on the Pokemon, so your Shinx starts out as a melee character and ends being a Luxray lightning artillery unit, so if you want a CQC strategy, you're done it there. This game does represent Pokemon rather well however in its unfortunate aspects, grinding. The initial mission of uniting Pokepan are sectioned off in the same mission by different areas of the continent. The game will not let you progress within it until you've killed everybody. Then, you will encounter stronger kingdoms and wait a few in-game months while your eevee bulks up.
You don't have this problem when you actually get to select your own mission AFTER BEATING THE GAME, so you eventually do get to employ more land grabbing tactics than scorched earth policies, but that is a long way ahead. What is interesting about post-story Ransei is that not much of it makes sense. For a string of missions, you play as the different female leaders of Ransei, and a girly man, taking over each other's kingdoms in a land grab Mrs. Universe style apparently. Of course, now you get to enjoy the basic strategy that comes with games in this territory, mining and throwing money at the park to make it grow. No, I am not kidding. You unlock banks post-game. Now you're waiting turns so that you can give the kid's a swingset so Tyranitar infect the playground. Sure, you get stronger pokemon quickly, but all the Pokemon you get carry over anyway, and that leads to the main problem with Pokemon Conquest. Your Garchomp ain't got a stick to wave at that piplup! Everything is reset, all work lost, whenever you complete a conquest, and remeasured to the next one you select. The game doesn't level with you, you devolve with it. Those difficult conditions you were fulfilling to get Mewtwo are now meaningless because you did well, and won, not that it matters as the game's multiplayer is local download play anyway.
Though, I have to give the game some credit.
As frustrating as it is, I do enjoy it. I like the game, maybe not as much as Ogre, or Final Fantasy Tactics, but it has its charm when you recruit someone you had before and can push, and I cannot deny that it is simple enough that the game will work as a good introductory series to tactics and strategy games. It is relatively small though manages to stretch itself out for a while, mostly from grinding, and if you're like me, you'll enjoy a scenario or six. It just gets old quickly because the only major changes between scenarios are basic objectives and characters. You always see the same venues, always attack the same kingdoms, always fight on the same arenas. It just gets, well... dry. As much as I have railed against this game, it is good, not as good as other tactics games out there, but if you want to try out a tactics game and don't mind a slower pace learning environment, this is an excellent game for you. Though if you get it, make sure a good friend of yours does as well, or you'll be bored blind before you can say "I'll remember your face" (a really creepy thing generic soldiers say if you don't recruit them)