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Newest Update! Chapter 25: FINALLY Bonus 4: War (Tank), Huh, What is it Good For? (Absolutely Nothing!) Bonus 5: Tactics Rooms 19-25  What is Advance Wars? Advance Wars is a turn based strategy series created by Intelligent Systems, who are known for their other turn based strategy series Fire Emblem. Before Advance Wars came out, the series began in Japan on the Famicom, and the whole group of games is known as the Nintendo Wars. The Advance Wars portion was the first to be released outside of Japan, and (not too surprisingly) was based on the Game Boy Advance. This game takes a massive departure on the rest of the series, focusing more on the grittier, more disturbing aspect of war, over the rest of Advance Wars' cheesy, "war is fun" attitude. Why Advance Wars: Days of Ruin? I really enjoy this game. While it loses some of the cheesy charm of it's predecessors, it retains a lot of the gameplay. There is still a large focus on money management, and a huge portion is still dedicated to the rock-paper-scissors feel of the various units facing each other. There are some changes, mainly in how Commanding Officers work, and while it seems weird at first, it helps balance the game out a little more for the most part. What can we expect from this LP? I'll be going through the main story of the Campaign, showing off the good and the bad of the game. Should I choose to, I may also show off a number of the extra maps that get unlocked as I progress through the game. I'll also be trying to play the maps as efficiently as possible, getting as many S rank scores as I can. What rules for posting are there? For the most part, go wild. This game is very different from the previous Advance Wars. It didn't do as well, for various reasons. If you don't like it, great, let us know why as the game develops. The only major rule I'm throwing out right now is DON'T SPOIL THE STORYLINE. Because this game isn't as known as the previous Advance Wars, some may not know what the hell is going on. Don't be spoiling the last mission, enemy CO's, whatever when we're starting out. New units, terrain are fine, who cares if there's a newer, better tank. Don't reveal plot heavy crap. If we're a mission or two away from something, and you REALLY can't wait until I get to that point, throw it in spoiler tags. It's what they're there for. And hey, since we're currently in an IntSys games lovefest here in the LP subforum, have some links to other great LP's that are ongoing/ on hiatus: What's an Airport, Again? Let's play Advance Wars by Paul.Power Wearing All White Suits After Labor Day: Let's Play Advance Wars: Dual Strike by Alkydere Escaping From Japan's Grasp at Last, Let's Play Fire Emblem by Artix74 Let's Plumb The Depths of the RNG's Spite in Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals also by Artix74 Extreme Off-Screen Competence: Let's Play Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones by Katreus Greil Mercenaries... MOVE OUT! [Fire Emblem Path of Radiance] by Fedule So without further ado, let's get into the game. Contents: Chapter 1: Starting Out Chapter 2: Where There's Life... Chapter 3; The Numbers Game Chapter 4: Blackout Chapter 5: Oh Ho Ho! Chapter 6: Overpowered? Nah. Bonus Update 1: War Room dialogue 1-6 Chapter 7: On Wings of Glory (Except Dusters) Chapter 8: Old "Friends" Chapter 9: Paradise Found? Chapter 10: This is a Sneaking Mission, Beast Chapter 11: Botes. Chapter 12: Good Chowder, Man! Bonus Update 2: Tactics Rooms 7-12 Chapter 13: GodDAMMIT Greyfield! Chapter 14: The Siege of Lazuria Chapter 15: Icy Escapades Chapter 16: Catharsis Chapter 17: Bullets + multiple targets = Science Chapter 18: The Creeper: Redux Bonus Update 3: Tactics Rooms 13-18 Chapter 19: Praise be the Worm! Chapter 20: Clipping a Bird's Wings Chapter 21: Vengeance Chapter 22: Making Things go Boom Chapter 23: Bombing Run Chapter 24: The Mile High Club Chapter 25: FINALLY Bonus 4: War (Tank), Huh, What is it Good For? (Absolutely Nothing!) Bonus 5: Tactics Rooms 19-25 Trial Maps Trial Map 1: Coast Assault(T17) Trial Map 2: It's a Kitty! (Feline Basin, T3) Trial Map 3: Isosceles Inlet (Triangle Lake, T29) Seraphroy fucked around with this message at May 15, 2013 around 09:50 |
| # ? Jan 17, 2012 22:49 |
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| # ? May 18, 2013 14:00 |
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I have fanart, all of a sudden, stemming from Will being what Jake (from AW:DS) should have been: I Said No  There are also ideas on what Greyfield and The Mayor would do if they actually met: 
Seraphroy fucked around with this message at Jun 9, 2012 around 09:25 |
| # ? Jan 17, 2012 22:49 |
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Chapter 1: Starting out Hello there, welcome to the Let's Play of Days of Ruin.  Moving on from the title screen, we get the main menu. The top screen of the DS gives details of what is in each submenu, but I'm here for that. Single DS play has Campaign (which ends up including the old War Room later on), and Free Battle, which allows you to choose map and CO's. Multi card play is local multiplayer using the DS' wireless connectivity to each other. Nintendo WFC is the extension of that, going over the internet through Wifi. Design room contains the Map Creator as well as CO colors option. Because I don't mind the default CO colors, we'll be leaving that alone unless you guys really want me to change them. Records has a list of various stats like the number of each type of unit created, number of each unit destroyed, etc., as well as a music player, along with the option to reset your stats. Options should be fairly obvious. But enough of menu features, let's jump into the Campaign!     In case you couldn't figure it out, Days of Ruins sheds the cutesy "war is fun!" mentality of the previous Advance Wars games. Don't get me wrong, there is still humor to be had, it's just not nearly as cheesy constantly like Dual Strike is.  : Please... Please let me find someone... : HELLOOOOOO!! Help me, please! I don't want to be alone...So there's our main character, Will, who looks a little worse for wear. And is completely stranded...somewhere. We don't actually find out what happened to him until after this tutorial mission.  : Where's my radio?! Maybe I can call them and tell them I'm here... Help me! My name is Will! I'm a cadet at the Rubinelle Military Academy! Um, do you read? Over.Hey Will? Where'd you get the bike, sidecar, and extra person? It would have made more sense to make him a 1HP infantry, but IntSys isn't exactly known for stellar decisions.  : ...What's so funny? : Look sharp, roaches! We got us a live one! And he's just a punk kid. You know the drill! I want his food, and I want his weapons! Leave his corpse where it falls! Ain't no one going to complain! Gwar har har!: No! Don't do this!Take the bike, Beast! That poor infantry back there needs to get off his feet, and you're riding around in a recon. This tells you where IntSys decided to go for the setting and feel of the game. Rather than have Black Hole bumble around with characters like Flak and Lash, we have the Beast, who is more than willing to outright murder a defenseless kid.  For the observant, you'll notice the perspective changed. Days of Ruin introduced a zoom feature for some reason. I prefer the zoomed out mode, since it feels more like the older games, but depending on framerate, we may yet see more zoomed in play. Anyway, Will knows he has no chance, and because this is a tutorial level, lets the player know that running into a recon, bike, and infantry is probably going to get him killed. He suggests the spot I'm moving my lone unit to. We'll follow his thoughts, mainly because there isn't a better spot. The Beast gives chase on his turn. Things aren't looking so hot...   : I've got a single soldier being pursued by a pack of raiders. The soldier appears to be one of ours. Shall we intervene? : Do it.: Yes, sir, Captain.: Who are you guys?: Skip the introductions. Fall back, and let us handle this.: Um...ok.Will leaves rather quickly, breaking movement ability to do so. Cutscene powers are amazing. : What's the big idea, dogface? This got nothin' to do with you!: It's got everything to do with me. I'm a soldier, it's my duty. You remember what duty is, don't you? I think you used to be soldiers.: Duty? Gwar har har! Don't make me laugh! This world's dead, soldier boy, and so is your precious duty!! We stopped being soldiers when the meteors hit.  : Not anymore.: And who's gonna stop us? You?: That's right. Your days of preying on survivors are over. We're going to put you down like the rabid dogs you are. You may have forgotten your duty, but we have not. : Move out Lin. Let's end this quickly.: Yes, sir.Well now, That's a whole lot of words for "I'm going to kill you, hope you don't mind too much." At this point, we get access to Lin and Brenner's units, so we may as well take a look at all the units available on both sides right now.  The infantry is your basic foot soldier. Infantry aren't there for fighting, only carrying a machine gun effective against other foot soldiers and not much else. What they CAN do is capture cities, bases, etc. This will be huge in later maps, as building captures becomes one of the deciding factors in who wins a battle. They have 3 movement, and can also cross mountains, one of two ground units capable of doing so.  New to the Advance Wars series is the bike. A bike is an infantry unit who decided that marching sucked, and got a set of wheels. With 5 movement to the infantry's 3, they are faster on roads, however having wheels slows them down in forests (3 move units per tile). They are also equipped with a machine gun.  The recon is the first vehicle available in the game. It's a lightly armored scout, hence the name and vision range. They have a movement range of 8 tiles, however suffer the same forest movement reduction as bikes, and using different sets of tires to the bikes take 2 move units to cover plains. Also carries a machine gun to harass infantry capturing cities.  The first real armor unit, a tank won't take many shells before dropping. It has great mobility, using those treads to cover anything but forests with ease, and carries a machine gun to take down infantry units. Where it shines though is against other lower end armor. With the main cannon, it fires shells that pack a punch, taking down the majority of a recon, or another tank. Once out of ammo, it resorts to using it's machine gun against these targets, severely reducing the effectiveness. Let's see one of these in action, shall we?  This is the standard battle screens. On one screen, your forces, the other has the enemy. A short animation plays, showing the weapons fired. I won't be showing too many of these off, because they end up being fairly cut and dry in screenshot form. Remember what I said about tanks being great against recons?  Yeah. Tanks hurt recons. My recon comes in and finishes off The Beast's.  No Will, training is over. This is war. War kinda sucks for the loser. Having finished off the enemy recon, my recon gained a bar of experience. There are three levels of experience for normal units, the first two giving slight boosts to attack, the third boosting attack a little further, and also improving the unit's defence. While this won't make a recon kill a tank, it definitely helps survivability against like units. I end my turn since my units are now used (and are greyed out to reflect that). The Beast moves his forces closer to me, but decides not to attack.  I make him pay either way, attacking his infantry with my recon, taking out 70% of it's health. My tank attacks the bike. The Beast again doesn't attack, mainly because it's suicidal for both units at this point.  Mopping up now, the recon and tank attack the same targets as before, killing both. Under the reticle, you can't see the bike has 4 hp left. Even with the machine gun, the tank rips apart non-armored units.  The Beast doesn't like losing, clearly. Guess he isn't laughing anymore, which is fine because "Gyar har har!" is annoying anyway.  A wonderful screen, S rank is the highest possible. Speed scores are determined by how quickly you complete a mission. Power is determined differently in this game as compared to the older games. Here you have to both deal as much damage as possible and kill enemies to max your score, while doing as few attacks as possible. Technique is also different, but it still is mainly determined by losing as few units as possible, while also counting the number of enemies the opponent had total. You can also ruin this score by building too many units. I will try for as many S ranks as possible, mainly because some are a challenge to get, but I won't guarantee it.  You... you tell him Brenner. Even if you completely outgunned them in a tank.  This screen simply tells you units built and lost by each side. I won't be showing it again, because it's quite boring to look at. Aside from that, we get some conversation after the map:  : Yeah, I...I am now. Thank you. My name's Will. I'm a cadet at the academy. ...I mean, I was. Before the meteors.: A cadet huh? Thought I recognized that jacket. So what happened?: The academy is gone. One minute I was eating lunch, and then... Everyone died. Instructors and friends and... everybody. I was buried in the mess hall. I've been digging myself out for... I don't know. Weeks, I guess. I looked for survivors, but I only found rubble and bodies. ...I thought I was the only one left.You know, this is honestly a really sad tale, and a major departure from the rest of the Advance Wars series. Just think about it for a second. You're sitting there with a couple friends, choking down a hamburger, and then the next second you're surrounded by rubble, and everyone else is dead. You get out after who knows how long and the first person you run into is a guy like The Beast. Poor Will.  : You did well to stay alive. I'm impressed.: I didn't want to die. : And this is my second in command... : We've made it our mission to seek out and aid survivors of the disaster. The world is a dangerous place now. I suggest you come with us.: Yes, sir! That would be fantastic! You won't be sorry about...: Are you all right?: Sorry, I haven't eaten in a long time.: That was your stomach rumbling? I thought we were under attack. Come on. We'll get you some spare rations. Just don't get too excited. All we have is canned bread.Canned... bread? Sounds wonderful. Though after weeks I guess gruel would be appetizing. NEXT TIME! Rescue ops! The Beast returns and is angry! New units! Seraphroy fucked around with this message at Jan 18, 2012 around 21:45 |
| # ? Jan 17, 2012 22:50 |
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Saw this in the Sandcastle and I love Advance Wars games (not familiar with this one though), so I'm looking forward to this!
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| # ? Jan 17, 2012 22:58 |
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I've heard interesting things about this game. Like how it really did shed the cutsey war style that Advance Wars had...and actually managed to pull it off. Even just the changes to the interface already make things feel grimmer. I loved the Advance Wars 2 LP in the archives, so I'll be sure to watch this.
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| # ? Jan 17, 2012 23:14 |
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The localization of this game was an utter clusterfuck. There are two seperate English translations - EU and US. For some reason, someone high-up at Nintendo Japan seriously doesn't think that that English works the same in both regions (no joke, ask Douglas Dinsdale somewhere round these parts), so the EU version has completely different character, unit, place names, etc, and a slightly different script. Despite also being made in Japan, and there being a full Japanese translation actually on the US version cart (and activatable via gameshark code), it was never released in Japan. Great game, though. Pity it sold badly and probably sank the franchise, because it's probably the best designed in the series
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| # ? Jan 17, 2012 23:20 |
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I've waited so long for someone to LP this, keep them coming!
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| # ? Jan 17, 2012 23:25 |
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My opinions on this game are rather strong, and not in a good way. The LP is good, but I'm going to be much more critical towards the game than you are.quote:You know, this is honestly a really sad tale, and a major departure from the rest of the Advance Wars series. It is, but making a game darker than the previous Advance Wars games is like having your NFL team have a better record than the 2008 Lions-it's not exactly a difficult accomplishment. I don't want to dump it all out in one post, but I've said many times before that this game is disappointing. Dual Strike, both plot-wise (with allied COs stopping the campaigns to have friendly battles) and gameplay-wise, had gotten so goofy and out of hand that they kind of had to have a reboot-which I think they blew. I'll be extra-cautious with the spoiler tags just to be safe. Story-wise, I think it puts on a LOOK DARK BRUTAL facade, but beyond that it really doesn't have that much depth, even before we get back to the more familiar elements of the series. The Beast is good for who he is-an introductory, early-game villain, but the protagonists are obviously better, and none of the other villains really become more sympathetic. It would be more interesting if instead of being the unambiguous good guys that they are, if Brenner was in his own way very ruthless, and you saw that his only real advantage was that he was willing to rescue survivors and not just kill them. It's just that I kind of want real depth, or at least an attempt at it, to go with darkening it on the surface. As for the gameplay, it only really feels post-apocalyptic in the earliest, limited-units missions. The basics of the setting give me an early 1990s Afghanistan vibe where there's no authority, just feuding bands of various sizes armed with the scraps of the past military power that's no longer there. The gameplay, especially later on, doesn't fit that image at all I think a modern Fire Emblem kind of deal with your units as individual, irreplaceable characters would be perfect for that vision, and if not that, maybe something like Steel Panthers, where you buy everything with points beforehand and can't build after the level's started. Instead, we just get a few tweaks to the CO system and fiddling with the units.
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| # ? Jan 17, 2012 23:28 |
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Coiler12 posted:As for the gameplay, it only really feels post-apocalyptic in the earliest, limited-units missions. The basics of the setting give me an early 1990s Afghanistan vibe where there's no authority, just feuding bands of various sizes armed with the scraps of the past military power that's no longer there. The gameplay, especially later on, doesn't fit that image at all Oh absolutely. When we end up getting to the point where you're able to buy units at bases, I'm blowing it open as ridiculous in the setting. Later on too, you're right, it doesn't feel quite like the start. Almost like IntSys had no idea where to go after the halfway point, and turned it into a pseudo Advance Wars. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. As for spoilers, I'll add it to the OP (I knew I forgot something), but basically, don't spoil the storyline. I don't care that people know the types of units available, or new terrain. But because this game tanked, I'd prefer that people experience the game as it develops, rather than have the final battle spoiled by mission 2. Stuff coming up in the near future (say, 3-4 story maps), fine, throw it in spoilers.
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| # ? Jan 17, 2012 23:49 |
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Coiler12 posted:I think a modern Fire Emblem kind of deal with your units as individual, irreplaceable characters would be perfect for that vision, and if not that, maybe something like Steel Panthers, where you buy everything with points beforehand and can't build after the level's started. Instead, we just get a few tweaks to the CO system and fiddling with the units. I'm going to have to disagree with you on several of those points. While I agree that this game was disappointing, I do not believe it feasible to suggest that the game embrace a system akin to Fire Emblem. Considering the fact that the same developer makes both series, I would rather not see them try and conflate the two gameplay styles. Fire Emblem focuses on the individual stories by incorporating two elements: individual personality and permanent death. To that end, the game encourages players to exercise caution because units are neither interchangeable nor replaceable. Even among the recruitable knight units, there are vast statistical differences between a Jeigan and an Abel. The beauty of the Advance Wars series is the fact that it encourages a completely different playstyle. Since units are interchangeable and numerical superiority can only be achieved by controlling more territory, the game encourages tactical maneuvering and necessary sacrifices. For example, I would gladly lose a dozen units if it meant I could gain control of a choke point. This is a scenario you would never see in Fire Emblem. The two series are great because they can appeal to different niches. Honestly, I think that adopting Steel Panther's limited units would practically be the same as Fire Emblem's system without the individual character of the units. It would be the worst of both worlds. Without the persistent stats and personality, it is harder to grow attached. Without the interchangeable units, it is tactically boring. To be honest, part of the reason I find Days of Ruin disappointing is the fact that they tried to give more individual character to the COs. The disconnect between having a gung-ho main character when the player is sending dozens of men to their death is jarring. Players still need that distance from the action to be able to enjoy it. If you personally knew the units, you'd hesitate. Anyways, I preferred the game when it was goofy and light-hearted. The developers are better at it to be honest.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 00:10 |
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Krysmphoenix posted:I've heard interesting things about this game. Like how it really did shed the cutsey war style that Advance Wars had...and actually managed to pull it off. Even just the changes to the interface already make things feel grimmer. I wouldn't say the change of setting was well executed. The Advanced variant of the Wars series had always been more popular in the west, and DoR was an attempt by Nintendo to capitalize on that by appealing to what they perceived were western sensibilities. And what we got was pretty much what you'd expect from a Japanese developer coating itself in crude western gaming stereotypes: an awkward balance of drama and wackiness requisite gothic lolita included set in post apocalyptic grey brown. Despite the more realistic tone, characters have barely any more motivational breadth than in the series previous outings. But whereas those were overt caricatures, here they have the pretense of humanity and it usually ends up overly sentimental when there's really no investment from the player's side. That interspersed with some misguided goofiness makes the whole thing one awkward jumble. That said, the strategy game itself is excellent and all the revisions made are pretty much unanimously an improvement making for a better balanced game. If we get a sequel, though, I hope they return to the old art style.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 00:20 |
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Merry Magpie posted:I'm going to have to disagree with you on several of those points. While I agree that this game was disappointing, I do not believe it feasible to suggest that the game embrace a system akin to Fire Emblem. Taking a chance with a new gameplay system, at least in my opinion, would be better than the rolling back the excesses of AWDS without really adding much in its place, and using the same basic gameplay for four games in a row. quote:Fire Emblem focuses on the individual stories by incorporating two elements: individual personality and permanent death. To that end, the game encourages players to exercise caution because units are neither interchangeable nor replaceable. And playing it safe with unique, irreplaceable (generally, some players are more casualty-allowing than others in FE) units is something that would make sense in a limited, postapocalyptic setting. The style of the game we actually got doesn't. By the time you build your first naval units, any feeling of consistency with the setting is done. quote:The beauty of the Advance Wars series is the fact that it encourages a completely different playstyle. Since units are interchangeable and numerical superiority can only be achieved by controlling more territory, the game encourages tactical maneuvering and necessary sacrifices. And we had that playstyle for the past three games (Well, AWDS basically consisted of munchkining your way to victory). It's just more suited to a goofy army world with resources aplenty then it is to the setting of DoR, and I'm the type of person who likes changes in gaming. quote:The two series are great because they can appeal to different niches. As an extensive player of Steel Panthers, I'd say that it probably wouldn't. Steel Panthers is also a territory-to-win system, and it doesn't play very much like Fire Emblem. In one of my most recent full games, I played as North Korea and deliberately filled my army with old T-34s and the cheapest APCs so I could swarm my way to victory, doing just the kind of sacrifices you used an example in Advance Wars. But even that requires you to play it safer, which again, makes more sense for consistency with the plot. Even if you can afford two dozen tanks with your start points, "These two dozen tanks are all I have, and the enemy has a lot of defenses", still puts you in a more preservative mindset than "Well, thanks to these cities I took, I can afford two new tanks each turn, so into the grinder with you." quote:To be honest, part of the reason I find Days of Ruin disappointing is the fact that they tried to give more individual character to the COs. As you should if you really want it to show the casualties of war. Defending against a huge wave of attacking enemies in Fire Emblem is much more emotional than a similar wave in AW with bases. quote:Anyways, I preferred the game when it was goofy and light-hearted. The developers are better at it to be honest. In that, we're in agreement. It tried to have it both ways and failed-going surface dark without really going deeper.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 00:47 |
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Just recently in the AW3 thread did I learn how much people dislike this game. I really loved it, as much as I loved AW 1 and 2. The only complaint I have about the game is the absolutely balls to the walls difficulty of the later missions. Ridiculous.
Medieval Medic fucked around with this message at Jan 18, 2012 around 06:00 |
| # ? Jan 18, 2012 00:47 |
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Medieval Medic posted:Just recently in the AW3 thread did I learn how much people dislike this game. I really loved it, as much as I loved AW 1 and 2. The only complaint I have about the game is the absolutely balls to the walls difficulty of the later missions. Rediculous. It's a very dividing game, I've noticed. Most love the gameplay changes after the clusterfuck of Dual Strike's CO changes. Most also hate the movement away from cute war. I'm okay with each, certain changes on both sides irk me a little, but I still find the game amusing and fun to play. Speaking of that ongoing LP, because I wouldn't have started this LP without it happening, I've thrown up links to the other ongoing IntSys games LP's in the OP. Just in case someone has missed those threads for some reason.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 00:57 |
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I personally enjoyed this game, although I havent exactly beaten it. It can get pretty crazy during the later levels. Waylon Flies Again  Also, I absolutely love the music in the game.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 00:58 |
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Seraphroy posted:Canned... bread? Sounds wonderful. Though after weeks I guess gruel would be appetizing. This exists, and is reportedly actually pretty tasty once you get over the weird factor.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 01:10 |
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I didn't think this game was bad per se, though the characters got a little... Japan-y, every once in awhile. My only real gameplay complaint? loving escort missions. I remember at least one, and I could have sworn there were more. It goes from trying to think about a situation tactically to babysitting weak, fast units that you can't control as they bum rush enemy territory as fast as their movement will allow.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 01:11 |
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Medieval Medic posted:Just recently in the AW3 thread did I learn how much people dislike this game. I really loved it, as much as I loved AW 1 and 2. The only complaint I have about the game is the absolutely balls to the walls difficulty of the later missions. Rediculous. It's not the absolute worst game ever, and it's playable. It's more issues of context and (lack of )innovation that bring it down so much for me. The opportunities IntSys didn't take advantage of. The adherence to the same basic gameplay even when it didn't make much of any sense in context. And how little of the formula, even story-wise, they actually changed
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 01:13 |
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Zaodai posted:I didn't think this game was bad per se, though the characters got a little... Japan-y, every once in awhile. Please don't remind me of this. I really don't want to remember those this early in the game. As for the canned bread, well then. I don't doubt it's tastiness, I suppose it would work as part of military rations, but it just sounds so weird.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 01:14 |
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Yes, the IntSys Lps must flow like a river! More, more, more!!! This was by far the most frustrating AW game I played. gently caress that giant plane mission. It was so long ago that I can't remember the name of the plane but you know what I mean.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 01:21 |
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I don't care what the haters say, I loved this game.  Also, the white boxes around your avatars is really disconcerting, maybe use something like this instead? Spoiler for all the CO's faces http://imgur.com/vlIe0
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 02:27 |
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archduke.iago posted:I don't care what the haters say, I loved this game. I'll be honest, didn't even notice the boxes there. I'll be swapping those out. Thanks. e: ugly rear end white boxes around headshots removed for those in this chapter. Interestingly enough, my original Beast headshot was the only one with a transparency layer. Don't know how I derped that badly to only do it on one, but hey. All's good now. Chapter Two is played and screenshotted, depending on what time I have after work the next couple days it should be up by the weekend, Saturday at latest. Seraphroy fucked around with this message at Jan 18, 2012 around 03:05 |
| # ? Jan 18, 2012 02:38 |
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Will you be posting the full character portraits? I really do like this game's art style. It reminds me of the art in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, actually.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 03:27 |
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Will you be posting the War Room skits? I always found them to be pretty funny.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 04:12 |
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Liked this game, despite how silly it got halfway through. I think the war room conversations were the best part of it though. Gonna follow this.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 04:14 |
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Fudge Handsome posted:Will you be posting the full character portraits? I really do like this game's art style. It reminds me of the art in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, actually. The art is one of the most redeemable things about it, and really belongs in a better game. The only problem is that it portrays out-there characters in the same realistic fashion as the more grounded ones, making it look weird at times.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 04:14 |
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I had only one real complaint about this game: anti-tanks. The rest was either good or about what I expected from the series, anyway.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 04:22 |
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ZeeToo posted:I had only one real complaint about this game: anti-tanks. What's wrong with anti-tanks? This is my favorite game in the series for actually having a balanced and interesting game. I particularly like the way they changed fog of war, and what they did with battleships and carriers.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 04:30 |
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I've always felt this and the older Advanced wars games should've been two separate series going side by side although I can't think of a company who has had both a more cartoonish and serious versions of their games out simultaneously.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 04:35 |
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This game is weird. It tries to be gritty and realistic at the start but then the plot goes loopy and devolves into nonsense. Even if you ignore the MASSIVE disconnect between story and gameplay the whole thing still doesn't work well at all. Also if I remember correctly the level design reaches horrendous levels of bullshit towards the end. Then again I've never been particularly good at these games, so it could just be me sucking.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 04:45 |
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The cartoonish aesthetic of the old games makes it easier to see what's going on. In this one I can hardly pick units out of the brown-gray sludge of a map.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 05:23 |
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I love this game so much and I hate this game so much. Well, I really only hate the dissonance between what the game tells you the atmosphere of the game is like and what the atmosphere of the game is actually like, and a few stupidly hard missions, but actually I quite like it. I like how they handled replaying campaign and trial map missions, and I really like some of the unit balance changes they made. COs and Powers... not so much, but can't win 'em all, eh? I don't have a source for this (and Wikipedia is of course blacked out for the next day), but here's what I heard about the script; the EU version, which is called Advance Wars: Dark Conflict, was written first and was to be the global release (makes sense, since it was already translated into 5 languages). Then, a US team got ahold of it and were like "guys, this is poo poo. Let's rewrite it". And they did. And if some of the things I've heard about the script are true, then I'm glad they did (and glad I got a US copy to play). EG, I hear Mr Bear was entirely a creation of the US team.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 06:26 |
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This is my favorite turn-based strategy game. It takes quite a while to realize it, but it's extremely well-balanced, and a lot of the time any apparent imbalances are more due to the map than to the unit designs. Mechanically it's superb, and people really don't give it much credit for that; everybody shits on Days of Ruin because it wasn't as trippy as the earlier games in the series or something, but going back to those after playing DoR just made their plots stick out even worse than they did before, and made me realize just how horribly balanced Dual Strike is. It's not the sort of game where I would pay attention to the plot much--its main strength is in the mechanics and balance. But since people insist on bringing it up all the time, when comparing DoR's plot/setting to the earlier games, it isn't being held up against anything better. The plots of the traditional Advance Wars are absolutely ludicrous but still apparently try to be serious at points--this game has it partly the other way around but the contrast isn't as bad. On its own, yes, DoR is quite silly, but when it came out I heard a lot of people comparing its plot to earlier Advance Wars games like they were actually good or something. All I have to say to that is, What's an airport? Seraphroy, you might want to put your own comments in italics, as they aren't very distinguishable from the dialogue right next to them. There are a few bits where things don't have portraits and it'll get confusing when that comes up.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 06:37 |
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I have the weirdest relationship with this game; I absolutely love it, but I still have never beaten Waylon Flies Again. It's been years, and one of these days I'm just going to watch someone beat it on youtube and copy them move for move. The hot-seat style pass-around multiplayer with custom maps made it the alpha and the omega of long car trips with my buddies. We would play it to death, play one round or Mario Kart to get the taste out of our mouths, and jump right back in.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 07:01 |
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Re: making my comments easier to see. When I get in from work tonight, I'll change that to make it a little more readable. For player portraits, music, etc, yeah. It'll at least be a part of the second post at somepoint in the near future. If I find the war room skits, I might also throw those in, because they are pretty great.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 10:45 |
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Of course canned bread survived the apocalypse, it's dense enough to work as radiation shielding.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 19:53 |
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Days of Ruin is my favorite game of the series. I can comment on each mission and obtaining the "perfect" score and not just a S-rank. I don't know if Sephyron plans on discussing the revamped score system, which practically requires a post in itself to explain it. In the first mission, the highest known score is 362 points. However, The Beast has to attack your tank with his infantry, which makes little sense to a normal player. By doing so, it elevates your power score.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 23:25 |
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DTaeKim posted:Days of Ruin is my favorite game of the series. I can comment on each mission and obtaining the "perfect" score and not just a S-rank. I put a small blurb in about it at the score screen, but I may yet pull out the formulae for the scores. They're so much more bullshit than the old one.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 00:51 |
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I also really liked this game, and completely accepted the plot points and characters. Yeah, they're simple and kind of weird but somehow it still worked in my opinion. However, I definitely agree with it being hard, although that fact might have to do with the changes to the CO Power system. This is the only AW game that I needed to check GameFAQs to beat the last mission.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 03:34 |
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| # ? May 18, 2013 14:00 |
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I was a big fan of this game, although there were a few things I didn't like very much. IntSys didn't go far enough with their theme or execution, and I think the game suffered as a result. I loved the awesome music in this game. Didn't sound like much until I played the game with headphones in my DS, but there are several amazing CO themes.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 20:25 |
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