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[XBLA/PSN] Clash of Heroes: Puzzle-RPG goodness, imma chargin' my deer

LunkerLunker Registered User regular
edited May 2011 in Games and Technology
100310-coh-1.jpg

Who: Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes
What: A fantastic turn-based puzzle/RPG hybrid that was one of the best DS games of 2009, and now has new life on the 360 and PS3 with online play.
Where: XBLA and PSN, for $15 / 1200 spacebucks
When: Right now!
Why is this a Might & Magic game: I don't really know, but it's such a great puzzle game that it doesn't really matter what the story is.

My love of Capybara and the original DS version of Clash of Heroes knows no bounds, and now it's out on XBLA and PSN with all-new 2D art assets and online play! Even if you don't care one whit about the Might & Magic universe, or the art doesn't really do anything for you, if you have any love for Puzzle Quest, Dungeon Raid or the slew of other puzzle/RPGs that have cropped up recently, you absolutely need to try this game.

I've described the game prior as a blend of the following:

Tetris Attack/Panel de Pon: You've got very classic match-3 gameplay going on here, but there's a large emphasis on chaining moves together into combinations of matches. Clash of Heroes is turn-based, so you have a limited number of moves per turn to methodically line up and knock out combinations. Create vertical sets of units to attack your opponent, and horizontal sets of units to build walls for defense.

Meteos: The game is set up as a series of 1v1 duels, and the goal is to knock out your opponent's HP. You do this by creating attacks, which launch up at your opponent's screen above after a set number of charging turns. Each different unit has different stats (attack, defense, charge time, special qualities, etc.).

Magic the Gathering: In addition to the conceit of the game being 1v1 duels, you can choose from a stable of characters and character factions, each of whom has different types of units. You can customize your "deck" of units to fit your playstyle, in addition to finding and equipping relics in the single-player campaign that give you bonus abilities.

It's an incredibly deep and complex puzzle-battling game with a decently sized single-player campaign, and the fact that there's online play fulfills one of the major wishes I had about the DS original.

Gameplay demonstration

So go buy it! And come play it with me! I picked up the XBLA version, but both of them have online play.

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Posts

  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I'ma be completely honest... I bought this game buy accident yesterday on the PSN store. Played it for a few and breathed a sigh of relief that it didn't suck horribly.

    urahonky on
  • aBlankaBlank Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    game is awesome. Beat it twice on DS and still bought it again on 360. I've noticed some changes to units/items too and that's nice. Unicorns aren't nearly as OP as they were in the DS version and they nerfed the elf chick's spell. Eldric's spell is much better and knights have a shield rather than start at full health. I'm probably missing other changes but I haven't gotten that far yet.

    Fun times.

    aBlank on
  • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I'm intrigued like a mo-fo. I'll download the demo tonight.

    Cantido on
    3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
  • AddaAdda LondonRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Really good to be playing this on a big screen after I didn't finish it on DS.

    My only gripe so far is I really don't like the red and blue selection squares. I feel they could have done something more thematically suited and with some visual affect that matches the polish in the rest of the game. This really is a minor annoyance though and I'm having a lot of fun without this being as overly fiddly as I find most unit management games.

    Adda on
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  • Gaspode_TGaspode_T Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    This game is totally awesome although I am rocking a painful 0-2 on multiplayer, both times got completely owned by people who must have already had it on DS

    Gaspode_T on
    Gaspode The Talking Wonder Dog
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  • RainbowDespairRainbowDespair Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Played for about an hour and a half. Not sure what I think yet. The core gameplay seems fun, although there doesn't seem to be as many customization as I expected (several different factions, but not a whole lot of choice within a single faction). Graphics are nice & colorful, although the imitation anime art is vaguely annoying and it can be hard to read some things due to small sizes. Way more loading than I would have expected. The plot has gotten some unintentional laughs out of my wife & me so far. Oh and the fact that the game doesn't give you any information about your opponent's troop's abilities means that there's a lot of trial and error early on.

    RainbowDespair on
  • l_gl_g Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    It's odd to me that in the screen shots, it seems harder to see what's going on in the HD version than in the DS version. The DS version was very effective in its use of the screen space it had, though I can understand that trying to bring a game that was made for a completely different display format/aspect ratio to widescreen would be problematic. I'm still not sold on the HD version actually looking better than the DS one, because the DS one had such a wonderfully made lower-res sprite aesthetic. But the balance changes just sound too enticing for me to not play the HD version.

    Has anybody compiled a list of all the unit/artifact/ability changes? The artifacts that were good for each faction were really different, and greatly changed the way you'd play... but there were a bunch of artifacts that just plain sucked. The Academy's Gauntlet needs to break at least one game rule to be cool, but hey, a lot of the artifacts are about breaking game rules. Some of the units also sucked for no good reason (2/3s of Academy's core units are terrible!), while others were somewhat outrageous (Unicorns....).

    l_g on
    Cole's Law: "Thinly sliced cabbage."
  • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I purchased it on a whim. I've never had a Might & Magic game before, board game or electronic.

    Also, the annoying anime art looks annoying because it looks like a less awesome Avatar. :P

    Cantido on
    3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Is there a way to "grind" for some levels? I'm running into quite a few monsters that are two-three levels ahead of me.

    urahonky on
  • aBlankaBlank Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    urahonky wrote: »
    Is there a way to "grind" for some levels? I'm running into quite a few monsters that are two-three levels ahead of me.

    Depends on the level, but there's usually a place where 'random' monsters spawn and you can hit B to avoid it or let the battle happen. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're on the human campaign. Right when you get to the bar, you're given a crap load of high-level contracts with low level dudes. You're best off continuing the story then backtracking but if you don't want to do that, you can go back to where you had to 'dodge' the guards and random encounters happen there now.a

    Most 'cave' areas have random encounters too should you not be stuck there.

    aBlank on
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I'm at the very beginning at the moment (well, a little further than that.. the Druid tree). Also do ALL humans regen their health per turn?

    urahonky on
  • aBlankaBlank Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    urahonky wrote: »
    I'm at the very beginning at the moment (well, a little further than that.. the Druid tree). Also do ALL humans regen their health per turn?

    When any unit is charging, it gains health/damage. Priest units (chicks with staves) while charging give health to your opponent's life. Angels (4 square large chicks with swords) while charging regenerate health to all friendly units. Not sure which you meant :)

    In the beginning, you can go into practically any cave I believe and find random encounters. Just run back n forth.

    aBlank on
  • RainbowDespairRainbowDespair Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Woke up and it looks like I have my own answer - I want to play more Clash of Heroes. Guess I was just especially tired last night and thus in a more critical mood than normal.

    RainbowDespair on
  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Played for about an hour and a half. Not sure what I think yet. The core gameplay seems fun, although there doesn't seem to be as many customization as I expected (several different factions, but not a whole lot of choice within a single faction). Graphics are nice & colorful, although the imitation anime art is vaguely annoying and it can be hard to read some things due to small sizes. Way more loading than I would have expected. The plot has gotten some unintentional laughs out of my wife & me so far. Oh and the fact that the game doesn't give you any information about your opponent's troop's abilities means that there's a lot of trial and error early on.

    I just finished the elf campaign, and compared to the DS original, I have to admit that I like the pixel-art graphics better. I'm not trying to be indier-than-thou, but legitimately, the sprite art just had more charm to it, plus from a functional standpoint I think it did a better job of differentiating units, plus colors (the deer and unicorn both make it quite difficult to differentiate between blue and green). And the loading is definitely a step down from the handheld version.

    The art is debatable and the story is pretty loltastic, but the core gameplay is still as fantastic as I remember! I agree that not a lot of the game is really described well at first -- I forget if it was any better in the original. Re: customization, don't forget that you don't have to use all three of the common units; I never bother with the sprites in the elf campaign, so I prefer rolling with two archers and the bear, along with the deer and unicorn as my two elite units.

    Some other general gameplay tips that I can recall:

    - In terms of defense, sometimes it's actually better to leave your common units idle rather than trying to create stacks to attack. E.g., if you're trying to defend against an attack next turn, and your bear units each have a toughness of 3, if you link them together I think they start with an attack power of 6 or so. This is less than if you left them un-charged (3 bears at 3 each = defense value of 9).

    - On the other hand, when you have elite and champion units, try to get them charged as fast as possible before the enemy attacks them; no matter their toughness rating, if they get even scraped by a single point of damage when they're idle, they are killed and you lose one from your total stock. This also means you should try to break through defenses and take out enemy elites/champions before they can get charged.

    - Linking and fusing are a huge boon. Linking is when you create attack stacks that will end at the same time (the "charge time" numbers match), and you can do this with any unit so long as they're the same color. So if you have a green deer charging with 2 turns left, and you can line up 3 green archers (1 turn charge time), wait until the next turn: the deer will go down to 1 turn left, you stack your archers, and they'll link to the deer. But to link, the colors have to match; charging 3 green archers and 3 blue archers in the same turn doesn't give you any attack boosts.

    - Fusing is kind of hard to do in the elf campaign, since your units have such short charge times; it's easier in the human campaign, as units are slower to attack but are stronger and have more defense. These have to be the same color and the same unit type, but you can also fuse elite units (which is awesome). I don't know if you can fuse champions, but that shit would be crazy!

    - Don't forget that you can delete your own walls to create space and make unit chains. It's also the key to solving the first puzzle battle! Sometimes making too many walls will be a pain in the ass, since you have fewer units to attack with and you'll start to shrink your field of play.

    Lunker on
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  • RainbowDespairRainbowDespair Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Thanks for the tips! A lot of those make a lot of sense but are things that it probably would have taken me a while to figure out myself (like deleting your own walls to get more units).

    Good bye crummy sprites! Hello slow but powerful bears!

    RainbowDespair on
  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I'm more than a little obsessed with the game, as you can tell. :) I just remember the DS game blowing me out of the water with how good it was; there's a lot of complexity in the game's mechanics that's not readily apparent from the beginning. By the end of the campaign you'll get a feel for each of the five factions, so you have a much better sense of the strengths and weaknesses of each one, but by that point the game is over. Which is why I'm excited for the online play in this version.

    Lunker on
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  • Zombie HeroZombie Hero Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    This game is pretty awesome. Seems like load times take a long time, but i guess it will be less noticeable when the battles get longer.

    After i unlock some of the units in campaign ill be up for some multiplayer (on xbox).

    Zombie Hero on
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  • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Can anyone explain the Deer? I know they hit hard, but I can't move them and I hate them. A lot.

    Cantido on
    3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
  • aBlankaBlank Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Cantido wrote: »
    Can anyone explain the Deer? I know they hit hard, but I can't move them and I hate them. A lot.

    Their special ability lets them jump over a single wall. You can move them like any other unit, meaning if they're on bottom of the screen you can click and drag it. It's 2 units long though so if there's only 1 'space' left you won't be able to move it to that square. In order to use them, you need to drop 2 of the same color basic unit behind them. Deer colors can be difficult to tell apart so make sure it's the right color.

    There should of been a tutorial or something for that when you first get them.

    aBlank on
  • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    aBlank wrote: »
    Cantido wrote: »
    Can anyone explain the Deer? I know they hit hard, but I can't move them and I hate them. A lot.

    Their special ability lets them jump over a single wall. You can move them like any other unit, meaning if they're on bottom of the screen you can click and drag it. It's 2 units long though so if there's only 1 'space' left you won't be able to move it to that square. In order to use them, you need to drop 2 of the same color basic unit behind them. Deer colors can be difficult to tell apart so make sure it's the right color.

    There should of been a tutorial or something for that when you first get them.

    There is, and the fact that I can click and drag means I no longer hate them. If you "erase" them to make space, they die. So I had Deer I couldn't use just sitting there endlessly. The fact that I can click and drag changes things by far.

    Cantido on
    3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
  • Gaspode_TGaspode_T Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I found out you can grind in the little caves that have swords over the entrance by walking back and forth between spots, helped get elf girl to L10 but seems like it will take a long time to get all of the minions to L5.

    Gaspode_T on
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  • ArtereisArtereis Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    This game is great. I never got around to picking it up for the DS, but I've been having a blast with the game mechanics. Just about to finish the Griffon Empire part of the campaign. The amount of loading screens is definitely surprising (and honestly, a little off-putting) but I like the puzzles enough to ignore it. I'm looking forward to getting my ass creamed in multiplayer when I finish up single.

    Artereis on
  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    The loading is definitely noticeable, but I've never found it overly terrible. I do wish they had more hints and gameplay mechanic messages to go through, since I think a lot of people don't know the finer points of some of the units. I only know because I played the DS version backwards and forwards.

    Godric's campaign does feel a little more difficult in this version; I feel like they toned down how strong spearmen were, which is probably better because they were pretty bananas (they get first strike, so as long as you're not going against a wall it's pretty easy to rip through an entire column).

    Lunker on
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  • aBlankaBlank Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Lunker wrote: »
    The loading is definitely noticeable, but I've never found it overly terrible. I do wish they had more hints and gameplay mechanic messages to go through, since I think a lot of people don't know the finer points of some of the units. I only know because I played the DS version backwards and forwards.

    Godric's campaign does feel a little more difficult in this version; I feel like they toned down how strong spearmen were, which is probably better because they were pretty bananas (they get first strike, so as long as you're not going against a wall it's pretty easy to rip through an entire column).

    Did they nerf spearmen? If they did, it's not significant. I recall them being charge 3 in the DS version with weak defense (2) and that seems to be the case here. The spear artifact that gives them first strike against walls is amazing. I pretty much exclusively used 3x spearmen + that artifact for campaign. Anything that wasn't a charging champion/elite, stacked wall, or idle champion dies. Very powerful when linked/fused.

    Unicorns were nerfed incredibly hard. I pretty much don't like any of the sylvan champion/elite units. Deer are alright but everything else was nerfed (unicorn, druid, dragon) or sucked anyway (treant ;[). The wraith for the undead was nerfed really hard too. It's like 15 damage at rank 1 or something ridiculous. It's not even worth using. The death knight is so much better now though. Pure zombies + poison artifact + death knights is incredibly strong.

    I'm on the demon campaign now and I wish they buffed some of their units :( Nightmare stacking is still solid but succubus are underwhelming and the first champion has a pretty bad ability (idle charging units that are defeated has their power transfered to him). He still has the worst walls/spell in the game it seems.

    aBlank on
  • Zerozaki IshikiZerozaki Ishiki Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I forgot how much I hated the opening to the fifth campaign. Can't believe they didn't add places to save between three of the hardest battles in the game.
    Ghosts make the first one not that hard, but I really can't figure out how to get through the three titans versus nerfed elf one. Go grind all units? I know I must have done this once before, since I finished the DS version, but any advice would be appreciated.

    Zerozaki Ishiki on
  • l_gl_g Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    aBlank wrote: »
    Did they nerf spearmen? If they did, it's not significant. I recall them being charge 3 in the DS version with weak defense (2) and that seems to be the case here. The spear artifact that gives them first strike against walls is amazing. I pretty much exclusively used 3x spearmen + that artifact for campaign. Anything that wasn't a charging champion/elite, stacked wall, or idle champion dies. Very powerful when linked/fused.

    Unicorns were nerfed incredibly hard. I pretty much don't like any of the sylvan champion/elite units. Deer are alright but everything else was nerfed (unicorn, druid, dragon) or sucked anyway (treant ;[). The wraith for the undead was nerfed really hard too. It's like 15 damage at rank 1 or something ridiculous. It's not even worth using. The death knight is so much better now though. Pure zombies + poison artifact + death knights is incredibly strong.

    I'm on the demon campaign now and I wish they buffed some of their units :( Nightmare stacking is still solid but succubus are underwhelming and the first champion has a pretty bad ability (idle charging units that are defeated has their power transfered to him). He still has the worst walls/spell in the game it seems.

    I thought that the Haven side had two of the most fun artifacts in the crown that allowed you to reinforce for free, and the Dwarven Hammer that allowed you to delete walls for free. The amount of free action that those gave the slow-charging Haven units really let you feel like you were building up a huge army that your opponent just had to stare at in terror.

    The huge nerf to Wraiths sounds a little much. Or maybe they just really want to make sure that you play Wraiths with the Spider Cloak, and turn them into a total all-or-nothing strategy.

    What's the change to the death knight? In the original he was one of the champions that had no special ability and just big dmg, I think.

    I just hope that they did something to make you want to use the Demon side's champions. Between the Nightmare's, the whip artifact that makes them charge at full power, and the Sorcerors, I never wanted to use the champions.
    5th campaign

    Unicorns and Druids were the way to go for me in the DS one. It's pretty hard to hit all the champions with more than 2 rounds of attacks before they attack, so the next best thing is to stall them with Druids and get up a Unicorn shield. If you could get two Unicorn shields going at once, whatever actually makes it through is going to be much, much weaker... except that in the HD version, I don't know how much the unicorn shield has been nerfed (it was nuts in the DS version!).

    l_g on
    Cole's Law: "Thinly sliced cabbage."
  • aBlankaBlank Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    l_g wrote: »
    I thought that the Haven side had two of the most fun artifacts in the crown that allowed you to reinforce for free, and the Dwarven Hammer that allowed you to delete walls for free. The amount of free action that those gave the slow-charging Haven units really let you feel like you were building up a huge army that your opponent just had to stare at in terror.

    Yeah, crown is still around but dwarven hammer is out. Crown is still a solid choice, but linked spearmen are just a FORCE. You basically have to treat them as mini-elite units and the normal tactics of dealing with small units (walls/idle units) doesn't work unless you stack those walls. Very annoying to deal with.

    Also a quick tip for people playing: Idle units will (generally) absorb more damage than charging ones. Example, say you have 4 skeletons in a row and could delete 1 to make a formation. If the opposing side has an already charging formation that'll attack next turn, you'll absorb more damage by *not* making a formation. 4 skeletons at level 5 = 12 points of durability. Charging skeletons start at like 6? I think.
    The huge nerf to Wraiths sounds a little much. Or maybe they just really want to make sure that you play Wraiths with the Spider Cloak, and turn them into a total all-or-nothing strategy.

    Spider cloak got nerfed too. Instead of just draining 75% of your health, it actually lowers your max HP by 75% so no more 'uber vampire' nonsense. Probably for the best.
    What's the change to the death knight? In the original he was one of the champions that had no special ability and just big dmg, I think.

    He absorbs enemy charging formations (at random) for 5 points of damage (at level 5 IIRC). Over 6 (?) turns charging, this gives him 30 more damage. Zombie poison + artifact already deals 6 damage a tick (and STACKS for every zombie formation that hits) and you can shut down your enemies big stacks like nobodies business. You get 2 death knights charging with zombie poison spread around and it becomes stupid hard for the enemy to do anything besides make walls.
    I just hope that they did something to make you want to use the Demon side's champions. Between the Nightmare's, the whip artifact that makes them charge at full power, and the Sorcerors, I never wanted to use the champions.

    Kind of but not really :( I ended the game with Nightmares/Sorcs. They did buff an item... the one where you start with +2 turns on the first turn turned into +1 turn EVERY turn. It's incredibly powerful and makes haven's 'free reinforcement' item look underpowered. One of the champions specials is any friendly formations that are destroyed has their power transfered to it... which isn't useful in the slightest really since charging formations to fight off enemy formations is a horrible strategy (see above). The other champion is pretty decent though. Once it attacks, any idle unit it hits leaves behind a burning corpse. They can be individually deleted I believe and last a few turns. It's like a buffed up version of Emerald Dragon's acid spit. I ultimately just found Nightmare stacking way too useful and the random Sorc for busting up enemy big champs too good.

    aBlank on
  • PasteePastee Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Really excited for this on PSN because of all the reviews. Got it a few nights ago and I'm about halfway through the Human campaign.

    Game has the same addictive factor for me that Puzzle Quest had. Swore I would get through Dead Space this time around, and now it's back on the shelf until I'm done with this.

    Loading times are horrid and long. walk out of a map, get mentally sidetracked while the game loads, and then when I appear I walk right back out of the map again :lol: .

    Game is fantastic. Can't wait until I have all my heroes and units maxxed out. Then I can go play online and get my ass kicked there.

    Still learning stuff, love the trial and error curve. I think I finally figured out the game during the last Elven fight, and now I'm handed all new units to work with.

    Pastee on
  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    l_g wrote: »
    If you could get two Unicorn shields going at once, whatever actually makes it through is going to be much, much weaker... except that in the HD version, I don't know how much the unicorn shield has been nerfed (it was nuts in the DS version!).

    IIRC, in the DS version the unicorn protected the entire front row -- now, they only protect the two columns adjacent to the unicorn. They're still very powerful as a defensive wall, but you have to just place them more effectively now. Plus, the knights for the Humans don't automatically start with their full HP/attack value, but instead they have a shield that protects them from all damage up to half of their max HP. (There is a new artifact that does give knights their "full HP on first turn" ability back, though, so combining that with their new shield is pretty bananas!)
    Pastee wrote:
    Game is fantastic. Can't wait until I have all my heroes and units maxxed out. Then I can go play online and get my ass kicked there.

    Actually, your single-player experience and levels don't carry over to the multiplayer -- it levels out everything in terms of HP and such, although you apparently have to find the single-player artifacts and each faction's secret unit before you can use them in multiplayer.

    Lunker on
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  • jclastjclast Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Are you sure that chains have to be the same color of units? I could swear the only requirement for a chain was that units would fire off on the same turn. I don't think I've ever successfully fused except for in the tutorial though. I'm still in the elf campaign (nice to hear there are 4 more after it), but every time I turn on the 360 I have a difficult time deciding between this and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

    jclast on
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  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Yup, color only. You can see it in this video at about 7:00 or so:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OszBB74KnBI

    Magic Pink on
  • l_gl_g Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I always thought that Spider Cloak ghosts were way more interesting than the vampires because literally no core unit can even scratch them without fusing; upon formation, a Spider Cloak'd ghost is already bigger than a fully charged non-fused Gremlin.

    More questions (haven't got my console with me, so I can't play the game :( ):
    - Is the Spider Cloak attack bonus still 100%?
    - Is Anwen's arrow still strong enough to pull BS wins with the Phoenix Feather?
    - Have they done something, ANYTHING to make the non-Gremlin core units of Academy worth using?
    - The Demon side's core units were an interesting mix, but eventually I found that I was always using 3x Hellhounds. Any changes to them?
    - Can the Academy's Gauntlet pick up walls that aren't exposed in their column? If it could do that, I think it would be really cool, but it couldn't do that in the DS version, and consequently it sucked.
    - Is there more incentive for the Elves to use Pixies? Both of the elf heroes had powers that I almost always used right away, and so I never used Pixies.

    Sad to hear that the Demon walls still suck.
    Removal of the dwarven hammer is also unfortunate... it was awesomely powerful, but in the face of lunacy like the Spider Cloak, it felt perfectly fine.

    l_g on
    Cole's Law: "Thinly sliced cabbage."
  • aBlankaBlank Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    l_g wrote: »
    - Is the Spider Cloak attack bonus still 100%?
    - Is Anwen's arrow still strong enough to pull BS wins with the Phoenix Feather?
    - Have they done something, ANYTHING to make the non-Gremlin core units of Academy worth using?
    - The Demon side's core units were an interesting mix, but eventually I found that I was always using 3x Hellhounds. Any changes to them?
    - Can the Academy's Gauntlet pick up walls that aren't exposed in their column? If it could do that, I think it would be really cool, but it couldn't do that in the DS version, and consequently it sucked.
    - Is there more incentive for the Elves to use Pixies? Both of the elf heroes had powers that I almost always used right away, and so I never used Pixies.

    Sad to hear that the Demon walls still suck.
    Removal of the dwarven hammer is also unfortunate... it was awesomely powerful, but in the face of lunacy like the Spider Cloak, it felt perfectly fine.

    1- It's less, I want to say 75% but it might be 90%.
    2- Nope. It's broken up into 3 arrows (1 per row) now and it's damage might be nerfed some too.
    3- Unsure as Mortal Kombat has interrupted my last chapter play of this game :[
    4- Imps don't drain mana anymore, they explode in a small aoe which I found pointless. I used 2x hellhounds and the horned demon (mostly for it's 3 defense and higher attack).
    5- See 3 :[
    6- Their base damage is lower but their damage based on magic has increased a lot. I still ended up going 2x hunter/1x bear

    aBlank on
  • Zerozaki IshikiZerozaki Ishiki Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Gauntlet still doesn't work.

    I disagree about Aiden's walls and spell, by the way; he's the most offense based character in the game, and shouldn't really have walls in the first place. Having them really makes things difficult, especially while you're trying to get as many Nightmares as possible charging. His spell is perfect for that; makes room to move, and clears the enemy field a bit.

    One piece of advice if anyone else gets stuck the same way -- I missed an artifact in Aiden's campaign because the Bounty Hunter failed to indicate he needed to talk to me one last time.

    Zerozaki Ishiki on
  • aBlankaBlank Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I dunno, I see it as a huge weakness. No matter how 'offensive' someone is, walls are (generally) useful. Having the weakest walls in the game hurts. It doesn't help that if you aren't building walls and playing more aggressively, then aiden's spell will literally do nothing. I don't see how that can be considered an advantage no matter how you slice it.

    aBlank on
  • eobeteobet 8-bit childhood SwedenRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    So, nobody cared about this game when it was on the DS? (It's one of my fav DS games.)

    I find it funny that it's clearly still adapted for a tall screen rather than widescreen, but I guess rotating everything by 90 degrees would have forced them to redraw all graphics... but it would have been worth it, imo, and would have made me buy the game a second time for multiplayer.

    eobet on
    Heard the proposition that RIAA and MPAA should join forces and form "Music And Film Industry Association"?
  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    eobet wrote: »
    So, nobody cared about this game when it was on the DS? (It's one of my fav DS games.)

    I find it funny that it's clearly still adapted for a tall screen rather than widescreen, but I guess rotating everything by 90 degrees would have forced them to redraw all graphics... but it would have been worth it, imo, and would have made me buy the game a second time for multiplayer.

    Hey, I repped the game pretty hard when it came out on DS. :) It's nice to see it exposed to more people, though -- and the online multiplayer is really quite nice. I've only played one or two games, but that's mostly because I'm still working through the single-player campaign. Just got to the necromancer's campaign, about 10 hours in.

    Lunker on
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  • Zerozaki IshikiZerozaki Ishiki Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    aBlank wrote: »
    I dunno, I see it as a huge weakness. No matter how 'offensive' someone is, walls are (generally) useful. Having the weakest walls in the game hurts. It doesn't help that if you aren't building walls and playing more aggressively, then aiden's spell will literally do nothing. I don't see how that can be considered an advantage no matter how you slice it.

    If you're building walls for any reason other than extra turns or clearing out a color jumble, I'd argue you're playing Aiden wrong. He's got the weakest walls to discourage you from using them the way you've been trained to do. You will probably make a few if you've got an eye for combing at all, but you're doing so to make more units/make room for reinforcements, and getting to clear those out with an offensive blast was really welcome.
    I don't think I really worked that out on the DS version, either; after two characters where walls were a huge part of the playstyle I just kept stubbornly making them. But this time around I focused on ratcheting up the damage done, and had a much easier time of it. The megapimp demon in the bar (with a succubus on either arm) is that damn hard for a reason; he's showing you how effective all out attacking can be with demon units.

    Zerozaki Ishiki on
  • aBlankaBlank Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Meh :) I don't think we're even disagreeing. I agree the undead have to be played a lot more aggressively with nightmare stacking and walls take a backseat unless for combos/emergencies, but that also makes them the worst walls :P And building less walls makes his spell worse since it's based on #/str of walls. You just have to play him differently... I just wish they gave his spell the same love they gave the haven dude.

    aBlank on
  • KalTorakKalTorak One way or another, they all end up in the Undercity.Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Does the undead guy still have that artifact that doubles your units' attack power? That thing was broken as hell.

    Love this game; wish they'd make an iOS version.

    KalTorak on
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