Tactics Unleashed : Chapter 1

[Moderator]

VGsatomi: The first of its kind on wc3, Tactics is a turn-based RPG similar to those seen on console systems. Perfect battle system and a good story.

 

[clockwork2]

uuhh...it says their all chapter 1....

 

[tulee]

(Played this years ago).

One of the best campaigns on Hiveworkshop. One of the attributes of turn-based rpgs is that they need to have an engaging story but there is often only room for a few lines of dialogues during the battles, since the characters normally have an exchange before and during the fight. While some stories cannot flesh out a good plot even with 100s+ lines of dialogue, this campaign gets you hooked immediately with the characters not even needing to talk a lot.

The battle system is also really fun, and forces you to consider the positioning / strengths+weaknesses of the characters. It might force you to reload a few times at the start to become acquainted with what you are expected to do, but when you get the hang of it, you can essentially get through all the missions provided you plan out the fights.

I think it will be a challenge for the remake Jamir is making to match this original version.

 

[Championfighter25]

A worthy sequel to Tactics Unleashed : Prologue , as it adds a lot of things missing from the prequel. The introduction of many new items, new heroes, an interactive world map that gives a sense of scale and the improved battle system with a lot more variety, improves the player experience a lot. Though as always, there are issues and bugs, that need to be sorted out:

General

- Cutscenes aren't skippable.
- The squares where enemies can move to are sometimes shown. It can be a bit distracting.
- To the right of the rest command, it should say how many rounds it lasts.
- Pike doesn't talk like a troll.
- I find it a bit weird how melee characters move fewer squares than ranged ones.
- The locked camera sometimes prevents the player from choosing to move an additional square further. Screenshot in the spoiler tag below.

Spoiler

- The cast animations for spells can be a lot shorter.
- A quest log during battles could be added. Mostly for telling you the objectives that get lost in the message log at some point, and for fleshing out the story a bit better with the quest descriptions.
- Choosing the direction your character faces is really cool, but I feel like it would've been better with 8 possible directions instead of the current 4. Depending on the spot you put him in, the hero may not face the direction you intend him to. An example are the screenshots in the spoiler tag below. I want the character to be in front of the area, but no matter which square I chose, he will be either on the side or back.

Spoiler

- Sometimes, a character can move fewer squares than intended because of either terrain like trees or there being even 1 character in front of them.
- The mana cost of spells should be displayed to the right of their charge counter.
- Cutscenes after boss battles should be slightly altered because even if it says some of them retreat, the cutscene doesn't agree and shows their death animation.
- Enemies with healing abilities often use them on units with almost full HP.
- You can easily give 1 hero the weapon of another and fill up his spell slots quickly.
- If I click an empty spell slot that has a percentage number on it, the screen freezes and forces me to reset every time.
- Sometimes, even if I'm 1 square away from an enemy, the attack or spell command doesn't register him as a valid target.
- In my opinion, magic freeze should deal less damage and stun the enemy for 1 round.
- King Gregor doesn't look like a king, Queen Agatha doesn't look like a queen and Princess Minea doesn't look like a princess.
- Gilti, Maria and Lira don't look like knights.
- Pratau having a balance between his attributes and one not really excelling the other while sounding good in theory, actually hurts him a lot. The more you progress, the less good items you can buy for him.
- Knight are typically really heavily armored, so having Gilti and Lira have unarmored as their armor type is strange.
- I've noticed this with the 1st campaign too. The characters at the beginning of most battles are incorrectly placed. The ranged heroes are in the front, while the melee ones are in the backline. It should be reversed.
- The default % evasion chance that characters get, I'm not exactly a fan of. Especially in the first battles of the campaign. There were a lot of times I nearly had a battle won and only lost due to it, and sometimes even battles that I clearly should've lost, but didn't because of it. While battles still require a lot of skill and thinking, I don't like how it's a semi-luck factor in their decision.
- It's a bit annoying after every battle to go back to Luxar village and get items, then leave and go to the next battle which is even further away.
- The locked screen can sometimes not allow you to select a hostile enemy target for a spell, even though you can cast it. Screenshot in the spoiler tag below.

Spoiler

- Yuri doesn't really look like a priest.
- During Yuri's Shinestorm cast, the screen gets spammed with front attack, front attack, back attack, side attack, back attack and continues for about another 10 times.
- Every area you enter should have a description on its map loading screen, to showcase its backstory and maybe tell us what the characters are thinking while going into it. Villages and towns you enter included. You can write ''press ESC for menu, story continuation to continue story'' their quest log.
- Breakshot doesn't reduce the target's armor.

Battle 1

- For a first battle, this was tough. Had to reset a few times to successfully beat. Nearly beat in the first time actually, but the soldier at 5 hp decided to dodge all of my attacks that day and killed my remaining hero.

World map

- A quest log could be added, telling the player where he can go next and what missions he completed. The quest descriptions can also help flesh out the story better.
- A scoreboard can be added, showing how many hours the player has played, how many enemies he has killed, etc...
- The place with the tombstones could've been made into a nice graveyard sub-map.
- Every time I try to enter the training grounds, it kicks me from the campaign.

Luxar village

- Sometimes some or all of the floating text can disappear if I re-enter the village.
- The villagers and peasants should be invulnerable.
- I just love some of the item names.

Luxar village battle

- The move mechanic gives me the option to select a square with unwalkable terrain (the water)

Bahtar Plains battle

- The move mechanic gives me the option to select a square with unwalkable terrain (the water)

Fort Gusta (world map and battle)

- The enemy soldiers on the bottom right of the map just run back and forth.
- If possible, after the Fort Gusta battle, the fort should be visually updated to represent it being in ruins.

Kumenu Canyon (Worldmap and battle)

- Both in the world map and in the battle, it doesn't really look like a canyon, more like a mountain pass.
- The move mechanic gives me the option to select a square with unwalkable terrain (the rocky hill and water)
- Pretty rare, but the boss sometimes selects squares with unwalkable terrain like water. Now that's an unfair advantage.

Porta River ( World map and battle )

- First 2 times I passed through Porta River, the floating text didn't appear and when pressing to enter the zone nothing happened.
- You know the drill with the unwalkable terrain already. (water, rocky hill)
- If you defeat all enemies on the map before crossing the bridge (which I did), it should immediately proceed to the cutscene.

Ghote Plain ( World map and battle )

- Doesn't really look like a plain, more like a mountain pass or a steep hill.
- At the beginning of the map, a few heroes from your party start a little bit farther away from your other ones. Screenshot in the spoiler tag below.

Spoiler

- Unwalkable terrain (rocky hill and water)
- Player two sometimes gets in melee range and still doesn't attack the bandits.
- When Yuri's casting shinestorm, it says ''Bandit casts Shinestorm''.
- History repeats itself as Yuri still loves getting targeted before his troops.
- Not being able to reach Yuri and help him makes this battle semi-luck based, which is something I don't like. The 1st time I played, Yuri died too easily because he didn't dodge even 1 attack and made some poor movement decisions. The 2nd time he took care of them quite easily.

Sady town
- Sometimes some or all of the floating text can disappear if I re-enter the town.
- Villagers should be invulnerable.

Barm Mt. Range

- Why is Yuri under the control of an AI?
- Unwalkable terrain (rocky hill, water)
- Getting to the chest is near impossible.
- Yuri only attacks the bandits once they are very low HP.
- The bandits don't attack Yuri.
- There was still 1 bandit I didn't kill and it proceeded to the world map.

Mine level 3

- Getting to the chest is pretty hard.
- Sometimes the ants ( legion) may not attack your heroes.

Mine level 4

- The portrait for the hive is bugged
- How can a structure dodge attacks?
- Hard, but damn satisfying!

Mine level 5

- The tentacle portrait is bugged,
- The reward was -137 gold. What?

Mine Corridor 27

- The guardians should have different models. Fel orcs just don't fit.
- Where did Yuri run off to after the cutscene?
- The AI is poorly programmed in this battle. They rarely attack my heroes and their movements have no strategic reason, except for going back and forth. They also often run away, even if being in a strategically advantageous position, making the battle a bit tedious.

Mohosa's Secret Chamber & final cutscenes

- Where did Yuri run off to again?

Phew, this is probably the longest review I've ever done. So, overall, even if I've written a lot and there are issues to fix, have a 5. Great gameplay, bonus points for making it in 2007, a variety of items, good terrain, and the world map make it a very enjoyable experience.

 

[Jamir]

Wow, Champion thanks a lot for the splendid review! I didn't expect it to be that long, to be honest. But you've done it, thanks, and congrats on finishing the campaign. It wasn't easy right? This was my favorite campaign so far, and I've replayed it so many times, but I remember some battles also gave me a hard time, I'll comment on that later.

Here, I'm replying on some of the key points in your review. And since I won't be updating this campaign anymore, I'd rather state on what I've already changed or improved upon in the remake. Also, I've put spoilers on some of them in case you want experience the changes first hand.

- Cutscenes aren't skippable.

Each dialogue in a cutscene can now be individually skipped by pressing ESC.

- To the right of the rest command, it should say how many rounds it lasts.

Spoiler

The rest command is now removed. I think it was a bad design, taking your hero out of battle like that for minor regen. Instead, I've now added control points around the battlefield that you can capture to gain passive regeneration.

- Pike doesn't talk like a troll.

Just like Clyve, he's supposed to be human. XD Lack of human models in the game resulted on that.

Hm, actually I can kind of remember why I didn't use custom models back then, I think it was because I had bad internet connection. Yeah, I think that's why I decided to stick on using the normal models for the characters.

This was already remedied in the remake though.

- I find it a bit weird how melee characters move fewer squares than ranged ones.

Maybe because of the armor you're using?

- The locked camera sometimes prevents the player from choosing to move an additional square further.

That's true. Although you can press CTRL+C, I think it's another bad design. It's been fixed in the remake.

- The cast animations for spells can be a lot shorter.

True.

Spoiler

The spells are now shorter, and the player is now given an option to skip the spell animations.

- A quest log during battles could be added. Mostly for telling you the objectives that get lost in the message log at some point, and for fleshing out the story a bit better with the quest descriptions.

Spoiler

Yes, this was already implemented in the remake. I plan to put a separate section for the story segments though, and it will be awesome.

- Choosing the direction your character faces is really cool, but I feel like it would've been better with 8 possible directions instead of the current 4. Depending on the spot you put him in, the hero may not face the direction you intend him to.

True. Although it was because of my limited capability to create a proper grid system at that time.

Spoiler

Somewhat fixed in the remake, as there's now a true grid system in the battle maps. But you can still only face the 4 directions.

- Sometimes, a character can move fewer squares than intended because of either terrain like trees or there being even 1 character in front of them.

Haha yes, it's another one of my horrible design back then. It's now fixed.

- The mana cost of spells should be displayed to the right of their charge counter.

Fixed.

Spoiler

Spell descriptions can now be accessed during battles where you can see its various stats like Range, AoE, Damage, Cost, etc.

- Cutscenes after boss battles should be slightly altered because even if it says some of them retreat, the cutscene doesn't agree and shows their death animation.

I think this is now fixed.

- Enemies with healing abilities often use them on units with almost full HP.

I think this was because of my bad AI knowledge back then.

Spoiler

However, much of the AI is improved in the remake and they will now make more sensible moves.

- You can easily give 1 hero the weapon of another and fill up his spell slots quickly.

True.

Spoiler

But it won't be as easy in the remake though because there will be penalties if you don't use the correct weapon type for the skill. It's still useable, just penalized.

- In my opinion, magic freeze should deal less damage and stun the enemy for 1 round.

Spoiler

In the remake, there are now many new skills that perform like that.

- King Gregor doesn't look like a king, Queen Agatha doesn't look like a queen and Princess Minea doesn't look like a princess.
- Gilti, Maria and Lira don't look like knights.

Same reason as before. XD

- Pratau having a balance between his attributes and one not really excelling the other while sounding good in theory, actually hurts him a lot. The more you progress, the less good items you can buy for him.

Chapter 1 comment: I think I made it that way because you're meant to give him rings. He's flexible in his role to the party. I can't remember much of his stats though...

- Knight are typically really heavily armored, so having Gilti and Lira have unarmored as their armor type is strange.

Chapter 1 comment: For variety I guess? I know it doesn't make sense, I made little sense in my gameplay designs back then.

Spoiler

Remake: Armor types are now, funnily enough, based on the armor equipped.

- I've noticed this with the 1st campaign too. The characters at the beginning of most battles are incorrectly placed. The ranged heroes are in the front, while the melee ones are in the backline. It should be reversed.

Fixed.

Spoiler

The player can now manually arrange the hero formations before the battle starts.

- The default % evasion chance that characters get, I'm not exactly a fan of. Especially in the first battles of the campaign. There were a lot of times I nearly had a battle won and only lost due to it, and sometimes even battles that I clearly should've lost, but didn't because of it. While battles still require a lot of skill and thinking, I don't like how it's a semi-luck factor in their decision.

Chapter 1 comment: Hm. This is true. I think the only way to mitigate the evasion chance is to use back attack and spells. But other than that, there's no other way. Side attacks have minor evasion chance while front attacks are a lot riskier.

Spoiler

Remake: Missing attacks are still a big part of the battles though but there are now a lot of ways to mitigate the enemies' evasion rate. For once, the hit chance is now displayed to the player before the attack so you can assess your chances before trying to commit. Also, accuracy and evasion are now stats. Which means that you can now invest on them if you want to. Archers now have the height advantage bonus if they're standing atop a hill and their target is down below. And as usual, spells don't miss.

- It's a bit annoying after every battle to go back to Luxar village and get items, then leave and go to the next battle which is even further away.

Somewhat fixed.

Spoiler

I now implemented a way for the player to mitigate the backtracking to towns but not entirely removed it. For once, you can now fast travel back to the last visited town, but travelling to the next battle still needs a walk (that's one direction less I guess). Second, your quest log will now periodically update you on all the new available equipment in town so that you can know in advance if you want to visit the town to get new items and stuff.

- The locked screen can sometimes not allow you to select a hostile enemy target for a spell, even though you can cast it.

All locked cameras are now fixed in the remake.

- Yuri doesn't really look like a priest.

I know right? XD

- During Yuri's Shinestorm cast, the screen gets spammed with front attack, front attack, back attack, side attack, back attack and continues for about another 10 times.

I remember this... still now sure what causes it haha.

- Every area you enter should have a description on its map loading screen, to showcase its backstory and maybe tell us what the characters are thinking while going into it. Villages and towns you enter included. You can write ''press ESC for menu, story continuation to continue story'' their quest log.

That's a good idea. I actually implemented unique loading screens in every map in the remake, but the place's backstory certainly helps.

- Breakshot doesn't reduce the target's armor.

Now I remember this. Yeah, this is a bug on the breakshot dummy ability that can't be casted on allies.

Battle 1

- For a first battle, this was tough. Had to reset a few times to successfully beat. Nearly beat in the first time actually, but the soldier at 5 hp decided to dodge all of my attacks that day and killed my remaining hero.

This is true. I also have difficulties passing this battle on some of my runs. And also @tulee XD

World map

- A quest log could be added, telling the player where he can go next and what missions he completed. The quest descriptions can also help flesh out the story better.
- A scoreboard can be added, showing how many hours the player has played, how many enemies he has killed, etc...

Spoiler

These are now added in the remake. You can now use an ability to ping your next story destination.

- The place with the tombstones could've been made into a nice graveyard sub-map.

I don't remember this place. Hmm...

Spoiler

Non-story battles now exist in the remake.

- Every time I try to enter the training grounds, it kicks me from the campaign.

The training grounds are bugged I think. It's hastily patched in the campaign without me heavily testing it.

Luxar village battle

- The move mechanic gives me the option to select a square with unwalkable terrain (the water)

All bugs related to the grid are now fixed in the remake

Spoiler

Because of the true grid system that's implemented.

Fort Gusta (world map and battle)

- The enemy soldiers on the bottom right of the map just run back and forth.

Hehe, I think the inactive AI is programmed to do that. XD

- If possible, after the Fort Gusta battle, the fort should be visually updated to represent it being in ruins.

That's true. Haven't done that yet in the remake though.

Kumenu Canyon

- Pretty rare, but the boss sometimes selects squares with unwalkable terrain like water. Now that's an unfair advantage.

Haven't happened to me but I agree, it sucks. Just like the other bugs, it's now fixed because the grid system has changed.

Porta River ( World map and battle )

- First 2 times I passed through Porta River, the floating text didn't appear and when pressing to enter the zone nothing happened.

Hmm... I wonder what happened here. I can't remember this bug at all...

- If you defeat all enemies on the map before crossing the bridge (which I did), it should immediately proceed to the cutscene.

True. But I didn't do it in case you want to look for treasures.

My current progress for the remake ends here. My next comments pertain to Chapter 1 exclusively.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ghote Plain ( World map and battle )

- Player two sometimes gets in melee range and still doesn't attack the bandits.

Is this a bug? I can't remember.

- When Yuri's casting shinestorm, it says ''Bandit casts Shinestorm''.

He has an alter ego. Nah just kidding, it's a bug.

- History repeats itself as Yuri still loves getting targeted before his troops.

Haha. I know right? He must have a certain charm in him.

- Not being able to reach Yuri and help him makes this battle semi-luck based, which is something I don't like. The 1st time I played, Yuri died too easily because he didn't dodge even 1 attack and made some poor movement decisions. The 2nd time he took care of them quite easily.

This is true. I'll definitely redesign this battle for the remake.

Inside the spoiler: My design theory in particular of this battle. Don't click if you don't want to spoil it.

Spoiler

My idea is: Choices. You want to protect Yuri? Send your units there. You want to focus on the bandits? Sure you can do that. Whatever the choice you make, there will be consequences involved. Example: If you focus on Yuri, the bandits might get stronger over time (with reinforcements and such). If you focus on the bandits, Yuri's survival might rely on his luck. There's also the choice of dividing your units to focus on both tasks. It's definitely safer, but it might make both tasks longer to achieve.

Barm Mt. Range

- Why is Yuri under the control of an AI?

Hmm... I think I did this because the hero icons are limited to 7 heroes.

Spoiler

This is now fixed in the remake. My plan is to let you control Yuri from now on.

- Getting to the chest is near impossible.

I can't remember its placement.

- Yuri only attacks the bandits once they are very low HP.

Hmm... is this a bug? I can't remember. Does he still cast shinestorm?

- The bandits don't attack Yuri.

Because I don't want him to become a liability anymore. It's unrealistic though. It will definitely be fixed in the remake.

- There was still 1 bandit I didn't kill and it proceeded to the world map.

What?! Hmm. I can't remember this. That shouldn't happen...

Mine level 3

- Getting to the chest is pretty hard.

Can't remember its location.

- Sometimes the ants ( legion) may not attack your heroes.

Bug, I guess? I can't remember.

Mine level 4

- The portrait for the hive is bugged

No idea what makes that.

- How can a structure dodge attacks?

Hahaha. XD

- Hard, but damn satisfying!

Nice!

Spoiler

Did you know you can XP grind here?

Mine level 5

- The reward was -137 gold. What?

You lost how many heroes? XD

Mine Corridor 27

- Where did Yuri run off to after the cutscene?

Spoiler

Same as before. In the remake, he's now playable after the map where you found him.

- The AI is poorly programmed in this battle. They rarely attack my heroes and their movements have no strategic reason, except for going back and forth. They also often run away, even if being in a strategically advantageous position, making the battle a bit tedious.

Another one of my limited AI knowledge back then.

Phew, this is probably the longest review I've ever done. So, overall, even if I've written a lot and there are issues to fix, have a 5. Great gameplay, bonus points for making it in 2007, a variety of items, good terrain, and the world map make it a very enjoyable experience.

And I really thank you. I am much honored for the review you've made. Not only is it fun reading it, it's also fun replying to it. Hope you'll stick by and try the remake once I'm done with it.

 

[Championfighter25]

Maybe because of the armor you're using?

Makes sense.
If you can pull it off in the remake, a mechanic where the lighter/heavier armor you wear the fewer/more squares you can move would be interesting.

Is this a bug? I can't remember.

It happened to me every time in that battle so it probably is. XD

Hmm... is this a bug? I can't remember. Does he still cast shinestorm?

Yes he does.

Nice!

Spoiler

Did you know you can XP grind here?

Yes I know.
Actually there is sort of a funny story about that.
So, when playing, after the 4th attempt, I didn't at all want to try XP farming there again and just finish it.
I was down to only Vlad, Joshua and Lira.
I put Vlad to the right of the hive, Lira to the left and Joshua in the centre.
The legion spiders loved targetting Joshua and he was on extremely low HP. He had to go to the right of Vlad and retreat close to the trees. The enemies still spawned extremely close and if one survived even at 1 hp, Joshua would be dead and this battle lost.
So I activate his rest command.
And then amazingly, the next 10 spiders that spawned, Lira and Vlad killed, without missing even 1 attack.
Joshua by this point was at adequate HP and I used their spells and finished the battle.
Got a few levels and felt extremely satisfied. Sure, at that time the battle was very stressfull, but now that I've finished the campaign, it's so funny.

You lost how many heroes? XD

3. Although it's kind of funny now, the timing it happened was terrible as it made the last battles even harder.

Hope you'll stick by and try the remake once I'm done with it.

Of course.

 

[Jamir]

Makes sense.
If you can pull it off in the remake, a mechanic where the lighter/heavier armor you wear the fewer/more squares you can move would be interesting.

Yes, that's how my armors work right now. Different types of armor have different speeds. Heavy armors of course will make you slower but you'll have higher HP.

Yes I know.
Actually there is sort of a funny story about that.
So, when playing, after the 4th attempt, I didn't at all want to try XP farming there again and just finish it.
I was down to only Vlad, Joshua and Lira.
I put Vlad to the right of the hive, Lira to the left and Joshua in the centre.
The legion spiders loved targetting Joshua and he was on extremely low HP. He had to go to the right of Vlad and retreat close to the trees. The enemies still spawned extremely close and if one survived even at 1 hp, Joshua would be dead and this battle lost.
So I activate his rest command.
And then amazingly, the next 10 spiders that spawned, Lira and Vlad killed, without missing even 1 attack.
Joshua by this point was at adequate HP and I used their spells and finished the battle.
Got a few levels and felt extremely satisfied. Sure, at that time the battle was very stressfull, but now that I've finished the campaign, it's so funny.

That's really cool. That's very high risk. But at the same time, listening to it feels very exciting! Haha.

3. Although it's kind of funny now, the timing it happened was terrible as it made the last battles even harder.

Yeah, and the last battle, was it difficult for you? I remember some people had a hard time on that one. Even @tulee. XD

Of course.

Thanks!

 

[Championfighter25]

Yeah, and the last battle, was it difficult for you?

I won on the 2nd try. XD
I sacrificed Pike ( let's be honest, Lira approves ) and Gilti to kill the priests. ( their AOE spells would've decimated my party otherwise, even killed a few of their other soldiers due to Pike and Gilti's AOE spells)
Mohosa did a semi-mistake by targeting Lira since he left Samhin unprotected. The 4 heroes I had nearby cornered him. And after that and 2 turns of the character's best abilities, he got killed. ( Though Joshua was at 10 hp in the end so I got kind of lucky)
The real kicker, however, was the ending, since I felt more screwed by it.

Spoiler

First, if it isn't too much of a spoiler, did Mohosa die after I killed Samhin? Since the cutscene made it pretty ambiguous.
Second, I didn't expect it to end on a cliffhanger after I saved the Prince. I actually thought it would continue on another world map or end there. Can't really blame you since it's ''chapter 1'' and ending the storyline there would sound and be weird, was just surprised it ended there. (Me getting lucky may have a part to play in that )
And good intentions, 'nuff said. I knew we wouldn't be getting a happy ending once good intentions were involved.

 

[Jamir]

I won on the 2nd try. XD
I sacrificed Pike ( let's be honest, Lira approves ) and Gilti to kill the priests. ( their AOE spells would've decimated my party otherwise, even killed a few of their other soldiers due to Pike and Gilti's AOE spells)
Mohosa did a semi-mistake by targeting Lira since he left Samhin unprotected. The 4 heroes I had nearby cornered him. And after that and 2 turns of the character's best abilities, he got killed. ( Though Joshua was at 10 hp in the end so I got kind of lucky)

I see, that's a really nice strategy. And that's great that you finished it on your 2nd.

The real kicker, however, was the ending, since I felt more screwed by it.

Spoiler

Sorry for the ending. :/ I promise that I'll continue working on the next chapter after I'm done with the remake. And no, Mohosa escapes, leaving him to deal with your remaining forces (which as you knew, ended badly for him).

 

[deepstrasz]

Spoiler: main road

1. -Vlad freezes animation after stomping in the intro
2. -guard should give you resistance against side and back attacks as well as front ones
3. -sometimes, the heroes don't want to attack as there are no targets nearby, allegedly
4. -the enemy can use the attack option from a longer distance after they move
5. -sometimes the heroes don't go all the way to the chosen circle like the enemy does and stop midway
6. -Pike suddenly gained level 2 but not upon killing a unit but attacking/hitting it; same with Joshua. I guess it's the game's mechanic; actually they gain experience on attack even if they miss
   
7. -Pike also freezes for a while after being annoyed by Vlad
8. -ah crap, upon trying to go to the training grounds the campaign screen is shown

Spoiler: luxar village

1. -spells should be cast faster; too much camera shifting for nothing; plus the camera shows a lot of cliffs/ramps/raised terrain/doodads while panning around; see through terrain too
   
2. -did the boss run inside the house with his horse?
3. -units selected during cinematic mode
4. -I thought the heroes would have to fight the boss and then maybe a scene about it
5. -two-handed should be written with more lightened colour so it would be seen quickly

Spoiler: bahtar plains

1. -thank God I only had to kill the red bastard and not all units else I'd have lost after two Dervish cast
2. -Vlad was moving back and forth in the end cinematic scene while Pratau was talking

Spoiler: fort gusta

1. -how can I view the battlefield so that I can see enemy positioning?
2. -would be neat to have all the spells in the quest log or somewhere so you'd know how much they last, what damage they do, how many targets they hit and so on

Spoiler: kumenu canyon

1. -kind of unfair when they have the highest gear and the player can barely buy few items for some heroes; not saying it's not doable
   
2. -it's good that you can lose some heroes; isn't there a way to revisit places to gain gold?

Spoiler: river

1. -Lira freezes animation after unlocking
2. -are all the heroes supposed to go on the other side even if the enemy troops are dead? I got both chests this way at least
3. -some heroes like Thorpe and even the Agatha (?) don't have hero glow. You could add it: How to add Hero Glow without Modeling
4. -it would be better not to have locked camera so you won't have to click like crazy till you reach a destination on the world map

Spoiler: ghote plain

1. -skip cinematic scene function?
2. -the blue bois are going straight towards the enemy instead of guarding; they're suicidal but some of them eventually make it Yuri included of course
   
3. -after a cleric cast Shinestorm a spam of front back side attack messages appeared on the screen
4. -"soldier casts heal up". But I'm fighting bandits

Spoiler: sady town

1. -Pratau's damage is the weakest as his strength grows very slow and he doesn't have enough intelligence or agility to consider a weapon for those attributes
2. -oh yeah, the loading screens, they are Warcraft based. They don't make sense

Spoiler: Barm Mt. Range

1. -ah, why am I even guarding? Yuri is kamikazish; at least he's not a requirement; actually that Shinestorm
2. -mass poison!? Does it not fade at all? Herbs work on one hero only? Phew, it's not until death but it lasts quite a lot for a mass spell
   
3. -looks like bandits most of the time ignore Yuri
4. -Lira had 64% under Unlock instead of empty slots. Clicking one of those basically made it impossible to continue with any other action
5. -sometimes Yuri doesn't attack but only moves near the enemy
6. -cure illness on herbs also means removing paralysis, slow and poison?

Spoiler: east mines-level three

1. -weren't the mines supposed to be highly guarded? There seemed to only be two persons there that they had to seal the corridors
2. -the scene does not start directly with cinematic mode on and you can see the three heroes belonging to player red
3. -sometimes guard doesn't work properly in that you get to use it with a hero's side instead of front
4. -battle cry freezes Vlad's animations
5. -spell damage should increase more with level or attributes. Thunderstorm still deals 60 damage at this point which is bad as it's only one target based whilst Blackbomb deals 80 in an area; Pratau's healing is 52 on one target etc.
   
6. -sometimes abilities like Blackbomb are cast on one target even though there seems to be other enemies near the main target
7. -that character is sleeping instead of has already moved, it's how it should be
8. -they're trying to attack/get to the heroes near cliff edges so this might result in the ranged units coming first up the ramp and one by one; the last melee one didn't want to come up and I used Rest on injured heroes
   
9. -sometimes it's annoying to choose the circle for guard if a unit is on it

Spoiler: eastern mines-level four

1. -by the way, why female knight and just knight because you can realize it's a female character judging by looks and name and/or how the characters address these knights?
2. -no more armour and life rings in later towns it seems
3. -enemy's too strong; they deal 100 damage from the front, 166 from the side while I'm dealing 80 from the side (sometimes) with the highest tier weapon); all enemy units are attacking at the same time opposed to most levels where they come in groups
4. -so, problem is you don't have enough gold to change gear for instance to cope with the current situation; you should be able to at least exchange same level items for nothing if farming for gold (without xp) would make it too advantageous for your heroes (I doubt that though)
5. -Breakshot doesn't (at least visibly) reduce armour of enemy units
6. -another problem is that to use the abilities the items give you still have to do something during a battle which might prove to be the next and only one available and a tough one too where the spells you want to learn would be needed from the start

I would have given this 4.5/5 which meant 5 if not for the game design stalemate of the late game.

 

[Jamir]

Thanks for your review deepstrasz, it's greatly appreciated. Too bad though that you can't finish it. But I agree, this is very punishing specially to the new players who have no idea on how its systems work. I think I relied so much on the players figuring out the systems themselves so I left most of it unexplained. And also because of my inadequate knowledge back then on designing player friendly systems. In fact, it can easily be seen when even the first battle can kill you. With that said, I am genuinely trying to make the systems in Remake as close to being player-friendly, as much as possible. Hopefully, it will be less frustrating to newcomers and a will be a lot more enjoyable experience overall.

Anyway, onto your review. Some of these were already mentioned in Champion's review so I won't go into much detail on them. As usual, I'm talking about the Remake here and not on this particular campaign.

Spoiler: main road

1. -Vlad freezes animation after stomping in the intro
2. -guard should give you resistance against side and back attacks as well as front ones
3. -sometimes, the heroes don't want to attack as there are no targets nearby, allegedly
4. -the enemy can use the attack option from a longer distance after they move
5. -sometimes the heroes don't go all the way to the chosen circle like the enemy does and stop midway
6. -Pike suddenly gained level 2 but not upon killing a unit but attacking/hitting it; same with Joshua. I guess it's the game's mechanic; actually they gain experience on attack even if they miss
   
7. -Pike also freezes for a while after being annoyed by Vlad
8. -ah crap, upon trying to go to the training grounds the campaign screen is shown

1. Animation glitches are hopefully fixed in the remake.
2. Hmm, I changed Guard to Wait. It still won't give you resistance but with the systems I made, hopefully it will be more useful.
3. Yes, this is an unfortunate limitation on the targeting system. What it does it that it checks for enemies on a radius around your hero and if that enemy is even a pixel outside of that radius, then the system won't allow you to attack it. A better targeting system without this abstract limitation has already been implemented in the remake.
4. Hmm, I can vaguely remember the radius of the enemy's acquisition range but I think it's a bit lenient than the player's. It's fixed in the remake.
5. Mentioned in Champion's review. All bugs and limitations related to movement are now fixed.
6. Yes, that's how it works.
7. "
8. The training grounds were supposed to be a way for players to grind and to learn new skills and it definitely helped some players through the campaign. I think the version uploaded here was an older version of this campaign, because IIRC, I fixed some of the bugs on the training grounds before. But what made the training grounds buggy was because it was patched after the campaign was already out and it was not tested thoroughly.

Spoiler: luxar village

1. -spells should be cast faster; too much camera shifting for nothing; plus the camera shows a lot of cliffs/ramps/raised terrain/doodads while panning around; see through terrain too
   
2. -did the boss run inside the house with his horse?
3. -units selected during cinematic mode
4. -I thought the heroes would have to fight the boss and then maybe a scene about it
5. -two-handed should be written with more lightened colour so it would be seen quickly

1. Fixed. Spells are now faster and players now have the option to skip the animations entirely.
2. I guess. XD
3. These are hopefully fixed.
4. Some expectations aren't what it seems.
5. I'll try to make tooltips more readable.

Spoiler: bahtar plains

1. -thank God I only had to kill the red bastard and not all units else I'd have lost after two Dervish cast
2. -Vlad was moving back and forth in the end cinematic scene while Pratau was talking

1. Haha. That's close.
2. Hmm. I can't remember much about this, but I think he's on a patrol order?

Spoiler: fort gusta

1. -how can I view the battlefield so that I can see enemy positioning?
2. -would be neat to have all the spells in the quest log or somewhere so you'd know how much they last, what damage they do, how many targets they hit and so on

1. Do you mean on the minimap or in the ingame camera? In Remake, I've worked on the minimap thoroughly so that the players can easily use it to track various elements around the map eg. the heroes, enemies, structures and treasure chests. The camera can now also be zoomed out to get a bird's eye view of the battlefield.
2. Spell descriptions are now a lot more detailed and can easily be viewed even in battle.

Spoiler: kumenu canyon

1. -kind of unfair when they have the highest gear and the player can barely buy few items for some heroes; not saying it's not doable
   
2. -it's good that you can lose some heroes; isn't there a way to revisit places to gain gold?

1. I agree. It was just not balanced for a new player.
2. In Remake, it is now possible to revisit all previous maps to grind or take treasures that were previously missed.

Spoiler: river

1. -Lira freezes animation after unlocking
2. -are all the heroes supposed to go on the other side even if the enemy troops are dead? I got both chests this way at least
3. -some heroes like Thorpe and even the Agatha (?) don't have hero glow. You could add it: How to add Hero Glow without Modeling
4. -it would be better not to have locked camera so you won't have to click like crazy till you reach a destination on the world map

1. "
2. Yes, that's my reasoning for that.
3. In Remake, only your heroes have hero glow and not anyone else. I've made some visual distinction on bosses though to make them stand out.
4. Hmm. I'm sticking to the locked camera here. My reason is that I don't want the player to explore the map by themselves when your hero can't see that part of the map yet.

Spoiler: ghote plain

1. -skip cinematic scene function?
2. -the blue bois are going straight towards the enemy instead of guarding; they're suicidal but some of them eventually make it Yuri included of course
   
3. -after a cleric cast Shinestorm a spam of front back side attack messages appeared on the screen
4. -"soldier casts heal up". But I'm fighting bandits

1. The player can now skip individual dialogues.
2. Haha. It's kind of their AI I guess. Although I think I based it on the enemy's AI too.
3. It's a bug. I never knew what causes this though. I guess it was on the dummy units? Not sure.
4. A bug.

Spoiler: sady town

1. -Pratau's damage is the weakest as his strength grows very slow and he doesn't have enough intelligence or agility to consider a weapon for those attributes
2. -oh yeah, the loading screens, they are Warcraft based. They don't make sense

1. Mentioned in Champion's review. I think I designed him that way so that his role to the party is flexible? And I guess you're meant to give him rings to fortify his stats. Can't remember much of his stats though.
2. I'm making my own loading screens currently. They will also be much more descriptive of the current map.

Spoiler: Barm Mt. Range

1. -ah, why am I even guarding? Yuri is kamikazish; at least he's not a requirement; actually that Shinestorm
2. -mass poison!? Does it not fade at all? Herbs work on one hero only? Phew, it's not until death but it lasts quite a lot for a mass spell
   
3. -looks like bandits most of the time ignore Yuri
4. -Lira had 64% under Unlock instead of empty slots. Clicking one of those basically made it impossible to continue with any other action
5. -sometimes Yuri doesn't attack but only moves near the enemy
6. -cure illness on herbs also means removing paralysis, slow and poison?

1. Haha. His AI is based on the enemy, I think. In Remake, I'm planning to have Yuri play a bigger role in the player's army.
2. Poison is a slow burner though.
3. It might get annoying to protect him otherwise.
4. It's a bug, although I can't remember this bug at all. Champion also reported this.
5. No idea why. :/
6. I think they do specific things. Potions are redesigned on Remake.

Spoiler: east mines-level three

1. -weren't the mines supposed to be highly guarded? There seemed to only be two persons there that they had to seal the corridors
2. -the scene does not start directly with cinematic mode on and you can see the three heroes belonging to player red
3. -sometimes guard doesn't work properly in that you get to use it with a hero's side instead of front
4. -battle cry freezes Vlad's animations
5. -spell damage should increase more with level or attributes. Thunderstorm still deals 60 damage at this point which is bad as it's only one target based whilst Blackbomb deals 80 in an area; Pratau's healing is 52 on one target etc.
   
6. -sometimes abilities like Blackbomb are cast on one target even though there seems to be other enemies near the main target
7. -that character is sleeping instead of has already moved, it's how it should be
8. -they're trying to attack/get to the heroes near cliff edges so this might result in the ranged units coming first up the ramp and one by one; the last melee one didn't want to come up and I used Rest on injured heroes
   
9. -sometimes it's annoying to choose the circle for guard if a unit is on it

1. I'm planning to recreate this place. It's secret for now though since I'm still theorizing on this.
2. These are hopefully fixed.
3. I agree. Guard is kind of annoying to use. It's mostly because there's no real grid system in place here. Waiting will now allow you to face a fixed direction.
4. "
5. Yes, scaling is now implemented in Remake.
6. I don't know what causes this, but I think they are not detected inside the radius? Never mind. A better targeting system is now already in place.
7. Hm. Do you mean the text that displays when you select them?
8. I agree. The AI here is a bit wonky. Hopefully I've improved the AI to work much better now.
9. That's true. I've changed how selecting a direction for the Wait command works now.

Spoiler: eastern mines-level four

1. -by the way, why female knight and just knight because you can realize it's a female character judging by looks and name and/or how the characters address these knights?
2. -no more armour and life rings in later towns it seems
3. -enemy's too strong; they deal 100 damage from the front, 166 from the side while I'm dealing 80 from the side (sometimes) with the highest tier weapon); all enemy units are attacking at the same time opposed to most levels where they come in groups
4. -so, problem is you don't have enough gold to change gear for instance to cope with the current situation; you should be able to at least exchange same level items for nothing if farming for gold (without xp) would make it too advantageous for your heroes (I doubt that though)
5. -Breakshot doesn't (at least visibly) reduce armour of enemy units
6. -another problem is that to use the abilities the items give you still have to do something during a battle which might prove to be the next and only one available and a tough one too where the spells you want to learn would be needed from the start

1. That's the title given to them.
2. Yes.
3. It's true. But you are meant to update your skills though to easily deal with those enemies. This game is balanced like that. But like I said above, the systems here were left totally unexplained so I can see why you had a hard time here.
4. Actually, it's another one of the more abstract but punishing systems here and I'll explain. During all of the battles, if you managed to gain a victory without losing a single hero, the reward is doubled. This system was in place so a perfect play is always incentivized. Which means that if you didn't do too well in the earlier battles, you'll be punished and you will indeed have a harder time later on.
   • In Remake, this system is still in place and you still won't be able to afford all of the equipment once they become available. I stuck to this because I want the player to carefully plan on their party composition and strategize on the upcoming battles. But I also implemented a way to make this more accessible to people. For example, when playing on an easier difficulty, the reward is multiplied to a point where you will most likely be able to buy anything that you want. (And yes, there will now be multiple difficulties)
5. It's already mentioned in Champion's review. It's a bug.
6. Learning abilities is still the same in Remake but they are now a bit faster to ease the grind. Also, there are now skills that can help you speed up the learning process. And since it's now possible to return to previous maps, I think this won't be a problem anymore. I hope.

Anyway, thanks again for the review! With all that's said, it helped me a lot specially on how to better balance the game. I'm sincerely hoping that you'll be able to finish my next campaign.

 

[deepstrasz]

The training grounds were supposed to be a way for players to grind and to learn new skills and it definitely helped some players through the campaign. I think the version uploaded here was an older version of this campaign, because IIRC, I fixed some of the bugs on the training grounds before. But what made the training grounds buggy was because it was patched after the campaign was already out and it was not tested thoroughly.

Rats. That would have saved me from being a loser on the Hive (pun intended).

Do you mean on the minimap or in the ingame camera? In Remake, I've worked on the minimap thoroughly so that the players can easily use it to track various elements around the map eg. the heroes, enemies, structures and treasure chests. The camera can now also be zoomed out to get a bird's eye view of the battlefield.

You know like right at the start of a battle, you can use the screen as in Warcraft III to see whatever you want but after the first action that option is disabled and you're stuck with a locked camera on the selected player unit.

Hmm. I'm sticking to the locked camera here. My reason is that I don't want the player to explore the map by themselves when your hero can't see that part of the map yet.

Well, you cannot get to places before the pathing blockers are removed and also, you could just make them not visible until you reach them (fog of war/black mask etc.).

The player can now skip individual dialogues.

This was particularly annoying on the Hive mission as I tried different strategies with items and such.

bug.

I mean the priest cast it but it said soldier instead of priest or whatchamacallit.

Hm. Do you mean the text that displays when you select them?

Yes.

For example, when playing on an easier difficulty, the reward is multiplied to a point where you will most likely be able to buy anything that you want. (And yes, there will now be multiple difficulties)

Well, I can always grind the levels again, right?
Too bad I wasted more money on armour. I've played many JRPGs and armour there has an impact against enemy damage but here it only does what it says, gives some hit points. It was my mistake. I should have bought weapons instead but well not being able to use the spells once you get the items is still problematic.

Anyway, thanks again for the review! With all that's said, it helped me a lot specially on how to better balance the game. I'm sincerely hoping that you'll be able to finish my next campaign.

I sure will be. I could have done this one too if the training ground would've worked, at least I think I would.

About the first mission. Yeah, it might be demoralizing for some but it's doable in that you don't require anything else to win it but what you have.

 

[Jamir]

Rats. That would have saved me from being a loser on the Hive (pun intended).

XD Man, I'm sure you could've finished it if you had the right tools.

You know like right at the start of a battle, you can use the screen as in Warcraft III to see whatever you want but after the first action that option is disabled and you're stuck with a locked camera on the selected player unit.

Oh yea, I see. I fixed the locked cameras in Remake.

Well, you cannot get to places before the pathing blockers are removed and also, you could just make them not visible until you reach them (fog of war/black mask etc.).

I'll look on what I can do here. Thanks for the suggestions!

This was particularly annoying on the Hive mission as I tried different strategies with items and such.

Yea that's true. I'll try fixing that specially whenever you retry a battle.

Well, I can always grind the levels again, right?

Yes. You can now revisit the previous battle maps so grinding will always be an option. But it will remain that way, as the player's option. Grinding isn't mandatory, at least on Normal difficulty or below.

Too bad I wasted more money on armour. I've played many JRPGs and armour there has an impact against enemy damage but here it only does what it says, gives some hit points. It was my mistake. I should have bought weapons instead but well not being able to use the spells once you get the items is still problematic.

There have been significant changes on how the armors work in Remake, like adding to your Defense or Evasion stat, in addition to HP and MP.

I sure will be. I could have done this one too if the training ground would've worked, at least I think I would.

I know you would.

About the first mission. Yeah, it might be demoralizing for some but it's doable in that you don't require anything else to win it but what you have.

That's true but it's still pretty difficult for a first battle.