Wargroove on the Switch is an incredible hidden gem (similar to advance wars)

[Makar | 1,946]

Wargroove on the switch is absolutely incredible. I recently got this game basically for free with the coins I won from the Tetris maximus 99 cup. I told myself if I ever won, I'd use my coins to try out Wargroove.

Wargroove is a tactical strategy turn based game much like advance wars and fire emblem. It is very similar to advance wars in the style so for anyone who has been waiting for nintendo to make a new advance wars, this technically isn't it but it is pretty darn close. You can buy certain units, capture buildings, get gold, heal, etc. It has some new tactical elements too, especially with healing. You can stand next to a structure to reinforce your unit but it'll cost you gold and deduct the health from the building. And when you capture buildings they get half the health if the unit used to capture it. Additionally, buildings and your main person gain 1 health (out of 10) per turn.

I'm only about 10 levels in, but I was addicted after not even 3 levels. The gameplay is great, characters are great, the difficulty is perfect, and one of my favorite parts is the cutscenes are NOT super drawn out like they are in fire emblem. You can get to the next level within a minute usually.

Strongly recommend this game for those who love advance wars and/or fire emblem. It's only $20 for the digital version too. And there is a physical version as well (for $30-40) which comes with a cool map, stickers and guide book!

For those who have already played it, I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Edited January 1, 2020 by Makar

[fox | 1,666]

It pretty much is Advance Wars/Famicom Wars so if you are still waiting for the new entry, this is the next best thing

I put a ton of time into it, made it near the end.  But ended up on a massive battle with 3 commanders and land, air, and sea units to contend with, it just took hours to crawl over the map.  You want to have your commanders on the front lines because they are the best units in the game, but ended up getting one of them plinked and killed which lead to an auto-lose.  Didn't have the heart to restart after that. 

Update is suppose to feature save/suspend points, I'd suggest using them.

[Makar | 1,946]

Ju

On 12/25/2019 at 11:56 PM, fox said:

It pretty much is Advance Wars/Famicom Wars so if you are still waiting for the new entry, this is the next best thing

I put a ton of time into it, made it near the end.  But ended up on a massive battle with 3 commanders and land, air, and sea units to contend with, it just took hours to crawl over the map.  You want to have your commanders on the front lines because they are the best units in the game, but ended up getting one of them plinked and killed which lead to an auto-lose.  Didn't have the heart to restart after that. 

Update is suppose to feature save/suspend points, I'd suggest using them.

Yea it's a good clone of advance wars while still being it's own thing. I haven't gotten to the sea units part yet but I'm excited for that part. That always adds another tactical element. I'm on act 5 and have gotten 3 stars on every level except for 2 of them which I'll have to go back and do sometime. Still loving the game. It's really good. 

Just picked up the physical copy too! It comes with a map, stickers and a guide booklet. All of which are great bonuses! 

Oh I need to make my own maps too. Apparently that's a thing you can do and then share with others. 

[erac | 78]

Just completed the campaign. While sold as a spiritual successor to AW, it's more like Langrisser/Shining Force than AW. And not as good as AW either. Misc notes: naval units are badly designed. The AI is extremely weak against split tactics, it will focus on one splinter. The screen that shows which units get how much damage from this unit made a gigantic blunder in using the tiny ingame sprites for each, it's very difficult to tell them apart. It should have used sword/spear/bow/etc icons, would've been much clearer.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

All I know is I've beat Advance Wars (on Hard), Dual Strike, Days of Ruin, and most of AW2

...and Wargroove still kicked my ass.

[erac | 78]

It's just different. I S-ranked the entire AW series, for Wargroove half is S, half is A, and one mission is B (the near-final one where you have only commanders, that's far too persnickety to replay). AW penalizes you for losing units, while Wargroove only cares about speed - you will have to sacrifice and go faster in Wargroove.

[erac | 78]

Tried the Arcade mode today, and boy was it a disappointment. Zero challenge. It seems the AI sucks when you don't give it all the advantages the campaign maps do. This severely drops my rating of this game, I expected there'd be a decent amount of playworthy content left (the puzzle mode is not for me, though I did complete half of that).

[Makar | 1,946]

Necro bump. I finally beat the game and it is amazing. Nice solid challenge, fun characters and good battle mechanics. 
 

I also bought the double trouble DLC and at first it seemed super disappointing with nothing significant added. Then I went into the Co-op section. There are at least 8 new missions in there. I’ve beaten the first 4 and enjoyed all of them so I recommend the DLC just for the Co-op. Best part is even though it’s Co-op, you can play the missions by yourself. 

[Makar | 1,946]

Just wrapped up all 9 extra missions on the Co-op mode and they were all excellent. Pretty tough final battle, but not quite as bad as the main series final battles. I’m really hoping they end up making a Wargroove 2 some day. 

[Tabonga | 2,317]

You might want to look at Battle Worlds Kronos - not a fantasy/rpg game but a pretty straight forward tactics game - you have to pay attention since the maps are big and the battles long - so if you screw up you likely have to start over.

Banner of the Maid is also interesting - very much an elaboration of the early Shining Force style in games.

And yeah - Wargroove was a blast.

[Makar | 1,946]

4 hours ago, Tabonga said:

You might want to look at Battle Worlds Kronos - not a fantasy/rpg game but a pretty straight forward tactics game - you have to pay attention since the maps are big and the battles long - so if you screw up you likely have to start over.

Banner of the Maid is also interesting - very much an elaboration of the early Shining Force style in games.

And yeah - Wargroove was a blast.

Which one do you recommend more? Banner of the maid looked like the better of the two from the screenshots I quickly looked through. 

I downloaded the Tiny Metal games a little while ago and while they’re good they’re just not super difficult or very rewarding and emphasized exploration for rankings instead of how well you battled or how quickly you beat a mission which I always found odd.

[Tabonga | 2,317]

13 minutes ago, Makar said:

Which one do you recommend more? Banner of the maid looked like the better of the two from the screenshots I quickly looked through. 

I downloaded the Tiny Metal games a little while ago and while they’re good they’re just not super difficult or very rewarding and emphasized exploration for rankings instead of how well you battled or how quickly you beat a mission which I always found odd.

I would probably lean to the Banner of the Maid. The units are individuals (which makes them easier to track) - the Battle Worlds is more complex and is  a longer campaign. And there are some sorta quests to do in Banner (mostly looking for objects on some of the battlefields).  So depends on what you prefer.  The units in Banner progress and there is a very limited upgrade system in Battle Worlds.  (If you go with Banner I can give you one hint if you plan to play the plus version later and get the dlc content (part of which is free and part of which is like $5.) Not a spoiler per se but something you will need and you have no way of knowing it until it is way too late.

Fell Seal is worth a look also - has an amazing amount of customization via job skills - somewhat wasted since you can only have a few characters active at one time.

Fangamer is releasing Into the Breach as a physical - that one looks really good so I pre-ordered it.

 

I didn't really like the Tiny Metal stuff all that well - not a big fan of fog of war especially on really small fields. (Battle Worlds is fog of war also but the battlefields are huge - which makes a big difference.)

[Tabonga | 2,317]

These are kinda neat - for awhile they sold little cloth banners for each of the countries at the Chucklefish store.  I don't see any images right now but they looked like this drawing:

[Makar | 1,946]

59 minutes ago, Tabonga said:

I would probably lean to the Banner of the Maid. The units are individuals (which makes them easier to track) - the Battle Worlds is more complex and is  a longer campaign. And there are some sorta quests to do in Banner (mostly looking for objects on some of the battlefields).  So depends on what you prefer.  The units in Banner progress and there is a very limited upgrade system in Battle Worlds.  (If you go with Banner I can give you one hint if you plan to play the plus version later and get the dlc content (part of which is free and part of which is like $5.) Not a spoiler per se but something you will need and you have no way of knowing it until it is way too late.

Fell Seal is worth a look also - has an amazing amount of customization via job skills - somewhat wasted since you can only have a few characters active at one time.

Fangamer is releasing Into the Breach as a physical - that one looks really good so I pre-ordered it.

 

I didn't really like the Tiny Metal stuff all that well - not a big fan of fog of war especially on really small fields. (Battle Worlds is fog of war also but the battlefields are huge - which makes a big difference.)

Thanks for the additional recommendations! I did indeed already preorder into the breach. That one definitely looks solid. Banner looks more interesting to me. I was hoping there was a physical version but that doesn’t look to be the case so this will be one I add to my wishlist on the eshop and just wait for a sale or hope they make a physical version one day. 

34 minutes ago, Tabonga said:

These are kinda neat - for awhile they sold little cloth banners for each of the countries at the Chucklefish store.  I don't see any images right now but they looked like this drawing:

Oooo that is cool! That’d be something I could hang up in my office although idk which kingdom I’d get and no one at work would have any idea what game the banner is from. 

[Tabonga | 2,317]

55 minutes ago, Makar said:

Thanks for the additional recommendations! I did indeed already preorder into the breach. That one definitely looks solid. Banner looks more interesting to me. I was hoping there was a physical version but that doesn’t look to be the case so this will be one I add to my wishlist on the eshop and just wait for a sale or hope they make a physical version one day. 

Oooo that is cool! That’d be something I could hang up in my office although idk which kingdom I’d get and no one at work would have any idea what game the banner is from. 

You are welcome!

Fell Seal is coming out as a physical.

I think you will have a lot of fun with Banner of the Maid - I wish there was a physical for it too.

The banners are pretty small - but you could string them together and they would be a bit more prominent. Iimagine they pop upon ebay now and then but I have no idea what they go for.