This game made me relieve all those times when me and my older cousin tried to beat the Commandos series to 100%. Those were fun times and this game catches this noltasgia feeling and ties it up with a nice plot, beautiful graphics and superb gameplay.
Love it so far.
This is a worthy successor to the Commandos/Desperados game series and I really enjoyed it. I don't know why, but I always get myself attached to this characters: it was the same with Tiny and French, with Doc and Cooper, with Robin and Little John etc. Now it's Mugen, Yuki and Aiko.
I never really played the old commando's games, and I've always been really bad rts games despite loving them. I Played through the first time sneaking around with primarily one character picking off enemies one by one because controlling more than 2 was a bit overhwelming at first, then after I played the game a bit I discovered the multitude of ways to beat each level, while there is for sure a "best" way to beat it. It's so much fun going through the challenges and exploring every possibility to each finely crafted level. Nothing is more satisfying than setting up these massive simultaneous attacks that make you feel like a proper ninja. My only real complaint is it's not long enough, with only 12 real levels and only one of them you have control all the characters. Although I've still put probably 60 hours into it by now doing challenges and just replaying levels different ways. The story is decent but not the reason to buy the game, theres even english and japanese voice acting which is both done really well. Even at full price I bet most people would get their money's worth out of this title for sure.
If you ever played commandos-like games, this is the right game for you. Everything you like in similar games is here, well suited and wrapped in ninja setting. Epic soundtrack, epic story of friends from the very different worlds, yet all of them are solid characters well written, playing their roles above the class. Totally recommend this game for anyone who know this genre or those who want to discover it for the first time. Worth much more than they ask for it, trust me.
Did you like the classic "Commandos"? Interested in Japanese culture of the Edo period? You will love this! Yes, it's a "Commandos" clone, it uses exactly the same gameplay formula.
There is a team of 5 characters, but in nearly all missions you will play only some of them at the same time which forces you to play different tactics combinations.
The gameplay depends on how you decide to tackle the problems. If you like to observe, plan and execute and get through the level 'body by body' the game supports this. If you set yourself the goal of not triggering any alarms, killing all enemies, hide them and not to kill any civilians you can spend 2-3 hours on each level.
There is also the 'shadow mode' which lets you 'record' characters actions and execute them later simultaniously.
The level design is mostly very good. There are nearly always multiple ways to get to the desired place/objective.
The graphics are very colourful with attention to detail. The levels look very aesthetically pleasing.
The music uses some Japanese instruments, sounds adequate and calm. One very positive exception is the second-to-last mission which conveys a sense of determination and the music reflects this in some fantastic power-orcherstra-like movements.
Huge bonus points for (optional) Japanese voices. The spoken Japanese dialogues even use the proper honorifics when addressing the different characters! For some reason the English subtitles don't always reflect this, though. No 'fake' Japanese or non-Japanese names, no black-clad ninjas. It's may be not historically accurate but it's not a circus either. Plenty of seppuku.
On the negative note:
- The beginning phase of the last level is much more difficult then in the levels before. No fun at all.
- The option to highlight enemies and level elements to interacted with also highlights elements that are not currently visible to the player. The whole map is then lit like a Christmas tree which can be very distracting.
Buy this!