One of the last "must-have" we'll see on Nintendo DS. It's simply one of the bests and most original SRPGs right now, with many hours of fun waiting for you and very interesting characters to lead us through the plot.
leaving this as a placeholder to document my score, and in case i want to make a full review one day.
tl;dr this game is criminally overlooked and is a top tier Pokemon spinoff. gameplay is great, although repetitive, the grind is well worth the results. there's so much content here and there's a lot you could do when you put your imagination to it. the characters were made well, the artstyle is beautiful for a DS game, the Pokemon are just enough for how well-made this game is, and it truly felt magical going through it all the first time. i sincerely recommend giving it a shot, although i'll give a fair warning that it's a tactical rpg. it might not be for everyone. Despite that, I'm willing to say that for what purpose Pokemon Conquest aimed to serve, it's the best 2D Pokemon game in the series.
In retrospect for me this is the best Pokémon spinoff game of all time by a long mile and one of the best Pokémon games period. And I was iffy if I was going to buy it originally as I thought the trailer looked kind of lame as a kid when it originally aired and played on tv/YouTube until I watched one of my friends play it in real life after I got it eventually. Hundreds of hours of content of extremely high-quality content, perfect difficulty level even for me back as a 10-year-old kid, and so many great memories of multiplayer battles while on vacation with friends. One of the absolute must-haves of the DS generation. I remember where I was when I had that big aha moment of realization for the first main story introductory campaign and that's something you can't have in many games.
Thinking back on it, no matter how good they make a sequel I don't think they could make it as good as this game for me because of how many things it does right for me personally in the original. Unless I was leading the project personally or serving as a heavy advisor role it's not going to happen. But like that's ever going to happen in a million years, my Japanese is rough at best, and they wouldn't market research ask someone like me what they should do for a sequel for a game ...if they even make one.
From the 2d pixelated artstyle sprite work to the soundtrack, the character artstyle, the animations, backgrounds, interesting settings, maps with fun gimmicks, real-life history of the Sengoku era, even the Pokémon selection was perfect, the simple but beautiful gameplay with depth, ign of all people actually have the best review video of this game. There are too many things that would have to go right for them to make a sequel game better for me so it definitely won't happen.
Even if it's partially nostalgia speaking, I have replayed it several times on my phone recently, this is in my top 10 favorite games of all time .based on the experience I had with it. and I have played so many games from every genre. From Elden Ring to Dead Space Remake, KSP, Ocarina of Time, Portal 2, Terraria, Overwatch, Mario Odyssey, Halo 3, Gran Turismo, even weird dating sims my girlfriend has forced me to play, and many others.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of Pokémon Conquest, however, is that it made us want to go back and play one of Koei's earlier, duller and more convoluted Nobunaga games. And any game that can make us feel that way is worthy of high praise indeed.
It wants to be so many games, and for each of its inspirations, it delivers a different demand. As a logical and unfortunate result, Pokemon Conquest is just too damned demanding.
I don't know why this game hooked me in so powerfully, but it did. I wouldn't call myself a Pokemon fan by any means, I basically just knew about the type advantages/disadvantages enough to get me through (I never knew about dual-types before this game). Other reviewers will tell you that there's no strategic depth, which I suppose is true since each Pokemon only has one move/skill and there's not really much item/equipment. But nonetheless, I was beyond hooked. Like staying up later than I wanted, putting off responsibilities hooked. Give it a try. It just has that super fun x-factor. I would say the main game is easy overall, and then in the post-game, there are some genuine challenges. Of course, it's not on the same level as FFT or Fire Emblem, but man oh man is it a good time.
Another off-shoot of the Pokémon universe, this employs the cutesy characters in a turn-based strategy game in a similar vein to Final Fantasy Tactics. Like that game it's a little superficial for true strategy pros, but it's pretty good fun and one of the better spin-offs out there.
The AI is horrible and they consistently camp at banners and the AI pretty much cheats, the game is generally pretty bad when the AI is cheating. I would not recommend this game to anyone I know and this game has ruined the pokemon franchise.
SummaryIn Pokemon Conquest, players take on the role of a young Warlord who is linked with a Pokemon. Together, they must set out to recruit Warrior allies to strengthen their growing kingdom. Along their journey, players will encounter a variety of Pokemon, as well as Warriors and Warlords inspired by the Japanese feudal era. The game contains...