I can’t be the first to think of this, but the subgenre of …
Games like Heroes of Might & Magic that aren’t, actually, Heroes of Might & Magic
… should totally be called HoMMages.
Nice! I don’t know if it was suggested in another place before, but it’s definitely the first time I read it. Kudos!
I’m in. Seconded (or thirded if Valam is in.) I say we ask for a vote from the judges.
You’re all under arrest.
I would very much like to play HoMM like on handheld. Nintendo Switch looks like a perfect platform for that. Civ6 might be a little heavy for the platform (turn timers and general performance is not great) but even then it’s a great experience. I know there’s King’s Bounty 2 but the reports on the port and the game itself are very mixed, it holds something like 50 on metacritic. Too bad earlier KB games weren’t ported. There are many tactical JRPGs that scratch that itch if you squint your eyes, like Disgaea, but you know.
Here’s what comes to mind, though I haven’t played enough of any of these to give a personal recommendation.
Brigandine has an overworld with heroes leading armies and going into tactical battles when they meet, and it was originally released on Switch, so performance should be decent.
The Braveland games were adequate as “HoMM-lite on your phone” and I think should be the same on Switch.
Fort Triumph has a thread somewhere around here and seemed to be reasonably well received, with HoMM-y exploration and a battle system with a lot of physical object interactions.
The Thea games also have threads around here and looked pretty interesting to me. Might scratch some of the exploration itch, though a lot of the other aspects are unique.
And Immortal Realms wasn’t particularly well-received, but it does look to be drawing significant inspiration from HoMM.
Brigandine looks good, thanks.
@alekseivolchok Hope you post your reactions to Brigandine. Looks like a real possibility but I have learned to be cautious with games translated from Japanese.
Don’t expect it anytime soon. I’m mildly interested and might grab it on a good sale but I have enough on my plate for now.
This has been on my DekuDeals wishlist for a long time as the Switch version got all good reviews - it seemed like something folks really enjoyed, but (*both) returning fans to this remaster and new players alike. But at $50 I have been waiting, and when it did drop to $30 last December I still held off.
However, it’s now on Steam and I can see a much greater look at the communities collective thoughts and I have to say, this seems like it might be worth getting at full price. I was going to do so but I’m playing Baldur’s Gate on my Switch right now so I’ll keep it on the wishlist until I’m ready for it, just in case it drops in price again. Anyway, I’m sure if this was a bad port/translation it would not be scoring so high.
Also, its’ $40 on Steam but $50 in the eShop, but I do want to play this in handheld mode as a Switch game, so I’m going to wait.
Thanks! This sounds like a real possibility for me.
I’ve been playing Brigandine. It really isn’t HOMM.
Bases are merely mana generators and can’t be upgraded. Need more mana, get more bases. You’ll need more mana to summon more troops to be assigned to you knights. Knights have a command cap, so you may need higher level knights so they can control more troops. You can level up by fighting the enemy or doing training quests.
Knights can be all sorts of classes, and class-switching is encouraged, including retaining some skills and spells if you have leveled up enough times in the class to develop proficiency in those skills or spells.
Turns are broke up into two phases. In the first you go from base to base deciding what to summon (different bases have different summonable troops), which knights to move between bases (no range limit on moves), and which knights will go on quests. Quests can be the aforementioned experience-gathering (for the knight and their troops), or searching for equipment or more knights to recruit. You can also divvy up equipment found in the previous turn amongst your knights/troops (equipment has class and troop type limitations). Finally, you can level up or switch classes during this phase.
After ending the phase, movement takes place and knights head off on their quests. The bases can only be defended by a maximum of 3 knights who didn’t go on a quest. Invasions can only use 3 knights, who haven’t moved that turn. So, it is a juggling act of questing, moving, invading and defending. Turns are simultaneous, so it is can be a real surprise to see what your neighbors decided to do the previous phase.
A lot of turns, the second phase is a lot of nothing, if your neighbors reinforced and you don’t want to risk invasion. Otherwise, you commence with the invading. The tactical battles are the core gameplay, and are really well done. Tanks are tanky, wizards are great glass cannons, and then there are classes that compromise. Different troops prefer different terrains. Troops and theri equipment may have element associations impacting attack, defense, evasion, etc. Mixed arms are helpful to address these interactions. I’ve had several really good battles, but they can be pretty long. Three knights on each side and all their troops is a lot. Maps are large, and you may have to take a few moves to reach a defensive enemy. Particularly, if there is a river crossing and most of your troops are poor swimmers. Battles have a 12-turn limit, and I’ve come close to reaching it. At the end of 12 turns, the invader can still claim victory if they have unit in the enemy castle. Otherwise, the defender wins. So far, I’ve driven the enemy from the field. If you wound (reduce HP to 0) a knight, they retreat as do the units under their command. There is a chance that some may not succeed in retreating and you have a chance to capture them if you win the battle.
I’m playing on Normal and the AI seems pretty good. I’m just about done expanding because I was using so many of my knights to defend and invade, I’ve run out of knights to defend the new border bases. I haven’t been attacked yet, but I have been pretty conservative in my defense.
Default difficulty settings lower the number of turns you have to win. Easy is unlimited, normal is 120 turns, Hard is even shorter. The AI improves at each, so it really escalates. However, I think Custom difficulty may allow you to play with hard settings, and unlimited turns? I should test that.
Definitely a console-designed game, so relatively clunky UI for a strategy game. I’m not sure if you’re able to rebind hotkeys, but I’ve gotten used K for confirm and J for undo. Also a Japanese game, so scantily dressed female knights and units throughout.
I think I’ll get my $30 worth.
That sounds even more interesting than I had assumed (I remember watching a review for the Switch version when it first landed on my radar and the overall vibe from me skimming around in said video was enough for me to wishlist it). If I wasn’t really enjoying my replay of Baldur’s Gate on the Switch (which works surprisingly well in both hand held and with a controller), I’d jump into Brigandine at full price based on your write-up alone. Thanks for taking the time to put your thoughts down!
Is there a decent tutorial?
Yeah, the tutorial is decent.
The tutorial pretty well walks you through the basic actions and concepts. I also checked the custom difficulty and it is pretty nicely fleshed out. You can set AI, mana, experience gain for yourself, enemy, or both. You can set turn limit to whatever you want. Quite a few more things a well.
Brigandine is a really remarkable game. I can barely believe it has gotten a PC release. Having joined the cult of Brigandine from its original PS1 release, I bought a Switch to be able to play the modern remake, never got over the learning curve of using a Switch, then bought the PC version when it was very recently released.
It is pretty damn remarkable. Original fantasy setting with credible strategy and tactical layers. There is a LOT of monster training
Custom difficulty does let you combine Hard base difficulty with unlimited turns. I personally play with Hard difficulty + unlimited turns = 2x Experience Growth for all. This lets you enjoy more of the Rune Knight and Monster development that you otherwise might.
A feature of the tactical battles you may love or hate is that armies start about 3 turns of movement separate from one another within a 12 turn limit battle.
Upside of this is plenty of scope for tactical manoeuvring, positioning and making use of terrain. Downside may be that it feels frustrating to get into the combat.
I really dislike turn-limits in Panzer General style games but in Brigandine, feels like they are very functional. They create the possibility for battles to end inconclusively, technically a defeat for the attacker. You can use this, as Attacker, to weaken the Defender for attacks in further turns. You can use this as Defender to just survive long enough to avoid an outright defeat.
Thank you for the additional info. I’m pretty sure this will be my next game.
Out of curiosity, let’s say you attack and do very well but fail to finish off the defender and thus, technically, suffer “defeat.” Does this have any game mechanic penalty like lowered morale? Or is it just a realistic “going to take another turn to get this job done” situation?
There is no morale system and I think no other penalty for attacking and failing to win. Maybe the defender gains additional XP for winning, that I am unsure of, but otherwise, no penalty.
Yeah, I’m betting they get the bonus 200 exp from winning, or 400 in your game settings. Hard and unlimited will likely be my next playthrough. Another thing I’m mixed feelings about is that everyone has the same troop-types. Have you seen much difference between the factions, other than their starting region?