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Greetings, folks. This is my review of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. This is the fourth game in the AW series, the second on Nintendo DS, the first.
.: October 30, 2013 (Platinum status reward)Mode(s),Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, released as Advance Wars: Dark Conflict in Europe and Australia, is a for the. It is the fourth installment in the series (preceded by ) and was released in North America on January 21, 2008; in Europe on January 25, 2008; and in Australia on February 21, 2008. A Japanese release was announced under the title of Famicom Wars DS: Ushinawareta Hikari, but was canceled after several delays.
However, on October 30, 2013, it became available in Japan through as a downloadable platinum status reward for the system.Advance Wars: Days of Ruin was intended to have a darker atmosphere and more serious tone in contrast to the previous installments in the series, and features a new storyline independent of the previous games. Set amidst a world, the story focuses on the Rubinelle 12th Battalion, one of the surviving remnants of the military of the country of Rubinelle, which had been locked in a century-long war with its rival, Lazuria, prior to a devastating global. In the aftermath, the Battalion devotes itself to saving any other survivors of the disaster, despite the shattered nations renewing their war against each other and an uncurable disease ravaging both sides. Meanwhile, a mysterious faction with unknown motives takes advantage of the destruction and pushes both sides deeper into conflict from behind the scenes. Contents.Gameplay The objective in Days of Ruin is for the player to use their military force to defeat the enemy's force. Except for certain single player missions with special objectives, there are two ways to defeat an opponent: destroy all of the enemy's units or capture their headquarters.
The battle system is turn-based. Two to four forces, each headed by a (CO), take turns building and commanding units on grid-based maps. Every turn, units, which consist of ground, sea and air units, can move across the different types of terrain and attack enemy units or perform other actions, such as submerging a submarine or resupplying friendly units. Many factors can affect the battle, such as, a phenomenon that prevents players from seeing enemy units other than those in the visual range of their units; various weather conditions; and CO powers. Gameplay in Days of Ruin. COs and CO powers The entire cast from the previous games has been replaced with new characters.
CO powers have been toned down, and no longer affect all units or the whole battle or the whole map. Tag powers from Dual Strike which allowed players to move twice in one turn have been removed. Players gain CO powers much later in the campaign than before, and they have a much less significant role in overall gameplay.At the HQ or any unit-producing property, COs can join with a specific unit, and automatically promote that unit to Vet level, but at the cost of half of that unit's value. The CO's unit confers an advantage on friendly units within a certain range, the 'CO zone.' These effects are generally minor advantages such as attack or defense boosts. CO effects are constant and, unlike previous games, only benefit units within the CO zone.As damage is dealt by units within the CO zone, the CO's power meter fills slightly, at a rate of one bar per five hit points worth of damage inflicted. As the CO power meter is filled, the CO zone grows larger.
When the meter is full, the CO can activate his power which has an effect on the whole battlefield, such as repairing allied units, damaging enemy units, or temporarily altering weather conditions. In addition, the offensive and defensive boosts that normally apply only in the CO zone, also applies to all allied units on the whole battlefield for the turn that the CO power is active. If the CO unit is destroyed, the CO meter empties and the CO returns to the HQ, able to be redeployed with another unit. New units, properties, and terrain Units can now level up in battle, increasing their capabilities.
Units increase their level once for each enemy unit that they destroy. The level of each unit is identified as I, II, or Vet, with Vet being the highest level. While units with higher levels are more powerful than new units, the power increase is slight. Unit experience is not persistent, and the player begins each mission with new units. Not only does the attack increase, but the defense of the unit also increases.Unit prices have been readjusted and some units renamed, as well as new ones introduced.
New land units include the Bike, a highly mobile infantry unit that can capture properties; the Flare, an armored vehicle unit that can reveal areas affected by the Fog of War; the Anti-Tank, an indirect-fire unit strong against tanks with the ability to counter-attack during direct attacks; and the War Tank (formerly the Mega Tank), the strongest ground unit in the game. New air units include the Duster, a weaker, lower-cost interceptor that can strike ground units; and the Seaplane, which is produced by Carriers and can attack any unit, but has limited ammo and fuel reserves. Additionally, there is a single new sea unit, the Gunboat, which is armed with a missile salvo that must be resupplied after each use, and can transport one infantry/mech unit. Also, the Battleship was given the ability to move and fire in the same turn, making it the only indirect-combat unit able to do so.New properties have also been introduced, including temporary properties which are constructed by the Rig unit (formerly known as the APC). Temporary properties cannot build new units like other properties can, but can only be used as stationary resupply bases providing some defensive cover for units, and can be captured.
Each Rig unit can construct one of two temporary properties, the Temporary Port and Temporary Airport. Additionally, the new Radar property has been added; when captured it clears a five-tile radius of Fog of War.New terrain is available in the game: Wasteland, which impedes the movement of ground vehicles; Ruins, which provide a minor defense bonus for ground units and hiding places in Fog of War; Fire, which is impassable and illuminates the surrounding area during Fog of War; Rough Sea, which impedes the movement of naval units; Mist, which provides a defense bonus and hiding places for naval units; and Meteors and Plasma. Plasma forms an impassable wall that no unit can cross, and is generated by Meteors. Once a Meteor is destroyed, any Plasma in contact with it disappears, allowing units to pass. Plasma that is not in contact with a meteor cannot be destroyed. Campaign The campaign plays out through 26 missions, with story scenes that tie the plot together occurring between and during the battles.
In addition, 38 training missions are unlocked as the missions are completed. The training missions are more challenging, entirely optional, and can be played separately from the campaign. One new feature in Days of Ruin is that campaign missions can now be played individually as the player completes them. Like the training missions, campaign missions can be selected from the main menu at any time.Upon completing a mission, the player is awarded a rank, starting with the lowest at C and going to B, A and S, which is the highest. The ranks are based on three categories: Power, Technique, and Speed, each determined by meeting certain conditions in a battle. All three categories are rated on a scale from 0-150, and added together to form a numerical ranking from 0-450 in addition to their letter ranking; for example, any score between 300-450 earns an S ranking. Nintendo of Europe.
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I will get right to it, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is the fourth, and quite possibly the best, title in Nintendo's and Intelligent Systems' long-running Nintendo Wars series to grace the western world. Seeing as there have only been four titles in the series to come overseas, two for Game Boy Advance, and now two for the Nintendo DS, such a claim isn't too glamorous. But all of the franchise's titles to come overseas have been well-received both commercially and critically. To get my neck spread farther across the chopping block further allow me to submit to you the following claim, that Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is the greatest turn-based strategy game to grace a handheld system.Audio & VisualThe first major difference between this entry in the Advance Wars series and all previous, is the breakaway from the series' colorful and cartoonish visuals.
The story's characters remain more cartoony than you may expect from a game based on war but they are presented in a much darker tone with earth colors such as greens, browns and reds being thrown about much more than say happy colors such as oranges and yellows that series fans are used to. The game also features much more detailed art than I remember from its DS predecessor, Advance Wars Dual Strike. So much so that Days of Ruin can make one feel that Dual Strike is actually a well done GBA title and not an early DS title. Days of Ruin also includes a new 'zoom' mode available on maps as shown in the screenshot to the left. Sadly, I have not found much use for the zoom mode but it does allow you to check out your units at a nifty 2.5D angle.The audio aspect of the title is a pretty basic affair and the least impressive aspect of the title.
Overall the audio that is present is just about on par with what one would expect but the story fails to have any voice dialogue, which is probably due to the size of a DS cartridge being the limiting factor. I cannot stress enough how much darker this title feels when compared to all the others. Most players will either love or hate the change as it is a big break from all the previous titles but this video game journalist really appreciates the spice thrown into the franchise and that the developers were willing to take a chance at changing something in an established series. The darker tones cause the game to not only come off as more mature and allow for more added detail but they are simply more fitting for the game, as the characters are fighting for their very lives.StoryAlong with a darker art presentation comes a much darker story than we are used to seeing in an Advance Wars title. Gone are the days when the Black Storm, lead by a war-mongering lunatic, is trying to take over the world and in comes a band of former members of the Rubinelle 12th Battalion just trying to stay alive after a meteor strike destroys much of the planet.
Upon the opening campaigns the player will take control of Will, a survivor of the meteor and former cadet at the Rubinelle military academy. Gameplay basics are learned through this time as the player begins the story. Players can expect a whirlwind of activity and story in the first few missions only to have it settle down into direct antagonist/protagonist action in the later campaign maps.The writing for the title has definitely gone in a new direction for the series as well. Like the art the campaign is much darker than any previous campaign before it and to top it off the dialogue, message and characters in general are all a bit more mature.
I prefer not to go into great detail regarding the story but suffice it to say that the characters have more emotion, more realistic dialogue and more moral issues than in any previous Advance Wars title. Oddly enough, Intelligent Systems felt that they needed to keep at least some comedy in the story and therefore added the good Doctor, complete with terrible one-liners. Seriously, I think I chuckled once. Bad comedic timing aside, the difference in the Doctor, Will, Lin, Brenner and even the host of bad guys offers up a broad range of characters with many different views, goals and aspirations than before. No more is it just about destroying Black Moon 'for the homeland.'
Regardless of the generally awful comedy the campaign offers an above average story when compared to the rest of the series although stage designs in later missions can become incredibly difficult.GameplayAhh gameplay, the heart and soul of the gaming world. Days of Ruin did not bringing any sweeping changes to the gameplay, nor did it bring any major changes at all.
Not only did it not introduce anything radical, but it actually lacked its predecessor's main feature, multi-front warfare that utilized one screen per war front. Back when I I mentioned the feature only in passing, but it goes to show you, you don't realize how much you like something until it is gone. The only consolation to the loss of such a feature is that upon completing one of the fronts, the player was basically guaranteed to win as the Tag Team ability was incredibly overpowered in the previous title.Intelligent Systems may not have created any new gameplay features but they certainly covered strategists where it matters the most, as a horde of new units and terrain modifiers and even the ability for units to gain experience were added. As a lover of Warcraft III, the ability for a unit to rank up from I to II to Vet with slight bonuses to defense and offense was something I took to heart, even if the stats do not persist. The development team also added a nice mix of new units including the Bike, a new unit capable of capturing buildings, the Flare, which can clear away the Fog of War, allowing one to attack previously unseen enemies, a new massive tank aptly named the War Tank.
Air and sea also saw some additions with a powerful, single-shot capable Gunboat and Seaplanes which can be created via the Carriers. The addition of a units specifically designed to counter others rounded out the new additions with the Duster airplane cleaning up infantry while still being able to attack air, including high-flying Bombers, and the Anti-Tank unit which crushes ground based direct assault units of all kinds.As mentioned, the developers also created some additional terrain modifiers to make the combat that much more complex.
Some of these are even destructible such as large Meteor chunks which can hamper the players forward movement substantially in some cases, or be used to bottle neck an opponent in others. Even the seas received some new terrain in the form of Rough Sea which impedes that movement of naval units while Mist offers them a defense bonus. There a more modifiers to be discovered but I will allow you to do just that. Probably the addition with the most impact on the game is the Rig unit which allows players to create temporary air and naval outposts to refuel and repair units. In longer skirmishes and battles, especially those that come down to attrition, these features and knowing how best to attack the excellently designed levels can turn the tide of war more than anything else.Previously, if a player was in a pinch they could always count on using the CO Power to help regain the upper hand. But Intelligent System has modified that sure fire, tide-changing ability causing it to be far weaker. First off, COs come into the game much later than before, and in the campaign, the player can not pick any CO they want.
On top of that the CO is now placed on the battlefield and although they bring the unit they are attached to offensive and defensive boosts, and the same boosts to areas in the CO area, they are still in the line of fire and often the main target of the artificial intelligence. This can cause one to lose their CO just before they wish to use their ability, destroying any chance at swinging the battle in their favor. The CO nerf forces the player to think more about every move they take and is one of the main reasons that the single-player campaign became so difficult in Days of Ruin, the other being the well designed AI.FeaturesDays of Ruin is feature rich aside from the deep single-player campaign and pre-made single-player military exercises know as Trial maps. The big news is that the title boasts online multiplayer over Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service. And not only does it include it, but it is probably the best use of the technology to date. The multiplayer settings has a horde of maps, over 150 readily available, and the number is truly limitless as the Wi-Fi Connection allows players to share maps they have created in the Design Maps area of the title.
Players can also download random maps created by others or maps based on an approval rating system. To top things off the game can store up to 50 custom maps before having to make room. Although gamers may have lost some single-player modes, the addition of such a strong online multiplayer presence, along with the solid single-player aspects and old school local multiplayer more than make up for any losses. Bottom LineSo in the end Intelligent Systems largely left the gameplay aspects of the series alone, while introducing a radically different art direction that allowed the story to become more mature. Days of Ruin may be marked as a turning point in the series, and with good reason, as the title could end up being heralded by some players for pushing the series in new directions, or bemoaned by others who enjoyed the plucky war game and its comedic aspects. I for one am glad that Jake is gone.
God I could not stand that character from Dual Strike. Despite the possible break in the fanbase, I believe both sides would agree that the title's gameplay as a whole remains spectacular and the introduction of such a deep multiplayer experience plus the Map Designer adds an incredibly amount of replay value.
Obviously, I recommend all fans of the Nintendo Wars series to grab this title, but on top of that I require any turn-based strategy player with a DS to pick up this game, if only to test themselves on the punishing final campaigns.