Valorian Endymion

I tried to play Descend a long time ago, but could not make it very far or enjoying it because the game speed and movement kind making me feel a bit of motion sickness, however, this was the only game, aside from a obcure Russian (Not sure on this) mmo, called Sphere, which also once in a while did give me a bit of motion sickness due the high speed which the character move and the repeated textures.

It could work very well, Dark Crusade was a great campaign, that even managed to establish characters with the unique dialogues that would happen during the stronghold maps. However, Soulstorm and Retribution wheren´t so good, the second one suffered much from that there wasn´t almost any difference if you play with any faction, dialogues, maps and everything played the same and everything react the same way no matter if you playing with Tyranids or Orks or Chaos. Can´t comment much on the Wargame campaign, while I do play it once in a while I did most skirmishs to get more the hang of the game (the fact that I am not familiar with modern military hardware don´t help, half of the time I have no idea what I am choosing for my deck XD).

Troy complained about many rts begin sci-fi, and while I have no problem with sci-fi, I too kind wondered about that, my theory is... First, historical rts have to solve the problem of mixing and matching the general structure of a RTS with what we understand or imagine that a battle in this or that period look like, and the issue is not only the research need, but how to don´t make the already conflict of building vs battle don´t get even more out of hand. Since the "historical accuracy" might just translate in make a rts which is often already very fast paced even more complex*. * Exemple: In cossacks you could add a banner and a guy with a drum in a group of units, but given the fast pace of the game, often this just became a busy work and don´t mean anything, it was just easier to throw units in any way against the enemy, since moving group of units was almost impossible once they are engaged, meaning that all that busy work often was for nothing. Second, while fantasy don´t suffer from that, it kind share a issue with the historical accuracy, which is the cost to animate stuff, this can get wat beyond many developers could afford, keep in mind how relic (and CA) however managed to have game rich with animations (so much, that once I tried to play SC2 demo, I very soon missed DoW animations, despite knowing that this where different game with different focus). This leave the sci-fi, now here you can kind get away from having factions units just begin vehicles, or in another words, blocks which shoot things and stand still, much easier to do and you don´t need to worry about represent what people think that battle should look like. Again, I have nothing against sci-fi, it just annoy me when this game have things like giant robots which just stand still (and often the general design is really weak), I do felt this a lot playing Supreme Commander 2, I mean it could be cool if at least your UC unit had some punching animations (which could be simple and crude, to represent that is a robot) when facing another UC. On the subject of campaigns: Yeah I too would like to see good grand campaigns, but I do see that the issue is that this requires not only a good plot (and dialogues), but good characters and faction design which is beyond just mechanics. Nothing impossible, but very trick do to. This remind me of one thing that often you can hear people complain, that is repetition - I guess in the past many rts had campaigns, which are just the same thing over and over again, which maybe can made worst in case which different historical periods don´t have any actual changes. There is the other extreme of this situation, which is Spellforce 2, which often have very scripted rpg style maps, which maybe not very good, because instead of rts you are playing a rather limited rpg with not very good structure or map/quest design.

I do plan to read the RoTK book sometime, just have to figure out if there is a better or recommend translation/version something which I have no idea. By the way, I would really recommend check out the podcast which SamS posted above, it is very good.

Great show! On the subject if the AI is begin active or not, because I too wonder about that too, however - the AI does act, but I wonder how much is affected by either difficult level and something which I suspect, but I have no way to prove, that the AI will give priority to do Historial Quests. In my current game, with a higher difficult I did noticed the following things happen: - AI Imagawa managed to beat up Oda, which only dis a few it is historical quests before it got defeated. However, the AI did recruit several ex Oda officers. - Sometimes during the report your advisors tell you when a officer with lower loyalty might be meeting with someone else (which might mean that the AI does use espionage). - Mori and another clan did some large expansion. - During larger battle the AI does pull some tricks, I noticed they using special powers a lot. In my largest battle so far in another game as Uesugi against Hojo, I noticed that the AI did use its smaller armies to move behind or around me, specially one small army lead by Kotaro Fuma, which kept using the Phantom Army ability, which force the affected general to change focus and by doing this it did manged to move away one of my armies which was trying to flank the Hojo main force. - I did noticed tha the AI react soon as you move your armies around, in one case, I was moving my armies to attack another smaller clan, the neighbor clan however which likely had eyes in this clan too, quickly move to take them down before me. In fact this kind of behavior solve the old "I move my armies to your borders before you can react" that often happen in many strategy games. One nice thing that most of time you might miss and where the interface don´t help much is that a army, aside from the general will also have other officers of that same castle around, each officer can bring their special skill to that army. This can turn the table a lot in tougher situation, more than once, I did avoid huge casualities thanks to the wife or daughter of someone which was around that army and used their abilities. However, is a bit trick to find to find where in the interface you do that, this might be the reason why in a lot of times in the game tutorial you can fail that battle because you can´t quickly find where you click to use the Release ability (which all armies have once muskets are around). Among one thing which I would like see more developers using is how the game present events and characters and how it develop them, its very evocative and thematic and very taiga drama like. And while the execution is very simple, following a almost visual novel model, thanks to the art and execution does the job very well and it would be something not hard to do. Now talking other games based in chinese classic works, Margin Water also got a game based on it: a very good jrpg (at least the first 2 games), called Suikoden, that also got some strategy elements in form of large scale battles that happen in the plot. Troy wished for a new Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and well - http://operationrainfall.com/2015/09/01/koei-tecmos-tgs-2015-lineup/ there is a Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII is in the list, list for ps4, ps3 and pc but no word confirming coming to the west so far, but maybe we might have some luck.

Ok, while I am still not 100% sure of what direction Aquarion Logos is going (and if you know, please don´t tell me) or if will have more relationship with Genesis or Evol, episode 7 was really impressive.

I really like the We Hate Movies (http://www.whmpodcast.com/) from which I recommend the episodes: Abraxas, Canvas, Blame it on Rio, Tuff Truf. Also I would recomend Digital Drift podcast(http://www.digitaldrift.podbean.com/) from which I recommend the Lord of the Ring episodes, the Bad Reviews againt Humanity (this are really funny) as start points.

On the subject of pace: Gothic 2 - This game kind share a strange pace which many rpgs game of its time shared: Start a right note (with your friend make that dramatic speech in his tower how the evil guy is summoing all his forces) but quickly this is dropped out and you go half way or more of the game just doing sidequests, until the middle late of the game where the original plot is remembered and the game suddenly end a few chapters (maybe one or two) after. Keep in mind that this game isn´t like a bethesa game which is more a open world plataform for player to create their own histories instead (where such pace isn´t much the issue), Gothic was much more linear (you don´t even build your own character). Spellforce 2: They tried to balance a between rts and rpg modes, but the rpg part where rather weak and boring due begin build over the rts part and therefore very limited, the result was that after a very good rts part you hit a sudden bucket of cold water in form of rpg part. Way of the Samurai 4: While many games have have decision which branch the plot, the time between is rather imense, therefore, many people simple won´t play againt to see it. However, Way of the Samurai 4 plot is just around 4 days, this mean that the times between each decision is short which encourage experimentation and does give a sense or urgency. Heroes of Might and Magic VI: For me, Heroes games where all about a rather slow pace, facing the enemy neutral armies around, collecting resources and waiting week to came to finish to recruit more forces. Later games however had this rather bizarre campaign and map design that kind force you to rush on, but they never explain or say or contextualize it, so you never really know if you should rush on or turtle. This is made worst in VI where many maps have scripted spawn armies that appear overtime and that can overwhelm you. Also keep in mind, Heroes games are often very number heavy, meaning that the one with most troops will wins. This might lead to a scenario where you either lose because you take too much time or because you tried too early.

I wonder that too, I did pick up Dungeon Hack, and found out that didn´t hold too well.... Anyway - Heroes VII is out, but so little reviews and steam user reviews don´t look very good (41%), but is hard to tell if people are giving lower rates due game actual issues, bitterness over uplay and previous heroes games or a mixed of all (which I find mostly likely....). I was divided between Heroes VII and Samurai Warriors 4 II and choose the Samurai Warriors once the steam review showed up. Still I might give a chance once there where more reviews.

I too gone miss Danielle on the podcast, but I also too look foward to this new podcast. On the subject of System Shock 2, I have to say that while I really see all the merit the game had, I didn´t like it very much - Mostly because of the respawn of enemies which often happen right in front of your face (which ruins the mood, once I was running in a corridor and enemy spawn right in front of me as I run) and how you can ruin yourself by not choosing the right skills (I did manage to get to a part where I need to pick up a object which triggered a enemy to chase me, but maybe I did something wrong along the way and can´t simple kill him no matter what). Cities Skyline is great, maybe a bit flawed in parts of simulation (and maybe the lack of disasters), but it is so good to build a city on it and if already did look very pretty to see it grow, with the day night cicle looks even better.

Yeah, maybe I should really take a more direct approach. I will look in to that and ask my friend to see if she have some suggestions of who I should try first. In the meantime there was a replay of one email I send,but it was a automated response to answer a questionnaire, still it is something. This sunday the girls which organize our local japanese fashion community did a really good meeting, it was a lot fun and the place, a cofee/bar they choose was very good.

Yeah, Samurai cats where real, in mean as a option XD. By automated you mean create province and assign a regent? yeah you could do that, but I don´t think is much forced, also I guess in some options you can set how much you have maximum area your daymio can rule. In my current game as Ouchi clan is going really well, while I haven´t conquered all of Kyushu, I did managed to expand enough to cause several smaller clans to submit to me as vassals. I like since this kind avoids the clean up phase in many strategy games. - In some games the AI manages to do the historical quest, in other not - in my current game the Imagawa crushed the Oda. But I think Echigo and another clan are doing really well in their historical quests. - Also I noticed the AI react soon as you order some army to move, which kind avoid the "I move my armies very close to crush you before you have chance to react" that often happen in several strategy games. - However, some historical quest can be a bit vague: How I get the globe? only now I noticed there is different kinds of ports, and I need six trade ports (so I might need to rearrage my provinces). One thing I really like about this game, is that the overall feeling of begin some kind of Taiga Drama, thanks to the music and visuals. -

I am trying to think on a "hate watch anime", but the closest I remember doing was Valvrave, which isn´t much about hate, but more watching a train wreck, that did sometimes got good moments, some nice character design and a few nice ideas there and there, while the soundtrack was very good. The problem was all the rest.... Arlsan Senki still amazing, and once I did find out that is by the same author of Legend of the Galatic Heroes, Yoshiki Tanaka, I did enjoy it even more. I did also start watching the second season of Cinderella Girls, which is very good so far. Akagami no shirayukihime is also among my favorites so far, loved the art and the history.

Also on networking, I too have problem with, mainly my total lack of one. While I did graduated in history, it take around five years in the university to realize that just maybe I don´t like history on the level enough to continue to a post graduation or anything else and I was becoming really unhappy (I mean beyond the average "sometimes you got to do things you don´t like"), between this and the lack of perspective of job or anything (to make things worst I did degree at research, not teaching). How I got in this? well in Brazil public university often require a entrance exam, which is done once per year and can be really hard depending on the course, I tried for other areas before, but end doing something I shouldn´t - set for a course which I could get (also because I do like history), because I felt guilty by failing other times. Once there I forced myself to continue (again, due guilty feelings). But I did professional course on Graphical Design, and this time I felt I did the right thing. However, I am at this strange situation, where I have almost no network, I am trying my best - by updating my behance profile, sending mails to job offers, but so far I haven´t be able to either get some visibility* or a job or any kind of freelance (which often end with my mail begin ignored, also I am not finding much offers which don´t help at all, even on Linkedin**) its not very encouraging, specially with our (Brazil) economy not going very well. Despite this I am more happy now with my choice and all thanks to people which I meet outside my original course (which was kind very closed, I mean they kept very little contact with other people), many of them which I meet in anime events and in our local japanese fashion community, which give me more different perspective and views. * Small rant about Behance: I kind just use because I might need a profile/portfolio in a more "serious" place, but visibility there is just so low that I am not sure if it is helping or not. If I get one view once in while I might call it miracle (and I mean profile view, project often go much longer without anyone seeing it), while in other sites, such Pixiv or Deviant Art, I do get much more views, still it is so hard to get any feedback in any of them. I guess much because instead of dividing the follower updates in folders (like in DA) they post this huge wall of updates which is almost impossible to track or remember who is who and that often cause you to not even showing or or begin flooded by people with more projects. ** Linkedin : a friend, and one of my few "contacts" often sign praises to it, she got most of her network and freelance there, but I guess I am not very good using it, still have a I keep a profile there, since might help. I am not sure if I should add more people and groups or what I should do.

GoG have just add a old SSI strategy game to their catalogue - Stronghold https://www.gog.com/game/dd_stronghold_kingdom_simulator which is also a old D&D game. It is a very unusual city builder like game, where you view things in "grid based third person view".

Yes very true, I mean more in animation they perform on their own. However, I was looking at some youtube videos and maybe I am not very correct, since I played this game a long time ago. Because in videos I think they do a animation like what I said, but only once or twice and maybe not all of them (I mean all soldiers in the unit), the rest just blob up as usual.

Just a small notes: The game does have its own Achivement system, where you unlock special officers (that you could set up if they appear or not) and the in the profiles of all the game officers, where you could check in which of the Nobunaga game this or that officer first showed up or not. That "God of War Descend" can be really difficult, I had the quest to take two Hojo castles, but turn out that face the Hojo and Takeda was a bad idea. Still, during this game I had my first "mega battle" (I think that is the term they use), which is special kind of battle, where all your armies and all of your enemies army fact each other in a single battle, face to face. Started a game on the Birth of Nobunaga, but this time playing with the Otomo clan and the campaign have been really good so far.

Rowan Kaiser also wrote about what he found out of the demo (which he played too): http://venturebeat.com/2015/09/16/getting-total-war-combat-right-is-tough-but-warhammer-total-war-is-on-the-right-track/ The main thing for me is that they should adjust their system to fit and reflect the game theme/setting/pace. I rememeber that even in the 3MA podcast (the episode about Fall of the Samurai), they comment how sometimes CA appear to be 100% sure on what is trying do (more cinematic or "realistic"), and maybe that when problems kick in (trying do to both, end doing none). However, now they are very aware and that is visibile right now with Warhammer that for a pre-alpha game is way more solid that Rome 2. Depend on the setting really. I would say that too high survivability is just annoying and I remember this begin a quite a issue on Rome 1 mods (from memory I remember this more for Europa Barbarorum), where you would have "immortal" generals that simple won´t die, no matter what you throw at them. This lead boring sieges, where you rout or kill all the enemy units, but the general just remain there for a long time, leading to bizarre situation, where there was no more threat or risk, just you waiting the guy to die, while gazillions of units around him try to hack him down. Warhammer heroes, appear improved version of Shogun 2, powerful yes, boring invencible, no. They also use unique more card arts. In game they rather larger and even if attached to units (I think they can, from what I read around), they don´t suffer from the King´s Arthur problem, of attaching a Knight to a unit to him almost became invisible, since everyone was larger that him and blob effect where even worst. Now one thing I would like, and it was one of the few things good on XII Century, was that cavalry units would charge and them disengage to charge again. I don´t remember it really did anything ingame other that begin a animation, but it was kind cool.

Thanks, actually I am slight beyond that part. One of the most interessing systes inside the game is the "Policy" tab, where you can enact several reforms, each one does have a cost and does require toward either progressive or conservative or (and) some previous reforms, but this also affect how your officers related to you, since each one does have it own "tenet" which they follow (also some specific reforms, affect their loyalty, like the "Old Fief Assurance" which lower the loyalty of your progressive followers, or "Meritocracy" which improve the loyalty of follower with high attributes, but lower those with lesser attributes). Some things you can build in towns also affect this progressive (Teahouse, Cathedral and others) or conservative (Temple). Maybe, early on, some reforms and how progressive or not you are affect when western merchants does show up (I guess, really not sure). Edit: Oh, I just forget to add I did start a second game, on the "God of War Descend", but I did choose a neighbor clan and end losing since the leader died around that period and the clan goes to the hand of Kagetora, but even so he got his own historical quests (I guess that you could continue playing as him, if you set up character to be not limited by their real life span), then I start another game as Kagetora, and it have been lot of fun.

Yeah, I too was torn apart by either this, or MGSV or Grandia II or Amnesia: Memories. In the end, between not begin 100% sure if I could really play a stealth game well enough to enjoy it, since while I was able to finish the main mission in Ground Zeroes, I am stuck trying to do the other ones (that unlock stuff for MGSV) and the high price of the game, I decided, specially after that Koei stream which calmed my fear of a bad port, on Nobunaga and Amnesia: Memories (also because the discount)*. But I do plan to later buy MGSV. Anyway... Right now I did a rather large scale invasion against Saito clan, it was very fun - I used the feature to ask other clans which are allied to me send relief forces to some key points (you can choose where your allies should appear) while I mobilized all my armies to attack their main castles, thanks to them I was able to capture all without running out of supplies (another game mechanic, your armies once deployed take some of your supplies, which you gain by harvests, based on their size, and consume them along the march, so they have the whole "supplies for 120 days" thing which you should keep in mind as running out of them is often instant disaster most of times). What I am not sure, if I take over Saito too early, because once I finished a Historical Quest, the cutscene suggest that Oda will invade them, but I don´t know if I should wait the next quest or not. Still, it was lot fun. * By the way - Amnesia: Memories isn´t that horror game with same name but, but a Visual Novel.

The game won´t stop to amaze me, played a lot more and this is quickly becaming my GOTY. - Loved the fact that it does have a system where you can interact with the Imperial Court and get titles or make sure someone else got one. - Historical Quests might be triggered after sometime passes, at least for me, after doing maybe four in "Nobunaga´s Birth" I got the other ones after a few years. - Much like in King of Dragon Pass, your advisor often hint what you could build or do.

I do agree a lot with you. Kojima appear to have a huge fascination with cinema and I wonder how much of what he does and style came from there, specially from the very Japanese cinema, which certain genres often use lots of stylish and surrealism. To be fair, I just remembered about old Yakuza movie I watched long ago in a Japanese Culture class - the movie in case is Tokyo Nagaremono (1966, a.k.a Tokyo Drifter but not that other Tokyo Drifter movie) a very stylish and almost absurd movie, much to the despair of Nikkatsu (the producers of the movie) how tried to cut the directors funds (Seiju Suzuki) to see if he tones down a bit, but had the oppositive effect, as he made the movie even more weird, something which kind remind of Konami and Kojima thing. My contact with MGS is very recent with the steam release: Revengence, which by the way, is a amazing game (and the one you can say, yeah it´s "lol anime" and mean it, but in a good way) when I had the battle with Mistral, I loved who she has her own theme song with lyrics, which made the fighting really cool. Kind wish more game use songs with lyrics (and I mean lyrics tied to the game) in actions scenes. I played a bit o Ground Zeros, but I am not very good at stealth games, which made me decide to maybe buy MGSV later (also Nobunaga´s Ambition was released in the same day), since I am not sure that I would be able to really enjoy it. Specially since while I managed to do the main mission in Ground Zeros, I am stuck doing the other ones.

Yeah, this game is amazing. And a very well done port - runs very smooth. I will comment on a few things: - One of the most interessing thing is how Nobunaga´s Ambition does have this really amazing sound and visual design that give the feel of japanese period piece movie or a japanese historical drama for television, the music have epic and orchestral feeling but without becoming "noisy" as is rather more relaxing, again, the soundtrack have a very movie or epic drama theme. The sounds are very well done, from the confirmation voices to that choral chant they do when they win battle (I am playing with japanese voices) the character portraits are more close to historical with a bit mix of how (maybe the likeness of particular actors? but this only wild guessing) popular culture often view this characters. The games looks really good. - Battles are really fun and very fluid, almost no loadings, when two or more armies meet on the map you can either let them auto-resolve or take direct control and all done very fast and smooth. The only thing I have figured out very well is how use "tactics", which are some special abilities which you officer might had (I think they can have only one) and each one have different ways to be used and countered. - I recommend playing the tutorial and them the birth of Nobugana scenary, as both give you a very good tutorial on how to play. - The game uses a quest system, to guide both the player and the game in a more historical way, but don´t force it´s hand, as you can ignore or do different things. Per exemple, on of the initial missions in Birth of Nobunaga is improving your relation ship with some tribes (which the game use to teach you this feature), later they give you a mission on attacking another clan castle and so on. - You can play as any clan in all maps (unless I am wrong) and even set some special options, such if officers will have historical lifespans or not and other stuff.

This discussion about voice packs remind me that War of the Roses, had one with nothing less that Brian Blessed himself!

They just added the stream on youtube