Nintendo/Advance Wars General

So, after this game - that is, Advance Wars - went on sale for Wii U I got into pretty much immediately. Then I took a loooong hiatus from it (XD), but I'm back to play it semi-regularly, and I figured it'd be nice to have a thread for not only that game, but the others in the franchise (I've played Battalion Wars 2, but not any of the other ones).

So far, I'm loving the game as much as I did back when I played it on friends' Advances all those years ago. Of the initial CO's, I think the one I enjoy the most is Sami - though I feel like the single player stages thus far isn't really designed to play to her strengths (she's a lot more able in the VS maps and such). By far my least favorite is Max (I've heard he can be pretty overpowered in VS, but having worthless artillery goes so far against my instincts I just can't get into it), so much so that I resented the one mission thus far that I was forced to play as him (Max's Folly), and am very choosy about which missions I decide to his him in otherwise.

Fog of war in single player is annoying, if only because it feels like an excuse to get the player to roll into ambushes one after another (the AI clearly knows where you are at any given time, without needing spotters), but it's still pretty neat and I suppose gives the strategy a unique feel. After just getting back into it after my hiatus, I'm on the second Kanbei mission (Kanbei, like Olaf, gives me the impression so far that he was initially designed primarily as a single player enemy, or should I say designed in terms of being an enemy than being playable, but that makes a lot of sense). Tally ho and all that!

edited 19th Aug '14 2:40:22 PM by KnownUnknown

Advance Wars desperately needs a new game on the 3DS like Fire Emblem got.

Addendum: Finished second Kanbei mission. Where all you do is build a tank every turn and use it to replace/supplement a single bottleneck (since you can ignore the other one for a fairly long time as long as you focus rocket fire on the large tanks).

As extremely repetitive as that was, of the three CO's you have available I couldn't imagine not doing that mission with Andy.

Personally, the 3DS needs all the titles it can get in order to be successful.

The thing is, Advance Wars doesn't sell as well as Fire Emblem so until it can or it looks like it could sell well I don't think we'll see another Advance Wars.

And if they do make a new Advance Wars will it be cartoony (AW, AW 2, AWDS) or serious (Days of Ruin).

If there is another AW in the future, I hope it goes back to cartoony, personally.

I didn't hate the more "gritty" take in Ruin, but given the rest of the series it seemed a bit off to me, for lack of a better term. Nothing like a little cheerful carnage to pass the time.

I'm pretty stuck on AW 2, I can't seem to beat any of the missions there are anymore. The worst ones for me seem to be the one with Olaf and Andy vs Flak trying to capture 8 town spaces, and Olaf vs Lash in his hometown. Grit vs Lash is OK, but still hard, and don't get me started on the missions with Yellow Comet characters (i'm getting better and better on the Sensei vs Adder mission, though.)

I hope it goes back to cartoony and brings all the additions that were added in Dual Strike.

Days of Ruin felt like such a step down in that regard.

Keep some unit changes though. Like changes to carriers and additions like the motorbike infantry and dusters

edited 19th Aug '14 5:13:58 PM by LeGarcon

Just don't put back in Duel Strike. That was broken as I don't know what.

I was okay with the change of theme for Days of Ruin, but all the gameplay changes really threw me off. Never finished it, in the end. An AW game with the same mood as Days of Ruin, but more like 1/2/DS in gameplay would be awesome.

The music in Days of Ruin was kickass, though.

I wonder if it would be possible to do a psuedo-3D style Advance Wars. Or, at least, 2D with multiple planes.

Mostly so a line of infantry can't block an airplane.

As for a new game... While I miss the old crew and think there's still tales that could be told with the Allied Nations, I can see why they decided to start things over with Days of Ruin. Several of the changes contributed to a much more balanced PvP game, though the single player experience felt a lot more bare bones because of it.

Wondering why there wasn't an Advance Wars thread here before...

Only game I've played is Days of Ruin because it was the only one I could find at the time. I've finished the main campaign and some of the side maps but right now I'm currently stuck on Jay Islands.

Personally, the 3DS needs all the titles it can get in order to be successful.

It wasn't already?

Days of Ruin had my favorite characters. As much as I like the cartoony presentation of the GBA games, I just can't get stand everyone's attitude about war as if it was play time or something. Days of Ruin, if anything, at least portrayed war in a much more tasteful manner.

And yes. 3DS version PLEASE.

I like how Battalion Wars keeps the cartoony style but drops more hints and such about how the characters are a bit too chipper about what's actually going on.

Like when the Eagleland General's second in command suggests they put their men through a mock battle, and he on the spot decides to make them use live rounds for no reason whatsoever.

Awkward Zombie has a comic for everything.

Misleading mission parameters, ahoy! On Kanbei's third mission (where you have to capture own/capture cities/barracks/airports before him), the game repeatedly tells you that to win you have to ignore the lone barracks he has on this little island right next to your base, since he can't actually use any of the units he might build there. That island is presented as a trap, which would make you lose if you actually went for it - if you lose the game even assumes you did so because you wasted time on the island.

But, though ignoring that base gets the job done faster (which is important for getting the Sonja missions) taking it early is actually a decent strategy because it renders Kanbei incapable of winning (the only real challenge of the map is that Kanbei has every single property he needs to win within arm's reach at onset (essentially creating a time limit), while you have to build away parties and mount offensives to get any).

Since Kanbei doesn't have the capability to make new units, if you take that base and then just deal with his offensive air units (which you have to do early anyway), you basically win.

That said, it is faster and arguably easier to just take out his northernmost island and prevent him from winning that way (more reward, since there are more cities there), but the "you have to ignore it to win" advice is still misleading.

Maybe I'm just being nitpicky.

edited 24th Aug '14 8:14:10 PM by KnownUnknown

Long time no post...

Playing Days of Ruin right now, how do I unlock Trial Maps 22 and 23 on the Campaign map? I finally beat Jay Islands (72 Days!!!) and went through Trial Maps 16-21 rather easily. I've also S-ranked all of the main campaign and trial maps so far.

Now, this could just be a general "interest gauger" thing, rather than an actual "we got something for you" announcement, but given that this post is just before an announcement of a Nintendo Direct, OH JEEZ! OH MAN! OH JEEZ OH MAN!!!

EDIT: Oh, this might be a fan-page. I feel silly now. ;_;

edited 12th Jan '15 10:23:46 PM by TechPowah

It's been two years since I got my hope up on what was said at E3 2014.

At least the Fire Emblem part was delivered. However, there hasn't been a single sign of Advance Wars in these two years.

It would be a shame if we don't get to see a 3DS Advance Wars game until the end of its life cycle.

Ah well, maybe we'll get it on the NX.

I'm sadly not optimistic. This and Golden Sun - they're probably dead franchises

Plus, Intelligent Systems is pretty much sinking most if not all of their cash into Fire Emblem and the new hellhole that Paper Mario has become.

Would it be too late for a different company to take the helm? Maybe Next Level Games as a result of Federation Force's unnecessary risk-taking?

That could be doable.

I myself would like to see Neotanks return in a remake of Days of Ruin with some tweaks. They keep their movement and treads, but get their vision increased to 2 like the Medium Tank and War Tank and have the firepower and defense of Megatanks. As a trade-off, they either retain their 22,000 G deployment cost or increase it to 25,000 G (making Neotanks cost the same to deploy as Battleships) which in multiplayer can be really crippling if one tries to save up for one.

edited 9th Nov '16 5:23:01 PM by CybranGeneralSturm