Himeko Sutori
Himeko Sutori is a short story about a family of sisters and a journey they are forced into. The game is all delivered by a very small group, mostly a single developer as a labour of love and some contracted elements. This does leave some rough edges, but those work well enough.
I have played through multiple variations of the game and systems since its EA release 2 years ago, and my biggest praise has to be towards Nathaniel’s (Developer) commitment to his project, fixing things promptly and engaging with the community.
– Real player with 317.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Hex Grid JRPG Games.
I’m quite torn about this game. The positive rating is mostly to even out the negative ratings because I think the game is worth buying. But it could be much better than it is.
My biggest grudge is the leveling system. Instead of being allowed to pick whatever perks you want you have to choose something from three randomly picked cards. This means that quite often you can only pick things you do not want on that character. Welp, there goes a wasted level. You can always reload (and that’s what I usually do) until you are happy with the result. But that is a colossal waste of time and NOT FUN AT ALL. Much of my displayed playing time is actually reloading time and as such the opposite of fun playing time.
– Real player with 120.0 hrs in game
War of the Human Tanks
Battleships and chess with lolis.
Fantastic fun, interesting story with many twists and several endings, engaging gameplay that demands strategic thinking and an incredible soundtrack throughout.
The game’s story is told through visual novel format, which sets the state of affairs and the stage for the battle to follow. Battles are fought in real-time, but with a sort of turn-based system that runs on ticks, for example after giving a unit orders to move you must then wait for it to radio in asking for new orders before it can be moved again. Battlefields are presented as a grid of octagons, and before the round commences you must first place your units as in Battleships. Each unit has it’s own special properties and characteristics similar to chess, for example some may move 2 spaces at a time whereas others may only move 1, or one unit might only be able to attack horizontally whereas others must attack at least 2 spaces ahead of itself. The aim of each battle is to eliminate the opponent’s ‘Command Tank’ before they destroy yours which, regardless of how many units they have remaining, wins you the battle. The battlefield is covered by a shroud as seen in most real-time strategies with sight range varying between your different units, so early game tactics may usually consist of Battleships-esque artillery strikes into the dark hoping you’ll hit something, as your units gradually advance closer to the enemy, thinning out their ranks until their command tank is within firing range.
– Real player with 73.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Hex Grid War Games.
The first time I saw War of the Human Tanks, I was put off by how obviously low-budget it is; that was a huge mistake. Apparently, the art style just needed some getting used to, because once I got into it, I thought the graphics were actually pretty good. There’s full voice acting, fun animations and even some really catchy music that makes me itch to buy the soundtrack.
But what about the meat of the game? That, for me, comes in two packages (or perhaps Amasson boxes): the story and the gameplay. Let’s get this out of the way: The story is awesome. I loved it. This is definitely not a “skip-the-dialogue” kind of game; in fact, after a certain point, the story became the main appeal. It’s simultaneously lighthearted and grim, with a really interesting setting that ends up being much more detailed than you might suspect at first. There are four endings (two main paths, with two endings each) that all end up being pretty radically different and are all fantastic in their own way. I’m really in love with the setting, and all the little things you can learn about the rather disenfranchised battle-androids they call Human Tanks; the story really exceeded my expectations in every way. The translation is great, and the writing is clever, funny and serious when it needs to be; some of the big twists were huge gut-punchers. I’d definitely say the story was maybe the best part for me, and it’ll stick with me and inspire me for other personal projects for quite a while.
– Real player with 53.0 hrs in game
War of the Human Tanks - Limited Operations
Warning: 1000+ word review from a guy that’s way too passionate about a trilogy that features chibi girls that shoot at each other and explode. Please read if you have spare time.
The first two War of the Human Tanks games are among my favorite PC-exclusive games I have played so far. So, I bought the third game on the same year it was released and… it wasn’t my cup of tea. What made the Human Tank games so special to me is the ability to break the game with overpowered tanks and pit those tanks against other overpowered extra stage enemies in a game of dark chess. This game takes that away and makes you play fair and square with the opponent in a normal strategy game.
– Real player with 34.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Hex Grid Adventure Games.
I’m going to write a lot of words about anime tanks because I really like this series and I don’t think anyone else knows it exists. The last game in the series, Limited Operations, has been out for around 9 months and has about a dozen reviews. Here’s a really long one and consider this a review for the series in general.
The War of the Human Tanks series is essentially anime Battleship. Fights are real time and pause when you click a unit to choose an action. There’s always a large fog of war and most units are of the one hit, one kill variety. Tanks are of the mass-produced style, outside of a couple of special NPC’s, and are permanently destroyed when killed in action. Tanks can also equip modules that you can create which do things like increase shooting range and area, increase movement and so on. Limited Operations changes the last few parts up, though.
– Real player with 31.1 hrs in game
军团战棋Legion War
Just on the last weekend I played a big FFA the demo for 10.2 hours.
Then got the full game and played 2 1v1s for a combined other 5.5 hours!
It is rare that a game captivates me that much from the get go.
The AI is also quite competent already, which is part of what makes the game so fun to play. But I also see room for improvement there.
There’s some minor annoyances that could easily be improved like:
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no hotkey for ending the turn
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a lot of places where I first have to select something and then click a button instead of having double-click work there like with the hero-skill-tree, would be really nice if equiping items worked the same way
– Real player with 85.9 hrs in game
Legion War is a classic style turn-based conquer the world game with tons of options and depth to it. I’ve played nearly 75 hours and haven’t even touched the two campaigns currently included.
As of this review there are 5 playable factions with unique units, heroes, spells/abilities and mechanics as well as several minor factions that can be encountered in game and whose units can be recruited.
The game receives regular updates adding new and completely unexpected content, and development on the campaigns for other factions seems to be ongoing at a steady pace.
– Real player with 74.5 hrs in game
War of the Human Tanks - ALTeR
Welp, this certainly was a pleasent surprise. who would have thought that having a cute army of tank girls would be so interesting. The music is also interesting and I never tire of the battle/death cries of my, and my enemies, troops.
In the story there are acouple minutes of dialouge then a skirmish. For the battles, you must deploy a tank that acts like a king in chess, if she dies you lose (you can even have multiple). then you can make other units (if it is within the maps unit cap) like artillary (slow but long/wide range) shock tanks (fast/cheap/suicide explosion), assault tanks (medium speed, medium attack range) and much more. There is a fog of war, so you must proceed with care to find the enemy through scouting and prediction based on where you see them fire. You must build and upgrade your units by using supplies from winning or losing battles, so you may have to grind in the caverns or in free battles if you cannot preserve your troops.
– Real player with 70.0 hrs in game
This game… this goddarn game.
I’m not exactly sure where to start, so first off: this game is absolutely fantastic! I haven’t played EVERYTHING yet (still need to get Glitch-Heshiko and play the 2 or 3 optional Floor 90+ Battles), but still. The combination of Visual Novel and (Semi-)turn based Strategy game is beautiful and really well balanced, most if not almost all the tanks have their use and encourage players to figure out their favorite strategies and the Modules and combination of them just add to the fun (I still have fun giving my Peko-Peko a Tank Life ensurance and just making her explode, achieving absolutely nothing… I’m an Idiot.).
– Real player with 69.3 hrs in game
Hexa
(edit: a patch added a few settings, edited the review to reflect that.)
all you do in hexa is rotate hexagons so the shapes coming out of one side of a hex can reach the end located on the side of another hex. colors matter, so if a circle enters a hexagon on the yellow side, it will leave wherever the other yellow side is. there are also converters between shapes, as well as splitters and switches that unlock blocked sides.
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
Hexa is a easy to learn puzzle game with a unique concept. Use the different hex side types to get the beams to their destination.
With a simple to use level editor you can create and share your levels with the Steam community.
Key Features:
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Easy to learn yet complex puzzles
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Level Editor to create and share you levels on the Steam Workshop
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Simple controls
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33 Carefully thought out levels with more getting added constantly
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Random level generator. Play unlimited random levels!
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
战术狂想1(Chimera of Tactics 1)
Ugly and buggy, 0 effort garbage.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
战术狂想3-枪战足球(Chimera of Tactics 3-Gun and Soccer)
sometimes there is problems ending too early… consider Procedural Generation…
and it need scanning Item…
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
WARBORN
I got this game on Steam sale 30% discount for $17.50. It was worth it. It had a very good 41 mission campaign package with interesting story. I did like the characters. The mech design and gameplay mechanics were good. Yes, there were some issues regarding variety of units. Lack of Air or Naval units. I would have love for the pathfinders to have capture ability and even an assault mechs that could hop over mountains. Also, enemy commanders do not have commander mechs or commander powers. This was disappointing. I would have loved to see Pirate Leader or Lyssander Orswell with Commander Mechs and Power like the protagonists. I was able to create simple maps from the Map Editor. It’s not as robust as Wargroove’s Map Editor that allows for conditions and triggers for custom game modes and maps. I think it is ok. Overall, I had fun playing this game.
– Real player with 74.6 hrs in game
A gripping enough game. UI is very smooth, better than many high budget games, but do constrain your expectations for the overall experience. I would say it’s probably not worth the full purchase price at this time, even for a mecha fan, due to the sort of repetitive nature of its gameplay and nothing special in the plot department. It gives the impression of not a whole lot of development (Possibly understandable with such a small devteam) followed by tons and tons of polish (Unusual for such a small devteam). It shines in the balance department, being bug-free, fantastic UI. It has some cool robots so you should pick it up on a sale.
– Real player with 29.3 hrs in game
Burned Land
Burned Land is a niche game, and a little gem to me.
At first sight it might seem a little bit empty and obscure. Then it will seem very hard, even unfair. But if you push forward, you will discover a game with a very original approach, very rich and permissive in the ways you want to shape your kingdom and face the gods.
In this game, you not only build units and facilities, you will also “monitor” your population (literacy, devotion, nobility, sedentary, etc.), so they will provide you what you need and when you need it.
– Real player with 31.9 hrs in game
It is a pretty rough game, both in terms of UI and difficulty. The UI will hopefully get some polish from this one-man dev team, and perhaps the difficulty as well, but the difficulty certainly needs the polish a lot less. The dev is still pushing out regular updates, thus my recommendation for this Early Access game.
I made it to Turn 194, after narrowly dodging a very early game defeat. The early game near-defeat came about as my village almost starved due to a famine brought on by the gods. The entire point of this game is that the larger you grow, the more interest the gods have in stopping you from growing.
– Real player with 24.6 hrs in game