A look back at: Warsong

A tactical RPG that I looked at for a minute, didn't like it, and then decided to come back and actually play it. Oh, and it's for the Genesis, so expect some badass music I guess.

So Warsong, admittingly I still don't really like how the battles in this game go. So several controllable soldier units with strengths and weaknesses, as well as some, but mostly marginal, terrain differences. And the soldiers cost money, but this usually isn't a big deal. What is a big deal is how these things usually go, 10 health for each unit max, and commanders naturally are pretty much capable of taking units out on their own. Still though, the RNG makes for quite a lot of uncertainty.

While I will give Warsong credit for making pretty much every scenario unique, especially the twists when new units join battles, I still find the very first scenario to be really difficult. Great, make it nigh unwinnable, and that Garrett is supposed to escape. Also, the permadeath aspect actually is in effect for this game, although thankfully not for the first battle. Still though, Garrett, our main character and the only one that must survive everything, is the only one participating in combat dialogue, which pretty much means he seems to be the only one that matters. Which sucks because in this game he actually needs more commanders and units. And then there's the matter of leveling up, which only happens when a unit is defeated. It pretty much means that you need to get your commander's unit or units to kill other ones, so that the commander gains experience, and every 10 levels is a class change. Here's where it gets tricky, the class changes are pretty much permanent, so you mess up one and go to a class you regret later, there's likely no going back. So don't make Tiberon a Serpent Knight for example, as tempting as it is, there's not gonna be much water terrain in the endgame. And Garrett even does better as a Grand Knight rather than a King.

The scenarios naturally tend to be lengthy, and a few interesting characters like to show up in every scenario. Lance seems to be that one rival that always shows up, but then joins you with a really good class. Meanwhile, the number of villains is usually focused on each individual scenario, which is good because sometimes these villains don't actually need a whole lot of development for once. All in all, a game worth looking at past its horrible first scenario for at least some the other ones, and some interesting characters overall that don't really need a whole lot of depth.