Category: Game Releases

There’s a lot of potential in tactical RPGs on mobile, especially the classics from Japan. So far, wholesale premium ports have included gems like Final Fantasy Tactics, but the pricing model of these games can sometimes prove prohibitive to some. This, and the evolving nature of how people play mobile games, has led to an alternative offering via F2P strategy games like Fire Emblem: Heroes.

This is a sponsored article courtesy of Zlongame.

These games attempt to marry the inherent richness of their forebears with the realities of the freemium economy. Some work, some don’t, but if you’re not able to afford something like Tactics at full price these games can offer an alternative experience.

Come next year, another classic will be making a comeback, not only on traditional platforms but on mobile as well. The name Langrisser may not be as well-known as Fire Emblem, but it’s no less as important to the history of Japanese turn-based tactical games. Originally released in 1991, the first Langrisser arrived the year after Fire Emblem’s original incarnation and was actually the first of the two franchises to make it out west. Older readers may recognise the name Warsong, the title of Langrisser I’s official SEGA Genesis translation that was released in North America that same year.

Langrisser and Fire Emblem’s rivalry would continue throughout the 90’s, with Langrisser II coming in 1994, Langrisser III in ’96, Langrisser IV in ’97 and finally Langrisser V in 1998. This year would also see Langrisser I & II ported to PC using a new engine, although the franchise went into hibernation as the original developers parted ways with their parent company to pursue their own projects.

Warsong would was the only game of the ‘classic’ era to get an official western release, but If you knew where to look you could get fan translations of Langrisser II, Der Langrisser (The super Famicom version of L2) and Langrisser IV: the all-time fan favourites amongst those who’ve followed the series since the beginning.

As a franchise, Langrisser was mainly known for offering a large-scale battle system, which stood apart from other similar games that focused more on individual characters and smaller squads. Players could control dozens, if not hundreds of troops on their side, and everyone was organised into platoons or battalions of units led by a singular hero-figure who would have a class and powers of their own. Like most of games of this genre, there was a rudimentary hierarchy in terms of which units were strong against other units, with order changing and evolving as the series progressed.

Featuring a medieval/Germanic setting with a noticeably Japanese spin, the series was also known for the narrative and story. 1995’s Der Langrisser introduced branching non-linear paths – with the player able to align with either one of three factions or go it alone, something which carried on into later games and remakes. This is now considered an important part of a narrative based tactical game’s DNA, and it’s something Langrisser and contemporaries helped refine. Relationship dynamics also evolved over the course of the series post-Langrisser III, giving the players multiple options for romantic partners depending on in-game choices and dialogue.

Two decades have passed since the ‘classic’ era of Langrisser, which ended with Langrisser V. There have been a few spin-offs and alternative projects since then, but it’s only recently that the series is making a real attempt at a come-back not only in Japan, but in the west as well. A compilation featuring a remaster of both Langrisser I & II is coming to Switch and PS4 next year, and us mobile users are getting our own bespoke Langrisser experience…

Langrisser Mobile

Twenty years on, Langrisser is looking to revive its ancient rivalry with Fire Emblem, and no more is this apparent than with Langrisser Mobile. It launched into open beta in China earlier this year, and now it’s being translated in English, positioning itself as an alternative to Fire Emblem: Heroes in the free-to-play strategy space.

While Langrisser Mobile replicates some of the basic traits of Heroes (given how similar these franchises have always been, not entirely surprising), it’s still carrying over the core identity of Langrisser, offering its own spin as it appeals to both new and old series fans.

Players of Heroes will recognise the dynamic of simplified turn-based combat with a focus on quicker matches, and also the idea of pulling famous characters from across the franchise into one game. But on top of that is many traits that come straight out of the classics.

The units you control on the map are still a grouping of a leader-like main character being supported by grunt troops, and each have their own health and attack stats for an extra layer of customisation and tactical utility. There’s even a nod to the series’ roots by asking players to do a quick questionnaire at the beginning, the results of which will determine the main character’s class evolution later in the game.

Beyond that, Langrisser is trying to offer more content to enhance the experience. For example, the maps can be as large as a 24×29 grid, and there’s a lot of them (as a quick comparison, Fire Emblem’s maps only go as large as a 10×8 grid). There’s also a full fleshed out central narrative that touches on key points and markers from the classic games and the tactical sphere even features terrain effects, which add on an extra dimension to fighting battles beyond class and type-trumping.

Japan has a great history of tactical strategy games, and it’s a shame more of them don’t make it out west. Whatever form it takes, it’s good to see forgotten players like Langrisser get revived for a new audience.

Langrisser Mobile is due for release sometime in 2019. You can go to the official website to register for the currently running Closed Beta Test.

Maybe it says something about how twisted people’s tastes can really be, but Ndemic’s Plague, Inc. was a surprise mega-hit for the one-man developer, hanging out near the top of the paid charts for years and receiving several well-received expansions. You’ve probably played it, and if you haven’t, we highly recommend that you do.

Now, we have a spiritual sequel that takes the same combination of a board-game-style map and branching development trees and applies them to the theme of rebuilding a nation after an international conflict. This time, you’re playing the good guys (hopefully), and Ndemic have put together a game that is just as if not more compelling than their previous effort.

One level of Rebel, Inc. is enacting initiatives that help build stability in the region, improve your reputation, and enable new ways to deal with problems that crop up. Civilian initiatives like improving hospitals and water systems primarily affect stability directly, while Government initiatives often act as ‘buffs’ that speed the adoption of your other initiatives or mitigate their consequences. Military initiatives are how you get the units you can command on the battlefield, but also support and improve the effectiveness of those units.

Initiatives are rolled out around the region automatically. You give the order, and your subordinates make it happen. At first it can be difficult to understand the effects of your orders, since they are rolled-out piecemeal and sector by sector. However, you’ll definitely appreciate the improved roads you put down when your national army has to run from one end of the map to the other to put down an insurgent group.

The costs of these initiatives are measured not only in dollars spent, but also in inflation and increasing corruption. Pouring money into an ailing nation sounds like a great idea, but too much at one time will cause prices in the region to rise, meaning you need to instead carefully drip new programs in like an IV. Also, implementing new programs that are supposed to help people means that other potentially less scrupulous people have to be put in charge, which lets them skim some off the top and can lead to more problems later. Balancing budget, inflation, corruption, stability, reputation, and insurgent activity is the core of the game.

The next layer of the game is the military tactical level, which, although it might not appear so at first, is heavily dependent on the policy layer. Here, you move units around the map to deal with insurgents that pop up, which is always at the most inopportune times. If the insurgents manage to control a sector, they will quickly drain your reputation, so it’s a good idea to keep your soldiers in the thick of it. Once defeated, however, they will scurry off into a neighboring sector, which can lead to you chasing them all around the map. To actually eliminate an insurgent group, you have to corner them so that there is no escape. It’s a game of cat and mouse, but one where the cat also has to worry about not antagonizing the local civilians and is subject to being recalled at the end of a tour of duty.

Finally, there’s plenty of dilemmas that will appear and require careful judgement. These will spell out the probabilities of different consequences depending on what you choose–typically you trade cost in dollars against a change in reputation or a risk of additional corruption or emboldening insurgents. Do you pay off the warlord, or try to arrest him and risk him joining the insurgency? These dilemmas are also how the game handles issues like civilian casualties from your airstrikes (Do you cover it up, or admit responsibility? It becomes more difficult over time.) They ultimately direct the endgame, as you negotiate with the rebels to bring peace to the region without losing too much face.

There are a lot of systems interacting in the background in Rebel, Inc., which serves to take some of the pressure off the player but also makes some of the game a bit opaque. Key to success are the Government initiatives that control corruption, speed implementation of Civilian initiatives, and make other tools more effective–but you might not realize that at first since those initiatives don’t have as immediate or visual an impact on your situation as a new military unit. Once you get the hang of it though, Rebel Inc offers a lot of challenge and requires careful thought to keep its many plates spinning through its harder difficulty levels and maps. Yet, it’s still a game that you can easily pick up and put down thanks to the high-level of automatic administration that’s taken care of for your governor.

Some people will question the taste level of this kind of simulation in this day and age. Rebel, Inc. doesn’t have the same problem that Afghanistan ’11 had because its rebels are only elliptically related to the Taliban, so there’s no need to fear Apple removing this new game on the same (incredibly silly) grounds. There are probably valid criticisms to make of Rebel, Inc.‘s portrayal of reconstruction, but only because any simulation is going to have to simplify a massively complex situation in order to shrink it down to our phone screens. This simplification could reasonably make people doubtful of the message the game is sending–if only the idea that it is even possible to “win” a counter-insurgency.

However, in this case I think the material is handled with enough gravity and care, and the developer is engaged-enough with players that any problems that might surface will be considerately dealt with. The game primarily portrays the difficulties in rebuilding a country after a war, the compromises that are made and the ultimate costs, and that overall message is a powerful and necessary one in our recent decades of jingoistic adventures in the Middle East. For that reason alone, we might hope that Rebel, Inc. equals its predecessor’s popularity in the App Store. But it also deserves to make it to the top of the charts on its own, for being a complex but easy-to-play sim game.

While we’re always experimenting with how best to handle the GOTY awards, one thing we will never change is giving you guys the opportunity to speak your own minds. After all, everything we do here is for you, the readers, and so the ‘Reader’s Choice’ award is your opportunity to have the final say on mobile gaming in 2018.

We’re keeping things simple this year: We’re only including games that we’ve reviewed that got five stars that released in 2018. We’ll include the full list below so you can pick which game you feel is best of the best.

But we also recognise that we don’t get a chance to review every release in a year, and that sometimes many of you disagree with how we score games. That’s why we’re also bringing back the ‘Wildcard’ vote – your chance to nominate any mobile game released for recognition.

The rules for the Wildcard nomination are:

• The mobile game had to have had its first/initial release on iOS or Android between January 1st and December 31st 2018.
• Games that were released on additional platforms in 2018, but had their initial release prior to January 1st 2018 are NOT eligible.
• To assist in data collection, please use the name of the game as it is displayed on the iTunes store. If it’s an Android-only game or you’re unable to access the iTunes store, you may use the Google Play store name (sometimes they can differ). We’d recommend copying and pasting, if you can.
• Any genre is allowed, as well as any type of game – F2P, Premium etc…
• You also have the option of telling us the reason for your nomination, if you wish it, in a follow-up text box.

The form is embedded below, voting will be open from today till Friday, December 21st 2018, and we’ll publish the results over the Christmas break.