First off, a job well done once again to Eushelly even if the gameplay is not exactly up to expectations. I definitely had a lot of fun (and frustration, even if it's their trademark) going through this, and the lore was both satisfying and refreshing at the same time for numerous reasons.
One of the biggest reasons I enjoyed this was because this was set at a time far back into the past (At least a hundred years I think? spoilers:
Selica's Sword, the sealed Demon God Haishera was not yet sealed in this timeline and veeery sexy XD
). The humans of this time are incredibly tough as seen from god-blessed, special individuals such as our protagonist Vaishaito and Yun Garu United Nation's (I dearly hope I got this right lol) King Gyantoros, the 3 Musketeers, Marshal Garumus and Marshal Olfan - all of them are just so god damn STRONG. You get the sense that this is a land once upon a time where countless legendary heroes thrived and reaching god's realm (as in the universe's gods and not THAT God, as a disclaimer) is not too far away a concept. Nearly every character character get to show off their incredible strength in all sorts of ways - Neneka beasting entire armies, Air Siul practically unstoppable by any humans but Vaishaito, Kreis the perfect magic wielding Swordsman with a secret technique that even Vaishaito didn't manage to beat whole game, and Al is just GODLY and when coupled with Ryun they just WIN - and even when we take technology and intelligence into consideration, there's just no limit to its awesomeness.
Morality wise this is a major up from the usual cliches, such as no one really has any qualms about building a super weapon or two to ensure peace and stability. Consider this:
in the true route, Vaishaito and Eiferia worked together to develop a super flying Madou Warship, and at the sight of its magnificence he sees the future of a peaceful and hamonious world. Of course it's just a murder weapon in the end, but they never once wavered in their pursuit for peace (well, I'd like to believe they thought about the hypocrisy on challenging the Emperor's methods) because they firmly believed to never misuse the weapon themselves. To make it simple: I have super weapon, he has super weapon. I use it only to win unavoidable wars with extreme caution, he use it for an insatiable lust to become god and would destroy anything that stands at his path. The I good he evil from the protagonists eyes are so clear that it's VERY refreshing as compared to the classic hero hesitation that we seen in many stories. Doubt, but not loiter. Worry, but not depressed. Truly befitting of a man who would become hero and Emperor.
I might be able to give an in-depth talk on how modernized sex is for our protagonist - I mean sure girls were falling for his 'charms' left and right in a bad-storytelling way but the way he views and feels all love equally is well, good - but since this is a sensitive topic, I'll refrain from doing so.
Not to mention that if you choose to go the Ha-Oh route (also known as Evil route, even if you can still technically befriend all the girls without turning them into prostitute to enter it, but WHY NOT??), the choices you make REALLY make you feel like a complete asshole with a sun of black laughter accumulating in your stomach. I admit to
release Neneka's curse, led her up to Arufminia only to bloody her hands by murder, then reload to an earlier point and choose to keep her as a slave THEY SHOULD'VE JUST COMBINED BOTH CHOICES
AHAHA, AHAHAHAHAHA -
*stomps squishes burns*
... Eh, do forget my inner demon thanks. Continuing.
Another praise that I'd like to add is how well the events are strung together. If you follow the true route, I assure you that you will never feel the slightest awkwardness progressing through various events, be it the character or main stories, especially near the latter part of the game where you have a choice to choose which country to conquer first. Of course if you purposely try to screw them up then your experience will be damaged at your own expense, so please exercise a little judgment tq. Thing is, you expect to run into some sort of inconsistencies be it time-related etc after reloading saves like a complete maniac, but really, I don't see them if they exist. Very good, Eushelly.
Now then, about the gameplay. I'll be straight with this: It lacks depth, it's a huge time sink, and even though it complements well with a war-themed game (troop positioning, kiting etc) the execution is just poor. Here is a list of fails:
1) Most equipments are next to useless. Mostly I just rely on Al, Vaishaito and Riseru during the early game and Al + Ryun + anyone combo to beast through all fights without really needing tweaks on this department. I'm really disappointed; this was supposed to be Eushelly's department! There's even a very useless equip (Enemy HP does not go down under 1) which only use was to stall the enemy with a decoy and backdoor their bases, and well let's face it: when murdering troops gives a lot more EXP and technically far simpler, why would you ever want to do so? It's not like you can use them on most - if not all - boss stages anyway, you are REQUIRED to kill the boss to win most of the time!
2) There are 2 strategies: Kill everyone, and kill everyone. Oops, I meant the latter one to be destroy bases, but I do that so infrequently I could literally count them with two hands (unfortunately after 2 playthroughs and thousands of fights the number just HAD to pass by one hand). Most of the time they're fairly simple: Position your melee murderers at the front, ranged at the backs, wait, profit! Of course you would be tweaking formations around and pausing and rearrange your positions very frequently, but that's about all there is to the gameplay. And since with 2nd playthrough you get the options to have clone generals, and damn I'm just sitting on everyone's faces even at Hard Mode FUAHAHAHAHAHAHA ~
Do note that the final few boss battle of True End and
can be quite difficult. These are fights that really require to think carefully which generals to use and what equips you should put on, with careful positioning and meticulous timing and kiting since one wrong step means restarting the whole damn thing again. These are the fights that I enjoy most!
2) The tutorial is harder than most battles you're going to encounter. ABSOLUTELY NO ONE can pass it without dying at least once, like WTF MAN!?
3) Resource whoring is a pain in the ass, and unless you boot out most of your Monster soldiers you won't have enough generals to cover all territories on the map (if you have Append). This is kind of bullshit, but after a certain point you really don't care about building placements except for those that you absolute require for certain resources.
4) The quests are mediocre and repetitive and tedious at times. You just, murder all the way!
5) Your supposedly super giga epic Madou Warship is useless, I repeat, ABSOLUTELY USELESS in actual fights. Even in the story it didn't get to show off its glory beyond the point when it was first created, which I must say is a really low oversight by Eushelly here.
6) Don't need to build traps. Never needed dem stupid traps they only eat up space and ruin building placement SO USELESS!
But okay, I admit there are some goods in the gameplay despite everything:
1) Story related battle events tie in quite well with the fights, and when Yun Gasoru EXPLODED with troops and attacked ALL adjacent countries at once I admit I broke one helluva cold sweat, with tonnes of reloads.
2) There are shortcut, repeatable battles where you can level up your generals VERY quickly, and when coupled with EXP boost equip you just shot through the levels in no time at all.
3) Even though I never needed to consider this as much as I had with Sengoku Rance, you do have to coordinate your troops appropriately at proper locations before making an attack, and it could be challenging (even though rushing the capital always wins ~)
4) It was VERY entertaining to buy body parts and equips for our beloved Madou Koukakus (Kukuku ~) and they are absolutely CRUCIAL in turning Al into the merciless god of massacre as you just throw her in like some Terminator that just rapes EVERYTHING. Oh yeah.
5) At latter part of the game, using Vaishaito is going to screw - you - up. The Anti Omni Element is the second most powerful attribute in the game (Majin is the first) and it absolutely, COMPLETELY counters Vaishaito unless you drop a title or two and switch to Physical, which makes him bullshit anyway. This is one game where the protagonist ISN'T overpowered - actually he feels underpowered with a useless early game Sweep super and later a 90 ENERGY SELF-BUFF WTF IT COSTS TOO MUCH! - and when that happens you just NEED your other generals to make the cut. That makes it interesting.
In short, gameplay could be improved, and perhaps the RTS choice may not be the best, but it was an interesting attempt that certainly kept me occupied for at least fifty (bloody) hours. They REALLY need to understand that RTS ain't RPG though. -_-"
Now then, music. Average, but gets progressively cooler and the final boss fights are of course not disappointing. Not exactly eargasm stuff but definitely passable.
Voice acting. Normally I combine this with the above, but this NEEDS a paragraph of its own, because it's one of the BEST traits of Madou Koukaku. Without further ado, I hereby declare that they are FANTASTIC. Olfan was the coolest and best out of them all, bring out maturity, seriousness, age, conviction, cruelty, wisdom and all sorts of other amazing thoughts every time he speaks. I almost wish that he was the protagonist, but then we wouldn't get to hear him much and that would've been an absolute waste. Al's peculiar tone is a hit or miss, but for me it's a hit and I grew to really, REALLY love her as the game progresses.
Art! Man oh man Corona is so cute, whether in True or Ha-Oh route. Riseru was spectacular even though she was given the cursed 'Osanajimi' position. Al had 3 different battle garment designs! This time I actually have no faults to pick and I feel like I could love all of them! Great job!
Character. It would take forever if I start so I'll keep it short. Al's story was beautiful, Riseru's was thoughtful, Olfan's felt sobering but respectful, Anarosette's was quite refreshing... it's great to see stories evolve and prosper.
And that's it for the long review. I'll give it an 8.5 considering that it does have a number of faults, though ultimately shadowed by a story of legends with great characters.