Wargroove is finally here! By now, hopefully, you’ve heard about Chucklefish’s latest endeavor, but we’re here to give a sneak peek into why you should be excited about it.
1. What is Wargroove?
You’ll often hear Wargroove touted as this ‘spiritual successor to Advance Wars’, but what does that really mean? Well, Wargroove is a turn-based tactical strategy game, drawing on inspiration from the Fire Emblem and Advance Wars series.
From the gameplay then, you should expect isometric combat, leading an army of units into war to invade enemy territory and dominate each map.
2. Modern-Day Updates
The Advance Wars series hasn’t received a new entry for a decade, now, with Days of Ruin on the original DS being the most recent. So what, then, have Chucklefish done to bring the genre into the modern age? They’ve added a level editor, and enabled online play! The map editor looks incredibly intuitive and simple to use, while the online play can be synchronous or asynchronous, so you don’t have to wait for your opponent’s to take their turn, you can jump into another battle while you wait and come back later!
3. Cross-Platform Play
Cross-platform play is another modern reason to get excited about Wargroove. You can play with your friends on PC and Xbox One without any hassle, right on your Nintendo Switch!
4. Commanders
Commanders are the leaders of your army, and there are over 12 to choose from and unlock in Wargroove. They’ll act as your most powerful units, but if they fall, then the battle ends in your defeat, so protect them at all costs! They’re also your avatar during cutscenes and will interact with enemy commanders.
5. Four Warring Tribes
Commanders are split up into one of 4 warring factions – you have the Cherrystone Kingdom, the Heavensong Empire, the Felheim Legion, and the Floran Tribes. Which faction a commander is in will dictate what their units look like – although you can change the colors, for instance when playing multiplayer games. Want a cute and cuddly example? Here’s a look at the dog sprites for each faction!
6. Groove Powers
Aside from their impressive offensive and defensive abilities, Commanders have another trick up their sleeve. Each commander has their own Groove ability, which can be activated when their Groove meter is full. Functionally, these behave very similarly to CO Powers from the Advance Wars games, enabling powerful abilities that can change the tides of war. Examples include allowing each of your units an additional turn or letting your commander leap across the battlefield and land with a powerful area of effect attack.
The groove meter will fill up over time as the commander deals and receives damage. Depending on how impactful the Groove ability is, they’ll charge faster or slower.
Modes!
Wargroove is absolutely packed with content to see and do, here’s just a quick look at some of the modes on offer:
7. Puzzle mode
In puzzle mode, you must complete set scenarios. This might be the traditional ‘kill the enemy’ commander goal, or you may have something more tricky to accomplish, such as rescuing a villager. These may have multiple ways to complete each scenario, but you only have one turn.
8. Skirmish Mode
Skirmish mode lets you take the fight to your friends or the CPU, scrapping it out in 2, 3, or 4 player maps with configurable turn timers, income, commanders and much more. You can even play multiple skirmishes asynchronously online!
9. Arcade Mode
Likened to traditional fighting games – or the Classic Mode from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate if you want a more modern example – Arcade Mode pits you against 5 consecutive opponents. Unique to each commander, their arcade mode will feature different opponents and even cutscenes.
10. Campaign Mode
Likely to be where you spend most of your playtime, Campaign mode has over 30 missions of varying lengths to wade through. You’ll have set encounters, cutscenes, and Commanders in this mode, as Chucklefish take you on an epic adventure. Interestingly, they’ve said there’s over an hour worth of cutscene content in the Campaign, alone!
11. Custom Campaigns
As if that doesn’t sound extravagant enough, you can even create your own campaign! Complete with different world maps, you can place missions and set branching paths through the story. Think Star Fox or Lylat Wars, where completing secret goals or performing well enough will put you on a different path.
12. Everything Else
There’s so much more to Wargroove that we could be here for hours; It supports 10 languages at launch. There’s a codex and a gallery, where you can check out all kinds of interesting backstory and concept pieces, there’s even a cutscene editor?! – I never thought I’d be saying that about an Indie game of this magnitude – and there’s also a jukebox, where you can listen to all the cool songs in the game. Speaking of songs, Jordan interviewed the composer, Phonetic Hero, which you can check out right here.
For more coverage on Wargroove, make sure to stay tuned to SwitchWatch, and consider subscribing to our Youtube Channel. For a different recently released turn-based strategy game, why not check out my review of Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics?
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