Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes Review

I will forgive you if you haven't heard of this game. In-fact this game pretty much slipped through the net for us lot at GameOn, until we started to look more into it. You will also be mistaken if you think the game is just a straight J-RPG (Japanese-RPG) game due the graphics but like the old saying goes you can't judge a book by its cover and this never rings more true with a game like this. The game itself is more of a Puzzle RPG game which has some great elements including the combat to provide a really good gaming experience.

To start off with I reckon I should say that the Series of Might and Magic has been around since 1986, this also means this series has been around about the same amount of time I have been on planet Earth. The series itself has had plenty of spin offs to keep it going and this DS title is just one of many games that have been done in the Hero's Cannon of the series.

The storyline kicks off revolving around an artifact called the Blade of Binding which was used to kill a demon leader who was trying to kill off the very world you, in this game, are now sworn to defend against his demonic horde again. There are five main factions in the game which are Haven, Inferno, Sylvan, Academy and Necropolis. All of which you will be playing with, each of them telling their own part of the storyline on what is happening around these times. Due to this being a RPG game, and like most RPG's, the storyline is very important. I won't be revealing any more information about this as I know a lot of RPG gamers like to experience this for themselves so I shall endeavour to be spoiler free. However this is easily around about 50 hours in the single player mode for you to go through leveling up your characters and going through the main quest line and side quests that are dotted around.

Like I said before, taking the game at face value due to the graphics you would be thinking that the game itself is a JRPG game. The bright and colourful backdrops and characters seem like something straight out of Final Fantasy. The graphics feel polished and look great on the DS with a plan to have a version hitting the Xbox 360 as well as the PlayStation 3. These will surely be points of interest to see how the graphics will turn out once they are released.

Like in all RPG games, the controls are the most center point and on a whole of a lot of the basic controls that will navigate you through the world feel solid. You have a choice of either using the control pad and buttons or in true DS fashion, you can also use the stylus to navigate menus and your character. While all the menus are very basic and require little intelligence to use I think this is a good choice. You can't really go wrong with a simple menu system that allows you to get to what you want effortlessly and seamlessly unlike other titles I have played. To further add to seamlessness of the game, there is very little in loot for you to go wrong with. There are certain items which you will pick up that will boost your character or your unique unit attribute, only one can be used at one time but you will collect around half a dozen within the first few hours of gameplay, so it is really what suits you best. You also have three forms of currency that you can use to purchase items or more elite units and more often than not you need two of the three currencies to make a purchase. Most of the loot is found taking side quests or just looking around the map screen on you way to your next quest. There seems to be very little that is hidden away and not on show for you to make the most of.

I suppose now i should try and speak about the combat system itself, While you might think that after such a seamless control system on the Map screen you will be facing basic and even boring combat. You would be very wrong. The Whole system works on the premise that your DS screens are each half of the battlefield that you and your enemy control.

the basic idea is to drain your enemies HP so you win the battle. To do this you will have to use your soldiers to create attacks, of course your enemy also has his army doing pretty much the same thing. To start off your basic units consist of three types you can bring into battle all of which have a different color assigned to them. To get your units to start a attack you have to get three of the same coloured unit to line up in a row once this has been done they then will begin to charge the attack which will be built up over turns. Again your enemy will be doing the same. Once a attack is ready your units will try and make a direct line towards the other end of the DS to attack your enemy, Along the way if there is enemy units in the way or even a wall (which i will get to later) your unit will take damage to remove these out of their path. Again this is like wise for your enemies units. The amount of power your units have are based on what they are and also what levels they are. Seem simple so far well here comes the twist.

Due to your units are on a chess board arrangement more often then not a lot of colours will get mixed up together and the only units you can move are the ones that are the last one in the row. As well as this you will only have a certain number of moves that you can used for a turn so this mean that you will really need to think about your actions and where you move your units to. You can also however delete units from the battlefield to clear a row to line up certain colours of units. However again this is counted as a move but you will gain a move back if you connect three units together after you have deleted a unit from the battlefield. Following me so far? well we haven't even touched upon what you can do in the combat system. As well as connecting units together in a row you can also connect them together again in groups of three in a column. If you do connect three together in this way they will be turned into a defensive wall, this can be used to to try and stop enemies with out killing off your using your units. As well as this the walls will also increase in power every turn they are not attacked.

Once all your units have been destroyed or used in attack you can call reinforcements at any time through out the battle. The amount that you can add to your screen will depend on how many you have currently and also how many Elite and Champion units you have in reserve. While calling in reinforcements it will take a move off you, it is vital that you keep your screen well stocked full of units to make sure you can get the best amount of attack as possible. the only problem with this is the fact that the units will run on the screen at random and there is nothing worse than having to delete the units that have just come on to the screen just to try and make a attack possible.

So that's your basic units your Elite units have a similar way of being actioned into battle. the way to do this is to have two of your basic units line up behind your elite unit to start off the attack. Your elite units are tougher units and have also special abilities such as being able to jump over defensive walls, however these units come at a cost and while your basic units are pretty much infinite your elite units are not and you have to buy more of these units at certain places through out the map screen for your hard earned money. They also take up more space on your battlefield and take longer to charge their attacks so they are a strength and also a weakness.

Your final type of unit is your Champion unit which require four of your basic units to be lined up behind them. Again these like your elite units these can be used to change a battle this is because they have powerful abilities such as healing your hero while charging, ignoring walls, or obliterating idle enemy units, and also because they tend to be tougher than non activated units and can often soak up more damage than a wall. Much like the elite units though these are not infinite and will cost you to keep replenishing them if they are lost during a battle.

As well all these units you have to play with your character itself will also have a special ability on which you can use once it has been charged. To charge this it normally is about the amount of damage you inflict to you enemy as well as how much damage you have taken. These abilities can range of a sniper shot that allows you to fire an arrow directly at you enemy which you could use to take out powerful Elite or Champion units or even detonating all your existing walls into devastating fireball attacks. Once you have got your head around the complexity of the combat system it can be very rewarding to start getting into more in-depth combat techniques for which i will let you find out on your own about. I also must make a not that a lot of the tutorials are very useful and will be your savior, you can access these from the main menu or will pop up through out the game when you have learnt a new technique or have discovered a new type of unit. The control system for the battles can be either used with the stylus or the control pad. i must admit i was using the control pad a lot more as the style can get a little tricky when you are trying to place units correctly.

I also must say that some of the battles some times the outcome can really depend of the position of your units at the start of the battle. Due to a lot of the more advanced units take up more room on the screen they really can start getting in the way or even make it impossible to try and get a defensive or even a normal attack going. Also due to they are bigger on the screen they also normally will die before they have even had chance to use a attack. However even with these problems the combat system is far from broken or ruined and it is a lot more then just trail and error and these is nothing more satisfying than getting your units correctly place and launch some amazing attack and really devastating your opponent.

If the Story mode isn't enough for you there is also a multi-player mode as well as a quick battle mode as well. Which allows you to take on friends or even just have a quick battle with any of the five characters that you will be playing throughout the game as well as the five additional companion characters that you unlock in Story mode. In both Quick Battle and multiplayer, you start with your hero at the maximum level of 10 and with your units at the maximum level of 5. Even though these fights can be fun there is no risk and reward and you don't really see any progression of the character like the single player mode.

With everything summed up the whole experience of Might and magic is enjoyable and rewarding, with a few little issues regarding the combat i still cannot recommend this anymore than i have if you are a fan of the RPG genre and need something to suck you in and take a few days and even nights away from you. pick this up now if you are new to the genre i would suggest then you try this and i reckon you will love it. The game makes your feel and care about the characters and the combat is rewarding and challenging enough for you to get your moneys worth about the game. this game may have almost passed us by but for gods sake make sure it doesn't for you.