This looks incredible and beautiful. One question. Is this gonna be too complex for someone who hasn't played a board game more complex than monopoly? I play FF Tactics and such, but never played a table top game like this. I may just get it on impulse.
Yes and there is skirmish maps BUT it needs a permanent online connection to play anything in this game ( single or not).
Not feeling duped, but it is odd that after the master says your done, the only way to progress is to forfeit the current tutorial. For such a polished presentation, you wouldn't expect such a glaring oversight in the introduction. Assume the victory conditions aren't set right or something. I'll give the dev the benefit of doubt, game looks too good not to. Edit: 2nd time through tutorial one, it progressed as expected. Still weird. Edit 2: Ok, in its current state, the game is so buggy, laggy and unresponsive at times, for me it's unplayable. Warbands editing is bugged, the units won't drag from the cards and when they do it won't let you end the edit, minurature disappear while editing forcing you to cancel, the pack purchasing UI glitches, the 100 coin pack pops up an iOS keyboard input that does nothing, buttons on the main map unresponsive, even the Skirmish button stops working some times. Too bad, guess I'll give em a bit to work this out. Currently, unplayable for me.
Up the Irons! Game looks and sounds amazing but online only? No thank you. I'll keep checking though to see if they ever remove the online requirement.
Bummed... It pains me to say it after anticipating this game for such a long time, but it's not very playable on iPhone in its current state. (Was going to grab it on Steam long ago, but I realllly wanted to hold out for the portability of iOS.) I fully expected it to be at least a bit more difficult to use on the phone than tablet or Steam, but it's worse than I'd imagined. On the 6 Plus, the UI has too many elements that are barely legible and are difficult to tap. The cards are very difficult to read. In combat, pressing the card brings up a larger version but it only remains for a second or two, which is not enough time to actually read/absorb it. In the deck-building area, you have to drag cards to the left half of the screen to add them - pressing the card brings up a small preview, but only yet further on the left side. So if you're a lefty like me, it forces the preview underneath your finger that you have to use to enlarge the card in the first place. :/ And don't even think about pinch-zooming in the tutorial missions. If you do, the dialog windows don't adjust to remain visible so you can't read what you're supposed to be doing/learning. Additionally, ANY sort of touch on the screen advances the dialog whether you're ready or not. The manual and tutorials explain very, very little about actually using the various areas of the interface. And while all of it is damn gorgeous, much of it isn't intuitive in the least. Apparently I unlocked a unit for completing the tutorial, but darned if I know where to view/find it. Bought a minis pack to earn that particular achievement, and the achievement pop-up blocked me from seeing what was actually in the pack. Clicked on the pop-up to close it, and it closed out the whole interaction. No idea what was in there. Clicking on all of the blue banners on the map to try different scenarios gives cryptic messages about not having met the right conditions to do that mode, because I haven't bought certain scenarios with certain war point values...but I can't earn gold unless I complete scenarios, right? There's also this lit-up pip under my insignia on the upper left, with a number 1. Assuming it's a level indicator, but what does the pip mean? Doesn't say in the manual, unless I missed it. I fully believe there is an amazing game experience just waiting to be had in here...The attention to detail on the graphics and sound is fantastic, and the overall concepts are really cool. The theming is excellent, and I bet the bigger battles will be a blast. Love, love, love the tabletop feel they captured with the dice, cards, and minis...I just wish I could play it! Hopefully they can provide some better documentation and improve the UI issues. Just wanted to give a clear heads up to anyone hoping to play this on their phones....
THIS⬆️ - will probably get it anyway... EDIT: or maybe not - in the light of more recent reviews, but I'm still watching this space.
I want to buy it too but judging from your opinions, it has elements that need to be fixed. But seriously, internet connection always for single player? Can anyone else confirm it? And how many single player missions / stages are there? I cannot find not even one a pc steam review either?? Weird..
So I was very interested in this game, read the reviews here thus far, and became discouraged. I opened Steam saw the game on there and read this review: "Warbands: Bushido is a digital collectable miniatures game, a good one. Not that I've played many digital minis games, but bear with me. I'll throw out the the one low point first, the English isn't great. It's enough to get by on but some unit descriptions are fairly confusing until you see them in action a couple times. Where Warbands: Bushido shines is in it's short, tactical PvP battles and the incremental rewards it dishes out that keep you searching for just one more opponent. There are single-player campaigns but since they don't help you level up your units or acquire more than a small handful of units, they're never going to get you into the heart of the game: collecting and maturing a group of Seven Samurai-esque killing machines while planting other people's would-be heroes in the ground. Units are varied and interesting, though fairly dull until the earn XP; which, again, is only available from PvP battles... but you'll acquire some every battle. And your options seem to stay limited for quite a while as you build up player levels and slowly unlock more army points, army size, and collect units and cards in randomized booster fashion. There are a lot of options in the game, and they're not terribly well explained, but if you follow the gold trail of tutorial missions (marked with a college graduation hat icon) until you don't get anymore you'll get a taste of it all. As an avid XCOM player I'd say that this game strikes a wonderful balance between XCOM's tactical battles and Pokemon's collect and upgrade mechanics. Unit balance isn't easy to guess at first, I see no one true path to victory besides collecting legendary versions of whatever units you use best... and before I end this, let me give you some advice: Legendary units (gold rimmed bases) are the best, keep every one you get if you're lucky enough to pull one. Because your max level is limited by the rarity of your soldiers, these bad boys will be able to gain an extra point of almighty 'Toughness' as well as all the abilities that lesser version can gain from levelling. Other units are fine, Epics (blue) are suitable for use in your army at any time, until you can replace them with the golds, but greens and greys are expendable for dust... the currency which, if you can acquire 600-800 of, you can build your own Legendaries without relying on the booster RNG gods. In the end, if you want to play a highly tactical, dice-rolling battle RPG... get this game. If you can't stand PvP, or some Pokemon-speed grinding and collection, leave it on the table." It's a shame, sounds really great except for being basically a PvP game, which would explain it's always online requirement. Unfortunately, I'm not into Pvp so I guess it's a skip for me.
Hopefully the developer pops in and responds to all the comments. If it's true that this game is considered by them to be incomplete and they are planning on adding more content, both of which seem indicated by the app description, there may still be hope. Until then, it's a pass here too.
Confirmation: yes, it always requires connection -- if in airplane mode and the game won't load... ------- Statement: read it in Upcoming section and asked if there would be an open beta. Did not heard from the developers since then. Mocking: I really think beta testing was what it really needed... Commentary: I have just gone through the tutorial and it seems there are already a number of problems: 1. the tutorial ending is not even implemented. 2. I cannot check the status of other when it is my turn 3. After I finish the first chapter of the tutorial, instead of the bow training, the purchase screen appears, it is confusing 4. There is a need to introduce to the player how the in-game currency is earned and the various things they can be spent on. 5. The so-called game guide just explains the game area, which could have been more helpful 6. The app description should have informed the buyer that constant connection is required! Query: can anyone confirm if there is any IAP involved?
Game Impressions Unfortunately, I can only add to what others already wrote. It's always online, with a strong and obvious focus on multiplayer - not what I expected, should have been made clear in the game description. The singleplayer scenarios feel a lot like they were tacked on as an afterthought. The UI - particularly outside battle, battle UI is so-so to mostly ok - is quite bad, unintuitive, and extremely buggy/glitchy (e.g. buttons stop working, fonts way too small to read, functions like viewing enemy stats don't work at all, etc. the list goes on for quite some time). When I started playing, I had no idea what to do and had to experiment around which button does what - which is extremely rare for me, and not a good sign. Then, pretty much my first action was to accidentally start a PvP game (and win it, with no real clue what I was doing ) . To add insult to injury, there is no way to either undo a shop purchase, or reset my progress: I bought the Samurai scenario pack - again by accident, mind you - and am now stuck with the only available scenario being unbeatable because my warband is way too weak. TIP: Get the Outlaws (center) scenario first, it only needs 12 warband points and not 30 like Samurai. Next, I - again, accidentally; do we see a pattern here, my dear Watson? - created a unit I didn't want when experimenting with that interface. You can sell it back alright, but only for a fifth of the buy value. Not a good idea, just allow sellback at full price to give players more options to experiment. I am seriously surprised noone caught these issues during testing, which does not shine a good light on the devs. On the plus side, to answer currymutton's question: No IAP at all. In summary, while having some promising-looking ideas and takes on the skirmish gameplay formula, Warbands needs a major overhaul to be a viable game I can recommend: First and foremost the incredibly buggy and badly designed UI. Next, a better tutorial to explain what's going on. Heck, even an overlay at the start to show which button does what would already help. Then, provided the devs do not want to focus on PvP so much, more singleplayer content - including ways to earn resources without fighting other players (e.g. skirmish vs. AI), and ideally offline. I wouldn't mind paying another 10+ bucks for that (either as DLC or separate game), if it's on the same quality level as, say, Warhammer Quest.
As I stated earlier in the thread, I came back this morning to give the game another shot. Apparently, there's no need to put myself through that again. Others here have confirmed my impressions of the game. I can't remember the last time I requested a refund for an app. In fact, I think i've only done so once, maybe twice, and I buy truckloads of apps. For those of you willing to give the dev(s) another chance, more power to you. Not me. I take this sort of thing personally because there is no way, absolutely no way the developer(s) didn't know the game had this many problems. It's not even close to being ready for the public. The graphics and theme drew me in, and I hit the buy button very fast, too fast. I should know better after all my years at this. I blame myself for being impulsive. Sometimes we get burned for that. But I still put the greater portion of blame on the developer. Shame.
Sad to hear all of this. The graphics looked great and I was about to rush to buy it but the always on feature is frustrating so ill pass for sure. Shame
Thank you for your reviews! For positive and negative both. 1. Yes, the game is online only, sry for inconvenience. 2. There're 3 single-player scenarios with 3 difficulties each. So you will need an appropriate warband to start playing them. 3. Yes, we have Ninja and Sohei add-on incoming and they will be free 4. There are no micro-transactions and never was, icoker. Not in Steam, not anywhere else. =) 5. Once the tutorial is complete, you will see a big "close" button in a top-right corner of the scroll. All your reports will be noted, but please be more specific. It will help a lot. We've already found some critical issues, and they will be fixed asap. PS Special thanks for "tutorial complete" indicator idea. Missed that one somehow.
