Omega Force is a team with a pedigree. Known for their Musou (Warriors) franchise, a series that is famed for its high action, low skill barrier, higher repetition gameplay. A series known for their cartoonish exaggerations of historical figures. With Bladestorm, Omega Force managed to divorce their customary grind from the accompanying catharsis. A long, nothing game, full of large maps featuring inspiring locales such as Big Grass Field and sometimes Small Grass Field guest starring River, with character personality to match. It is a game that delights in wasting the player's time, without pretense.
To clarify, I should be the exact target audience for this. I love Musou games. I love historical settings. I love strategy games. I love squad based anything. I have a strong knowledge of the Hundred Years War, the setting in which this game takes place (or, really, is loosely inspired by). Even with all these things working in the game's favor, it is impossible for me to speak positively toward the final product.
During the aforementioned fictionalized account of the Hundred Years War, the player (a self-insert mercenary with very light customizable elements) encounters many historical figures such as Joan of Arc, Prince Edward the Black Prince, Gilles de Rais, La Hire - although the game does little to provide greater context to the character backgrounds beyond surface personality traits, this is largely in character for Omega Force. If you have Musou expectations, they will be met - the reason for the war is never fully explained, nor does the ending feel like anything is resolved. It is a means to an end for the meat - the gameplay. In this case, however, the meat is rather thinly sliced. Your goal, as a mercenary, is to gain renown by joining either side of the war - England or France respectively - and eventually, choosing a side and seeing it to the end. There are multiple "endings" (the game does not really end, allowing for infinite replaying of stages) depending on the faction the player chooses. A campaign run will take you anywhere from 30-50 hours depending on your expediency and desire to minmax. I personally saw the credits roll for France, and promptly had no desire to touch the game ever game.
The maps are all largely identical in appearance with only the positioning changing - large, empty, green valleys with the occasional farm and city interspersed. There is only one map type. Do not expect anything else. Performance wise, for a game from a developer known to fit many enemies on screen at once, you wouldn't expect Bladestorm to constantly struggle anytime more than about 5 groups of units are on screen at once, but it does. The draw distance for anything other than the flat world itself is also embarrassingly short - this is a game with an absolutely massive series of maps meant to replicate a famously long war, and yet I can only see units about 100 meters away.
Gameplay wise, departing starkly from normal Musou fare, instead of controlling one super-powered general unit and mowing through the masses, you lead small squads of units of various weapon types. These weapons, including swords, maces, bows, lances, and later more abstract types like camel cavalry, chariots, and even magicians, have rock paper scissor relationships with each other, with certain unit types having large damage and defense multipliers against the other. Controlling the units is simple - they follow you as they wander the (unneccesarily) large overworld map, pressing the R1 button (or right bumper, depending) makes them perform a general attack, and three of the face buttons have weapon specific special attacks. These can be a more powerful attack, a buff, the ability to hold your shield or aim your bow, or a projectile, among others. Notably, all cavalary units have the "charge" function, which, when obtaining set speeds, allows the unit to couch their weapons and become inarguably the most destructive unit type in the game, only losing to magic in raw damage.
The mechanics sound engaging at a glance from afar. The problem lies in the execution. At any given time, there are two types of units on the field - those who can be controlled, and those who cannot and serve to guard bases (more on this later). The player can use one of the face buttons (x on the sony end) to control any non-guardian unit, and lead them into battle. They can only control units who are directly where they are standing - there is no method of fast traveling to other units. While the player is able to bring a select number of units in with them from the menu (three types, many deployments depending on how leveled the unit is) - once the unit is away from the player, there is no easy way to retrieve them. This means, in practice, you are often miles away from a unit type that would give you an advantage, with no easy way to summon them, and your only option ends up being attempting to win via sheer numbers or level advantage, or backtracking, very slowly, for multiple minutes in the off chance you find a unit with the relevant type advantage (these units are marked on the map, but their unit type is not displayed).
A campaign plays out in a series of days that are 10 minutes long - a campaign may have anywhere from 2-7 days, and certain story campaigns are infinite in length. You have 10 minutes to accomplish any required goals - anything you half-finish will be reset at the dawn of the new day. It therefore becomes the logical habit to simply stop playing for the last 2-3 minutes and let the timer run out if you realize you will not be able to accomplish anything else during that time span. Wonderful game design. You will do this often. I would estimate at least 2 hours of my total gameplay time consisted of me waiting out the timer.
The goals in each mission are largely the same - capture a certain number of fortresses. On the occasion you will encounter a side mission - these are always a variation of "follow around the world's most infuriatingly slow NPC unit while they accomplish nothing" or "wander around aimlessly until the object you are looking for shows up". By the third or fourth of these, I started ignoring them entirely. The reward is largely nothing but money.
Speaking of, the game gives you currency to upgrade the weapon of each individual unit type as well as deploy mercenaries - by the way the game divides itself, you will have all of the rank-appropriate gear within the first 1/8th of a relevant area and spend the rest of your time with nigh-infinite money, encouraging you to dump it on the most expensive mercenaries possible, which further dulls the already mind-numbing experience.
Musou games make up for their repetition with a manner of visceral gameplay that engages your brain on a primal monkey level - it is akin to driving. Perfect for podcasts. Bladestorm fails at this. Strategy games include, well, strategy - Bladestorm fails at this. As a historical piece, Bladestorm provides almost no context. If there is anything praiseworthy about their attention to setting, it is the decision to make the music entirely in Latin, and to hire French and English voice actors to portray the historical cast respectively. The English Cast largely give good performances, even if half the mercenaries are Liam O'Brian doing poor accents of Irish and Welsh area-folk. The French performances, with a few exceptions (Joan of Arc herself is strong) are clearly struggling with delivery, but I am willing to chock that up to bad voice direction. Also, La Hire once asks you to "Let Faith gird up your loins!" which is very funny.
More than anything else, this game feels like a gigantic waste of time. The cutscenes may have looked nice for 2007, but they are so sparse compared to the enormous swathes of walking in pastoral wasteland that they feel less like a treat and more like a reminder that you aren't done yet. The game is full of ambition but with almost no substance, and it is little surprise that Omega Force has yet to dabble in another experience like it, barring the following generation update (which is often erroneously referred to as a sequel online). Should you play Bladestorm? Are you a gigantic Musou enthusiast? Do you love the historical setting of the Hundred Years War? Do you like strategy? What is your tolerance for tedium?
No matter what your answer to any of the above questions is, the answer is: do not play Bladestorm. Your time would be better served almost anywhere else. Including asleep.
To clarify, I should be the exact target audience for this. I love Musou games. I love historical settings. I love strategy games. I love squad based anything. I have a strong knowledge of the Hundred Years War, the setting in which this game takes place (or, really, is loosely inspired by). Even with all these things working in the game's favor, it is impossible for me to speak positively toward the final product.
During the aforementioned fictionalized account of the Hundred Years War, the player (a self-insert mercenary with very light customizable elements) encounters many historical figures such as Joan of Arc, Prince Edward the Black Prince, Gilles de Rais, La Hire - although the game does little to provide greater context to the character backgrounds beyond surface personality traits, this is largely in character for Omega Force. If you have Musou expectations, they will be met - the reason for the war is never fully explained, nor does the ending feel like anything is resolved. It is a means to an end for the meat - the gameplay. In this case, however, the meat is rather thinly sliced. Your goal, as a mercenary, is to gain renown by joining either side of the war - England or France respectively - and eventually, choosing a side and seeing it to the end. There are multiple "endings" (the game does not really end, allowing for infinite replaying of stages) depending on the faction the player chooses. A campaign run will take you anywhere from 30-50 hours depending on your expediency and desire to minmax. I personally saw the credits roll for France, and promptly had no desire to touch the game ever game.
The maps are all largely identical in appearance with only the positioning changing - large, empty, green valleys with the occasional farm and city interspersed. There is only one map type. Do not expect anything else. Performance wise, for a game from a developer known to fit many enemies on screen at once, you wouldn't expect Bladestorm to constantly struggle anytime more than about 5 groups of units are on screen at once, but it does. The draw distance for anything other than the flat world itself is also embarrassingly short - this is a game with an absolutely massive series of maps meant to replicate a famously long war, and yet I can only see units about 100 meters away.
Gameplay wise, departing starkly from normal Musou fare, instead of controlling one super-powered general unit and mowing through the masses, you lead small squads of units of various weapon types. These weapons, including swords, maces, bows, lances, and later more abstract types like camel cavalry, chariots, and even magicians, have rock paper scissor relationships with each other, with certain unit types having large damage and defense multipliers against the other. Controlling the units is simple - they follow you as they wander the (unneccesarily) large overworld map, pressing the R1 button (or right bumper, depending) makes them perform a general attack, and three of the face buttons have weapon specific special attacks. These can be a more powerful attack, a buff, the ability to hold your shield or aim your bow, or a projectile, among others. Notably, all cavalary units have the "charge" function, which, when obtaining set speeds, allows the unit to couch their weapons and become inarguably the most destructive unit type in the game, only losing to magic in raw damage.
The mechanics sound engaging at a glance from afar. The problem lies in the execution. At any given time, there are two types of units on the field - those who can be controlled, and those who cannot and serve to guard bases (more on this later). The player can use one of the face buttons (x on the sony end) to control any non-guardian unit, and lead them into battle. They can only control units who are directly where they are standing - there is no method of fast traveling to other units. While the player is able to bring a select number of units in with them from the menu (three types, many deployments depending on how leveled the unit is) - once the unit is away from the player, there is no easy way to retrieve them. This means, in practice, you are often miles away from a unit type that would give you an advantage, with no easy way to summon them, and your only option ends up being attempting to win via sheer numbers or level advantage, or backtracking, very slowly, for multiple minutes in the off chance you find a unit with the relevant type advantage (these units are marked on the map, but their unit type is not displayed).
A campaign plays out in a series of days that are 10 minutes long - a campaign may have anywhere from 2-7 days, and certain story campaigns are infinite in length. You have 10 minutes to accomplish any required goals - anything you half-finish will be reset at the dawn of the new day. It therefore becomes the logical habit to simply stop playing for the last 2-3 minutes and let the timer run out if you realize you will not be able to accomplish anything else during that time span. Wonderful game design. You will do this often. I would estimate at least 2 hours of my total gameplay time consisted of me waiting out the timer.
The goals in each mission are largely the same - capture a certain number of fortresses. On the occasion you will encounter a side mission - these are always a variation of "follow around the world's most infuriatingly slow NPC unit while they accomplish nothing" or "wander around aimlessly until the object you are looking for shows up". By the third or fourth of these, I started ignoring them entirely. The reward is largely nothing but money.
Speaking of, the game gives you currency to upgrade the weapon of each individual unit type as well as deploy mercenaries - by the way the game divides itself, you will have all of the rank-appropriate gear within the first 1/8th of a relevant area and spend the rest of your time with nigh-infinite money, encouraging you to dump it on the most expensive mercenaries possible, which further dulls the already mind-numbing experience.
Musou games make up for their repetition with a manner of visceral gameplay that engages your brain on a primal monkey level - it is akin to driving. Perfect for podcasts. Bladestorm fails at this. Strategy games include, well, strategy - Bladestorm fails at this. As a historical piece, Bladestorm provides almost no context. If there is anything praiseworthy about their attention to setting, it is the decision to make the music entirely in Latin, and to hire French and English voice actors to portray the historical cast respectively. The English Cast largely give good performances, even if half the mercenaries are Liam O'Brian doing poor accents of Irish and Welsh area-folk. The French performances, with a few exceptions (Joan of Arc herself is strong) are clearly struggling with delivery, but I am willing to chock that up to bad voice direction. Also, La Hire once asks you to "Let Faith gird up your loins!" which is very funny.
More than anything else, this game feels like a gigantic waste of time. The cutscenes may have looked nice for 2007, but they are so sparse compared to the enormous swathes of walking in pastoral wasteland that they feel less like a treat and more like a reminder that you aren't done yet. The game is full of ambition but with almost no substance, and it is little surprise that Omega Force has yet to dabble in another experience like it, barring the following generation update (which is often erroneously referred to as a sequel online). Should you play Bladestorm? Are you a gigantic Musou enthusiast? Do you love the historical setting of the Hundred Years War? Do you like strategy? What is your tolerance for tedium?
No matter what your answer to any of the above questions is, the answer is: do not play Bladestorm. Your time would be better served almost anywhere else. Including asleep.
Xpert74
10 months ago