AnthoniusII point of view about the TWSII.

**AnthoniusII** · March 28, 2011, 07:09 AM

I do not want to make a long post so i will write what i like ,dislike and what confuses me in the game like a telegrame.
What i like:
The music.
Having parts of the 1st Shogun game that its music was one of the best ever made for a pc game and adding more of the same style makes music one of the stroger advandages of this game.
The Generals and Factions arts and skills development.
This may look similar toe ETW one but it is less confussing and most of all educational. Education must be something that Battle Simulators must provide.
Campaign map textures.
This time mountains look like mountains and forests look like forests.
CAI
In this game it was a pleasure to loose a battle. The "enemy" does try to defeat you and the same time always responds to your tactical mooves.
Diplomacy feature.
It is true that i expected a "throne" room like Shogun I that a Daymio calls the ambassadors. It would be great to have such a feature not just a small window but...
The lack of emissaries on the campaign map helps the player to consitrate on other characters.
Castles and siege asaults.
I haven't reach to th epoint of asault a citadel or other heavily fortified castle but it is true that even small wooden castles look very good.
I like how the infantry tries to climb the walls and how the defenders can take position on the walls.
Death and fight animations.
Human animations are very good exept the human march ones that make warriors that they want to go to bathroom. But fighting and death animations are very good! After all the TW series was a number of battle simulators helped with a strategy feature. It is nice to see battles ingame even i loose them (defeats make a game realistic and make us learn).
General speaches.
I like the Jappanese speaches. They add a real atmoshear ingame.
Jappan world war or total war!
I realy enjoyed how almost all clans turned against me when my clan reached to a power point!
That is most realistic.
Naval invasions.
I like the fact that AI can launch naval invasions far behind the war front.
I sufaired such asaults twice and it was a realistic feature that was missing espesially in M2TW.
All around asaults on castles.
That was also something that was missing since RTW.
M2TW was a real disapointment in this feature.
Now enemy tries to find out wich part of the wall has no defence forces.
"The Mountain" abillity.
In the game is known as the "Stand and fight".
In Kourosawa's film Kagemussa Shingen was the "Mountain". That ment that he and his bdyguards
stayed were stable no matter how close the enemy was.
I realy enjoyed to see Shingen like the moovie!

What confuses me:
Campaign map rotation.
It is nice to see settlements from more than one view and avoid hidden map areas but that way a player can easily choose diferend direction to moove than the threat realy is.
It has to do with our expirience of previus TW game maps.
I quess that gaming expirience will reduse the disorder.

What i do not like:
Horses
I can not understand how a gaming company like CA/SEGA that creates so accurate human bodies, so good architecture models CAN NOT create a desent horse model.
Horses are the weakest point of ALL TW games since RTW!!!
If it is true that what ever is made in TW forums is CA's owneship then why CA did not adopt MARKA horses for example or simply why they did not use the bodies measure system that they have shown us to create horses too!
Horses are essential to any battle simulator that focus from 4000BC to 1900ad !
Textures
I know that grafics are a known issue and CA promised to solve it.
I hope that in the solution the "leather" textures will look like leather ,the flesh like flesh and the metal like metal. They all look like "plastic" as they are now!
Battle map borders and moovment indicators.
I want to live the battle. So I want (and many others that want to enjoy the battles) ,to see units in close distances.
But the moovement indicators and the map borders do not allow us to enjoy a good march as these colofull "things" are floating on the air and disrupt the battle view! The "cut" the warrior bodies ...They should be visuable only from the over view of the battlefield.
Unit/buildings info cards images.
Well this is more a personall preference but i realy enjoed the Shogun I unit and buildings images that looked almost real!
I like the Jappanese art but i would like a more realistic pack of immages.
Thought this is not a real negative point.

That is my early point of view about this game. While my expirience playing it will grow i will update this post in the future.

**GambleFish** · March 28, 2011, 01:09 PM

Heh, in the campaign I rarely use cavalry, even though its half my army in every MP match. Guess I never noticed the horse models. I love the dueling animations, though.

Good review! If the major complaints are graphics its a good sign =)

**AnthoniusII** · March 28, 2011, 03:38 PM

Originally Posted by GambleFish

Heh, in the campaign I rarely use cavalry, even though its half my army in every MP match. Guess I never noticed the horse models. I love the dueling animations, though.

Good review! If the major complaints are graphics its a good sign =)

Yea SII is a good game despite the problems it has. Our complains are that a company of the Status of CA and the expirience after so many succesfull games in the series the finall result had to be at a higher level.
An other weak point of the campaign map is that it looks like some maps of older RPG games . I mean that the armies can not use the mountains and have to moove through narrow map "roads". M2TW maps were better in this feature.

**Erwin Rommel** · March 28, 2011, 03:43 PM

I mean that the armies can not use the mountains and have to moove through narrow map "roads".

Well its supposed to be that way, Japan is 70% mountains, they even earned the other name of the Japanese Alps. And historically this created situations where armies are meeting at crossroads, like Sekigahara, Odawara, Kawagoe etc. Also sometimes, creating scenarios of battles being fought at the same place. 5 Battles of Kawanakajima, all because Shinano has no other way.