Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is classy chess.
Clash of Heroes is certainly my favorite handheld game of this generation. What makes it so great is that there is a level of uncertainty about action that can not be completely controlled. Despite the beauty of the hand-drawn sprites and the fantastical, if childish story, Ubisoft has once again ruined a potentially great game under the weight of a moniker that it did not need and a virtual lack of advertising. Despite these poor choices by the publisher, Capybara has been recognized in 2009 numerous times as being one of the better up and comping indie developers, and Clash of Heroes has won multiple awards as the best Nintendo DS game of 2009, as well as many nominations for Game of the Year. All the praise is well deserved, because the game exudes a level of strategy and forethought that is far beyond most strategy games, creating a chess-like scenario with solid design choices. A few small mistakes are made in terms of gameplay, mostly in the way in which the generals interact with the field of play. Despite these flaws, the inability to take back certain moves and the level of consideration that can potentially go into each move is exceptional.
Many have related the game to various types of vertical "match three" games in the past, stating that the game is more like a puzzle game than a strategy game. Yet the game itself is part RPG (Role-Playing Game), with cute, hand drawn art and cheesy story, part puzzle, where pre-direction and construction lead to certain actions, and part strategy, by making small decisions that can potentially cause huge swings in the procession of play. The level of subtlety on which these moves are made is due in part because the game is both vertical and horizontal. The player is given a certain number of units that are setup in oppositional rows to the opponent, where stacking 3 units vertically will create a unit that can attack after a certain number of turns, and stacking 4 units horizontally will create walls, which defend against enemy attacks. There are also more powerful units which smaller units contribute themselves into in groups of 2 or 4, allowing powerhouse units to attack after a certain number of turns as well. All of these moves take up units, and the player is only allowed a certain number of units on the field of play at a time. As such, defense and offense must be carefully balanced to prevent being abused by the opponent on a weaker side of the field. When so many units are depleted, the player may opt to spend an action replenishing their units on the field, and that design decision works excellently, as the player can also use that knowledge to plan attacks when they know the opponent will be in a weakened state. There are also multiple generals who have special attacks that are used to protect or attack the enemy general or their units, and these are where most of the game's balancing problems come into play. Certain generals will almost always have a certain advantage over others, simply because of the nature of the ability. Many complain about the specials, not in being game-breaking, but just that they are not balanced to the same tight degree as the units and gameplay on the field of battle itself. These fields have also been lavished with some rather beautiful artwork and music.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the artwork in the game, aside from the hand-drawn nature of it, is the amount of variety in terms of fields available. While the fields do not directly affect the flow of battle, they all have a unique aesthetic sense. The forests are lush and green, the graveyards dark and spooky, the caves are tinged with gray and a whimsical foreboding. What's great about such variety is that traveling through these destinations on a posh overworld map means that the player's eyes never become bored and there's always a lot to look at. Color choices are also thematic as well, the elf character is in the forest, while the demon character is in the underworld, with encroachment by both on the other. Despite being cliche choices, they are thematically fit and never distract from what's going on in the game. They are sensible choices that are made with the intention of giving the world vibrancy, without being so eye-catching that they might overpower what's occurring within the game. The music is much the same, a sort of high-powered fantasy track that gives off an orchestrated beauty.
What is more, that fantasy track is also a sort of lucent vision of the game itself. It has tracks of glory and rigor that are orchestrated in a classical theme, reminiscent of many of the high-powered fantasy movies of old. Themes such as the Carmina Burana spring to mind, though they are held down considerably so as not to attempt to overtake the focus of the game itself. The act of play here is wrapped by the music and effects in an attempt to focus the player on the end goal, with downbeat tracks that imitate the practice of whimsy and thought for puzzles, to more action-packed, swords n' sorcery epic pieces for competing with greater foes. The movement between these pieces is quite seamless, as the battles themselves take place on separated fields. Because of the separation of the gameplay into set pieces, the player can take on many different roles using the game's own framework, and the music can be set to follow each set piece of the game accordingly. Ultimately, that means that transitions within the game lack an awkwardness that so many other games have due to kitchen-sink design. Here, however, we see a sandbox that is focused by gameplay, instead of one that is so open as to lose gameplay in the world it's trying to portray.
The world and the story however, are two different things entirely. While the world is lushly designed and clearly crafted with a loving touch, the writing leaves much to be desired. The story itself is essentially one of the coming of a great evil and the player must go out into the game world to conquer that evil. The writing itself is supported by the fact that it's oftentimes amusing, but it rarely touches the epic nerve that it is trying to portray with the ambitious story of many conflicted characters. It falls flat because the characters fit all too readily into the stereotypes that we have seen so many times before in the strategy-RPG genre. The story is certainly no Final Fantasy Tactics, and by the standards of a modern fantasy epic, Final Fantasy Tactics isn't that great either. The story is one of potential, but it is weighed down both by the Might & Magic moniker, one which is known to carry with it the idea of a fantasy epic, as well as the heavy-handed writing that sways intermittently from bad to hilarious. Unfortunately, it's hard at times to tell if it's intentional or not.
Next to Demon's Souls, Clash of Heroes was my favorite game of 2009. The game itself is fun to play all the time and is always able to provide unique scenarios for the player. Pushing the difficulty of the game up to its highest level will make for some fierce A.I. competition, yet at the same time, the unfortunate side-effect of being able to abuse your general's abilities can break the difficulty at times. Self-imposing restrictions on gameplay can bring a whole new life to the game, as well as make many of the otherwise easy fights quite a bit more challenging. Because there are so many ways to potentially play the game, it is quite easy to constantly discover new methods of play. Unfortunately the game was never fully implemented online for the Nintendo DS, though with its re-release to the Playstation Network (PSN) and X-Box Live Arcade (XBLA) this summer, that will soon change. The re-release is being presented with brand new, high-definition artwork and refined gameplay, which will likely polish any small imperfections of the original. Capybara's games, so far, have never disappointed me yet. It's true that they have not yet made many games, but the games they have put out come with a level of detail and love that clearly shows. It is a shame that Ubisoft was the one publishing the game, as it can only be said that the moniker under which the game was published held it down to a certain expectation that it was never intended to meet. Nor should it have needed to, for Clash of Heroes is a game that is, in my estimation, better than the Might & Magic series proper, by and large. Clash of Heroes is an experience that did not receive nearly enough attention. Unlike Demon's Souls, this game was overlooked in the highly-competitive fall market of last year. It is my hope that it is not overlooked again when it reaches PSN and XBLA.