God Wars: The Complete Legend Review
Release Date: September 4, 2018
Publisher/Developer: NIS America/Kadokawa Games
Platform: Switch (DLC addition to PS4 and Vita available as well)
Price: $39.99 (PS4/Vita DLC expansions at $19.99)
Review of first release can be found here
In June of last year, I was given the privilege to review God Wars: Future Past for the PlayStation 4. You can read my review of this wonderful title here, which filled a long-empty hole of a quality game that pulled me back into the Final Fantasy Tactics mindset. Now, a bigger and better edition of the game makes it's way to Nintendo Switch. God Wars: The Complete Legend puts the original game, extra content released since, some quality of life improvements, as well as the brand new Legend of Yomi expansion baked in, whilst PlayStation gamers will be able to get the DLC separately and upgrade their game to have the same content.
God Wars is a wonderful trip down memory lane for fans of classic tactical combat. The story follows Kaguya, daughter of Queen Tsukuyomi, who has been imprisoned by her own mother for fear of needing a sacrifice to appease the gods one day. She escapes with her friend and goes on a quest to try to unearth the reasons why and what she can do to change her fate. Through the base game, you recruit fourteen different units, each with jobs, sub jobs, and unique skills that you can tweak to your heart's content. Combining these characters, thirty jobs, 400 plus skills, and a myriad of equipment guarantees you create just the army you want. The game feels like classic Tactics with a feudal Japanese skin on it, but it adds it's own flair with things like the "impurity level" that makes big damage dealers or healers in your party get more attention from the enemy, though you can use that to your advantage as well. This paragraph has been a very quick rehash of information you can get in detail in my previous review. In terms of positives and negatives, everything from there still shines through, so I hope to tell you what is different with the new content.
The new Legend of Yomi DLC promises up to one hundred hours of new content for fans of the original game. It is supposed to offer the chance to recruit more party members, including fresh faces and enemies you battled before. The fifty stages promised will allow you to take more party members into battle allowing different strategies to be used. The DLC promises the true ending to the tale, as well as multiple endings. As a part-time reviewer with a full-time job and need to actually sleep, I'll be honest in the fact that I got the review game two weeks before release, and there's simply too much content for me to have gotten to the end of the DLC to see how different the endings are, or whether choices in your play change the ending or if it's a selection near the end. I am looking forward to learning how much it would take to see how choices can change the ending. Another issue for returning fans is a lack of data transfer. The DLC is coming out on Sony machines, but Yomi's expansion recruits characters who are your enemies in the main game as allies. Therefore, this DLC won't really be accessible until later in the game after these characters have run their course. I'm curious to see how the DLC will fit into the story. Will it happen as the characters appear in the story, or is it endgame content? My press release did not have that information, but I will update here or craft a new article if I find out, depending on the level of content I discover. I'm assuming the latter, though. Either way, adding 100 plus hours on top of an already amazing game is warmly welcomed.
If you are a newcomer to God Wars, the Switch will currently be the best place to purchase the game. At $39.99, it is cheaper than buying the full game and DLC on PS4 ($49.98) or Vita ($39.98) and offers the big screen and portability of both versions. Returning fans will have a harder time validating the purchase, as they may have paid the original $49.99 for the pS4 version and would be unable to port over their progress and army. The $19.99 expansion may be more tempting for them, despite the lack of portability. No word is out on whether The Complete Legend will be available directly for the reduced price on Sony systems, though again I will update if I find out more. While our embargo date is August 28th, the game releases on September 4th, so I'll do my best to get some answers before then!
God Wars: The Complete Legend is a wonderful update of last year's title now available to a whole new audience. The game deserves more praise now that the expansion and quality of life improvements are added. While Sony fans may have to spend a bit more for the whole experience, God Wars is a wonderful game for fans of tactical RPGs. The beautiful ink painting and wood carving design mixed with exciting anime cutscenes are well polished and tell a fantastic tale of the origins of Japan through their traditional stories. I'm excited to see all of the additional materials present in the Legend of Yomi expansion and how they mesh with the rest of the game. With any luck, you may see another article here before release. Without a doubt, though, God Wars deserved accolades on it's initial release and even more now.
Pros:
-Traditional tactical gameplay and management of your warriors evokes classic strategic gameplay
-Addition of quality of life improvements streamline and speed up play sessions
-New DLC adds an alleged hundred hours to an already amazing game
Cons:
-Original fans won't be able to port their team and have to start from scratch
-Vita and PS4 owners will spend more via base game + DLC
-Occasional silly design choices mentioned in previous article like Kintaro's thumb
Special thanks to NIS America and Kadokawa games for giving me the chance to review this amazing game again!