The Wind and Wilting Blossom

Review

"The world is ravaged by monsters. Takiyasha the Witch, daughter of the traitor Taira no Masakado, has used dark sorcery to rekindle her father's failed rebellion. During the first uprising, Oya Taro Mitsukuni, champion of Emperor Suzaku, was defeated by the gashadokuro, a giant skeleton summoned by the witch. Having failed the Emperor, Mitsukuni fled in cowardice as Takiyasha raised an army of yokai and began her war."

The main menu screen consists of Continue, New Game, Achievements, Options, Credits and Exit. Selecting New Game will take you to the Select Leader screen, where you’ll be able to choose from eight leaders once you’ve unlocked seven of them; the only leader for you to currently select is Oya Taro Mitsukuni.  Selecting a leader will display some information on them, such as Bio, Stats Weapons, Resources and Charms they currently have. There are also three Layouts (when available, just the one to begin with) and Allies, who will follow you into battle. Oya Taro Mitsukuni has two soldier allies to accompany you as you travel.

Both Mitsukuni and your soldiers have stats for Health, Armour, Move and Treat; also displayed is the current level of the characters. Once your health is gone, you’ll expire and the game is over. Armour shows the amount of damage you can sustain before your health starts taking a hit. Move is the number of hexes a unit can move on their current turn. Threat is the value enemies use to evaluate a target selection (the higher the threat value the more likely the AI will attack the unit). Once you’re ready, hitting the Start Game button will take you into your game.

Upon starting a new game you’ll find yourself standing on the region map of the Japanese island of Kyushu. Scattered over the island are points linked by pathways; the points are towns, cities or some type of event. Some places on the map will display what they are, others won’t reveal themselves until you visit them or find something which will reveal all on the map. There will be places you need to visit so that your story continues, and these are indicated by a yellow story sign above a point on the map.

At each point on the map you may uncover an event, storyline or something else. Your next move will be determined by what you uncover; you may be given a choice to make so that you can determine whether to fight, run away or some other option. As you progress across the region from point to point you will notice that a purple area starts covering the region from where you started, and will move closer towards you if you spend too much time dawdling.  This is Takiyasha the Witch and her army; stay ahead of her and reach your final destination of the Imperial City in Kansai.

Across the region map you will notice some weather systems and disasters such as earthquakes over some of the areas and points on the map. This weather can have an effect on you and your enemy while in battle. Wind can blow yours and the enemy's characters to new positions on the battlefield. I haven't been to somewhere with lightning but I'm guessing it's not going to be good to be struck by it. You must make your way through the island to reach one of two exit points. Reaching one of the exit points will take you onto the next region to continue your story.

Combat is played out over a hexed map with obstacles here and there. Each combat map will require you to complete objectives in order to end the battle and move on. The objectives could be to defeat all enemies, defeat enemies within a number of turns, rescue some folks or a combination of objectives. Both yours and the enemy's characters, when on the battlefield, will display their Health and Armour (if they have any). If an enemy has armour then you'll need to reduce the armour to zero before you can start attacking their health.

After defeating an enemy, they may drop some Wadokaichin, which is the currency of Heian Japan. You must move on to the hex where the Wadokaichin is situated to collect them. If any are left on the map after your final turn then you'll lose them (you won't automatically collect them). So make sure your strategy will include collecting all the cash as you need it. After completing all objectives, you will be rewarded with some Wadokaichin, Food, Scrolls, Ki and Ammo.

Food determines the number of moves you can make on the region map before your party is forced to stop. If you run out of food for your party, then it'll be game over. Scrolls allow you to level up your unit's experience. Ki are used by certain powerful leader weapons, while Ammo is used by powerful ranged leader weapons.

In the options there’s settings for Overall, Sound and Music Volume Sliders, Resolution and Screen Mode (Fullscreen, Borderless Windowed and Windowed), Game Play Settings, Auto End Turn (ends turn if one in the party can move or attack) and Auto Select General on player turn, Reset Tutorials and Reset All Achievements, along with Event Window Text (three sizes of text to choose from).

The game is currently in Early Access, and it's looking good so far; I've enjoyed playing the game. Each new game is randomly generated so events etcetera is different from your previous playthroughs. There are currently no Steam achievements, but there are some in-game achievements, so maybe in the future they may find themselves in Steam for those achievement-hunters out there.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!