Jumping back into the repetitive, yet enjoyable world of Capcom beat-’em-ups once again, this time around, we have Warriors of Fate, a game that is based on the manga “Tenchi wo Kurau”... or at least, it is the second one they made based on that manga, with the first one being Dynasty Wars, also by Capcom. I did not know this before playing the game, and I kinda wish I did, but oh well. Anyways, nonetheless, if you are familiar with Capcom’s previous beat-’em-ups, such as Knights of the Round, The King of Dragons, and also Dynasty Wars, then you may notice a pattern that they have when it comes to making these games, and at this point, even as someone who enjoys Capcom’s various beat-’em-ups more then others, it is starting to get somewhat tiring. That being said, Warriors of Fate is still a pretty good game, and it is yet another great beat-’em-up from the company, but there are several issues that I have with the game, including Capcom’s inability to shake things up.
The story is, what a shocker, a big evil clan is taking over and slaughtering many, and you have to stop them, except this one takes place in a Mongolian, medieval setting, which is cool, I guess, but it isn’t different enough to the point where I would start to care, the graphics are really good, giving off that distinct Capcom style, but there is nothing unique about this presentation when compared to their past titles, the music is pretty good, with one or two standout tracks that I remember from my time playing, but for the rest of the tracks, they are ok, the control is basically the same as every other Capcom beat-’em-up, so moving on, and the gameplay is, again, very familiar when it comes to this genre, but it can be seen as a step back from previous titles like, again, Knights of the Round and The King of Dragons.
The game is your typical medieval beat-’em-up, where you take control of one of the Five Tiger Generals, go through plenty of stages themed appropriately for the setting, take on what seems like an unlimited supply of soldiers that will attempt to take you down, gather plenty of food items, points, and weapons along the way to assist in your goal, and take on plenty of the fearsome generals of Wei that stand in your way at the end of each stage. It is all stuff that we have seen MANY times before, and while I wouldn’t usually care about the repetitive nature of a beat-’em-up, something about this one does kind of bum me out in comparison, even if it still works. But, before we get into that, there are several aspects to like about this game.
If I were to describe this game, I would say it is like Capcom’s other beat-’em-ups, but on steroids. Seriously, all of the enemies are incredibly jacked, there are so many of them on screen most of the time, the art style and profiles of everybody is extremely exaggerated, and there is plenty of blood to be found, with it shooting out of people when hit with various weapons, they can be blown up into gorey bits, and there is one attack with the character I played as, Kassar, where he just gets onto someone and bites into them, ripping out plenty of skin and blood. All of this caught me off guard when I did see it, as these types of games from Capcom usually don’t lean too heavily into the violence, but it is somewhat refreshing to see at the same time.
Another aspect I like about this game is the bonus stages. In these bonus stages, you eat a giant feast and you train against a bunch of wooden statues of the main villain. These could be seen as just yet another set of bonus stages, but these are also accompanied by sets of text that is spoken by several of the characters in the game, tying them in as parts of the main story. Not gonna lie, I kinda like that. It makes it feel essential rather then just being a distraction, which isn’t a bad thing, but it does get you a little more invested as to what these soldiers are doing to get stronger to take down these evil forces. And finally, there is also an item you can find throughout the game that allows you to summon a horse to ride. It doesn’t do anything too special, but that is still nice to have.
Now that we got that out of the way, we can now talk about my main problem with this game: it is all shit we have seen before. This game is essentially the same thing as both The King of Dragons and Knights of the Round, except this time, the RPG-like mechanics are nowhere to be seen, it is just yet another standard beat-’em-up. Yes, all three of these games do take place in a different setting, but they could all easily be lumped together into one, and I imagine those wanting something different from these games wouldn’t be too happy about it. In addition, I feel like this game in particular is too long. Now, I’m not saying it lasts that long, and it has an appropriate amount of content with 9 stages, but this time around, the game feels like it reeeeeeeeeeeally drags on. There is not too much variety between each of the stages, and fighting the tons of the enemies in these stages feels like it takes forever, especially considering how many of these groups you will have to fight. Once again, it isn’t that bad, but it could’ve been trimmed down just a smidge.
Overall, despite having several admirable aspects about it, and despite the fact that I still think it’s a good game, I think at this point I am getting worn out by these kinds of beat-’em-ups from Capcom. They are still churning out quality products, but unless they provide more variety in the setting and tone, somewhat in the same vein as Captain Commando and Final Fight, then I am not sure how much I could tolerate these games as I keep playing them. I would recommend the game for fans of this genre, and for fans of The King of Dragons and Knights of the Round, but don’t be surprised if you can’t find that much to admire about the game itself. But, now that I have finished this game, I’m gonna need to play Dynasty Wars at some point, aren’t I? Yeah, alright, I’ll do that… later…
Game #327
The story is, what a shocker, a big evil clan is taking over and slaughtering many, and you have to stop them, except this one takes place in a Mongolian, medieval setting, which is cool, I guess, but it isn’t different enough to the point where I would start to care, the graphics are really good, giving off that distinct Capcom style, but there is nothing unique about this presentation when compared to their past titles, the music is pretty good, with one or two standout tracks that I remember from my time playing, but for the rest of the tracks, they are ok, the control is basically the same as every other Capcom beat-’em-up, so moving on, and the gameplay is, again, very familiar when it comes to this genre, but it can be seen as a step back from previous titles like, again, Knights of the Round and The King of Dragons.
The game is your typical medieval beat-’em-up, where you take control of one of the Five Tiger Generals, go through plenty of stages themed appropriately for the setting, take on what seems like an unlimited supply of soldiers that will attempt to take you down, gather plenty of food items, points, and weapons along the way to assist in your goal, and take on plenty of the fearsome generals of Wei that stand in your way at the end of each stage. It is all stuff that we have seen MANY times before, and while I wouldn’t usually care about the repetitive nature of a beat-’em-up, something about this one does kind of bum me out in comparison, even if it still works. But, before we get into that, there are several aspects to like about this game.
If I were to describe this game, I would say it is like Capcom’s other beat-’em-ups, but on steroids. Seriously, all of the enemies are incredibly jacked, there are so many of them on screen most of the time, the art style and profiles of everybody is extremely exaggerated, and there is plenty of blood to be found, with it shooting out of people when hit with various weapons, they can be blown up into gorey bits, and there is one attack with the character I played as, Kassar, where he just gets onto someone and bites into them, ripping out plenty of skin and blood. All of this caught me off guard when I did see it, as these types of games from Capcom usually don’t lean too heavily into the violence, but it is somewhat refreshing to see at the same time.
Another aspect I like about this game is the bonus stages. In these bonus stages, you eat a giant feast and you train against a bunch of wooden statues of the main villain. These could be seen as just yet another set of bonus stages, but these are also accompanied by sets of text that is spoken by several of the characters in the game, tying them in as parts of the main story. Not gonna lie, I kinda like that. It makes it feel essential rather then just being a distraction, which isn’t a bad thing, but it does get you a little more invested as to what these soldiers are doing to get stronger to take down these evil forces. And finally, there is also an item you can find throughout the game that allows you to summon a horse to ride. It doesn’t do anything too special, but that is still nice to have.
Now that we got that out of the way, we can now talk about my main problem with this game: it is all shit we have seen before. This game is essentially the same thing as both The King of Dragons and Knights of the Round, except this time, the RPG-like mechanics are nowhere to be seen, it is just yet another standard beat-’em-up. Yes, all three of these games do take place in a different setting, but they could all easily be lumped together into one, and I imagine those wanting something different from these games wouldn’t be too happy about it. In addition, I feel like this game in particular is too long. Now, I’m not saying it lasts that long, and it has an appropriate amount of content with 9 stages, but this time around, the game feels like it reeeeeeeeeeeally drags on. There is not too much variety between each of the stages, and fighting the tons of the enemies in these stages feels like it takes forever, especially considering how many of these groups you will have to fight. Once again, it isn’t that bad, but it could’ve been trimmed down just a smidge.
Overall, despite having several admirable aspects about it, and despite the fact that I still think it’s a good game, I think at this point I am getting worn out by these kinds of beat-’em-ups from Capcom. They are still churning out quality products, but unless they provide more variety in the setting and tone, somewhat in the same vein as Captain Commando and Final Fight, then I am not sure how much I could tolerate these games as I keep playing them. I would recommend the game for fans of this genre, and for fans of The King of Dragons and Knights of the Round, but don’t be surprised if you can’t find that much to admire about the game itself. But, now that I have finished this game, I’m gonna need to play Dynasty Wars at some point, aren’t I? Yeah, alright, I’ll do that… later…
Game #327
TNB12
8 months ago