When I think about it, the most amount of time I’ve spent playing my DS within the last year was probably the many hours I put into Dawn of Discovery. I can’t remember any other game that I’ve devoted more than a dozen hours to. Well, this looks to change now with this new game I’m playing called Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes. I never heard of it until after it released, and I don’t remember it being advertised, so I sure as heck wasn’t even aware that it was out until it was actually out. But now that I’m playing it whenever I commute on the subway to/from work, I’m very happy. This is the best role-playing/puzzle hybrid game I’ve ever played!
There have really only been two major role-playing & puzzle games released, thanks to the “father” of the genre: Puzzle Quest (and its sequel, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix). There was a lot of praise for Puzzle Quest, but when I finally got around to trying it out, I wasn’t enjoying it too much. While there were RPG elements in the game, it felt more like a Bejeweled game with elementary RPG quests and characters that gave it a RPG-like feel. Unfortunately, I felt that the puzzle element in Bejeweled was boring, and the RPG elements were not making the game that much more enjoyable. Forget about Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, as it has been regarded as inferior to the first game.
I’m not a puzzle gamer. I have friends that love Puyo Puyo, Puzzle Fighter, and Tetris Attack. Sit them in a room and they can go at it for hours. As for me? I have a hard time even setting up a two chain combo in these types of games, so I grow bored of them pretty quickly. Maybe it’s because I get severely creamed by any of these puzzle game fanatics? In any case, I realize now why I love Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes so much: there is not just straight up puzzle game elements or RPG elements in the game, but actual strategy involved that appeals to my RTS and 4X strategy tendencies.
In Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, it feels almost more like I’m commanding an army rather than matching gems on a board with this game, and maybe that’s why I love it so much. The game is broken up into four or five sections (not sure since I haven’t beaten it yet), and each section lets you take on a hero. The hero levels up from 1 to 10 by taking on random encounters or quest enemies. Beating opponents awards you and your troop types experience (which allow for your main character and the troops to level up) and gold/resources (which allow you to hire special troops).
Unlike in other puzzle games I am aware of, the majority of your encounters in Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes focuses on your main character (who isn’t really on the field, but has a lifebar) versus another opposing character with his/her troops. Imagine the playing field like a battlefield, but if any troops on either side attack and there aren’t any opposing troops in the same column on the defending side, the damage those troops do will lower the health of the main character sitting behind the troops. The troops on the field can always be replenished, but when either main character’s lifebar hits 0, the match is over. This is exactly how Magic the Gathering works, for those of you that have played it. As you can see then, leveling up your main character is useful since it raises his/her maximum life.
The game is almost more tactics than puzzle; the puzzle gives the game the random element but at the end of the day maybe that’s why I enjoy the game so much: the tactics. In Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, there are regular troops, special troops, and “super special” troops. Regular troops are one character size big (think, one grid on a chess board) and if you connect any 3 of the same color and type, they will form something. If you connect three of them in a row, the three of them will form a wall that can withstand 5 damage from an enemy attack. Form more walls behind that wall to increase the defense of the wall further. Form three of these regular troops in a column, and they turn into an attacking unit, with a countdown in number of turns before they attack. Once the countdown completes, they attack at the beginning of that turn. These regular troop types can be swordsmen, spearmen, archers, etc. and all have different attack properties. Archers attack faster (take only two turns before they attack) while spearmen have a “first strike” bonus that allows them to always do their damage first against an enemy so if it kills them, they take no damage.
The special troops are two character sizes (two connected grids on a chess board). Each of these special troops (there are many), depending on the “race” of the hero, has unique properties when activated. To be activated, they have to be vertically connected from behind by two regular troops that are the same color as the special troop. Once connected, the timer will count down the number of rounds before the unit can attack, and any special attacks will be triggered along the way. Finally, the “super special” troops are the largest troops in the game, standing at four character sizes (a 2×2 grid on a chessboard). They are often super powerful compared to the other units, and need four regular troops of the same color connected behind the unit in a 2×2 box. Once triggered, the super special unit will count down on a lengthy timer before unleashing a powerful attack.
The randomness of what appears on your side is the element that keeps the game a puzzle. Every match you start produces a random assortment of troops on the field, and you must move your troops into such a pattern that you have adequate defense and offense. The puzzle game is turn-based. Each player gets only three turns before having to switch over to the opponent, but chaining combos to form troops creates another turn. So it’s not all a rush of trying to combo as quickly as you can, but rather, thinking smartly (at least, against the AI). You also have a “cap” on the number of units you can have on the field, so when you use them up, your reinforcements go up by that number. Calling for reinforcements uses up one of your three turns, but fills your field with more units if you’re running out.
As you go through the game, your units level up and become stronger offensively and defensively, and you also come across more unit types than you can field at once. Between skirmishes, you can decide which units you want to use to fight with, as well as what item you want to equip for your next battle (you find plenty of items with all sorts of benefits when equipped). For those that are sad to hear that there isn’t a ton of puzzle in this game, there are specific NPCs in the campaign that give you challenges where you have to defeat all enemy troops on the battlefield with what you have on the field, in a limited number of turns. That forces you to really think about how to go about chaining your attacks in order to kill everyone. And there are even some skirmishes where you are not simply trying to defeat the opponent, but other more difficult things like hitting different switches in a particular order, hitting enemies that take cover behind pillars, or even a case where you’re trying not to hit a moving hostage that is running around the enemy side of the battlefield!
In many cases, this game is a ton of fun and seems like a very lengthy one to play. It’s highly recommended, and one of the best gems I’ve recently played on the DS. My brother and I even tried engaging in some multiplayer, and we discovered that there’s a time limit on your three turns, so if you don’t use them up within that time limit, your turn is just over. But, we also discovered that the units are not completely balanced (the unicorn, anyone?) so we stopped playing it competitively. Sad, as I thought it had the potential to be our next Tetris – the game that he and I played for hours against each other when the original Game Boys came out. Still, outside of the somewhat imbalanced design for multiplayer, it’s one of the best DS games I’ve played in a while. I highly recommend it. Once you start, you will probably have a hard time stopping.
