Review No. 54 Pokémon Conquest - DS (3+)

Strong Points:

Great story

An amazing crossover

Innovative gameplay

Lots to do (such as final scenario)

Double collection (warriors and Pokémon)

Great abilities and warrior powers
Music and graphics are great

Weak Points:

There are many quests that are wi-fi downloaded and so are not available any more

Not quite as much strategic depth as other strategy games

Not all Pokémon are obtainable in the game

Your own castles are barely attacked
Items and resources are not needed to complete the main game

In-depth Review:

Release Dates:
Japan: March 17, 2012
North America: June 18, 2012
Australia: June 21, 2012
Europe: July 27, 2012

Controls: allgame
L Button: select kingdom/switch
D-Pad: select menu command/warrior/Pokémon/move cursor
Y Button: lists/help
X Button: advance to next month
R Button: select kingdom/switch
A Button: confirm//advance
B Button: back/exit/quit
Start Button: menu
Select Button: view profile
Nintendo DS Stylus: select/confirm/touch the touch screen

Pokémon spin offs are well known for their crossovers take Mystery Dungeons and Super Smash Bros. for example. This is yet another one of those. Pokémon Conquest is a crossover between Pokémon (obviously) and the Japanease strategy game Nobunga's Ambition. 

In the game, you play as the warlord of Aurora as you conquer other realms by defeating other warlords and their Pokémon. The game handles much like Fire Emblem as you have to move your Pokémon across a map and then attack the opposing Pokémon. Abilities also make a return from the normal Pokémon games however they are not the same. Take Eevee's (your Pokémon) ability for example, rather than being run away or adaptability its ability is celebrate, which allows you to move again after defeating a Pokémon. Your warlords/warriors also have abilities that they can activate once per battle.

Another new mechanic is the Link system which is like the levelling system in the main series. However, there are only certain Pokémon/warrior combinations that allow you to get to a 100% link capacity (lvl 100) and this is known as their best link. When you battle a Pokémon, it will have a bronze, silver or gold emblem in the corner which tells you how good their link capacity is with that warrior. If they don't have an emblem don't bother befriending it with your warrior as they won't work well together and won't be able to level up very well.

To be able to befriend a warrior, you have to complete a certain set of rules such as defeating them in four turns or less or not losing a Pokémon. To get a Pokémon, you have to walk up to them with the Pokémon that is owned by the warrior that you want to catch the Pokémon and press link. This brings you to a short mini game in which you have to press a when the balls of light enter an empty circle.

The next mechanic is one that is not from Pokémon but Nobunga's Ambition instead. It involves you being able to collect money by participating in a quick animation by clicking things such as a cave. You can also set warriors to collect money from caves automatically as long as they are in the same nation as the cave.

Lastly you can leave some of your warriors in your own realms so that if one of your nations is attacked by a neighbouring one it will be defended. However, this never happened to me in 12 hours of playing so, yeah. It may have been luck I suppose.

Overall this game is a great idea that actually works. Who said Pokémon shouldn't take part in war? We need another one of these.

Rating: 80%

Goodbye for now, Harry