Takeda 3

[Martok]

Magitech has announced that Takeda 3 will be official releaseed Feb. 27. Have any of you guys played the first two Takeda titles, and if so what did you think of it/them? I'm particularly curious as to how it compares to Shogun.

[frogbeastegg]

I remember hearing about the original Takeda; at one point I was considering buying it. Never did. It seemed to suffer badly by coming out after STW; it was left behind in too many aspects. IIRC the battles were 2D and closer to Age of Empires than STW. It was smaller budget, more limited in scope, less ambitious. Add a pinch of salt. As I said, I never tried the game.

I didn't know the series had continued after that. The screenshots of 3 on the official site make it look a lot like STW.

[The Marcher Lord]

Give the Takeda 3 Demo a go http://www.ezgame.com/Takeda3/downloads.html

Quite liked Takeda 2 myself, its not at all easy and has a certain charm about it. While the graphics may look dated by todays standards the gameplay is good and somewhat more historically accurate than STW was. I particularly like being able to select historically accurate formations for the troops which actually influence the outcome of the battle. You also get the impression that applying Sun Tzu tactics in this game actually count for something.

[ShadesWolf]

Has anybody taken a detailed look at this.
From the game web site it looks amazing, some very gud detail.

[Martok]

There's a pretty good review over at the Wargamer. While it doesn't pull punches with the game's flaws, overall it's a very positive review.

It's written by a guy whose opinion I generally respect when it comes to strategy games -- he too has been pushing me to try Paradox titles -- so when he says a game is good, I'm inclined to believe him. He's a pretty big fan of STW & MTW (for whatever it may be worth), and he's personally told me he feels the Takeda series is actually superior to Shogun in a number of ways. You don't get quite the same epic scale of battles as in the Total War series, but otherwise it sounds like the game does most things very well indeed. I'm hoping to pick it up later this year, once I've (hopefully) gotten through at least a couple more of my other games.

[frogbeastegg]

That review makes it sound a lot like STW + 1. How I miss good old Shoggy; it hasn't worked for years now.

Gamersgate's upcoming release list has Takeda 3 on it, so I shall give that demo a go. It didn't look like the game was getting a UK release so I didn't bother before.

[edyzmedieval]

Takeda 1 was by far the most challenging game I ever played. Out of 20-25 times, I only managed once to beat Oda and the Battle of Nagashino, and that's with 75% of my army wasted completely.

I'm really looking forward towards buying Takeda 3.

[ShadesWolf]

Ive downloaded the demo so will give it a go later tonight, all being well. Its a bit choatic at home at the moment so hopefully will get a bit of spare time tonight inbetween writing essays.

The game does look good, spent most of last night, while the demo was downloading reading the review, checking the forums out, and looking at the graphics, castles etc.,

Must admit impressed, hope its as good as it looks, the castles were my big disapointment with shogun

[frogbeastegg]

Hmm. The demo was ok. It's the sort of game which needs decent instructions and the demo just doesn't offer that. It's hard to get a feel for a game when you barely know what you can do. The strategic part seems like it might be good if there's a good manual or tutorial.

I did fight a few battles. They made me a sad froggy - the fields were tiny, the units were tiny, and the whole thing was just disappointing. They didn't feel good; there was no awe, no sense of import, no atmosphere, and most importantly of all I didn't feel like I had much in the way of tactics to use or consider. How am I meant to flank and use ground on a battlefield that's the size of a postage stamp? The presentation of information wasn't too hot either; I couldn't find out what types of troops I had unless I zoomed right in and squinted at what weapons they held. No tool tips, no unit information aside from the commander's details, nothing. I don't know if sound effects were left out to keep the file size down, but the battles were lacking severely in audio. No footsteps, no weapons clashing, no shouting, nothing. I fought a castle battle between two large armies; it took place in fog so thick I literally couldn't see anything. Rather hard to give orders to your army when you can't even find them. Heck, I couldn't locate the castle! STW did battles much, much better 10 years ago using an engine that's on a par with or slightly weaker than the one here.

Think I shall sit and wait for reviews on the full game from others here. As good as it sounds, the demo just doesn't make me feel like I should use my limited money to buy it. Not when there are other things I know I'd enjoy. For £19.99 I could get a nice stack of books ...

[ShadesWolf]

So I have now downloaded the demo and installed it. Opening of the game was nice, so far quite impressed. Then I came to a halt. How do I raise and army :(

Spend the next 10 minutes trying to find out how to create an army, when I finally found the answer it was a strange one, anyway thats out the way so off to battle.

What a disappiontment, small battlefields, cant tell what unit is what, and the deploymeny screen, dont have a clue wat im doing. So battle side NOT IMPRESSED AT ALL.

Hope the strat side is a little better, has a long way to go if its going the beat a paradox game for strategy.

will report back later then ive had a little more of a play with it

[KukriKhan]

Demo installed easily.

I admit I clicked thru the instruction screens, to see if the game could be played intuitively. It can not. There are no obvious measures to take, except "end turn", and the advisor guy button. So, I hope there is a robust manual.

A neighbor picked a fight, so off to battle. I clicked "auto-select", letting the algorithm pick the armies. Camera manipulation was very sensitive, cursor to the right of the screen taking me very quickly (too quickly) 90 degrees away, and out of sight of my army. Same with left, up and down. I couldn't find a way to creep ahead slowly to see enemy disposition or terrain. Of course fog obscured. So, we had a smash-mouth at the castle gate. I lost. My general who didn't like me (it was reported on the strat map) fought brilliantly, the others (more loyal) not-so-hot.

The music was OK. It sounded vaguely Chinese, not Japanese, to me. But the "you lost" theme was good, a shamisen plucking a sad tune.

On first go-thru, I award 2.5 stars out of 5. Good effort, but it seems more a board game, grafted onto a computer program; like a digital scrabble game: it's on your screen, and you click to make things happen, but it's still essentially, an enhanced board game.

BUT: I'll award an extra star, to 3.5, just because the company keeps trying, and releasing new versions - unlike Shogun:TW, not seeing anything new since 2001.

Overall "Buy" or "No" verdict: "Wait" says Kukri. There's nothing ground-breaking, and it will be available at half-price in 6-9 months. Steam will probably offer it on one of their 'special weekend sales' for $12 this fall.

[frogbeastegg]

Takeda 3 is now available on gamersgate. Anyone still thinking of giving it a try?

Sango 2 is also available. It's the same thing but based on the 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'.

[frogbeastegg]

Takeda 3 is gamersgate's deal of the day. 50% off. Offer expires at midnight.

[Togakure]

If anyone else has tried the demo and has something to add to the commentary here it would be greatly appreciated (before midnight would be super).

[frogbeastegg]

I brought it. Still in "Yay! First pay cheque from my new job!" mode, and there was enough good hinted at that I'm willing to try it for £9.99. I really want a good strategy game set in feudal Japan; if this doesn't fill the spot I'm left with no resort but Samurai Warriors 2: Empires, which is entirely a different beast.

It's downloading now as I didn't have time last night. I shall report back once I've had a read of the manual; a good manual should go a long way to resolving the qualms mentioned after the demo. When I shall play it, that's another matter entirely. I am playing too many games at present and need to polish off a couple before starting something else. Fortunately I'm nearly done with Chrono Trigger DS and The Secret of Monkey Island remake won't take terribly long.

[Togakure]

Oh cool, I look forward to hearing what you think about it. I decided to pass until I hear more from credible sources. I google'd up reviews and found some forums as well, and the comments raised issues that didn't make me feel comfortable about investing at this point, even at %50 off.

[frogbeastegg]

The manual is very good. 66 pages of solid information; nothing looks like it has been skipped over or left as an outline. The information in it combines quite well with the review Martok posted a link to; I can see the sections in the manual explaining how the various aspects mentioned in the review work.

Battles have a tonne of depth. It's not too great an exaggeration to say that they receive more pages in Takeda 3's manual than there are total in most strategy game manuals. If STW veterans can get adjust to them there should be a lot on offer. From our various reactions to the demo I think that is a very big if.

The strategy map side looks like it can be described as rather Paradox-seque. Lots of detail, lots of options for interacting with other clans. It looks robust enough to stand as a game alone, so auto-resolving all the battles won't leave it feeling like half a game. I hope.

I hope it holds up to the promise offered by the manual and wargamer review. I need a feudal Japanese strategy game! Heh, I picked up Samurai Warriors 2: Empires as well, just in case. By golly, if I can't conquer feudal Japan with grand strategical style I shall settle for middling strategy blended with running about on foot doing most of the killing in the battles myself! Plus if Takeda3 is good then Sango 2 beckons for Romance of the Three Kingdoms conquering fun.

Now all I need is an afternoon to play Takeda 3.

[Yoshitsune]

The strategic map looks a bit flat and Risk-like in some of the screenies I found - just like the original S:TW. Is this the case or do you have things like roads and mountainous terrain to restrict/enhance movement?