Hundred Swords

"This port is a half-witted, heavily edited, washed out version that should have never made it to the states!"

Let me first point out that I own the DreamCast (JP) version and I have already beaten the game. I purchased the PC version because it was sold as a ''value soft'' for only 19.99. It was a good bargain, moreover, I wanted to see how the Japanese version differs from the English version.

Rest assured, the differences are huge.

Lets start with the positive aspects of hundred swords. It
has amazing presentation, including artwork and music that is on par with some of Square's best games. Then again, that is typical for games from Japan now-a-days. Hundred Swords has a very deep storyline, and it'd put any RTS on the market today to shame. Unfortunately, beyond the sugar-coating, Hundred Swords is an average game, and made even worse by the mean folks at Activision.

Usually, a game that is being ported are improved upon for the targeted platform. That is not the case with Hundred Swords. It seems Activision took more time and actually made an effort to make the game worse!

Unlike the Dreamcast version, where you are able to choose your decisions as Larf or Fals and determine how you want to use your experience points, you cannot do so in the US release version. You can no longer choose the path of how you would like your leader to excel in. This leads to the elimination of a great many parts of the storyline, key events and characters. Many important scenes, such as Mascar's defeat and the ultimate end to Beared Baron were appearantly edited out for no good reason, probably because activision wanted to keep it a teen rating? Somebody PLEASE tell me why!

Then comes the gameplay. The gameplay in Hundred Swords is quite simple. It is far simplier than any other RTS in the market up-to-date. It uses a simplified resources model consist of two resources that can be harvested automatically once a refinery is built. Since the map is so small, Hundred Swords leads to some very exciting and agreesive gameplay style.

However, it would have been better if several improvements were made for the PC version. For starters, the PC version of Hundred Swords obviously did not improve upon the horrifying AI of the Dreamcast version. The AI continues to have pathfinding problems. At crucial battles, the AI can't seem to manuver very well, as they tend to crowd themselves and be annihilated by artillery units without even figuring out what hit them. Sometimes the AI just do not attack at all! All these problems make Hundred Swords a very frustrating game, I simply do not know why this game was even released here in its present form!

In a situation like this, I usually smell some sort of corporate conspiracy...

In any case, Hundred Swords is an OK game, and for 19.99, its really a good bargain. But if you are looking for something with depth and actually PLAYABLE, please note, this game is NOT for you.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/02, Updated 02/17/02