"Great War Sim"

Introduction:
Daisenryaku for Gameboy Advance is a modern war turn-based combat sim that follows in the line of daisenryaku games mostly on PS1 and the 2 games on the Dreamcast. This game features modern tanks, planes, ships, and other real-life war vehicles in a variety of missions, with all of the vehicles being real war machines in use today. I think this game is a great alternative to the Advanced Wars series, as it features similar controls but a much higher level of realism and a smarter AI.

Gameplay: 10
This is where Daisenryaku really shines. While the in-game text is all in Japanese, control is very simple and intuitive. After placing units onto a battlefield, combat progresses turn by turn. In each of your turns you can move any or all of your units, and you do so by selecting each unit with a cursor and choosing from a short list of commands. As you complete each unit's move, it changes to black, making it very easy to see what you have already done in a turn.

Combat resolves very quickly even with animations on and the whole game flows very smoothly. Even on the bigger missions, where there might be 3 enemy armies each with 60 units, the AI thinks quickly and there is rarely much wait between turns.

Story: 9
While there is no actual text story - combat proceeds simply from mission to mission, I had to give this game a 9 because the progression is very real and satisfying. At the beginning you choose a country to control (one of US, England, Germany, France, Russia, China, or Japan) and start with a few of their units that were available around the end of the Vietnam War. As you beat missions, time seems to progress (as newer, more advanced vehicles become available) and bigger and more complex missions become unlocked. It has the feel of a big World War III situation ... just without any real explanation of why everyone is fighting. I liked this for the simplicity but some people might feel a description of events was helpful.

And as an added feature I really love, your army doesn't just start anew with each mission (like in Advanced Wars). Before each mission you have the option to buy more units, but as units do battle and survive, they steadily go up in experience and become tougher. So it becomes a matter of not just throwing your army against the enemy, but of really trying to use good tactics so that you not only win, but that also your elite units can survive to fight again.

Graphics: 4
A little weak here. The vehicles all look like pretty good representations of their real-life counterparts, but the battle animation is very limited and backgrounds, stills, and other scenes are basically nonexistant. Everything is very easy to see, however, which is a big plus for a war sim.

Sound: 4
Again, a weak spot for this game. You get to choose your country's theme from 4 choices, and then are stuck with listening to that for the whole campaign. At least in battle the enemy countries have their own music, but it is all very simple and repetitive so I usually play with music off.

Play Time/Replayability: 10
I have had the game for over 2 years and still play it. There are tons of missions to do, and since each country has very specific strengths and weaknesses (eg Russia has great artillery and air units but very weak armor on its ground units) you can easily play the campaign several times and have a different feel each time. My 1 beef is that 1 of the ''bonus'' features - the ability to download certain high tech units with the mobile gameboy adaptor - is no longer supported even in Japan, so every country has a few unuseable units.

With that said, however, each country does have a huge selection of infantry, tank, ship, fighter, helicopter, and other units, all with realistic stats and abilities, making the game feel very complete.

Also, the AI is pretty good ... and doesn't cheat like in so many war sims out there (in Fog of War the AI has to follow the same limitations you do).

Final Recommendation:
But it if you can find it. I can't imagine how you could get anywhere with just 1 or 2 days of play. This is an exceptionally deep war sim and can be played for a long period of time without getting old. Again, it is in Japanese, but the menus are all very simple.

Anyone that has any questions can post them to me on the board; I'm always around.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/07/04