Introduction

I'll admit that I probably went into "Nakaishi Wars" with excessively high expectations. After all, one of my favorite anime of all time is "Gundam Wing" while my favorite video game of all time is "Disgaea: Hour of Darkness" for the PS2. In many ways this game combines my love for both of these things into a neat little package. After all, it features giant mecha as well as includes turn-based, grid-based, strategic combat. As such, you'd think this game would be an instant winner in my book, but in the end I only found myself disappointed by it.

Gameplay

Sadly, I don't have very many positive things to say about this game when it comes to this topic, but in order to end on a happier note. I'll focus on my complaints first. As such, I think I should dig into this game's biggest problem. That problem being that the AI is way to passive. While, I'll admit that a passive AI isn't that unusual in games like this. After all, a similar issue can be found in "Eternal Poison" for the PS2, but in that game the developer's compensated for the passive nature of the AI by making each of the enemy units strong or annoying enough that you wouldn't want to confront them in large groups in the first place. Sadly, this isn't really the case for "Nakaishi Wars" for the most part. As such, most battles tend to be mind numbing easy as well as feel extremely sluggish and drawn out.

Outside of that, I'd argue that another major problem for the game is that the final boss battle is way too easy if you know what your doing. So much so, that I don't understand why we need a "GOD" level mecha in order to defeat the enemy. After all, none of the supposed "SUPER NAKAISHI" can resist the stun status effect. As such, it's pretty easy to stun lock all three of them on the first turn and then proceed to tear them into tiny ribbons with the aid of the other three units. As such, the final boss battle feels like an absolute joke. Though, I imagine a lot of players would disagree if they didn't discover that it was possible to simply prevent the "SUPER NAKAISHI" from attacking.

On the plus side as you advance through the game you gain access to an ever expanding list of weapons and these weapons aren't always just more powerful versions of what came before. In many cases there weapons that offer new strategic possibilities like guns that can cause an enemy to bleed energy or lock them in place so you can pound them from a safe distance. In many ways this gives the game a bit of fresh life every now and again since your free to change your weapon layouts to suit your preferred style of combat.

Graphics

On the graphical side of things the game is rather mixed bag, but it does have a few positives going for it in this category. Though, as usual I'll start with the more negative aspects for this topic before moving on to green pastures.

On the downside the game includes several overly blocky maps. And, while this issue is largely understandable do to the nature of the combat. I can't help but wonder why the game's world doesn't feel a bit more rounded in some places. And, I wish there was a lot more variety in the design of the enemy Nakaishi. After all, the bulk of them are simple palette swaps.

On the plus side, the game does take the player to various planets and includes a few space battles. So, the game does include a decent amount of variety in terms of how the maps feel. And, I'll begrudgingly admit that I do like the design of most of the Nakaishi. I simply wish that there were more types. Sort of like how we were introduced to ever more powerful mobile suits over the course of "Gundam Wing".

Sound

On the sound side of things the game is a bit of mixed bag. On one side of the scale you have an obvious lack of sound effects in certain places. After all, I'd imagine the Nakaishi would have rather pronounced footsteps. So, you'd think there would be some sort of sound effect associated with movement, but I suppose if such a feature did exist. It would quickly encourage the player to turn the sound down to a low rumble or of altogether. After all, who wants to listen to the heavy steps of Big O for long periods of time?

On a more positive note, I do like a lot of the background pieces in this game. Though, I do wish there was a bit more variety in this aspect as well, but the small number of selections does make sense considering this game's overall length.

Conclusion

"Nakaishi Wars" has a lot of potential, but is in need of a lot of tweaking. As it currently stands the game is dragged down rather heavily by its overly passive AI and unmemorable boss fights. As such, I can't really recommend this game. Though, it definitely stands above a few of the other turn-based strategy games that I've played on this site.