WARGROOVE 2 (SWITCH)

Wargroove is one of my favorite strategy games on the Nintendo Switch. It’s just bursting with content, with a challenging campaign, a fun arcade mode, a robust editor to make and share your own campaigns or one-off missions, and - my personal favorite - a puzzle mode, where you’re tasked with vanquishing an opposing army in one turn, with only one or two possible solutions. I had high expectations for this sequel, and for the most part, it meets them; however, there’s a few frustrations that made this game not quite as fun as it could have been.

Right off the bat, upon booting the game up you’ll notice that there’s been some changes made to the game’s core modes. Puzzle mode is entirely absent, and the arcade mode has been swapped out for the roguelite conquest mode. Furthermore, the campaign mode no longer focuses on one single, long campaign, but instead consists of multiple smaller campaigns, each divided into three acts. The introductory story arc focuses on a new faction, the Faahri, a race of frankly adorable mousefolk. While you obviously can’t make a one-to-one comparison between the Faahri and human cultures, it’s fairly obvious that they’re inspired by Arab culture, which I thought was done respectfully. Their armies have some of the best designs in the game, and I just love that their cavalry ride fluffy cats instead of horses. Upon finishing this prologue, you’ll be given a choice of two campaigns to choose from (either continuing the Faahri plotline where they’ll cross paths with the Florians, or following the child commanders and their conflict with Felheim), with a third (centering around Wulfric and the pirates) opening up after. Once you’ve completed all of them, a final one-act campaign will be unlocked, that sees all the plotlines converging.

I’m happy to say that the core gameplay of Wargroove 2 is every bit as good as it was in the original, if not better. A couple of mechanics have been omitted here - there’s no longer any weather effects, for example - but I didn’t find myself missing them. Each mission starts you with a set number of units, with the goal usually being to defeat an opposing commander or destroy their stronghold. Across the map are villages, which you can capture to receive income or fortify your weakened units, and barracks, where you can spend gold to recruit new units. There’s a wide variety of units, each of which have their own unique critical hit conditions, attack range, movement speed, and strengths and weaknesses. You’ll have to be very strategic in your spending; is it best to spam soldiers and spearmen, or save up for expensive fighters like golems or dragons? It varies from map to map, and when I find something not working, I know that on my next try I should try a different strategy, and it almost always pays off. The default difficulty level here seems (at least to me, and a few others on forums) to be more forgiving than in the prequel, but if you want a harder challenge (or are struggling), you can change several aspects of the game, such as how much money you earn, the percentage of damage you take, and how many retries you get per mission if you make a mistake.

It’s clear that the formula established in the first game was a huge success, and so not much is changed to that core gameplay loop, but they do add a bevy of new units and commanders that change the game in a satisfying way. With the exception of the air trooper (flamingo riding soldiers that are cute, but glaringly ineffective), the rest are all fun to experiment with. Two of these units, thieves and riflemen, are from the Double Trouble DLC for Wargroove 1, with the riflemen in particular being extremely useful if you know how to position them, considering their impressively long range of attack. The two other highlights are frogs and krakens, so it’s a bit of a shame that you don’t get as many opportunities to use them until the final two campaigns. All the (surviving) commanders from the first game are also playable here, with slightly reworked grooves (once charged, you can unleash a special technique on the battlefield). Interestingly, Mercia, Emeric and Caesar, the Cherrystone commanders and protagonists of the previous installment, have very minor roles in the campaigns here. However, I think this was a wise decision, as the other commanders all get the opportunities to shine in great ways, and I enjoyed seeing their stories play out. The twins from the dlc have an exceptionally useful groove, and Rhomb can turn into a (literal) beast. Outside of combat, I enjoyed them all as characters, too. Rhomb is my favorite, as I feel that it’s rare to see a non-binary character that’s buff and more masculine presenting; plus, their backstory had me hooked, and I empathize with them a lot. Lytra and Pistil, the two other Faahri commanders, are also interesting, with Pistil falling firmly in the “I love to hate you” category. Honestly, every campaign had a satisfying arc, but I have to give special recognition to Wulfric and Nadia’s, which I won’t spoil too much, but let’s just say it involves dismantling colonialism, one of my favorite things in the world. One of the last new additions I’ll talk about are items, which include potions to heal units or weapons to increase damage output, which I felt weren’t essential but helpful if you were falling behind on a mission.

Unfortunately, while the final two missions are tense and climactic, and had me on the edge of my seat (and facing the first major challenge on the default difficulty), the resolution leaves much to desire. It seems very rushed, only briefing looking at the effects that final battle has on the kingdoms. While there’s definitely a “to be continued” type hook, it’s deeply unsatisfying to see so many arcs unfinished. We don’t get to see any of the characters living with the weight of what happened to them; the same people are still in power, and relationships are fraught and uneasy. It would be foolish to expect an ending that could wrap everything up neatly while still leaving room for a sequel, but I definitely expected something more than what we got. There’s also a lot about this game that comes off as unpolished, which is disappointing. I played exclusively in handheld mode on my Switch, so it’s possible that everything I encountered was exclusive to that style of play, so your experience might fare better than mine. That said, there were a lot of minor technical hiccups, like two characters or a character and an item accidentally occupying the same space that caused issues, or the cursor somehow getting placed in the corner of the map during the enemy phase so I couldn’t see what their army was doing. These blips didn’t make the game by any means unplayable for me, but were aggravating when they would happen consistently. Also, I really wish that they’d include a toggle that shows the attack range of the entirety of the opposing army, like Fire Emblem games have. Instead, you have to keep going back and forth, clicking on units and remembering their ranges to the best of your ability. It wouldn’t really make the game easier, as all it does is save time for people with poor short term memory, like me.

OThe other main game mode is conquest, which is the roguelite mode I mentioned earlier. I was at first skeptical of this, as I wasn’t sure it would translate well to this style of play. While I love a good roguelite (I’ve sunk maybe a little too many hours into Dead Cells and Into the Breach at this point), Wargroove missions have the potential to last an hour or longer, especially if you’re a slower player like me, so playing a string of those in a row for a single run seems excessive. Fortunately, I’m glad to say that this mode is much better than I expected; in fact, I can see it becoming downright addicting. Each run starts with you picking from one of three commanders randomly chosen from the pool for that conquest path, with each commander also having an additional effect, like increasing the attributes of a specific class, or giving you additional units. You’ll then choose an arrangement of units and an amount of gold, also randomly pulled from a campaign-specific pool, to start off with. Then you’re placed on a board full of different tiles, from straightforward skirmishes and elite battles, to barracks to recruit more units and places to heal the ones you already have, and mystery events, which can lead to a wide variety of potential beneficial or detrimental effects. As you advance, routes will branch off and sometimes converge, so you’ll have to make difficult decisions about which path to take. Is it better to take a risk and go to a mystery event, or take the safe choice and heal your commander? It made me think a lot, and I feel that the risks often seemed to pay off in a satisfying way. Each battle is short and sweet, too. The maps and enemies are randomly generated, but sometimes feel familiar, which isn’t as bad as it sounds, since you’ll almost always be going into them with a different makeup of your army. However, the elite fights are a drag, as they’re always the same layout and enemy composition, and you’ll face the same ones in each run. On one hand, this gives you an idea of what to look out for as you’re making choices, but I didn’t like how repetitive it felt. You’ll notice I said this is a roguelite, not a roguelike, so rest assured, you’ll earn a special currency as you play that can be spent to unlock more upgrades, from new types of events appearing, new commanders to play as (including ones that died in the previous game!), and items your starting units may be equipped with.

Overall, Wargroove 2 is a great strategy game, especially if you’re a fan of Advance Wars. It has its frustrations, but I feel it makes up for them with its fun and charm. I’m not much of a custom content creator, and I don’t have anyone to play multiplayer with, but even without dipping much into either of those modes, I had a good time, and felt it was worth the price of entry. That said, don’t go into it looking for a great plot resolution, and expect some minor annoyances along the way. Thankfully, the team at Chucklefish are still patching the game, so hopefully those bugs won’t be a problem for much longer. You’ll love the new characters, and regardless of whether you stick with campaign or conquest mode, there’s plenty to love. Plus, for all the other puzzle aficionados out there, one of the late campaigns has a puzzle-based mission! Everyone wins!

Final Rating: 8.0