REVIEW: Eiyuu Senki – The World Conquest


Title	Eiyuu Senki – The World Conquest
Developer	Tenco
Publisher	Fruitbat Factory
Release Date	November 24th, 2015
Genre	Visual Novel / Strategy
Platform	PS3
Age Rating	M
Official Website

Eiyuu Senki – The World Conquest is a visual novel with fairly detailed strategy elements thrown into the mix. I have played a few games like this before on the PC and found them pretty enjoyable, so when an opportunity came up to review this one on the PS3, I jumped at the chance. Did I find another visual novel to enjoy, or just a lackluster strategy game? Let’s find out!

The story centers around a young woman named Himiko. She is having a bit of trouble uniting her home region of Zipang from the clutches of an opposing army. She is stuck in a desperate battle when all at once a young man falls from the sky. He is referred to as a Servant of Heaven, when in truth he is from another world, a classic anime trope. The young man helps her to victory and agrees to help in the quest to conquer the world and prevent her visions of destruction from becoming reality.

I really enjoyed this story. From Lancelot’s endless hunger for food to Himiko’s innocent charm, there is a character type for everyone to love here. You will find yourself wanting to do more and more side missions just to see what kind of adventures these ladies have. I will be the first to admit the characters are pretty much all your standard anime tropes, but everything is so well-written that it’s just a pure joy to read in spite of that. Fruitbat Factory simply did an amazing job with this game. This is one the best localizations I have seen in a long time.

Graphically, all of the character designs look great. You may have never pictured historical figures as moe girls, but if you did, this could be close to what you would come up with. From Sun Tzu’s just plain adorableness to Lu Bu’s sultry warrior design, there is something for just about every fan to love here. There are some pretty great CG scenes thrown in here as well. Since this is the all-ages version, there is no hanky panky here, but there is still plenty of great ecchi to keep you enticed. The actual strategy portion of the game is graphically very simple, however there are some pretty nice special move animations.

The soundtrack isn’t very memorable, but there are some bright spots. The combat theme and the whimsical tunes that play during some of the character events add to the mood and fit the game quite well. The voice acting is all in Japanese and is top notch. You will likely recognize some of these voices such as Imai Asami, who most of us know as the voice of Noire in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series. There are some basic sound effects that fill out the combat, and while they are nothing special, they get the job done.

The core gameplay is turn-based. Each round you are given action points; these allow you to either take on side missions or attack cities as you advance into each territory. Side missions will help you earn war funds. You will use these to heal your troops after battle. This will also help build your affinity with each of the commanders and earn you some status boosting items as well. Keep in mind, however, that any characters you send out on missions or use in combat that round will be unable to defend your territory during the enemy phase. I lost a lot of ground by not thinking ahead at times, but this was my own fault for being too aggressive.

Combat is turn-based, as well. Characters will appear on a flat grid with their range of attacks and attributes being displayed. Each unit will have a set number of troops and will be allowed to fight until all the troops in that unit have been depleted. Attributes here work a lot like rock, scissors, and paper. Swords will gain advantage over guns, spears over magic user, etc. Each of the over 70 different characters have a variety of special moves as well. These can range from powerful attacks to your standard buff and debuffs. A couple examples of these moves include Sonic Boom, which will hit three enemies in a horizontal line, and Grand Cross, a powerful magic attack that hits in the of a cross. They will not start off with these right out of the gate, and you will have to earn them by completing story missions and raising your affinity with each of the gals.

The combat may sound a bit simple, but I will assure you it takes some planning to overcome some of the more difficult battles in the game. I also loved that fact that you have multiple paths you can choose from on your quest for world domination. Some paths will be more difficult to complete before taking on others, but this gives a way to challenge yourself in later replays.

I had a lot of fun with Eiyuu Senki – The World Conquest. The well-written story, fantastic combat and wonderful character designs pretty much had me hooked from the start. For the $39.99 price tag you get a ton of content here. It will take you around 45 to 50 hours for a single play through and you will likely want to do more than one to test your strategy skills. This is one of the best visual novels I’ve played in a long time, and I recommend it highly to fans of the genre or anyone that wants to conquer the world with moe girls.