This was sitting at a "mostly positive" for years if I recall correctly but is now firmly in the "very positive".

It does feel like a solid Famicom/Advance Wars style game to me. I don't really have complaints with it (though character voices are a bit too loud, had to turn that down in the options).

The thing for me is, Symphony of War has really raised the bar for what I want out of the genre now. The re-arrangement of squads and progression of characters throughout the missions, in an easy-to-use interface.. It adds another layer to the genre that makes for a more compelling experience. It's actually hard to go back to just playing something like Wargroove even if it is on a similar level to Advance Wars.

I'm probably going to stop playing this one. I wish I had jumped on it back when it first came out though, Symphony of War has spoiled me.

9/10. A very nice implementation of the Advance Wars style, turn-based war game. Some levels have towns and factories you capture and use to build up your army, whereas some rely on careful management of a fixed, initial squad. Good mixture of campaign levels, adjustable difficulty level to match any skill, and a non-intrusive, semi-entertaining storyline. Works great with a game pad, or a mouse and keyboard.

The fantasy theme, and the fact that it's been a decade since I played Advance Wars means that I can't say for sure if there's an exact 1 to 1 correspondence between the units in this game and Advance Wars. But it's certainly highly similar & scratches exactly the same itch. The almost derivative game play would be a criticism, if it weren't for the fact that it seems like nobody else has really done a perfect job of recreating AW in the modern era. Thus, it felt deliciously familiar and yet fresh at the same time.

If you are a fan of games like Advanced Wars, you'll love this game because that's basically what it is. If you don't like Advanced Wars, then this game has many of the same issues including long repetitive animations, no mid-game saves, tedious difficulty and a paper thin story.

Thankfully this game does have a lot of tweaks to speed up combat and reduce its tedious difficulty. Overall, the art is absolutely fantastic and the paper-rock-scissors combat is a lot of fun on a balanced skirmish map. Would recommend to those that enjoyed Advanced Wars.