Nice review! You missed some major points into the detail section though: Most (if not all) units have hidden passives. For example swordsman dodges projectiles while running (indicated by gray air trails around his limbs) Werewolves have alfa pack passive. If they are roaming the forest and meet by any chance wild wolves, the wolves will follow them and fight for them :) Bandit can loot the corpse of a fallen unit to get 50% of the rice and water used to train it. However this must happen before the corpse disappears. Dragon clan archers, while waiting on full stamina get zen focus (increased damage on first attack) Dragon warrior has a range attack that can set buildings on fire. Kabuki warrior passive is to entertain peasants, so their stamina recovers faster, while working (performing kabuki dance) Ronin death debufs enemies and buffs allies Samurai actually do not die. When they deplete their health pool they commit sepukku, dealing massive magic damage to enemies. (it is important that they do not actually die, since the body explosion animation never happens to them) I think you missed the fact that there are 6 types of damage in the game. Slash / Pierce / Blunt / Fire / Magic / Explosive. Every single unit has different armor on all of those types of damage. Which is the main reason of why you need unit variety. Most of tier 3 units have glaring weaknesses on some of the damage types. In some cases a tier 1 unit can 1v1 and win against a tier 3 unit. It's a rock paper scisor type of mechanic. However what's interesting is that a lot of units have mixed types of damage. For example a spearman uses pierce, however inside his sequence sometimes he kicks, which is blunt damage. The way to indicate that is the weird effect of flying $#@! symbols and the punching sound coming out of the target. Once you see it, you can not unsee it :) Archer uses pierce, but in melee he is using blunt. So in some cases it is more efficient to send your archers in melee... Another important thing is that yin/yang generation used for zen masters or buying upgrades, have 2 hidden passives. First is that their generation is faster the further away you fight from your spawn point, which incentivizes aggressive play and punishes turtling. The second thing is that if you save your yin/yang points it will passively raise the power of your existing zen masters...
There are a lot of things here that I wasn't even aware of! That's very interesting! I'll admit that I didn't pour through documentation and that a lot of my points were my own observations, but it's super cool to see just how deep this all goes. And thank you very much for watching! :)
@@CultoftheCyberSkull There are many more. If I am not mistaken almost every single unit has a hidden passive. However the most important thing to keep an eye out for is the color of the sword cursor once you hover the enemy. If it is golden you get bonus damage, if it is silver - deal normal damage, if it is bronze you deal reduced damage. If it is white it means you have selected units with different damage types. Micro-managing the units in a fight to manually tell each one who to attack, to deal maximum damage is one of the things that makes the skill level of this game go above starcraft 2 to be honest. For example a very simple tactic with only one tier of units. 7 spearmen (with whirling spears) all on horses. You charge and do 7 tramples to the enemies, then trample again, at that point most of the horses will be dead, then do 7 whirls with the spearmen for aoe magic damage. Whatever you are fighting at this point is probably dead :D A tip to handle aggressivness of units is to actually use the guard button. You can guard a building unit or even ground IIRC. It is very useful, since the unit will still be aggressive around the point it needs to guard, however it will not be baited, if the enemiy retreats... It is useful vs people, since baiting units to range ambushes is what everyone is using :D Basically ppl abuse the bad AI behaviour of units. Battle realms holds a special place in my heart and I have spend many hours on it, however the game got overshadowed by the warcraft release and nobody noticed it... Only if it was more popular, to get a competitive scene, it could have become the masterpiece it aspired to be :)
Damn bro, I knew some of the passives but never know about the kabuki or swordsman ones 😃 I also always wonder about the @!# symbols I know only the both fighting units give a big damage to each other when this appeared but didn't know whem and why this occur
This is my childhood game! One of the earliest pc games I've played in a computer cafe together with counter strike, Yuri's revenge, half life and quake!! I can still remember the feeling of awe!
I fucking love the music on this game. Usually, western composer will butcher the shit out of traditional Asian instrument or music, but the guy that composed for this game is a genius. It sounds stereotypically oriental enough but uses modern orchestral melodies that bring these type of music to the next level. This game was so underrated. I guess money seriously cannot buy greatness, as you can't even see this out of any AAA production game nowadays. And this no name game probably have the production investment of a few hundred thousands at best.
@@nocontender6409 Thank you! As a rule, I try to respond to as many comments as I can and whenever I see the notifications pop up. I hope you enjoy my content! :)
You forgot an important part of the game's combat system where each unit deals different types of damage (cutting, piercing, blunt, fire, explosive, magic and poison) and each has their own set of resistances and weaknesses to these damage types. This discourages players from training only one type of combat unit and forces them to adapt to different army compositions depending on the enemy's unit composition.
I would love a sequel someday, but for now, I think the game can still be expanded a bit more without needing to go down that route. Maybe a few more clans and storylines with more units, maps, and buildings. It's possible!
Oh, I know. I mentioned as much. I'm just not someone who ends up using hotkeys when I play games a lot of times (just because I'm so used to being dumb and doing everything via the mouse) so I thought it was worth a mention for anyone else who plays like I do.
Nice review but seeing how you play is hard to watch. Especially around 40:45. Where your melee and range units are selected as one group units, maybe that's why you're having difficulties toggling their special abilities. You can group melee units by assigning them numbers by pressing ctrl + any number you want to. For example you group your melee units as group 1, geisha on group 2, and range units to group 3. By this you can position your melee units front, and have your geisha / healer guard your melees, will automatically follows them and heal them without them fighting, then you can separately position your range units at the back where they can be safe. Hope this helps.
Fantastic game and review. Truly a hidden gem. There a lot a depth to it, like I didn't know the Cannoneer salt throwing idle animation increases nearby unit defence. It's satisfying to assign groups of like units to a hotkey then command them in teams, activating all their battle skills with one button push. '1' for fighters, '2' for ranged, '3' for healers... it helps to restore some order in the absolute chaos of these skirmishes.
Thank you very much! And I totally admit half of my issues could be dealt with hotkeys, but I'm old and stubborn lol. And yes! All of those animations are bonuses in one form or another. It's a nice touch without being game breaking.
Perhaps you could review another lost 2001 would-be classic: 'Severance: Blade of Darkness'? One of my all-time favourites, and it got a release on GOG recently.
@@BlackSailPass_GuitarCovers Actually, if that's the Blade of Darkness I'm thinking about, it's been sitting on my wishlist for a while now because it looks like a proto-Soulslike with the early 2000s polygonal PC graphics that are totally my jam and I'm eager to check it out. It's on the table, but no promises as to if or when I get around to it.
nice review! i still remember when i play with my brother on LAN back on 2008, he would use lotus and abuse a bug where one of the unit (i forgot which one) stand infront of tree for a few second, and it will automatically upgrade that unit and oblierate my base in second
Did not expect at all to see a video on this game again. I loved playing this game a lot. I don't have it on steam ( yet ) so I'm stuck playing lan games with my parents or the campaign which crashes sometimes. Thank you for covering this game. Hopefully it's community gets revived ( I know it's still a bit active. ) and more people discover this.
there is a second even cooler part to the warlock duel story, while most say that the winner is the warlock that emerges from the duel, some say that the skull is the real winner, since that warlock transcended his mortal form in order to gain greater knowledge of magic and can whisper it's secrets to the other warlock and thus has power over him
What I like about Battle Realms is the balance, despite what other people say. No 2 units are alike--even peasants, but I every clan is equal. Like a game of rock paper scissors. Everyone is an antithesis to someone, and with proper battle gear and skill, that someone can be anyone. Edit: I just got to the micro-management issue part. Hotkey actually works for groups too.
Definitely, especially when you look at factors like the type of damage that certain units do and their resistances. It feels pretty tight and I don't think there's a single unit that can overwhelm any other ones.
I'm playing the game again and decided to write my own ideas for a Battle Realms sequel. I'm currently on page 9 but I'm having a lot of head scratches with the unit alchemy because I'm currently trying to expand it lol. I'm hoping for a Battle Realms expansion that incorporate ideas from other successful titles while also retaining the elements or aspects that make it truly unique. For example, instead of just harvesting rice and water, peasants now harvest wood and gather stone as well as ores in mines similarly to Age of Empires. Wood, Stone, and let's say Iron is used for the construction and upgrade of buildings. Wooden watchtowers catch fire easily (unless it's raining) but can be mitigated by upgrading it into Stone watchtowers. Iron is used to upgrade a unit's base damage and armor. Let's say, all Tier 1 units start off with 10 damage and 5 armor. Upgrading their weapons and armor may eventually lead them to have 20 damage and 10 armor. So, an upgraded swordsman may beat a non-upgraded swordsman in a 1v1 scenario. Techniques and Battlegears are still present and add allow a unit to either become more effective in what it currently does or give it the ability to cover other areas. This has been done to Dragon Archers for example, they deal piercing damage at range but allowing them to train in the Fireworks Hut (or whatever it is called) allows them to learn how to shoot flaming arrows that are useful in sieging. I want to expand it further by making them deal a decent amount of damage when engaging in close-quarter combat. There's more to what I'm currently writing and I'm planning to submit it to the BR subreddit with the hopes that the developers can see it and maybe incorporate some ideas haha. I can only wish but who knows, right?
I like some of your ideas, but I think that they would overcomplicate the game a little bit and take away from the relative simplicity in the economy. One reason BR works so well is because its a very straightforward system that is easy to pick up, so to speak, and the nuances come through deeper gameplay options that are buried beneath the surface. That being said, I think different types of buildings can work, but I don't know if I'd make it resource based. Maybe something like including more defensive buildings or whatnot that can be upgraded in a few different branches. That way, you can have those upgrades, but its not tied to a new resource that you have to dedicate ever more peasants to gathering (not to mention how a bigger population would slow down the overall gameplay imo).
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Thanks for the honest response. I am thinking what if there will be 2 game modes. Classic and Expanded. This is to cater both old and new players. The 4 game types are still available for both. I'm not a pro BR player nor an expert but I think it's safe to say that once you've explored and discovered everything there is to the game, you kind of wish there's more. I was even thinking what if there's a City Building mode or at least make it a spin-off for the game. That way, if players are a bit tired waiting for new content, expansion, or just from playing against other players if not the AI, they can still immerse themselves to the amazing world of Battle Realms. Cheers mate! I hope you post more BR related content. You're doing great things for the revival of an amazing game!
The passive buffs are the very upgrades you are talking about for increasing damage 5 to 10. I think the only units that had a defense increase were ronin and musketeer on a type of damage. Whilst the mauler and maybe sledger gained more explosive resistance. The game has a low population army, harvesting other resources than its current will be difficult. For the buildings, I like it how it is. No change for new resources. Just rice and water. The one other thing is that the video creator forgot is that some unit damage does more damage for buildings example of magic damage and explosive. Cutting and piercing does less damage to buildings.
@@voojyaj2588 As I've said above, this BR 2.0 idea will have 2 game modes. Classic to cater old players who like the game as it is and Expanded, (or whatever you wanna call it) to cater those who would like to experience new gameplay features. The latter does not aim to "fix" Battle Realms as a game. It's only meant to add something new to the experience.
Great Review, a shame that the new Patch didnt come out in time for you to check it out, it does improve many things. As a small side note to the passive and stand ground modes, they do work for the whole selected group, the problem in the older version is how melee combat would reset this mode constantly.
I'm still finding that movement and combat resets it. Maybe I just missed something then, but I still thought it was worth pointing out. Thank you so much for the compliment! I'm really looking forward to trying the new patch out.
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Yeah, movement and melee combat are resetting it sadly, with melee combat being fixed in the upcoming patch. Movement is a bit more tricky, as it leads to difficulties, but we will see how it turns out in future updates!
If you want a dual attacking unit to just attack in range mode just go near to the enemy on the units attack range and press Nest or N by default. The unit will not move in that position but it will attack on the postion on its range mode. Btw you can assign team numbers if it troubles you that you keep scrolling to the list of units. Then you press the battle gear one at the time of just press B to use the battle gear of all units at a team at the same time. You can also doublr click a unit to select every identical unit to that unit. You forgot the mention also the building projectile collision. Straight projectile units could only attack whats in front of them if it attacks a certain building and if its block by another building then the building in front of the building will be attack instead.
The fault of Battle Realms is its information isn't transparent. No numbers showing health points, damage, how much a unit resisting a type of damage, how long a stun last, how much damage poison does. These information must be transparent for the game to be competitive. A 10 years old me didn't know english but could still figured out those information in Warcraft 3 based on the numbers and icons.
I really love lotus, they're wicked and very exciting. Also, I was checking the steam page a minute ago, it seems to be updated quite regularly, I want to buy it soon! I really missed this and didn't know he (Ed) returned to Battle Realms. I hope he'll always be healthy and happy with his personal life too.
I got this and freaking MORROWIND for a single price back in 2003 or 4. I grabbed it because it was the only other thing that looked half decent...but it was fantastic and one of the only RTS' I was any good at, along with Red Alert 2 and Majesty.
Been playing it since I was 10, now 27. I’m still playing with my brother who is currently 13 and says that it’s better than most games today. Of course, I completely agree.
The game's lead designer, Ed del Castillo was proud that Battle Realms was released first before Warcraft 3 (and the latter had elements derived from BR), but he lamented that since Warcraft 3 has an established franchise, BR sadly was left behind despite its positive feedback. Anyone in SE Asia could attest how popular BR is that rivaled Warcraft 3 in Internet cafes during the 2000s. Ed del Castillo is still very active in social media and has a youtube channel. ua-cam.com/video/mZ2xBiC--kY/v-deo.html
I would love a Lotus campaign. They're so fun to play with because of their clan mechanics and I think that a campaign around them could be a very interesting story.
I am a Dragon fan but Serpent song is OG the best among the rest. Like the units be ame stronger but the reason why I love the Dragon. Is that they treated their peasants fairly same as the wolf clan. While Serpent and Lutos abuse their peasants. The lines of when a serpent peasant die "I am finally free" that was painful to hear. Like I really like and love serpent but Dragon is more on having dignity. I hope there's another faction clan thou.
Really flawless review that examines all the positive and negative aspects of the game. I'm a super fan and I spent many hours playing it. This new edition finally gives dignity and respect to one of the most beautiful games in the entire gaming landscape.
Thank you so much! The game itself is outstanding and I'm very glad its getting polished up and modernized without being outright remade. I can only hope it continues to get some more love and that we eventually see that Lair of the Lotus campaign that was cancelled. Or even a new clan.
@@CultoftheCyberSkull In fact, a new campaign was planned for the Loto and three other Clans. In the video you talked about a scene from the campaign that was deleted. What exactly was that scene about?
Well, if the new expansion actually happens, that's going to be outstanding! But I didn't mention any deleted scenes in my video. What section was that in?
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Yes, I too hope that there are other clans. Excuse me I must have misunderstood then, I'm Italian and unfortunately I don't understand English very well.
@@sergioepifani6032 You don't have to apologise! It doesn't help that I speak pretty quickly in my videos, either. I do hope that at the very least, the automatic subtitles help out. I know they can be finicky, though.
As someone who is not a fan of micro-management heavy RTS, this is probably not the game for me. That said, it's nice to see that a more than two decade old game, with some remastering work, has aged pretty well.
Totally! I get that this isn't a game for everyone, but for those that would be interested, I'd be remiss if I didn't recommend it and spread the love. Thanks for watching, though! Especially since this is very much not a Dave game lol
@@christianagsalud8945 you should get a virtual machine. on mac i think it's called wine bottler. it's a wrapper that emulates a windows system. should work if you have the time to read into it
Battle Realms really does take presentation up a notch and I think that because of its balancing, even a non RTS fan can find some enjoyment in it. It's such a well idealized game.
*"I SERVE!!!"* *"I TOIL!!"* *"FOR THE WOLF!!"* *"FOR FREEDOM!!"* Ah yeah. I remember playing this(and sucking on it" during highschool lol. I love playing the wolf clan because of shale lord and long tooth lol. Although playing as lotus is also fun lol
Their other game War of the Ring 2003 is a masterpiece. The music, the atmospere, the sounds, the gore, the story, the hilarious tutorial. There's nothing like it.
@@CultoftheCyberSkull If you ever do, tutorial is a MUST. Maybe a review at some point? I feel like I'm the only person on the planet familiar with it.
Apparently, it increases the resistances of nearby units for a short while, since the salt "wards off bad spirits," which I didn't actually know while writing script!
My Battle Realms disk exploded inside my pc over 15 years ago. only time something like that happened. I did play that game for the day it came out to the point the disk exploded non-stop. I had 3 more disks after that... still got the last one.
Wow, your passion for this game really made the review pop! I'm sad that I never played this back in the day, but Zen Edition looks like one to keep an eye on. Excellent review, my friend. 👍👍
Thank you very much, as always! And part of the beauty of PC gaming is that it's never too late to check out some hidden gems. Let me know what you think when you've tried it out!
Nice review! You missed some major points into the detail section though:
Most (if not all) units have hidden passives.
For example swordsman dodges projectiles while running (indicated by gray air trails around his limbs)
Werewolves have alfa pack passive. If they are roaming the forest and meet by any chance wild wolves, the wolves will follow them and fight for them :)
Bandit can loot the corpse of a fallen unit to get 50% of the rice and water used to train it. However this must happen before the corpse disappears.
Dragon clan archers, while waiting on full stamina get zen focus (increased damage on first attack)
Dragon warrior has a range attack that can set buildings on fire.
Kabuki warrior passive is to entertain peasants, so their stamina recovers faster, while working (performing kabuki dance)
Ronin death debufs enemies and buffs allies
Samurai actually do not die. When they deplete their health pool they commit sepukku, dealing massive magic damage to enemies. (it is important that they do not actually die, since the body explosion animation never happens to them)
I think you missed the fact that there are 6 types of damage in the game. Slash / Pierce / Blunt / Fire / Magic / Explosive. Every single unit has different armor on all of those types of damage. Which is the main reason of why you need unit variety. Most of tier 3 units have glaring weaknesses on some of the damage types. In some cases a tier 1 unit can 1v1 and win against a tier 3 unit. It's a rock paper scisor type of mechanic.
However what's interesting is that a lot of units have mixed types of damage. For example a spearman uses pierce, however inside his sequence sometimes he kicks, which is blunt damage. The way to indicate that is the weird effect of flying $#@! symbols and the punching sound coming out of the target. Once you see it, you can not unsee it :) Archer uses pierce, but in melee he is using blunt. So in some cases it is more efficient to send your archers in melee...
Another important thing is that yin/yang generation used for zen masters or buying upgrades, have 2 hidden passives. First is that their generation is faster the further away you fight from your spawn point, which incentivizes aggressive play and punishes turtling. The second thing is that if you save your yin/yang points it will passively raise the power of your existing zen masters...
There are a lot of things here that I wasn't even aware of! That's very interesting! I'll admit that I didn't pour through documentation and that a lot of my points were my own observations, but it's super cool to see just how deep this all goes.
And thank you very much for watching! :)
@@CultoftheCyberSkull There are many more. If I am not mistaken almost every single unit has a hidden passive. However the most important thing to keep an eye out for is the color of the sword cursor once you hover the enemy. If it is golden you get bonus damage, if it is silver - deal normal damage, if it is bronze you deal reduced damage. If it is white it means you have selected units with different damage types. Micro-managing the units in a fight to manually tell each one who to attack, to deal maximum damage is one of the things that makes the skill level of this game go above starcraft 2 to be honest.
For example a very simple tactic with only one tier of units. 7 spearmen (with whirling spears) all on horses. You charge and do 7 tramples to the enemies, then trample again, at that point most of the horses will be dead, then do 7 whirls with the spearmen for aoe magic damage. Whatever you are fighting at this point is probably dead :D
A tip to handle aggressivness of units is to actually use the guard button. You can guard a building unit or even ground IIRC. It is very useful, since the unit will still be aggressive around the point it needs to guard, however it will not be baited, if the enemiy retreats... It is useful vs people, since baiting units to range ambushes is what everyone is using :D Basically ppl abuse the bad AI behaviour of units.
Battle realms holds a special place in my heart and I have spend many hours on it, however the game got overshadowed by the warcraft release and nobody noticed it... Only if it was more popular, to get a competitive scene, it could have become the masterpiece it aspired to be :)
Looks like you're a developer of this game🤔
@@michael9912 I am not... I just used to play it a ton
Damn bro, I knew some of the passives but never know about the kabuki or swordsman ones 😃 I also always wonder about the @!# symbols I know only the both fighting units give a big damage to each other when this appeared but didn't know whem and why this occur
This is my childhood game! One of the earliest pc games I've played in a computer cafe together with counter strike, Yuri's revenge, half life and quake!! I can still remember the feeling of awe!
LOOK AT MY MUSCLES
"this thing is heavy..."
Yaaaaah, lets goooo!
Ready to Swing
PUMPED
Дай мне побольше мяса
I fucking love the music on this game. Usually, western composer will butcher the shit out of traditional Asian instrument or music, but the guy that composed for this game is a genius.
It sounds stereotypically oriental enough but uses modern orchestral melodies that bring these type of music to the next level.
This game was so underrated. I guess money seriously cannot buy greatness, as you can't even see this out of any AAA production game nowadays. And this no name game probably have the production investment of a few hundred thousands at best.
Ah, another fellow Battle Realms soundtrack enjoyer. I'm doing my part to make others know it's greatness lol.
Battle Realms has incredible soundtrack.
It really does
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Instant content creator reply from a video five months old? May you be blessed by the algorithm, friend. Have a sub.
@@nocontender6409 Thank you! As a rule, I try to respond to as many comments as I can and whenever I see the notifications pop up. I hope you enjoy my content! :)
You forgot an important part of the game's combat system where each unit deals different types of damage (cutting, piercing, blunt, fire, explosive, magic and poison) and each has their own set of resistances and weaknesses to these damage types. This discourages players from training only one type of combat unit and forces them to adapt to different army compositions depending on the enemy's unit composition.
I do remember putting that in my script, but it must've been cut at some point while editing. But yes, that is also a key part of unit balance.
and then all those resistances and shit goes down the drain when you spam kabuki warriors get flash powder on every single one of them.
A very good review, I'm actually playing this out of nostalgia and it still feels great.
Really do hope we can get a sequel tho.
I would love a sequel someday, but for now, I think the game can still be expanded a bit more without needing to go down that route. Maybe a few more clans and storylines with more units, maps, and buildings. It's possible!
Exactly, I'm not sure if the sequel would have the charm of the first game
I remember this game being known back in the 2000s here in the Philippines.
I used to play this as a kid when it released. You can use hotkeys to toggle the guard mode, etc. for unit groups.
Oh, I know. I mentioned as much. I'm just not someone who ends up using hotkeys when I play games a lot of times (just because I'm so used to being dumb and doing everything via the mouse) so I thought it was worth a mention for anyone else who plays like I do.
Nice review but seeing how you play is hard to watch. Especially around 40:45. Where your melee and range units are selected as one group units, maybe that's why you're having difficulties toggling their special abilities. You can group melee units by assigning them numbers by pressing ctrl + any number you want to. For example you group your melee units as group 1, geisha on group 2, and range units to group 3. By this you can position your melee units front, and have your geisha / healer guard your melees, will automatically follows them and heal them without them fighting, then you can separately position your range units at the back where they can be safe. Hope this helps.
Fantastic game and review. Truly a hidden gem. There a lot a depth to it, like I didn't know the Cannoneer salt throwing idle animation increases nearby unit defence. It's satisfying to assign groups of like units to a hotkey then command them in teams, activating all their battle skills with one button push. '1' for fighters, '2' for ranged, '3' for healers... it helps to restore some order in the absolute chaos of these skirmishes.
Thank you very much! And I totally admit half of my issues could be dealt with hotkeys, but I'm old and stubborn lol. And yes! All of those animations are bonuses in one form or another. It's a nice touch without being game breaking.
Perhaps you could review another lost 2001 would-be classic: 'Severance: Blade of Darkness'? One of my all-time favourites, and it got a release on GOG recently.
@@BlackSailPass_GuitarCovers Actually, if that's the Blade of Darkness I'm thinking about, it's been sitting on my wishlist for a while now because it looks like a proto-Soulslike with the early 2000s polygonal PC graphics that are totally my jam and I'm eager to check it out. It's on the table, but no promises as to if or when I get around to it.
That's the one. It's very unforgiving but a highly rewarding game with one of the best combat systems I've ever come across. Enjoy!
nice review!
i still remember when i play with my brother on LAN back on 2008,
he would use lotus and abuse a bug where one of the unit (i forgot which one) stand infront of tree for a few second, and it will automatically upgrade that unit and oblierate my base in second
9:54 holy hell, that’s an insane level of detail. Literally mind blown
Yeah, Battle Realms is chock full of this sort of stuff. It's so well thought out!
The salt-throwing animation also increases nearby unit defence.
Did not expect at all to see a video on this game again. I loved playing this game a lot. I don't have it on steam ( yet ) so I'm stuck playing lan games with my parents or the campaign which crashes sometimes. Thank you for covering this game. Hopefully it's community gets revived ( I know it's still a bit active. ) and more people discover this.
Thank you for watching! I'm very glad you enjoyed the video, and I also hope that the community grows with more Zen Edition updates!
there is a second even cooler part to the warlock duel story, while most say that the winner is the warlock that emerges from the duel, some say that the skull is the real winner, since that warlock transcended his mortal form in order to gain greater knowledge of magic and can whisper it's secrets to the other warlock and thus has power over him
Was wondering if anyone was talking about this game in 2022 while I await the next update and found this. Great review!
Thank you so much! I appreciate it! Thank you for watching! :)
What I like about Battle Realms is the balance, despite what other people say. No 2 units are alike--even peasants, but I every clan is equal. Like a game of rock paper scissors. Everyone is an antithesis to someone, and with proper battle gear and skill, that someone can be anyone.
Edit: I just got to the micro-management issue part. Hotkey actually works for groups too.
Definitely, especially when you look at factors like the type of damage that certain units do and their resistances. It feels pretty tight and I don't think there's a single unit that can overwhelm any other ones.
I'm playing the game again and decided to write my own ideas for a Battle Realms sequel. I'm currently on page 9 but I'm having a lot of head scratches with the unit alchemy because I'm currently trying to expand it lol.
I'm hoping for a Battle Realms expansion that incorporate ideas from other successful titles while also retaining the elements or aspects that make it truly unique. For example, instead of just harvesting rice and water, peasants now harvest wood and gather stone as well as ores in mines similarly to Age of Empires. Wood, Stone, and let's say Iron is used for the construction and upgrade of buildings. Wooden watchtowers catch fire easily (unless it's raining) but can be mitigated by upgrading it into Stone watchtowers.
Iron is used to upgrade a unit's base damage and armor. Let's say, all Tier 1 units start off with 10 damage and 5 armor. Upgrading their weapons and armor may eventually lead them to have 20 damage and 10 armor. So, an upgraded swordsman may beat a non-upgraded swordsman in a 1v1 scenario.
Techniques and Battlegears are still present and add allow a unit to either become more effective in what it currently does or give it the ability to cover other areas. This has been done to Dragon Archers for example, they deal piercing damage at range but allowing them to train in the Fireworks Hut (or whatever it is called) allows them to learn how to shoot flaming arrows that are useful in sieging. I want to expand it further by making them deal a decent amount of damage when engaging in close-quarter combat.
There's more to what I'm currently writing and I'm planning to submit it to the BR subreddit with the hopes that the developers can see it and maybe incorporate some ideas haha. I can only wish but who knows, right?
I like some of your ideas, but I think that they would overcomplicate the game a little bit and take away from the relative simplicity in the economy. One reason BR works so well is because its a very straightforward system that is easy to pick up, so to speak, and the nuances come through deeper gameplay options that are buried beneath the surface. That being said, I think different types of buildings can work, but I don't know if I'd make it resource based. Maybe something like including more defensive buildings or whatnot that can be upgraded in a few different branches. That way, you can have those upgrades, but its not tied to a new resource that you have to dedicate ever more peasants to gathering (not to mention how a bigger population would slow down the overall gameplay imo).
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Thanks for the honest response.
I am thinking what if there will be 2 game modes. Classic and Expanded. This is to cater both old and new players. The 4 game types are still available for both.
I'm not a pro BR player nor an expert but I think it's safe to say that once you've explored and discovered everything there is to the game, you kind of wish there's more.
I was even thinking what if there's a City Building mode or at least make it a spin-off for the game. That way, if players are a bit tired waiting for new content, expansion, or just from playing against other players if not the AI, they can still immerse themselves to the amazing world of Battle Realms.
Cheers mate! I hope you post more BR related content. You're doing great things for the revival of an amazing game!
The passive buffs are the very upgrades you are talking about for increasing damage 5 to 10. I think the only units that had a defense increase were ronin and musketeer on a type of damage. Whilst the mauler and maybe sledger gained more explosive resistance.
The game has a low population army, harvesting other resources than its current will be difficult.
For the buildings, I like it how it is. No change for new resources. Just rice and water. The one other thing is that the video creator forgot is that some unit damage does more damage for buildings example of magic damage and explosive. Cutting and piercing does less damage to buildings.
@@voojyaj2588 As I've said above, this BR 2.0 idea will have 2 game modes. Classic to cater old players who like the game as it is and Expanded, (or whatever you wanna call it) to cater those who would like to experience new gameplay features.
The latter does not aim to "fix" Battle Realms as a game. It's only meant to add something new to the experience.
Great Review, a shame that the new Patch didnt come out in time for you to check it out, it does improve many things.
As a small side note to the passive and stand ground modes, they do work for the whole selected group, the problem in the older version is how melee combat would reset this mode constantly.
I'm still finding that movement and combat resets it. Maybe I just missed something then, but I still thought it was worth pointing out. Thank you so much for the compliment! I'm really looking forward to trying the new patch out.
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Yeah, movement and melee combat are resetting it sadly, with melee combat being fixed in the upcoming patch. Movement is a bit more tricky, as it leads to difficulties, but we will see how it turns out in future updates!
Love the Serpent clan soundtrack tho,kinda epic
If you want a dual attacking unit to just attack in range mode just go near to the enemy on the units attack range and press Nest or N by default. The unit will not move in that position but it will attack on the postion on its range mode.
Btw you can assign team numbers if it troubles you that you keep scrolling to the list of units. Then you press the battle gear one at the time of just press B to use the battle gear of all units at a team at the same time.
You can also doublr click a unit to select every identical unit to that unit.
You forgot the mention also the building projectile collision. Straight projectile units could only attack whats in front of them if it attacks a certain building and if its block by another building then the building in front of the building will be attack instead.
Is there a game speed adjustment on this? I'm not used to play this game in slow game speed
There should be. Check the game options.
The fault of Battle Realms is its information isn't transparent. No numbers showing health points, damage, how much a unit resisting a type of damage, how long a stun last, how much damage poison does. These information must be transparent for the game to be competitive.
A 10 years old me didn't know english but could still figured out those information in Warcraft 3 based on the numbers and icons.
I really love lotus, they're wicked and very exciting. Also, I was checking the steam page a minute ago, it seems to be updated quite regularly, I want to buy it soon!
I really missed this and didn't know he (Ed) returned to Battle Realms. I hope he'll always be healthy and happy with his personal life too.
I remember my childhood days, i played as a wolf. And my army is nothin but Sledgers XD
LOOK AT MY MUSCLES
Definitely getting my gaming pc now. Just need to convince the wife that I need to go to serpentholm before the other clans do.
If you push on, you could get to Serpentholm by dusk.
I got this and freaking MORROWIND for a single price back in 2003 or 4. I grabbed it because it was the only other thing that looked half decent...but it was fantastic and one of the only RTS' I was any good at, along with Red Alert 2 and Majesty.
I love this game! I would pay $200 for a sequel.
Totally forgot about this gem! Used to play all the time until I got into Warhammer 40k
Been playing it since I was 10, now 27. I’m still playing with my brother who is currently 13 and says that it’s better than most games today. Of course, I completely agree.
Agree about the flaws, the very aggressive unit make it hard to retreat, and range unit not change to range again after they engage in melee
didn't realised this game is 2001 i played a lot of this back in 2006-2010 still in elementary/primary school :(
Played this game a lot back in the day. It was one of my favorite games even though pc can barely run battle realms and warcraft 3.
Bought it on steam. It didnt disappoint. 😍
Idk that all black map is a bug I thought it was a challenge on where to go what is hidden on those locations
The game's lead designer, Ed del Castillo was proud that Battle Realms was released first before Warcraft 3 (and the latter had elements derived from BR), but he lamented that since Warcraft 3 has an established franchise, BR sadly was left behind despite its positive feedback. Anyone in SE Asia could attest how popular BR is that rivaled Warcraft 3 in Internet cafes during the 2000s.
Ed del Castillo is still very active in social media and has a youtube channel. ua-cam.com/video/mZ2xBiC--kY/v-deo.html
Lotus Campaign. I mean the serpent campaign giving an antagonist's perspective is cool but I wanted to play with wizards and warlocks.
I would love a Lotus campaign. They're so fun to play with because of their clan mechanics and I think that a campaign around them could be a very interesting story.
I am a Dragon fan but Serpent song is OG the best among the rest. Like the units be ame stronger but the reason why I love the Dragon. Is that they treated their peasants fairly same as the wolf clan. While Serpent and Lutos abuse their peasants. The lines of when a serpent peasant die "I am finally free" that was painful to hear. Like I really like and love serpent but Dragon is more on having dignity. I hope there's another faction clan thou.
Im not too good playin this game but I can do all unit into tier 3
This video is so well maid... Very underrated chanell..
Thank you so much! That means a lot hear! :)
Really flawless review that examines all the positive and negative aspects of the game. I'm a super fan and I spent many hours playing it. This new edition finally gives dignity and respect to one of the most beautiful games in the entire gaming landscape.
Thank you so much! The game itself is outstanding and I'm very glad its getting polished up and modernized without being outright remade. I can only hope it continues to get some more love and that we eventually see that Lair of the Lotus campaign that was cancelled. Or even a new clan.
@@CultoftheCyberSkull In fact, a new campaign was planned for the Loto and three other Clans. In the video you talked about a scene from the campaign that was deleted. What exactly was that scene about?
Well, if the new expansion actually happens, that's going to be outstanding! But I didn't mention any deleted scenes in my video. What section was that in?
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Yes, I too hope that there are other clans. Excuse me I must have misunderstood then, I'm Italian and unfortunately I don't understand English very well.
@@sergioepifani6032 You don't have to apologise! It doesn't help that I speak pretty quickly in my videos, either. I do hope that at the very least, the automatic subtitles help out. I know they can be finicky, though.
I grew up playing this. Damn it was such a blast!
Awesome Review. Thank you so much. :)
Thank you for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)
As someone who is not a fan of micro-management heavy RTS, this is probably not the game for me. That said, it's nice to see that a more than two decade old game, with some remastering work, has aged pretty well.
Totally! I get that this isn't a game for everyone, but for those that would be interested, I'd be remiss if I didn't recommend it and spread the love. Thanks for watching, though! Especially since this is very much not a Dave game lol
How to play Kenji's journey? Mine is from steam and everytime i play it its auto winning!!
You just pick it when you click on new game. I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Auto winning?
Can I play this game in new 24 inch iMac 🖥️ ??
I don’t know how to download it 😢
@@christianagsalud8945 You can buy it on Steam. The link is in the video description.
I already downloaded the game on steam and it said it’s not compatible to the platform or to my iMac 🖥️
@@christianagsalud8945 you should get a virtual machine. on mac i think it's called wine bottler. it's a wrapper that emulates a windows system. should work if you have the time to read into it
I still remember dreaming about peasants clamoring about rice shortage...hoping for a revival of this game.
it was a well thought game
ahh shid! so nostalgic 😭
It was such a nice and innovative game at that time
Ive played this sooo much as a kid and got a pirated version as an adult.... Ive never known about the peasant horse O_O WTF sooo cooool
I don't understand how this game wooshed over most people's radar.
I dont normally f with rts but this looks really involving with its story and voice acting!
Battle Realms really does take presentation up a notch and I think that because of its balancing, even a non RTS fan can find some enjoyment in it. It's such a well idealized game.
@@CultoftheCyberSkull stop making me want to play shit in other genres. Ive got like 400 others to review, mannnn
@@MidnightMedium Never!
@@CultoftheCyberSkull you drive a tough bargain but i accept against my better judgment
Mamma mia quando avevo 12 anni giocavo tantissimo
Se ti piace ancora compralo su Steam.
*"I SERVE!!!"*
*"I TOIL!!"*
*"FOR THE WOLF!!"*
*"FOR FREEDOM!!"*
Ah yeah. I remember playing this(and sucking on it" during highschool lol. I love playing the wolf clan because of shale lord and long tooth lol. Although playing as lotus is also fun lol
Lotus were my jam. Loved those creepy wizards. Serpent are a close second because goddamn their soundtrack kicks ass!
I fucking love this Game.
I want this on other platforms.
I don't think the gameplay would translate very well, tbh
I wish we could get a battle realms 2 😢
Their other game War of the Ring 2003 is a masterpiece. The music, the atmospere, the sounds, the gore, the story, the hilarious tutorial. There's nothing like it.
I think I have it on my library, but I haven't played it. I'm still pining for a GOG release of Battle for Middle-earth 1/2.
Thanks for watching!
@@CultoftheCyberSkull You just have to. It's very similar to Battle Realms and is set in LOTR universe. It was my first love.
@@pajdovelicanstveni Might need to check that out then! Sounds like it could be fun.
@@CultoftheCyberSkull If you ever do, tutorial is a MUST. Maybe a review at some point? I feel like I'm the only person on the planet familiar with it.
@@pajdovelicanstveni Can't promise anything, but never say never!
We need a Definitive Edition
For the Lotus!
I can't even begin to count the times I replayed this... (After being hyped by Ninja Scroll).
It's so good. Everything about it just teems with quality. I replay it every so often and some voice lines are even household memes lol.
That powder keg cannoneer salt throw actually increases other units damage.
Apparently, it increases the resistances of nearby units for a short while, since the salt "wards off bad spirits," which I didn't actually know while writing script!
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Sorry, my mistake. I don't play the Dragon clan much since they are so weak against Lotus clan.
My Battle Realms disk exploded inside my pc over 15 years ago.
only time something like that happened. I did play that game for the day it came out to the point the disk exploded non-stop.
I had 3 more disks after that... still got the last one.
SELECT ALL UNITS YOU WANT TO BE PASSIVE AND PRESS O
Trashtube not showing your uploads. Missed this one and the previous one.
All good! Hope you enjoyed them whenever you got around to watching them 🙂
Wow, your passion for this game really made the review pop! I'm sad that I never played this back in the day, but Zen Edition looks like one to keep an eye on.
Excellent review, my friend. 👍👍
Thank you very much, as always! And part of the beauty of PC gaming is that it's never too late to check out some hidden gems. Let me know what you think when you've tried it out!
Lutos has the most disturbing unit's. Like basically you can feed your peasant to your army unit. Shits
Even back in the day I could never get this game to run
The good news is that the new version is much easier to get up and running!
Friend profil is amazing 👍
✅
who is that guys saying "naaaasty"?
@@TLTwithoutTEA Hugo Myatt. He's the host of an old kids' show called Knightmare.
No sequel, it's getting boring to play