➤ Wargroove 2, the review of a bigger and juicier new chapter 🕹

Finally we spent a few hours with Wargroove 2, the sequel to the splendid 2019 strategy game, which returns in a new, bigger and juicier chapter.

Wargroove 2 is the perfect child of Fire Emblem and Advance Wars: the good, charming, friendly and extroverted one, who knows not to take himself seriously and therefore seems even more ideal. There was a good period, in the previous five years, in which several independent developers set out to create their favorite version of Intelligent Systems: on the one hand, take as an example Tiny Metal, which embraces Advance Wars fully and shamelessly. On the other hand, we have Wargroove, which mixes the two titanic franchises and assimilates them with enviable sagacity.

In 2019, the first Wargroove was a small miracle, one of those titles that come out of the hat and capable of hitting the organs of Japanese two-dimensional strategies. Wargroove 2 takes what has been done and expands on it, adding a novelty bouquet That will make the fans happy. Not everything can be perfect, but it also depends on taste, we will see this later.

Less story, more gameplay

Wargroove 2, the review of a bigger and juicier new chapter — The scenes and the friendly protagonists of the Wargroove stage return

We are a few years away from the end of the first chapter, with new factions, such as the friendly rodent warriors determined to search for magical weapons or the pirates (finally!). Although enjoyable, it is clear that in a franchise that makes gameplay its strong point, the story manages to accompany with dignity without surprising and that's fine. That's right, Chuklefish, we're talking about you: keep it up, Less story, more balanced gameplay.. This time, however, to make things more fun, you will have more campaigns available, to differentiate the approach or allow you to let your curiosity take you and try a faction you don't know. Perhaps everyone reading this has also played the DLC, but that's not a fact: Wargroove 2 is a slightly more horizontal product than the previous one and, in addition to expanding the universe, it is also more scalable in terms of approach. Do you want to start with Pirates? Please. Do you like Faahri rodents? Very good. Get started and set the gunpowder on fire: tough, well-thought-out battles immediately await you, with multiple objectives and the ability to make you lose in planning.

Wargroove 2 presentation more structured maps, with elements of verticality, big enough to leave you there, thinking carefully about how to build your strategy and, believe me, you will have to do it, even on normal difficulty. Elements return that can give you advantages and disadvantages, there are gaps, strongholds, in short you will have something to vary and enjoy. We are talking about a varied, long, full-bodied and challenging campaign. will keep you busy for dozens of hours and will guarantee varying degrees of challenge, a good thing for those who have binged the first Wargroove and counted the days until today.

Without going into the ins and outs of the plot, this time Chuklefish chooses a less cohesive approach, proposing campaigns that live a little more of their own life compared to the plot of the first chapter. If on the one hand we gain variety, on the other hand lovers of interconnected plots might be displeased.

Strategic cauldron

Wargroove was a dope and its sequel remains so: the developer took the entire game system from scratch and implemented it in Wargroove 2, limiting itself, so to speak, to adding new elements. We liked the choice: not having infinite resources, we agreed to realize that we had made a great product and we limited ourselves to presenting a new, richer and more substantial episode, which fully conveys the brand's identity. This way, you will feel at home and at the same time you will be hungry for new features, such as Nadia's river ships, the pirate captain, or the frogs, or the sub-commanders, transformed basic units and rank-ups with weapons and special attacks. It applies to both you and your enemies and is an interesting addition to the fun cauldron that forms.

You will have objects, movements and combinations at your disposal, but the biggest novelty undoubtedly lies in the two-level Groove: once again, it is nothing new, but Chuklefish has managed to include a mechanic even a little banal, if you wish, such as the ignition of the update itself, and integrate it well into the game's economy. If already in the first chapter the Groove had the power to change the fate of the battle, imagine a Second level slot What can he do. Of course, he takes more time and you may not feel like it, but we can tell you that he is worth it, as long as you understand well how to integrate the special moves into your action canvas. Some skills require more than a few uses to fully understand, but that's where the fun lies too.

Let's get to the thorniest extra new feature: Conquest mode. Some readers will probably be very excited to know that Wargroove 2 contains a kind of roguelike mode, with a lone army and permanent death: the big problem is that this mode completely replaces the Arcade and Puzzle modes of the first chapter, and this is a huge shame. It seemed to us as if Chuklefish wanted to take the easy way, launching a roguelike mode just because it is (was) fashionable and I didn't want to invest time in creating exceptional puzzles like those in the first chapter, real moments of pure strategic cunning, a kind of chess game with Wargroove units.

Honestly, we find this a huge shame and not just because the writer is not a fan of roguelikes, but because it's missing one of the smartest and best-packaged pieces of Wargroove: you'll often have to fight not so much against having to do the highest possible damage without being able to recover your units often, but having to do it on a random map, therefore not built with logic behind it. The hope is that Chuklefish will simply take the time and resources to include them later, something like the free DLC for the first episode. Different story for him map creation tool, always enormously fun and this time enriched with tools to speed up creations and enrich them with interludes.

Conclusions

digital delivery Vapor, Nintendo eShop Price 19,49 € Holygamerz.com 8.5 Readers (4) 7.1 your vote

Wargroove 2 is an excellent product, dense, rich and the ideal sequel: more characters, more campaigns, larger maps and a lot of strategy. If, on the one hand, the story has received less emphasis, on the other, the developer has committed itself to offering dozens of hours of pure, intelligent, well-measured strategic fun, capable of imitating Intelligent Systems with pride and an air of conscience. The only shame is the non-equivalent exchange between Conquest mode and the puzzles of the first episode, a small subjective flaw that we hope will disappear with future updates (hopefully free as in the first Wargroove).