ANIWARS: Call of the Void

What players are saying

▲ Recommended 1 hrs

This is a really weird review to write, as i want other people stumbling upon this game to know that its good and genuinely holds up compared to a lot of the competition, i however dont have the most playtime and dont feel super confident in reviewing it properly. It plays like a mix of into the breach & advanced wars, so if you like those sorta games this might be for you. I do however have some critiques below.

Difficulty:
This game is incredibly hard which i dont know if its intentional, the ai will sometimes play really mean and target your lowest health unit, and other times leave them alive seemingly at random. You will get into fights that are essentialy unwinnable & the random chance elements make the already hard fights even worse.

Content:
As of rn the game has 3 "campaigns" which can be played using one of the three current commanders. This is genuinely enough for the pricetag of the game and the fact that the game is in early access. What is here is a really solid foundation and i hope that the content amount doesn't discourage any people coming in as the game very much has enough content to support a lot of time put into the game.
HOWEVER i do wish the game had randomized "overworld" maps as an option or as a separate gamemode as that is a staple of the roguelike genre and adds more longevity to the games enjoyment. the item variety can also ´feel relatively low at times but i assume this will be fixed over time.

27 found helpful Steam ↗

▲ Recommended 1 hrs

Got my hands on the game and here are my thoughts with things I would like to see at the end.

First of all the girls are great. Commanders have some banter between one another and hint at deeper lore. Art style is just *chef's kiss* and it currently carries the game for me.
Music is there but nothing to brag about as of yet. Outside of banger theme we heard in the trailer.

The gameplay is very intuitive but a flawed. We get a random map and set up our units. Each unit will have different stats like initiative (when they act), movement range and attack range.
We move cute chibis on the map and engage in 1v1 combat where we see full sprites and lots of fan service (I approve)
So far, the units are NOT created equal. I already cheesed some hard maps with setting up 2 soldiers in a choke point backed up by medic. But the clear winner so far is the, I think her name was bullwark. Tough to kill and she will 1 shot you if you dare to sit anywhere near water, ledge or any other hole. She will push you into it and insta kill your beloved grunts. And once a unit bites the dust it's over for them for the entire run.... along with their artifacts (just had to kick the man while he was down, huh?)
AI is rutheless. And I mean it. It will go after your units and set you up for big AOE attacks. The saving grace so far is that the AI does not really use ultimate commander skills which can help but again they are not game winning (unless you manage to pop off PUNKZ ultimate and start one shotting everything).
I think I lost 3 first runs. Well it is a roguelike but it still stung.

So, with all that said I can recommend the game, just make sure you are ready for difficult battles. Oh and if you dare to approach sth called "deadly battle" then understand before hand that difficulty spike is vertical. As a veteran of Project Moon I sorta approve though I initially expected a casual game.

As for what I would like to see in the future (not counting new factions and units):

1. Difficulty modes, with such gorgeous art style you are bound to draw casuals, doubt they will stick around after getting their ass handed to them
2. Random enemy. At this point I choose my opponent, I would like to be surprised, though that can come later since there aint many factions for now
3. A crazy game mode. Look, not sure if it can work but hear me out: what if we make the map bigger, remove artifacts or I dunno make some tech tree and pit all factions against one another. Like, player selects one faction and all the others settle in some remote points of the map. Then AI and Player take turns and try to take over other territories. Initially maps could be just gray, occupied by random mercs, once a faction takes hold of it they can defend it with their main army, a little bit like campaign in Dawn of War Dark Crusade
4. Unit barks. Give them personality through dialogue. I know, I know, Voice is a tall ask and I am not asking for it (it would be nice down the line if the game gets enough traction) but just write them some dialogue or let us customize what they say after kill or death
5. let me see how far can my enemies go, as a Fire Emblem fan I am malding guessing if I will get hit next turn or not
6. Let me check enemy abilities, it's a bit painful to learn how units act the hard way so I would like to click and see what they can do (unless I missed it, then sorry)
7. let me check my units, I keep forgeting which artifact is on which soldier
8. remind me to check if I geared up before battle or let me put artifacts after I enter the map in the setting up phase
9. Explain what buildings do, yes you highlighted that they are important but I dont know why, then enemy captures medic base and they heal like crazy each turn
10. For the love of all that is holy: let me attack after I move or let me cancel an action, I keep moving first expecting I can shoot someone but my turn ends after unit finishes moving, pissed me off the first few runs
11. Oh and I would like to rename my units, not sure if I missed that feature but I could only name them after recruitment, let me give my dolls some silly names

Alright that is all for now. Solid 7/10. Good start for an early access. I think it definitely deserves a chance and I can see myself making a review or sth.
Once again: phenomenal job with character designs and artstyle. I read you guys made this as a team of 3. Whoever was the artist deserves a nice sloppy toppy as a reward. The assassin made my dingle jingle and then twinkle while Sniper sent me over the moon when I managed to make a silly build that let her one shot some PUNKZ mobs.
Also the game actually works, doesn't eat my resources and did not crash no matter how much crazy comboes were popping off on the screen.
Will eagerly await future updates.

18 found helpful Steam ↗

▼ Not recommended 1 hrs

There's a solid underlayer here overlaid with balancing decisions that are at best decently challenging and at worst, outright unfairly loaded in the AI's favor. I think my breaking point was when I reached the boss stage on the same round it spawned (so no buffs for them) and the enemy troops that had formerly been hitting my units for a modest 20-60 damage on average were suddenly hitting them for almost their entire health bar with a single attack. I couldn't itemize my way around this absurd power spike like the game expects me to with items being the only way to beef up your units between stages because I didn't know what I was getting into nor would I have been likely to have gotten the items I needed from previous stages to build around this power spike.

That aside, while the idea of an SRPG/Advance-wars-like roguelike is novel, the tactical depth on the strategy side leaves one wanting. There is no 'zone of control' around units, there is no pre-battle map showcase, a lot of the time enemies spawn with several buildings providing buffs on their side of the map which can be very difficult to reach (makes sense they need something since they don't get items like the player but I swear they get a stacking invisible buff to their stats the further you progress through a run). Your unit's value are measured soley in what items they carry since there isn't a veterancy or level system, so keeping your starting roster alive for the whole run or winning a hard-fought fight after a bad battle to get back on your feet where your more outnumbered than usual can end up ringing a bit hollow. At least in my opinion.

Despite my torrent of negativity, I do think with some spit polish and shine this game can shape out to be a very good strategy roguelike with an excellent artstyle to boot, but with the current state of balance... I guess if you like unexpected kicks to the stomach after smooth sailing for 40-minute's work?

15 found helpful Steam ↗

Reviews are by Steam users, hosted on Steam.

Latest updates

0.2.2 Game Balance

12 days ago

BuildingsOur goal here has been to move away from extensive stat padding without counterplay. Huge unavoidable increases in AI stats are not particularly fun to play against, especially when it comes to attack damage.FactoryOld effect: "On round start, give all allied units +8% ATK, +8 Ability Power and +4 DEF."New effect: "Fortifies all allied units, reducing Frontal and Flank damage by 30%."This will remove the feeling of being put on a timer, and also the risk of having an enemy Sniper get 5 stacks and one shot player units. It will now also be possible to play around the buff itself by good positioning that results in Backstab attacks.There was also a bug in the previous Factory version that could duplicate its stacks, making AI units far more powerful than intended.WorkshopOld effect: "When a unit dies, all allied units gain +7% ATK, +7 Ability Power and +1 Initiative (was triggered by both player and AI unit deaths)"New effect: "Grants all allied units access to Emergency Overclock. Activates below 50% Health, boosting ATK, Ability Power and Initiative."Similar to Factory this resulted in an unavoidable AI stat increase across the board. In worst case scenario the player could be the only one losing units, resulting in the AI snowballing while the player just keeps getting weaker.The new version is much more predictable and has a clear counterplay, that being focus fire.AssemblerOld effect: "On round start, give a random allied unit +35% ATK, +35 Ability Power and +15 DEF until the next round."New effect: "On round start, give a random allied unit +25% ATK, +25 Ability Power and +15 DEF until the next round."Gameplay-wise Assembler can already be played around, the buffed target can be avoided, crowd controlled or killed but a slight attack and ability power nerf felt appropriate since it also gives +15 DEF. Boss MapsGeneral improvements have been made to Nova's and Hellhound's Boss maps with focus on making it harder for the AI to cap a fifth building, which ...

0.2.1

24 days ago

Unit HUD item listHovering a unit will now show all of their items beside the unit itself directly in the HUD. This will hopefully make it a lot easier to keep track of units equipment during a battle, as well as making it easier to differentiate between units of the same type.You can also choose to keep the item list always visible for all units, and adjust its transparency via the settings menu for even better readability.Unit Number UpdateThe small unit identification number which was shown inside the units HUD and also inside the initiative portrait, now instead displays the units current position inside the initiative order.This will make it easier to see in what order units are going to act by just looking at the units themselves instead of having to hover their initiative portraits.Armory and Commander menu accessibility The Armory and Commander menu will now always be accessible inside the world map scene, for example inside the Shop, Recruitment or when selecting a Commander Item after a battle.Inventory SortingSorting has now been added to the unit item inventory!Text AlertsDisplayed when a Commander Ability is ready to use.Displayed after a battle to show what you gained from possible Commander item activation, such as items gained from Med Box or if Pile of Gold Nuggets procced.Bug FixesThere have been a massive number of bug fixes since the last patch, 0.2.0 ended up having 34 released builds! Big shout out to everyone who helped us by reporting their bugs and provided information on how to reproduce them, this really helps a lot in speeding up the process of fixing them!MiscRemoved Gold Nugget from battle rewards pool.

0.2.0 The Progression Update

60 days ago

Took a bit longer than expected but 0.2.0 is finally here! (we dropped the major versioning number)This patch includes around a hundred new items, Achievements, Unlockables, Hydra, balance updates and much more!Progression79 Achievements.58 Unlockable Unit Items.21 Unlockable Commander Items.3 Misc Unlocks.Hydra Unlockable both as a Boss and playable Commander.HydraMajor ability: Set off a venomous cloud, dealing 10-20 damage and applying 2 stacks of Poison.Minor ability: Select an allied unit, they Heal 20 HP at the end of every turn and gain +1 Movement. Lasts 2 roundsPassive: After attacking with a unit, apply 1 stack of Poison dealing 8 damage per Round.Unlocked as Boss by defeating Hellhound.Unlocked as Playable Commander by winning a run as Hellhound.Unit Death Coinflip systemUnit deaths in 0.1.0 were too punishing. For 0.2.0, we wanted to add some silver lining to it. When a unit dies, a coin will now be flipped (50/50) and if you are lucky, your unit will be put into recovery mode. The next time you enter a Recruitment zone you will have the option to "revive" your inactive unit keeping all items, at the cost of some credits. The first unit to die in a run will always be put in recovery mode, to make early mistakes less punishing.The cost of unit revival increases with each subsequent revival, starting at 50, then 125, then 200 and so on. This is to make early unit deaths less punishing, but also later ones more painful. Good luck!Battle Save stateWe finally bit the bullet and made the whole battle state stored inside the save.This has multiple purposes such as making battles more exciting since the stakes are higher when unit deaths can't be avoided by a simple reset, stopping players from exploiting resets to unlock items/achievements, and it should play nice with the Death Coinflip.GameplayHellhound's Mass Berserk now has a 20% baseline ATK increase, on top of the current ATK increase based on missing unit health.Hellhound's Mass Berserk cooldown reduced ...

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