大戦略SSB2

Best Daisenryaku since (VII) Exceed, i.e. the 1st one in the West! And compare to more recent titles like Exceed 2, Perfect HD, and SSB 1, it has the right amount of complexity of the past Exceed/Perfect titles, while still keep the fast pace, beautiful graphic of SSB1. The unit models are really well-done, especially the infantry and F-35 ones. There are some minor issues with the control being too sensitive, and some bugs with unlocking ultimate edition units, but I hope the dev will fix them soon.
PS: Please add ECM Jammer and AWACS airplanes

Daisenryaku SSB2 is an improvement over the first SSB in every respect. Most of the simplifications in SSB which disappointed fans of this long-running series have been corrected. SSB2 has more units, a better mix of factions, larger and better maps, aircraft loadout options, fire selection restored, and etc. The general feel of playing SSB2 is closer to DS VII and earlier games like Super Daisenryaku and Daisenryaku II Campaign Version more than the Gendai or Perfect series. That was the design philosophy behind the first SSB but SystemSoft went overboard with it. Hence this course correction is a welcome one.

Yet SSB is simpler than DS VII in a number of respects. It lacks the sophistication of true map levels, the units themselves have no step levels, AEW aircraft, ECM capability and recon planes aren't in the mix. Air transports and tankers are generic and you can stuff a transport full of any three heavy units. Like the first Xbox version, there's no interception, strategic bombing or engineer units. SSB2 has only two types of infantry, regular and airborne, neither of which have ATGM weapons (patch this please !). And there's no map editor. The scouting function is simplistic, perhaps somewhat mitigated by the addition of stealth units, but it appears that SSB2's stealth ratings apply more to avoiding damage than detection.

At this point you're probably thinking, "So wait a minute, Corporal Trim - why should I pay $60 to play SSB2 in Japanese when I can just fire up the older game?" For one thing, the SSB graphics are better than any preceding Daisenryaku games and it's not even close. The units by air, land and sea are current, and while this is an older style of conventional warfare without drones, the game's countries deploy state of the art hardware with a number of prototype units available.

Unlike DS VII, units don't squat on top of a city to heal up, they must do so in a base. Supply trucks only provide fuel, ground units can only re-arm in cities or bases. Whereas factories in DS VII were simply another revenue generator, they have a significant impact in SSB2. Each factory your force controls adds 5 points to your industrial rating. All air, land and sea bases in SSB2 have a point value. This point value rises proportionally to the distance from your capital. For example, if you capture a neutral or enemy base valued at 28 points and your industrial rating is 30, you can produce new units in that base. While not all maps are favorable in this respect, in general it makes for a more fluid game relative to being tethered to production within a 5-hex radius from your capital.

As for maps, there are currently 59, all sized 64x64 hexes. Discarding a half dozen silly novelty picture designs plus theater/global level maps where the game's tactical scale makes no sense, there's still about 40 worth fighting on. These are rated on a difficulty scale of 1-5 stars. While your CPU enemies play aggressively and can surprise the unwary, the human player will naturally prevail in a fight between evenly matched countries. But when playing 4-5 star maps on default settings, the challenge rises to madly difficult. Excluding two world scenario maps with fixed settings, all is adjustable. Besides setting the factions (10 countries including the Britain DLC), human/computer control, starting funds and alliance settings; turn limits and total units can also be adjusted. Further, SSB2 has a Editor function which allows players to create custom factions. All in all, there's a lot of replay value.

Missed opportunities ? Fuel supply for one. While each capital and owned refinery generate 100 supply units per turn, the penalty for exceeding your refueling allowance is so lax as to make refinery ownership hardly worth the effort of capturing them. The morale system is broken. Some of the units and their parameters are questionable: the USA can build a nutty and powerful Trump class "battleship", Zumwalt class destroyer has a ridiculous 15-hex recon range, M113 can carry two infantry units; just to name a few. While there's no ballistic missiles, cruise missiles can have an outsized impact. The USA and China can build bomber fleets to stand off and wreak utter multi-hex destruction on enemies from afar.

If you have no problem playing a game in Japanese, in the turn-based modern wargame genre SSB2 gets a thumbs up. Others may want to wait for an English version.