Yeah, that's an interesting point! Nell is interesting, she changes a lot from game to game aesthetically (perhaps more than most!) I think in AW1 she does come across as pretty young and cute, while in AW2 and AW3 they push her in more of a serious, "businesslike" direction. It looks like they're not necessarily adopting a uniform conformity to the AW1 or AW2 portraits (which I think is wise), as evidenced by the fact that Olaf is in his (much better) AW2 outfit, while Nell feels more like AW1 Nell. It will be interesting to see which outfit they go with for other COs whose portraits change noticeably from AW1 to AW2; Sonja comes to mind.
To me, Nell has always been kinda adult-like right from AW1. I think this game just really up'd the kawaii factor to her and made her look younger.
Interestingly, in the Treehouse stream Eagle's CO Power has the name "Lightning Drive," the name of his regular CO Power from AW2, during gameplay footage of an AW1 map (and in the Treehouse footage this power has the extra turn mechanic). In both AW1 and AW2, however, the CO Power that gives some units an extra turn is called "Lightning Strike" (and "Lightning Drive" is for the power that doesn't give an extra turn).
This is indeed quite confusing.
Yeah, I have no idea what that means for the final release or if it will be changed before then. Either this is an error on their part or something funky is going down with the implementation of CO Powers in this game. Also,
RamOne
pointed out how Nell is able to use her CO Power in Field Training when that wasn't the case in the original.
Coming back here for the first time in years just for this thread. I'm so goddamn happy.
I've seen people knocking the artstyle, and I can get the units being a bit too basic or disappointed at losing the excellent pixel art, but to me this cartoony style is how I remember the game in my head, it's warfare between COs playing out like a cartoon and these new portraits and animations match that exactly.
Also I think the choice to cut off at 2 is very deliberate in this regard, they're using the 2 most light hearted along with the toy-like units to reset the tone IMO.
I know they're remakes but they did say it's from the ground up so I wonder if there's balancing changes, and as has been mentioned, how they'll do the CO Powers.
DNeon my boy! You're finally back after years of being gone. Welcome back my dude!
Yeah I agree, the artstyle is fine IMO. It's sorta one foot in the door cartoon and the other anime which is perfect for the Wars World games. You're also correct about the first 2 being remade together given similar themes. Dual Strike was noticeably darker compared to the GBA games but no where near as dark as Days of Ruin. That being said, I think it's more of an issue with DS being mechanically different from the GBA games. I think if this remake does well enough, WayForward could remake Dual Strike with even more content IMO.
You bring up balancing changes and that's very interesting. CO's were buffed and nerfed between games so I wonder if they'll have different stats in each game or there will be one stat between both games for each CO.
Andy will be a good pick to end the Fighterpass 2 wouldn't mind it.
Well, you might say we're all in agreement when it comes to this haha. I do think there's a chance and part of me believes Andy as Fighter 11 could be announced alongside the Japanese release date for this game.
Yeah, the balance question is an interesting one. I figure they probably shouldn't tinker with anything since it could throw off the balance of campaign maps. With that said, I certainly wouldn't mind if they gave Sonja her AWDS buff here, haha (and will she have her AW2 buffs in the AW1 campaign?)
EDIT:
So, interesting detail someone caught! If you listen very carefully to the actual game audio under what the Treehouse people are saying when Nell uses her COP in the Treehouse demo, you can hear that the Power theme has changed! Nell appears to have a unique hyped-up remix of her own theme that plays during the Power turn, rather than the global Power theme from AW1. It's pretty cool! I have mixed feelings about it since I'd hate to lose the original SCOP theme, which is one of the best tracks from the entire OST, but I bet all of the remixed amped-up unique themes are gonna sound really great.
I mean, it depends. If we get banger tracks for each CO Power/CO Super Power, I wouldn't mind TBH. Maybe Andy could retain the default CO Power themes while the other CO's get their own unique themes. I'm just throwing ideas out, there's so much to this game that we just don't know about.
I think from the footage shown so far you can see that units are still doing the same damage as they did in AW1, so probably no major balancing changes, unless there are some we just haven't seen yet.
If IS is not developing the game, then it is probably better anyway to make sure the balance on existing maps is not messed up.
True, but that brings up the question of what they intend to do for VS mode when it comes to which stats for the CO's are used in that mode.
To be fair, they'd also done the same for Advance Wars.
www.destructoid.com
Here's hoping this game does very well so IntSys changes it's mind on AW. Or maybe they figured out how to incorporate relationship mechanics for their next game and these remakes are a test to see if AW is profitable enough for a full-blown new game with a bigger budget.
These CO power animations alone make it all worthwhile. The character designs already had so much personality and now they get to come to life. Can't wait to see how the Black Hole COs look in motion. I think WayForward is a really good choice for this project; hopefully they get to make an original game in the series after Reboot Camp.
Nothing on AW2 CO's yet which is interesting. Nor is there anything on Sturm, methinks they're going to keep him a secret until the game launches or have him teased in the launch trailer.
Suffice to say, i'd say we're in for an info dump in the September Direct and maybe an Advance Wars Direct in November.