Back in 2019, I played a solid chunk of Chucklefish’s Wargroove on my Nintendo Switch. Since I had sunk dozens upon dozens of hours into Advance Wars and its sequel as a kid, it always seemed absurd that we hadn’t gotten any similar titles, so Wargroove’s release seemed like a revelation. Yet after playing about half the campaign and some multiplayer against a friend, I never returned to the delightful little tactics game, and more importantly, I never felt the need to. As a result, I had little interest in Wargroove 2 with Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re-Boot Camp sandwiched between Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Persona 5 Strikers gathering dust on my backlog shelf.
Thanks to the Steam Next Fest demo, I saw how overlooking Wargroove 2 would be a mistake. This time around Chucklefish has introduced the roguelike Conquest mode, which feels like a natural progression of the genre. In fact, it makes so much sense I’m surprised it hasn’t been done already.
For those that haven’t played Wargroove or Advance Wars, the premise is simple: You pit your army on vividly colored maps against an enemy army, creating units and fighting in grid-based battles. Each unit, such as Soldiers or Spearmen, offers different benefits and does more damage to certain enemies. You also control a powerful Commander unit. The strategy comes from enemy placement and outthinking your opponent, creating a surprisingly deep turn-based tactics game.
Usually, these battles are conducted during a lengthy, lighthearted campaign or against friends locally or online. Conquest mode takes them and places them in a structure not dissimilar to Slay the Spire. After selecting your Commander from one of three random options, you’re off to battle on small maps with a handful of units. After each battle, selecting which path to go will allow you to heal, purchase more units, or battle against more powerful armies to earn boons. If you’re anything like me and love indie roguelikes, you’ll have played something similar, I’m sure.
Looking back on the original Wargroove, it’s clear that my time with it was simply cut short because of how crowded the gaming industry has become. For Advance Wars, I was lucky to get a new game once a month as a kid, so of course I spent more time commanding an army with Andy and friends.
Now, if a game like this doesn’t have a campaign that engages me enough or if I don’t have a friend or two to play with, I fall off it pretty quickly with so much else out there to play. However, Conquest mode looks like it’ll keep me coming back for more because of how much variation it has and its punishing difficulty. Seriously, in the few runs I tried, piloting the doggy general Caesar, the flamethrower-wielding Nadia, or the evil twin of series protagonist Mercia, I didn’t get very far before I ran out of units.
A steep difficulty may sound like a detractor, yet as a veteran of the genre, I found it refreshing. The campaign in the first Wargroove rarely offered such outside of perfecting each level; in Wargroove 2, it’s baked right into what might be the best new game mode this sparse genre has ever seen.
Who knows – Wargroove 2’s campaign might grab hold of me longer than the original did. A splash screen after failing Conquest mode promises three campaigns that intertwine, along with six factions and a whopping 22 Commanders with special skills. I likely won’t touch local or online multiplayer, but with Conquest mode I don’t feel like I will have to seek out others to play with. This small taste has convinced me to give Chucklefish’s tactics game another chance, and I don’t doubt that I’ll stick around longer this time around.
