Blood Battalion Review

Blood Battalion is the latest game in the Blood Brothers series from Mobage Inc. and puts you in the driver’s seat of a battle-ready army of pawns. Twisting and turning through a simple story that includes undead and magical brainwashing, you will sit back and watch an automated war unfold before you. In Blood Battalion, your pawns can master the doomed tides and will gain experience at each level. Each completed battle receives gold and chests that can be used to strengthen your army in the battle against evil.

Give up the controls in the blood battalion

The story of Blood Battalion begins with far less interactive battle scenes, supposedly meant to help you understand the game’s controls. Battlegrounds are rectangular sections of maps divided into squares where your army will advance. The square sections are designed to help you plan and execute an attack with the movement of each unit.

The strategy in Battle Battalion lies in your ability to activate special abilities and your handling of formations and units outside of battle. Combat is a simple, automated offense. Each battle begins with both armies facing each other at opposite ends of the map, by touching “GO”, both armies advance a few lines towards each other. Once the armies get very close, the prawns automatically rearrange themselves to see where they fit in, more or less depending on their type.

Blood Battalion attackers and throwers move to the front, while snipers and defenders play in the back rows. However, what is surprising is that healers also jump to the front along with attackers in combat, but are supposed to stay behind with defenders to heal units.

The old ‘in and out’

Scenes in BBat are made up of 3 battles each, and units cannot heal or resurrect at that time. Each prawn has the ability to perform a set of abilities, but these can only be activated once or twice during a certain period of time. Your best bet would be to reserve these skills until you need them. Once a skill is exhausted, the pawn falls back to a standard attack mode. Also, depending on the formation you have chosen before the battle, you may have an advantage or a disadvantage against your opponent. This is apparently a drawback in Blood Battalion.

Manage your recruits

Once you complete a scene in BBat, your units will have gained experience thus increasing their status. Additionally, you will also receive random loot in the form of coins, gold, and chests. The meat and potatoes in Blood Battalion are probably the most interesting side of the game.

Verdict

BBat is truly an army management and unit grabbing game. While the number of new recruits may seem endless and often rewarding, the combat is 90% automated and lacks depth. Blood Battalion would have been an excellent game if it could only be controlled manually. Other than that, it is worth a try.