Songs of Conquest

Alright so this one is an edge case.

I don't recommend the game at the base price point of $40, but that also comes with caveats.


Let's look at what I enjoyed about the game:

+ It's basically Heroes of Might and Magic cloned, and I played the shit out of that game back in the day, lots of fun with a solid gameplay formula

+ The pixel art is endearing and works well, music suits the game and feels right

+ No problems with polish or quality of life, smooth sailing



What was mixed:

* New magic system was interesting and fairly unique, being based on units, but the lack of overworld magic felt like a regression and I really disliked having to constantly mouse-over icons to see what the usually 6-8+ available spell options would do

* Having town development take place on the overworld map was another neat twist, but I found the town progression to be much more basic and superficial than it first seemed; if you want upgraded archers, prepare to build various requirements that undermine other choices, especially because only one town has 'full upgrade' potential and you can't actually modify the home bases of your opponents, only occupy or raze them



And now the negatives:

- The campaign wasn't my main interest in HOMM, but in this game I found it even less enticing as the maps, pace, and writing quickly bored me; this meant only conquest and random modes were viable play options for me personally

- The devs made only one large map for conquest mode, which I found rather baffling as small and even medium maps tend to be boring and over too quickly to really enjoy progression (which is a big part of the game's appeal); more on this below

- Random was just too random, there wasn't much to work out through strategy when it came to the map's corridors and it was like a dumptruck of resources backed into my castle, no fun as I was rapidly buying all upgrades

- Following these issues, the game is arguably *too* similar to HOMM, I quickly felt this was a game I'd played many many times before and figuring out how to beat it wasn't hard

- And now comes the final straw: the difficulties simply don't work for me, as I beat Challenging my first go (again, it's so much like HOMM that if you know that game well, you're likely to dominate this one)... but when I tried the Overwhelming difficulty on a few different maps, I literally had enemy heroes stomping my castle within the first 10-15 turns, with large armies I couldn't possibly beat so early in the game and massive bonuses to their offense/defense stats (basically, I had no time to develop a hero / army that could out-maneuver the invader using wit); it feels like you can only cheese these difficulties and have limited tools to do so




So in summary, it's not a bad game. If you consider HOMM to be an amazing series (especially part III), then you would probably say this is also amazing. But because it's virtually identical in all significant ways there's just not much new to experience to either individuate the game or to make me want to play it for a long time. Conquest could have provided more fun than I got out of the game in terms of hours played, but there was only one sizeable map and the difficulty options were either too easy or mindlessly hard in the way that's kind of universally unfun-- the enemies aren't smarter, they're just unfairly advantaged and extremely aggressive right from the start, which is especially problematic if you're not playing on a large map that affords space to expand and time to grow to face the threat.




Overall, I bought the game for $12 and eh, I got a full night out of it. Could be worse. I will say there was a bit too much chasing heroes in the endgame for my liking (I wasn't able to uncover the teleport spell if there is one, which I doubt because there didn't seem to be any map-based magic), and that bloated my time played. But overall it was likely worth the money for a full night of fun nostalgia.

But $40? Hell no, not even close. I could see it being worth your time if you've never played HOMM and really enjoy the campaign and plan to spend dozens of hours, but otherwise, the price tag is a big overreach imo. Feels like the type of indie game that should be about $20-25, especially since the devs' work was considerably reduced by the fact that they more or less copied another game (not to say steal, homage is fine, I just can't act like they spent oodles of time imagining a great new concept).

First HOMAM game that I'm really enjoying since HOMAM3. Shit, I even care about the storyline. Rana will arise!

I have such a hard time reading the map and knowing what's interactable and not.

It's a Pixel art strategy RPG with some musical flavor thrown in. It's a solid game, the strategy elements are fun. I really liked the 2 campaigns I've been through.

I hated it the first 10 hours or so, the beginning of the campaign is a bit deceiving but the game is far deeper than it first seems.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing all factions, a lot of units have a special twist that makes them really fun to play with. I found that a lot of viable builds were possible to create a strong squad, encouraging different play styles and experimentations.

The mana system is really well thought and quite different compared to other games of the genre, it took me a quite a while to get used to it but I love it now.

Graphics are amazing, the pixel art is speaking for itself. Music and sound design are also great and perfeclty fitting.

I came to realize that Songs of Conquest is what HoMM should be today. If you're looking for a nostalgia trip that is also really refreshing I highly recommend this game. But it's not just a trip down the memory lane, the game is really shining in its own right with brilliant ideas. I can't wait to try the future factions and I really hope that the campaign will be expanded with them at some point.

Great game, reminds me of Heroes of Might and Magic 2 & 3.

Great game, i can see the devs put alot of love into this game. Def going too keep supporting this game in the coming future!

its amazing the graphics and mecanics

very good game with a solid variety of gameplay styles. well thought out factions to play, each with in depth tactics. It does need more maps. The random map is always the same map just with the starting point randomly located at preset locations. It would be nice if they could create a map generator to provide a never ending option for new maps to play.

I seriously recommend this wonderful title. It brings back memories of good old days when games were created out of passion and the devs were striving for something really unique and special.

great game reminds me of HOMM3 but with modern features and differences. Game made with pixels but it is good enough to be immersive!

Amazing take on the HoMM series.

Much improved spellcasting and magic,
Interesting hero developments,
Limits on hero and troop quantities makes for more strategic play,
Dual-faction town systems allows for interesting trade-offs when building.
Limited town sizes means not every village is of equal importance, and reduces time on micromanagement,
Exceptionally well made game-pad interface.

AI and/or map balance not perfect, long hero movement makes surprise-play uncounterable, but this has been prevalent in every HoMM to date. Maybe they'll fix it later, I'm sure there are ways to deal with it.

Songs of Conquest is a remarkable game. Pure fun for its genre. A game I wish I didn't sleep on for so long. if you like Heroes of Might and Magic. Or better yet.... You like the IDEA of those games. Songs of Conquest delivers multiple times over. Pure fun for its genre.

I wish I could refund this, but of course it didn't become overly tedious and boring until just AFTER the refund window passed.

It's beautiful, and I'm sure many people love it, but map wandering and identical, repetitive battles that are impossible until you cheese up your army? That's not fun to me, at all.

In this review, I'll mostly compare this game to Heroes of Might and Magic (HOMM), which is very similar to it.

I've only played through the first of the four campaigns, and so far, the game is great.
Did I say campaign? Yes! It HAS a campaign—four of them, actually.
And that point alone sets it apart from most of the other games in this genre.
This is a dealbreaker for me.
And it's well done, too: It gradually introduces new concepts, units, and gameplay mechanics so that you are not overwhelmed at the beginning. It brings you into the game without needing an extra tutorial.

There is one thing that I absolutely hate about HOMM: level scaling.
It makes all progress in the game completely pointless because when you become stronger, the enemy automatically adapts and becomes stronger as well. So what's the point of becoming stronger?
The very core of games like this is to wander through the map, collect stuff, build camps, train troops, upgrade them, and research new and better things. But it's all pointless because no matter what you do to gain an advantage, the enemy gets it too.

So guess what? This game has NO LEVEL SCALING!
It's almost as if the game devs wanted you to play the game and have fun!
Can't beat the enemy because they are too strong? Get stronger and come back later to beat the crap out of them with a smile of satisfaction on your face!

As I said, I have only played the first campaign, which has two factions that you can control.
And based on that, I have to say that the factions are lacking a bit of diversity.
In HOMM, each faction had some unique mechanic, like the undead not actually dying but coming back to the camp to be recruited again (IIRC). I wish Songs of Conquest had something similar.

The graphics are great, IMO—very moody and beautiful.
The music ranges from okay to awesome. A bit too much repetition, maybe. But it could be worse.

Bravo, gentlemen developers!
It's a really fresh HoMM3-style adventure with new mechanics, units and stories.
The game is definitely worthy of attention. Although I'm not a big fan of pixel art))

My expectations were quite high on this one, the game itself looks beautiful and I did enjoy the game play until I encountered the other AI. My full army got destroyed by magical spells before I even had my first turn, multiple times. There are some serious bad balancing in this game and it's put me off playing it again.

I'd recommend going back to HOMAM3

The most surprising part was the story. it was like a warm quilt. When you touch one part of it, it tugs with strands on everything else.

This is a fantastic game. Very reminiscent of Heroes of Might and Magic, but personally I'm enjoying it a lot more so far. The different factions are really well done and the campaign is a blast so far. Would definitely recommend!

Sim turn/battles are here, so I can finally recommend this game!

It has everything you'd want: atmosphere, story, multiplayer, skirmishes, puzzles.
The game has lots of content and innovative ideas, so grab a couple of your friends and start an adventure!

I played a lot of MnMH in my youth, i was hoping this game can have a unique touch on top of those, but it is the same formula again

1) The only way to win this genre still the same, PUMP your main army
2) Other general / hero only serve as a runner / scout, which feel like a chore to run them around
3) On top of (2), the campaign do not carry forward your side hero to the next level, making the only way to play is still (1)
4) There are not enough information to defend against surprise attack from the fog, there is no point of building 2nd army

Overall, i am not sure if this is the game or the genre problems

I'm finding this game (32 hours and still playing) hitting the HOMAM nostalgia very hard. We are talking about a small team, fans of the HOMAM series themselves, that has managed to create a more than decent spiritual successor to the series. I personally loved the factions and the story so far (I'm in the final mission of the third Campaign) and I find myself craving for more! I hope we get to see more content for this game in the future (new factions, story expansion, maybe a sequel in the distant future). Thank you Lavapotion for successfully filling a void long unfulfilled! :)

TL;DR: Despite being openly 'inspired' by the classic HoMaM-games, it's got worse presentation, worse gameplay, and less content. Just grab Heroes of Might and Magic II or III off GOG instead. If you're gonna style yourself as a 'spiritual successor', try not to be a crappier version of your inspiration...

The long version: I tried to like this game, I really did! But, after hours of playing it, I was having to FORCE myself to keep going, and I couldn't really understand why. Then I watched a retrospective of the old HoMaM-games - specifically I to IV, the entries from before Ubisoft bought up the franchise, which is what Songs of Conquest was self-admittedly based on, and it all clicked. So, let's sort it into three quick categories...

PRESENTATION
Songs of Conquest utilizes a 'retro pixelart' style, which is an immediate point against it since that's the very essence of 'faux-nostalgia'. No games ever looked like that back then - back when those kinds of pixelated looks were common, they were also shown on CRT monitors and TV's, which softened the edges and just basically made it look much nicer. What you're imitating with this kind of 'art' is the experience of playing an old game on an emulator decades after the fact... and HoMaM isn't even one of those games, having always used hand-drawn sprites instead. Thus, while the visual representation compares favorably to King's Bounty - the 1990 predecessor of HoMaM, which was considered primitive for its era - it looks UGLIER than the beautiful, high-contrast, hand-drawn sprites of the ORIGINAL HoMaM, never mind the second or third entry. (Fourth, well, that's a matter of taste.) On top of that, the game also eschews the hand-drawn town vistas from HoMaM in favor of just letting you build stuff directly on the game map, removing one more opportunity to actually LOOK GOOD. And as for the music... well, I wouldn't normally blame someone for failing to live up to the legacy of Paul Romero, the LEGENDARY composer who created the soundtrack of the first four HoMaM games, the fact that this game is called SONGS of Conquest makes it feel like kind of a letdown that the music is just... kind of THERE. It's not BAD, it's just... fine, I guess? Hanging around in the background without making much of itself. Meanwhile, back in HoMaM III, you'd be listening to an opera-performance that made even the mundane act of building a tavern in one of your cities seem epic!

GAMEPLAY
Those who played all four of the original Heroes-titles will remember that the complexity of the game peaked with III, and dropped down a bit with IV. Granted, the behind-the-scenes headaches the company was suffering at the time might have contributed to this, but there's also a good game-design reason for it - complexity is a double-edged sword, and a fine line to walk at times. You need the game to be complex enough to be engaging, mentally stimulating, and challenging - but not so much that it starts feeling drawn-out or turns into a slog. Songs of Conquest is on the 'turns into a slog' side of that equation, easily, since it looked at HoMaM3's core gameplay-systems and went "Hold my beer while I overcomplicate the HECK outta this thing!" So now you've got variously-sized settlements with varying numbers of varyingly-sized building-slots, and five different mana-bars for your heroes, the rate of growth for which depends on your unit composition, and more skills, and more units for each faction! (The peak for Old HoMaM was 7 per faction. Songs of Conquest literally one-ups it with 8. It honestly feels DELIBERATE.) Is it too hard to figure out? Heck no! Is it FUN to keep track of all that? Also heck no! I'm usually all for complexity in games, but so many parts of this package feels complicated just for the SAKE of being complicated. This, then, is made even worse by the aforementioned lack of Paul Romero. Building up your cities and arranging your armies could be kind of a drag in the HoMaMs of old, too, but that music went a long way towards making that slog feel ENJOYABLE. Without that, you're just left with a steadily-growing list of tiresome logistical tasks to undertake each turn...

CONTENT
HoMaM1 - or, rather, 'Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest', as it was called before it became a series - had four factions to play as, and no proper campaign. Songs of Conquest compares favorably to that. Compare it to ANY of the other three, and it really, really doesn't. HoMaMII featured 6 factions and 2 lengthy campaigns (Good and Evil, each encompassing three of the six factions) with branching paths along the way. Songs of Conquest - in its base form - has four factions, each of whom have a short, 4-scenario campaign. But what about the DLC? Each adds a whole new faction! Aaaaaand that's about it. No campaign for them. You can play them in scenario- or challenge-mode, that's it. Even at its WORST, during the Ubisoft-days, HoMaM never added factions without giving them something to DO. These DLC campaigns weren't always very GOOD, and I suppose there's an argument to be made about whether bad content is actually better than no content, but these devs didn't even TRY.

So, yeah. You can get the classic HoMaM-games for a SONG, hah hah, and if you haven't played 'em in a couple of decades, they'll probably be more fun to revisit than this attempt to recreate the magic of those games without being able to draw, write, or compose...

idk much about this type of games but I liked it, the exploration is cool, I haven't experienced much combat but its fun so far, and the graphics overall are so damn cool.

Fun little game with a great art style. I think the price is pretty steep given that there are only 4 factions in the base game, but if you can catch it on sale it's well worth it.

It's ok, still needs some balancing work, the enemies seem to be asleep sometimes

Very nice graphics and riding some Heroes of Might and Magic nostalgia wave. But that's really all there is to it.

Yawn fest story, no castle view, dull units, dull spells that add little to some secondary stat that you don't even care about. If you haven't played HoMM before, or never played a TBS in the last 20 years, you might still enjoy this.

A very nice rediscovery of the heroes of might and magic formula, with true army building decisions and build order choices.

This game received a lot of praise from numerous sources so despite my misgivings I gave it a try. Unfortunately, this was one time where I should have listened to my nagging doubts. The game is not terrible. I am sure there is something here to enjoy for those fans seeking something similar to HOMM3 but in my opinion this game did not merit all the hype it received when it came out last year.

While I enjoy retro games, this is not a retro game so the graphics did not appeal to me, so much so that I found it hard on the eyes. The writing style was so bad that it alone was enough to put me off the game. The combat was strangely unbalanced. At one point I was face-rolling the AI then suddenly I was presented with an unwinnable battle...at least it was unwinnable manually. Just out of curiosity, I clicked auto revolve and won which demonstrated that there is no point in even doing the battles manually when the computer can hand you better results. I can not think of how I feel about the music which to me only highlights how unmemorable it is.

This is my first thumbs down review for a game as I tend to be very selective with the games I purchase and I always try to find the best in any game however I just could not play this one. As I said, the game is not terrible, but if you were to ask me if I would buy the game knowing what I know now? - the answer would have to be no. And for that reason, I have to give it a thumbs down. Everyone has their own preferences so hopefully you will find more to appreciate in this game than I could. I plan to give it another try one day but I am in no rush.

Songs of Conquest is a well done game that attempts to capture the feeling/vibe of the classic Heroes of Might and Magic 3. I need to stress, while this game goes for that feeling/vibe, Songs of Conquest is its own thing featuring interesting factions, an easy to understand difficult to master magic system, and its own unique way of town development.
Songs of Conquest has well done music; the pixel art is beautiful, allowing for me to quickly identify anything and everything at a glance, and multiple game modes including a story mode featuring 4 of the factions over 4 different campaigns and a challenge mode with difficult maps to push your gaming acumen. Speaking of factions each one feels well designed each with distinct play styles and character.
I enjoyed the magic system and town development, finding them enjoyable takes on both systems. However I can understand why some people might not enjoy them. The town development system forces you to pick and choose what you develop where, unlike HoMM 3 where you can build every building you need in a single settlement. In addition the magic system I found enjoyable allowing me to cast spells based on the units I brought to combat. Instead of just researching the best spells in the game. But again, some people may find it cumbersome and restricting.
Speaking of combat while enjoyable, for better or worse its does borrow heavily from Heroes of Might and Magic 3 for its combat system. This means if you are outnumbered you will most likely loose the combat. In some games using clever tactics and smart use of spells would allow you to win being outnumbered. In this game not so much. Because of how similar the system is to HoMM3 that means, first to act almost guarantees you are most likely going to win.
Over all Songs of Conquest is a very well done game for 35$. Invoking the spirit/vibes of the classic Heroes of Might and Magic 3, while still doing its own things and telling its own story. It does not replace HoMM 3, but for me it is a worthy successor and strongly encourage any one to give the game a try.

Fantastic, story telling is nice and fun. Designs are great and the hours just seem to disapear

Great successor to HOMM. Multiplayer vs AI or friends is the way to go.

It's as people say it's less in every way than heroes 3, Heroes 3 you had magic on the map, you could go on water with a boat, you had DOUBLE the amount of races. The units here feel just bland even tho they look amazing.

I finished 2 campaigns with 7 bots and its just boring fighting the computer. I enjoyed the initial exploring the most until you have to run around bots trying to get around your main army. Once yyou beat their main army tho it's pretty much over.

It just never clicked for me, it felt railroaded, basic, uninteresting and yet it is also a lot like HoMM. Maybe these kinds of games doesn't do it for me anymore? In the old games it felt like you had some agency, in this one you're just clicking on everything along your path and clicking end turn over and over when you run out of movement. To be honest, the "end turn" shouldn't be a thing anymore it just feels so slow and clunky. I didn't enjoy this game at all, but I also have a hard time telling you why

SOC offers a unique blend of intense team-based combat and strategic decision-making. With its focus on realistic military operations, you'll be tasked with completing complex missions, coordinating with your squad, and making quick decisions under pressure. The realistic gameplay and strategic depth will keep you hooked for hours, whether playing solo or with friends in multiplayer mode.

As a huge fan of Heroes of M&M this is a above average game in the genre. I like the art design and how they just didn't copy the HoMM's every aspect but there is a multiple game design problems in my opinion. Normally I'll say game is around 7-7.2/10 but since we rarely get a good game in the genre i give it a solid 7.5/10. Hope the developers make Songs of Conquest 2 without that design problems. (I know this feels like a negative review but believe me it's not xd)

Feels like Heroes of Might and Magic while having enough differences to be it's own thing.
Meaningful choices when building your town(s)
The magic system is super interesting where some creatures are weaker on the field but they give you more mana
Lots of cool creature design, both for gameplay and visually
The different factions feels pretty unique

Only complaints is it doesn't have a lot of factions in the base game (only 4), but there's already 1 new DLC out and more incoming.
Oh, also no simultaneous battles in multiplayer, but there's a fix for that coming soon

All in all, great work, Lavapotion

Great tribute to old HOMM games. I like the essence system, it is an interesting change from the classic economy of mana in every encounter, and actually compels us to use magic as much as possible. The art style and music are awesome.

Difficulty can ramp up sometimes during the campaign, but the overall balance is okay. Wish there was a "Very simple" difficulty to make the game even more accessible to people new to this style of game. Also, as someone who loves turtling in strategy games, I wish we could have an option to remove the cap on the number and sizes of buildings we can construct in a city; city building feels a bit restricted in general.

Despite those small gripes, there is a great game underneath. Highly recommended for a fresh take on HOMM.

A well-made Heroes of Might and Magic style game. This game is really a love letter to those games and sticks very closely to the formula, though it does have its innovations and differences. There are four factions, with more coming in DLC’s, that are all unique and seem balanced enough. I just played the campaign though so it’s hard to get a true sense of balance from that. The factions all have a good variety of units, and each one has kind of sub-factions as well. The typical human faction with knights, etc also has a fay offshoot for instance. There are enough troop types that you can play around with different strategies and unlike HOMM though, troops have a maximum stack size so you won’t be running around with 1000 skeletons. This forces you to make some real decisions and was a welcome change. The map plays out like other HOMM style games where you have towns to capture, resource generation nodes, sites that can give either permanent or temporary bonus, resource cache’s and other things. Town building is a bit different with small, medium and large build slots. Your highest tier units can only be built on large slots which are only available in larger settlements. Again, it makes for some tough decisions, especially on maps where large settlements are limited. It does allow for some flexibility too though. There is nothing from stopping you from building 2 or 3 of the same building and getting huge production on a certain troop type for instance. Combat itself plays out similarly to HOMM but it is hex based and has elevation. Beyond that, it has no wait mechanic (except for a special ability for a couple of units) and has a very different spell system. There is no traditional mana, and you get essence from troops and your leader only during combat. This means you will rarely be able to cast high tier spells early in the match, and your troop composition can have a large impact on what spells you can cast.

For positives, I will start with the pixel art. It is just great and is enhanced further by nice, detailed animations. It really stands out and really helps with the atmosphere. For the gameplay itself, really it is all very well made and is overall a fun experience. The limits on stack size and the town building are nice changes that really mixes things up. Other than the negatives I will spell out below, it really just excels in all areas overall. The campaign has a nice engaging story divided into four chapters, one for each faction. Exploration is fun and rewarding, combat is good, hero development is nice, etc. I should also mention the AI seems to be pretty good, at least at handling the campaign missions.

For negatives, there are just a handful of things, most of them minor with one exception. The biggest negative for me was the spell system. Although I have no issue with the no-mana / odd essence mechanic itself, I did have an issue with trying to figure out what spells I would be able to cast and when. I didn’t realize this until later in the game, but not all spells you have essence for will always be available to you. Like I have a spell available that give one of my units a double attack. I move to the next unit and that spell is gone for some reason, presumably replaced by a different spell? Except I was wanting to cast that spell. Cast the right spell and it might come back though. Even earlier in the battle when you have fewer spells available, I just never really knew what to expect for what spells I would have available. In the end, I really grew tired of the system and just wanted something I could plan around easier. Kind of important for a strategy title in my opinion. I’m sure with enough experience you can figure this out, but I don’t want to work that hard. The other bigger negative was the lack of a wait option in combat. This really limits your options. It doesn’t help that the initiative system is just weird. There are lots of cases where big fat enemies have high initiative and super-fast units have low initiative, which just feels weird. I presume this is related to the no wait mechanic and the designers trying to give fast units a chance to act after others have moved, but as combat gets messier, a low initiative can mean many loses. In my opinion, high initiative should just always be a good thing, which it is not in this game. The other issues are just some polish kinds of things. Like on the map, nodes that give permanent bonuses are usually marked as “Knowledge” sites. But sometimes a non-knowledge site will give you a permanent bonus. Also places you can and have visited don’t tell you what they do, so it’s hard to know if it’s worth going there until you have them all memorized (and there are lots of different types). Some places even give you negative effects (plus positive) so they may be somewhere you don’t want to go, but the game doesn’t tell you until you actually go there. Makes planning hard. And the last item is the campaign missions. There are way to many of them that are just too “puzzley”. You have no way of knowing how to make good decisions until you actually play through the map and see where things are, what events happen, etc making you need to restart. Not the best design, but it’s not like other HOMM games haven’t had this problem as well.

Overall, a game that HOMM fans will likely enjoy, at least in the short term. Long term, I didn’t really play it enough to speak on as I am mainly here for the campaign. My best guess, with the amount I played, id that it is not quite in the same league as HOMM 3 and 5 but still scratches that itch and is different enough to feel like a fresh experience so is a worthwhile purchase.

PLEASE NOTE, even though I have left comments on, I am not interested in you telling me that I should put 4000 hours into a game I don't enjoy so I can "git gud", and then I would like it. That is a stupid argument. Don't be stupid. Skill is not indicative of enjoyment, and I have better things to do than bash my head on what I personally feel are bad / mediocre games on the off chance I could maybe like them one day. I have a life and don't play games in order to develop Stockholm syndrome.

I played in 4k on a 4080 & AMD 7800X3D processor with all current drivers and patches manually installed on Windows 11 x64. All options were set to their highest level.

I will update this review if I continue to play and have more to add and will leave comments on.

PROS:
- Achievements.
- A well-meaning and earnest developer who deserves support.
- Music and audio design is solid throughout.
- It's technically fine. There were no crashes, it ran well, and the the sprite work looks aesthetically quite nice.
- The factions are designed well and the town conversion mechanic is a welcome addition.

CONS:
- It just wasn't fun. The mechanics are functional at best, but many of the changes seem to be made to differentiate the game from the HoMM series, not because they were better, but because they were different. Things didn't feel like they came together in any cohesive way and most things were just one or two degrees too clunky to ever really click.
- The towns are a pain to manage. You won't realise that upgrades have dependencies until you've already built yourself into a corner, and then you have to slowly destroy and rebuild. The towns need their own screens and upgrades need to be better signposted.
- Items need to have something else to do with spares as, by the end of a map, my inventory was absolutely jammed with trash. You can sell them, but only if you find a specific map tile, and by the time you do, you don't need the gold that selling provides thus making them useless. Maybe an upgrade mechanic would help?
- This game needs a different art style badly and everything blends together. WAY too many things in the game got lost in the sprite art. Sometimes I wouldn't be able to work out where a town was visually or would completely miss items because it was all one big chunky pixely mess. You really had to focus to see what belonged to who if your colours were even close to similar as well; I had to look at the mini map more than the main screen to figure out flagged ownership in some missions.
- The map goals are sometimes not at all signposted to the player. I had to actively look at YouTube videos for how to proceed multiple times because if you miss something in a dialogue or come back later on to finish a map, you have no idea what to do, nor is it indicated anywhere.
- Hunting down the last few heroes at the end of a map was always a slog.
- The tooltips on map items are seemingly only filled out half the time. You'd accidentally collect something and it would de-power you because you forgot what a visit would do, and the game simply refuses to tell you for no particular reason until it's too late. This is especially silly in a strategy game with dozens of spots of power; just make the tooltips work!
- The mouse controls are awful. Your main action is on the right-click for some reason, thus completely reversing every intuitive interface since the mouse was invented. Left-click is action, right click is info. Period.
- Even after beating the game I'm still not sure why some things in combat were the way they were. Some units that look like they should shoot just don't, and some units simply sucked at everything I tried to do with them. About halfway through the game I got tired of it and just auto-resolved my way through everything. Again, better visual differentiation is needed.

DID YOU FINISH THE GAME?:
Yes. I really had to force myself to do so though.

CONCLUSION:
The more I played it, the less I enjoyed it. It never settles into a comfortable rhythm as all the systems seemingly fight each other from the controls, goals, and especially the visuals. I would try a sequel if they fixed issues, but I'm not purchasing any more DLC for this game as it's pretty much a write-off.

I really wanted to like this game, but there's too many shortcomings for me to recommend it in confidence. It's hard to explain the game play because there hasn't been many games with this design in recent years but I will try to explain it for someone new to this genre. Each mission you will have your main hero and maybe one or two extra heroes that will lead various troops in an open 2D RPG style world. You will start out each mission exploring the world and then finding settlements to recruit for your cause which will help you to fight other heroes.

Let me first explain what this game does well, the character designs in this game are so fun. Every hero, every unit type, every enemy, has some unique design to them that peaks your interest through out the missions. The 2D design in this game is well done, it really feels like you are playing a tabletop board game and I mean that in a good way. The music is original and catchy(it's called songs of conquest so of course it's good). Finally the dialogue and overall writing is pretty decent for a strategy game, there's different dialects and accents for different characters, it's well thought out.

Now into what I didn't like and why I wouldn't recommend to most folks. Many of the negative reviews have a hard time conveying their issue with the game. While I was reading them after playing, I totally understand where they are coming from, its hard to fully explain why it just doesn't feel "right." Remember how I said that each mission is pretty open ended and you have to explore the world? Well the game mostly preset's paths for the heroes to walk through so its not truly open world and every mission is just littered with loot and garbage to click on everywhere. In the first mission, everything is new and exciting so you don't realize it, but after awhile you realize they are just recycling the same content over and over. The heroes use different items like armor and weapons, just like in a normal RPG and you can find these throughout the game world. But the game rarely gives you any weapons or armor and when it does, its likely not going to be better than what you already have so you always feel like the game is wasting your time. You can spend entire missions clicking around the whole map looking through garbage loot just to get nothing at the end, 3 hours wasted with little progress for your character. Sure the game will give you Gold and resources and tiny buffs, but these all reset between missions so it doesn't even matter, ultimately the exploration will start to feel like a chore.

This illusion of progress is so dumb, at first you will be having a good time because there's so much loot all over the screen and all this stuff is happening. Over time you start to realize the game isn't actually open world, I'm not actually looting anything new and all the decisions and strategic elements have already been decided. So as the player you aren't playing a game, if anything the game is playing YOU.

I think it's the illusion of an open world with tons of garbage loot and fake strategic decisions that ultimately makes the game feel wrong. Any seasoned strategy player will eventually know they are being duped, they just can't put their finger on how they are being duped, because the game play is packaged with so much graphical polish. The game is so "in your face" that you don't really stop to think if your decisions as the player actually matter.

I can't recommend this game to anyone except maybe someone who likes 2D game design and has a deep appreciation for pixel art. But to anyone looking for a great strategy game where you have the flexibility and freedom to make major decisions as the player, it might take a minute of playing before you realize it, but I bet you will started to feel a bit conned towards the later missions.

Heroes are boring, magic is boring, units are boring. Items are REALLY boring.

The game is a lot of fun! Reminds me of one of my most favorite games of all time Heroes of Might and Magic 3- and this adds quite a few quality of life issues like a Rally Point so I don't need to mule troops through the relay system like that game did. Good Job-Lavapotion!!!

I'd give this like a 6.5/10 while fun the campaigns are WAY to short and from what I have seen the dlc just doesn't seem worth anywhere near that price. Like NO campaign?!? No new spells? It just seems like they don't really know where they want to go with this.

Had bought it in early access a few years back and tried it for a short period for then to leave it to get to a finished product. Recently started playing it again and I am really enjoying it! Great HOMM like game with its own things here and there. The only thing I still dont like that when playing a Campaign on Normal difficulty the AI kills you within a few turns which is very unreasonable I find.

If you want a rad Heroes of Might & Magic inspired tactics game, look no further than Songs of Conquest, which lets you roleplay as a Battletoad riding a Chocobo.

Ludicrous amount of multiplayer bugs. Would have to reload at least once an hour. The synchronous until players found style of multiplayer was also incredibly frustrating for us. We would love to turn this off. I understand it makes the game about APM to a degree, but none of us care. It should be up to the player(s). It really slowed the game down to a crashing halt by the time we got towards eachother, especially since you can only fight one player at a time. I really wanted to recommend this game because there was a lot of great things about it-- but it has been out for awhile and with all of the bugs we really just got the feeling the devs are unaware of these issues.

Big recommendation.

Amazing magic mechanics, no longer prevents you from actually using it every battle not being afraid of mana loss like in HOMM series. Plus it really shines when you start to compose your army based on the magic you are most efficient with.
Campaign tells simple but engaging stories, I loved the total dynamic of it, especially Rana (go TMNT!).

This game hits me right in the nostalgia—a perfect blend of Heroes of Might and Magic vibes with fresh mechanics. The pixel-art is gorgeous, the soundtrack is enchanting, and the turn-based combat is deep and rewarding. Managing your kingdom, wielders, and resources feels both classic and modern.

🔥 9/10 – Nostalgia done right!

If you are looking for a replacement for Heroes of Might and Magic III, this title should interest you.

On the one hand, you can feel the nostalgic memory of HoM&M, on the other - the addition of new elements, such as the magic/essence system, keeps the game fresh and original.

Despite the small number of races and the relatively short campaign, I recommend it.