Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9494 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Koei
• Released on: 2008-02-15
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: Xbox 360

Manufacturer's Description
Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War puts gamers in the role of a rogue commander and gives them direct control of mercenary units in fierce clashes with English and French forces. The game’s unique style of action thrusts players into dynamic and ever-changing conflicts. Players must adjust their strategies as skirmishes evolve, and then deploy the unit best-suited to handle the challenge. At a player’s command is a broad array of troops including infantry, archers, and cavalry, as well as a variety of specialized units such as elephant units, cannoniers, and castle siege specialists. While each unit is comprised of autonomous soldiers, each warrior will contribute to the assigned objective.

Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War utilizes a “Free Mission” system that allows players to align their forces with either the French or English on a battle-by-battle basis. This unparalleled freedom allows players to take on different assignments, or simply experience a given battle from an opposing side.

Game progression is wholly dependent on a player’s decisions and accomplishments on the battlefield. Players must establish a reputation as a dependable and capable leader by successfully completing each mission. The reputable commander will attract more desirable troops to his employ, and will be asked to take on weightier challenges that reflect his status as a fighter and leader of men. The troops themselves will also become more lethal as they gain combat experience. Through a point system, players can augment their units’ combat capabilities.

Customer Reviews

Review from demo only
This game is made by the company known as koei famous for their dynasty warriors,samurai warriors and kessen series. the game takes place in the hundred year war between england and france. the main aim of the game is to create your character and be a mercenary for either france or england but you can alternate each team and choose which ever side you want to be on hence you being a mercenary and each time you complete a mission you gain money to spend on armour, weapons and troops for which ever mission comes your way.

Gameplay-
the gameplay is completly different from other koei games if anything i would say the game is a mix between kingdom under fire and kessen but the unlike those games this game has the simplicity to make it feel more fun and involving. the way it works is you start as yourself on your own on the battlefield and youll see troops of different units such as swordsmen,bowmen and cavalry and by walking up to them and pressing the A button you can take control of that paticular unit use their abilities as you see fit and if you are loseing a fight you can abandon them if you want and take control of another unit and keep on fighting until you have fulfilled your contract such as taking over bases with a certain amount of days. but really its the simplicity of how the controls work that makes the game fun.


Sound-
the voices are average they dont sound bad at all its just they dont sound good really either so you might like you might not hopefully theyll include a japanese voice cast for the original when its released. to be honest music wise i cant remember which isnt a bad thing cause if there was music and i didnt notice it was there it cant of been that bad. the sound effects for weapons and what not are id say better than avarage cause when a battle takes place the sound effects combine together to make it sound like a war is actually taking place which sounds good

graphics-
the graphics of the game is id say on a scale out of 10 id say 8.5 cause the graphics of the people and the battles close up are amazing the truly show how good next gen graphics can be but when something (buildings ,people,etc) are far away they look quite average.


Conclusion-
id say if you are looking for another hack and slash games like dynasty warriors your looking in the wrong place( id reccomend either samurai warriors 2 empires or orochi warriors) but if you want a game where you want a simplified strategy game where you dont control any army but still control your own unit of troops for the sake of money and fame id say this is a must buy for you.

Enjoyable and oddly challenging
I just got the game today, a few hours ago, and in just the few hours I've played it, I think I've got enough to review the game.

Bladestorm is set in the Hundred Year War between France and England, the era was really three wars and two eras of short lived peace and instigated by a claim on the throne of France by English nobles of the time. I would recommend looking up the history to get the full story, it's quite interesting.
Anyway Bladestorm is a mix of Kessen and Dynasty Warriors, it has the slamming into large armies angle of DW while having the troop and tactical concepts of Kessen.

You play as a mercerary for hire and after creating your character, the character creation options are sadly limited to just face, gender and voice - For shame, more could have been done in that area, you then go into battle after accepting a contract from whatever force you wish to fight for.
You can fight for either force depending on what contract you accept, you then command a number of troops and do your best to fulfil the contract. Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? It is, of sorts.

The battle system is different in Bladestorm, you select the attack you'll do, depending on what style of troops you have, each type has different attacks, and if you personally want to get right into the fight, you hold down the right bumper, on the 360 pad, and I think it's the R1 button on the PS3 pad, and you fight for your life.
The sound is nice, nothing special, but functional. The controls are fluid enough, you could be forgiven for yelling out "CHARGE!" as you charge your opponent.

There's not many options in the game, just the general story mode and a few game options for sound, visual and so on. Seems a bit lacking, but oh well, maybe a sequel in another era might remedy that.
The voice acting is as bad as ever, I don't know who the developers of the DW/Kessen/Bladestorm games hire for voice acting, but they really need to get people who can actually put some feeling into their characters and can actually sound right.
There are unlockables, they are unlocked as you progress and improve. Mostly improvements to your fighting, troops and so on.

Bladestorm is a slightly different approach for the usual from Koei and their development teams, while it feels and looks the same, it plays in a new way. The new battle system takes some practice, but after a while it becomes second nature. The era the game is set in is a nice change and every bit as interesting as the Three Kingons and The Clan Wars eras.
The graphics are pretty nice, quite fluid as well, almost forgot to mention that.

If you're looking for something to enjoy, then you can't go far wrong with Bladestorm. Don't expect it to be incredible, just have fun as you play it. So it doesn't have guns and explosions, so what? Not every game needs to be a mindless FPS to be worth while, so give it a try. You might like it, you might not, you won't know till you try.
Now, it's battle time. CHARGE!

koei finally comes up with something new!
koei makes the samurai warrior and dynasty warrior games which are known as button bashers with masses on units on screen at once.

Now though there switching continents to europe during the time of the hundred years war.

Whats new, well they've ditched the button bashing gameplay for a more tactical type of fighting where timing and controlling your units are required to rack up them kills.

The new type is quite good and after a while using it i was smashing my way through hundreds of units, like previous koei games it also has rpg elements and sprawling battle fields with many towns/forts/castles about the landscape it also has a storyline to follow though the outcome is entirely down to the player.

As the games begins like any other rpg you create a mercenary type character and are offered various ways of making money and building up your character, you do this primarily by undertaking missions for either the french or the english forces (each has its own storyline) namely capturing fortified bases (towns/castles) and fighting battles.

Battles consist of fighting other units though unlike the previous koei games this time you can control units of soldiers (sword guys/cavalry/archers) each have their own strengths and weaknesses and as your character gets better so does your control over these units.

The A.I. in this game is also good even the early battles can become hard fought with you trying to capture towns while the opposing force is also doing the same makeing you either push for victory or retreating to defend your closest base.

Overall i really liked this game a lot its probaly the only type of its kind on the 360 the graphics are good and the gameplay i feel is also good with good replay value.

I give it 5 out of 5