Description
That's Bananas!
"Banana" is love. "Banana" is life. "Banana Kingdom" is way more game than we probably deserve at the modest asking price of $4. And "Banana Kingdom" was released back in August by Midori Games, a small dev group with a simple dream of making a strategy game that gave them the same joy as the games they grew up with. Take the visual elements and fantasy themes of the early "Final Fantasy" games, the gameplay of "SD Gundam" and "Advance Wars", add some twists to the formula with more maps and extra features than you can chuck a banana at, put some chill music in and you have this game. I haven't had this much fun with my fruits and veggies since "Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom" (it's an odd game as well)!
Once upon a time, there grew a golden banana tree said to grant any wish. Foolish people sought the golden bananas, raising armies and waging war for them... or so goes the story of the board game the travelers enjoyed deep into the night. And they all lived happily ever after... so the plot is framed from the perspective of would-be travelers or "players" diving into this banana-filled war simulation. There's a little bit of additional plot sprinkled throughout the game's Campaign Mode about the Red Pepper Empire, Blueberry Kingdom and more neutral factions who don't wish to see bananas get exploited (because that would be a waste of some good ol' potassium), but the goal of the game is to win battles and look good while doing it.
In the main campaign, there are 15 standard scenarios to complete as well as "Side Trips" which can make the game a little easier if you complete them (but there are achievements locked behind not doing them). Beyond that, there are OVER 1000 free maps between training, normal and challenge stages, and you even have a map editor if those, for whatever reason, aren't enough. The main way to win is pretty simple, mainly consisting of defeating all enemies of every opposing alliance, capturing an opponent's fort, and / or capturing the "Golden Banana" space on maps that warrant it. There's no gear and while characters can level up by surviving skirmishes, levels reset upon stages (although you can get leveled-up mercenaries for hire in the campaign) so the bulk of leveling is situational and based on your strategy. There's no big numbers to chase and the usual deterrents or variables like terrain and projected type advantage are here.
That said, there's plenty of little details to keep things interesting. There are almost two dozen unit types that serve a wide variety of purposes such as Scouts who can easily get through terrain like mountains and forests, Hunters who can target enemies from 2-3 spaces (and deal 1.5 damage to airborne foes), Mages who can attack from 3-4 spaces, Banners who excel at "capturing", Knights who are strong and can evolve into a Calvary when using certain facilities, Angels who are powerful and ignore all terrain (but cannot capture on their own), and many more. All units costs money to hire and "capturing" is a stat that allows a unit to occupy an enemy territory or neutral zone. Naturally, units with a higher capture rating have an easier time occupying a zone and each unit can have up to four allies, so if a village has a capture rating of "100", a mage has a capture rating of "15" and there are four mages in a unit, their overall capture strength is "60" and they can overtake a village in two turns. Ideally, you want a team with a capture rating of at least 50-100 to quickly gain territories. Capturing areas is crucial to your overall tactics as they have a variety of benefits such as healing, adding additional allies, upgrading units, and an assortment of other uses including increasing your overall "capital".
Capital determines how much revenue you will accrue each turn and it is not an exaggeration to say that the side with low capital is bound to lose in the long term, so make sure to hold your ground or find a quick path to victory. When in battle, all allies will launch the initial attack and then each one will follow suit for an individual attack, so gaining the first attack is to your benefit, and a unit with a missing ally or two will be substantially weaker as a result. There is an in-game guide to help gauge this with a filled triangle being advantageous and an "X" being a total mismatch and "Commander Skills" also turn the tide. The visuals are decidedly 8-Bit with some anime influences in the larger character portraits and there's a good variety of music too (you can unlock more by using coins earned from playing). It's got a few minor kinks to iron out, but it's well worth the $4 bucks. This is a video of the game in action. You can get it at:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4951260/Banana_Kingdom/
PROTIP: If you wanna earn coins quick to unlock stuff, play a training map and give yourself the advantage. You get 50 Coins each time.
Enjoy.
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