Ranking the top 101 Nintendo games: No. 66, Pokémon Conquest
Pokémon went medieval with a Nobunaga's Ambition crossover title, where the gotta catch 'em all refers to the kingdoms of "Japan" instead of pocket monsters.
I’m ranking the top 101 Nintendo developed/published games of all-time, and you can read about the thought process behind game eligibility and list construction here. You can keep up with the rankings so far through this link.
Pokémon, as one of Nintendo’s most successful and persistent franchises, has appeared in a number of genres over the years. Where first there was the on-rails “shooter” Pokémon Snap, there would inevitably be “Mystery Dungeon” titles with turn-based battles in randomly-generated dungeons, a variety of puzzle games, a brawler, stadium battle games, a fighting game in the style of Tekken, and even a detective adventure starring Pikachu. None of these elicits more of a “wait, what?” than the 2012 spin-off, Pokémon Conquest.
The Nintendo DS game, developed by what was then known as Tecmo Koei, is a crossover with their long-running Nobunaga’s Ambition franchise. Nobunaga’s Ambition has been around so long that the remake of the very first game in the series, developed 12 years after the initial release, still pre-dates the entire Pokémon franchise. The Ambition games are turn-based, grand strategy wargames, where the end goal is the unification of 16th century Japan — the ambition of Nobunaga, as it were. Oda Nobunaga is a real historical figure, which makes seeing him drawn, fully armored, in the art style of Pokémon’s humans alongside an electric dragon like Zekrom, kind of a trip.
While Pokémon Conquest doesn’t get into the level of kingdom management that the main series Nobunaga’s Ambition games do — you will not be determining the market price of rice here, nor giving it away to raise the morale of your populace — there is still turn-based strategy and a level of preparation that both differ from what you’d experience in a standard Pokémon outing. Your goal is still similar to what it would be in a Nobunaga’s Ambition title: you’re seeking to unify the nation of Ransei, the stand-in for Japan, by bringing all 17 of its kingdoms under your control. Domination isn’t your goal here, but peace. And not in the way a comic book villain says they’re starting the war to end all wars or whatever when what they really want is to rule everyone still around after the slaughter/genocide.
No, the reason your particular warlord is seeking to unite the kingdoms is to keep Nobunaga or anyone else from doing the same but with ill intent, as the rumor is that the one who manages to bring all of the kingdoms of Ransei under their control will have an encounter with the legendary Pokémon, Arceus, that created the region. This legend is what caused the constant fighting between the kingdoms of Ransei in the first place, so if you actually manage to succeed in your goal, peace can return to the region, and no one will be able to use the powers of Arceus for evil. Like, say, Nobunaga, whose own sister Oichi (a warlord who fights alongside you) believes her brother plans to destroy Ransei using the same power that created the region in the first place.
So there’s your background — a Pokémon story like no other — but how does it play? Your warlords, of which you will accumulate many, can bring one Pokèmon into battle at a time, but they are able to have four of them in total assigned. The Pokémon in battle have just one move at their disposal, meant to be representative of their type. Your player character has an Eevee, a Normal-type Pokémon with the Normal-type move Quick Attack. (Eventually, you can evolve Eevee into one of a number of type options, but you’ll have to conquer quite a few kingdoms before that change.)
The Pokémon aren’t just limited to the one move, though. Many of them also have a special Warrior ability they can use once per battle — Eevee can significantly raise its attack power and range for one turn, for instance, while Oichi’s Jigglypuff can heal all of the Pokémon on your team at once regardless of how far away they are. This Warrior ability is also where equipped items can be used, be they for healing, status, or evolution.
Your entire team gets to take their turn on these tactical RPG maps, and then your opponent takes their turn. Type match-ups matter here, and they matter a lot, since there is a world of difference between a six vs. six battle of Pokémon and you gaining a six-to-three advantage because you played type match-ups well, or finding yourself surrounded with those numbers and advantages reversed because you played as if any old strong Pokémon would do. Sometimes, your goal is to defeat the rest of the warlords before you run out of turns to do so. Sometimes, it’s something else, like capturing (and hold) the flag(s).
You can use up to six warlords in a battle: to conquer a kingdom, you must have your player character and Oichi as two of the six warlords, but that’s not the case for the side battles you can do, where your goal is more to recruit other warlords, form links with other Pokémon, and gain this game’s form of experience, which is strengthening the link between warlord and Pokèmon.
You strengthen these links the same way you would gain experience: by using the Pokémon in battle and defeating other Pokémon. Links max out at 100 percent, and along the way, an increase in link strength means more hit points, more powerful versions of the Pokémon’s move, and eventually, the evolution of the Pokémon. There are items and certain conditions to evolve some Pokémon, of course, given this is still a Pokémon game, but sometimes, strengthening a link is enough.
You form a link to bring a Pokémon into your warlord’s retinue by choosing to link rather than fight on the battlefield, and then you play a timing-based mini game for a round or two until you’ve managed to strengthen the link to the point where the wild Pokémon will join you. You recruit additional warlords by impressing them in battle: defeat them fast enough, and they’ll see the value in joining up with you and your mission rather than standing in its way. You’ll need a mix of both to be able to build out the diverse teams required to take on each kingdom of Ransei.
The game doesn’t just wait around for you to build up your teams in both quantity and quality, though. The gameplay segments are broken up into months, and each warlord that performs an action in a given month is done until the next month. So, if you choose to go into battle, be it against another kingdom or inside of one you control, every warlord you brought with you for that battle is finished with their turn until the next month. This goes for all of your possible actions, so you need to plan and choose wisely, and make sure you’re also keeping a defensive perimeter at the outskirts of your kingdom.
That’s because the opposing kingdoms can invade you, just like you can invade them, and if you don’t have the properly balanced team of warlords and Pokémon protecting a border kingdom, it can be a real problem. However, you also want to make sure your warlords are also spread throughout your kingdom for the purposes of diversifying the kinds of Pokémon and warlords you can catch, though, so there’s a balance to strike there, too. It’s not quite Pokémon and not quite Nobunaga’s Ambition, but that’s the idea, isn’t it? Something with some familiar trappings for fans of the respective series that manages to create something new in the process.
Luckily, you can delegate the tasks in your various kingdoms to warlords assigned there, so you don’t have to have every battle yourself or mine for resources each month or what have you if you don’t want to. It’ll happen automatically, with your coffers filling or the link between warlord and Pokémon strengthening, while you just focus, primarily, on what your conquering heroes are up to each month. If you need total control over every action of your warlords, you can have it. If that sounds like a chore, delegate. It’s a good system you can find whatever kind of balance you need in.
You can finish the main story of Pokémon Conquest in around 15 hours, give or take a few hours, depending on your style of play. There is so much more to do, as there often is in a Pokémon game, after the initial story is finished, though. The most significant of those are the few dozen “special episodes” that unlock following the completion of the main game.
These episodes feature more difficult opponents, and are based around the other primary warlords whose kingdoms you conquered in the main game. You’re tasked with goals for completion other than just “unite all of Ransei,” and upon completion of these episodes, you unlock what is basically new game plus, but with all of the added content and difficulty of the bonus episodes. So, if you find you can’t get enough Pokémon Conquest from the main campaign, you can keep at it, collecting and strengthening your warlords and Pokémon, and then eventually playing a more difficult version of the game. If you’re satisfied with just the one 15-hour experience, that’s there for you, too!
Revisiting this game was highly enjoyable. It was a weird idea for a crossover back when it was announced and launched the better part of a decade ago, and it remains just as weird now, even after a number of “Dynasty Warriors, but make it Nintendo” projects have been developed alongside Koei Tecmo. Like with the mainline Pokémon games, there is a level of depth here that isn’t immediately apparently under the cuddly exterior that a game leading off with Eevee and Jiggylpuff would lead you to imagine exists. There is real strategy in the battles, though, especially as the number of types you encounter and the strength of the warlords you face increase, and balancing your defense with your offense and the growth of your forces is a lot of fun.
Is this the best Pokémon game you’ll ever play? It is not! Is it the best tactical game you’ll ever play? Unlikely! Did combining the world of Pokémon with the unification of “Japan” make for a game that’s absolutely worth your time? I’m pretty sure you know the answer to that, since you’re reading about it in the context of the best games Nintendo is responsible for.
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