I pretty much have only enjoyed Fire Emblem and FE: Sacred Stones on handhelds. My favorite genres are Turn Based Strategy and PC Style RPGs. I picked up a DS Lite to play this game and Age of Empires: Age of Kings.
I have no feelings good or ill towards the Prince of Persia franchise. I played Sands of Time and didnt like it, puzzly type platformers just are not my thing.
So franchise/backstory aside, what is this game? Its a tactical wargame with card collecting/combat mechanic thrown in. I havent played another game like it.
The tactical combat mechanics are great. There are two basic rock-paper-scissor 'triangle' mechanics. Pikes>Swords>Missle weapons and Large>Medium>Small unit size. The game models morale, zones of control and facing as well which is rare these days.
Bolstering the tactical mechanic are the cards. Turns are broken down into hours. Your units generally can take one action per hour, though they can defend more than once. The players take turns playing cards until they have no more playable cards or no units to move. Depending on the card played, a player can either move 2-5 units on the battlefield or take special actions like conferring bonuses/penalties to units, tapping enemies, dealin direct damage foes, etc. When both players pass a turn consecutively, the game moves to the next hour where each player refills his hand with draws from his deck and all units are ready again.
The graphics are a weak point. The touch screen display is functional and works well. Units are represented by counters and that helps reduce clutter on a crowded battlefield. The top screen features the combat animations and they are lackluster. Honestly, less compelling than the GBA Fire Emblem games which is sad considering this is a DS game. The card 'graphics' are also sub par. Part of the allure of CCGs is the look of each card. The card art here is poor.
The control system takes getting used to. The Stylus is mandatory for scrolling the map and moving units. Examining unit/terrain data is tedious.
The final weakness is deck management for your cards. Cards are an important part of the game and more work should have gone into making sure that building decks was an intuitive, brisk process. As it stands, its tedious, especially when you are new to the game, to tweak your decks.
Bottomline: If you enjoy tactical combat and you own a DS, you must at the very least try this game.
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