Spinoff Spotlight: Pokémon Conquest
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Art by Zephyri.
Introduction
With Pokémon's extensive list of spinoff games, including major successes like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, it's no surprise that a few have slipped through the cracks. Pokémon Conquest is one such game, as, despite overall positive reviews, the game only sold just over one million copies worldwide. Although it serves as one of the series' few crossovers, this title often goes forgotten due to releasing at nearly the same time as Pokémon Black and White 2. Pairing the iconic pocket monsters with Koei Tecmo's turn-based RPG series Nobunaga's Ambition, the game offers an experience far different from any other Pokémon game prior or since.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Pokémon Conquest discards the usual one versus one or two versus two combat of mainstream Pokémon games in favor of a Fire Emblem-esque grid-based combat system in which you move your whole team of up to six Pokémon in a single turn, focusing on positioning and anticipating the moves of the opposing army. Each of your Pokémon has one move with a set range, making it important to consider both your opponent's positioning and your own so you don't hit your own allies. At its core, it functions as a basic strategy game, and the mechanics aren't very deep apart from remembering the normal Pokémon type matchups. It's not a difficult game in general, though there is a fairly sudden and steep climb in difficulty once you make it to the end, where you find yourself facing extremely powerful foes with fully evolved and legendary Pokémon.
One of the downfalls of the gameplay comes with the amount of grinding it takes to evolve your Pokémon and Warlords. Pokémon levels are replaced with the link system, in which the Warlords and Warriors in your army have a link percentage that can go up to 100%. Every person has a Perfect Link, which is the only Pokémon or Pokémon family they can link with that can reach their maximum potential of 100% link; this results in a completionist's nightmare when attempting to link 200 different characters with at least one or, in the case of many Warlords, multiple Perfect Links, as some of which can only be found through upgrading the areas where you can find wild Pokémon or through special swarm encounters that happen at random, and most of which are not explicitly given to you, but you instead are told what type a Warrior is inclined towards and have to either use trial and error or the internet to find out the link exactly. Additionally, Pokémon evolution can occur at a certain link percentage or when holding an elemental stone, but most commonly occurs when one of the Pokémon's stats reaches a certain value, which often means several in-game months of grinding to raise your link.
Warlords themselves can also undergo evolutions, granting them a new costume, ability, and additional Perfect Links, as well as increased stats. These evolutions are triggered by increasing the link with their Perfect Link and can be anywhere from a 55% link, which can reasonably be reached by the end of a bigger campaign, to a staggering 80% link, which can take years of in-game time to reach. As you go through the months and years, however, wild Pokémon will have a higher link percentage to start off with, so you don't have to put in the same amount of work with a character you recruited in year five that you would with one you met in year one. Evolutions are also triggered after any action is performed at the required link percent, so you can forgo a whole battle in favor of a quick trip to the ponigiri shop or gold mine and save yourself some time.
Characters and Story
The story of Pokémon Conquest isn't an extremely deep one, especially compared to the main series Generation 5 games it was released between. You play as the new Warlord of Aurora, the Normal-type kingdom seated in the southwest part of the Ransei region. Your goal is to unite all seventeen kingdoms in Ransei in order to meet the legendary Pokémon that is said to appear when one is able to do so. Unfortunately, Nobunaga, Warlord of the northeastern Dragon-type kingdom also seeks to conquer all seventeen kingdoms so he can destroy Ransei. It's a simple plot, with no exploration into the nature of linking with Pokémon or how Pokémon battles came to be, just a march from one corner of the map to the other.
One of the places where Pokémon Conquest shines is in its characters. Nearly every Warlord is based on someone from Japanese history, something unique to this entry. The main antagonist is based on Oda Nobunaga, the first "Great Unifier" of Japan, and many Warlords in his army are based on real samurais who served under him. Additionally, post-game campaigns give nods to the historical origins of the characters, such as one that sees Mitsuhide, the Ice-type Warlord, decide that he no longer wishes to serve Nobunaga, inspired by the real-life betrayal and assassination of Oda Nobunaga by Akechi Mitsuhide.
Kingdoms
There are seventeen kingdoms in the Ransei region, each based on one of the Pokémon types. There are two basic types of battlefields a kingdom can have: one in which you defeat all of your opponents and one in which you must capture banners before your opponent. Every kingdom has its own unique gimmick, though some are more forgiving than others. On one hand, there are kingdoms such as Puglis or Viperia, which encourage you to be aware of your surroundings and strategically position your units to avoid being pushed away from a needed flag or sat in a puddle of poison. On the other hand, there are kingdoms like Illusio, which relies on RNG to determine if you'll be able get to the flag that allows you to win the battle, and Spectra, in which randomly moving statues and fire that puts status ailments on your Pokémon serve to hinder you and drag the battle out.
Post-Game
The bulk of Pokémon Conquest's content is found in the post-game, where you can unlock 37 new campaigns that allow you to play as the various Warlords and other side characters you meet along the way. It's within these campaigns that you're able to unlock and link with the handful of legendaries included in the game and where most of the grinding and evolving mentioned previously will take place thanks to the amount of content that is sure to keep you busy for many, many hours. Unfortunately, these campaigns can get repetitive, as many of them mirror the main story and have you conquering a piece or all of Ransei once again. On the bright side, once a Pokémon is linked or a Warlord evolved, if you recruit them into your army in future campaigns, they'll retain the Pokémon and form from when you last had them, so it's a one time grind, and once you've gathered some legendaries and fully evolved Pokémon into your army, subsequent campaigns become much easier.
Conclusion
Pokémon Conquest is a hidden gem among the many Pokémon titles that have been released over the years. While it isn't perfect, it's a unique entry that offers an interesting twist on the traditional mechanics of mainline Pokémon games. It's a great choice for Pokémon players looking for something new or for fans of tactical RPGs like Fire Emblem who aren't as keen on the style of the core Pokémon games.
Even though the game is nine years old at the time of writing, recent releases like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX and New Pokémon Snap, as well as the continued release of Nobunaga's Ambition games, including Nobunaga's Ambition: Taishi for the Nintendo Switch give hope that Pokémon Conquest may one day be given a remake or sequel so that more players may experience the magic of Ransei.
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