Customer Reviews

Dai Senryaku Exceed 7: Modern Military Tactics

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I know that the title of this review is a bit grandiose but it's true. I'm a strategy game fanatic and I play all of them including Japanese titles so I know of what I speak. In Dai Senryaku VII Exceed's case we've got a very satisfying game all-in-all. Let's start with a description of what you'll get in the box.

Dai Senryaku VII Exceed is a modern era military, turn-based strategy game played on a hexagonal grid of varying terrain. A collection of units--referred to as an Army--from each country participating in the battle are arranged on this grid in a strategic manner. Each unit has strengths and weaknesses particular to its type. Utilizing the strengths of your army while exploiting weaknesses in the enemy until you satisfy victory conditions is the core of the gameplay in Daisenryaku VII. In this case think "Chess" only on a grand scale with modern day military hardware. Players of Advance Wars for the Gameboy Advance and DS will be at home here.

Each country participating in a battle takes its turn by moving and taking action with some, all, or none of its units. Actions in Daisenryaku consist of resupply, moving, attacking, bombarding facilities, combining units, producing and placing units, loading units onto transports, and capturing facilities.

The following countries are playable: Japan, America, Russia, Germany, England, France, Israel, and China.

The following terrain elements combine to make Daisenryaku Exceed's maps: Capital, City, Airport, Port, Factory, Refinery, Bridge, Plain, Desert, Wasteland, Wetland, Grove, Forest, Hill, Mountain, Peaks, Lake, Shallows, Sea, Deep Sea, Snowfield, Snowy Grove, Snowy Forest, Snowy Hill, and Snowy Peaks.

The game contains over 400 units across the nations listed. Each hex can contain multiple units at different heights from sub to upper atmosphere. This adds a tremendous amount of depth to the game and prevents fronts from remaining stationary for too long (in most games, anyway).

There are 25 Mission battles, and over 20 Campaign battles as well as over 100 Free Play maps. The game has a complete Map Editor that allows you to create your own map or modify any of the game's maps. In addition, any Free Play battle can be fully customized with starting funds, alliances, participating countries, and more.

New features over the XBox version are: bombardment of facilities, engineer units to repair damaged facilities, air-intercept of naval units, and screen hiding during change of multiplayer turns. There are only three new units over the XBox version however the stats of some units have been modified slightly to improve game balance. There are operators in the game that provide dialog during a player's turn however they add nothing to the gameplay.

The Campaign Mode allows you to save units from one battle to the next. This unit persistence adds depth as unit experience counts for a lot in Dai Senryaku VII. The Campaign maps are some of the best we've seen in Dai Senryaku and are great fun to play in Free Play Mode as well.

The game is not without faults, it is complex and there is no way to display weapon ranges on the map so you'll need to count hexes. There's no "next/previous" unit selection so you'll need to depend on a unit list or the map for selecting units. The game is very time consuming and one battle can last many hours however there is a 99 turn limit so battles will not go on forever. The graphics are simple but this really works in the game's favor as navigating the map is made much quicker. The music is repetitive but can be turned off. Battle animations are simple but can also be disabled.

All in all, if you're not afraid to sink your teeth into a rich and rewarding strategy game experience then Dai Senryaku will not disappoint.

Whoa. Talk about a game that's more than the sum of its parts. While the simplified graphical appearance and sometimes repetitive music may initially be a turn-off for some, give this one a chance in multiplayer and you WILL become hooked for a LONG time.

I have three gaming friends who come over to my place to hang out every other weekend or so. We'd played a ton of different multiplayer games across several genres, from Halo to Mario Kart to Worms. Then one afternoon I introduced them to an old favorite of mine that I'd never played in multiplayer, a little under-the-radar strategy title called Dai Senryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics Exceed for the PlayStation 2. We ended up playing over ten solid hours that evening and never came close to finishing our match; since then we haven't played anything else, and I'm talking since October 2009, folks (It's now early February 2010). This while all the big names released last fall and winter sit by untouched from the current-gen consoles; that should tell you this baby has serious staying power. All three of my friends have since saught out and bought their own copies of the game. We've made and played on new maps, unlocked all of the 400-plus units, and basically have had some of the most fun I've ever had from any game of any genre. If you think the trash-talking and intensity gets high playing a five-minute match of Halo (I'm talking civil, profanity-free dialogue between you and some buddies, not what you all too often experience online with strangers), you've not come close to what happens when you've played twenty or more hours into a match (you can save your progress and come back later) of Dai Senryaku and someone's on the verge of being eliminated. It is NOT EASY to win this game; it takes true strategy and a careful balancing of your unit types to succeed, and human opponents will adapt every time to what's going on.

The sheer depth and fun of this game defies the current notion the western market has that turn-based games are dated or obsolete. Players will quickly develop favorite units (I play as the United States and can tell you that my friend Mike, who plays as Russia, absolutely DESPISES my Ticonderoga-class ships with their Aegis interception systems, my FB-22 fighter-bomber, which can strike ground targets with cruise missiles from 18 hexes away, , my A-10 Thunderbolts (Warthogs), which are basically flying tanks that can both take and dish out a ton of damage, and my Patriot missile systems, which share the Ticonderoga's lethal intercept abilities against aircraft. Watching his reactions in particular is fun, whether he's grinding his teeth at my attacks or exuberantly celebrating sinking one of my hated Ticonderogas. My friends and I have all had those moments where the range of emotion demonstrates that Dai Senryaku is a much, much better party game than would commonly be thought possible from this genre.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask SystemSoft Alpha (the game's Japanese developer) to please bring a current-gen version of Dai Senryaku over to the States for the PS3, X-Box 360, and the Wii. Online would be a huge evolution for the series, as would more nations and unit types (Daisenryaku 3.0 Perfect on Japanese Windows has 48 nations and over 1,400 unit types!), the continued ability to make and fully customize your own maps and games (the PC version I mentioned can support up to 8 players), downloadable content such as World War II campaigns, nations, and unit types (as was done when Working Designs ported over Iron Storm for the Sega Saturn), and a beefed-up graphical presentation. I really , really hope that somebody out there with some pull will make this happen; this series deserves some serious limelight and recognition, and if such a game is made it will be a Day One purchase for me and my friends.

If you like Advance wars you will like this game. It uses real life military machines and names. Plus it allows plent of optimization. Don't miss out on this game. This company has making these games for 20 years. And so far only Nintendo comes even close in this category.

Back in the day, my friends and I loved to play Military Madness on the Turbografx 16. For those who are not initiate, it was a turn-based war simulation set on the Moon in the not too distant future. You had units comprised of tanks, planes, infantry, artillery, transports, etc., and took turns moving these about the screen attempting to out-maneuver your opponent, capture his bases, and destroy his units. The game was complex and engrossing; fairly simple to learn, but very difficult to master.

Fast-forward a couple of decades. I find myself on a nostalgia kick, and start wondering if there were any sequels or successors to MM. That's when I found this game. Apparently it's the 7th installment of a popular Japanese game, although I don't think the first 6 ever made it to the US. The gameplay is the same at its heart: turn based, outflank the enemy, destroy his units, capture his bases. However, the complexity is far greater. Maps are exponentially larger. Unit abilities vary greatly. A single game can take hours to complete, although fortunately you can save in the middle and pick up where you left off later. So far I've only completed the first two "free play" missions, and have probably put 7 hours into the game. I can't imagine how much more complex the game will get, but i have a feeling I'll be playing this one, on and off, for years to come.

I haven't played my PS2 in awhile (I have a PS3). I enjoy strategy games (I have R.U.S.E and Civilization for PS3) and when I got this game I didn't know what to expect. This game is really fun because of its massive selection of real world units and because it is multi-player. The create your own map mode is fun too. The graphics look not-so-great and it takes a long time to play. Also it's kind of confusing in combat because some units weapons can only hit certain types of units and some names of weapons are kind of hard to decipher what they really are (You can look it up in the description but I'm to lazy to).

Overall its a great game but only really recommended for someone with patience and likes really realistic strategy.

Very difficult to get the hang of the strategy, but once you do it is addicting. There are so many missions and maps to play, every mission you beat you unlock a unit. Some nights I play with my son for hours since I'm hooked. You continually try different strategies to beat the computer players or your friends/family. Occasionally the game will freeze in the middle of a match and there is no way to unfreeze it even if you have been saving it all along. This is very annoying, but doesn't happen to often.

This game plays almost exactly like Super Conflict for SNES... The funny thing is the graphics are only slightly better. I've seen better graphics on PSX (like on the stategy game Nectarus). That being said this game is fun, as fun as a strategy game can be. It's deep with unlockables. I bought it for $15.99 on Amazon. A nice cheap game. If you like turn based war games, almost a boardgame style of play via Allied General or Panzer General(both PSX and better graphically)This game is a must have.

Dai Senryaku VII: Moden Military Tactics Exceed arrives on the PS2 almost too little, too late. Originally appearing back in 2005 on the XBox, Dai Senryaku VII is a strategy game that is incredibly deep and surprisingly rewarding once you get the hang of it, but the game's very bland presentation is what really hurts the game. Now I know visuals aren't a big deal to strategy enthusiasts, but this hexagon-based presentation is incredibly plain and dated looking. Not to mention that the game's music soundtrack is annoying and there is some atrocious voice acting to be found as well, but the real meat and potatoes is of course the strategy elements, where Dai Senryaku VII manages to exceed (no pun intended). There is a great deal of depth to be found here that, despite some technical issues, deliver on many fronts. Die-hard strategy fans will get the most out of Dai Senryaku VII by overlooking its flaws, but even though strategy gamers' options are limited on the PS2, their time is better spent elsewhere.

THIS IS SUCH A NICE TURN BASED STRATEGY GAME, THE ONLY NEGATIVE ASPECT I CAN THINK OF IS THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN A NEW MASTER OF MONSTERS GAME. THIS GAME IS FROM SYSTEMSOFT WHO MADE MASTER OF MONSTERS. I LOVE THE MENUS, THE HEXAGONAL GAME BOARD, EVERYTHING THAT I LIKE IN GRAPHICS. GREAT, GREAT LIBRARY. LIKE BEING ASLEEP IN THE FUTURE. IF YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT MEANS THEN THIS GAME IS FOR YOU.

This game is fun for awhile, but is very time consuming. The graphics are very basic as is the game play. Over 20 different campaign missions dozens of free play maps, and tons of vehicles, aircraft, cannons, tanks and soldiers to choose from.