Blacksmith Features
August 1st, 2014 by Lord Basse

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Tsubasa’s Tale II – Act 1

By Night Conqueror

When Tsubasa’s Tale was released in 2009, players were taken aback by the awesome boss levels, the fighting techniques, which gave a single samurai a wide array of strengths and options, and its unique story. Almost four years later the sequel was released, and once again Night Conqueror gives us an exquisitely action-packed and creative scenario!

Tsubasa’s Tale II — Act I: The Long Return takes place at the close of the Edo period in Japanese history, as the Tokugawa Shogunate struggles against the Meiji Imperialists, who want to restore the empire and bring Japan into the modern world. Our main character, Tsubasa, a nihilistic ex-samurai turned sell-sword, blatantly ignores the societal change and conflict taking place around him, and spends his days drinking and gambling in the town of Osaka, the Shogun’s capital. But when the Meiji forces attack the city, Tsubasa’s simple, drunken life is disturbed: the Meiji want to capture all Samurai in the city, and Tsubasa, the samurai hero of the Chikuzen province (a title he himself laughs at), is on their wanted list.

You take control of Tsubasa as he tries to escape the occupied city: you have to fend off Imperial guards, often armed to the teeth with hand cannons, and survive to die another day. Once you’re out, you end up with a small group of resistance fighters, whom you reluctantly join. Now you must help them in their struggle against a local Meiji leader, a foreigner by the name of Angus Macleod, whom you end up fighting in an action-packed and very unique boss fight, one of the staples of this series, which includes drunken swordsmanship, a time trial and unique combat systems.

The second part of the tale also introduces a few new characters, the most important of which is Tsubasa’s greatest fan, Ichiro, who becomes a kind of disciple of our favourite intoxicated ronin. Their arguments, personal differences and comedic bantering makes their relationship eerily similar to that of the main characters in a buddy cop movie… only they’re samurai… in Age of Empires II… and no, that’s not in any way negative!

Tsubasa’s Tale II — Act I: The Long Return is an arguably short, but still tremendously fun scenario. The map, while not the prettiest one out there, still looks very good and is perfectly suited for the gameplay. It’s a lot of fun to see the antihero Tsubasa back for another campaign, and it’s even more fun to run around Osaka dodging Imperial forces and learning new combat techniques, as well as lurking around the camp later in the scenario and going up against the final boss.

It’s short and action-packed, and it leaves you wanting more, which you hopefully will get when Night Conqueror releases the second act of the sequel, whenever that may be! For now, you should most definitely download the first act and give it a go or two!