I've been a fan of the AoW series since the first one came out 20 years ago. I like the games a lot, but it always felt like the unit balance and combat mechanics needed some tweaking. Many Tier 3 units were able to wipe out entire stacks of Tier 1 units without taking any damage -- I always wished the game's designers could have figured out how to keep Tier 1 units relevant throughout the entire game. The diversity of units and their abilities always seemed cool initially, but they all became irrelevant once you leveled your hero into an unstoppable death machine.
I haven't played Planetfall yet (I wish I could play it on the subway on my Switch!), but I'm hoping Triumph has finally figured out a way to incentivize the player to use a variety of units instead of just multiple stacks of Tier 3 stuff.
Alex didn't really show this in the quick look but the way you mod units in this game really helps keep tier 1 units relevant. For example, towards the end of the quick look he finishes research for Electromagnetic Utilization which unlocks a mod that can be equipped on your units to give them +1 range, +10% accuracy +10% damage. The +1 range can make a big difference in certain situations. There's a lot of different mods that can be used in different situations, and higher tier units also gain access to mods, but in my experience so far the higher tier units haven't been completely overpowered compared to tier 1. You have 3 mod slots per unit and you can have two of the same unit types with different mods.
It's unfortunate that Alex wasn't there to talk about NJPW. Now that NJPW has english commentary it's a great product even for more casual fans, and the commentary is able to get across all the different stories that make matches more interesting.
There's no goofy backstage segments and no love triangle with Miho Abe, but what NJPW does better than any other company is they respect the history of their wrestlers. There are absolutely storylines in NJPW, but I think a lot of people have been conditioned to think of storylines as things that can only happen outside of the ring.
With the G1 starting, here's a couple of stories off the top of my head:
-Shingo Takagi, a Junior Heavyweight, is entering the G1 where he'll be facing off against heavyweights. He was on an incredible winning streak during the Best of Super Juniors(Jr Heavyweight tournament) but can he pull off the same against heavyweights?
-KENTA just left the WWE and joined NJPW for the G1. He's got a target on his back because you shouldn't be able to just enter the G1 without proving himself first, so others will be looking to put him back in his place.
-Speaking of KENTA, he's representing the LA Dojo, NJPW's LA based wrestling school. The main trainer at the school is Katsuyori Shibata, who is known for being a no-nonsense tough guy wrestler. Hirooki Goto, a wrestler who's been kind of stuck in the midcard these past few years, showed up to his last match wearing a LA Dojo shirt and gave an unusually aggressive performance.
-The current heavyweight champion is in the G1. Matches in the G1 are non-title matches, however traditionally everyone who beats the champ during the G1 gets a title shot at some point. Nobody's ever gone through the entire G1 undefeated, so unless he pulls off the impossible it will give us an idea of what's next for the champion.
-Minoru Suzuki, the Man With The Worst Personality in the World, is not in the G1 this year and will probably murder someone over it.
There's also going to be individual matches with interesting implications, like stablemates fighting each other, someone taking a whole bunch of damage in a match and having to power through in the following matches, trying not to get rolled up by the sublime master thief Toru Yano.
My steam library shows that I've played a total of 153 hours of WWE 2K18. I've played maybe 2 whole matches, the other 152 hours were spent creating my board game group as wrestlers, putting them in universe mode, and then giving them insane gimmicks, and having universe mode run in the background while we played board games.
I'll probably do the same for WWE 2k19. Right now the plan is to have a final royal rumble in 2K18 for the infinity gauntlet and then the winner will get to reign supreme over 2k19 universe mode.
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