Songs of Conquest vs Heroes of Might & Magic 3: 12 Important Gameplay Differences

[@Norovo]

I'm aiming to upload a map playthrough for each SoC faction - the Rana series can be watched here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6G0cniOeqyMnrc Also here are the affiliate links I mentioned at the end of the video: ⭐ Songs of Conquest: af.gog.com/en/game/songs_of_conquest?as=1673737379 ⭐ Heroes of Might and Magic III: Complete Edition: af.gog.com/game/heroes_of_might_and_magic_3_complete_edition?as=1673737379 ⭐ Heroes Chronicles: af.gog.com/game/heroes_chronicles_all_chapters?as=1673737379 More info in the description. Thanks!

[@bogdanvasiliu1931]

You rock!! I bought Songs the other day and played it for waaaaaay too long. I really enjoy it! If it wasn't for you i wouldn't have known this existed. I really enjoy your Homm and Songs series! thanks for the content!

[@Microphunktv-jb3kj]

not even close to spiritual succesor... played only 2h, felt too casual back to homm3 hota .D

[@michakoodziej5741]

I am sooo hyped about it! Thank you !

[@kcw1879]

Unit limits, and also stack limits, is one of THE best things about SoC in my opinion. I actually want and need multiple heroes, with their own armies, and that is FUN. No more stacks of death and hero mule conga lines.

[@LightningGentleman]

absolutely man. Heroes 3, always, even at its most competitive levels or even just a guy playing Random Maps vs. AI, came down to boatloading a single uber hero and town portaling/dimension dooring 20 times to get that hero at the enemy's main base/main hero. Secondary heroes never made a difference in H3 beside just picking things up, exploring, backcapping mines etc, or reinforcing the main hero. Songs of Conquest, I admittedly approached with that same mindset, but I always found that I ended up "needing" second/third heroes. Even if I initially recruited them with the initial intention that they just "pick up stuff as the first hero fights or reinforce the primary's army," those tertiary heroes always ended up doing noteworthy things by the end of the game. The game really necessitates that you actually have "armies." And it's fun because losing one isn't necessarily game over; they're recruitable again in a few turns, so they can absolutely make a comeback.

[@rwentfordable]

I agree with this.

[@Self-replicating_whatnot]

Not to mention - being able to reinforce in a single turn provided you have a smallest of hamlets nearby to build a rally point in is a godsend. I loathe having to do hero conga lines and fishing for town portal in HoMM 3.

[@DarkZide8]

@@LightningGentleman Well I dunno - I find my secondary heroes useful because HoMM 3 is also about exploring and you need to cover a lot of ground to find resources and artifacts before your opponent - so I don't agree that secondary heroes are just there for the conga-lines.

[@xDrUmSt1X]

as someone who never took HoMM too seriously and mostly enjoyed the setting and feel of the game as well as the turnbased aspect of it i think Songs of Conquest looks absoluetly amazing. Nice too get a good overview of the differences though, pretty sure this is a game i will sink many hours into once i decide to get it.

[@antssaar863]

Game Very similar to these two and def worthy to chek out: Disciples II. It has rather dark atmosphere and even thou its similar, it has some key diffrences that make it rather unigue (can turn map terrain into Yours, normal monsters dont stack, instead they gain exp and level/tier up if You have buildings upgraded, most monsters have multyple development paths to chose, unigue boss monsters on map etc).

[@gordonfreeman5872]

@@antssaar863 Disciples 2 is kinda braindead and more rng-reliant than the other 2. Strategy boils down to placing your ranged units behind melee ones and hitting autobattle. City building is about waiting for your units to level up after which you upgrade a building accordingly. Plus it's so poorly optimised that waiting for enemies to finish their turns can take literal minutes, that's the nail in the coffin for me. It does have an awesome art direction, I'll give it that. Also the fact that you can import your heroes into any campaign could make pvp more interesting (or completely ruin pve balance if that's what you want).

[@antssaar863]

@@gordonfreeman5872 Not that much rng related if know what to do. It does run better on older machines but agree, its very poorly optimised and do have lot of technical problems. Thanks to overworld spells and undead.. pve can be broken to level it becomes hillarious (2x phantom warrior with 100% stun rate in front and ghost for party stun at back. Btw, never use autobattle, it only f... things up. Who and when to attck is very important (atleast in certain cases). Theres also freak units like werewolfs who are 100% resistant to phy dam etc. It is still quite unique game and can have lots of fun with it id say :)

[@gordonfreeman5872]

@@antssaar863 At least in early game, where 1 attack can knock off 3/4rds of your unit's hp, rng is a pretty big factor imo. And there's no way to influence it like with homm's morale system.

[@antssaar863]

​@@gordonfreeman5872 Well, for me, rng is what makes heros 3 so fun. Spells, artefacts, biomes, all rng and to top it off, I usualy play rampart + ryland (lucky quad hit party), thats some rng :) Or rng like if You get cape of undead king early (needs just 3 common artes to make). Much game over.. In dec, if want less rng. Use werewolf (tanks all phy dam) to level up ghost and aprentice, when they good, change werewolf to zombie/skeleton and try get phantom warriors. Use overworld spells to soften enemys if needed (undead have some good ones). Against dual phantoms and wright, even castle guard cant to much.

[@Vhite]

20 seconds into the video I went on and bought it. No game so far has managed to capture the beautiful look of Heroes 3 overmap as well as this. That alone is enough for me to give it a try.

[@wheelskis]

Enjoyed the video. Thank you for creating this. I am noticing that there currently are not any videos that break down magic, the types, their overall strategy, and spells within each category. If you made a video like this, it could be really helpful for players just getting into the game, like myself.

[@martinlisitsata]

i can't believe i have this memory in my head but all this reminds me of Disciples (particularly Disciples 2) another heroes like game series.

[@Self-replicating_whatnot]

SoC does borrow a couple of ideas from Disciples, namely the lack of doomstacks and four factions each having at least some claim to being in the right. The lack of strategic level spells does change the game quite a lot, i remember Disciples 2 being infamous for games degenerating into a nuclear exchange standoff simulator.

[@munteanucatalin9833]

As a former Heroes III pro I am really surprised (in a pleasant way) by the direction this game takes... It fixes some of the few things that are wrong or underdeveloped in H3 and builds upon the good things. Really excited for this game

[@kindatim]

What is this? A Heroes 3 fan that doesn't shit on similar games and doesn't say that "no game will ever replace heroes 3" or some such nonsense without anyone asking? Blasphemy. Sorry if this came off as a bit aggressive, I am just so tired of those types of people, so seeing a dedicated heroes 3 player being respectful and excited for another similar game is refreshing, cheers to you!

[@Chronically_ChiII]

@@kindatimI feel like for those players you're talking about, it's more of a framing issue. What these players want is just homm upgraded 2024, this game is not that, it's also carving out its own niche with the vision from the devs. I'm thankful for that.

[@kindatim]

@@Chronically_ChiII the problem is that they repeatedly state how nothing will ever be able to even come close (actual quote) to the third heroes, but then act like they had all their hopes and dreams shattered by a new game that they claim to have had such great expectations for. It's literally just the most toxic traits of conservatism represented in a game community

[@d347hm4n]

PSA - it's 24% discounted on GOG atm, and not on a steam sale :)

[@DarkZide8]

I've heard people say Songs of Conquest is more like HoMM 2 but I'm giving this video a watch because I do feel comparisons is the best way to "figure out" a game.

[@Dannymofo]

Great video, I liked the initial look of the game but I've been playing heroes 3 since its release and I don't think any game will come close for me, I'll rewatch this video again soon and see if I missed anything. I did buy heroes hour on steam but after a few hours decided it wasn't for me either although it was fun.

[@kindatim]

Wild to me how every single person talking about HoMM3 being a better game under those videos or even the steam reviews always says exactly the same things in "nothing will ever replace heroes 3" or "it will never come close to heroes 3" Is it pre-programmed in y'all's brains to use the exact same words to describe your love for the game?

[@orimoreau3138]

haven't tried the game yet but I'm glad to hear(8:15) that top tier units aren't as strong compared to weaker ones. Sure, in homm3 there are players so good with minmaxing that their matches are largely decided by the end of week 2, thus they utilize lower tier units a lot. The rest of us scrubs usually continue playing for much longer tough, campaigns taking months to conclude - therefore 80%+ of tier 1-6 units end up being forgotten for most of the playtime. Overall this game looks very promising and this video convinced me to support the devs and buy into the early access. cheers

[@TheGrayAdder]

Good breakdown of the differences, I appreciate it!

[@gbxmusicchannel3836]

Looks like heroes 3 from wish. The simplicity is what made heroes so amazing.

[@georgeduba9446]

Would lower the pixelation by half. Its too much the way it is now.

[@Chronically_ChiII]

I like the stylized version that it is now. It's a very unique modern-retro feeling, kinda like with Black Mesa and System Shock remake.

[@thumbwarriordx]

I don't love the aesthetic of it all. I am based and King's Bounty reboot pilled as it were. Pseudo-pixel 2D/3D hybrid is some people's jam tho. I would not begrudge any game dev their favorite art style but it ain't my favorite. LOVE the battle screen in Songs of Conquest tho, fantastic.

[@kindatim]

Personal preference, as always. I am completely enthralled with the game's visuals.

[@JaggedMercenary]

Nothing can ever beat the graphics of Heroes 2-3-4, anyway.😌

[@frankvandorp9732]

There do seem to be some Age of Wonders influences as well, especially with the combat mechanics and transforming towns into your own faction.

[@mahotion1425]

unlike many other players i like the unit stack size limit. Being too free is not good in such games. Maybe they can adjust the numbers a bit. There is a balance problem between unit powers and so on.

[@SanjayMerchant]

So I think the troop limitations are an interesting way to bring forward the idea of the Leadership stat from King's Bounty. Though I do kinda wish larger stacks were a hero skill and not gated behind research which is gated behind an expensive building. I am loving it overall, but I do miss being able to field an army thousands strong.

[@kindatim]

The building isn't actually expensive, as well as the research. Unit stack upgrades cost 5 of one of the three expensive resources in glimmerweave, ancient amber or celestial ore. The thing that makes it more accessible is actually the town building aspect of the game - since you can build multiple of the same building in a given large settlement/city, you can build many more markets than in HoMM, which makes buying resources generally much cheaper since the markets themselves don't actually cost anything more than 1500 gold. I found myself being able to afford a research building along with the necessary research even while playing on the smallest of maps.

[@MrPicklerwoof]

The unit limits were much needed to be honest. There was a massive flaw in HOMM3 when using the 'single big stack plus loads of 1 stack' strategy to make pretty much every regular battle instantly winnable.

[@viking_II]

What I can't understand about new 'pixel-art' games, is that in 1998 we had full 3D sprites (converted in 2D, but the shape is in 3D), but today, 20 YEARS BEFORE! We have pixel-art as in the 80s?

[@janslanina2209]

Heroes 2 had pixel art. Its authors choice to compare two different graphic styled games.

[@gehinkun]

We have pixelart, 2d, highpoly 3d, low poly 3d, claymation, so many choices in 2024! And thats just what it is, a choice of artstyle :)

[@viking_II]

@@gehinkun Yes, I mean, years ago pixel art was due to technological limitations. Today it's just laziness.

[@gehinkun]

@@viking_II go make some pixel art and then call it lazy again ;)

[@viking_II]

​@@gehinkun I'm modder, I know how easier is to make assets from 2D sprites (like Darkest Dungeon) regard 3D models (like Skyrim), don't believe me, just google about production budgets from 2D to 3D. And wait, I'm not whining on 2D sprites, they're beautiful when well implemented; I'm just making a point that in the past games like Baldur's Gate, Heroes 3, Commandos, etc, had the same technologies, but with better graphics (from pre-rendered, not pixel art). Today lazy developers want to convence us that pixel art are "creative decisions", I say them: aha... continue repeating that until someone believes you.

[@olegmakogon7447]

SoC is at the same time the same as HoMM and unique. I hope they will gather a lot of user reviews -> analyze -> and create SoC 2 even better.

[@matthewpiper2574]

It’s definitely a solid game, but what I don’t like is it’s lack of RNG features. That’s what has me returning to heroes after finishing the campaign in SoC. I think that would have been a good difference to point out in the video. There’s no more % mechanics across the board, such as luck or morale, or any form of chance related troop abilities for creatures. Same goes for RNG interactables on the adventure map. The replay value just isn’t there for me. Also there’s no flying units. What’s up with that!

[@Norovo]

I didn't mention flying units because I actually think there is a good chance they add them in later. For example, they mentioned that some units have the wait ability as a placeholder and I wonder if that applies to Faey Spirits...

[@SanjayMerchant]

@@Norovo Weirdly, they have a website where you can submit suggestions and things I would've thought would be considered staples of the genre are stamped as "Denied" (separate mechanics for flight, boats...).

[@peternewman9606]

​@@Norovomay i ask what mod did u play at 2:42? Never seen those mobs before

[@kindatim]

I actually prefer less rng in my competitive games. Not much of a skill-based matchup, if a match's outcome can be decided with one or two coinflip events such as a morale or a luck proc.

[@OrangeNash]

Looking forward to the HD edition.

[@igorthelight]

;-)

[@gergoolle5773]

In SoC its hard to see whats going on. Homm3 has a very clear visuals, you just know what you are looking at.

[@konberner170]

Huge fan of HOMM3 (also 1 and 2). Among the things that I don't like about SoC is the theming of the factions. They seem really dry and uncreative to me compared with Heroes. The bonuses are also at least as boring as Heroes, where that is an area that would have been great to improve. Example: instead of a boring +1 to ranged units, what about an upgrade that gives them a new ability? Pretty much all of the upgrades are boring, and the factions are not nearly as cool, so at this point, I have stopped playing it. Other than these key problems, it is pretty good. As a final note, I don't like the graphics either, but this is a matter of taste.

[@ClassicalRaritiesChannel]

Great video. Thank you

[@KyriosHeptagrammaton]

Difference #13 it's hard to see what is going on in SoC :p

[@Norovo]

Haha, true

[@SanjayMerchant]

I've learned to love the left Alt key. Makes all the interactables display their names and, if you've got a Wielder selected, whether or not you've visited it.

[@kimalsegaminglife979]

love song of conquest , but only complaint is that the momemtym mechanique dont seem really fair , havais massive boost for killing unit in fight is kind of crazy , you kill 1 then your team is unstappable

[@bloodykenshiro8218]

I actually love number 9. In heroes 3 town choice becomes less and less significant as the game progresses, as it becomes a race to min -max stacks that are just blobs of units without Identity.

[@pureplay7071]

Can DOF and screenshake be turned off ?

[@kindatim]

Pretty sure, yes.

[@snowdawn]

Very good comparison. This helps me and anyone want to buy songs or heroes 3. I agree songs is not heroes 3. Great video.

[@Igor369]

H3 gold is nearly permanently on sale on gog for 2,62$, getting it is kind of a nobrainer really.

[@sirgator8946]

the one thing, above all else, that made me come back to homm3 over and over again, are the bullshit strategies there is nothing more satisfying than playing a round with friends where everyone is rushing to get their bullshit done before the others. everyone hunts down the necromancer early the inferno player summons a demon doom stack somewhere in the corner fortress just built an entire front line of gorgons to combat the castle players over reliance on angels. until its roughly a coin flip on whos bullshit out bullshits the other peoples bullshit. its beautiful. but it really sounds like songs of conquest would be a lot less unhinged, which might make it less repayable than homm3

[@SergiuTensoric]

"Who's bullshit outbullshits the other people's bullshit" I'm stealing that line, is hilariously brilliant!

[@DarkZide8]

I love that. That's how strategy games used to be. There used to be some very clear strong spells and monsters that were obvious win conditions - but now strategy games just nerf those things away instead of keeping them and adding counters, buffing weaker units etc. Prime example of this is Warcraft 3. Each race has so many units and spells you never use (Huntresses, Necromancers, Witch Doctors Banshees, Frost Wyrms, Chimeras, Druid of Talon with Cyclone, Sorceress with Polymorph etc etc etc) because you will auto-lose to insanely strong counters if you do - but it's obvious that from the game design they were meant to be some of the bigger late game entries that would turn the tide. Especially Necromancers - UD is solely designed to produce corpses and shit and you have to settle to only use them for Cannibalize and Rod of Necromancy...

[@exvex5108]

0:38 thats mechanic from old kings bounty games.

[@aaresss]

I would appreciate better antialiasing on heroes, monsters and some of the objects instead of that blocky design.

[@OrangeNash]

Yes. When I played, I couldn't tell what was on the hero's head. It was just some kind of brown blob. COuld be hair. But may have been some rusty iron helmet. Though more than anything, it looked like a dollop of cow poop.

[@JaggedMercenary]

Blocky design? You mean pixel art, right?

[@Klokkeklar]

I love heroes 3, but overpowered spells and tedious mechanics are getting old. Hope Songs will bring a more balanced approach to the genre.

[@brianmayabella5992]

Overpowered spells? What do u mean?

[@Klokkeklar]

@@brianmayabella5992 Mass slow, mass haste, berserk.

[@brianmayabella5992]

@@Klokkeklar is that u meant overpowered? Lol. Those spells can be countered. Obtaining berserk spell is OP, its rarity and availability is limited and can be also accessed only to certain town specifically dungeon, inferno or possibly conflux. Fire spell is the worst element. The only possible OP is skeleton farm and cloak of the damned such easy to get item set. Conflux also kinda OP, they were overall above average in every category.

[@sirgator8946]

thats the whole fun of it though. every town in homm3 has its own routes to access overpowered bullshit strategies. in a multiplayer lobby its everyone racing to be the first to pull off some borderline exploit in order to out bullshit the other players bullshit, the sudden burst of friendship you feel between you and your other enemy players when you all realise that necropolis has been awfully quiet the last few turns so you decide to band together to prevent the skeletal apocalypse with all your combined tomfoolery before its too late only to tun on each other as soon as the threat is abolished. the stakes of homm3 are enormous with each faction having the potential to become unstoppable, be it the inferno ballistic missile strategy in which you abuse the armagheddon spell for hit and run tactics to bring down armies many times the size of your own, or be it the power lich doom stacking of the late game necropolis. no matter how op someones approach is, there is always another persons op approach to combat it. its simply wonderful

[@FilmGamerHUN]

@@sirgator8946 S Heroes 5 and 6 developer said sadly HOMM 3 was so unbalanced with the factions. Also so many things depend on luck and randomity. (you have 4 moral the enemy have 1 but he got mor. e morals on battle turns than you). Also many times you dont get great spells in 2 mage guilds the enemy got one in one mage guild. Also there are so much less type of skills and between them there are some rubbish ones too as there are rubish doll type of not so useful units also there. Also Dragon Utopia level 3 with more dragons many times dont give great artifacts but Level 1 with less dragons gives :). Also there are factions who can build tier 7 unit on day 3 (behemoth for example) other cant dream about it too. On random maps many times you get your favourable most needed resource on almost on the other end of the map or your region with miles away from the road many turns and building possibilities fly by until you get there abnd the enemy just building anything he want until that. The necros and conflux towns on many tournaments are forbidden because they are so OP .

[@mikemike87650]

There is alot of things that can be made better in this game. Mostly let a userdesigner in and there is a lack of game feeling in the game. Maybe if they consider things to have a more uniqe design. Spell book, spell design, monster design, hero design, castle design. The design of this fantasy world need to be a world that invites the player into an adventure. For a player to spend time in this world, the world need to give an experience worthy of livin in. This can be an amazing game but now it feels rushed, if I dont get a feel for the world and the things in it. Why would any player stay in it. Tripple down on design, give the player a true vision of the view into this fantasy world, let the player be a part of the world.

[@fefraga2008]

Great video. The graphical difference is also quite relevant. Song of Conquest's graphics are much better and the environment is more lively. Nothing beyond the obligation to perform in a game 25 years younger than Heroes 3. The quality of life is also improved in SoQ, with many shortcuts for quick access.

[@meyers0781]

Interesting. Songs of Conquest uses pixel SNES/GBA style artwork while Heroes III uses digitized photograph or 3D rendering... Still it doesn't detract that i want it especially how SoC comes with modern QOL features to be expected.

[@edwardzdankiewicz9068]

I personally don't like the 'chaining' movement of armies in Heroes III. That and deliberately starting a battle just to surrender so the hero can be rehired all the way across the map the same turn. These just make the game feel broken. Do they exist in Songs of Conquest?

[@Norovo]

Unfortunately yes. Both are less viable though. Hero chaining is constrained by the command skill (new wielders can't carry many stacks) and the caps on your main wielder's army size. So-called 'poor man's town portal' I guess would work in theory but you can't rehire on the same turn and rehiring is cheaper the longer you wait

[@RomanRdv]

Upkeep, logistical limits and unit limits are a good idea and long overdue for Heroes series. Unfortunately this isn't enough to make me like this game.

[@justblue38]

I am new to your channel and purchased Homm 3 complete from Gog two days ago. I wonder why the graphics of Homm 3 you show are so much better than on my computer and the user interface sometimes looks different. Do you have a special addon?

[@Norovo]

That'll be the HD mod - there's a link in the description

[@justblue38]

@@Norovo Thank you very much! That was what I was looking for.

[@Lucasfghjsokfdkjheu]

I love the limit on units per stack. Never like how 5000 archers could occupy the same ammount of space as a single one and could hide behind 3 stacks of a single spearman and be unreacheble. That's so dumb.

[@brianmayabella5992]

Combination of HoMM3 and Disciples 3

[@Neyreyan]

Hom 3 is a masterpiece that can only be copied but never matched. Songs of conquest is a good atempt, the best since the tragic death of hom. I find songs of conquest really boring after about 30 hours. There is basically no hero development and town building is very limited. The ui is also pretty bad. While the songs is good...its only a good modern game. Doesnt even have 10% of the complexity of hom 3. But songs is better balanced

[@Ninja-py1ss]

0:07 What is name of this map?

[@Norovo]

Goblins in the Pantry, it's included with the game. I played it here a while back: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJ6rpqSGrreZeJo

[@demigod8522]

I've been itching for another Heroes of Might & Magic 3 like game ever since I found out that the HD edition sold on Steam was missing the expansions because they couldn't find the source code for them. Someone had the source code lying around and sent it to Ubisoft and they never actually retroactively implemented said expansions so that really sucks ass, so people who bought the HD edition on Steam are stuck with only the base game which I feel like is a slight scam

[@Frangelo90]

Maybe also create Hero's Hour vs HoMM 3 video?

[@benme2253]

The best thing I have loved about hmm3 is the castle view. Without that I don't like it.

[@lukacrc]

Honestly, Heroes 3 is miles better! No wonder some many people still play it after all these years.

[@blackleon1708]

This game is great, true successor to heroes

[@687grayfox]

why is this in the heroes 3 tips and tutorials playlist?

[@mr.tajtas4259]

Great vid

[@yevhen4330]

Am I the only one who thinks that HoMM looks way better? SoC does have a nice color palette and good lighting but most of the time it all looks like a completely unreadable mess of pixels.

[@leftsheppard5867]

Yep, exactly my thought as well. I find this a common problem with many modern games, though. Though I will say that most of the user-generated mod towns and units in Homm3 look really, really bad and it shows how much actual design work goes into making units and town buildings consistent with the style of the game.

[@ivankuzin8388]

@@leftsheppard5867 HotA was very good with its graphics, blending in with original almost perfectly.

[@histhoryk2648]

Blame pixelart, maybe I'm missing a game but I have an allergy to pixelart

[@ivankuzin8388]

@@histhoryk2648 You are right, at some point about 10 years ago or so, for some reason people just started thinking pixelart = retro, and a lot of new games inspired by old genres are pixelated since. Maybe big part of why is a switch to relatively high-res LCD monitors - without the smoothing effect of CRT, old games look way more pixelated.

[@cmbaz1140]

Sometimes less is more

[@keewee23]

After i while, i was juist clicking auto battle and moove on, boring later in game.

[@ilejovcevski79]

Finished the 4 main campaigns about a month ago or so, and sorry to say this, but the content available is still somewhat skittish. With just 4 missions per campaign, the first 3 of which are mostly meant to be tutorials, as a player you are left to play or create context-less maps and scenarios, which for me at least, isn't quite there. I may return to it at some point in the future, when more content is available, but for the time being, i'm shelfing it.

[@TheLaughingMax]

I do find all changes good or very good exept the "no faction mixing" part. having a big diversity of possible units in an army is what keeps games interesting. if you gonna play the same faction again and again you will use the same units over and over again. I mean, I totally understand that this is a huge problem in terms of overall balance but I still would like to see it in the future.

[@gordonfreeman5872]

this is cool and all, but why bother when you can play homm4

[@hipiticlivi7400]

I've been playing the past few days and man, not only you have few content with only 4 factions you also cannot mix factions to diversify a little. What a way to exacerbate the biggest weakness in the game. The unit limit is just too small a number and while I like the new spell system, as of today is completely broken. The rest of the changes I like but right now this doesn't feel like a complete game, and I know its in early access but the roadmap says that no new factions will come until the release of the game, they will be expansions, which I get because of the costly beatiful pixel art but its killing the game gameplay wise.

[@marekogarek6329]

Looks like they made the game much worse, trying overly hard to make it different.

[@kacperszafranski2983]

I love the game.

[@LoPiRiONn]

It's funny- how they manage to do graphics worst than HoMM3

[@coconuts5792]

Its realy not like HOM3...personnaly i dont like the game. I prefer Hero's Hour and i wait for Fanstratics.

[@ferver-san]

Not a fan of the Essense-Magic system. In practice it means that in thw first 2-3 turns you won't be casting any spells. Hope they alter it significantly.

[@SanjayMerchant]

I *think* that's meant to encourage you to invest in magic skills if you want to be throwing out spells right away. As well as map locations and artifacts that give you more essence beyond what your troops generate.

[@kindatim]

How to spot a person who definitely has not played SoC. If you build for magic, you will get magic - simple as that. A mid-to-late game caster swamp hero using upgraded turtles can literally cast several highest level spells by the end of their first turn.

[@anomalousscientist472]

They should really get rid of the unit limit because the best part of heroes 3 is defeating an overwhelming enemy army with your pathetic little starting army from your hero and 2 other tavern heroes. You take 3 minutes to think about your every move every turn. You choose your spells carefully and end up surviving with something like 5 pikemen

[@sirgator8946]

not to mention the glorious feeling when you managed to hold off the enemy long enough to assemble your own bullshit doom stack. its wonderful. a good example is the absolute apocalypse that is the necropolis late game, even though its game breaking op. homm3 would be less fun without it it really sounds like SoC doesnt provide its factions with wholy unbalanced bullshit strats, which is a bit unfortunet, because there is no greater feeling in the world, than to outbullshit your friends bullshit in homm3

[@MrSHURIKENCHO]

"they should really get rid of the unit limit because the best part of heroes 3 is..." why does this need to be EXACTLY like Heroes 3?

[@anomalousscientist472]

@@MrSHURIKENCHO it’s not about the game should be a carbon copy of heroes 3, all I’m saying is that it’s kinda restrictive in terms of gameplay By having a combat units limit, it will make each fight feel more or less the same. Sticking to one faction entirely also makes the combat feel homogeneous. While in heroes 3, every fight felt unique

[@sirgator8946]

@@MrSHURIKENCHO because its a spiritual successor to homm3, its described as such by the devs. so naturally it aspires to scratch the same itch as homm3 because of that any similarities between the games are natural, while any differences have the express purpose of creating a better experience than the predecessor if players feel that the unit limit hinders the experience rather than enhance it, then going back to the baseline set by homm3 is just a natural first impulse

[@MrSHURIKENCHO]

@@anomalousscientist472 Have you even played this game? The combat isnt homogeneous

[@dreamofmirrors]

Gameplay looks interesting but the graphics is utter crap. I understand this is a throwback to HoMM3 but c'mon. The clutter and shine makes things very had to see, especially on the battlefield

[@Igor369]

It is not a throwback to homm3, homm 3 widely used prerendered modles while songs are purely pixel art, if anything it is a throwback to h2 or h1 or just indie devs trying to be indie. Not to mention that back in 1999 the non prerendered sprites were not even considered that old yet (although some people started complaining about graphics in cnc tib sun or red alert 2 because e.g. total annihilation already came in 1997)

[@VVVVVV948]

Nothing beats 2D sprite art graphics

[@Gripmaster3000]

Should have looked better given a 2022 release. It's basically on par with Heroes might and magic 3 (1999). Nothing special just better art and HD textures. But theyre making a lot of money, maybe it'll be done in the future.

[@Lightwish4K]

How is song of conquest a "successer" when it look worse than Heroes 3 ? XDDD

[@huyholyfire]

Soc Gameplay far better.

[@rustybollocks3827]

All these changes sound boring. The pointless chase for "balance" ruining fun.

[@DarkZide8]

This so much!!

[@TheNewAccount2008]

Interesting comparison. I was a huge fan of HoMM in the past, only stopped playing when I was under the impression that the graphics got unbearably bad for modern machines. (With HD edition not helping at all unfortunately...) And that is my number one problem with Songs of Conquest: The graphic sucks, especially given that this game is fresh... It feels even worse than HoMM, which is over a decade old...

[@SONManiac]

Songs looks and sound nice, but I am not a huge fan of this cartoony style...

[@RomanRdv]

Havent played yet, but visually Songs of Conquest looks not so great, I would say it even looks boring and very generic. Funny how a 90s game is visually superior. Furthermore, this pixelation styling was entirely unnecessary. To be honest, the characters and some of the units are more akin to the 16-bit Sega console era styling. Overall the visual format is very bland and feels artificial and cartoonish, even caricature.

[@Agnus78]

Pixel graphics are a mistake for this game. Its not easy to spot things, units etc. Its messy pixel pot. I couldn't stand it.

[@ricardofranco4114]

Heroes 3 is better.

[@ravee8884]

nwcwatto

[@josephvanwyk2088]

It's just a pity that they went for pixel art direction. Can we PLEASE move past this pixel fixation. The 80s and 90s are done, we have suffered and endured enough through them.

[@matternicuss]

Pixel art can have a timeless charm that is really difficult to reproduce in 3D though. HoMM2 is gorgeous looking (and sounding) and visually the most pleasing game in the series despite being one of the oldest. Not every game benefits from 3D graphics either, and it can end up being a money drain on smaller devs because 3D graphics are more costly.

[@josephvanwyk2088]

@@matternicuss You get good pixel art (HOMM3), and then you get pixel art that looks like vomit. If you go for pixel art graphics you better understand the difference. Take for example 2Dark - fantastic pixel art game - but it fits the genre perfectly. Especially dealing with mature content.

[@matternicuss]

@@josephvanwyk2088of course, but the same is true for 3D graphics. What I am saying is that at the end of the day, what truly matters is art direction. Songs of Conquest looks decent enough, though I agree not as good as HOMM 1-3.

[@DarkZide8]

They are not even doing 80s and 90s pixelation right. Like - if this had looked like Mega Man X I would've loved it so much. I don't know what this is - it's pixel-graphics without the limitations of older systems and it just becomes so detailed that one wonders "what's even the point then? Why not just do realistic graphics?"

[@alekseinovoselov319]

Bratello, huica sosni next time?

[@taomahNEGEV]

Why is it HoMM3 still looks so much better than SoC in 2022?

[@tomekumb]

Because homm3 art direction is far superior to SoC. Homm3 graphics isn't even that pixelly. Other than thant heroes 3 is more clear, you can clearly distinct what is what. The SoC looks like a pretty clusterfuck to me.

[@markot4616]

Heroes 3 was and forever will be the absolute best in game art design. I don't think we will ever see better designed units, not the mention the map which for me is the most beautiful thing in the game. I love when other people try to beat this in new games, but I don't think it will ever be possible.

[@F_Yale]

Game development is a lost art.

[@RichardSkolek]

Frankly, the main difference is that SoC is just not fun.

[@dragospan96]

This is one thing i really really disliked when i first started playing homm3, u play as a faction, and u can capture other faction castles, therefore get other units too, wich for a beginner it's so daunting and anoying, i've gotten used to it eventually, but it's not something i would like to "get used to" in other games too

[@F_Yale]

Songs of Woke? I'm good.

[@Jinny-Wa]

It's an okay game. But the mechanics and variety is simply put mediocre. Every time I launch it, I just want to close it and start up HOMM series. The art and effects are beautiful and the idea is right. The simple castle building, unit limits and poor combat design choices leave it to the play only story and never touch again unless new story campaign is released. No replay value at all.

[@wolfMetall]

Fog of war and the kinda tacky writing are the things holding me back on SoC. Also why are the heroes not riding horses? Horses are just better than walking. Data is another thing that just doesn't feel as well composed. HoMM3's info snap shots are better served.

[@maxstepaniuk4355]

Most differences feels artificial and limiting. Instead of taking homm3 formula and adding some minor mechanics to perfection they decided to innovate.

[@lexasss2890]

Every mobile game is laughable and non-fun to play because developers make them for kids & casuals. That means that their games are boring after 15 minutes of play. Author is trolling you or he is part of development team and wants to inspire this silly game comparing to Homm masterpiece.

[@kak0967]

What are you talking about? Songs of Conquest isn't a mobile game

[@adamverbik8920]

По дурости купил сие недоразумение пол года назад... пиксельная графика на уровне 20-ти летней давности и куча выскакивающих диалогов... играбельность никакая... Вчера проверил - ничего не изменилось после апдейтов... Забейте и после не говорите, что вас не предупреждали...