In the run-up to Total War: Pharaoh at the end of last year, a slightly strange question popped into my head: "What if someone made a Total War game that also had the handsome anime looks of
fire Emblem: Three Houses?" Clearly, it was also a question on the minds on Japanese indie developers ThinkGames Inc, who have just announced their debut game Valiant Tactics EX . The 38-second long reveal
trailer paints quite an enticing picture ahead of its Steam launch on March 29th, and that's not even the half of it either. For Valiant Tactics EX isn't just an anime Total War-like. It's also a whopping great deckbuilding game. Launching as a free-to-play fusion of real-time strategy and collectible game card, Valiant Tactics EX will pit you against other players online in top-down, 1v1 battles. You'll begin each match by arranging up to ten of your card-based troops at the bottom of the grid map, before deploying them into battle. As in Total War, you'll be directing your troops in real-time around the battlefield, and utilising their unique skills and powers to win the day. You'll also be able to 'inspire' allies to buff their stats at opportune moments, but cards can be levelled up to unlock new perks and abilities as well. It's currently unclear how much of an impact things like terrain or different weapon types will have on each individual battle. The trailer doesn't give much away on this front, but I hope there will be a bit more to it than just building a good deck. The devs say there will be over 200 cards available at launch with which to build said deck, and that you'll be able to use both in-game currency or your own money (this is a free-to-play game, after all) to buy new card packs and items. Again, there's precious little information available right now about how its free-to-play systems will impact the game's meta, but the press release does mention being able to exchange extra cards for special points that you can use to 'roll' for new cards in the game's shop. A bit like Genshin Impact , then, would be my guess, though hopefully its gacha elements won't be too predatory or pay-to-win. There will, at least, be a campaign mode in addition to its online multiplayer matches, though, so if I can get my Fire Emblem-meets-Total War fix there, then I'd probably be quite pleased with that. In any case, Valiant Tactics EX looks to be an intriguing proposition based on what I've seen so far, so do have a peruse of its Steam page if you want to take a closer look - just make sure you don't get it confused with Felid Entertainment's turn-based tactical roguelike RPG of almost the same name in the process.