Advance Wars and Initial D at AGDQ 2018

Advance Wars and Initial D at AGDQ 2018

It was great playing Advance Wars again. I think it's been 15 years since I last did multiplayer with anyone. I played a mix of Advance Wars 2, Dual Strike, and Days of Ruin with Memory, AKC12, and MetroidMaster. I think overall I like Dual Strike the best but only slightly more than Advance Wars 2 due to the larger map and CO roster. Days of Ruin is still pretty fun though. Days of Ruin multiplayer is really interesting with the CO boarding and unit promotion game mechanics. Especially in a 3 player setting. Someone with a good lead may find themselves suddenly in a 1v2 as more of their units get promoted and their CO power is charged.  Although I surrendered during one of my games with Memory and AKC, it was still fun seeing who would win after all my properties were up for grabs. I can't wait to play more of this during my next GDQ.

Initial D ver 8. There's way too much to say about this game. I haven't had to adjust this much to an Initial D game since I first started way back in Version 3. With the exception of Version 4, most games in the franchise have fairly similar handling with varying degrees of emphasis on brake drifting. Version 8 heavily relies on the player having a precise racing line and steering when taking corners and hairpin turns. You can no longer just release and tap the accelerator to maneuver around s-curves. When you first start, simply turning the wheel as little as 20 degrees can cut your speed by 20-30 kph. When playing with Manual transmission it can feel like the game is punishing you for not picking automatic with how often you'll have to shift back and forth between 2nd and 3rd gear. However if you have a racing card, and build up a specific car, this penalty is dramatically reduced as you approach the later upgrade specs. I really wish I did more 1v1s with people before I lost my card. As much fun as it was to do tag battle/2v2, I really would have liked to see how my car handled on different courses as I got more and more familiar with it.

Many of the courses in Version 7 were also present with some new ones like Hakone and Momiji Line added in. Happogahara felt a lot like Shomaru to me from Version 8. The course felt narrower yet just as difficult to master as I remember. My favorite courses for this version were Nanamagari, Tsubaki Line, Momiji Line, and Happogahara. My least favorite is probably Hakone. At first Hakone can seem pretty easy to navigate, but the real difficulty is in how perfect your racing line has to be. The slightest mistake can give your opponent a lead that you'll never recover from. This is compounded when you first start the game due to the turning penalty that cuts your speed when you turn too much. That said, playing on Hakone still takes a fair amount of skill but I prefer courses like Happo and Nanamagari which have a lot of s-curves and narrow straightaways where you have to balance speed, control, and maintain a good line.

This year's Initial D tournament was pretty interesting. It was both competitive and fun at the same time. All cars were set to stock and both car and course selection* were random to ensure a level playing field. Rubber banding was also turned off (this was the best change in my opinion. However course selection was randomized in "tiers". The first couple rounds of the tournament featured the Normal to Hard difficulty courses such as Usui, Akina, and Akagi. The Quarter and Semifinals featured the expert courses, the finals I'll get into later. Initially I felt pretty bad about this as I would have preferred a consistent set of courses throughout the whole tournament. However, even the easier courses provide their own challenges in a tournament setting. While timing with braking and drift control aren't as important on those courses, having a solid racing line is crucial. I quickly realized this in my first race on Usui. The quaterfinals were my favorite part of the tournament. Pretty much everyone who was left I considered an equal threat (though Konasumi is in a league of his own) and the courses were also much more difficult now. Unfortunately I eventually got knocked out on Tsuchisaka by Jugachi. I felt like I played pretty well but wasn't familiar enough with the S13 and having a good enough line.

The finals were pretty silly but fun. It was a best of three between Lordmau5 and Konasumi. The first race was a downhill race on Akina snow with the Toyota Prius. The second race was another downhill race but blind in the rain on Tsubaki line with the RX-7 FD. And the third race was a duct-tape deathmatch on Nanamagari, Uphill, in the rain. For me personally I would have really liked to have seen all of these races without the silly blind/ductape conditions given the level of these players but at the same time I think everyone (including myself) enjoyed watching it.

What I liked and didn't like about the tournament:

Liked:

-No rubber banding/boost.
-Random car and course selection.
-Double Elimination format
-Duct tape deathmatch final


Disliked:

-Different set of random course selection as the tournament progress (I would have just preferred a banned list. Ex: Hakone, Akina Lake, Akina Snow, and maybe Usui)
-Duct tape deathmatch final
-Full blind race

I also want to clarify that what I "disliked" doesn't necessarily mean it was bad. Overall this tournament was great and an improvement over last year. I kinda want to have a card only tournament next year and see how that goes. I know there are gaping differences in how well some cars perform overall along with how much time everyone will be able to commit to improving their car(s) but I'd still really like to see what car I personally like (RX-7 Type RS) would do against everyone else. Another possible change (if Ver 8 is still around the next tournament), would be using the "complete cars". I never got a chance to try these out, but if they're really just a few models that have the EX spec completed, I think that would be a drastic change in how fast paced the racing would feel since the steering/racing line penalty would be reduced.

Many thanks to Lordmau5, SirStendec, Jugachi, Tokyo Attack, and everyone else that made this tournament possible. And congrats to Konasumi to winning! I hope to do more races against you next time. Even losing to you is still fun because I get to learn more about this game I love so much.