Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition Review: Sometimes Nostalgia is Justified

As a consummate gamer, nostalgia is a constant burden. It’s just so easy to look back on the games of yore and remember the good old days. And sure, oftentimes, our rose-tinted glasses aren’t exactly accurate. But on rare, wonderful occasions, games not only hold up, but get better with age. This brings us to the original Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes. It was one of my absolute favorite games on my DS, and it definitely made me a fan of the match-3 genre. So imagine how excited I was when I heard that Dotemu was taking the title originally developed by the talented team at Capybara Games and bringing it to modern consoles and PC. Not only does the Definitive Edition include the full story I so adored back in the day, but also new multiplayer and DLC features added in the Xbox version. Now that I’ve put 20-something hours into Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition, let me just say this is one classic that deserved a modern revival.

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition takes place some 40 years before the Heroes of Might and Magic V saga. While I had played a couple of the older Heroes entries, that wasn’t why I first fell in love with Clash of Heroes. No, that was simply a result of the storytelling and deeply addictive combat. Ashan is a world in the midst of renewal. The demons are trapped in their fiery hole, the various realms of humans, elves, and wizards are at peace, and all seems right with the world. At least until one horrible night when gathered heroes are slain, and only their children survive the bloody night.

A World Suddenly At War

A sudden influx of demons serve as the tip of the spear, but it appears they’re taking marching orders from someone else. In an act of desperation, a handful of children jump into a magical portal, hoping to reach safety. Instead, they all wind up in drastically different regions of Ashan. Though isolated, they’ll slowly gather their strength and a greater idea of what’s happening, and what they need to do to restore peace to the realm.

Though I don’t want to spoil who each of the five heroes are, they’re each well-drawn and have distinct personalities. Anwen is a fierce elven huntress determined to right the wrongs done to her family; meanwhile, Godric is a stalwart knight forced into hiding by a corrupt force in his own kingdom. The other three are no less interesting, though mentioning them might delve into spoiler territory. Suffice to say, they all have their own unique story arc that’s a delight to experience. This is done primarily through dialogue and narrated cutscenes. And while the game has a lot of bloody drama that commands your attention, there are also lots of lighthearted moments, and some wonderfully deranged humor.

Tickle Your Funny Bone

The story itself is split into five different chapters, outside of the prologue that teaches you the basics. You’ll range from the lush forests of Irollan to The Holy Griffin Empire, the blighted hellscape of Heresh to the lush Silver Cities, and even the fiery pit of Sheogh. Beating the entire story can take anywhere from 20 – 25 hours, depending on how much you want to explore every nook and cranny. Each map has lots of nodes to explore with a simple click, and plenty of well-hidden goodies. There’s lots of incentive to explore, since winning battles provides experience to level up not just your heroes, but their troops. The more your hero levels up, the more their health goes up, as well as the total number of units they can muster in battles.

Leveling up your troops boosts their offense and defense, which is vital. So even though you’re more than welcome to follow the linear narrative, it’s encouraged to take a little extra time to hunt down dangerous bounties and solve Battle Puzzles. This not only rewards you with experience and resources like Gold, Rubies, and Ore, but can also net you incredible artifacts. This eldritch equipment can totally change how your hero battles, and provides some amazing tradeoffs. You might decrease your health to boost the offensive power of your units, revive from death once per battle, or even be able to summon reinforcements for no move penalty.

Fantasy Combat At Its Finest

Now let’s talk about the battle, because it’s a ton of fun. At the start of combat, you and your opponent will begin with all your units on the field of battle. You’re able to turn three or more Core units into a vertical attack formation, or a horizontal wall. As you’d expect, walls block damage while formations deal it. You can also Link similarly colored units in attacks, boosting their power, or Fuse them together into a devastating assault. Once a unit leaves the field of play, your Unit Counter will increase, and you can call in reinforcements. Just keep in mind that you also have a Move Counter that limits how many actions you can take per turn, and that includes summoning reinforcements. Luckily, by making chains of multiple moves, you’ll get rewarded with more moves. The easiest way to do this is to delete one unit to make a new formation. Just keep in mind that while you have an unlimited supply of Core Units in the story, your Elite and Champion units will cost cold hard cash and resources to acquire more.

On that note, let’s talk about the advanced units. While Core units are the easiest to muster and unlimited, Elite and Champion units can easily turn the tide of battle. No matter what the type of unit, if they’re not in a formation and thus idle, they instantly get vaporized by enemy attacks. So it’s dangerous to leave advanced units in the line of fire. Luckily when an attack formation is made, it’ll take a little time before the attack goes off, indicated by a Charge Number. Elite units take up more space and require 2 Core units to charge them up. Champions are huge, and take double that. Some of my favorite Elites were those that could absorb damage from foes while they’re gearing up to attack, like Ghosts and Knights. As for Champion, my all time favorite is the horrendous Bone Dragon. Not only does it attack like a deranged land shark, but if it gobbles up idle enemy units, it’ll increase attack power before crushing your opponent’s health.

This is only a small glimpse into the nuanced and utterly addictive combat in Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition. I didn’t even touch yet on Hero Spells, which charge up as you take or deal damage, and which can give you a huge edge in tough conflicts. As you play through the story, you’ll find new types of Core, Elite, and Champion units to bring under your banner. While you can have three different types of Core units in play at a time, you can only have one each Elite and Champion. And there are tons of ways to mix up battle depending on your army composition. Sometimes you might want to focus on speed over power, shattering your opponent’s walls. Other times it might be better to play the long game, poisoning their attack formations and healing your hero.

There’s no right or wrong way to play, and with five different factions, there’s so much reason to keep returning for more fantasy mayhem. I love how even the different Faction walls have special abilities, such as elven walls healing, or demonic walls burning foes. Even if you’re all done with the story, there’s a lot of multiplayer to enjoy. You can face off against random AI, battle humans 1 v 1 or 2 v 2, and even play as the villains. While I didn’t really tackle the multiplayer that fully, it’s nice that it provides a reason to keep returning to this wonderful game.

So Many Reasons To Keep Playing

Visually, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition is a delight. Though there’s still a stubborn part of myself that adores the crunchy pixelated look of the original game, and appreciated how the field of battle was literally split into two different screens, I have to admit it looks really pretty with a HD facelift. Your units will pose and flare in attack formations, and turn into amazing new forms as walls. I also appreciated how each Faction looks utterly distinct, from the fiery and fierce demons to the macabre ghosts and ghouls of Heresh. Special shout-out goes to the crazy and over-the-top bosses, who not only attack in unique and unpredictable ways, but who look amazing. Musically the game has a good mix of uplifting and somber tunes, and they perfectly serve as a backdrop for the strategic action.

Saving Ashan Again and Again

Sometimes games hold up, and this is one of them. Though I absolutely loved the original, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition brings a classic game to exhilarating modern life. Not only does it feature complex and nuanced strategic gameplay, but has an engaging story and tons of replay value. My only small complaint is I wanted to spend even more time in this world, and would have loved some sort of endless rogue mode. But that said, even if you never heard of the original, all strategy fans still owe it to themselves to check out this amazing adventure.

Final Verdict: 4.5/5

Available on: PC (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4; Publisher: Dotemu, Gamera Games; Developer: Dotemu, Capybara Games; Players: 1-2 (online); Released: July 20, 2023; MSRP: $17.99

Editor’s note: The publisher provided a review copy to Hey Poor Player.