Battle Realms is another example of an RTS that was ahead of its time. The Zen Edition basically has all content in one game plus its still being updated by the creator himself the famous Ed Castillo from C&C even after all these years! The story is set in a fictional medieval fantasy Japan where there's two campaigns: Kenji's Journey is about Kenji returning from exile only to decide weather to carve his own path as Dragon or to continue the brutal legacy of the Serpent to stop the Lotus and Grayback's Journey where Grayback's clan travels to Serpent/Lotus empire lands for refuge only to be tricked and turned into slaves then fight for freedom. Kenji's Journey is unique as you get to decide where to attack and it will change what heroes join you and weather or not you take the easy and short route or the difficult and long route sometime even effecting the main objective positively or negatively making you want to replay the story to see what the other the routes do. Gameplay revolves around the 4 factions: Dragon (defense), Serpent (offense), Wolf (melee) and Lotus (range) each with their own strengths and weakness but all use the unique gameplay that Battle Realms is known for and does well. How you train/upgrade units in Battle Realms isn't as simple as other RTS games because you have to wait for your peasant hut to spawn peasants then after you have to make production structures and train them in a certain build order to make a Samurai or a Powder Keg Cannoneer and etc. lastly you have to do the same for upgrades with certain buildings giving specific upgrades/buffs for each unit. Due to how the gameplay is you have to manage resource gathering, unit production and casualties cause getting units killed is costly as peasant huts take much longer as the games go on and the population cap nears max. That being said unit variety is also key in Battle Realms as each unit does a certain damage type while being resistant/weak to other damage types. Stamina is also a factor for units cause if your not running to places your using stamina for active abilities. Finally the Ying and Yang are a resource earned from combat that you can spend on either heroes or upgrades. The battles are brutal and you have to micro your units to achieve victory as its easy to lose if you don't know what your doing. Graphics look dated but has a lot of animations and a new max visuals setting that makes use of the in-game cutscene units to make the game feel very lively and a bit more detailed even to the point of having animations for units being injured, being selected even when they're tired! There's some visual bugs in-game but so far seem to resolve themselves or just modify some files/settings a bit to fix them. Audio is still great even the soundtrack though sometimes there's a walking on water bug that would endlessly repeat until you restart the game. Its still an early access build after all so i can't be too picky but Battle Realms: Zen Edition runs a lot better then the original version for newer Operating Systems alongside a lot of modern support and fixes like widescreen, dual-monitors, modern screen resolutions even online multiplayer! Overall its amazing that the classic Battle Realms has returned for the modern audience in the Zen Edition having all the bug fixes, updates, support and content that would've been difficult with the original. Highly recommended for RTS fans who want something different but not too drastic for gameplay and are most likely weebs.

Battle Realms is another example of an RTS that was ahead of its time. The Zen Edition basically has all content in one game plus its still being updated by the creator himself the famous Ed Castillo from C&C even after all these years! The story is set in a fictional medieval fantasy Japan where there's two campaigns: Kenji's Journey is about Kenji returning from exile only to decide weather to carve his own path as Dragon or to continue the brutal legacy of the Serpent to stop the Lotus and Grayback's Journey where Grayback's clan travels to Serpent/Lotus empire lands for refuge only to be tricked and turned into slaves then fight for freedom. Kenji's Journey is unique as you get to decide where to attack and it will change what heroes join you and weather or not you take the easy and short route or the difficult and long route sometime even effecting the main objective positively or negatively making you want to replay the story to see what the other the routes do. Gameplay revolves around the 4 factions: Dragon (defense), Serpent (offense), Wolf (melee) and Lotus (range) each with their own strengths and weakness but all use the unique gameplay that Battle Realms is known for and does well. How you train/upgrade units in Battle Realms isn't as simple as other RTS games because you have to wait for your peasant hut to spawn peasants then after you have to make production structures and train them in a certain build order to make a Samurai or a Powder Keg Cannoneer and etc. lastly you have to do the same for upgrades with certain buildings giving specific upgrades/buffs for each unit. Due to how the gameplay is you have to manage resource gathering, unit production and casualties cause getting units killed is costly as peasant huts take much longer as the games go on and the population cap nears max. That being said unit variety is also key in Battle Realms as each unit does a certain damage type while being resistant/weak to other damage types. Stamina is also a factor for units cause if your not running to places your using stamina for active abilities. Finally the Ying and Yang are a resource earned from combat that you can spend on either heroes or upgrades. The battles are brutal and you have to micro your units to achieve victory as its easy to lose if you don't know what your doing. Graphics look dated but has a lot of animations and a new max visuals setting that makes use of the in-game cutscene units to make the game feel very lively and a bit more detailed even to the point of having animations for units being injured, being selected even when they're tired! There's some visual bugs in-game but so far seem to resolve themselves or just modify some files/settings a bit to fix them. Audio is still great even the soundtrack though sometimes there's a walking on water bug that would endlessly repeat until you restart the game. Its still an early access build after all so i can't be too picky but Battle Realms: Zen Edition runs a lot better then the original version for newer Operating Systems alongside a lot of modern support and fixes like widescreen, dual-monitors, modern screen resolutions even online multiplayer! Overall its amazing that the classic Battle Realms has returned for the modern audience in the Zen Edition having all the bug fixes, updates, support and content that would've been difficult with the original. Highly recommended for RTS fans who want something different but not too drastic for gameplay and are most likely weebs.