Kaiju Wars – Review

‘Kaijū’ (怪獣) is the name of a well-known Japanese film genre, which is characterized by giant monsters trying to protect or destroy the earth. The most famous monsters of the ‘kaijū’ genre are Godzilla, Gamera, Rodan, or King Kong -in the films of the studio Tōhō- among many others. During the 68 years that the ‘kaijū‘ film genre has been around, the Tōhō studio’s monsters’ popularity has made them recognized worldwide. Thanks to this, Foolish Mortals studio has created Kaiju Wars, a tactical RPG that pays homage to this genre of giant monster movies.

A campaign with a story that has nothing to envy to a movie of the ‘kaiju’ genre.

In the world of Kaiju Wars, the mega-cities are ever-growing. As a result, large cities cover much of the planet’s surface and have succeeded in replacing nation-states as centers of political power. We step into the shoes of a newly elected mayor of the city of Flokio. However, away from the red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy, our mission is to make the right decisions to stop the attack of the ‘kaijū.’
After defending the city of Flokio, our popularity increases, and we can continue to meet and help the inhabitants of cities such as Bomb Bay, New Shark City, Uberlin, and Istaboom City. Each of these cities is part of one of the five acts of the Kaiju Wars campaign, which will take us through the political web – full of betrayals and plot twists – as we fight the giant creatures attacking the cities under our command.
Many options to defend against the ‘kaijū.’

Once we’re on the battlefield, the first thing we might think is that a tactical RPG where we have to fight a single enemy – or sometimes two – might get boring. However, Foolish Mortals has made creating a strategy around defeating one or two threats fun and challenging. So, if you think taking on a single threat will be easy, you’d be very wrong. The giant monsters in Kaiju Wars have unique abilities, which take advantage of the different terrains where we face them. Additionally, the ‘kaijū’ learn abilities as you go through the campaign missions. This adds to the challenge: at any given moment, we can suffer cataclysmic events, lose units in the vicinity of the ‘kaijū,’ or even see the monster’s speed and health increase with each turn. But how can humanity defend itself against this ever-evolving threat?
Wars are not always won by force.

The ‘kaijū,’ in addition to destroying everything in its path, has a mission. This is to locate Dr. Wagner and kill her. To achieve this goal, the ‘kaijū’ must destroy military bases, airfields, guard posts, or other buildings that provide surveillance points. To avoid this, we can build new facilities, use cards that give us back security points, or move Dr. Wagner – after being discovered – to a new position. But why is Dr. Wagner or any other researcher we have in our lab so important? The answer is simple, the best way to win in Kaiju Wars is to accumulate science.

Despite being able to wield excellent war power, the ‘kaiju’ sometimes don’t even “wake them up,” as the damage done by ground or air units – barring card bonuses – is minimal and only serves to delay the path of destruction the giant beasts leave in their wake. This is not to say that it is impossible to win using weapons in Kaiju Wars; if our cards are adequately played, we can make the ‘kaijū’ retreat to rest or, in some cases, leave for good. However, if we complete all the discoveries with the help of science, victory is immediately ours.

Shinji gets on the robot!

In addition to tanks, infantry units, radar, fighter planes, or bombers, we will have some weapons created by the “power of science.” These scientific weapons must be activated with a skill card and can only be made in laboratories. The cost of these units is turned, which can be shortened with cards that advance the manufacture of these weapons. The war power of these scientific “gadgets” is superior to that of units manufactured at airfields or military bases. Additionally, some scientific units can withstand two ‘kaijū’ attacks. These units, which are the best in the game, are necessary to protect us from attacks near Dr. Wagner’s workplace and add more dynamism to the Foolish Mortals title.

Science, ground, and air units can be upgraded with medals earned in each mission. This is just one of the reasons to return to play past assignments, which are – on several occasions – extremely difficult. This, far from being a flaw, is one of the strengths of Foolish Mortals’ tactical RPG.
The “bible” of the ‘kaijū.’

The PC version of Kaiju Wars, which we’ve reviewed, features a database of royalty-free ‘kaijū’ genre films. So we can have a direct link to the movie we want to watch on archive.org. This is a fantastic wink for fans of the genre and those who, thanks to Kaiju Wars, want to get to know some of the films that made the ‘kaijū’ part of popular culture today.

What can we do after finishing Kaiju Wars?

Once we’ve finished the game, or before if we want, we can access weekly missions or create our own in the map editor to share with the Steam community.

If you want to try the mission we made for this Kaiju Wars review, you can download it at the following link.

Perhaps the only thing missing from Kaiju Wars is online multiplayer, as while we can play with the ‘kaijū’ in the local mode, we need to play against other mayors and their set of skill cards.