Fantasy General II

What it is

Fantasy General II revives Owned by Gravity and Slitherine's 1996 hex-based fantasy wargame, sending players through a story campaign leading an army of heroes and troops across a world facing invasion. It pairs a Panzer General-style tactical combat system with a dual RPG progression track — units gain veterancy through battle while individually recruited heroes level up through dedicated skill trees. It released on 5 September 2019 at NZD 56.99, with several additional faction-campaign expansions released separately as paid DLC.

Its review corpus, 543 in English, sits at a strong Very Positive 82.3% (447 to 96), and reading through it in depth reveals a game whose tactical core draws real, specific praise — set against a large, detailed contingent of longtime series fans arguing the sequel narrowed the scope of what made the original distinctive.

Tight tactics and satisfying progression that earn real praise

Reviewers consistently credit the game's scenario design and combat systems with real depth. "The game is very challenging with each scenario akin to solving a puzzle as the best way to take down enemy forces. There is a rock, paper, scissors feel to the game where each unit is equipped to counter at least one other unit type," writes one detailed reviewer, praising the hero skill trees for offering "a variety of ways to develop various heroes that have an impact on gameplay." Another reviewer, initially skeptical, describes a turning point: "at first glance... the game looks like a potential snooze-fest... give it time, everything changes," going on to praise "huge moving battles with upwards of 40 very different units" once the campaign opens up. A separate, especially thorough account reports finishing the full campaign in 66 hours, calling the story "exciting, sad, funny, all mixed" with "so many surprises from start to end" — genuine, substantial engagement rather than a quick playthrough.

A large, detailed case that the sequel lost what made the original special

Set against that praise, this corpus's most consistent and detailed critical thread comes specifically from longtime fans of the 1996 original. "I loved the original Fantasy General... I was really excited to see a sequel after such a long time. However... I must admit that this game does not meet [my expectations]," writes one reviewer with real, specific disappointment. Another states the structural problem directly: "this is nothing more than a lite fantasy tactical skirmish game. What it is missing is a strategic layer. I was hoping you would build some kind of civilization/faction... instead this is a super linear campaign, with no strategic layer at all." A third reviewer raises a related, more specific complaint about faction variety: "forcing you to play as a single all human faction and fight only human factions for a large part of the campaign seems like they have completely missed what made FANTASY general so much fun" — a direct, specific comparison to the original's structure rather than a vague nostalgia complaint.

A widely-shared complaint about DLC pricing

A separate, specific and repeated criticism concerns how additional content is sold. "This game is fun enough but nowhere near [worth it] for the price and the lack of content. The game screams for a Sandbox mode which it doesn't have and only 1 campaign which you are forced to play a Barbarian tribe. I suspect the other 2 DLC's are 2 other playable race campaigns that should have been included in the $56.00! price tag and not a DLC cash grab," writes one detailed, frustrated reviewer who requested a refund. Another reviewer independently corroborates the same complaint: "you'll be disappointed to see that you only receive part of the game upon purchase. For a few dollars more, you can receive the rest. No thanks, I'm not down with those tactics." That's a specific, repeated business-model complaint rather than a subjective quality judgment — this corpus consistently frames additional faction campaigns as content that should have shipped with the base game rather than being paywalled separately.

A mechanically specific complaint about randomized loot

Beyond structural complaints, one particularly detailed reviewer raises a precise design critique about how loot interacts with the game's otherwise tactics-forward reputation: "imagine chess would have random loot. It would be a completely different game, the strategic part would be secondary and everything would depend on the random loot. Here we have exactly the same," they write, describing loot quality ranging from "almost useless" to "extremely important" in ways that can swing outcomes significantly. That's a specific, mechanically literate complaint worth taking seriously alongside the broader "RNG-light combat" praise — the randomness some reviewers appreciate being absent from combat resolution may simply have moved to a different layer of the game's systems.

What the achievement data confirms about difficulty and content gating

Fantasy General II's achievement curve shows a real, steep decline: the first mission achievement sits at 54%, dropping through the 20-40% range for mid-campaign milestones, and falling to under 5% for the hardest difficulty tiers and every DLC-specific achievement tracked. That's consistent with both the steep-learning-curve complaints and the DLC-content-gating criticism — a relatively small share of the overall playerbase engages with the paid expansion content at all, let alone completes it on higher difficulties.

Verdict

Fantasy General II delivers genuinely tight, rewarding tactical battles and a satisfying dual progression system that earns real praise from tactics fans approaching it fresh. But a large, detailed contingent of longtime original-game fans makes a fair, specific case that the sequel narrowed the scope of what made Fantasy General distinctive, and a separate, widely-shared complaint about DLC pricing suggests the base game alone may not represent full value at its asking price. Worth it for the tactics on their own terms — just research the DLC structure carefully before buying if faction variety matters to you.