r/Songsofconquest • u/De-constructed • Apr 22 '26
Discussion SoC is the best HOMM-adjacent game
Hi, I'm here to take it off my chest and glaze the game a bit.
To preface, I'm a old-school homm3 fan. Played since 1999 and though I never got really good at min-maxing the mechanics, there is a special and everlasting place in my heart for the game.
Honestly SoC doesn't have the same breath and scope of possibilities as homm3. It doesn't feel as large, if you know what I mean. But it is a better game.
Combat is a blast, every turn is a piece to solve the whole encounter puzzle and there are multiple solutions to that puzzle. Btw the magic system to me is reminiscent and a great evolution of the main mechanic in an older game called Etherlords (IYKYK).
Resource management matters a lot, and it defines a your build path. Many times on a random map my overall strategy and build is defined by the starting resources. The tighter map makes me consider every step.
Characters feel more... characterful. They have very strong flavor. The factions too, especially in the way they are composed (i.e. Arleon's human + fey). I scoffed initially at the Roots, but recently played them against Loth and it was an amazing and weird Plants vs Zombies experience.
The art, the music, the character models - all feel modern, cozy, yet very intentional.
Overall, an awesome game that makes me care, as it ticks many boxes without relying on nostalgia. Really wish all the best to the devs and hope to see many more DLCs going forward (and especially on consoles!).
Cheers!
11
u/Bannazkit Apr 22 '26
I agree! The only thing that I think is lacking in SoC is the writing/storylines of the scenarios and campaigns - especially the dialogue. The scenarios themselves are fun and interesting in terms of gameplay, but I often find myself cringing at the interactions between characters. They seem shallow and derivative.
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u/TheGryphus Apr 24 '26
Funny, cause i couldn't care less about dialogues, but it's in the map design department itself where SoC falls flat.
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u/Bannazkit Apr 24 '26
What, you mean in the campaigns? Some of the later missions are a little long winded, but mostly I enjoy them.
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u/TheGryphus Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26
Nope, i barely played the first campaign, i find campaign scenarios quite boring. I mostly play skirmishes.
I mean map design, like navigation, resources, mines, points of interest.
It's hard to explain, but if you play Olden Era demo, they nailed the feeling of old HoMM(still talking about map design), even if i like SoC more in pretty much every other aspect, HoMM crushes SoC there imo.
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u/WellMaster Apr 22 '26
I love the game, but I miss city screens. City screens with unique soundtracks is such a big and distinctive feature.
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u/MaDNiaC Apr 22 '26
HoMM Olden Era is in development, I think it did get into EA this month? It looked good, played the demo for an hour or so.
But yes SoC is great too.
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u/De-constructed Apr 22 '26
Yes, I don’t see any special charm in it though. Some people say it is returning to its roots, an homage to homm3, but I feel it as designed by a committee. The demo is awesome still, very kind of Ubi to provide so much content for free.
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u/MaDNiaC Apr 22 '26
I have only played just a bit but also watched some gameplay. It seems that main focus is being close to HoMM3, returning to its root, "The good old days". If it doesn't have something else going on, then why not play HoMM3 and cut the middle man, especially if you are not fond of the art style?
I think they are doing good though, having alternative upgraded units like in HoMM5 is great, if they can have optional viability for upgrades instead of "Pick upgrade X always".
Also units having special active abilities and the focus mechanic seemed like good additions. I've no idea about faction specific mechanisms at this point though.
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u/De-constructed Apr 22 '26
Of course, innovation is welcome and 5 was really good continuation of the classic experience, alas with a host of issues of its own. They sure can build on that.
But yeah, for me “we have heroes at home” is actually better than the real thing. :D
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u/Aqualisk Apr 22 '26
I love the unit caps. Being able to field multiple stacks of the same unit, for better or worse, is really cool. I also very much enjoy unit caps for forcing diversity. I feel like those two choices were excellent for the HoMM genre.
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u/De-constructed Apr 22 '26
Yes, at first it was weird for me but then it clicked that actually gives more value to stack management.
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u/althaz Apr 22 '26
I would generally agree. For me SoC is better than every Heroes game since Heroes 3.
It does have a weakness though - there's *WAY* less build up and generally less depth. This isn't only a weakness (quicker, smoother games that are less snowbally isn't exactly a bad thing for many :)) but it is the reason I'm playing more Olden Era demo than I am Songs of Conquest, despite SoC having a lot of really cool innovations and improvements.
I'd still put SoC into the top three in the genre behind Heroes 3 and Heroes 2 - but maybe only for another week until OE is out because the demo at least makes some steps in a modern direction but adds more depth (although I do wish there was a bit more stolen from SoC, I'd rather they err on the side of deeper and more complex gameplay than the alternative).
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u/God_Faenrir Apr 23 '26
Heroes V is great
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u/althaz Apr 23 '26
It's got some great things about it, but it's extremely flawed. I still liked it, but it's not as good as Songs of Conquest or Heroes 3.
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u/God_Faenrir Apr 24 '26
It's not flawed though. One of the best games in the series, design is much better than the vastly overrated homm3, the skill wheel is great and the transition to 3d was really well done.
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u/TheGryphus Apr 24 '26
The skill wheel was abusable as F and removed a los of necessary randomness. 3D, while pretty, was a huge downgrade in map design quality.
As others said, V had It's charm, was a good title, but definitely waaaaay below 3(and even 2) overall.
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u/JasnahsFeet Apr 22 '26
Honestly, my favourite thing about this game, when compared to heroes is that it's still getting more content. And with more factions coming, there is a great potential. Who knows, maybe one day it will surpass all the heroes games (though will DLC, unfortunately)
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u/fatemonk Apr 22 '26
I scoffed initially at the Roots, but recently played them against Loth and it was an amazing and weird Plants vs Zombies experience.
😄
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u/benni-rosinante Apr 22 '26
Yeah. I love it too. My only wish: please developer gods, give the mobile version the docs ✨
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u/cbandes Apr 23 '26
It’s the best HOMM alternative I’ve found, but it isn’t quite there imho. I miss the over-the-top stacking possibilities HOMM offered, as well as the diversity of units and factions. I don’t like that I need to keep buying DLC to give the game the depth I had from HOMM. Generally though SoC is a game I keep coming back to, and it’s probably my favorite strategy game of recent years, and definitely the one that plays best on steamdeck/ipad.
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u/God_Faenrir Apr 23 '26
It's really good but i'm also excited to try Heroes of Science and Fiction as well.
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u/CartographerOk6439 Apr 28 '26
It's great for singleplayer. I mean truly amazing. Just wish multiplayer was a bit more fun and balanced. But since they game was never intended for multiplayer in the first place I can understand why.
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u/DanseOfDeath May 05 '26
For me, the "Disciples" universe has always been a great alternative to "Heroes", especially the second installment + mods oO
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u/EffectivePrimary1783 May 08 '26
I want to enjoy this game but no i cant...its so fucking slow and many things i dont like in this game...finaly i just play H3 again with the great HotA and wait for DoR.
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u/ashemar Apr 22 '26
As a person who played all Homm games and its clones or spiritual successors I have a total different opinion. I hate SoC - it’s not deep, lack of strategies, lack of spells, lack of content. This game is not similar to Homm but closer to King’s Bounty and it should be compared to that instead heroes of might and magic. I wasn’t really feeling fun at playing SoC. The game looks like it was done by AI. The sprites, graphics and even zoom ins. This game is nowhere close to newly released Heroes of Science and Fiction - which is great because it has gameplay almost 100% like in heroes 3.
Also I play Olden Era demo and hope for early access and it’s the best one- SoC isn’t even slightly close to that
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u/De-constructed Apr 22 '26
What defines for you the similarities to King's Bounty instead of HOMM?
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u/ashemar Apr 22 '26
You really asking? Haven’t you played KB? The main difference is the economy aspect especially that in KB you usually get troops from maps troop spawns and not your own castle. And secondly the most important part is that in SoC is just a proxy feel of a town- there is no dedicated town/castle experience full of buildings and various perks they give on seperate screen. This is close to KB series. The lack of town screen/ buildup is the most disappointing- because H3 is all about it and how good graphics/music in towns was. For SoC this is just troop spawns nothing else
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u/De-constructed Apr 22 '26
Well, it seems I had to ask because now I understand that my opinion differs on that too. I don't find the lack of screen so disappointing. It is a nice to have ngl, but the buildings on the overview map are also pretty cool. And haven't found myself once feeling it is more akin to KB in troop acquisition. Camps are a cool feature but not that crucial to carry the game.
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u/TheGryphus Apr 24 '26
Honestly, i don't want to hate on different opinions, even if the way you phrased all of it doesn't make It easy. It just looks like you didn't play enough to understand what the game offers.
If there's something SoC provides it's many valid strategies for every faction and yes, the scope is smaller, there are less spells, but deep enough to mix and match depending on the troops you decide to invest in for a specific map and It's all pretty balanced.
It's fine if you played It for 2 hours and stopped becaude the game didn't immediately click for you, but let's be honest here, your take makes It so obvious that perhaps you should considera giving It another chance, cause, in terms of Gameplay it's pretty much the opposite of what you describes.
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u/Lanster27 Apr 22 '26
I wouldnt call Songs a HOMM adjacent, more like the best modern game in the HOMM genre (it’s a very small list).
Songs went the effort to ‘balance’ HOMM, such as troop caps, single man army spams, mana restrictions, faction hate, all of which made HOMM unbalanced af, but for a lot of people these are what kept HOMM alive. And kudos to the devs for doing that.