Thanks, Vallu . Also, that's quite right about the "scripted" nature of the demo battle AI, which I just found out this morning seeing someone else's comment on the official forums. It leads me to wonder just How Scripted the battle AI was/is for the demo. Finding that out now means that we really can't judge how the battle AI will be in the full release. It really does raise a lot of questions. Unfortunately, I'm sure getting any kind of info out of the devs about "how scripted" the AI is for the demo would be like trying to get blood out of a stone.

Hmm, true. I see where you're coming from with that perspective. When it comes to specific "advancements in gameplay" I don't really know enough of the specifics to point out very many things that have changed from the over-all design. I can think of a few things which I've found out while reading various articles and seeing some of the exclusive videos from different gaming sites on the game and it's development. I'll break them up into Major Changes and Minor Changes

Major Changes:

1. You can now pick and choose what skills your generals and other agents get when they get enough experience to "level up". In the old games skills were applied automatically by how you used your generals. Like if you kept a general sitting in town and didn't use him to lead battles he would often gain the traits "fat" or "lazy" automatically. That doesn't happen anymore. Now you pick the traits yourself when they gain enough experience.

2. From an aesthetic point of view you can now design how your generals look, picking what armor they wear and what colors it is. I don't know if you can do this for every general or not or if it's just your starting "character". In one of the videos I saw there was a couple second clip that looked like an equipment screen from your standard RPG type game and who-ever was controlling it was scrolling through different armors and they changed on the character/general being shown on the screen. From the game dev's perspective they said it made the player feel like they were inserting their own character into history.

3. Diplomacy is now actually important and works. There are a lot of "specifics" in the options you have when dealing with other clans and allies are Actually Useful now. No longer are alliances now mostly in name only. Allies will actually send armies to help you in war and they expect you to do the same. You can demand that other clans forge or break treaties with other clans. You can request or give specific resources. You can make many different kinds of treaties from trading pacts to military alliances and even to embargoes. I don't think diplomacy has even been as useful in a TW game as it is in this one, which is a vast improvement over the other games in the series.

Minor Changes:

1. The designers gave the ability back to the players to be able to choose their own "heir" again. About damn time too if you ask me.

2. There are new changes to the tech trees and how they work. There's too many I don't know yet to name the specifics though.

3. Not only can you choose your generals traits as they level up, but you can also do so for your agents, Ninja and Geisha both. You can also choose what types of retainers your generals get when they advance in rank (every two levels). Some retainers come with different bonuses, like greater movement on the campaign map or better stat bonuses for different types of units you may have in your armies.

4. Your generals can now fight Personal Duels before major battles and some-times entire battles can be averted by either winning or loosing one of these duels. I really like this addition as it does stick pretty closely to actual Japanese history and their views on "honor".

5. There's just a ton of "little options" that are either back (having been cut out of previous games) or that have been added for the first time here. I don't know all of them yet and there's too many for me to name specifically yet but as I find them out I'll let everyone know.

So, I agree there's nothing too incredibly ground-breaking over this game than in the other games in the series, but, all the other little options that have been added do add a ton of depth that has been lacking or cut out of previous games in the series, like being able to name your heir, which was in the original Med TW but was cut out of Med2 TW, or being able to add your own character into the pages of history.

I enjoyed the demo campaign. While it was too brief to get a real picture for the game, it definitely had some retro/nostalgia vibe. which I ate up. Got all of 4 hours sleep before class today.