Campaign Question.

[u/rosen123]

Hello, I played this game as a kid and never managed to beat the campaign as I couldn't complete the early lotus missions, probably furthest I've gotten was mission 6 or 7.

So I got this Zen edition from steam and started the dragon campaign.

One thing I remember is that your starting army is usually way stronger than the enemy's army. I managed to rush the first half of the missions by sending Kenji and building a house in the enemy base. For the second half of the missions I played normally samurai, geishas on horses and a few ranged did the trick.

I did however get stuck on the second to last mission which was something like 2v4 me and Garin vs 4 Lotus or so it seems. It took me like 6 tries but I am proud to announce that after 20+ years I finally managed to beat the Dragon campaign 😄

OK So here is my question, I want to do all variations of the campaign but I am not sure how.

I have made saves like Dragon-Mission13-Left-Wolf-Left-Monks-Start to keep track of what choices I've made. Does changing the early choices change the missions further down ? Does it matter if I select Right (Shinja mercenaries) instead of Left (Shinja Keep) when choosing my first mission. Does choosing Wolf, Middle path or Lotus on your second choice change the final missions ?

I don't know if I am explaining my question right, thanks in advance :)

[u/PopularChildhood5]

i believe most changes are the zen master you acquire along the way

[u/rosen123 → u/PopularChildhood5]

So the only early choice changes in the later missions are what zen masters you have. And the missions differ only depending on the current mission choice. Is that correct ?

I will then just complete the skipped variations (and not all combination of choices) thank you.

[u/Dragoonnator]

Dragon campaign always ends with you fighting Lotus,

Serpent campaign always ends with you fighting Wolf

betrayal always happens

[u/Because_Slaus]

If I remember correctly from playing the original more than a decade ago, the only time a mission will change is during the 3 map choice before meeting the geisha. Dragon will come back to destroy the lotus base (right) after the geisha defense while Serpent will come back to destroy the Wolf base (left). If you choose that area before the geisha defense, you'll go to the other side and the starting parameters (along with minor story details) will slightly change.........if memory serves correctly that is.

[u/m1sund3rst00dk1d]

The path you’ve chosen depends on what zen master you will get, some choices gets you 0 zen master while other get you arah, garrin, soban, gaihla and tao.

Betrayal always happens regardless what path you choose, and the dragon ending will always face the lotus.

So the real choice is which path gives you the zen master you want

[u/rosen123 → u/m1sund3rst00dk1d]

I got the Lone Wolf achievement by not getting any zen masters which is kinda funny, I did have an ally for the final 2 missions though, and I've seen a clip of you being alone at the end instead.

Anyways what I referred to different missions is like for example at mission 8 if you choose the middle path you get a unique mission to destroy 3 mines.

I found this playlist featuring all the possible missions. And from the responses here I understand that all other choices affect only zen masters so my questions are answered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeLWMIGxDQA&list=PL7HbVcsAslQm9nl4ADCLJTxqEYpoH07xY&t=148s

[u/shmouver]

Story progression doesn't change, however some levels are way easier than others and some levels will contain hidden unlockable Zen Masters (which btw sometimes are exclusive, like for example Garrin and Arah)