Strategic Mind: The Pacific

Pros: Great game based on WWII Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and following campaign by USA. Naval, Air, and land units all needed and advance in capabilities as prestige is earned through successfully fighting through the various scenarios. I spent years playing PTO 2, 3, 4 and have finally found a worthy successor to that series! Obviously, players can choose Japanese campaign but I'm still mostly on the USA side and have only played Japanese campaign on first scenario.
Cons: The ability to save game as would be a big help. choose your own name with significance rather than assigned name. 2nd would be fix the bug that does not allow holes to be repaired in the hole of the ship. 3rd would be to allow a skirmish or single battle mode to hone your skills without signing on for the total campaign.

panzer general at sea fun and often frustrating -in a good way- trying to work out the perfect strategies as both american and japanese admirals

This game is amazing. I love strategy games and this game really challenges your ability to synchronize all units toward your objectives. I can't believe the negative reviews that some people are giving this game. I've played only two missions so far and am thoroughly enjoying it. This game is not for people who want an easy AI to steam roll on your march to victory. The AI is very good, and it makes you pay for even slight mistakes. I'm still just learning how to best coordinate activities for best effect among the units. I can already see, that once I get through this whole campaign, I'll want to replay the whole thing on higher level, just to see if I can beat it. My complements to the developers, they have done a masterful job of creating a challenging game. I"m not saying that everything about this game is polished, but it's got great bones already. I'm sure the developers will continue to refine it. If you love challenging strategy, then buy this game! You won't regret it.

Very well done game. Same vein as Panzer General and Order of Battle. Challenging, fun, and deep.
My only con would be the voice acting but it's actually so bad that it's funny, so maybe that's a pro.

As a former heavy war gamer from the 80s I've been looking for a game like War in the Pacific, but not so in depth I'm spending 30 minutes inputting how many shovels I need in a division. I'm still searching for a game that scratches that itch, but isn't as deep as WiTP.
What this game is:
Essentially a naval version of panzer corps. Some of the concepts are a little obscure, but to be fair I haven't delved into the instruction manual to find out if it's explained better. Its a turn based game with some RPG fleet/unit development aspects.
Do I like it? The first thing I consider is price versus content (play, interface, fun factor). I bought this game on sale for $22 and some change. I enjoy it so far, I've only played for 5 hours, but likely will get more than 100 out of it. I can definitely recommend it if you like similar games produced by Slitherine. It was worth it to me, but certainly not a must have, more like a pleasant surprise.
Is it historically accurate: No, it has a basis in history in the scenarios I've played, but it doesn't have matching order of battles for the fights nor the variety of different ships in different classes available that match the service dates of those classes. It does have different types that come into service, but they aren't historically accurate timelines and the ship class variety isn't there. It's a light "war" of game, which is fine.
Things that bug me about it:
- The money and effort they put into the cut scenes and voice acting could've have been redirected to the game and game play. They are not good and provide little if any benefit to the feel of the game. The voice acting is horrible, I've heard worse but I'm hoping they have an option to not hear it but still hear the sound effects. At 5 hours of play, I've heard all I can take.
- I'm surprised there isn't a scenario editor/creator. Similar games have that as a default, so perhaps I got spoiled by developers that put those in.
- I'd like to see a better more exciting fight sequence more akin to War in the Pacific which isn't amazing but you're seeing dozens of aircraft making runs on ships. What the game has is fine, but there's no reason to have an action sequence zoom for that to see what it offers.
- The UI is fine, but i wish it had more options on the game play, for things like a fast move option, if i click the location and confirm it, I'd rather not see a ship or plane slowly move from start to end at a leisurely pace (my PC has a gen 9 i7 chips...so its capable of running the animations faster).
- My biggest gripe with the game play is how air defense works for ships. In the game aircraft attack and air defense fire overlaps and fires against the attack, which is fine. What is laughable is ships and ground units can move to the vicinity of aircraft and fire on them with their weaponry. It's just nitpicking from me and likely was decided upon due to the turn based style of the game, but having ships race to fire their anti-air weapons at aircraft bugs me. Although panzer corps has the same game play feature with its self propelled AA guns.
There are some things I'm still trying to figure out like what is the max number of units I can have in my HQ, but I'll do something unheard of and read the manual.
If you got money and like turn based world war 2 navy games, give it a go.

Its a quite complex hex based unit shuffler with quite stylised combat. It reminds me of the old Battle Isle games.
The game itself is quite fun. But it's not without flaws.
First off the voice acting is literally the worst I have ever heard in any game, EVER. Why on earth did they even bother? it's shocking. And it really distracts from the game.
Second is, no multiplayer, and its very scripted. I can't see a lot of replayability as a result though the campaign is fun so far (if you ignore the voice acting...).
But on balance I would recommend it.

Recommended with some reservations: Also good points. Overall it is a good game but has a few serious flaws and a few weaknesses.
-> Voice acting is poor for the Allies. Japanese naval staff sounds like USA naval staff, which is OK.
-> A lot of the units of the USA say stupid things and sound somewhat British(?).
-> Game crashes when I do scout missions using COMMAND missions option and spot hidden land target
-> Game crashes if save file count gets high (more than say 4 saves).
-> Aircraft stop mid-air if shot at and lose turn. I can see these for ground units, but air units should just take extra damage if "ambushed" and not stop in mid-air.
-> Destroyers can't move AND do sonar search? This makes no sense.
Good points:
-> Good graphics overall.
-> Models look good.
-> Story and cut scenes good.
-> Core units keep gained experience, leaders, and equipment.