Square Enix’s DioField Chronicle has off-the-grid tactical RPG

It was once thought that tactical role-playing games were an esoteric and less described genre that existed primarily in the 16-bit past. Not so now, largely thanks to Square Enix, the company that these days enjoys nothing more than low- to mid-budget budget bets on every niche its fandom loves and shows off in the list. its back entry. Earlier this year, the publisher released Triangle Strategy with Nintendo. In November, it will publish a remaster of the classic Goblin Tactics. Sandwiched between them, on September 22nd, to Chronicles of DioFieldan unannounced, unpretentious, and curious diversion from the mainstream genre.

Contrary to the other two games and other genre games like Fire Emblem, Chronicles of DioField distributed with a moving and turn-based grid. This is a free, free, light boisterous game that takes place in real time. You form a team of four units and control them like hero units in a real-time strategy game or MOBA. You point and click to move them around the battlefield and move non-stop from unit to unit, giving orders to use their abilities, healing or getting out of trouble, always with a watchful eye. sense of what is happening on the rest of the field.

The basic mechanics and math may be similar to that of a turn-based tactical RPG, but the feel is very different. This is not a chess game where you carefully plan and optimize your every move. It’s a quick, fast-paced multitasking and prioritizing game. However, one thing hasn’t changed: Location is everything. Many of your unit’s skills deal damage across an area, in a cone, or over a wide range, so you’ll want to stack these skills carefully to kill as many enemy units as possible. Also, if one of your warriors attacks an enemy from behind, you get an ambush bonus that doubles your damage, so flanking and manipulating enemies with drag tactics and playing like MMO is essential.

Image: Lancarse / Square Enix

All told, it’s a fun and engaging, if slightly stressful, tactical combat system. There are four character classes – archer, cavalryman, warrior, and magic user – and you usually choose one of each for your team. As well as individual character levels and gear, there are class-wide skill trees and sub-characters that can be added to each of your four unit tiles (if they’re from the same class) to increase your skill repertoire. You can also equip Magilumic Orbs to unleash massive Final Fantasy-style summon attacks.

There’s a web of interesting content to look at here. It’s a bit hard to tell how deep the game will run from the existing demo, but early signs are that Square Enix and co-developer Lancarse have wisely kept things small but impactful. The number of enemy units is small, but they attack quite strongly and can take a lot of your warrior’s health. The battles are streamlined but quite risky, making them both tense and controllable (definitely if you’re using a controller, like I used the PlayStation 5; the PC version supports mice. and keyboard, which will probably be faster and natural way to play the game).

The annoying thing is how much time Chronicles of DioField spend off the grid its pleasant savings system and exciting battlefield tactics, its fast paced, and how little life it has when you are following the story and the intense interactions of the characters. object. Despite some elegant character art from Taiki and Isamu Kamikokuryo, the game takes place in a dull, airless world of medieval politics and hard-to-invest mercenary maneuvers.

Image: Lancarse / Square Enix

The plot involves a once peaceful island blessed with powerful magical resources, a great villain, warring factions and proud noble houses. Characters with names like Fredret, Iscarion, and Waltaquin speak lifeless clichés and jargon explanations to each other. That doesn’t help when budgets for things like environmental art and vocal performances are clearly very limited, or the muted game’s color palette is just too awesome. Between missions, our hero Andrias can wander around the extremely plain and claustrophobic barracks talking to other characters, shopping, crafting, and tinkering, but this part of the game Play feels like at least two generations of outdated hardware. Maybe three.

They all come to life on the battlefield, but perhaps only the most committed and curious fans of the tactical RPG genre will try to push through for the good stuff. However, this is a game that, within its limits, is digging into something interesting from deep within its chosen niche.

Chronicles of DioField heading to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.