Mercenaries Rebirth is a tactical RPG set in a fantasy world. Battles occur on quarter-view maps with height differences, wherein the front, back, and side of the map determine each battle’s outcome. Support effects depend on where allied characters from your party are in position, etc., features of high strategic maneuvers. Talented Illustrator Makimura Shunsuke-san is the appointed character designer! Beautifully drawn characters play more active roles with rich facial expressions that vary from joy, sadness, anger, etc.
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Rebirth is the first Mercenaries game from Rideon that I finished. It's a budget SRPG, but it's pretty decent especially since it's at a low price.
The combat has pretty much what you would expect in a SRPG, but it doesn't do much else that stands out. One exception is that MP recovers after every turn and the recovery rate percentage is a stat that can be altered by equipment, passive skill or class. It's similar to God Wars in that sense.
Turns are split between the Player and Enemy turn. During the Player turn, you get to move all of your units in whichever order you want which makes it easier to plan team strategies.
Every character will counterattack with their weapon if they are within striking range so that's nice. You also gain exp just from counterattacking.
Maps are of decent size, but not overwhelmingly large. Most battles can be completed at around 20 minutes or less if you're around the same level as the enemies.
There isn't a turbo option in the game, but you can skip movement animations at least making things move a bit faster.
A.I. auto battle is an option which can be customized individually. Can even set just one or two to auto and the rest to manual.
Enemy A.I. is surprisingly decent and will gang up on weak allies. Normal difficulty is the highest you can go on a first playthrough so it's not too difficult overall until near the end.
Hard and Maniac difficulties are unlocked on subsequent playthroughs and they are noticeably more challenging. However, the A.I. doesn't really change, but instead, the stats get inflated to 20-30% more. It can be annoying since your accuracy will be an issue with those difficulties.
Other than the main story battles, there's the free battles which you can freely grind. They don't have any story for the most part.
Every playable character is unique so there's no hiring generics. Each character also has a class line where you promote to the next tier when reaching a level threshold. Each tier has classes that branch out to others which is similar to Langrisser. It's nice how all of the magic/active/passive skills you learn in a class is shared and usable in the other classes. You can freely switch classes too, but for the most part, it's best to stick with one at the end. At that point, the only gameplay differences in classes is the base stats, the equippable weapon types and leader skills.
The game's story has a focus on politics. It doesn't have much nuance and it's fairly predictable, but still enjoyable. The same could be said of the characters whom are all enjoyable, but don't have much depth to them. It's also pretty short too with the first playthrough being able to complete in 10-15 hours. Subsequent playthroughs won't be nearly as long even on higher difficulties.
A standout feature is the branching paths, with three total paths and endings in the game. The 3rd is only available on subsequent playthroughs. The branch all occurs at the very same spot at around 2/3 into the game. Each route comes with exclusive characters as well which is sort of annoying since they don't stick with you if you do a NG+ like in Tactics Ogre. They are only playable in their specific routes unfortunately which is a shame since they are fairly interesting characters.
Overall, Mercenaries Rebirth is a decent and solid SRPG game. It just doesn't do anything particularly well and there's not that much content compared to the big titles like Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics.
The combat has pretty much what you would expect in a SRPG, but it doesn't do much else that stands out. One exception is that MP recovers after every turn and the recovery rate percentage is a stat that can be altered by equipment, passive skill or class. It's similar to God Wars in that sense.
Turns are split between the Player and Enemy turn. During the Player turn, you get to move all of your units in whichever order you want which makes it easier to plan team strategies.
Every character will counterattack with their weapon if they are within striking range so that's nice. You also gain exp just from counterattacking.
Maps are of decent size, but not overwhelmingly large. Most battles can be completed at around 20 minutes or less if you're around the same level as the enemies.
There isn't a turbo option in the game, but you can skip movement animations at least making things move a bit faster.
A.I. auto battle is an option which can be customized individually. Can even set just one or two to auto and the rest to manual.
Enemy A.I. is surprisingly decent and will gang up on weak allies. Normal difficulty is the highest you can go on a first playthrough so it's not too difficult overall until near the end.
Hard and Maniac difficulties are unlocked on subsequent playthroughs and they are noticeably more challenging. However, the A.I. doesn't really change, but instead, the stats get inflated to 20-30% more. It can be annoying since your accuracy will be an issue with those difficulties.
Other than the main story battles, there's the free battles which you can freely grind. They don't have any story for the most part.
Every playable character is unique so there's no hiring generics. Each character also has a class line where you promote to the next tier when reaching a level threshold. Each tier has classes that branch out to others which is similar to Langrisser. It's nice how all of the magic/active/passive skills you learn in a class is shared and usable in the other classes. You can freely switch classes too, but for the most part, it's best to stick with one at the end. At that point, the only gameplay differences in classes is the base stats, the equippable weapon types and leader skills.
The game's story has a focus on politics. It doesn't have much nuance and it's fairly predictable, but still enjoyable. The same could be said of the characters whom are all enjoyable, but don't have much depth to them. It's also pretty short too with the first playthrough being able to complete in 10-15 hours. Subsequent playthroughs won't be nearly as long even on higher difficulties.
A standout feature is the branching paths, with three total paths and endings in the game. The 3rd is only available on subsequent playthroughs. The branch all occurs at the very same spot at around 2/3 into the game. Each route comes with exclusive characters as well which is sort of annoying since they don't stick with you if you do a NG+ like in Tactics Ogre. They are only playable in their specific routes unfortunately which is a shame since they are fairly interesting characters.
Overall, Mercenaries Rebirth is a decent and solid SRPG game. It just doesn't do anything particularly well and there's not that much content compared to the big titles like Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics.
Juego muy sencillo en planteamiento y mecánicas. Perfecto para quitar el gusanillo de un tactics, pero que no pretende nada especial. Si has jugado a otros rpg tácticos te sabrá a poco y si eres un novato en el mundillo, te introducirá perfectamente en el género.