I just absolutely adored this game and could not put it down. I love tactics games and this unique turned based hybrid real time was just perfect for me.
Lets start with the story. There are some good twists overall but it's a pretty simple fantasy storyline of good vs evil which I really enjoyed. The characters are great and I love how involved with the story most of them are. They also have dedicated support conversations for every characters which fleshes out all the characters nicely. You are able to choose a partner in marriage which plays a big part in the story with a nice fully voiced proposal scene. The support conversations reminded me a lot of Fire Emblem which you can see this game has heavy inspiration from.
The gameplay as I mentioned combines turned based strategy with real time. Throughout the game you will earn honor points which let you upgrade how many units each battalion can hold. You only start out with 2 units per battalion but you will eventually get to twelve units with 5 characters per. This sounds confusing but it all gets introduced slowly and is easy to wrap your head around. You move these battalions in real time but can pause at any time. You setup what characters and what type of moves you want them to do most often or for specific circumstances. There is a ton of customization and it's a lot of fun to experiment. They have a bunch of different difficulty options which give you different levels to find your perfect comfort zone, and it can be changed whenever.
The world map is the biggest and best surprise about this game. It is fully interactive with tons of resources and secrets to find. Each village you build up with increase your honor score and then you can assign a guard which will auto gather resources for you. The graphics are just gorgeous in typical Vanillaware fashion. The characters always look great and the battles are super flashy.
Overall I just adore this game and can't say enough good things about it. Vanillaware you did again!
Lets start with the story. There are some good twists overall but it's a pretty simple fantasy storyline of good vs evil which I really enjoyed. The characters are great and I love how involved with the story most of them are. They also have dedicated support conversations for every characters which fleshes out all the characters nicely. You are able to choose a partner in marriage which plays a big part in the story with a nice fully voiced proposal scene. The support conversations reminded me a lot of Fire Emblem which you can see this game has heavy inspiration from.
The gameplay as I mentioned combines turned based strategy with real time. Throughout the game you will earn honor points which let you upgrade how many units each battalion can hold. You only start out with 2 units per battalion but you will eventually get to twelve units with 5 characters per. This sounds confusing but it all gets introduced slowly and is easy to wrap your head around. You move these battalions in real time but can pause at any time. You setup what characters and what type of moves you want them to do most often or for specific circumstances. There is a ton of customization and it's a lot of fun to experiment. They have a bunch of different difficulty options which give you different levels to find your perfect comfort zone, and it can be changed whenever.
The world map is the biggest and best surprise about this game. It is fully interactive with tons of resources and secrets to find. Each village you build up with increase your honor score and then you can assign a guard which will auto gather resources for you. The graphics are just gorgeous in typical Vanillaware fashion. The characters always look great and the battles are super flashy.
Overall I just adore this game and can't say enough good things about it. Vanillaware you did again!