-By Nick Morrow With the last few years of the gaming industry seeing a boom in tactical RPGs like Fire Emblem, Triangle Strategy, Divinity: Original Sin 2, XCOM, and even the upcoming Marvel’s Midnight Suns, more and more games of that genre are becoming part of mainstream culture. Square Enix’s DioField Chronicle looks to take advantage of that surging wave and add another entry into the growing tactical RPG realm, but the game’s stiff, uninspiring narrative makes it fall to the wayside rather than stand out. Aimless Presentation In DioField Chronicles, players will take up the mantle of leading the Blue Foxes, a newly formed mercenary unit, under the control of Duke Hende and led by longtime friends Andrias and Fredret. As a war of resources between nations erupts, the Blue Foxes find themselves as key players in a game of medieval, political intrigue and conflicting ideologies with varying degrees of morality. On the surface, all those aspects seem appealing. After the effect Game of Thrones had on the mainstream medieval landscape, a game that looked to dive into a world with similar mechanisms was one of the game’s best selling points. Sadly, that potential was never lived up to due to the bland direction the game takes its story. Like many tactical games, DioField Chronicles employs an episodic mission-style format. Here, the plot of the story and the actions of the characters revolve around an upcoming mission that slowly adds more layers to the overall narrative. While games like Fire Emblem have found great success in this style for decades now, the execution falls flat here. From a narrative perspective, DioField Chronicles suffers from stiff storytelling presentations where cutscenes and interactive dialogue between characters are replaced with drops of world lore exposition with still shots of the world map in the background. The information given at the start of each mission feels like someone is reading a wiki page about a region or group rather than letting the story flesh out those details organically. By doing so, the story feels aimless and weightless. The players just feel like they are going from one mission to another for the sake of the game rather than the story presenting a real point to any of it. That is the real crime presented in this game since you can tell the developers wanted to create an engaging, thought-provoking narrative. While the delivery is weaker than expected, there are solid moments where you can see some of the deeper themes of the story in play, but they aren’t properly developed by the rest of the narrative. Characters with no Heart No game is perfect, and many cliché or predictable stories have been saved through the effort of heartwarming characters that drive the narrative forward. Sadly, DioField Chronicles has no such characters on display. Each character introduced barely has any personality or depth to them within the game. Sure, they have likes and dislikes in terms of the world around them, but overall, they seem hollow. Even Andrias, our protagonist, exudes nothing but dullness while failing to ever allow us to connect with his plight or motivations, and none of the other characters have any better luck. Like the narrative for the game, all the characters are introduced with a quick bio about whom they are through a narrative exposition dump without allowing the story to fully flesh them out. Worst of all, each new addition to the Blue Foxes occurs not because the characters have formed interesting bonds with the group but rather because the game just wants it to happen. While such an approach is hardly new in gaming, just something particularly clumsy about how DioField Chronicle handled it. Even the central hub where the characters interact is bland and hardly promotes meaningful interactions between any of them. Time is mainly spent with Andrias having shallow conversations that give slight insights into other backgrounds but nothing truly substantial. Original Gameplay Lacking a Punch Employing a real-time system, combat within battles comes out as the most interesting part of the game. During battles, you feel like a tactician managing the flow of combat with quick directions to your units to control the flow of battle. At first, figuring out the balance between the clunky controls and the real-time system can be a hindrance, but once you figure out how the game is meant to be played, combat can feel exciting as you position units for optimal damage. Sadly, that excitement fades as the game progresses. Despite being a war game, there is hardly any diversity in terms of enemy units, meaning that the tactics needed to defeat them never evolve. Furthermore, the ability system offers a few new wrinkles to combat but hardly anything that changes how the game is enjoyed as you progress. In time, you begin to get worn down by the repetitive nature of combat as it offers nothing to help the players continually invest in. After investing hours and hours into the game, the endgame tactics feel the same as the beginning. Most mission objectives despite the state of the world will fall under just wiping out the enemy or escorting someone. There is no creativity in the missions, and that begins to take its toll. Intriguing World but bland Level Design The world of DioField shows its grand potential as the island nation is engulfed in a resource war as rival countries from across the sea invade. With battles occurring in cities, forests, snowfields, and other vibrant locations, only the sky’s the limit in terms of level design. Sadly, that differing maps hardly add to the variety of the battles. Unlike other tactical games, ideas like elevation and terrain hold no additional effects in battle. In truth, each battlefield may as well be a flatland with just a different coat of paint. Verdict At a glance, DioField Chronicles looks to be Square Enix’s next exciting tactical RPG rife with a compelling story about the morality of war and politics. Ultimately, the aimless storytelling devices, shallow characters, stagnant gameplay, and bland maps divert from the deeper themes and creative ideas that you can see that the story wants to develop. 6/10: Mediocre Pros: Engaging tactical combat Interesting world politics and intrigue Compelling themes Cons: Poor character interactions Stale story Bland level design Comments are closed.
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