Review: The Diofield Chronicle – A Successful Experiment | EarthGamer

I bet that The DioField Chronicle was not on your radar for more than one reason: It did not have the coverage it deserved, the information was very scarce and the truth is that it seemed like a clone title or a very distant relative of other proposals such as Octopath Traveler either TriangleStrategy.

But, this brought dividends, because it turns out that this title is a surprise that many fans of strategy games should know. These, wherever you see them, are big words, because this genre is overpopulated by big franchises like Xcom, Fire Emblem and more.

The point is that The DioField Chronicle It has a very special personality, it is an RTS with a very agile system, with very few pauses and that reminds you of some MOBAs because the most special attacks go through a cooling stage.

It is worth telling you how it went with this niche title that publishes Square Enix because it is a whole game experience that is complicated, entertaining, with some design problems, but very reliable.

What is The DioField Chronicle about?

The narrative of The DioField Chronicle it is one that is not so easy to follow, even its presentation is poor, but once you pay attention to it, you realize that it is a good excuse to follow the story that encourages you to play an RTS.

of good at first you have the traditional fictional continent that is always at war. The kingdom of Alletain is very close to a conflict between the Trovelt-Schoevian empire and the Rowetale alliance. When the empire is dispatched to the Alliance, they turn to see Alletian.

From this point on, the game follows the story of a group of mercenaries called the Blue Foxes.. The four leaders of the group are Andrias Rhondarson, a royal bodyguard who knows ancient sorcery, Fredret Lester, his childhood friend, Iscarion Colchester, an archer and former nobleman, and Waltaquin Redditch, a noble mage.

A story like this would not be complete without a resource in play. This is the Jade, which is used for modern magic. The empire and its allies want him and Alletian will have to do what he can to not let this group take his resources, which they have in abundance on their island. Bloodshed of epic proportions is coming.

How to play?

in The DioField Chronicle You take the role of Andrias Rhondarson, one of the leaders of the Blue Foxes and whose class is soldier. With him you can explore the headquarters, have conversations with other characters and develop the story beyond the battlefield.

Then, when it comes to going into battle, other characters will join Andrias to confront the empire. Among the other classes we have a Knight, a Sniper and Magicker. Each one has their respective attributes, weapons and special movements and, although only four can go in combat, those who do not join the group, can be secondary and continue to generate damage or use their abilities.

The game system at first is not so clear, because it is not turns, it is not an active combat, it is more like a tactical RTS of those of PC where the characters are attacking all the time and performing actions that spend some kind of parameter that you fill with items and have a cooldown so you don’t abuse them.

In the same way, you have the opportunity to move the Bue Foxes throughout the fight to generate attacks from behind and do more damage to the enemy. You can also execute actions that, in the right places, will deal damage to a group of enemies. This also applies to enemy abilities which may be a bit broken. The most spectacular thing is that after filling a circle with blue orbs, you can call one of the summons of final-fantasy and you will feel that everything was worth it for such animation.

It’s not just any RTS

The DioField Chronicle doesn’t let you breathe It’s complicated to the point of not being able to. Any mistake, you end up losing the game and you have to start everything again. You must pay close attention to the development of combat, how you attack an enemy, who you stun and parry with, all actions count and if you do something wrong, the game punishes you.

For example, you can only use one healing item per game and that makes you have to be very meticulous with your healer’s abilities. Everything counts and the enemies are not going to let you breathe as much as you want. This is what makes this Square Enix title more interesting because you have to be very smart, agile and pay attention everywhere.

An additional detail, in addition to resources, has to do with meeting certain goals that are mentioned to you before starting a mission. For example, they will ask you not to eliminate any of your characters or, failing that, to finish in a certain time that is very short at the beginning. When you already understand how it works to finish off your rivals quickly, completing the tasks will be more or less simple, but the difficulty curve suddenly shoots up.

Now, the level of frustration can be very high, but the reward is also high. Sometimes it will seem that what you receive after beating a mission does not give you much, but over time, you will see that its system is leveled… But getting to that point will not be easy.

Low budget, but The Diofield Chronicles is made with love

Alright, we have a game that will be lightly criticized on the following parameters: Graphically you will feel that it is a title with PS3 animations. At times it looks very poor, robotic, soulless, and at other times it’s going to be noticed as something worthwhile, especially when you see a Bahamut shoot fire on stage.

The battlefield does not have as many details, let’s just say that it is compliant and that’s it. Not that we need anything fancy, but it also feels like a half-baked production and a limited budget. That also relates to character design.

The arts of the illustrations have all the guarantees of a Square Enix game, there is no loss there, but the 3D models already leave much to be desired. We return to the same thing, it shows that it was not enough for more or that the team behind this section did not have as much experience. Many may not continue playing this title because of the “ugly”.

The DioField Chronicle it’s a title that really has very cheap production values ​​and others that look like they were created with as much creativity and ingenuity as possible. That is why we have such a challenging and entertaining title. That leads us to answer the next question.

Should you buy The DioField Chronicle?

Square Enix he knows he can cash in on fans in his niches. For example, the RTS has a very loyal fan base that will enjoy anything you throw at it as long as it has enough resources to be entertained. The DioField Chronicle It fits perfectly in this department.

The DioField Chronicle It is a very entertaining game thanks to the fact that its combat system feels new, agile and challenging. It takes the best of an RTS and combines it with passive elements of an RPG, resulting in a title that you can’t afford to fail at because it can be very expensive. It is a very fun experience, but its price at the moment is not the most accessible and that is on more than one platform. Go get him when he’s on some kind of sale.

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We played The DioField Chronicle on PS5 with a code provided by a Square Enix representative in our region.