The Diofield Chronicle was announced quietly and is almost upon us. We have been able to play its demo to verify that it is a fun game with the desire to offer new things to the strategic JRPG. These are the reasons why it deserves your attention.
I liked The Diofield Chronicle demo. You can download it from August 10 to prepare for its launch on September 22. This game is a strategic Japanese RPG title; that is to say: the combats are resolved in aerial view on a more or less large map, we have troops that we have to move on a board, take our position into account and fight. I know that many of you will be thinking: “poof, another tactical RPG, what a laziness, it only has eternal combats that never end and are very slow”; Well, no. The beauty of The Diofield Chronicle is that it goes to great lengths to make these battles dynamic, fast and full of action. That’s why I think it will be an interesting game for those of us who love the genre, but also a good gateway for those who have always been suspicious of it.
As in Fire Emblem, in The Diofield Chronicle we play individual heroes with certain classes that go deep into enemy territory. Each of them has a certain range of movement, weapons, abilities and their specific characteristics. So far, everything is very similar to the Intelligent System game, but in the Square Enix title no grids. You select your unit and mark the path you want it to follow on the battlefield: first to this point, then to this, and then here. Later, you do the same with the rest of your characters, but there is no pause here, the moment you give the order, both friends and enemies move. This allows you to set traps, attack an opponent with your knight, make them turn and allow your assassin smash him in the back. This system has been baptized as Real Time Tactical Battle, and it will force you to take the distances and the elements of the scenario very much into account. It also allows the game to integrate stealth phases, ambush phases, and make the best abilities those that allow you to fast forward, slow down enemies, or attack and return to a point where you were safe.
Thanks to RTTB, The Diofield Chronicle becomes very funny, but not everything is perfect. The AI of the enemies is not very fine, and sometimes the readability of the battle is not perfect. In addition to the fighting phases, there are others where we move around in our base. There we can chat with our friends, establish relationships, improve our weapons and learn their skills, equip ourselves, discuss different points of the plot and delve into the narrative background of the game.
This section does not reach the level of what is seen in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but it brings a costumbrism to the game that is greatly appreciated. When we are resting and talking, the camera is not from above, but in the third person. Character faces and expressions are clearly visible, and here the diorama art style that has been chosen for the game slips a bit. Everything has a doll texture combined with manga art. In battles it goes very well, and it also serves to offer a solvent technical finish without budget excesses. The problem is that the facial and body gestures are also very dolllike, somewhat stiff. It is not a serious problem, but ugly how well the graphics work when we are in battle.
The Final Fantasy touch is seen in the fighting
The Diofield Chronicle is very cute. His story tells of three kingdoms at war, but the introduction tells us that there were gods in the past inhabiting their lands. He connects that idea with the summons we can use during confrontations, and the first one he lets us play with is Bahamut. This being is an old acquaintance of Final Fantasy, and both his presentation and his attack are very similar to those of Final Fantasy VII. The truth is that when you see him you are not sure if he is pure fanservice or that, as Stranger of Paradise does, he wants to tell us something about the Final Fantasy universe. That is to say, as if Bahamut and the rest of the beings we know from walking through Midgar, Balamb or Alexandria were the gods of this game. The developer has not confirmed this, but… For practical purposes, using these divinities is devastating. When a meter made up of three crystals is recharged, we can ask them for help, and they are perfect for unraveling those moments of combat in which you are losing or your strategy has gone to waste.
He knows how to do interesting things despite not being a great blockbusterIn short, with all the good and the bad, The Diofield Chronicle I think it’s a game with a good proposal. He knows how to do interesting things despite not being a big blockbuster, I like his active strategy system and also the talks between his characters when there is no combat. Now I want to check, when the game goes on sale, if that regular AI can become a problem, and if the game knows how to squeeze its RTTB to offer fun situations. Time will tell but, for now, this first contact has been positive.
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