Essentially a protracted sequence of tactical battles, Diofield Chronicle’s design falls into an early routine from which it’s reluctant to deviate, whereas its fantasy world apes the war-room politicking of Game of Thrones with a deal with transferring the chess items on the expense of credible character growth. Flashes of progress are seen in its fight, and the occasional voice dares to query a realm dominated by divine authority, however each efforts are in the end futile, crushed by an exhausting and relentless warfare machine.
As the title suggests, Diofield itself is a holy land–God’s country–where the hereditary monarchy is assured by every new ruler sporting the Mark of the Blessed, a birthmark of kinds that seems to resemble a vein of treasured gems. Yet a frail king and the homicide of his inheritor has prompted a succession disaster, with factions forming round a number of candidates whereas neighboring empires eye a chance to increase their borders. Armies march throughout a map straight out of the Game of Thrones opening credit whereas these in command conduct sober debate about their subsequent energy play. These are critical folks making critical choices, it appears to suggest. Everyone concerned speaks as if via clenched-jaw, and with curiously little emotion, a vocal efficiency that’s maybe meant to point the gravity of the state of affairs however as an alternative tends to counsel everyone seems to be a bit bored.
Your perspective on occasions is thru the eyes of Andrias Rhondarson, who’s the boyhood pal and servant of the murdered inheritor, now grown-up and main a band of mercenaries within the make use of of the crown. Andrias makes for a uninteresting lead, as he is disinclined to reveal his internal ideas, whereas the ponderous, usually humorless conversations he has with the remainder of the forged do little to heat you to his plight, or anybody elses for that matter. In pretty typical JPRG type, few of the core forged look a day older than 18 but carry themselves, whether or not debating technique across the desk or reflecting on the final mission, with the world-weariness of a practical veteran common. It’s laborious stuff and serves largely to focus on the necessity for a faster technique of skipping via every scene.
Between missions you discover the sparsely embellished maintain that serves as firm HQ, accumulating new missions, searching for weapons and consumables, and upgrading the get together’s talents. Helpfully, the map exhibits the place missions will be collected and conversations will be held, in addition to whether or not the service provider or analysis station have new objects accessible, and you’ll fast-travel between places in mere seconds. As you recruit new get together members, this hub space regularly turns into extra populated over time, however regardless of the presence of aspect missions to unlock extra options and a brand new space, it fails to really feel like house. Not far more than a set of bland, usually empty rooms, the HQ is basically a glorified menu. Returning to the hub should be accompanied by a way of surprise at what may need modified or developed; as an alternative it is extra of a weary resignation that you’ll must hop between hotspots whereas clicking via a bunch of boring dialogue.
Battles happen in real-time with the motion pausing robotically if you challenge a motion order or a command to make use of a capability. This may give proceedings a jarring stop-start really feel, however it does enable time to assume each step of the way in which and, crucially, make small adjustments–say, telling a personality to step a couple of ft to the aspect to keep away from an incoming assault.
The fight appears attention-grabbing at first however fails to develop, seemingly content material to tread the identical floor from begin to end
The fight appears attention-grabbing at first however fails to develop, seemingly content material to tread the identical floor from begin to end. Surprises are restricted to yet one more wave of enemies somewhat than any try to chart new territory. Enemies boil down to 2 types–ranged and melee–with variations lowered to stronger variations and a few very barely totally different assaults. Your get together members are available 4 courses: soldier (the defensive tank), cavalier (cell harm), sharpshooter (ranged harm), and magicker (therapeutic and buffs with some ranged harm). These characters require fairly totally different ways to maximise their potential. You’re not simply telling everybody to assault that enemy and sitting again; it is important you inform your cavalier to flank the enemy and acquire the ambush assault bonus, or to have your soldier provoke particular enemies into attacking her, or to instruct your magicker to forged Sanctuary on the bottom your soldier is holding, or have your sharpshooter hearth off a stun shot to interrupt an enemy making ready a particular assault.
But as you progress deeper, the problem of fight does not escalate in attention-grabbing methods. Sure, there are a couple of extra enemies to face without delay. Sure, they’ve a pair extra methods up their sleeve than mere primary assaults. And certain, there’s the odd boss with a number of well being bars. But there aren’t that many extra enemies, these additional methods aren’t all that new, and people bosses simply take longer to kill somewhat than demanding a novel strategy. For a lot of the final half of the sport, I tackled each battle in a lot the identical means, sticking with the identical core crew and solely making minor tweaks when mandatory. There was no want to alter as a result of the missions weren’t presenting me with any new challenges. Climactic encounters have been dealt with in equivalent trend in a means that originally felt satisfying, as if I’d solved the issue of the sport’s fight, earlier than boredom set in on the absence of any friction to stall my progress to the top.
In the sphere, Andrias would be the group’s chief however you’ll be able to choose any characters to comprise the get together of 4. Cleverly, you are not restricted to your chosen 4 as soon as a battle will get underway. In the setup part you assign a help character to every main get together member, buffing their efficiency with passive stat bonuses and permitting them to activate the second character’s particular talents. You may even, a restricted variety of instances, swap out a character–primary or support–in the center of a battle, a helpful clutch transfer if somebody’s well being is dangerously low or the state of affairs requires a capability particular to another person.
With upwards of a dozen characters vying for battle time (I recruited 14 in my playthrough, although there could also be extra) it is also only a good means to make sure that everyone seems to be concerned. Of course there’s nonetheless an inclination to stay together with your favorites, significantly because the main get together beneficial properties extra XP, however it eases the burden of grinding missions (you’ll be able to replay any as soon as accomplished to tick off sub-objectives and earn gold and XP) to permit under-leveled characters to catch up.
The rudimentary map design exacerbates the issue. Terrain kind is just not an element, regardless of missions happening in cities, farmlands, snowfields, deserts and swamps. That patch of water or mud on the bottom means nothing. You can hearth a ranged weapon via or over any impediment. High floor isn’t any benefit. Everything is so flattened out that the fight arenas could as nicely be clean areas. Maybe this would not be such a problem if the mission goal required extra attention-grabbing actions, however they virtually with out exception process you with killing all of the enemies. Sometimes you must activate a bridge to achieve the following batch of enemies, often there’s an NPC to escort throughout the map and you must kill all of the enemies as you go, and really sparingly there is a level you must shield whereas killing all of the enemies.
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Even when the story introduces parts that might probably provide intriguing different paths, the mission format does not change. A nascent pro-democracy motion, born of offended widespread people, is rapidly characterised as a band of thugs and brutally quashed by your iron fist on the behest of the king. Empire troopers, demi-human monsters, the strolling lifeless, a gaggle of offended peasant farmers; they’re all handled in the identical means: Deploy the mercs and slaughter something that strikes. Too many near-identical fights make for a tedious slog, and the late-game story twists that delay the top credit solely intensify the fatigue.
The Diofield Chronicle most likely needs to discover concepts round how energy is accrued and the way legitimacy is granted with its tales of warring lords and divine rights. But it by no means actually engages with them. Characters hedge round such points, expressing tentative misgivings concerning the the Aristocracy of their mission earlier than carrying on regardless. Similarly, in short conversations, it gestures at the potential of different methods to construction society, however by no means really entertains them. With Andrias and his mercenary firm the hammer that sees each downside as a nail, it makes for an unsatisfying narrative arc. Yet as you deploy the identical ways throughout what could as nicely be the identical battlefield in opposition to just about the identical enemies for the umpteenth time, it is an efficient metaphor for the conservative and unimaginative sport design.
