Its disjointed reveal trailer didn't exactly heighten our expectations, but we're happy to report that The DioField Chronicle has turned out reasonably well. It's a real-time strategy RPG topped off with some very pretty artwork and some effective gameplay design — but it's not without its (often obvious) flaws.
Set against a backdrop of political intrigue in a relatively grounded fantasy world, DioField has you command a small army of mercenaries across a lengthy series of missions. Story-wise, it's all fairly straightforward, as nations clash with one another and your group is gradually pulled into a spiralling conflict. The plot's got flashes of brilliance every now and then as the drama starts ramping up, but it's held back by a decidedly dull cast of characters.
There's a severe lack of emotion in everything that unfolds. Granted, this is a mercenary company, and these warriors spend a lot of their time killing people for wealth and glory, but everything's so monotone. From the (very English) voice acting to the character writing itself, it's hard to grow invested in your allies when they seem so emotionally distant from everyone and everything.
Thankfully, the strategy part of this strategy RPG is rock solid. Battles take place on 3D maps, and as mentioned, you move your units in real-time, but you can pause the action whenever you like, and issue specific commands as to keep on top of things. The learning curve is also nice and steady, which is always a huge plus for tactical titles.
Levelling up your units, equipping them with better gear, and unlocking your way through branching skill trees is what gives DioField an addictive edge. The only problem is that, not even very far into the campaign, grinding all but becomes a necessity. This means that you'll be replaying cleared missions in order to rack up funds and experience points, but the process quickly grows monotonous when you just want to get on with the story.
All in all, The DioField Chronicle is a decent strategy RPG. Its characters certainly won't live long in the memory, and it can be an unnecessary grind, but it's well crafted and fairly engaging on the battlefield.
Comments 18
Appreciate the mini-review. As for the grinding — does the game communicate this or is it a situation where you get into a boss battle and suddenly realize you are under leveled?
I can live with the first situation, but the second is really annoying.
Cool Decent score.the demo was fun.word up son
some all over the show reviews on this site at times.
i dont see how something you have to grind loses 4points, while the battles are good, characters and dialogue are often terrible or comical in SE games.
@stvevan: Don't put so much stock into it. Reviews are just individual opinions for you to help form your own.
However useful info for me. Gonna buy this sooner rather than later.
I liked the demo a lot but this isn't a $60 game to me. Wishlisted itand will wait for the 40% off sale. Summoning Bahamut was a nice surprise, I wonder if any other summons are familiar.
@stvevan The way we see it, games don't start out at a 10 and lose points based on criticisms. There's a balance between the pros and cons that results in a hopefully accurate score.
@WavesOfActivity Sometimes it is the second, unfortunately. You'll try out a new main quest or side mission and suddenly, enemies won't be dying fast enough and your tanks will be losing too much health.
Definitely annoying, and it's made worse by the fact that you might feel as though you're a high enough level, but it turns out that your equipment isn't good enough. So that means having to grind for more money, and the cycle repeats.
I found many of the characters interesting and am completely hooked. Some characters I feel are very mature due to them not being so unnecessarily emotional, which is rare to see in a game.
Also, just play on easiest difficulty and build around the assassin skills to have an easy time without grinding.
The game is definitely not for everybody, but I highly enjoy the dialogues and characters (I am currently in chapter 5).
@ShogunRok Thanks for the input!
@KaijuKaiser the grinding definitely varies by experience and play style. A lot of people, like myself, prefer grinding if the combat system is fun and character progression satisfying. I’ve read a bunch of reviews for RPGs that complain about grinding to advance the story but I never personally had to grind myself. Bravely Default 2 is a good example.
Every time I mustered motivation to play the demo I never could finish it and it got boring fast. I even started skipping cutscenes and dialouge to get to the gameplay.
That’s a shame. Pretty much over games that force hours of grinding just to make the game longer. Not every game needs to be 80hrs +.
Yeah,i wasn't feeling this one.
Wish they used the resources for an FF tactics 2 instead.
It's a shame about the story. I'm actively looking for a 'Fire Emblem Three Houses' level story but with better combat.
@ShogunRok Ugh that sucks and has completely killed any interest I have. Doubt I'd even buy on a deep sale
If the main game has the same grind as the demo I'm out. It's a shame, because i enjoyed the gameplay, but at least in the demo, you jump from one mission into another were enemies are several levels above your team and are basically annihilating you in a few hits unless you keep replaying. It was clear from that that the grind for xp and resources was going to be part of the design, and that's incredibly boring.
I'm confused though. I was hoping that was maybe an issue with the demo skipping content and the full game wasn't like that. The review seems to confirm it is like that, but @KaijuKaiser above says no grind?
I know in the demo levels which I assumed were just the first few levels of the game, after completing the first few story missions the next mission was a side mission and enemies were at least 3-4 levels above where the team was and it was very obvious the team can't deal with the damage they output with a level discrepancy. Are there more side missions at that early point in the game, for example in the full game that solve that problem? Or day 1 patch fixes?
@KaijuKaiser That's interesting. Did you play the demo at all before launch? I'm wondering if the final game fixes something from the demo, or if your experience is somehow different and I (and Rob) am missing something for getting XP I didn't know about.
Rob's experience definitely matches what I saw in the demo (I.E. if you play all content, kill everything, your level is several levels under the enemy levels when you get to that first side mission (the only one in the demo.) And the enemies seriously punish you when you try it, I tried replaying it multiple times and every time ended up in a failing healing loop before dying, before I even noticed that enemies were like 3-4 levels above me. The only way to bring my levels to match was to replay the previous level like 3-4 times.
Either Rob reviewed based on the demo and the final game fixed that, or both Rob and I didn't know about some source of XP in the first few levels to bring our levels up naturally. At first I thought maybe you were just a super-player with a git-gud view, but if your levels aren't numerically well below enemies, it's not that....you actually are getting enough XP with natural play...I definitely didn't in the demo....and it sounds like Rob didn't in the final game. Something's definitely different!
Damn shame but figured as much. I dislike strategy games so won't be getting this unless it becomes free with PS+.
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