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 struggle-room politicking of Game of Thrones with a give attention to shifting the chess items on the expense of credible character improvement. 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 struggle 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 types that seems to resemble a vein of treasured gems. Yet a frail king and the homicide of his inheritor has triggered a succession disaster, with factions forming round a number of candidates whereas neighboring empires eye a chance to broaden 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 individuals making critical selections, it appears to indicate. Everyone concerned speaks as if by clenched-jaw, and with curiously little emotion, a vocal efficiency that’s maybe meant to point the gravity of the scenario however as a substitute 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 interior 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 fashion, 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 normal. It’s laborious stuff and serves principally to focus on the necessity for a faster methodology of skipping by every scene.
Between missions you discover the sparsely embellished hold that serves as firm HQ, accumulating new missions, looking for weapons and consumables, and upgrading the social gathering’s talents. Helpfully, the map exhibits the place missions may be collected and conversations may be held, in addition to whether or not the service provider or analysis station have new objects obtainable, and you may quick-journey between places in mere seconds. As you recruit new social gathering members, this hub space regularly turns into extra populated over time, however regardless of the presence of facet missions to unlock extra options and a brand new space, it fails to really feel like dwelling. Not way more than a set of bland, usually empty rooms, the HQ is actually a glorified menu. Returning to the hub must be accompanied by a way of marvel at what might need modified or developed; as a substitute it is extra of a weary resignation that you will need to hop between hotspots whereas clicking by a bunch of boring dialogue.
Battles happen in actual-time with the motion pausing routinely while you problem a motion order or a command to make use of a capability. This may give proceedings a jarring cease-begin really feel, however it does enable time to suppose each step of the way in which and, crucially, make small adjustments–say, telling a personality to step just a few toes to the facet 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 moderately 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 social gathering members are available 4 lessons: soldier (the defensive tank), cavalier (cell harm), sharpshooter (ranged harm), and magicker (therapeutic and buffs with some ranged harm). These characters require moderately totally different techniques to maximise their potential. You’re not simply telling everybody to assault that enemy and sitting again; it is vital you inform your cavalier to flank the enemy and achieve 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 fireplace 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 just a few extra enemies to face directly. Sure, they’ve a pair extra tips up their sleeve than mere fundamental assaults. And positive, there’s the odd boss with a number of well being bars. But there aren’t that many extra enemies, these additional tips aren’t all that new, and people bosses simply take longer to kill moderately than demanding a novel strategy. For a lot of the final half of the sport, I tackled each struggle in a lot the identical approach, sticking with the identical core crew and solely making minor tweaks when essential. There was no want to vary as a result of the missions weren’t presenting me with any new challenges. Climactic encounters had been dealt with in similar vogue in a approach 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 stands out as the group’s chief however you may choose any characters to comprise the social gathering of 4. Cleverly, you are not restricted to your chosen 4 as soon as a battle will get underway. In the setup section you assign a help character to every major social gathering 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 occasions, swap out a character–primary or support–in the center of a struggle, a helpful clutch transfer if somebody’s well being is dangerously low or the scenario 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 approach to make sure that everyone seems to be concerned. Of course there’s nonetheless a bent to stay together with your favorites, significantly for the reason that major social gathering good points extra XP, however it eases the burden of grinding missions (you may replay any as soon as accomplished to tick off sub-aims and earn gold and XP) to permit beneath-leveled characters to catch up.
The rudimentary map design exacerbates the issue. Terrain kind isn’t 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 fireplace a ranged weapon by or over any impediment. High floor is not any benefit. Everything is so flattened out that the fight arenas might 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 activity 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 components that would doubtlessly provide intriguing different paths, the mission format does not change. A nascent professional-democracy motion, born of indignant widespread folks, is shortly 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 useless, a bunch of indignant peasant farmers; they’re all handled in the identical approach: Deploy the mercs and slaughter something that strikes. Too many close to-similar fights make for a tedious slog, and the late-recreation story twists that extend the top credit solely intensify the fatigue.
The Diofield Chronicle most likely desires to discover concepts round how energy is amassed 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 opportunity of different methods to construction society, however by no means truly entertains them. With Andrias and his mercenary firm the hammer that sees each drawback as a nail, it makes for an unsatisfying narrative arc. Yet as you deploy the identical techniques throughout what might as nicely be the identical battlefield towards just about the identical enemies for the umpteenth time, it is an efficient metaphor for the conservative and unimaginative recreation design.
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