The DioField Chronicles review – emblematic problems

metro.co.uk:

Square Enix attempts to take on Fire Emblem at its own game, with a more modern, real-time approach to combat.

During the late 90s and early 2000s, real-time strategy games like Command & Conquer and StarCraft enjoyed massive popularity. They typically gave you control of entire armies, from gathering the raw resources that went into constructing vehicles and aircraft, to directing individual units in battle. Everything from supply lines to tactics was under your aegis.

Rather than being proof that mainstream gamers aren’t interested in strategy titles turn-based strategy games have grown in popularity at the same time as real-time ones have fallen away. Which is ironic, because originally real-time strategy games were meant to be the cool, new action-based evolution of a once staid genre.

The Fire Emblem series is one of the main beneficiaries of this change in fortunes, a series which The DioField Chronicles owes an obvious debt of inspiration to. Square Enix’s game tells the story of a team of spiky-haired anime mercenaries in a fantasy setting, alternating between lengthy conversations involving members of your expanding band and actual fights, which take place in discrete battlefields well away from your HQ.

Even though it apes the look and feel of Fire Emblem, battles are handled quite differently, as they’re no longer turn-based but favour a semi-real time approach. The game pauses as you issue orders to a unit or group, before automatically resuming, creating an essentially hybrid approach. The other change is that you can take only four units into battle, which is handy because there are exactly four character classes.

Soldiers work at close range, cavaliers move more quickly on horseback, sharpshooters are archers,