Rondo of Swords

"An entertaining tactics game with a big twist"

Rondo of Swords is a tactics game from Success, a company who has been cranking out quite a number of titles in the genre, now being translated by Atlus for NA gamers. It is a game that is more appreciated and enjoyed by 'hardcore' gamers that don't mind investing some amount of time into it. The less interested you are in the meat and potatoes of tactics games, the less you will enjoy this game.

Graphics/Sound/Story

The graphics are a mixed bag, but they are generally serviceable. Being unable to turn the battle animations off is a big negative, plus the fact that you are forced to watch your own players or enemy players passing through their allies for support bonuses, even if they are not hitting any enemies en route to their destination. This leads to a lot of unnecessary button mashing to get through what should be fairly quick turns.

The less said about the sound, the better. It is mind numbingly repetitive, and the sound effects are nothing special. At least the voice acting is decent.

The story and characters are clearly a not so subtle tribute to Fire Emblem, and honestly I skipped through every bit of dialogue even the first time I played through the game. Thankfully the dialogue can be skipped through very quickly by holding down a few buttons. I do like the branching paths in the game, as it adds replay value and more stages to play through.

Gameplay

Two of the most innovative and commented on gameplay elements are the Route Maneuver System and the Momentum Counter system. I enjoyed the RMS as a change of pace, although I felt that there is still a lot of potential to be had in terms of clever and inspired level design. A decent number levels are generic and uninspired filler, especially early in the game. The game still manages to mix in a good variety of enjoyable tactical situations and mission objectives, even if they are not that complex. I particularly enjoyed utilizing the character skill that prevents enemies from passing through them.

The MC system is simply a form of 'aggro', and it usually works in the players favor. Your caster units that are likely to die in one hit can usually keep a low MC while still tossing off spells and being ignored by enemies.

There are other elements of the gameplay that some players will find to be distastefully difficult or imbalanced. Your units (besides archers) cannot move and then perform an action, such as spells, items, or activatible skills, severely limiting their usefulness. The skill system in general is largely imbalanced – the only skills worth investing heavily in are passive boosts or abilities. Likewise, the slow movement of most caster characters combined with their inability to move and cast in the same turn means they are better off unused.

Like other preparation heavy games (Front Mission, Fire Emblem), half of the battle is managing your army well. Either that, or spend hours grinding the same couple of enemies until you vastly outlevel your computer opponents. As you and I know, most players choose the latter (while whining about it instead of playing more efficiently or giving up, of course).

Most of the reward system is hidden from the player, much like Fire Emblem scoring systems. There are different end of stage ranks given to the player, which offer more XP and items for better performance, but the factors behind it are completely hidden. While I never approve of this kind of system, there is at least something to distinguish a poor players 'Narrow Victory' from a good players 'Complete' or 'Overwhelming' Victory, as vague and unrecorded as those terms may be.

Difficulty

ROS is really not that difficult, even if you choose never to retreat or powerlevel. The most contentious 'difficulties' in this game are the esoteric elements where the game deliberately (or just by sloppy design) withholds information from the player, forcing you to experiment or calculate your tactics on your own. For example, players can't check the attack range of enemy spells and bow attacks. There is no way to tell besides manual counting if an enemy can hit you.

If you have been relying on a games UI to do some of the 'heavy lifting' involving calculating movement ranges and distances, you will probably consider the lack of such niceties in this game to be annoying. Despite the UI not being crammed with features to make life easier for the player, at least it is responsive and snappy, which is more than I can say about most non IS games.

If you are a serious tactics game fan and/or grognard you will be used to the process of analyzing a game system/AI and calculating the optimal way to play through it with the most rewards, least casualties, and highest efficiency. Some players even handicap themselves to heighten the challenge, usually in a manner that avoids long repetitive grinding and powerleveling of stats and numbers. Once again, casual players will balk at having to spend more than 2 minutes in the preparations screen between stages, let alone formulate a long term plan that spans the entirety of the game. My high mark for a tactics game difficulty remains the task of getting perfect scores in all the Advance Wars Advance Campaign levels.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/07/08

Game Release: Rondo of Swords (US, 04/15/08)