Rondo of Swords

"More Polish, Please"

Summary

Rondo of Swords brings us something new in the battle system for turn-based SRPG, an area which has not been seeing significant changes for a while. While this innovation may not sit well with some gamers, it does grow on me after a while. This game is also clearly influenced by past titles, where it borrows heavily on elements such as quest modes and skill systems. Like a raw precious stone, more polish will be required if the developers decide to follow up with a sequel.

General Description

The run-of-the-mill story begins with the fall of Bretwald Kingdom and the escape of its crown prince Serdic. Accompanied by two allies, Kay (knight on horseback) and Margus (heavy infantry), Serdic has to travel across different lands to rebuild what had fallen and reclaim what was lost.

The gameplay is broken into a recognizable format. Each chapter will start by some story-telling. The player will then be brought into a preparation mode. In this mode, the player will decide what to equip the characters, which skills to level up and who to bring into battle. After which, the actual battle begins. Successfully fulfilling the battle objectives will bring the player to the next chapter.

Battle System

The battle for each chapter is played out on a specific map. Party members and enemy characters are placed over this grid map, which is similar SRPG such as Fire Emblem, Advanced Wars and Luminous Arc.

The innovation revolves around the fighting system between melee fighters. This is called the Route Maneuver System. The key concept is that the game characters here can walk through each other, unlike normal SRPG where characters block others if they are standing in the way.

Let us take a knight as an example. For normal games, your knight typically moves to the adjacent square of an enemy and select the attack function. To attack in Rondo, you will need to select your knight's movement path such that he moves across the enemy. When his path cuts into the enemy, the attack will take place.

A more specific example will shed some light on how this works. Take a case where the enemy is one square north of your main member Serdic. You will need to select a direct upward path where Serdic moves two squares north. In the movement, Serdic will rush up and cut across the enemy's square (and this constitutes as an attack), and finally ends up on a square north of the enemy. In the same manner, if there is a string of enemies standing together and if Serdic has sufficient movement range, you can plan an attack path where multiple enemies are hit in one move.

There is also a support system related to the above Route Maneuver System. Instead of selecting a path to rush across the enemies, sometimes you will want to rush across your own team members. This is because some party members have support abilities such as healing of HP.

Let us use another example where you are in control of Serdic, who is hurt. Kay, who has the HP Healing support ability, is standing one square north of Serdic. During Serdic's turn, you can select a path which cuts across Kay's square. Thus, Serdic's HP will get healed when he moves across Kay. Similarly, if there is a group of enemies near Kay and if Serdic has enough movement range, it is possible that Serdic launches attack on enemies while getting his HP healed in the same single move.

As for non-melee characters such as archers and mages, the Route Maneuver System is pretty irrelevant. The non-melee fighting system is similar to typical SRPG where you select attack functions from a distance. The only notable difference here is archers are able to shoot after moving. This is very different from most titles where archers' attacking functions are usually disabled after movements are made. This makes archers in Rondo very deadly as the range can be extremely huge. Nevertheless, archers can only make one attack per turn and this is counter-balanced by melee characters' ability to make multiple attacks using the Route Maneuver System.

Fun and Challenges

The Route Maneuver System is surprisingly fun and packs a punch. If your party members fall during a chapter, they will be indicated as “Hurt” in the next few chapters. During this period, the hurt characters will suffer a fall in statistics if you send them into new battles. Despite being less stringent than the famously harsh Fire Emblem where fallen members will be lost forever, gamers will have a good time here retrying chapters to keep all their members unhurt.

Certain hidden chapters will only be revealed if you fulfill special conditions (eg. all neutral characters escape the battle map). Also, there are unique characters in some maps who will join your cause if you move quick enough to talk to them (before they get slaughtered by enemies). As such, there will be certain chapters where gamers will be enticed to retry again and again to achieve perfection.

There is also a skill system somewhat similar to Etrain Odyssey. When your members level up, they would be given skill points and will need to decide how to allocate among different available skills. It is fun to play around here, trying out different combinations. Always a cautious player, my style is to accumulate the unused skill points (in case I allocated them to some useless skills) until a point where my members cannot cope in tough battles.

In the pre-battle preparatory mode, you are able to assign members to go on special quests. This idea is close to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Once your members go on a quest, they will be unable to participate in the main battle. The upsides are that they can uncover special items or gain some boasts in character statistics.

Rondo also offers different game endings depending on certain decisions. While I am neutral on such game designs, some gamers would be thrilled by this inclusion and the possible replay value.

Poor Designs

Let us first talk about the interface. More thoughts should have been put into the interface system. In the pre-battle preparation mode, you are likely to trip your fingers due to the button assignment system and the screen layout. Sometimes, different confirmation buttons are used for selection and sometimes, the same button is used for resetting orders. You will have a tough time trying to view status, allocate fighters and assign skill points due to the poor button system. Also, the touch screen could have been better utilized.

In the battle screens, the movement range and attack range are also lacking in user friendliness. It is important to note that melee units and non-melee units are different in terms of both movement and attack range. Due to the Maneuver system, melee units' attack range is dependent on their movement range. However, for non-melee units, attack range is distinctively different from movement range. You will realize that the game uses the same color scheme for both movement and attack ranges, and it can cause confusion at times.

Also, when you scroll the page casually onto an unit, the movement range will appear even if you do not select it using a confirmation button. There will be times when you wondering if you should un-select an unit, scroll the page or just move on to another unit. Titles such as Advanced Wars have perfected this interface and it is sad to see that this game has taken a few steps back.

The shop system is another problem. Instead of the typical shop system where you simply approach a shop and purchase available items, this game treats it like a quest mode. This means you send a member for shopping during the preparation mode, and this member misses that chapter's battle. Call me old school here, but for mundane shopping, please give us a simple and straight-forward system.

Final Words

In all fairness, this game deserves a chance even if you feel that the battle system is awkwardly strange. It may just grow on you, like it did on me. The title will have scored higher if not due to the poor interface, which is a real frustrating damper. Final verdict: 7 out of 10. And I will not mind a sequel if the developers rework on the flaws.

<Review by ray lightcaster>

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/15/08

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