Drone Tactics

"Is Drone Tactics going to sway the minds of all those bug hating people out there?"

So with the huge amount of excellent selectable SRPGs available on the market, does Drone Tactics stand a chance of succession? Does it have what it takes to become a serious competitor to many established SRPGS we're already playing? Is Drone Tactics even a good game or another miss in a sea of awful titles that seem to hover like ghosts, or hang like ugly dolls upon dusty shelves of the unwanted section of a used video game store. It Drone Tactics an act of genius or just another title left to rot in a Gamespot bargain bin?

Drone Tactics follows the roles of two young children Yamato and Tsubasa who come across a Rhino Beetle and a Butterfly they can understand. These bugs tell them that their planet of Cimexus is under threat from a fraction of bug abusers called Black Swarm. After agreeing to help the bugs save their home planet, the two kids are teleported to Cimexus to fight off the Black Swarm.

The story has to be criticised for its simplicity and often childish nature. It isn't nurtured very well and always comes off as inexperienced and feels like a filler for the gaps in the game play. I'm sure this was intended for younger audiences, yet they automatically singled out the older generation -anyone over 10 years old- by producing a story as weak, mundane and cliched as Drone Tactics'.

Drone Tactics plays out like any other SRPG except with robotic bugs. The object of each battle is to defeat every enemy in sight while collecting capsules and keeping your Snail convoy safe from harm. In battles you'll tend to be out-numbered by over-levelled enemies who like only seem to move when you get close to them. The problem with this is that you can pick off the weak AI with ease. To make things worse, battling is dodgy. In battle you can choose between Melee or Gun attacks. Melee attacks are helpful and are usually strong against most enemies. Gun attacks always seem to be under-powered and against some enemies it just won't do any damage even though statistics before battle say that it will. Even more of a problem is that the computer will counter attack every move you make and sometimes they'll do more damage than you have. Finally you have cannon bugs. Bugs that use cannons -flying or not- can only fire from a certain range. I found that bugs that specialise in cannons can either be very good or very bad. Good as in they'll kill a ton and bad-worse case scenario- as in they'll kill absolutely nothing.

Moving about the map is easy, you move a certain distance based on your bugs movement range. Flying bugs like Butterflies tend to move much father and can fly just about anywhere- including over water. Ground bugs all have varied movement ranges depending on one of the three other categories. These categories determine what terrain this particular bug will fight best upon. Snails are in the tread category battle rather well on grass. Terrain adds more strategy to DT. It has its benefits and its disadvantages. Flying bugs will never have a terrain effect as they never land, this can be good as they can fly over water, yet they never get any of the benefits ground units claim from standing on certain terrain. Certain terrain lowers defence while others raise it. Attack accuracy and other things can be affected.

For more elaboration of the Snail convoy. This robotic insect acts as a base of sorts for your characters and bugs. At the start of every battle no units will be on the map apart from the Snail. Inside the snail lie the units and you can bring them out on to any adjacent square abutting the snail. You can bring up to eight bugs on any given map out of a huge selection, but make your choices wisely. The snail also acts as a healing ground for injured units. Just enter the base -therefore wasting your turn- and when you bring your bug back out -also wasting another turn- the bug will be fully healed.

There are around loads of battle maps, 60 of which make up the badlands; a part of the game that has no involvement in the storyline. The badlands act as an experience raiser as well as a capsule gainer. The maps are varied, increase in difficulty and offer a decent challenge the further you progress. Maps are of a decent size and strategy is needed as later maps are smartly devised. The problem with the main story and the badlands is abuse. The main story forces you to enter the badlands to raise levels to take on the over-powered Black Swarm army. The badlands can be experience abused and collecting too much experience and can make the main game very, very easy.

Capsules act as extra items/cards but you don't know what they are until you stand on said capsule. They are placed in certain levels of the main story or the badlands, normally on the enemies' side of the field. To make matters worse, enemies like to go for the capsules, too. As they tend to be closer, there is always the chance that they'll go after the capsule before they come after you. Sometimes you have to move bug into enemy territory to claim the capsule because if you sent the whole team along, all the enemies would be killed with ease making it impossible to collect the capsule as the level ends automatically when all enemies are defeated. Another disadvantage about sending a bug into the enemies' frontlines is that they are always open to constant fire, making them easy targets to bite the dust early on in the battle.

Cards acts as support beams in battle and if used correctly can help you drastically in battle. Most cards are only useable in battle- normally battle cards- which uses the DS stylus in small mini-games. Most of these stylus actions only really require you to tap the screen as fast as you can in order to get a more powerful attack. Other cards can move bugs to other spaces, heal bugs' hit points or even deplete the hit points of any surrounding bugs. These cards can be used at vital times and act as a good twist to strategy. They are certainly needed in certain situations (especially when surrounded).

Throughout Drone Tactics the bugs you collect are fully customizable. With over 100 weapons and parameter changing attachments. Characters have three sections of attack. A Melee, Gun and Cannon section, but bugs/characters tend to specialise in one of the three, making the other two sections virtually useless and therefore the customisation of the two sub-sections will typically be used for more defensive accoutrements such as side armour which increases defence. Other equipment increases accuracy, attack and acceleration in battle.

Experience is dealt after the end of the battle with all bugs collecting decent amounts based on whether conscious at the end getting the same amount, but the unconscious one will get half. This makes things great and you don't have to worry about forcing weaker units into battle. Also included are extra points that you can give to a character of your choice. This can help make weaker characters stronger, or your stronger characters even stronger. This experience system certainly makes Drone Tactics more accessible due to the fact you don't have to grind each individual bug's level.

The main problem with Drone Tactics is that it never really manages to captivate or excite the player. The game never manages to really fulfil our greatest anticipations. Sure there are moments where you'll have fun, and the whole title as a whole is solid, meaty and respectable. It's just that Drone Tactics never picks up from what we see at the start and so we are never really given a chance to fully appreciate anything it throws at us. It's a shame because this title has tremendous potential. Hopefully if a second Drone Tactics is created, they'll make it a whole lot more enjoyable that this version is.

The visuals in Drone Tactics are very nice. The maps aren't intricately designed, but they do well with what they work with (some could call the designers lazy). The bugs look cool, and as usual the enemies of Black Swarm use the creepy bugs over the cuter ones. Expect them to use spiders, cockroaches etc. There are huge selections of awesome bugs available from ladybugs, rhino beetles, snails, butterflies and bees. The most impressive parts of the game though are the actually battles where you'll see your bugs battle it out with an assortment of attacks and effects. These animated sequences show the real power of the Nintendo DS. Bugs also transform, fire bolts of light and there are an abundance of flashes and explosions to support the already awesome battle sequences.

The soundtrack is produced by renown composer Motoi Sakuraba (Golden Sun), yet this is by far no where near up to his usual standards. Many themes here are lousy and feel as though Motoi was obviously uninspired at the time he created these. Many themes are unforgettable and you'll find yourself turning down the music rather than listening to it. It's quite disappointing to think that Motoi could create such diabolical music.

Drone Tactics is a lengthy SRPG with tons of replay value. Aside from the main story you have the badlands and its 60+ strategically intense maps that increase in difficulty the farther you progress. It's occasionally fun, introduces you to a huge range of bugs and has three difficulty levels. Sure some of the ideas need ironing out, the story needs to be a little more mature and less cliched and the music certainly needs a decent upgrading, but if your looking for a meaty SRPG with great value for money, you can't go far wrong with Drone Tactics.

Pro and Cons

+ Loads of battle maps, bugs and customisation
+ It's very long and gives you exactly what an SRPG should.

- The AI isn't very clever
- The enemies are either over-powered or under-powered. You can't win.
- It has a few niggles and flaws that need to be ironed out.
- The music was poor.
- The story was incredibly immature

If you liked this you may like

Final Fantasy Tactics / Tactics Advance
Tactics Ogre
Disgaea- or any other Nippon Ichi SRPG

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/09

Game Release: Drone Tactics (US, 05/12/08)