Primarily a protracted collection 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 war-room politicking of Sport of Thrones with a give attention to shifting the chess items on the expense of credible character growth. 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 finally futile, crushed by an exhausting and relentless battle machine.
Because 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 kinds that seems to resemble a vein of valuable gems. But a frail king and the homicide of his inheritor has induced 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 Sport of Thrones opening credit whereas these in command conduct sober debate about their subsequent energy play. These are critical folks making critical choices, it appears to suggest. Everybody concerned speaks as if by way of clenched-jaw, and with curiously little emotion, a vocal efficiency that’s maybe meant to point the gravity of the scenario however as an alternative 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 boring lead, as he is disinclined to expose his interior ideas, whereas the ponderous, typically humorless conversations he has with the remainder of the solid do little to heat you to his plight, or anybody elses for that matter. In pretty typical JPRG model, few of the core solid 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 basic. It is laborious stuff and serves largely to spotlight the necessity for a faster methodology of skipping by way of every scene.
Between missions you discover the sparsely embellished hold that serves as firm HQ, gathering new missions, purchasing for weapons and consumables, and upgrading the get together’s skills. Helpfully, the map exhibits the place missions might be collected and conversations might be held, in addition to whether or not the service provider or analysis station have new gadgets accessible, and you’ll fast-travel between places in mere seconds. As you recruit new get together members, this hub space progressively turns into extra populated over time, however regardless of the presence of facet missions to unlock further options and a brand new space, it fails to really feel like dwelling. Not rather more than a set of bland, typically empty rooms, the HQ is actually a glorified menu. Returning to the hub should be accompanied by a way of surprise at what might need modified or developed; as an alternative it is extra of a weary resignation that you’ll need to hop between hotspots whereas clicking by way of a bunch of boring dialogue.
Battles happen in real-time with the motion pausing robotically once you subject a motion order or a command to make use of a capability. This may give proceedings a jarring stop-start really feel, nevertheless it does enable time to assume each step of the best way and, crucially, make small adjustments–say, telling a personality to step a couple of ft to the facet to keep away from an incoming assault.
The fight appears fascinating at first however fails to develop, seemingly content material to tread the identical floor from begin to end
The fight appears fascinating at first however fails to develop, seemingly content material to tread the identical floor from begin to end. Surprises are restricted to one more wave of enemies relatively than any try and chart new territory. Enemies boil down to 2 types–ranged and melee–with variations decreased to stronger variations and a few very barely completely different assaults. Your get together members are available in 4 lessons: soldier (the defensive tank), cavalier (cell harm), sharpshooter (ranged harm), and magicker (therapeutic and buffs with some ranged harm). These characters require fairly completely different ways to maximise their potential. You are not simply telling everybody to assault that enemy and sitting again; it is important 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 solid Sanctuary on the bottom your soldier is holding, or have your sharpshooter hearth off a stun shot to interrupt an enemy making ready a particular assault.
However as you progress deeper, the problem of fight would not escalate in fascinating methods. Positive, there are a couple of extra enemies to face without delay. Positive, they’ve a pair extra methods up their sleeve than mere primary assaults. And certain, there’s the odd boss with a number of well being bars. However there aren’t that many extra enemies, these further methods aren’t all that new, and people bosses simply take longer to kill relatively than demanding a novel strategy. For a lot of the final half of the sport, I tackled each struggle in a lot the identical manner, sticking with the identical core crew and solely making minor tweaks when obligatory. There was no want to alter as a result of the missions weren’t presenting me with any new challenges. Climactic encounters have been dealt with in an identical trend in a manner that originally felt satisfying, as if I might 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 tip.
Within the area, Andrias could be the group’s chief however you’ll be able to choose any characters to comprise the get together of 4. Cleverly, you are not restricted to your chosen 4 as soon as a battle will get underway. Within the setup section you assign a help character to every major get together member, buffing their efficiency with passive stat bonuses and permitting them to activate the second character’s particular skills. You’ll be able to 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 sensible manner to make sure that everyone seems to be concerned. After all there’s nonetheless an inclination to stay along with your favorites, notably because the major get together features extra XP, nevertheless it eases the burden of grinding missions (you’ll be able to replay any as soon as accomplished to tick off sub-objectives and earn gold and XP) to permit under-leveled characters to catch up.
The rudimentary map design exacerbates the issue. Terrain sort is just not 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’ll be able to hearth a ranged weapon by way of or over any impediment. Excessive floor isn’t any benefit. Every little thing is so flattened out that the fight arenas could as properly be clean areas. Possibly this would not be such a difficulty if the mission goal required extra fascinating actions, however they virtually with out exception process you with killing all of the enemies. Typically you must activate a bridge to achieve the subsequent batch of enemies, sometimes 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 probably provide intriguing different paths, the mission format would not change. A nascent pro-democracy motion, born of indignant frequent folks, is rapidly 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 lifeless, a gaggle of indignant peasant farmers; they’re all handled in the identical manner: Deploy the mercs and slaughter something that strikes. Too many near-identical fights make for a tedious slog, and the late-game story twists that delay the tip credit solely intensify the fatigue.
The Diofield Chronicle in all probability needs 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 surely 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. Equally, in short conversations, it gestures at the potential for different methods to construction society, however by no means truly entertains them. With Andrias and his mercenary firm the hammer that sees each downside as a nail, it makes for an unsatisfying narrative arc. But as you deploy the identical ways throughout what could as properly be the identical battlefield towards just about the identical enemies for the umpteenth time, it is an efficient metaphor for the conservative and unimaginative sport design.
