Among the thousands of RPGs which populate the genre, there is a general consensus which is followed by an overwhelming majority of them all, being turn-based combat. The game’s setting, being fantasy, realistic, or even science fiction rarely influences the developers’ decision for this, since turn-based battles have dominated the landscape ever since the inception of this genre.
This general, unofficial rule is what is making new RPGs stand out as of lately, since a little spice in the combat system of a game is talked about quite a lot in this day and age. Take for example an upcoming game published by NIS America for example, Grand Kingdom. This game, which is still in development but releases in little over a month’s time, is making quite a couple of changes to the conventional RPG style of combat, but as my experience so far can say, these changes are incredibly welcome, and give the game a unique identity, one which hopefully carry on into the finished game. Basically, Grand Kingdom operates on a 2.5D battle system, a Tekken-dimensional if you may, but without the sidestepping and rotating 360 degrees around an enemy. Anyway. What I mean is, you only see the characters sideways, and not from behind the characters such as in Final Fantasy or other JRPG titles. This change in how a battle is viewed does almost no change at all in terms of battle procedure, since after a quick tutorial one is ready to carry out all the battles he or she would like to do.
Now for some backstory to make you more acquainted with the world of the game. You play as a group of mercenaries, fighting across the land of Resonail, completing quests given to you by your different employers and ultimately gathering the rewards for such quests to boost your resources and be able to tackle harder quests. It is after all the mercenary life, and a couple of battles of Grand Kingdom will surely show whether you have got what it takes to become a successful one. Luckily, the battle system is a joy to behold, both graphically, thanks to the marvellous design of the game, and gameplay-wise, thanks to a rather new battle system which I will explain below.
As mentioned before, battles are carried out in 2.5D, meaning characters will not be able to move in directions other than forwards, backwards and sideways. Combat brings these constraints into play as well, since you can only attack enemies within your range, and since this is a 2D ish game, enemies are on the other half of the screen, so you need to move within the attack range for you to be able to strike the enemies. The game also incorporates an action meter which delineates the possible moves your character may make, in terms of movement and also in terms of combat strikes, but it is far more evident when moving your character. Attacking an enemy unit is fairly easy since all one needs is getting within the range of that unit, be it up close in the case of a melee unit or far away if you are controlling a ranged unit. When attacking, you can spam the attack button as much as you like and your character will strike as much as your button presses, given that you are hitting the enemy with each one. When one strike fails, the attack ends and the unit has to end his turn there. There is not much else to combat other than this, but mastering it comes quite slowly since the game adds more obstacles the further in you get.
One thing I really liked about the game, and it may not have been even done on purpose, is how players learn it. In my second or third battle, for example, I saw that the AI was using repetitive attacks with his archer, so I tried doing the same and it worked. This was not explained in the tutorials at the start of the game, so I figured out that the developers leave a gap of learning for the player to experiment and figure out for themselves. If that is the case, it was an excellent decision, since this type of learning is the most rewarding type of all, and encourages experimentation and more engagement into the game.
Since your characters are mercenaries, you obviously fight for money, and this money mainly comes in from completing quests and getting the reward for it. Quests are fairly easy to understand – you are given a maximum number of “steps” which you must obey, or otherwise your quest will fail and you will have to start over, meaning you will have to play by the counter, displayed top left on the screen, and be careful not to wander off too far, or else you will not make it back to the goal within the stipulated steps. It is a good system, one which gives the user freedom to roam about without the freedom itself to do whatever you like. Speaking of ending the quest, the game also features a very intelligent item system – if you find any Field items on your course to the goal but do not use them when reaching the finish line, you will lose such items but will get paid for them, which will pose a problem for hoarders like yours truly, since each consumption of an item will bring about an opportunity cost in terms of the gold which could have been earned on that particular item. This gold can then be spent on a multitude of items, most importantly hiring new members and new classes in order to boost your party’s effectiveness and be able to rake in more money and better loot!
As anyone who has played this version of Grand Kingdom notices, the graphics of the game are something unique. The artistic style of the characters, the environments and even a little in the menus tie together to form quite a beautiful package. This style will also be the cause of countless wasted hours in battle, since thanks to the touchpad of the PS4, one can navigate the battle scene as much as he wants, giving off the idea to indirectly pause the game and take screenshots to keep and treasure.
As I have explained, Grand Kingdom is one hell of a game, and it is not even complete yet since the full title will be out around mid-June. Considering there is more than a month for the team to work on the multiple pieces which are being published at the moment including this one, the developers should simply be sure to have everything up and running when the release date comes by, and if they decide to add something extra to the mix just to swerve those who played the Lite version, they are quite welcome to do so.
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