The DioField Chronicle Review

Square Enix, not only JRPGs are their forte, they are also experts in turn-based strategy games. He has already shown it with the Final Fantasy Tactics, and more recently with Triangle Strategy. At the beginning of the year, it was announced The DioField Chronicle in the State of Play of that date, and although it was simply announced, it caught the attention of fans of the genre.

Unlike other strategy games, in The DioField Chronicle a different approach has been given to the genre. First, it is a strategy game that abandons turns for a real-time approach. In addition, the game is configured as if it were a diorama, hence the name.

War between nations, the root of all evil

The DioField Chronicle is a fictional continent which had a time of peace. However, three of their nations rose up in conflict: The Kingdom of Alletia, the Schoevian Empire, and the Rowetale Alliance. The Schoevian Empire prevails over the Rowetale Alliance and their next target is Alletia. Two brothers were drawn into the conflict, Levanthia and Fredret Lester and one of them perished, leaving the other to escape with two of his friends.

Years later, Fredet, Izelair and Andrias cross paths with a Duke of Alletia, and become part of a company of soldiers that is being formed. As a group of mercenaries, we must make a name for ourselves in the war they are part of, completing missions and meeting characters along the way.

Obviously, the story will gradually introduce characters in which many of them will be secondary characters, while others will be part of our ranks. Each one has its background behind and as we advance in the adventure we will learn more about them.

At the plot level, it has what can be expected from a story with medieval touches such as betrayals, plot twists, topics seen before. The story leaves no one indifferent, although quite heavy language is used in the English dialogues.

war diorama

First of all, we will have a base of operations called Camp Elm, where we will receive the missions, these will be both main and secondary. We can also buy objects, weapons and equipment, in addition to creating all that by unlocking a laboratory. We can also talk to the NPCs to learn more about them, and some characters will give us particular missions. These missions are important because

Already on the battlefield, The DioField Chronicle introduces the new mechanic called RTTB or Real-Time Tactical Battle, for its acronym in English. This battle system is a quick overview of the battlefield, as the action takes place in real time and the flow of combat is constant. All this linked with role-playing elements and even a house brand such as invocations, abilities and powers.

On the battlefield, we can move a unit wherever we want and it does not require turns to do so. You can move an individual character or the whole group, as many times as you want and whenever you want. Moving close to the enemy’s view range causes the enemy to activate and seek us out to start the battle, and both our unit and the enemy attack automatically. Some of the special attacks have status effects that can slow, stun, disable.

The battles are decided by the level of the character/enemy or by how many participants are in the same fight. A character with a level advantage will beat an enemy with a lower level. Two characters of equal levels, the one who uses abilities or powers, or if an ally joins us, will win. The battles offer a lot of room for possibilities. However, sometimes they are cumbersome when many characters are gathered at the same point, since we will not be able to choose the character we want precisely.

Each unit, whether ally or enemy, has different classes and we can find: Squire, Archers, Mages and Knight. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages, as well as abilities that we can use with a bar intended for this purpose. Each skill requires a certain amount of the skill bar, this in turn depends on the class of our unit and the level. We will find that some are specialized, such as sharp shooter that uses magical weapons to attack at long ranges in addition to causing altered states.

knowing the terrain

Each level comes in the form of missions, and before each mission, we must get up to speed on each one in our base of operations. In each location we must advance, so that we can study the terrain and enemy routes to have the best possible approach. The DioField Chronicle It is not a game that takes the player by the hand, and on many occasions we will have difficult things.

However, there will not only be enemies on the ground, but also at the forks we can find Jade Fragments that can be orbs of health, energy and mana. There will even be chests containing juicy rewards. This encourages exploration, so being curious can have its benefits…or not.

Sometimes, we will find environmental traps, such as explosive barrels. These serve to attract enemies and once in position activate them to do a large amount of damage. Of course, they have a range of action that can affect even our troops, so it’s best to get away before they explode.

As a Square Enix product, summons will also make an appearance, albeit briefly and for a single attack. For example, Bahamut can be summoned and he performs an area attack that can make enemies weak or eliminate them. To summon these entities, we must fill an additional bar or eliminate enemies up to a maximum of three uses.

maximizing units

Each character can be upgraded through a Skill Tree, level ups, and purchases of better gear. With the skill tree we can use points for this purpose that are obtained in various ways, either by leveling up or fulfilling certain additional conditions in the missions. If the route taken in said tree does not convince us, we can restore the points to reorganize them.

We will also see the Unit Ranks through the Blue Fox Badges, which are used to obtain rewards and obtain advantages (persk). There are five types of rank ranging Food for attributes, Skill Tree for new and better moves, Shops that unlocks better goods, Weapon Development for better gear, Magilumic Orbs for better crafting orbs. These ranks are raised through side quests and have a maximum of five levels.

Equipment also serves to maximize our troops, such as weapons that come with abilities and attachments that grant attribute boosts in addition to passive abilities.

war diorama

On a graphic level, a style was chosen for the game that combines natural environments with textures and a diorama shape, the buildings look like highly detailed models. Even the characters look like action figures, although not as rigid, except for their facial expressions. Each character stands out for his clothing, which can be very eccentric and elaborate.

Although on the battlefield you can have several skirmishes, the action does not slow down in terms of frames. The game has 3 modes for graphics: Full HD with graphics, 4K Quality Priority and 4K Performance Priority.

Music by Brandon Campbell and Ramin Djawadi. It has themes that range from the sublime, calm, sadness and epic cut. It comes dubbed into English and Japanese, and the texts in English. The Anglo-Saxon dubbing has a British accent that for me suits medieval themes.

Verdict

The DioField Chronicle is an interesting gamble that puts a different spin on strategy games. With a dense story, covering many characters and plots, it will be a game for lovers of medieval works. A unique game system in the genre, whose levels won’t make things easy, but we’ll know how to get around it if we have a good strategy. It has a fairly deep system and will keep us playing for a long time.

Note: This review was made with the PS5 version and the code was provided thanks to Square Enix.