The event Square Enix Plays 2022 that has been held in London in the last few hours has been the best way to bring part of the Tokyo Game Show 2022 to Europe and thus try some of the Square Enix novelties for the coming months, among which some titles that are counting the days left to go on sale in stores, see the case of The DioField Chronicle.
I remember the moment when it was announced that many people thought it was going to be a new Final Fantasy Tactics and in the end for more than one it was a disappointment because it was something different. However, after having thoroughly tested it for a little over half an hour, I have to say that I must be very careful with this game that is about to go on sale and has not made much noise since it was presented, because it can become one of the biggest surprises of this month and even of what remains of 2022.
Some strategy battles that drink from Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy
As soon as I saw other comrades fighting the occasional battle in The DioField Chronicle I couldn’t help but remember Fire Emblem. Nor is it that Square Enix’s work is played the same as the mythical Nintendo saga, because here the scenarios made up of squares are dispensed with, but due to the setting with that medieval touch and certain aspects of the gameplay, it could be considered that it has been taken as reference the series of the great N for its development.
Something that I loved from the first moment when I took the controls is the fact that the fights that we will fight they can boast of having their personal touch that makes them unique compared to other similar proposals. Here everything happens in real time and there are no turns involved, although the game also allows us to take it easy and think carefully about what our next move will be when moving units around the map.
Basically what we have to do is select one or several of the units that we have at our disposal and from there indicate to which part of the area they will move. The good thing is that the trajectory does not have to be going from point A to point B and that’s it, but we can establish different routes so that the character in question passes through several places until reaching his destination or even canceling it.
In addition, we will not have a limit of movements, so we can make them move as much as we want without any inconvenience. Of course, at no time do we have to lose sight of the enemies because they have their own range of vision, which means that if one of our soldiers gets inside it, it will cause our adversary to pounce on us and begin to fight without stopping until one of the two is defeated.
This allows us to play a little with the artificial intelligence, which has not given the impression that it is too fine, because in my case what I did was take a soldier with a shield so that he ate the blows while the others dedicated themselves to distribute tow without rhyme or reason. The point is that the enemy army will only attack the first one in sight, completely bypassing everyone else, so we can take advantage of this same situation to set up an ambush.
In this way, while we have one of our heroes receiving sticks, with the others we can trace a route so that they are placed on his back and thus cause more damage than normal. His would be that in a situation of this type they would turn to crush those of ours who are giving him the greatest impacts, but it did not happen even once. Still, it’s not a piece of cake either, because there were times when there was several enemies very close together and in which I find myself at a full disadvantage.
Therefore, we must think about what actions we are going to carry out and, above all, the place where we are going to situate ourselves so as not to be facing a real predicament. In fact, there was one time when two of my units were defeated, although by bringing an ally close to his position I could revive them after a few seconds so that they would return to the action. At the same time, I didn’t feel like there was a usage limit, but the potions to heal the characters will be really scarce.
In another vein, the units will be different from each other by the capacities they have, something that will be reflected especially in special attacks. These will wreak havoc and side effects, such as the fact that the shield wielder can stun those they come face to face with, while the archer can fire a barrage of arrows in one direction or the rider is able to execute a ramming in the direction we indicate.
On the other hand, the scenarios give the impression that they will not be mere decorations and will also play an important role. In one of the missions I had to conquer some towers in order to activate some drawbridges, to which are added corridors, ramps or larger places that also influence our action planning when thinking about what we will do or place our units in a certain position.
And if there is something that makes it obvious that it is a Square Enix game and could even be mistaken for a final-fantasy It’s because of the summons thing. By filling in some blue crystals we can summon creatures to destroy everything and naturally cause a real massacre. In the absence of knowing how many there will be and which ones, the first one they present to you is Bahamut himself, who descends from the skies with an impressive cinematic and with an attack that will be very familiar to all fans of FF.
Activities when not everything is battle after battle
Another of the main reasons why I have remembered Fire Emblem, especially from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, is because at the end of each mission you return to the main castle where our group of mercenaries gathers. Right now everything takes place in a third person perspective so that we go from one place to another talking with the other soldiers or characters that are located in the rooms and thus make friends or improve our relationship with them.
I don’t know to what extent these situations will influence, because the part I saw was very basic and did not offer too many options beyond going from one place to another to chat with anyone. What I did like was that there was like an operations table from which you could select the next mission to complete, with its own objectives and secondary challenges to unlock special rewards.
Likewise, in this place we will also have the opportunity to perfect our group by modifying their pieces of equipment or also exchanging the skill points that they obtain based on leveling up, so that their statistics are increased and in the process they gain more special attacks.
The truth is that I wanted to delve deeper into this section, but we won’t have to wait too long to see what else it can offer The DioField Chronicle, because its launch will take place next week, although it should be noted that it will not be localized into Spanish, which may be a barrier for some because before and after each mission there is a good string of conversations. That does not mean that the game does not look excellent and may be one of those that leaves a mark without anyone expecting it.
- platforms: PS4, PS5 (played version), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC
- multiplayer: Nope
- developer: Square Enix
- Company: Square Enix
- Launch: September 22, 2022