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Rondo of Swords has a unique take on SRPGs where the emphasis is on the path that you take along with the direction when attacking an opponent. After a lot of cookie cutter SRPGs this is refreshing. It is however not as easy as some other titles (even the tutorials take a long time).
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Yes, Rondo of Swords is not an easy game. It forces players to unlearn what they have learned about SRPGS. Your 200 hours of Disgaea or your total domination of FFT will not help you here. The mechanic is drastically different, and it requires a new kind of strategy to conquer.
Here's where I had the most fun; learning the new wrinkles in the gameplay system, using the environment and positioning to my advantage and actually playing a game where a character mobility is as important as their relative strength. RoS is an odd bird in the RPG world, but the innovation is worth the frustration.
Now even with all the challenging fun, this game is nowhere near perfect. The documentation is terrible, along with the in-game tutorial. The larger metagame is never really explored (errands) and mistakes can be made without any chance to go back and fix them. For this part of the game gamefaqs.com is your friend. Along with lack luster unit/environmental art, uninteresting/sometimes repetitive music, and other strange design choices this game loses a star from me.
All that being said, for fans of SRPGS Rondo is a real gem. Playing it is like nothing you have ever tried before. Winning battles, even after a few tries, carries an extra sense of accomplishment because of the actual tactical thinking needed to overcome the foes. Unfortunately, non genre-stalwarts should probably find another game.
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I bought this game with high hopes thinking it would be like Jeanne D'Arc and FF War of the Lions I couldn't have been more wrong. This game is very challenging. Most of the battles you probably have to repeat 2-4 times just to get through them. The story line is next to extinct it's just going from one battle to the next. In most games you can go to a general store to pick up healing items not so in this game you have to have a member of your party pick up the items while your fighting, unfortunatly about 80% of the time they end up losing all your money and don't bring back any items which leaves you with no way to heal yourself in battle. If your looking for a good stratagy RPG I suggest getting FF tactics War of the Lions or Jeanne D'Arc both are challenging and have very good story lines. The only thing Rondo of Swords leaves you with is the overwhelming desire to scream your head off.
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Unless you want to play with the game in one hand and a strategy guide or walkthough in the other, don't bother with this game. Yes, it has a nifty new gameplay mechanic, the pass-through attack instead of the "move then attack" system standard to tactical rpgs. That's fine and good, it's the other stuff that really kills the fun. Like Fire Emblem, there are limited new characters that you have to unlock. Unlike Fire Emblem, there are often special things you have to do to even get those characters to appear in the first place, something I didn't find out about until I'd already missed the chance to recruit two of the better characters in the game. If you're a sucker for punishment, or just looking for something way more challenging than the average TRPG, this might be your game. Everyone else, stay away.
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As the title of my review suggests, this game is not easy. Those with experience playing strategy and tactics games will find this game playable. Those who have no experience should avoid this game, unless you are willing to learn and experience the difficultly that this game has to offer. Well unto the review!
The game is pretty much a tactics game where you move units and you gain exp points by either hitting your enemy or defeating them. Unlike most tactics games you do not move in front of them and choose an option to hit rather you go through them and that means you can hit multiple times all in one turn. Of course there are skills to prevent this as those with a special skill will prevent anyone from passing through them and only allowing one hit instead of multiple hits. Those who possess range attacks (bows, magic) you can attack from a distance, though you must be in range to attack and cannot attack after you move your unit (this does not apply to bow users as you can attack after you move, just remember to choose the bow option to attack). And like many tactics games the terrain affects your movement. Also, if your main character is defeated the game is over.
The game offers new additions to a traditional tactics game and those are all welcome but a few of those additions are not. Passing through enemies and hitting multiple times is a welcome to the series as most tactics games are pretty slow due to the one hit rule. In addition, there is a skill that you can build up called "OB" which is a special skill you can use that is very powerful depending on which character is using it. In addition once your character levels up you obtain skill points that you use to build up skills that will benefit your character. Another good feature is the ability to restart the stage (this cannot be done on the opponent's turn). This is useful since you get to keep all the exp points and levels you gained during the time you fought prior to choosing to restart the stage (this is probably your only option to gain levels for low level characters). Not everything found in the game is a welcome and here are the many gripes of the game.
Smart AI is a welcome for any game as it adds challenge to the game but not when the AI is too good or should I say cheesy. There are times when you will consider restarting a stage because you will need to outsmart your opponent otherwise be prepared for the enemy onslaught. When you restart a stage certain enemy units will gain new skills that they did not have when you first started the stage thereby giving the advantage to the AI. Also, unlike other tactics games where you can purchase items by going to a general store, in this game you send a group to buy items and they can either succeed, end up using all your money or fail. This is by the worst thing to ever happen in a tactics game where all your hard earned money can be blown by a single item purchase.
Even with all the short comings, I found the game to be enjoyable and playable (unlike Age of Empires where I am stuck forever on Jerusalem). As I stated before, I only recommend this game for those with experience playing strategy games (such as Age of Empires, Shining Force, Fire Emblem, Starcraft, Civilization, Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy Tactics just to name a few). Those with no experience will have a very difficult time playing through this game though if you can overcome the difficultly of this game then by all means buy this game. Recommended for fans of strategy/tactics games.
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