Time to board the S.S. Woofer, put on some Steampunk goggles and dive deeper into Doggo-Emblem, or Steam Tactics as it’s called! All aboard the airship! Just be sure to keep your paws inside at all times.
Air-Doggo
Welcome aboard your airship, captain! In Steam Tactics, you embark as captain on a steampunk airship on a quest from the Queen herself. The king is gravely ill. The Queen wishes to employ your services. You are one of the most renowned mercenary tacticians in the land. Will you answer the Kingdom’s call? A tactical RPG filled with dogs, cats, and other animals drawn in a style that looks a lot like old school Disney. It should be fun, right?
Enter Doggo-sky, and meet your trustworthy captain Benedictus Maximus the Shiba (or Corgi?) and his reliable companion William Tognan the toad. On a quest for the Queen, they are being ambushed by some nasty pirates, led by Captain Selva Thistlethorn (a cat). Load up your machine guns, stuff the cannons, and take flight. Steam Tactics features gameplay that players of the old Fire Emblem and Advance Wars should find very familiar. Each chapter is introduced by a small segment of character development, in which Max and Selva duke it out, or you gain some more insight into the role of the Queen’s distress.
Steam Tactics
The Kingdom has fallen under the influence of the Archbishop and Hades the Daschund is here to put a stop to your efforts to aid the Queen. A simple but clear plot, which works for the type of game. Each mission takes about five to ten minutes to complete on the first difficulty and feels like a breeze to complete. After beating all enemies on the map, you can upgrade your ship, weapons, and level up your captains to suit your playstyle. Do you want to use cannons? Upgrade your captain to do more damage with them. More into flamethrowers? We got you covered. Since this is a tactical RPG, it’s a good idea to branch out into different ships, since you never know what you’ll encounter.
Steam Tactics features simple yet profoundly tactical combat. Some of the Fire Emblem and Advance Wars entries went deep on the mechanics. Well, you’re in luck, in Steam Tactics, you don’t have to wade through obscure marginal mechanics, the gameplay revolves around clear core rules. Each level consists of vast space for creative decision making. Sadly no grid shows where you can position your ship to hit the enemy. This leads to a lot of maneuvering and figuring out where to place your ships to make the right hit. Neither is there a way to turn on the grid for enemy movement, something I always used in Fire Emblem/Advance Wars. Steam Tactics does not feature permadeath, so don’t worry too much about losing a ship.
Scrapyard Tactics
After completing a battle, you gain materials to upgrade your ships and guns. Got a duplicate? It can be used to create more powerful versions of your old Woodpecker. Or you can equip your cannon-ship with a machinegun for that one counter you could not pull off until now. Just keep in mind that you level up your crew according to the weapons you use; otherwise, it will feel like punching a hole in a pack of butter instead of blowing up the gates of Constantinople.
Are you looking for a challenge? Well, Steam Tactics has you covered. Like I wrote before, the first few levels felt like a breeze – but once you reach a certain level, you can replay the old levels for better materials and equipment. Turn on your tactical brain and equip a visor, since the difficulty ramps up quite a bit after completing the bronze challenges. I would like to see you clear all the levels of gold since I couldn’t. Luckily this does not make the game less enjoyable. Sure, it has a rather straightforward plot but makes up for some gorgeous artwork and nifty and easy-to-learn combat system.
Conclusion
So to conclude! Doggo-Emblem features it all. A balanced fighting system that can be used and abused by how you feel like it. Doggo’s, cat’s, deers, and many more humanoid-animals with unique personalities and goals to bring the mission to a right end. Easy to learn, hard to master combat keeps the game exciting and fresh. The missions are long enough to keep me entertained but are short enough to bridge the gap between games like Fire Emblem: Three Houses and games like Warborn. If you are into tactical games, Steam Tactics should be one that has to be on your radar.
