I was able to play the upcoming demo of The Diofield Chronicle on my PlayStation 5 and had a lot of fun with its unique mechanics. Want to learn more about this upcoming Square Enix game? Let’s jump in!
The world’s at war
The Diofield Chronicle takes place in a world at war. The world of men is been at war for years on end, with no proper victor it doesn’t seem likely that the world will be at peace anytime soon. You don’t play as one of the army’s veterans or renowned soldiers. You take control over a band of elite soldiers who are calling themselves Blue Fox. This elite band works as mercenaries and although they might not truly understand it, they might be the light in the darkness the world has been hoping for.
Since I only played the demo, I didn’t grasp the full potential of the story just yet but I do love where this is going. It’s far more than just another one of those classic fantasy war settings. The world of The Diofield Chronicle truly feels unique since it combines fantasy elements with medieval and even modern-day influences. It’s an intriguing world to wander around in and I’m pretty sure the story will have a lot of deeper layers in the final game. That being said, I love how the story is presented in the demo. It offers a nice balance of gorgeous cutscenes combined with written dialogues and the ability to roam around freely when you’re not on the battlefield. The story empathizes with the variety in the gameplay. At first, I thought this was just another one of those tactical games where it’s all combat and no story but after playing it for a while, it reminded me most of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Besides the thrilling combat, there seems to be a lot of freedom to discover the world in third person, strengthening the bonds between characters while offering a lot of extra information to the player. I loved this combination in Three Houses and I’m loving it in The Diofield Chronicle as well.
Unique tactical combat
Although the story seems very intriguing, the combat is the real star of the demo. The developers call it Innovative Tactics Battle that Proceeds in Real Time and I’m really liking it so far. The idea is that you start by giving your troops certain commands. These commands can be given to individuals or the entire party all at once. After you give the command, your characters will go to the directed point on the map and start attacking the enemies automatically in real-time. Your characters aren’t limited in their movements, this isn’t like tons of other tactical games where your movements are limited to a virtual raster. Instead, you can point your characters to wherever you like. This also means that you can attack different enemies all at once, which is great to take down several troops all at once but the downside is the fact that you’ll need to control a lot of the action all at once.
It doesn’t stop with just automatic attacks. Each character has a special more powerful move that can inflict a lot of damage. Switching between characters and stringing different special attacks together as powerful combos proved the be a great strategy. I love how the combat this handled in this game and it really feels like that breath of fresh air this genre needed for too long. It still offers some rather deep gameplay elements but since it’s all happing in real-time, the pacing of the combat is a lot more intense. If you want to save everyone on the battlefield, you’ll need to plan out your skills and attacks carefully in order to take down your enemies.
A lot more depth
The story is appealing and the combat works extremely well. There’s a lot more depth to it and we’ve only seen small bits of it but I can’t wait to see and play more. If you’re a fan of the genre, be sure to download the demo yourselves and enter one of the most promising tactical games of the moment. You can start your own quest tomorrow and I can’t wait to read your first impressions!
