Mission types that I would normally find annoying, like escorts, become almost a speedrunning puzzle that encourages me to think about the optimal path of destruction before I even hit "go." Each one is brisk, about five to 10 minutes long even with a lot of pausing, which keeps the action fierce and the campaign from ever bogging down – even if you do all the optional stuff like I did. I thought I would eventually get used to control frustrations.Īnd it's a bummer, really, because the kinds of clever things you can pull off would have made me look forward to every mission otherwise. If I have my knight selected and I hit the key to bring up the special moves menu, why does it switch to a different character and make me select him again? I thought I would eventually get used to frustrations like that, but at best I learned to tolerate it a bit more by the end. Certain simple actions just take more steps than I feel like they need to. You can pause the battle by selecting units, but there's no standalone pause button. It seems designed for a controller, but I actually find it equally annoying whether I chose to play it that way or with a mouse and keyboard. The figurative bugbear looming over all of this is the control scheme, which is just a pain. The variety of enemies and diverse encounter design, which may have you desperately defending a castle gate or taking on a multi-stage boss fight, keeps any two missions from feeling too similar. Across six chapters and more than 40 hours, it can certainly deliver plenty of new adventures, too. When it's running smoothly and I'm blasting my way through hordes of foes using careful positioning and skill combos, it makes me eager for more. The fundamentals are strong: it's sort of a pausable real-time Fire Emblem with waypoint-based movement, lots of environmental interactions, and plenty of diverse classes and abilities to weave together. The variety of enemies and diverse encounter design keeps any two missions from feeling too similar. While each member of the main cast has a complex and interesting backstory and motivations, the way the English dialogue is written doesn't always come across as very authentic. But the voice direction leaves a lot to be desired, with many important conversations let down by stiff and unenergetic deliveries. I was impressed with the entire voice cast who bring this world to life, including some excellent, gravelly narration from Geralt of Rivia himself, Doug Cockle. There is something homey about it all, even if it feels fairly predictable. The world of DioField feels like anyone's first try making up a whole new setting for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, complete with an evil empire trying to conquer everything and characters earnestly named things like "Fredret Lester." You have corrupt nobles scheming, a fanatical church, beast men – it's all well within the Big Book of Fantasy Tropes, but it's not entirely without charm. Even the characters who end up having unexpected or interesting roles to play in the unfolding tale end up coming across a bit dull, though that's no fault of the veteran voice cast. And while its real-time combat system is an exciting twist, it's often difficult to work with the controls as you fight through its quick, engaging battles. In this case, it ends up feeling like, at best, a generic version of its inspirations. In sound mind ign review how to#I'd have to write off the whole fantasy genre if borrowing were a deal-breaker, but they still have to figure out how to assemble those parts into something that stands alone. It’s easy to draw lines between The DioField Chronicle’s sweeping story of war, magic, and shady politics and those of Game of Thrones or Fire Emblem.
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