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The DioField Chronicle Review

The DioField Chronicle

Developers: Lancarse, Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X (Reviewed), Xbox One, PC, Switch
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here $84.95 AUD – Available Here

Overview

There have been many grid-based tactical RPGs over the years, especially from Japan, with certain famous series becoming staples to anyone that might enjoy the genre. Now what if one of these tactical RPGs did away with the grid based movement but instead took a RTS style approach to combat instead by focusing on real time fighting with pauses only coming to give troops fresh orders? Well, it would turn out to be The DioField Chronicle. With a unique spin to combat and a solid design aesthetic, is Square Enix’s The DioField Chronicle worth checking out?

Story

The island nation of DioField is steeped in political strife as the monarchy finds itself on the brink of collapse. Between the assassination of the heir apparent and a sickly king, numerous forces across the land have their eyes on the throne and are willing to do anything to obtain it. To make matters worse, the rising Empire nation on the mainland has begun a brutal campaign to take over the world and has met little resistance until an allied group of countries began to stand up against them. The problem is, both the Empire and allied countries are in need of a vital resource that fuels their magical arts… jade. Unfortunately for those in DioField, jade happens to be their richest resource making them a primary target for those warring on the mainland.

Players take on the role of Andrias Rhondarson who has organized a small three person band of mercenaries in order to work their way into the political world of DioField. Through some suspicious luck, the three find themselves under the employ of a new lord and quickly become the leaders of the mercenary force known as the Blue Foxes. With their own plans in mind, the group must survive the bloodiest conflict that DioField has ever seen if they wish to see what the future may hold.

The DioField Chronicle tells a fairly grounded fantasy tale mixing sorcery and some level of technological advancement into the main conflict that is told so poorly and without emotion that it often comes across as one of the blandest war stories that players can think of. In-between missions players are regularly shown sterile war-room style briefings about events across the land to the point that consulting the in-game library is the only way to really flesh things out. Significant characters to the plot are introduced and highlighted only to be killed off-screen with barely a sentence mentioning what happened and without consequence while prominent figures that appear countless times through the story aren’t even given portraits let alone unique models. There are some interesting twists that happen near the end of the game but they come far too late into what was mostly a humdrum tale of medieval war to that point.

It doesn’t help that the core cast of characters that make up the player’s party are almost completely generic to a fault. The main character of Andrias is a poor lead that fails to really stand out in any way and even the core characters that serve as the primary party members see very little in the way of development. What developments they do have often occur through character specific side-missions that actually have some interesting elements compared to the rest of the generic side-missions on offer. In fact, a number of characters that players can recruit and bring to the team don’t have any actual development and in fact can become worse as the story moves along, something that should be given some praise due to how unexpected it is and just how far certain developments are taken. 

Gameplay

What makes The Diofield Chronicle unique as a JRPG is the fact that battles take place in a real-time system where the only time the action comes to a pause is when players issue new orders such as moving to a new location, using skills, or making use of certain abilities. Instead of this being a tactical RPG using grids to move around, players will be able to command their four units, each of which can be accompanied by an assistant that provides additional combat options, to move freely along the field. This works quite well as players can perform pincer maneuvers or flank enemies by splitting the party and assigning them different paths to a target allowing them to deal extra damage from rear attacks. It also can be used to dodge various AoE attacks that enemies will unleash if players cannot interrupt them in time.

This allows for quite a few fun and interesting encounters where the best way to take on the enemy is to plan smart but unfortunately The DioField Chronicle really doesn’t develop its combat into too much extra detail beyond that and many encounters can begin to become simple exercises that make use of the same tactics that have cleared the field countless times before. This is primarily due to a limited amount of unique enemies with most cannon fodder remaining the same throughout the game and offering only small variations of attacks to worry about. 

As for the player’s party members, there are four character classes that can be used with each having a unique variation depending on the character. The class breakdown is standard soldiers, mounted cavalry, sharpshooters, and magic users. Soldiers can take on a variety of roles such as tanks that draw aggro, daggers to deal sneak damage like a rogue, and more while mages can focus more on healing arts or dealing out massive waves of damage instead. These little variations allow for some fun and interesting moments especially while players learn what characters fit best with their strategies.

With over a dozen characters that players can recruit to their party and the ability to build them along various upgrade paths, there are a lot of options available to players in combat especially since assistant characters can be swapped in as a primary fighter a limited number of times in a battle. This can only be done a limited number of times but it can swing things the player’s way if they end up playing a bit too carelessly. The reason that this may only come in handy if the player is careless is mostly due to the fact that despite the game throwing extra enemies at players as they progress, The DioField Chronicle doesn’t offer as much of a challenge as one would think. 

This is primarily due to the ability to throw down powerful AoE moves with little worry of cost and often annihilate foes with quick planning and resource management. Only occasionally can a battle feature a unique twist that may spice things up and throw a wrench in a well made plan but these are few and far between, with even boss battles rarely offering more than just extra health bars to manage. That being said, should players feel that they are being overpowered too easily or miss out on completing a side-objective, there is the ability to go back and grind for money and experience points on previously completed stages and hit goals such as completing a stage in a certain amount of time. 

When not in a battle players will be sent back to explore a generic keep that serves as the Blue Fox’s base where they will be able to accept various side-quests from party members and random NPCs, purchase weaponry and equipment for their units, and upgrade various class abilities such as increasing the damage of a skill or ensuring that it always causes a status effect. This base is thankfully something that players can choose to skip around in using a fast travel mechanic as it is often needlessly large for how little interactivity is provided outside of a few passing words from party members between story beats.

Visuals & Audio

The DioField Chronicle offers some a great design aesthetic when it comes to character portraits of characters that are actually given portraits, which surprisingly many are not. Character models aren’t quite as detailed but work well enough when in combat and many attack skills and magic offer some flashy performances, especially in the case of summons that not only look amazing in action but also unleash stunning magical attacks/buffs. It is worth noting that the diorama style of the battlefields is a unique approach that may look impressive but also lacks any real tactical variance which is a bit disappointing. Fighting on a road or pathway is the same as fighting in a swamp or snow with there being no tactical advantage.

The game offers a solid cast of English voice actors that offer a fairly mixed bag of performances. Some characters sound far better than others even in the same scene which can be a bit distracting but these stronger performances help carry these limited characters through the story. As for the soundtrack the title offers a solid collection of background music that fits well given the medieval fantasy setting.

Overall

The DioField Chronicle makes for an interesting RPG that shines when its tactical combat makes players think on their feet and plan how to best annihilate their enemies with the aesthetics of the art style working wonders. Sadly, the story fails to capitalize on these strengths and instead offers a generic experience with a mostly dull cast of characters. 

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Summary

Average
6.5
A unique approach to tactical RPG combat makes The DioField Chronicle a solid offering that lacks a worthwhile story and cast of characters to make the most of the game’s strengths.
Travis Bruno
Travis Bruno
After playing games since a young age and getting into anime a bit later on its been time to write about a little bit of everything.
A unique approach to tactical RPG combat makes <i>The DioField Chronicle </i>a solid offering that lacks a worthwhile story and cast of characters to make the most of the game’s strengths.The DioField Chronicle Review