Square Enix’s DioField Chronicle Takes Down Tactical RPG Game

Tactical RPGs used to be an esoteric and underrepresented genre that mainly existed in the 16-bit past. Not so now, thanks in large part to Square Enix, which these days loves nothing more than placing low-to-mid-budget bets on every niche and crevice enjoyed by its fandom and represented in its back catalogue. The publisher published earlier this year triangle strategy with Nintendo. In November it will release a remaster of the classic Tactic Ogre. Stuck Between Them comes September 22nd The DioField Chroniclean unheralded, humble and curious diversion from genre orthodoxy.

Unlike these other two games and other genre stars like Fire Emblem, The DioField Chronicle dispenses with a movement grid and turns. This is a casual, free-flowing, slightly frantic game that plays out in real-time. You form a squad of four units and control them much like hero units in a real-time strategy game or MOBA. You point and click to move them across the battlefield, restlessly jumping from one unit to the next, ordering their abilities to heal, or get out of trouble, all while keeping a watchful eye on what’s happening on the rest of the field .

The underlying mechanics and mathematics may be similar to those of a turn-based tactical RPG, but the feel of the game is very different. This is not a chess game where you carefully plan and optimize every move. It’s a game of multitasking and fast prioritization on the fly. One thing hasn’t changed though: placement is everything. Many of your units’ abilities deal damage in an area, in a cone, or in a wide swath, so aim these carefully to take out as many enemy units as possible. Additionally, when one of your warriors attacks an enemy from behind, you gain an ambush bonus that doubles your damage. Flanking and manipulating the enemy with MMO-like pull and tank tactics is therefore imperative.

Image: Lancarse/Square Enix

All in all, it’s a fun and engaging, if slightly stressful, tactical combat system. There are four character classes – Archer, Cavalry, Warrior, and Mage – and you’ll typically choose one of each for your squad. In addition to individual leveling and gear for each character, there are class-wide skill trees, and support characters can be added to any of your four unit slots (if they belong to the same class) to expand your skill repertoire. You can also equip Magilumic Orbs to unleash attacks of giant Final Fantasy-style summons.

There’s a pleasing web of things to consider here. It’s a little hard to tell just how deep the game will run from the currently available demo, but early indications are that Square Enix and co-developer Lancarse have wisely kept things small but impactful. The number of enemy units is small, but they hit pretty hard and can take a toll on your fighters’ health. Combat is streamlined but fairly risky, which keeps it both tense and manageable (certainly if you’re using a controller, like I was on PlayStation 5; the PC version supports mouse and keyboard, which will likely be faster and faster natural way of playing the game).

The frustrating thing is how much time The DioField Chronicle spends away from its delightfully parsimonious web of systems and its fun, fast-paced battlefield tactics and how little life it has if you follow the story and rigid character interactions. Despite some elegant character art by Taiki and Isamu Kamikokuryo, the game takes place in a drab, vacuum-filled world of medieval politics and mercenary maneuvering that’s hard to invest in.

Image: Lancarse/Square Enix

The storyline has something to do with a once-peaceful island blessed with powerful magical resources, a great evil, opposing factions, and proud noble houses. Characters with names like Fredret, Iscarion, and Waltaquin appeal to lifeless clichés and jargon. It doesn’t help that the budget for things like ambient art and vocal performances was clearly very limited, or that the game’s color palette is so coolly muted. In between missions, our hero Andrias can roam extremely plain and claustrophobic barracks to talk, shop, craft, and craft with other characters, but this section of the game feels like it’s at least two hardware generations out of date. Maybe three.

Everything comes back to life on the battlefield, but perhaps it’s only the most dedicated and inquisitive fans of the tactical RPG genre who push their way through to get the good stuff. Nonetheless, this is a game that, within its limited scope, digs something interesting from the depths of its chosen niche.

The DioField Chronicle is on its way to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.