There aren't many games that hit the "I didn't know I needed this" note quite like Toads of the Bayou. The grid-based isometric strategy RPG was previously announced for 2024 before being narrowed down to October, and now the release date has been locked in for a slightly later November 19, 2024 launch on Steam.

French studio La Grange is behind development on this one, and it certainly looks charming while ticking o??ff a lot of the expected indie game f?eatures. La Grange and publisher Fireshine Games paired the release date announcement with a new trailer. If you ??like roguelikes, deck-builders, isometric pixel art visuals, tactics, or all of the above, you might want to give it another peek.

Beyond the tactical battles, there's also an element of settlement development and management in Toads of the Bayou. While you attempt to take down the vile spirit Baron Samedi �who trapped you and your fellow wandering toads in a cursed bayou �you'll have a chance to establish and expand your home base. Everything from an armory to a witch hut can be put to use, introduc??ing new allies and unlocking new abilities and cards for your deck in the process.

As you upgrade your territory, you can set traps for any would-be attackers to get the spring on them. Each of the t??hree main playable toads has different advantages and disadvantages, and they'll have to go up against 10 bosses over the course of the campaign. The concept is on point and the art backs it up beautifully, so I'm ready to hit the swamp and see how well it all works together. 

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Does this imply the existence of a back mission?

I’m happy to see the Front Mission series finally getting some love over here in North America. It hasn’t been completely absent, but our coverage has been spotty. We missed a slew of them and only received three out of the five “numbered�titles. The fact that we’re getting not one but three remakes (one of them having never been localized) gives me hope that we’ll see more of the series over here. It worked for Yakuza, right?

This is actually my first chance to really delve into the series. My previous experience with it was watching my roommate fall in love with Front Mission 4. I don’t remember why I didn’t try it for myself because I recall it looking cool. Mechs are cool. Tactical strategy games are cool. It’s enough tha?t I bookmarked the game in my brain and planned to one day circle around back to it. Today’s the day, and I can start at the beginning.

Front Mission 1st: Remake (Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Forever Entertainment
Publisher: Forever Entertainment
Released: November 30, 2022
MSRP: $34.99

Front Mission 1st: Remake is a remake of the first Front Mission, Front Mission 1st. Technically, Front Mission 1st isn’t the first Front Mission; it’s a 2003 PS1 port of the 1995 Super Famicom game, Front Mission. So Front Mission 1st is technically a remake of a remake, but both said remakes are really remasters. Front Mission 1st: Remake is a remaster of a remaster, but unlike the first remaster, this?? remaster remakes the remaster’s graphics.

The biggest difference is that it’s been remade in 3D, but it includes all the content from the PS1 version. The gameplay is largely the same. If the tweaks to the gameplay are too much, you can even set them to be closer to the original. Which is definitely okay by me. Likewise, the soundtrack has been remastered, but this is less of a major change. I kept switching back a??nd forth between classic and remastered. Some tracks were better, and others weren’t.

Beyond that, I don’t have enough experience with the original to r??eally nitpick the differences.

[embed]//youtu.be/kvj7WerPPF8[/embed]

War never changes

Front Mission tells the story of the OCU and the UCS, who have aggravatingly similar names. They??’re fighting over a croissant-shaped island in the pacific called Huffman, and it’s clear off the hop that things aren’t quite right. On the OCU side, Royd Clive loses his Fiancee while investigating a weapons factory. He’s disavowed but finds himself fighting alongside his old employer through the mercenary group, the Canyon Cro?ws.

It presents a rather gritty perspective on war. The whole “war is hell�vector is certainly not new for video games or even the mecha genre in general. Neither is the whole dead girlfriend thing. It’s a fine ??framework, but it’s hardly novel. That said, it has a good pace to it and serves as a good backdrop.

The anglophone ear

Aside from the routine story, Front Mission 1st manages to combine some of the best parts of the tactical and mech sub-genres. You have grid-based maps, and you have a toybox of parts to build robots from. In this case, they’re called “Wanzers�which comes from the German “Wanderpanzers�or “walking tanks.�?That still sounds kind of dumb to the anglophone ear, but it’s supposed to be pronounced “Vanzers.�It still sounds kind of dumb, but it doesn’t matter; mechs are awesome.

You put them together from ??a variety of parts, then slap on some weapons or shields. You can also fall back on good ‘ol fisticuffs, which always looks funny to me. In battle, the legs, individual arms, or body can be damaged. While you can still move without legs,? you can’t hold weapons without arms or live without a body. This means you’re constantly balancing armor, HP, and other stats.

This means two things: first, putting together robots is always fun. However, the second thing is that it creates a lot of prepwork. You put together a rather sizeable team, and some missions have you field as many as 11 wanzers, all ??of which need to be configured manually. New parts can get dropped every couple of missions, so if you want to keep everything at the tip-top, you’ll be making shopping trips each time. It can be a bit much, and I wish there was some sort of auto-optimization option.

Blood and rust

It’s also not a terribly balanced game. You have the option of fighting in the arena?? for cash and experience, and I quickly found out how to exploit this to the moon and back. I was never short on funds, and I h?ad a few pilots that were exceedingly effective in combat. It made the OCU campaign a cake-walk. The UCS is a bit less flexible and there are difficulty options (most of which are locked off the hop), but going god-mode through more than 30 missions sucked some of the fun out of it.

Not all of it, though. Dashing across the battlefield and shooting robots in the dick is always an enjoyable spectacle, and there’s a decent variety to t?he missions. Even while I?? was walking through the game with little resistance, I stayed engaged.

The graphical upgrade to Front Mission 1st is pretty good, too. I especially loved the city maps when you can rotate the camera around buildings. Rain has a nice effect to it, as well, even though I kind of wished the game ran at a higher resolution so I could enjoy it more. I did come across some bugs and performance oddities, but the team has a day one patch coming out that should address much of it. Nothing I ran into was overly intrusive, even in ??its pre-release state.

Old metal with a new coat

I do wish more was done to address some UI issues. Some important information seems rather o?ut of reach, and while you can buy parts and immediately equip them, if you want to reconfigure fro?m there, it’s in an entirely different menu. They’re annoyances that seem to stem from the game’s origins, but they aren’t deal-breakers.

While Front Mission 1st didn’t set my world on fire, and I found it lacking in a lot of areas, I did enjoy it. It’s not the best tactical strategy game to come out this year, b??ut it’s welcome nonetheless. It’s also a great and loving remaster of the Super Famicom title,?? and while there are places I wish it was tightened up, I’m overall happy about it. It leaves me excited to play the next two remasters as they work their way to release.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Old-school depth for a modern audience

The tactics genre is an old one, and few stand out ?lik??e Tactics Ogre. The original Let Us Cling Together has hit a number of devices, from the SNES to the PlayStaiton, on to the P??SP and finally, with Tactics Ogre: Reborn, our current crop of modern consoles and PC.

Reborn is a remaster of a remake, bringing forward the PSP strategy classic to somewhere it’s more readily playable and fine-tuning it in the proce?ss. There are tons of videos and resources out there to grappl??e with all the changes, massive and miniscule, that Square Enix has made to this classic.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVNyoeik0ig

For context, I’m a newcomer. I’d call myself an avid tactics fan, but my entry point was much later on; handheld game??s like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Fire Emblem, and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor were my introduction to t??he pain and glory of turn-and-?tile-based combat.

I??t’s important to stress this because that’s where I’m coming from here. I’m a newcomer to the classics like Tactics Ogre. and Reborn is a chance for me to see what I’ve missed. To not just experience a seemingly foundational? work, but examine it after playing years and years of the games that both emulated and elaborated on its designs.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn follows Denam??, a fighter for the Walister alongside his sister Catiua and friend Vyce. Their home was razed in the fallout of the war, and the trio are seeking vengeance, starting with a knight named Lanselot.

The trio become increasingly en??twined in an ongoing civil war. Wallister, Galgastan, and Bakram form the three ?forces vying for control of the island of Almorica and, gradually, all of Valeria. Tactics Ogre: Reborn has? the player wade through a lot of exposition and proper names at first, and all layered in an extremely Shakespearean dialogue.

It h??onestly takes some to get familiar with the cavalcade of faces and nam??es in Tactics Ogre: Reborn, and even writing this now, I had to pull up references and double-check it all. The story might, at first, see?m a little too dense.

But peel away the proper terminology, and Tactics Ogre is really about the effects of the ongoing civil war on the pe??ople of Valeria. A childhood home getting razed is just the beginning. The war expands out to encompass every character’s life, and their allegiances will shift over time. Maybe they find solace in comradery and a shared cause. Or maybe they die, fighting for a belief that never held true. This is war, and people will die. Tactics Ogre: Reborn doesn’t real?ly shy away from grappl??ing with that, giving you an ethical quandary right away in its first chapter.

These decisions Dena??m, and the player, make start to branch out, forming a flowchart of the world. Post-Chapter 1, Tactics Ogre: Reborn can split off into several different routes, and go even further from there. Aside from this being a ton of content to play, it’s also a lot of different potential ways the story can go depending on decisions you make. Some are obvious, some are esoteric, and without a guide you’ll probably mi??ss at least a few charac??ter recruits. Thankfully, ?once a playthrough is finished, the player can go back and replay from pivotal moments using the World menu. It’s a nice ??touch that adds a ton to do, on top of Reborn’s plethora of side content.

And then there is the combat. Aside from? story and nostalgia, the turn-based tactical battles of Tactics Ogre: Reborn ar??e likely why people ?would be interested. This is one of the grandfathers of strategy RPGs, after all.

I will fully admit, Tactics Ogre: Reborn can frustrate me sometimes. It is surprisingly open-ended. It allows for ton??s of customization and tuning. Characters can freely swap classes, so long as you’ve got enough marks. Giant rows of numbers and square-shaped abilities dot the menu interface for each unit.

Canopus, a story character you get pretty early on, is talented with both an axe and a bow. I opted to take him into a more direct archer path, as he became a mobile artillery that could pick healers and mages out of the back line. Denam, meanwhile, stayed as a basic warrior until I could make him a Ninja. In one fight, he barely eked out a win against a souped-up boss by himself,?? just by applying Falsestrike (chance to miss attacks) and pelting him with magic.

It is, simply put, daunting. It also doesn’t help that a good deal of this game’s nuances and info is buried in menus and access you’d need to either dig for, or ask a more seasoned veteran about. Learning that magic can critically strike, archers can outrange their displayed attack squares if they have a height advantage, and that just holding a dagger allows units to deflect attacks, even if they never use it, are all big ti?ps you’d have to discover or be told about.

For a while, it was a bit discouraging. But the longer? I spent with Tactics Ogre: Reborn, the more I came to enjoy the massive system laid out before me. It was fille??d with intricacies, yes, but ones I could exploit. It might seem complex at first, but only because I needed to approach it with intent. Once I could start to conceive what sort of plan I wanted, I could shave down the options and form the units I wanted from the game’s marble.

Those options are critical, because batt?les are? not kind to the player in Tactics Ogre: Reborn. I lost count of the times I opened up a map and scouted the coming fight, an apparently new feature, and laughed at how disadvantageous my position wa??s. Cornered in a pit, beset on all sides, sieging a castle uphill as enemies pelt you with arrows and spells behind ramparts; Reborn throws it all at you.

It’s not a complaint, though. I adore the map desi??gn of Tactics Ogre. Each level feels t??ailored to a specific problem. Every encounter, at least on the main route, has interesting problems to solve. Yes, the enemy has a strong position, but it’s also condensed. They can fire on me all they want, but it’s difficult for them to push out without exposing their more fragile units.

Strategie??s and tactics start to form, and right there is the magic of Tactics Ogre that has lasted through the years to Reborn. In most tactics games, there is a careful pace to start. Each side inches closer and closer, decreasing the distance between the armies until an all-out b??raw?l begins. Tactics Ogre makes those careful moments feel like tense standoffs. And its maps force you to adapt, or watch unit?s fall one-by-one.

All this customization and a wealth of both unit and class options feed back into the machine. Now you’re fine-tuning an army to tackle a specific encounter. You know they’re bringing dragons, so you pick up some dragoons. Magic is going to rain down, so you better give everyone some healing salves to carry and maybe a Spellspoil item or two. A narrow chokepoint dominates the map? Time for a knight to lead the charge, using its?? Rampart Aura to block enemies fro??m moving past him.

Battles are prolonged, arduous affairs at times. Individual conflicts could eat up half-an-hour, easily, even when I sped up the turn speed. Units would chip back and forth. MP would slowly bui?ld up, so potent ??abilities could be unleashed. Blue buff cards dot the field, giving me potential advantages if I broke formation to acquire them. Aforementioned boss characters can run rampant, dropping your units in a single swipe if left unchecked.

The ??Chariot Tarot, a turn-back-time option that allows for branching timelines of options, is an excellent helper in those moments. But victories felt hard won in Tactics Ogre: Reborn. Often, it took me thinking carefully, planning well, and playing pristine to get through a battle without significant problems. It can fe??el heavy, but makes every victory feel? so much sweeter for it.

At this point, I should make mention of?? the graphics. The pixel-smoothing Square Enix op?ted for has repeatedly caused a stir, and I get it. I really do. I sometimes wish there was an original graphics mode, like what the Command & Conquer collection had, so I could swap back and forth. But I also think the look is less offensive than some make it out to be. Could it be better? Absolutely. But ?after my first hour with Reborn, I had adjusted and was fine with it, and even appreciated how it looked on certain maps, especially wh??en I zoomed out for a big view of the whole arena.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn is challenging but malleable. It’s d??ense in lore, but extremely down-to-earth in the problems it tackles. And good lord, it is stuffed with things to do. It’s a smorgasbord of tiles, turns, and tactical choices.

I’m not even finished with it yet, as I’m still mired somewhere around the game’s closing chapter. There are sidequests to uncover, units to train, new fighters to recr?uit, and dungeons to explore. Every moment I think I’ve got a grasp on the breadth of Tactics Ogre: Reborn, I’m uncovering a new ability, or learning of a long-kept secret. It's not just a game I'm picking up for seasonal c??overage and moving on from, but one I'll be chipping away months from now, and I love that.

So do I recommend this to a newer, younger, more-modern tactics fan? If your intent is e??ducation and learnin?g the roots of the genre, absolutely. And if you want a Ulysses-esque epic to chew on, day over day for mo?nths on end with plenty to do, this might ??be one of the best options around.If you’re just looking for a new ?tactics experience, you might need to ask yourself what you’r??e looking for. Tactics Ogre: Reborn is not a walk ??in the park. But if you like a heavy heaping of customization, d?ense and thoughtful dialogue, and a good challenge, Tactics Ogre: Reborn is well worth revisiting.

_{These impressions were based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.}

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You thought it was turn based, but it was me, DioField

The DioField Chronicle is an odd one among the cavalcade of tactics we’ve seen this year. It’s real-time, rather than turn-based; it’s about tight, compact skirmishes rather than drawn-out battles. DioField mixes wyvern and rifles, swords and sorcery??, and even some airships for good measure.

Throughout the 20-ish hours it took me to finish The DioField Chronicle, there are some pretty cool concepts and ideas on display, though they’re not always framed the best. There’s a solid story, but some odd choices in direction. DioField is an interesting strategy game to play, even when it’s n??o??t at its best.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=16eW4pAJUKU

The DioField Chronicle (PC, PS4, PS5 [reviewed], Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Square Enix, Lancarse
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: September 22, 2022
MSRP: $59.99

The DioField Chronicle fol?lows the Blue Foxes, a mercenary group under the employ of a duke on the island nation of DioField. The island is rich in Jade stones that have magical prope??rties, making it a prime target for trade, subterfuge, and invasion from the nearby continent.

Two up-and-coming warriors, Andrias and Fredret, are the core of the story and are soon joined by errant knight Iscarion and the powerfully magic descendant of nobility, Waltaquin. These four comprise the heart and soul of the Blue Foxes, and much of the story revolves around their rise to power amidst the politi??cal ?intrigue and fighting that constantly besets DioField.

Drama is at the heart of the story, and there’s a lot of appeal in seeing how these four come together and deal with mounting tension as their goals start to differ. The interpersonal? drama really clicks in solid moments, like Waltaquin teasing Andrias or Iscarion doubting a plan. Each of the characters has nicknames for each other too, whic??h is a nice little touch.

Rising tension

The broader geopolitical intrigue, however, ??falters. It was hard to develop a sense of place, as the world is often only shown on the blue-lit briefing board before each mission. Major plot events occur inside narration, alongside still images, even large plot moments. A few major characters are only shown as undetailed portraits.

While Andrias�story (the player largely plays as Andrias) comes to a pretty good conclusion, the getting-there feels a little hurried. There is a good chunk of world lore in the Blue Foxes�library back at home base, to help fill in gap??s. But I ultimately came to just enjoy the infighting, as the broader political story swept up and over me.

DioField’s focus drives much more towards the action on the field. It’s a real-time strategy RPG, where the player deploys four units to a f??ield (eight with their assist partners) to take on the enemy. The system feels like a mix of real-time-with-pause RPGs and classic tactics, a?nd on its surface, it works.

The gears of The DioField Chronicle’s combat are really solid. Having to adjust and maneuver in real-time often kept me on my toes, and enemies could do a significant chunk of damage if I wasn’t dodging area attacks and controlling the crowd. Elements like backstabbing, surprise attacks, and holding chokepoints feel tactically rewarding. While I would’ve liked to see terrain be just a hair more rewarding, I overall like the main co??ncept.

Off to war

Combat is about the execution though, and that’s where DioField falters a bit. For one, every unit has special abilities, allowing them to do actions like stunning an opponent, rain fire on a group, heal an ally, backstab an enemy, et?c. All of these skills are tied to weapons, with some universally available depending on your class.

While DioField is lenient with pause-time, allowing the player to essentially freeze the action anytime they want to issue a new waypoint or use an ability, this leads to a very start-and-stop feeling in some missions. I don’t mind the tension of waiting on cooldowns, but a few battles felt like I was storming forward and constantly stopping to hit the skill button and use abilities??, like a car in rush-hour traffic.

These skills are also extremely powerful, at different stages of the game. My experience with The DioField Chronicle’s combat feels best described by a bell curve. Early on, I found that it was pr?etty easy to clear most early enemies by aggravating them, getting them bunched up. Then I'd rain fire,? arrows, and powerful summons down upon them. Easy enough.

In the mid-game, however, new units started to? appear. These units had powerful abilities, big AOE attacks that could wipe my crew, and a mix of powerful ra??nged hitters and bulky frontline troops. Special monsters add in some really neat twists. Salamanders and coeurls have abilities that feel like MMO-style attacks. I'd have to quickly re-position and adjust, balancing how I wanted to use my resources to best burn through their copious health bars.

But near the end-game, I was breezing through fights. Andrias could have ?probably solo-cleared whole maps by himself. Certain characters have a great mix of abilities and natural talents that turn them into absolute powerhouses by the mid-30s, and I was breezing through maps several levels higher than my party. These feel rewarding, given how much investment has been put in. But the enemies can't seem to keep up with your squad by endgame.

The path of least resistance

The DioField Chronicle has a really cool diversity of options, in its characters and bu??ilds. One ranged attacker is more of a hunter, while another is a sniper. One of my magic user?s excelled at hitting as many enemies as they could, while another could gain health while he healed. Interesting choices can be made on who to deploy and where. These compound as you try  to account for having different crowd control effects, auras, and bonuses available for every extra edge you can get.

A lot of that falls away, though, as the game goes on. Cool synergies are nice, but it frequently became a question of how to do the most damage. I don't feel incentivized enough to utilize different troops. The path of least resistance just made the most sense. To be clear, I enjoyed blitzing my way through a map, finishing a map with a par-six minute time in under 60 seconds. But it soon felt extremely repetitious. I could essentially stop caring about the bulk of strategy, planning, and maneuvering in favor of my well-equipped squad mowing o??ver enemy after enemy.

Battles are fast tho??ugh, which keeps them interesting and concise. The loop can really hook you in, too. Fight a battle, reap some rewards. Go back to home base, spend it on new weapon development or building out the base. Talk to some of your rec?ruited units, get some new insight into their character, and open up a new side mission. Depart, rinse, repeat. I caught myself falling into this loop pretty easily, burning hours in the process.

DioField also looks pretty darn good. The character models are going to be a personal like or dislike, but the dioramic arenas and big, beautiful summon animations are nice homages to the tactical lineage at Square. Lancarse did a good job in making a world that looks distinct, too. The mix of science and magic feels really original, and I like that among many long-running series and remasters, The DioField Chronicle feels like something new and intriguing.

Jade in the rough

The DioField Chronicle feels destined to be called a hidden gem years from now. Despite some faltering and misgivings, I can’t help but enjoy the loop. Sending your units into combat, raining magical power down on enemies as your cavalry charges in and assassin tears up the backline, just feels good in DioField.

It hasn’t hit the heights of other strategy RPG contenders, but The DioField Chronicle shows a lot of promise. It’s different, it’s engaging, and it's got a fast pace that moves ??from battle to battle. I felt like I got a good, interesting strategy RPG experience out of this first game, and I really d??o hope there’s more in store. DioField certainly has the space for it.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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