Grim Grimoire: Cast. Battle. Repeat.
Company: NIS America
If you were to combine the world of Harry Potter with Warcraft, you'd more than likely end up with something like Vanilla Ware's upcoming Real Time Strategy game, Grim Grimoire. Players take on the role of Lillet, a new student at the Silver Star Academy which, like Hogwarts, is the place for young wizards and witches to hone their magic skills. Unfortunately for Lillet, she barely has time to enjoy her new surroundings and meet the school's cast of characters before an evil Archmage is revived and lays waste to the entire school. Naturally, Lillet is the only person to survive the attack thanks to a mysterious flash of light that sends her back five days in the past. Armed with her knowledge of the future, Lillet sets out to figure out how the Archmage was revived and more importantly, how to stop him.
Okay... so the story is not that original... but gameplay is Grim Grimoire's more interesting aspect. Although the game is every bit an RTS, the setup shares more in common with a 2D sidescroller. Combat takes place in multi-tiered arenas reminiscent of levels from old-school platformers like Donkey Kong. Your army, which consists mainly of summoned spirits, can battle on any of the arena's floors. The only way to move between them is to summon a flying spirit or find a set of stairs. When combined with items like fog of war, this new approach opens up a new, yet oddly familiar, style of play. Everything happens in real time. The analog stick is used to move your pointer around, while other buttons perform other functions. While strategy games have a spotty history on consoles, especially when it comes to controls, Grim Grimoire's setup is better than most. You can jump from one side of the screen to the other with one button press and the D-pad is incredibly useful when trying to select between units that are bunched up - something that happens quite often. In the early build I spent time with, selecting units was a bit of a problem. The general interface doesn't fight you, though it is nearly impossible to keep track of all of your units. In addition, there is no way to select all units of one type. Pacing also seems to pose a problem; compared to other strategy games, Grim Grimoire is very slow.
Like other games in the genre, the forces in Grim Grimoire share a rock-paper-scissors relationship. All of your summoned spirits belong to one of four types; Sorcery, Necromancy, Alchemy or Glamour. Sorcery is the "evil" power and opposes Glamour, which is "good" magic. In other words, summons of one type will have a difficult time damaging summons of another, while some will be able to inflict massive amounts of damage on another. You aren't limited to one school of magic, though trying to combine multiple types is tricky. Magic relies on mana, which you must mine from crystals. Each class has its own miner type summon who, once he begins mining from a crystal, turns it to that type. The only way to convert crystals from one type to another is by destroying the structure surrounding the crystal.
Spirits are summoned from books known as Grimoires, which function like buildings in other strategy games. Once a Grimoire is in play, you can summon new monsters or upgrade their abilities. You can also upgrade your Grimoires, granting access to even more abilities and summons. Figuring out which units to create and, more importantly upgrade, is a big part of the game's strategy. Early on you'll have to dedicate summons to collecting resources and, later on, breaking a few off to join in on combat. Summons are largely defined by their type and abilities, once again bringing the whole rock-paper-scissors dynamic to the forefront. Grim Grimoire is a huge departure from NIS's other offerings, but shows potential - especially if a few issues like speed and control can be worked out.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
Related Links: Grim Grimoire -- Official Site NIS America
Red Ocean RIP3 - The Last Hero