Name: Review After 100% Completion: The DioField Chronicle
Item: The DioField Chronicle
Rating: 6
Author: Bigby's Gaming Hand

Intro: I was definitely hooked into the game's art design. It definitely promised a lot with its art, and its "Realtime Stategy" battle system, but it fell short and ended up as a repetitive RTS.

One of the main features of this game is the Real Time Tactical Battle, but only ended up looking like a basic form of the combat system of the heavy hitters in the CRPG genre, like Pillars of Eternity, Pathfinder, and Tyranny. What happens usually in a combat scenario is, cluster all enemies together, buff AoE DPS, make AoE DPS kill everyone. Rinse and Repeat. You can imagine how this just becomes a chore really quickly.

Missions should have had more variety. Kill All Enemies, Kill Enemy Leader, Escort Important NPC, and Defend Barricade isn't enough.

The story is one of the main factors that makes me feel like this is an "okay" game, but that "okay" is more like a 7 out of 10. The story needed better execution, better dialogue, and definitely more content to make everything feel more cohesive. Some of the twists in the game feel like they could have used better execution.

Lastly, the game doesn't match its price, so you might want to purchase this during a sale.

Accessibility:

-   **Varying Difficulty**: Yes. Casual, Normal, and Hard. Difficulty only affects enemy damage, x0.7, x1, and x1.3 respectively.

-   **Controller Support**: Yes. Game seems to have been made for the controller, but the idea that this is somehow an RTS seems like it should have better compatibility with a mouse and keyboard. It actually plays differently and might need some getting used to with the controls.

-   **In-game Button Remapping**: Yes.

-   **Subtitles**: Yes.

-   **Pause in Cutscenes**: Certain fully-animated cutscenes could not be paused. Most of them progress based on user input.

-   **Skip in Cutscenes**: Fully-animated cutscenes can be skipped. Other types of cutscenes can be progressed quickly by rapidly mashing a button.

-   **Sound Cue has Visual Cue**: Yes.

-   **Requires Button Mashing**: No.

-   **Tutorials**: Lots of tutorials available but fails to explain some basic statistics. Some theorycrafting is needed to figure out effects of certain stats. For example, the Discipline stat is not explained. Technique and Luck do not explain what they do regarding criticals, but they affect them. Technique and Attack doesn't explain what they do for damage.

Achievements: The hardest achievement to get is to level up a character to level 50. I finished the game with a character at the highest level of 42.

-   **Missable Achievements**: None.

-   **Multiplayer-Only Achievements**: None. No multiplayer.

-   **Time-based Achievements**: None.

-   **Difficulty-based Achievements**: None.

Gameplay: There are two main gameplay screens. One is the social interaction/hub scene, where you can talk to characters, purchase equipment, upgrade class skills or summons, etc. The other is the combat scene. It is a diorama-style scene, very reminiscent of playing TTRPGs in real life. The diorama scenes are elegantly detailed, and is obviously one of the main features in the game due to amount of enhancements that it has.

-   **Camera**: Combat Scene plays like an RTS. Moving the cursor to the edge of the screen pans the camera. Zoom controls are available. Think RTS like Red Alert, Command and Conquer, or cRPGs like Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny. Hub scene is a 3rd-person camera scene. Camera follows the character as they move.

-   **Movement**: Hub scene is 3rd person. While combat is RTS. In the combat scene, character moves based on their classes' speed, along with upgrades from equipment.

-   **Combat**: Combat is RTS. I feel like they're trying to introduce something new to the tactic genre, but ended up with a gameplay that is like Pillars of Eternity. It is nothing new, but their implementation on this focuses more on moving enemies around, controlling aggro, flanking them, applying debuffs, and avoiding enemy skills. Because of this focus, the cavalier class should always work with the other classes since the cavalier class is the main class that controls your enemy's location.

-   **Economy**: Grinding is optional. Missions can be repeated to get more guld and exp. Too much of it will make the game a breeze. When the challenge wanes, the game becomes repetitive since you'll just force your way through everything. Unfortunately, however, you won't have enough guld for the upgrades. Exp and guld is directly accumulated together and you cannot refuse level advancements. My suggestion is to grind only when you find a mission tougher than usual.

-   **UI**: UI is beautiful but maybe sometimes be uninspired. Like the shop UI, when you select a class category for weapon, your cursor goes to the weapons available for the class. But when you press cancel, you exit the shop UI instead of being brought back to the class selection. Also, when upgrading class/weapon skills, you have to put your cursor to the edge of the screen at the top to see the remaining upgrades for that category. The scrolling up movement is also constant, so there's a slight wait to upgrade or check the items at the top.

-   **Saves**: There is an autosave behaviour and you have 4 save slots to work with. At the end of the game, a mark will appear to show if the save file is a Game Clear file and there is also another mark if the save file is from a New Game +.

-   **Minigames**: None.

-   **Bugs**: None encountered so far.

Music:

-   **Composer**: Brandon Campbell (composer for Netflix's Letter for the King) and Ramin Djawadi (composer for the HBO series, House of the Dragon) and both of these worked on HBO's Game of Thrones.

-   **Number of Tracks**: 23 Tracks

-   **OST in Spotify**: No.

Story:

-   **Voice Acting**: There are two languages for Voice Acting, Japanese and English. I primarily played with the Japanese Voice Acting.

-   **Multiple Endings**: Linear Progression. 1 Ending.

-   **Narrative**: Game's storytelling is linear. Minimally employs flashbacks to establish backstory and uses a lot of time skips to focus only on the timeline's highlights. The game's storytelling happens over the course of years, following the mercenary group, Blue Foxes. Much of the lore is also told in a library, so you'll have to sift through exposition whenever things progress.

-   **Tone, Mood, and Atmosphere**: Storytelling is political, focusing on the consequences of actions on a macro scale, with some impact on the group. It starts with a bright upstart adventuring then moves to a more mature "everything is serious" kind of thing, with people's morals clashing against one another. There are multiple twists in this game, however.

Lifespan:

-   **Chapter Select/New Game+** : Yes. Character Progression and Inventory are all carried over.

-   **DLCs**: None, so far.

-   **Duration**: HowLongToBeat lists this as 24H to complete main story. I completed this at 42 hours.

Graphics: Gorgeously detailed and beautiful artwork, but this artwork does not match the 3D models in the game. Textures aren't up to par with current triple A games despite its triple A price, since it is made as a diorama. Details on the textures aren't as emphasized.

-   **Graphic Settings**: Game features DX12 and DX11. Fullscreen, Windows and Borderless are available but cursor is caged in all versions. HDR and Raytracing are available. FSR and XeSS are also available, but DLSS isn't. FPS can be set to 30, 60, 120, and 144. Anti-aliasing features MSAA, Temporal AA, FXAA, and None. Anti-aliasing, Texture, Foliage, Post-processing, and Shadow Qualities are available, with the ability to choose from Low, Medium, High, and Highest. Brightness (or Gamma) have a special slider to help with adjustments. 

-   **Optimizations**: Graphic settings feel pretty slick. No issues on framerates, aside from some stuttering during high particle scenes like summoning or cutscenes.

Intro: I was definitely hooked into the game's art design. It definitely promised a lot with its art, and its "Realtime Stategy" battle system, but it fell short and ended up looking like a repetitive RTS.&nbsp;One of the main features of this game is the Real Time Tactical Battle, but only ended up looking like a basic form of the combat system of the heavy hitters in the CRPG genre, like Pillars of Eternity, Pathfinder, and Tyranny. What happens usually in a combat scenario is, cluster all enemies together, buff AoE DPS, make AoE DPS kill everyone. Rinse and Repeat. You can imagine how this just becomes a chore really quickly.Missions should have had more variety. Kill All Enemies, Kill Enemy Leader, Escort Important NPC, and Defend Barricade isn't enough.The story is one of the main factors that makes me feel like this is an "okay" game, but that "okay" is more like a 7 out of 10. The story needed better execution, better dialogue, and definitely more content to make everything feel more cohesive. Some of the twists in the game feel like they could have used better execution.Lastly, the game doesn't match its price, so you might want to purchase this during a sale.&nbsp;Accessibility:&nbsp;<ul><li>Varying Difficulty: Yes. Casual, Normal, and Hard. Difficulty only affects enemy damage, x0.7, x1, and x1.3 respectively.</li><li>Controller Support: Yes. Game seems to have been made for the controller, but the idea that this is somehow an RTS seems like it should have better compatibility with a mouse and keyboard. It actually plays differently and might need some getting used to with the controls.</li><li>In-game Button Remapping: Yes.</li><li>Subtitles: Yes.</li><li>Pause in Cutscenes: Certain fully-animated cutscenes could not be paused. Most of them progress based on user input.</li><li>Skip in Cutscenes: Fully-animated cutscenes can be skipped. Other types of cutscenes can be progressed quickly by rapidly mashing a button.</li><li>Sound Cue has Visual Cue: Yes.</li><li>Requires Button Mashing: No.</li><li>Tutorials: Lots of tutorials available but fails to explain some basic statistics. Some theorycrafting is needed to figure out effects of certain stats. For example, the Discipline stat is not explained. Technique and Luck do not explain what they do regarding criticals, but they affect them. Technique and Attack doesn't explain what they do for damage.</li></ul>Achievements: The hardest achievement to get is to level up a character to level 50. I finished the game with a character at the highest level of 42.<ul><li>Missable Achievements: None.</li><li>Multiplayer-Only Achievements: None. No multiplayer.</li><li>Time-based Achievements: None.</li><li>Difficulty-based Achievements: None.</li></ul>Gameplay: There are two main gameplay screens. One is the social interaction/hub scene, where you can talk to characters, purchase equipment, upgrade class skills or summons, etc. The other is the combat scene. It is a diorama-style scene, very reminiscent of playing TTRPGs in real life. The diorama scenes are elegantly detailed, and is obviously one of the main features in the game due to amount of enhancements that it has.&nbsp;<ul><li>Camera: Combat Scene plays like an RTS. Moving the cursor to the edge of the screen pans the camera. Zoom controls are available. Think RTS like Red Alert, Command and Conquer, or cRPGs like Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny. Hub scene is a 3rd-person camera scene. Camera follows the character as they move.</li><li>Movement: Hub scene is 3rd person. While combat is RTS. In the combat scene, character moves based on their classes' speed, along with upgrades from equipment.</li><li>Combat: Combat is RTS. I feel like they're trying to introduce something new to the tactic genre, but ended up with a gameplay that is like Pillars of Eternity. It is nothing new, but their implementation on this focuses more on moving enemies around, controlling aggro, flanking them, applying debuffs, and avoiding enemy skills. Because of this focus, the cavalier class should always work with the other classes since the cavalier class is the main class that controls your enemy's location.</li><li>Economy: Grinding is optional. Missions can be repeated to get more guld and exp. Too much of it will make the game a breeze. When the challenge wanes, the game becomes repetitive since you'll just force your way through everything. Unfortunately, however, you won't have enough guld for the upgrades. Exp and guld is directly accumulated together and you cannot refuse level advancements. My suggestion is to grind only when you find a mission tougher than usual.</li><li>UI: UI is beautiful but maybe sometimes be uninspired. Like the shop UI, when you select a class category for weapon, your cursor goes to the weapons available for the class. But when you press cancel, you exit the shop UI instead of being brought back to the class selection. Also, when upgrading class/weapon skills, you have to put your cursor to the edge of the screen at the top to see the remaining upgrades for that category. The scrolling up movement is also constant, so there's a slight wait to upgrade or check the items at the top.</li><li>Saves: There is an autosave behaviour and you have 4 save slots to work with. At the end of the game, a mark will appear to show if the save file is a Game Clear file and there is also another mark if the save file is from a New Game +.</li><li>Minigames: None.</li><li>Bugs: None encountered so far.</li></ul>Music:<ul><li>Composer: Brandon Campbell (composer for Netflix's Letter for the King) and Ramin Djawadi (composer for the HBO series, House of the Dragon) and both of these worked on HBO's Game of Thrones.</li><li>Number of Tracks: 23 Tracks</li><li>OST in Spotify: No.</li></ul>Story:&nbsp;<ul><li>Voice Acting: There are two languages for Voice Acting, Japanese and English. I primarily played with the Japanese Voice Acting.</li><li>Multiple Endings: Linear Progression. 1 Ending.</li><li>Narrative: Game's storytelling is linear. Minimally employs flashbacks to establish backstory and uses a lot of time skips to focus only on the timeline's highlights. The game's storytelling happens over the course of years, following the mercenary group, Blue Foxes. Much of the lore is also told in a library, so you'll have to sift through exposition whenever things progress.</li><li>Tone, Mood, and Atmosphere: Storytelling is political, focusing on the consequences of actions on a macro scale, with some impact on the group. It starts with a bright upstart adventuring then moves to a more mature "everything is serious" kind of thing, with people's morals clashing against one another. There are multiple twists in this game, however.</li></ul>&nbsp;Lifespan:<ul><li>Chapter Select/New Game+ : Yes. Character Progression and Inventory are all carried over.</li><li>DLCs: None, so far.</li><li>Duration: HowLongToBeat lists this as 24H to complete main story. I completed this at 42 hours.</li></ul>Graphics: Gorgeously detailed and beautiful artwork, but this artwork does not match the 3D models in the game. Textures aren't up to par with current triple A games despite its triple A price, since it is made as a diorama. Details on the textures aren't as emphasized.<ul><li>Graphic Settings: Game features DX12 and DX11. Fullscreen, Windows and Borderless are available but cursor is caged in all versions. HDR and Raytracing are available. FSR and XeSS are also available, but DLSS isn't. FPS can be set to 30, 60, 120, and 144. Anti-aliasing features MSAA, Temporal AA, FXAA, and None. Anti-aliasing, Texture, Foliage, Post-processing, and Shadow Qualities are available, with the ability to choose from Low, Medium, High, and Highest. Brightness (or Gamma) have a special slider to help with adjustments.&nbsp;</li><li>Optimizations: Graphic settings feel pretty slick. No issues on framerates, aside from some stuttering during high particle scenes like summoning or cutscenes.</li></ul>

The DioField Chronicle

Review After 100% Completion: The DioField Chronicle

Player Score

Bigby's Gaming Hand