So I've had this game on my shelf since release, but never got around to playing it even though Odin Sphere is one of my favourite PS2 games (please don't hate me for that). Now that there's a bit of a dry spell until SF4 hits, I thought I'd power through this even though I normally loathe RTS games.
RTS, you say, and on the PS2 at that? Yeah, GrimGrimoire is basically a side-scrolling RTS with totally awesome Vanillaware graphics. The story, in a nutshell, is a charming mix of Harry Potter and Groundhog Day. You're a young girl enrolling in a magic school, and before you know it you're smack in the middle of a murder mystery and a devious plot to resurrect an old mage, all the while reliving your first five days in the school over and over again, frustratedly trying to stop the evil scheme before you're sent back to the first day for the umpteenth time. The characters are beautifully drawn and animated (if you like Vanillaware's puppet-animation style), and quite creatively designed.
So, the gameplay.
You have different Runes that you build that act as your buildings, and in them you build gatherer units that gather crystal energy (money) from various places on the map. These Runes can also be upgraded and they allow you to build other, related Runes that produce different units and can also be upgraded.
The fun part is that there are five different Magic types, and they all come with their own Runes, their own gatherer units (Imps for Sorcery, Ghosts for Necromancy, etc), their own tech-trees and units. It gets quite complicated and there are lots of tactics you'll have to learn as you get access to more and more Magic types and Runes. For example, Astral creatures can't be harmed by most physical attacks, so you would be wise to bring a Homunculus that can turn them into flesh and blood for a short while. Also Dragons are bad-ass (and look the part as well, climbing on the "outside" of the map), but if the little black kitty-cats hit them with a Sleep spell it's usually bye-bye-Dragon if you didn't bring your own kitty-cats to put the enemies to sleep as well.
This is all basic stuff of course but when you consider the five different Magic types and all the units, spells, upgrades etc you have at your disposal it's not all that easy to know what to build. The controls work surprisingly well, and the developers really thought long and hard about how to make the game playable on a console. It auto-pauses whenever you select a unit, and there are lots of handy shortcuts to help make up for the lack of a mouse.I'm really enjoying myself so far and would recommend this game to anyone who a) Likes RTS games but would like to try something new or b) doesn't normally like RTS games but would be willing to try something that looks and feels totally different than a normal RTS (this is me).
RTS, you say, and on the PS2 at that? Yeah, GrimGrimoire is basically a side-scrolling RTS with totally awesome Vanillaware graphics. The story, in a nutshell, is a charming mix of Harry Potter and Groundhog Day. You're a young girl enrolling in a magic school, and before you know it you're smack in the middle of a murder mystery and a devious plot to resurrect an old mage, all the while reliving your first five days in the school over and over again, frustratedly trying to stop the evil scheme before you're sent back to the first day for the umpteenth time. The characters are beautifully drawn and animated (if you like Vanillaware's puppet-animation style), and quite creatively designed.
So, the gameplay.
You have different Runes that you build that act as your buildings, and in them you build gatherer units that gather crystal energy (money) from various places on the map. These Runes can also be upgraded and they allow you to build other, related Runes that produce different units and can also be upgraded.
The fun part is that there are five different Magic types, and they all come with their own Runes, their own gatherer units (Imps for Sorcery, Ghosts for Necromancy, etc), their own tech-trees and units. It gets quite complicated and there are lots of tactics you'll have to learn as you get access to more and more Magic types and Runes. For example, Astral creatures can't be harmed by most physical attacks, so you would be wise to bring a Homunculus that can turn them into flesh and blood for a short while. Also Dragons are bad-ass (and look the part as well, climbing on the "outside" of the map), but if the little black kitty-cats hit them with a Sleep spell it's usually bye-bye-Dragon if you didn't bring your own kitty-cats to put the enemies to sleep as well.
This is all basic stuff of course but when you consider the five different Magic types and all the units, spells, upgrades etc you have at your disposal it's not all that easy to know what to build. The controls work surprisingly well, and the developers really thought long and hard about how to make the game playable on a console. It auto-pauses whenever you select a unit, and there are lots of handy shortcuts to help make up for the lack of a mouse.I'm really enjoying myself so far and would recommend this game to anyone who a) Likes RTS games but would like to try something new or b) doesn't normally like RTS games but would be willing to try something that looks and feels totally different than a normal RTS (this is me).
