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The Diofield Chronicle by Square Enix will launch on September 22

supernova8

Banned
Triangle Strategy story is good, its along the lines of Tactics Ogre and FFT but its not heavy on fantasy elements.

But yeah, if you ain’t down for long cutscenes its probably not for you, the game is half visual novel, in fact I’d say its like 70/30 visual novel/game
Yeah I remember trying the demo and getting a few minutes into the opening cutscenes thinking "OK so when the fuck do I get to play?"

Finished the first battle and then another fucking long cutscene.. I just turned it off. Not for me but hey at least they offered a demo. I'd be pissed off if I bought it.
 
Yeah I remember trying the demo and getting a few minutes into the opening cutscenes thinking "OK so when the fuck do I get to play?"

Finished the first battle and then another fucking long cutscene.. I just turned it off. Not for me but hey at least they offered a demo. I'd be pissed off if I bought it.
These games don’t really work without heavy story to get you invested. You’ll find most in the tactical genre operate this way. Otherwise you’re just playing glorified chess.
 

supernova8

Banned
These games don’t really work without heavy story to get you invested. You’ll find most in the tactical genre operate this way. Otherwise you’re just playing glorified chess.
True but I don't recall the dialogue in Advanced Wars being that crazy. I didn't really play Fire Emblem so maybe that one had a "deeper" story. I guess proper fans of this genre want the story, which is fine, just not for me (which is also fine)- maybe that's part of the reason why Advanced Wars didn't make it beyond Nintendo DS.
 
True but I don't recall the dialogue in Advanced Wars being that crazy. I didn't really play Fire Emblem so maybe that one had a "deeper" story. I guess proper fans of this genre want the story, which is fine, just not for me (which is also fine)- maybe that's part of the reason why Advanced Wars didn't make it beyond Nintendo DS.
The trick is to have the thoughts in your mind use a British accent. And drink a cup of tea with your pinky extended. Now you are ready to learn about the political intrigue shaping the DioField.
 

supernova8

Banned
The trick is to have the thoughts in your mind use a British accent. And drink a cup of tea with your pinky extended. Now you are ready to learn about the political intrigue shaping the DioField.
I think the problem is that I am British so the last thing I want is more of the same. Like what about having it set in Sweden and having PewdiePie and Robbaz do all the voices with slight variations. That would be stupid but hilarious.
 

anab0lic36

Member
These games don’t really work without heavy story to get you invested. You’ll find most in the tactical genre operate this way. Otherwise you’re just playing glorified chess.

Chess+ is EXACTLY what many people come to this genre for. You could strip out all of the story from Tactics Ogre and it would still be one of my favourite games of all time, it has that much depth to its gameplay. You get invested in your characters not just through story, but how you develop/spec them for battle, as they level up and more options become available..
 
What consoles is the demo available on?
All Of Them GIF by MOODMAN
 

Pejo

Gold Member
I JUST realized that the name is referencing "dio"rama, but since it's a battle, it's in a field, so it's a DioField.

shocked keanu reeves GIF


Anyways, the game looks great. Kind of a mix of traditional strategy with Valkyria Chronicles gameplay. Character models again are....eh....but I need to give the demo a try.
 
These games don’t really work without heavy story to get you invested. You’ll find most in the tactical genre operate this way. Otherwise you’re just playing glorified chess.
There's a difference though. When literally 80% of the time "playing" is cutscenes, then something is off.
 
I JUST realized that the name is referencing "dio"rama, but since it's a battle, it's in a field, so it's a DioField.

shocked keanu reeves GIF


Anyways, the game looks great. Kind of a mix of traditional strategy with Valkyria Chronicles gameplay. Character models again are....eh....but I need to give the demo a try.

The battles are really fun, it feels like FF12
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Finished the demo.

Meh. I guess if it gets decent reception from players and it's on sale, I'd jump in. Just didn't feel too exciting.

And holy **** are the main characters unlikable.

PS: Play on HARD difficulty. NORMAL is a cakewalk.
 
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UnNamed

Banned
"Diofield" sounds like an italian blasphemy. They will probably change the title here... I hope.
 
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Labadal

Member
I played for about an hour. Played on normal, and getting all the objectives for missions done on this difficulty wasn't that hard (for the missions that I played). My least favorite unit was the cavalier. He might be useful, but I preferred the other units. In general, it's a fairly simple game in terms of getting new skills and abilities. If you have played similar games, hard is probably good, but I'm okay with normal. Controls works better than I expected on PS5, but if I ever get the game, I think Kb+M are better suited.

Mission based rtwp jrpg is an apt description.

It's a game that I could consider buying, but not at full price.
 

anab0lic36

Member
Played through the demo... analysis below....

Characters- none of the dialogue/interactions gave me any real reason to care about any of them.

Controls - The way RTWP games usually work is you have the ability to pause and issue orders to multiple units then un pause and watch your plans playout, then pause again when necessary to place new orders. That isn't how it works here, you can only issue orders to a single unit when paused, then you execute the action and have to re pause to select another unit to issue actions to that next unit. The main issue with this is there ends up being frames of animation that play out between that issued order and re pause when wanting to switch to another character, which isn't what you want in a game that's all about control of timing and positioning....the battle carry's on when you don't want it to with your party not acting optimally, its only for a brief moment, but still.... its poorly designed. Its at its worst when you execute a special attack, you find yourself trying to get the timings down for when the animation of said attack ends in order to pause at the right moment when it finishes..... there really needs to be an auto pause feature after each special attack animation plays out. The whole time playing this I'm reminded how much better suited RTWP games are with a mouse. Having to tab through party members with shoulder buttons works.... but its just kinda slow and clunky.

Challenge - there basically isn't one. At least not on Normal mode. All of your 'X' abilities that are on a cool down, most of which are AoE attacks, just decimate everything when you stack a few on top of each other, which you will pretty much always have access to. Reason being is a) You fight small groups of enemy's in batch's, which gives you time to recharge cooldowns in between fights and b) the 'MP' they use is always kept topped up by the orbs that drop from defeated enemy's, likewise with your HP. I don't know who did the playtesting for this because its horribly tuned, normal should be easy mode. Perhaps its better balanced on Hard, don't really care enough to go back and try honestly.

Visuals - probably one of the few positives actually, looks pretty good in handheld mode on switch, special attacks are pretty cool, stable framerate in battles even with lots going on. Character portraits are well done, 3d models...yeah, not so much... just kinda uninspired and bland... even more dull when they open their mouths and speak.

Wanted to like this game much more than I do, especially with box art that pretty (lol)

There is the foundations of what could be a good game here, its just not very well executed.

6/10 removed from Wishlist, wouldn't even buy on a sale honestly, much better games to play out there in this genre that are more worthy of your precious time.
 

Fbh

Member
Played maybe a bit over an hour of the demo (intro fight + 2 missions).
Didn't really sell me on the game though it definitely has potential, so I think I'll wait to see how the reception and reviews turn out for the complete product.

Liked:
- The real time aspect gives it a different feel compared to other recent tactics game, which is nice.
- Gameplay woks pretty well on a controller, the missions I played were rather basic but the game shows a lot of potential later on once objectives (hopefully) become more complex and you unlock new skills, also there seem to be good progression trees for characters to keep things interesting
- While it's clearly a budget title the presentation is quite decent, some nice art, decent music, flashy skill animations and even though the 3D models are basic the cutscenes still have a more dynamic look compared to something like Triangle Strategy which is essentially sprites standing around.
- There's a small home base you can walk around but thankfully I see no hints of annoying relationship/bonding crap, seems closer to older Fire Emblem where it's more about managing and upgrading your units

Disliked:
- Same old generic setting we've been getting for 25+ years in these games. Didn't play the demo long enough to get a feel for the actual main plot but the characters and their interaction were really bland
- Played on normal and the difficulty was non existent. I don't expect a challenge from normal mode but here there's zero pushback, I don't even know how easy mode can be made easier.
- Both missions I played were really basic, one involved moving along a linear path just defeating enemies and the other was defending a point from wave based attacks. To be fair basic missions are expected in early game and maybe if the hard mode offers a semblance of challenge it could make things more interesting (might go back to try hard mode later)
- Some performance issues, specially while moving the camera around the battlefield. I don't mind the more budget look of the game but performance should be rock solid on Ps5.But they still have time to fix it.
 

The_hunter

Member
Played the demo, I'm big fan of rts games. Gameplay is interesting and the only strong point of the game. Unfortunately the presentation of the story is so low budget it hurts the experience, the voice acting is out of sync with the movements of the mouth.

The game has a performance mode and graphics mode. No option to turn off motion blur.
 
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Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
From Amazon’s description:

The Diofield Chronicle - Nintendo Switch https://a.co/d/eS4L4hQ

It’s not a lot to go off of. It has that cool Square look/feel to it. I’m hoping it’s good.

The CE looks interesting. That name makes me laugh.


5-DA02596-B8-AD-4-AF9-B684-280-F5-F09-CCF5.jpg


09-E5716-D-499-E-4-B01-8-DEE-A6-BFABBC9-C93.jpg
GFD.....
ISSvr09.gif
 
Super early but this game is kind of clunky and odd. Not even in the same league as Triangle Strategy. Visually its like the Star Field guys made an RTS. Nothing looks great visually; 3d models, environments, 2d portraits, UI.

Voice acting and writing so far is not pulling me in.

Gameplay is decent and gets points for originality. But doesn't have a lot of tactical depth this early on. Mostly just flanking and watching auto attack.

I want to like this game but I'm on the fence right now. Will wait on reviews since I'll be knee deep in Splatoon in September.
 
When this was first revealed I immediately wrote it off, wasn't a big fan of the art and overall style. Good thing we got a demo then as it has changed my mind!

The game has a vibe I'd describe as FF Type 0 meets Valkyria Chronicles, these two games immediately came to mind while playing the demo. The real-time turn-based system is something different from the norm, I dug it. Skills seemed locked to individual weapons which is interesting, I do wonder whether there will be a way to transfer skills in the full game. Diorama aesthetic really grew on me and unlike some I will never get tired of medieval fantasy settings, they are eternally appealing.

I appreciate having an explorable space outside of combat, lots of SRPG's handle everything through menus (which I don't mind) but this adds another layer to the variety. Voices are good, nothing to write home about but it they get the job done. Iscarion the archer is the most interesting character thus far, none really stood out though. Bahamut summon almost had me hit the pre-order button, so good.

This brings me to my next point though: pricing. Don't know what they're smoking over there at Square but there is no way in hell something like this should be priced the same as a FF or DQ, the quality and value proposition are just worlds apart. I remember the TOKYO RPG factory games like 'I Am Sestsuna' launching at $30, this should be in the same category. Having said that I don't think it'll be a day 1 but will *definitely* be something I pick up down the line. Who knows though, I might cave as the release date approaches and toss my beloved Square some $$$.
 
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This brings me to my next point though: pricing. Don't know what they're smoking over there at Square but there is no way in hell something like this should be priced the same as a FF or DQ, the quality and value proposition are just worlds apart. I remember the TOKYO RPG factory games like 'I Am Sestsuna' launching at $30, this should be in the same category. Having said that I don't think it'll be a day 1 but will *definitely* be something I pick up down the line. Who knows though, I might cave as the release date approaches and toss my beloved Square some $$$.

Square Enix is listed as one of the developers, but I'm inclined to believe that their involvement was more advisory than anything else. I played the demo on the PS5 in Quality Mode, which supposed to have ray-tracing. I saw none beyond some low-res shadows of building towers reflected in some puddles of water. The cavalier knight's armor looks like it was made out of plastic than metal. This game is NOT a $60 game. Not by a long shot. It's a $30 game max, and even then I'm not sure if it's worth it. Like some on here, I too, will wait for a sale down the road before deciding to pick it up or not. The game seems destined for either Game Pass or Playstation Plus or both if I'm being honest.
 

Vlodril

Member
Played through the demo... analysis below....

Characters- none of the dialogue/interactions gave me any real reason to care about any of them.

Controls - The way RTWP games usually work is you have the ability to pause and issue orders to multiple units then un pause and watch your plans playout, then pause again when necessary to place new orders. That isn't how it works here, you can only issue orders to a single unit when paused, then you execute the action and have to re pause to select another unit to issue actions to that next unit. The main issue with this is there ends up being frames of animation that play out between that issued order and re pause when wanting to switch to another character, which isn't what you want in a game that's all about control of timing and positioning....the battle carry's on when you don't want it to with your party not acting optimally, its only for a brief moment, but still.... its poorly designed. Its at its worst when you execute a special attack, you find yourself trying to get the timings down for when the animation of said attack ends in order to pause at the right moment when it finishes..... there really needs to be an auto pause feature after each special attack animation plays out. The whole time playing this I'm reminded how much better suited RTWP games are with a mouse. Having to tab through party members with shoulder buttons works.... but its just kinda slow and clunky.

Challenge - there basically isn't one. At least not on Normal mode. All of your 'X' abilities that are on a cool down, most of which are AoE attacks, just decimate everything when you stack a few on top of each other, which you will pretty much always have access to. Reason being is a) You fight small groups of enemy's in batch's, which gives you time to recharge cooldowns in between fights and b) the 'MP' they use is always kept topped up by the orbs that drop from defeated enemy's, likewise with your HP. I don't know who did the playtesting for this because its horribly tuned, normal should be easy mode. Perhaps its better balanced on Hard, don't really care enough to go back and try honestly.

Visuals - probably one of the few positives actually, looks pretty good in handheld mode on switch, special attacks are pretty cool, stable framerate in battles even with lots going on. Character portraits are well done, 3d models...yeah, not so much... just kinda uninspired and bland... even more dull when they open their mouths and speak.

Wanted to like this game much more than I do, especially with box art that pretty (lol)

There is the foundations of what could be a good game here, its just not very well executed.

6/10 removed from Wishlist, wouldn't even buy on a sale honestly, much better games to play out there in this genre that are more worthy of your precious time.

I like the game but i am having the same issue. I keep thinking there must be a universal pause ability that i don't know how it functions. It is weird there isn't one since it is common on rts with pause games and as you said by the time you move between units give orders etc the combat scenario has changed.
 

Graciaus

Member
Played the demo a little. Basically Growlanser but in ugly 3D. Some big name Japanese voices at least.

If you liked the basic style and haven't played Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time look into it.
 

Croga

Member
Playing this on Steam Deck right now, runs perfect at 60fps in gameplay on high settings, some frame drops though during cutscenes for some strange reason I haven't nailed down the cause of yet.

Game seems great so far, really enjoying it.
 
Loving it on PS5, currently on ch.3. I quite enjoy these kinds of tales of political intrigue, warring states, powerful entities and ulterior motives. Voice cast is solid, combat system is glorious. Love the character's names which radiate an old-world grandeur, a few of them have really grown on me. Looking forward to spending more time with it over the weekend.
 

Isa

Member
Space Force Im Doing My Part GIF


Had this preordered on the Sexbox. Its low budget to be sure, but the voice acting, political intrigue and of course gameplay is quite good. Also the music is good from what little I've played of the game. Looking forward to playing more, but the CoD beta has been fun and I know my friends are going to want to play over the weekend. And I still want to finish up Soul Hackers 2, start up a TON of other games, and mess around across my various systems. There are too many games!!!! Aaaaarrrrgghghgh!
 

nocsi

Member
People keep saying RTS, it’s basically League of Legends in long form. They could’ve done some really cool stuff in many areas but they never did. Still bought it because I like AA games from square enix
 
Space Force Im Doing My Part GIF


Had this preordered on the Sexbox. Its low budget to be sure, but the voice acting, political intrigue and of course gameplay is quite good. Also the music is good from what little I've played of the game. Looking forward to playing more, but the CoD beta has been fun and I know my friends are going to want to play over the weekend. And I still want to finish up Soul Hackers 2, start up a TON of other games, and mess around across my various systems. There are too many games!!!! Aaaaarrrrgghghgh!
I'll get it down the road. Im interested.

Just paid off Bayonetta 3, Star Ocean, Sonic Frontiers and God of War. Madness. And a lot coming to GP.
 

EDMIX

Member
True that! I might get this some day down the line but as of now there too many games, especially in October.
may-god-have-mercy-on-us-all-michael-bryce.gif

Same. I knew I wasn't the only one that saw "used and or sale" all over this one lol

I like what I see, I just don't have the time and God Of War is looking like the only game I buy day 1 this year and lots of JRPGs I'm just buying on sale or used next year or something.
 

Kimahri

Banned
Space Force Im Doing My Part GIF


Had this preordered on the Sexbox. Its low budget to be sure, but the voice acting, political intrigue and of course gameplay is quite good. Also the music is good from what little I've played of the game. Looking forward to playing more, but the CoD beta has been fun and I know my friends are going to want to play over the weekend. And I still want to finish up Soul Hackers 2, start up a TON of other games, and mess around across my various systems. There are too many games!!!! Aaaaarrrrgghghgh!

Yeah I thought so too, so I looked up who the composers are.

Anf it's the Game of Thrones guys. Mild shock you might say. They're some talented heavy hitters.
 
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Can someone please tell what the differences are between the graphic modes on ps5 apart from resolution and framerate? What does FULL HD even do?
 

Isa

Member
Can someone please tell what the differences are between the graphic modes on ps5 apart from resolution and framerate? What does FULL HD even do?
I was wondering that myself, usually we just get Framerate and 4K options, but this one defaults to Full HD. The only difference I could tell between the 4K and Full HD modes is the the 4K one has better character detail. For whatever reason Full HD's character textures are muddy or blurry.

I'll get it down the road. Im interested.

Just paid off Bayonetta 3, Star Ocean, Sonic Frontiers and God of War. Madness. And a lot coming to GP.
Very nice selection. I'm getting most of those, not totally sold on God of War yet. But knowing myself close to launch I'll buckle and get it too. Those first 3 you mentioned have me intrigued, I really hope they turn out well in the end.
 

GymWolf

Member
If there is no character in the game that says the famous muda muda line, i'm gonna riot.
 
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I'm about midway through ch.5 now, 21 hours clocked. Love the game and happy to support a new IP day 1, best way to tell devs we want more stuff like this. I've maxed every tier of the Blue Fox badges to level 5, Andrias currently level 31, haven't failed a single mission and have done zero grinding, can count on 1 hand the number of times I replayed a mission due to missing a bonus objective, been playing on Normal.

I quite enjoy the routine of running around the base after each and every main mission to talk to my team members. Some give side quests but all of them have something unique to say every time. It's a much lighter version of something like Mass Effect where I would do the same thing. Andrias as a leader has really grown on me, he's stalwart, resolute and curious about his team. Iscarion, Waltaquin, Zoruaq and Tremina are other favourites. Overall I'm digging the cast of ragtag mercs and I'm happy that voice acting has been fantastic throughout, narrator is great too.

As much as I dig the game there is always room for improvement. If this becomes a new franchise going forward some things I'd like to see:

- Player Agency. There are multiple points in the story where team members have differing opinions on the best course of action but the story carries along automatically. Would like to see player choice at certain pivotal moments that would affect the narrative and the even the battles to be fought.

- Blue Fox Base. This should have been an evolving space, a physical representation of your teams progress and growth. As is it's a static place that looks exactly the same throughout the game. During the demo I fell in love with the musical theme here but by chapter 5 I think I've had enough lol. Unique tracks/variations of the theme for each chapter or a Jukebox would have been appreciated.

- Character Synergy. This exists to a degree but they could have done so much more with it. As is, it boils down to a couple of specific passive skills, Tremina has one called 'Longing' that boosts all her stats by 10 if Iscarion is in her unit. What I'd like to see is actual special attacks only available with specific unit combinations, maybe even unique assists that can proc under certain conditions.

- Enemy variety. Self-explanatory but especially where monsters are concerned, go all-in on the magic and fantasy with the designs. What's here is alright but it's not enough.

- Character Ultimates. Every *class* has 1 specific "ultimate" attack but I'd like to see each individual character eventually unlock something only available to them, would make choosing who you take into battle more meaningful. Again, this exists to a degree with passive skills that can be unlocked but give me a cool, flashy attack/spell to really make the character stand out.

- Weapon Supers. They went an interesting route in Diofield in that every spcial attack is directly linked to the weapon equiped. I'm cool with this system but once you've obtained the ultimate weapon in each class at least give that weapon a unique attack not found anywhere else, make it feel special because as it stands the ultimate weapons just have higher stats and maybe a passive attached, that's it.

I'm sure I'll write again with some more thoughts upon completion but for now suffice to say that if you like SRPG's and want to see more new IP being made then this is a must buy. I still feel the pricing is a bit off compared to Square's other, flagship titles but at the same time I feel I've already gotten my money's worth so I won't complain, good times.
 
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Well, that's that lol. I did every single side activity as I played through and got all the trophies naturally by the end with the exception of reach level 50 (Andrias was lvl 46). Grinded the same optional mission for about 45 minutes for the final trophy and the plat. Beyond that I did *zero* grinding throughout the campaign, finished just over 30 hours clocked.

To add upon my previous post, the voice acting in this game is better than most AAA titles, nevermind the cheesy, braindead shit that tends to infest RPG's that come out of Japan, I was fully impressed. Andrias is my protagonist of the year, let's see if Kratos can unseat him. Great cast all around though the main "villain" could have used a lot more development.

It's a shame more people aren't talking about this title, I think Square has something special with lots of potential. There is absolutely room for improvement but the foundation is rock solid, can be built and expanded upon in various ways, hope this becomes a new franchise.

vgDVIA8.jpg
 
I'll take this game at 39.99. Just waiting for a sale. I have too many other games to play through but I really did enjoy the demo.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I've put a few hours into but I'm kinda busy with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Dragon Quest X Offline, both massive JRPGs that I'll be lucky to get through by the end of the year as it is. But I love what I've played so far.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I've put a few hours into but I'm kinda busy with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Dragon Quest X Offline, both massive JRPGs that I'll be lucky to get through by the end of the year as it is. But I love what I've played so far.
This year has been crazy the amount of quality games is coming out.
 
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