Review: ‘DioField Chronicle’ is an epic tale that’s boringly told

Although it has been over for three years, the influence of “Game of Thrones” continues to reverberate through popular culture. The memes still run strong on social media and touchstone story points still echo through films, books and television. The dark fantasy world that George R.R. Martin created has even had its own successful spinoff.

That impact, for better or worse, extends to video games, and Square Enix’s latest title “The DioField Chronicle,” doesn’t hide its admiration for the show. That’s evident in the intro, which looks familiar, and it’s seen in the political machinations of the different factions.

A FOCUS ON STRATEGY
Square Enix combines a narrative that follows a band of mercenaries with a real-time strategy game. It’s less “Warcraft” and more “Fire Emblem” as players control four units and try to outmaneuver and out-damage their adversaries on the map. Players don’t have to worry about harvesting gold, building bases and managing resources; instead, they have to focus on smartly using their characters.

That means capitalizing on characters’ various skills to control the battlefield. Each character has an archetype and a role based on their weapons. The main protagonist Andrias Rhondarson acts as a rogue who finishes off weakened enemies. Izelair Wigan acts as the tank, which draws enemy attacks and absorbs damage freeing up others to freely attack.

Other major characters include Iscarion Colchester, a gifted archer who damages multiple enemies at once or lays traps for them. Waltaquin Redditch is a mage who deals massive damage over a wide area or heals her teammates. Fredret Lester is a knight on a steed who can muscle enemies away from allies and line them up for devastating spells.

THE BLUE FOXES
These characters make up the core of the Blue Fox mercenary group and play pivotal roles in the campaign. Through the game’s 40 hours, players will see how the Blue Foxes rise from a ragtag unit under the control of Duke William Hende into a legendary fighting force under the direct leadership of the King of Alletain.

Along the way, players will recruit more members until they have up to 16 fighters from which to choose. Some of them duplicate the roles of other members, but they have upgradeable perks that make them somewhat different. Thankfully, players have the option of pairing up each of the four units on missions and that effectively means eight units are on the ground.

That gives players some flexibility and deepens the strategy of a combat system that takes into account attack positions, debuffs and areas of effect. Controllers aren’t ideally suited to this type of gameplay but “DioField Chronicle” moves at a slow enough pace that the interface isn’t too much of a detriment. The more important elements are monitoring the cool-down times after using a skill and managing characters’ Energy Points so they’ll have enough to use their powerful abilities. It’s a good enough system that strategy fans can appreciate its intricacies.

A STORY LIKE A HISTORY LESSON
“The DioField Chronicle” has a decent foundation for an epic tale, but the game’s problem is in the storytelling, which is so zoomed out that the campaign feels more like watching the History Channel relay battles between the various factions. On the continent, players hear about the Empire slowly dominating the region with eyes on DioField Island’s magical resource called Jade.

Because players learn about the drama through cut scenes, they never feel invested in any of the characters. Although the developers try to capture more intimate moments and add backstory through side quests, the mission design isn’t that creative. Most of the time the Blue Foxes have to eliminate all enemies on the battlefield, and some of those encounters reuse the same maps.

The campaign does have its moments, and it’s especially good when players are forced to get out of their comfort zone. This happens when the Blue Fox core is split up and players need to use and develop other squadmates, but sadly, this doesn’t happen used nearly enough to make the storytelling or gameplay interesting.