How Grand is This Kingdom?
With so many tactical-RPG’s coming out recently, I bet your asking yourself “Which one should I pick up?” Recently NCG has stepped into the world of Grand Kingdom. Is it worth your time and money? We are here to let you know.
Grand Kingdom takes place after the collapse of a former Empire, during a war between four different factions, battling it out to take control of the continent Resonail. You are the leader of a mercenary squad and you must assemble a team of your own with many different classes to choose from.
Visuals
When starting up Grand Kingdom, one thing that really caught my attention was the art style. Grand Kingdom’s art style is one of the most gorgeous styles, but not the best I have seen to date. Each character class has its own distinct look, but one let down were the battlefields. Even though they were awesome to look at, you will see a lot of the same backgrounds while playing in battle. As for menus, they were well-organized, but somewhat confusing at times. I did enjoy how equipping a unit member with a weapon, armor, or accessory, the item is visually represented on them. This kept me interested in finding or purchasing items while I progressed.What stood out a lot to me was during battles I noticed that each character class’s battle actions were not reused animations of any other characters classes. This made the units feel very distinct and fresh.
The only thing I wish Grand Kingdom had was an animation for each story cut-scene. Players are left with the typical JRPG Character visual novel dialog overlay through the game’s story that most JRPG’s have to offer. From the animations of each character attacking to the menus players will feel like Grand Kingdoms has its own flow to its world visually, but does not differentiate its visuals from any other tactical-RPG out there.
Audio
Original soundtracks are one of the most important aspects of any game I play. Mainly because the OST is what usually draws players into the worlds the game will introduce or revisit. Grand Kingdom has this on the mark. From the epic track for its opening sequence, to the music playing in-game map, and battles. Grand Kingdom’s soundtrack was one that players will enjoy though out the whole game.
I might just be nitpicking this, but sound effects, on the other hand, were what players could expect from any game. None of the action effects or menus sound effects really stood out. Most of the main sounds were just generic crash and attack sounds. I would have loved to hear some distinct magic effects or even special attack sound.
As for Voice acting, I felt Grand Kingdom did a fairly good job on it. From battle cries, reaction sounds, apologies after attacking your comrades, and the very naive Weiss (Captain of the White Wolves), Grand Kingdom voice actors captured the main characters and class personality very well which kept the game very enjoyable.
Aside from sound effects being generic sounds, Grand Kingdom’s music and audio will leave a good impression on players as it does a very good job on fitting the world.
Gameplay
Grand Kingdom is not your typical turn based tactical-RPG. The title takes elements from other tactical-RPG’s such as Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea and adds its own mix to it with a 2D sidscrolling layout broken down in 3 layers. The game will have players sucked into its very addicting game play, squad customization, completing quests, and joining in the online wars.
One of the most enjoyable part of Grand Kingdom is creating your Mercenary squad. You start out by hiring squad members, with over 17 different classes to choose from. Personally, I enjoyed the Noble because of her swing and range. After you get your squad together and do a few battles, players will notice Grand Kingdom’s battle system is based off of a combo system. Players will move their units one by one but will have a gauge in which you can perform real-time combos, which will take players a while to get used to. The game’s battle system is its strong point, but also its flaw. After a few hours I found myself doing the same combos, and same strategies, which got very repetitive after a while, but was not boring. As for the mission maps though, you will tend to find them pointless and will only play them to level up your troops and grind through the forgettable story.
That being said, I highly recommend Grand Kingdom as a pick up for all players. Although I did find some flaws in the game, this is one title that is very rewarding and a title to revisit for years to come.
New Challenger Gaming 