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GrimGrimoire
PlayStation 2
Not-Harry-Potter and the Sideways Strategy
4/5 stars
“GrimGrimoire” is the second game by Vanillaware, the development house renowned for their defiance of 3D polygonal dominance in modern gaming. “GrimGrimiore” has little in common with other titles by Vanillaware, as it falls into the Real-Time Strategy (RTS) genre, a rarity on game consoles, and even rarer as a console exclusive. While RTS is one of my least favorite genres, I was curious to see if a Japanese console game developer could take a genre so firmly rooted in PC gaming and reshape it to fit the PlayStation 2 and its demographic.
Presentation
As a Vanillaware game and as the immediate follow-up to “Odin Sphere,” “GrimGrimoire looks and sounds absolutely phenomenal. Foregoing fancy polygonal graphics, “GrimGrimoire” uses Vanillaware’s proprietary animation engine to manipulate hand-drawn 2D sprites. The result closely resembles high-end Adobe Flash animation. The character designs are eye-catching and well-done, be they summoned Familiars in the gameplay segments or character portraits in the story segments. One particularly noteworthy side-effect of using high-quality (but not quite high-definition) sprites in a PS2 game is that the backward compatibility engine in the original PS3 models can upscale the image to 1080p with fabulous results – no polygonal PS2 game looks this clean when upscaled.
The soundtrack for “GrimGrimoire” is fairly small, featuring only handful of tracks. But what music the game does have is very nice and helps build the mood for the game’s setting. The voiceacting is also very well-done, featuring both English and Japanese options.
Story
“GrimGrimoire” is set in a world very reminiscent of the world of Harry Potter, which makes some sense, as the game was developed and released between the ultimate and penultimate novels, ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.’ The main character in “GrimGrimoire” is a young girl named Lillet Blan who has traveled to an enormous tower, closely resembling the Biblical Tower of Babel, which has been transformed into a magic school by the Headmaster, Gammel Dore (who is totally not Dumbledore). Lillet’s goal is to learn enough magic to get a job as a court magician so she can earn enough money to put her kid brothers through school (presumably normal school, not magic school… the game doesn’t really elaborate on this point). As Lillet proceeds through her first week of school, things seem to be going well. She meets the other professors, who include an over-sexed female necromancer, a genuine demon from Hell, and a furry alchemist who has been partially transformed into a lion.
Soon, Lillet is swept up in a series of events in which the former owner of the tower, a dead Arch Mage named Calvaros, manages to break free from the container housing his soul (which is totally not a horcrux). As the Arch Mage slaughters the teachers and other students, Lillet is left alone. But as dark forces close in on her, bells toll and Lillet finds herself transported back in time to her first day at the school, with all of her acquired knowledge and textbooks (the titular Grimoires) intact. In the style of the movie ‘Groundhog Day,’ Lillet must use her ability to loop through time to investigate the dark dealings happening beneath the school’s innocent veneer and ultimately defeat the Arch Mage, a demonic incursion, and the mysterious force that has trapped her in time.
Despite the obvious influence of J.K. Rowling’s fiction, “GrimGrimiore” manages to pull off a story that includes both wizards and time travel with remarkable skill. Character development builds nicely in layers as Lillet loops through time and the narrative ultimately resolves fully, leaving no messy loose ends or plot holes. I found it thoroughly enjoyable.
Gameplay
While “GrimGrimoire” offers a gorgeous presentation and intricate narrative, it falls short in the gameplay department (much like Vanillaware’s previous title, “Odin Sphere”). While “GrimGrimoire’s” gameplay isn’t ‘bad’ by any stretch of the imagination, it obviously suffers from a lack of expertise in the RTS genre, leading it to be overly repetitive with few viable strategies.
“GrimGrimoire” turns RTS gameplay sideways by showing the action from a side-scrolling perspective instead of the traditional top-down perspective. The theory behind this sideways gameplay is that all of the conflicts are taking place in the magic school/Arch Mage’s tower, with summoned Familiars moving along the corridors and up and down the stairs. Also unlike traditional RTSes, the ‘fog of war’ that obscures unexplored sections of the map only obscures enemy units. The layout of each map is fully visible from the outset of each mission. The result of these twists on the genre is that staircases become natural choke-points for troop movement. However, the strategic value of choke points is limited due to the fact that all of the most powerful Familiar units can move around the map unimpeded by crumbled floors, walls, or stairs.
In order to summon Familiars, Lillet must activate Runes, which can be leveled-up to produce additional effects. Runes and Familiars are divided into four schools of magic that act upon each other in a ‘rock-paper-scissors’ manner. Glamer (mis-spelled as ‘Glamour’ in the game) consists of fairies and elves and is strong against Necromancy. Necromancy consists of ghosts and is strong against Sorcery. Sorcery consists of demons and dragons and is strong against Alchemy. Alchemy consists of artificial constructs and is strong against Glamer. Unfortunately, these strengths and weaknesses don’t really work as advertised, which limits the usefulness of many Familiars. Spamming dragons is the only ‘strategy’ needed to win.
For each of the four schools, there are three Grimoires. As Lillet progresses through the game, she finds more of these Grimoires and unlocks more pages in her existing library. These additional pages provide more opportunities to level-up the Runes inscribed from their respective Grimoires. As Runes are leveled up, they either grant access to more Familiar types or add special abilities to existing Familiar types.
In order to do anything in a RTS, resources are necessary. “GrimGrimoire” simplifies resource-gathering by having only one resource: Mana. Mana must be harvested from crystals, of which there are a few on each map, by low-level Familiars. While Lillet begins each mission with a pool of Mana, harvesting more is essential, as it is used both to inscribe and upgrade Runes and to summon Familiars.
The controls in “GrimGrimoire” are quite good, despite lacking a mouse for precision selection. The cursor moves with the left analog stick, and pressing the Square button while the cursor is over a Familiar or Rune selects it. Pressing up on the d-pad selects all Familiars on-screen of the type already selected. Pressing left or right on the d-pad cycles through the different Familiars/Runes on-screen. Unfortunately, there is no way to select different types of Familiar at the same time, making it impractical – if not impossible – to move large forces of mixed Familiars around the map.
The one feature of “GrimGrimoire” that saves its gameplay from mediocrity, however, is also a feature that I would like to see adopted by ALL RTS titles (at least for single-player modes); and that feature is the fact that the game’s timer can be easily paused, either by selecting a unit, cycling through options on a Familiar/Rune, or even opening the Rune menu. While the game is paused, the player still has the ability to move their cursor/view around the map, to queue summons, and issue commands, all of which are executed once the game is unpaused. The most frustrating aspect of RTS gameplay is completely removed thanks to this pause feature, allowing efficient Familiar micromanagement and strategic assessment without taking away precious time that could mean the difference between success and failure. It’s a lot like the pause feature in Bioware’s old Infinity Engine games (“Baldur’s Gate,” etc.).
“GrimGrimoire” consists of 25 story levels and 25 bonus levels. Sadly, the bonus levels didn’t really feel like a reward. Most of them are just more of the same from the story levels, with no incentive for completing them aside from the possibility of unlocking ‘Hard’ difficulty. Since the only difference between the four difficulty modes of ‘Sweet,’ ‘Easy,’ ‘Normal,’ and ‘Hard’ is the amount of Mana that can be extracted from each crystal before it disappears, the bonus levels just felt like pointless tedium meant to pad the game’s reasonable 15-hour play time.
Overall
“GrimGrimoire” is an enjoyable experience – thanks to great art design and an intriguing story – but not a particularly engaging ‘game.’ RTS fans will probably find it too simplified and console-ized, while those who don’t like that genre on PC won’t find enough differences here to change their minds, despite a few nice refinements. I would recommend this game primarily to Harry Potter fans or fans of fantasy literature in general.
Presentation: 5/5
Story: 5/5
Gameplay: 3.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
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