Rondo of Swords Review

By Mark

I’ll start things off here by saying that I acknowledge that this may seem a strange title to review what with all that’s come out recently. I would say to that however that this is most likely a game you haven’t heard of or if you have chances are you may have dismissed it out of hand. So I’m here to give some insight into this little SRPG the DS has to offer and to kill some your time if you're a little bored.

There are endless amounts of games like this, always have and always will be especially in the handheld market. People enjoy them and rightly so, but I suppose the question here is does Rondo of Swords have enough in it to make it unique or something that demands your attention and I’d say maybe so. Enough of introductions to this, let’s just dive in to it shall we?

 

The narrative in this game revolves around a ‘double’ to a young fellow called Prince Serdic and as the game kicks off you are told that the actual Prince is dead and that the double must now take his place and save the kingdom of Bretwalde. That’s a lot of pressure on a guy who’s supposed to attend fancy dinners and whatnot while the real Prince does other Princely things, nevertheless our ‘fake’ Prince Serdic takes the challenge and must escape his home of Egvard with two high standing knights within the Bretwalde army. 

From here the story is either very generic or surprising, the game flits between the two so often it’s a little unsettling as one moment you’re bored with the typical nonsense and then being shocked by a turn of events. That isn’t to say that the story in this game is bad as it isn’t, while the ideas may be a little old and execution a tad mediocre this doesn’t stop it from having a certain charm. You see, the characters you meet in this game are all individual and while not necessarily deep in any sense they’re likeable whether it is Ansom’s desire to be the greatest or Margus’ unending attempts at being a ladies man and if you’re no stranger to these types of games then you’ll have seen alot worse in your RPG travels. 

Margus fails again

Often in games like this however it’s not the narrative where the strengths of the game are tested, that is to say the story isn’t what these games tend to hang on. What they do hang on, however, is the battle system and this doesn’t really disappoint in that regard. It’s your standard grid based combat with a little spin on attack methods, in typical SRPG’s you’ll move to a position select an attack and execute said attack. In Rondo of Swords however when moving on the map, if you move ‘through’ or ‘past’ an enemy you will attack them if you are using a melee based character. In one sense this makes it seem a little more ‘realistic’ I guess? In the fact that you actually meet the enemy and bash through them, ranged and magic classes work a little more traditionally however by selecting their moves from afar and executing them that way.

There’s a sense these days that gaming is perhaps getting a little easier but if you venture into this game with that mindset you will be unpleasantly surprised. Atlus didn’t make this to cater to everyone and maybe that could be seen as a drawback but purists will agree that as a Strategy RPG you can’t just advance and attack everything in sight and hope to win as that’s no strategy. This game can get real challenging at times and chances are you’re not using the right method or maybe even the right characters for the job. The satisfaction however is pretty high upon scraping through that last battle so if you’re prepared to take the challenge you will indeed be rewarded. 

Let me explain now about some other elements of gameplay, during missions there are a certain number of characters available for recruitment some of these obvious and some less than so. I will say that some of the hidden folks are powerhouses and definitely come in handy so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for any clues and unique enemies on the battlefield. You can also do quests, shops and what is known as ‘trials’ between stages however I felt these were poorly implemented. To do a quest you must send a character to undertake it meaning they miss the next battle and chances of success are a little shrouded in mystery, the same happens with shopping you lose a character just for some random items that could help or could not. A simpler system would have worked wonders here. What is nice however is the trials mechanic, and this is similar to a promotion system. When your characters achieve a certain level they can undertake the trials which in essence makes you lose them for a battle then they come back looking a little different and more powerful. It’s simple but satisfying at the same time.

Meet Alicia, a hidden powerhouse

Peeling away from gameplay itself now what about the visual and audio aspects I hear you maybe, potentially, hopefully ask or I’m wasting my time! The game is clearly anime inspired and this isn’t much of a shock as it comes from Atlus. So whether or not you like the visuals is as simple as whether you like anime art, the sprites are crisp and smooth looking and the animation on the combat elements is appealing albeit a little repetitive after 15 hours and there’s no cutscenes for you to enjoy here. All conversations either happen on the battlefield or through typical portrait dialogue fashion with just text as your trusty narrative aiding friend. 

That’s not to say there isn’t any voice work at all, it is just incredibly sparse through the game. You’ll hear some during special moves and maybe at the end of a level but it’s such a small amount you can’t help but question why they really bothered. Aside from the voice work the rest of the audio in Rondo of Swords is pretty much par for the course, it really is nothing special and yet nothing diabolical either. It’s just another factor to the game and does its job as well as it needs to. 

Where does that leave us then with this little SRPG from the land of the rising sun? The game unfolds in around 18 hours maybe more or less depending on skill level or how you find it and there’s nothing else after that if you load your final save the game begins anew but with nothing carried over that I could see. The narrative is dull in parts yet genuinely enjoyable in others, the gameplay is endearing yet challenging and the other factors do what they need to. Would I recommend this to everyone? Not at all. But is it worth playing for those of you itching for a SRPG with an anime style and time to kill? Then yes, yes I would.

Rondo of Swords – 6.5/10