The DioField Chronicle

I just cleared the game, and have to agree with the more negative reviews that are already here. The plot is a mess. Most of the characters are either unbearable or quickly forgotten. The biggest flaw is that Real Time Strategy RPG, isn't a thing. The game harshly punishes you for getting hit by enemies charged attacks. So you're constantly freezing game time to navigate menus to either interrupt the attack, step a few pixels left or right to avoid it, or try to dump enough damage to kill off the unit before it attacks. Doesn't help that gear and skills start to max out early in Chapter 5 and leave you with 10+ hours of gameplay that offers no rewards aside from experience points. Even at 70% off, I still felt like this game wasn't worth the price.

This game has an honest to god ethos, a genuine underlying principle that belies its story, gameplay, and even music! That ethos is "Shut the ♥♥♥♥ up." The gameplay is built around interrupting enemy abilities with your abilities, telling them to shut the ♥♥♥♥ up The soundscape and ambiance is genuinely, massively improved by turning the music down to zero, telling the music to shut the ♥♥♥♥ up And the story is built entirely around Rias going around, being invited at every step to have an actual personality, only to tell every opportunity he has to be interesting to shut the ♥♥♥♥ up. It is profoundly boring but it can be *fascinatingly hilarious* at times through its sheer incompetence. The main characters have so little consistency that they often change motivations and personalities *within the same conversation.* Izelair just disappears from the cutscenes at some point, she just stops being important as soon as a pretty boy with a bow shows up. The ending twist is incomprehensible and utterly unsupported by anything that happens in the plot. And Waltaquin... I think Waltaquin knows she's in a 49% positive game on steam and wants out. Nothing about this story works, its gameplay is nothing more than perfunctory, and the graphics are... Fine, but there isn't reason why the levels are dioramas, it's just a strange choice that does nothing. And with that, I shut the ♥♥♥♥ up.