Yggdra Union

if you were ever considering this game, this is probably -the- version to play. another dept heaven game and i am a bit glad i did not start with this one because it's rather... unforgiving. this is a few versions removed from the original, but the GBA release from what i know is fairly daunting to tackle without any sort of guide and i would wager not a ton of people could beat it blind, because of how some of the mechanics worked. so what do we have here? a system where you pick cards, have limited movement shared across units, matchups to respect, positioning on a grid that really matters because of the game's namesake (Unions) and if you run out of cards you lost. on top of that, on difficulties above easy, items you equip (and their bonuses/effects) expire after a certain amount of battles equipped. also units have a healthbar that mostly persists across battles. battles that take place in real time-ish with a gauge to manage and skills to use. oh and you attack once a turn. ok, certainly unconventional for a strategy game, especially because most of them will let you turtle turns until you can turn it to your advantage but not impossible. well, less impossible in this version, at least. in some ways, this version is a bit of a godsend. i hesitate to use that word because a lot of changes are, in my opinion, fundamental changes to how the game was designed. but also, the original seems way too hard and punishing for its own good. it's a bit tricky to talk about but i do think the changes made here make the game more fair. the biggest one is the turn/action rewind, especially useful if you want to check match ups, un-do movement, or just un-do combat because it was not favorable at all. it does turn the game more into a puzzle than strategy, easy difficulty is also another change that seems more adequate for a first run, because it removes item usage limit, meaning there's less chances to get screwed down the line if you messed something up. good for experimenting on a first run in conjunction with the rewind system because the game does funny little things like put events that remove items from your inventory or put items on random unmarked tiles. funny game! the comparsions to games like fire emblem are kind of funny because this plays absolutely nothing like that game except moving units on a grid. new combat speed feature is also pretty cool because there's a lot of combat so it's not a bad thing that you can play battles up to 5x the speed because otherwise it's real slow. but, the systems are pretty cool. there's assuredly better items and cards (and if you truly care, tons of resources were written about this game) and some space to experiment. the union system in combination with only attacking once a turn, with battles on a hard timer, means you gotta figure out what you want to do instead of throwing a really strong unit at the problem. especially with the semi real-time battles. it all seems relatively complex but is still fairly simple to assimilate if you have played tactics games before. i've seen some people float the opinion that having too many systems is a bit too burdensome but i'll disagree? i think the pile of stuff that adds up is part of the charm and the experience here. but what about the story? cool war story i guess. hard to talk about it unless you truly want spoilers but on that front the game doesn't get a ton of space - you get narrative at the beginning of a new map, small exchanges before, sometimes during, and after battle and that's pretty much it. not a ton of space to tell you a story but it's there and might interest you. as a whole, assuredly one of the most unique tactics games i've played. it's definitely a bit hard, this version removes some of the arcane knowledge required from previous versions but allows some difficulty options that i think can help ease into the experience and turn up the difficulty for subsequent runs. there's something to bemoan about corrupting the sanctity of the original and its difficulty but it does feel like it results in something a bit more playable. kind of a hard recommendation if you are relatively new to tactical games but if you're seeking a bit more esoteric then this will probably be up your alley!